The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

Chapter 1

Quinn

The reporter on the TV screen looked like a fish dragged out of the water, her eyes bulging and her mouth opening and closing breathlessly as she tried to explain what had happened on the outskirts of L.A. just a couple of hours ago. Shaky footage that looked like it was from a cellphone showed a distant view of a massive dark shape moving over a large building I recognized far too well.

“Reports are coming in of a huge form that smashed into an old factory building, causing most of the roof to collapse. Some witnesses to the event saw smoke billowing into the air, though no signs of fire have been observed. The form itself appears to have been long and cylindrical, leading some to describe it as a ‘giant snake.’ Presumably it was a large machine, but it has since been removed with no traces remaining other than the ruined building.”

There mustn’t have been much video captured, because the footage quickly switched to the wreckage around the factory. Next to me on the sofa, Lance snorted. “A machine,” the dragon shifter said with rough amusement, shaking his head so his dark brown curls jostled wildly. “Mortals don’t have very good eyes.”

I made a face. “It’s hard for us to accept that something we assume couldn’t possibly exist is actually real. I had trouble to begin with, but having the three of you right in front of me made it pretty much impossible to deny the facts.”

It was still difficult to believe that this was the life I was living right now. I had a man who sprouted tentacles from his sides and could turn into a massive octopus-like creature sitting at my other side. A gargoyle still in his hulking, rocky form with wings flexing over his shoulders leaned against the back of the sofa behind me. The demon who owned this apartment stood near the sofa’s arm, at the moment looking more like a movie star who’d walked straight off a theater screen than any kind of monster.

And the incident the reporter was attempting to describe had been caused by a being even more immense and monstrous than any of the men around me: an ancient sea serpent the shadowkind called a leviathan.

He and his partner in crime, an earth-shaking behemoth, had been terrorizing this city and sorcerers around the world for months. I’d thought we’d struck a victory against them with the trap we’d put together, which had killed the behemoth. But his co-conspirator had been lurking in wait, springing out at the first opportunity to feast on the behemoth’s essence.

Which meant instead of two very powerful, ancient, murderous monsters, we were quite possibly dealing with one very very powerful fiend. I sucked my lower lip under my teeth to worry at it.

I didn’t know if I could tackle the leviathan if it’d taken in the behemoth’s powers as well as what it’d already possessed. I’d only been able to draw the behemoth into our trap using my sorcery—sorcery enhanced further by drawing in the essence of one of its fallen minions—and I’d barely been strong enough. I wasn’t sure I could make myself twice as powerful to match the leviathan’s new strength, if its macabre meal had worked the way it must have hoped.

I glanced at Rollick, the former leader of this group of shadowkind, who still had more authority and resources than the rest of us. “He appeared so blatantly,” I said. “It was only evening—lots of mortals saw him, even if they don’t totally believe what they saw. That’s against the most basic shadowkind rules, isn’t it? Will the Highest shadowkind send more of their warriors to try to deal with him?”

Would it matter even if they did? The last time the oldest and most feared of all the shadowkind had sent their underlings to the mortal realm from the shadowy world where they lived, the villainous duo had managed to capture two of the warriors’ minds and slaughter the rest.

I suspected Rollick was remembering that incident too. The demon rubbed his sculpted jaw, his dark blue eyes pensive. “They may hear about this situation. It depends on how much fear and magical control the leviathan has been able to exert over the other shadowkind in the area. But even if they hear about it, I’m not entirely sure what they’d do.”

Crag straightened up behind me, his muscles flexing across his brawny gargoyle body. “They have to do something. Showing his shadowkind form like this—openly destroying mortal buildings—it’s even worse than having his lackeys attacking humans from the shadows. Even harder for them to explain away.”

Beside me, Torrent’s forehead had furrowed under the fall of his scruffy dark red hair. “Did he need to make that much of a spectacle of it? He could have slipped inside through the shadows and kept out of view while he devoured his ‘friend.’ It’s almost as if he wanted to be seen.”

I shivered, liking that idea even less than what I’d already been thinking. “Maybe with all the silver and iron, he needed to smash his way in to get good access.”

“No point in overthinking the problem,” Rollick said in a typically languid voice, but when footage of the battered factory building appeared on the TV screen, his body stiffened in a way that brought my gaze jerking to him.

He seemed to recover within seconds, lifting the remote to switch off the TV, but a chilly flicker of uneasiness had passed from him into me in that moment. Ever since he’d force-fed me a bunch of his essence, I’d been able to pick up on his stronger emotions. Something had unnerved him deeply.

The demon caught my eye with a warning look that seemed to say, Don’t bring it up in front of the others. I shut my mouth against the question I’d wanted to ask, my teeth gritting. But I guessed I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to advertise his unexpected vulnerability to the entire crew. He’d only just found out about it himself earlier today.

