Scream and Steam

Chapter 1

Farrow

It is always a pain in the tail when the human child I’ve been assigned to watch moves house.

I’ve got to figure out the new layout—as well as checking on everyone in the house—and poke around both for security and my own curiosity.

So after sliding out from beneath the kid’s bed at the start of my shift, I gathered the shadows to me and did my usual scratching and opened the wardrobe door.

She burrowed deeper under the blankets, sound asleep.

At five, she was easy to scare. Things got harder as kids got older and braver.

I had never seen any signs of magic around her, but there was time for that to develop.

Swathed in shadows, I slipped from her room to the lounge room.

There were packing boxes and toys everywhere.

I stepped over her favorite stuffed toy, a fox that always looked cross because of the way its eyebrows were lowered, like it was glaring at me for existing.

She’d been given it for her birthday last year.

I picked it up and sat it on the table before moving a few other things around to mess with the humans.

Nothing too much because I wasn’t there to mess with the mother.

I work in bridge protection and will be following the kid, and any others in the house, until they aged-out of believing in monsters and magic.

There were more people in this house. The girl, her mother, a man who used to visit the mother, and someone else I didn’t know—I would investigate who the other person was before I left.

It appeared the mother had moved in with the boyfriend.

Good for her. Maybe she’d have another kid, good for me.

I liked consistency as I got to know the family.

Some humans believed in the supernatural far more than others…

Despite a couple of windows being left open, it was bloody hot in the house. I closed them but didn’t lock them. A dog barked, and I paused.

That was new.

The familiar thunk of a dog flap and the scampering of four feet made me curse and run for the pantry. Dogs and cats both saw monsters, and both would kill me if given the chance.

The pantry also happened to be the nearest cupboard.

From there, I planned to jump to another cupboard or wardrobe elsewhere in the house.

However, without having a firm handle on the floor plan, I could end up anywhere.

My buddy once ended up in the laundry, where the three cats slept.

Needless to say, the cats were not asleep, and when he scrambled back through, there was a cat still attached to him, ripping into him.

He’d been off work for a week, hemorrhaging magic.

After that incident, he’d been transferred out of Bridges.

Which left me with a dilemma, as I didn’t want to make the same mistake.

The barking dog ran into the kitchen, claws scrabbling on the tiles.

I tugged the pantry door a little further closed and held my breath. Silently cursing the dog and the mother for moving in with her boyfriend. I never heard them mention a dog, only a bunny who liked to play fetch.

Oh.

Bunny was growling on the other side of the pantry door.

I glanced around the cupboard, looking for something to distract the dog with.

I doubted the dog would eat marmalade, but it was one of my favorite things in the human world.

I picked up the jar and read the label. Cumquat.

I had no idea what that was, but according to the picture on the front, it was some kind of fruit. I cracked open the lid and took a lick.

Delicious.

Heavy footsteps thumped down the stairs, and a man shouted, “Bunny!”

Shit.

I needed to move. The kid, the mother, and the boyfriend slept upstairs, but the boyfriend was about to find me in the pantry.

I backed up into the corner as a sand-colored paw pushed beneath the door.

My tail knocked into a bag, and it fell over. Dog kibble…

The kibble scattered over the floor. I pushed open the door and jumped to the kid’s room to wait out the chaos as Bunny got blamed for the mess.

As if sensing my return, the kid sat up and screamed. “Mommy!”

I was not waiting here. Mommy had tried all kinds of tricks to be rid of me.

I didn’t blame her, but she didn’t understand the delicate nature of the bridges.

Humans in my world had the power to reshape my world—for good and ill.

It was why no child was allowed to use the bridges that naturally formed where they dreamed. And what were dreams if not magic?

Mommy burst into the room, and I jumped into the wardrobe in her room.

Except it wasn’t a wardrobe. There were no doors. It was one of those fancy walk-in robes. Fuck, I hated this house!

The boyfriend grumbled at the dog. Another, younger-sounding man was saying it wasn’t his fault. I crouched in the shadows. There was too much going on. I needed to get out of here and check on one of my other charges. But to leave, I needed to jump back into the kid’s room and slide under her bed.

Not while Mommy was still in there.

Heavy footsteps came up the stairs as the boyfriend returned to the bedroom.

I was running out of rooms. I reached for the other cupboards, knowing I needed to chance the other bedroom.

That or the broom closet, but no one liked a shelf to the ribs or head.

The other person in the house was a young man, though one far too old to create bridges and have a monster under his bed.

I stepped back, hoping his wardrobe had a damn door.

It did, but the sliding door was cracked open a couple of finger widths.

I remained still, sensing him in the room, and wishing by sparks and stars that he didn’t open the door.

I did not want to explain a sighting to my boss.

That would downgrade my performance review and wipe out any chance of a bonus.

I wanted that damn bonus—money didn’t grow on trees in any realm, and I wanted to get my own place instead of sharing with my brother.

The man walked past where I lurked and tossed his dressing gown on the floor right in front of me. I was so close I could’ve stuck out my tongue and given him a lick. As it was, my mouth opened at the sight of his naked body.

Lean and lithe.

I stared as he gave himself a stroke, and his cock stiffened in his hand. Could he see me? Was he doing that for me?

Weirder things had happened; my colleagues all had stories.

He smiled as if liking what he saw…oh. He wasn’t looking at me. The sliding doors must be mirrored, and he was watching himself jerk off.

I relaxed and opened the jar of marmalade in no rush to go anywhere. With the jar held by my tail, I pulled my phone out. For a couple of breaths, I hesitated.

He tugged on his now hard cock, rough like he wanted to twist the head off.

His teeth raked over his lip. Then he dropped to his knees right in front of me, like he was about to reach into the wardrobe and drag me into the light, which caused an immediate slowdown of my heart and breathing—a fear response. Complete freeze.

I didn’t even blink.

Then he turned as if offering his ass…except it was already full, stretched with a plug.

My heart remembered to beat, and I took another lick of marmalade as I settled in to enjoy the show. The scent of his lust filled my lungs.

My tail and tongue were busy, but I had a free hand. I grabbed my aching dick and joined in, unable to resist. I was one hundred percent sure none of my friends were going to believe me when I told them about this.

The young man reached around and tugged on the plug, dragging it out and stretching his rim. Wrapped around his arm was a swirl of blue and gold ink.

I blinked, my mind processing what I was seeing. A dragon tattoo.

The kind sorcerers had.

Sorcerers were the kind of thing all little monsters were warned about. Contrary to human stories, monsters didn’t kidnap or eat children, ew—as if I’d eat a human, I’m vegetarian.

My gaze dropped to the man, the sorcerer’s leaking cock, okay, I’d totally eat him in that way. Very, very slowly until he begged to be devoured.

I took a slow lick of the marmalade, letting it go all melty in my mouth.

The man groaned as he worked the plug in his ass and his hand on his cock. I was tempted to offer him a hand, or tail, except he wore the mark of a sorcerer. Was this some kind of trap?

But if he was a sorcerer, he’d be aware I was there, and there was no magic in his room. I tapped my phone and ran the app to be sure.

Zero magic detected.

I glanced up and, before I doubted myself, hit record, telling myself that it was to ask about the tattoo back home.

After all, I’d only heard about sorcerers, and while I knew the blue and gold belonged to the Brotherhood of the Eastern Dragon, I wasn’t sure about anything else.

I never thought I’d see a sorcerer in the flesh… or so much sorcerer flesh.

The fact that the inked arm was attached to the hand working the plug gave me a good reason to focus, for research, on the ink. And it wasn’t as though I could leave.

Yeah, I should jump back to the kid’s wardrobe and slide back under the bed at the first opportunity. That would be the smart thing to do, but watching him fuck himself was hot. Even if he was a sorcerer who planned on crossing into the monster realm and killing us all.

If cats and dogs were bad. Sorcerers were worse. They ripped open monsters for the magic and reshaped it into whatever they wanted. No one wanted to be turned into an enchanted object.

I shuddered, and the wardrobe’s sliding door rattled.