How could so much have happened in just one day? I pressed my hand to my forehead, where a faint ache pulsed. My limbs still felt heavy, the crackling sorcerer energy that’d become familiar now simmered down to a soft sizzle in my chest.

I’d expended a lot of power getting the behemoth under my control. I’d have insisted on racing back to the scene and trying to harness the leviathan too, but I’d been able to tell in the moment that there was no way I could command even a lesser shadowkind beast, let alone one of the most intimidating monsters out there.

I’d recovered a little in the past couple of hours, but I didn’t think I’d be back at full potency for a day or two. And probably only with some sleep, not that I felt much in the mood to rest my head while my nerves were still jangling with a sense of impending disaster.

Lance stirred restlessly on the sofa cushions, his bright green eyes flashing. “He’s a problem for sure. Giving dragons a bad name. I’d carve him into little pieces if I could get my hands on him.” He made a jabbing gesture in the air with the three-inch-long, viciously sharp talons that protruded from his fingertips even in human-like form.

I found myself checking him for any signs of deeper anguish. I’d used my sorcery on him, Torrent, and Crag before we’d gone to launch our trap, to try to block any chance that our enemies would manipulate their minds. Casting magic on any of them had made me nervous, but I’d been particularly concerned about Lance. He’d gone through a lot of trauma at the hands of crueler sorcerers in the past. I hated reminding him of those times, even when my power might help him.

I touched his arm, giving his bicep a light squeeze. “Are you okay after the sorcery I worked on you? It didn’t rattle you at all?”

Lance shot me a smile that was somehow sharp and sweet at the same time and slung his arm around my shoulders, careful as always to angle his claws away from my skin. He nuzzled my hair with the open affection he offered up so easily. “You were my shield while I was yours. There’s nothing to be rattled by.”

A warm glow lit in my chest at his phrasing. If it could always be like that, I wouldn’t have minded using my magic. But it was hard not to cringe away from it when I knew how the sorcerers before me had awakened that power in themselves—the horrible rites where they tore apart shadowkind and human lives alike.

I’d shied away from doing everything I could with my supernatural talent, and we’d almost paid the price. I hadn’t given Rollick any commands, and when the behemoth had come up on us faster than we’d been prepared for, the ancient being had cast enough power at the demon to leave him reeling in a struggle for control. He’d nearly attacked me in the last few seconds before the monster had met his end.

I couldn’t balk again. I had to do whatever it took to protect the men around me and all the other beings, mortal and shadowkind, the leviathan threatened.

Even if we still weren’t totally sure what the beast’s endgame was.

“We can’t just wait around and see what the leviathan’s next moves are,” I said, sitting up straighter with a rush of determination. “We know he wants to hurt people—we know he’s got worse things up his sleeve, and now he’ll have an easier time carrying his plans out with the extra power he’s consumed. Where would we be able to find out more about what he’s up to?”

My men looked grim, but none of them argued with me. “He’s been sacrificing shadowkind at that rift down the coast,” Torrent said. “He might be back to that as soon as tonight. It seemed like the two bosses wanted to handle that process themselves.”

“He might have other beings seeking out those fish he likes,” Crag added. “If we can find them without it becoming a trap.” His last few words turned into a growl, and he gripped my shoulder protectively with his firm hand.

“That’s a couple of starting places,” I said, trying to lift my spirits and hopefully theirs at the same time. “And Rollick has his people keeping an eye on things. We could?—”

A sudden jolt of pain shot through my body, so abrupt and unexpected that I doubled over in response. A gasp tumbled from my lips.

My men gathered around me in an instant, Crag’s grip on my shoulder tightening, Lance and Torrent scooting closer, Rollick striding over from across the room.

“Is it your wound from the attack?” Lance asked, worry and anger twining together in his voice. “If I didn’t heal it well enough?—”

“I—I don’t think it’s that,” I mumbled, breathing raggedly. The pain ebbed but also seemed to spread, radiating down my back and unfurling into stiff fingers that squeezed at my chest. I couldn’t seem to pull enough air into my lungs.

I pushed my hands back through my hair, riding out the sensations. A tendril of nausea wound through my stomach as the pressure higher up finally started to ease off. I inhaled and exhaled as steadily as I could, waiting as the pain continued to dwindle.

Even when I straightened up again, an impression of tightness lingered, wound through my ribs. I felt as if I’d just run a mile, even though I hadn’t left the sofa.

Rollick peered at me intently. Concern wafted off of him. “What’s the matter? What are you feeling?”

“I don’t know. Just cramping up or something.” I dragged in another breath, and the realization smacked into me like someone had thrown a bucket of water over my head.

I knew the warning signs. I’d been watching for them carefully my entire life. Lately I’d just gotten so distracted by the external threats to my life that’d become so vivid in the past few weeks that I hadn’t focused that much on the other risks.

The chill that tickled through my limbs had nothing to do with any physical ailment. I swallowed hard and wet my now-dry lips.

“I think—I think my heart might be starting to fail.”