Page 12 of My Monster's Keeper
He drops into a crouch, holding my wrist tight, and sniffs at the taser. I tug my wrist, but he ignores me. He opens his mouth; it stretches monstrously wide and swallows my wrist, the taser and my hand whole.
I panic.
But then his tongue, hot, muscular, and wet, wraps around my hand and pries open my fingers. I let out a whimper as the taser is taken from me. All I can see is his eyes. The yellow has a black pupil, and the black has a yellow. They really are beautiful eyes. Scary, terrifying but beautiful eyes.
He’s going to eat my fricken hand. I need that hand.
I feel the nick of a tooth and whimper. His eyes narrow slightly, and then he’s ripped off me and thrown out of the underground car park and onto the road. I stare at the space he disappeared and then look down at my hand. It’s dripping with thick strands of drool.
Anger replaces the shock. I flick the drool off, wipe my hand on my jeans, and then stalk out to the road. I find him sitting in the middle of the street playing with the taser.
Everything just builds up until there’s a wave of rage inside me that I direct at the bemused Grim.
“Listen here, Puppy.”
My use of his name captures his uncanny attention. He cocks his head to the side and then stands up. I walk towards him and stab a finger into his steel chest, ignoring the warning hisses from someone behind me.
“Listen to me, and hear what I say. I am not for eating. You will keep your fingers, your tongue, and your teeth to yourself. We are going to be working together, and you will respect that, or I will shoot you myself.” I try to sound firm, and I’m gratified when my voice doesn’t waver.
Puppy tilts his head to the side and moves in close. My heart hammers. “But you taste so good.”
Then he winks.
I have no words. No words. I just stare at him.
A moment later, a person-shaped piece of meat hits the road beside us. I gape at it and notice the strands of brown hair that are exactly my shade.
My heart starts racing again, and my head spins slightly, the urge to scream or vomit presses on me, but I ignore it, focusing instead on the eye that looks exactly like mine. And then it moves, focusing on me.
“Help,” it whispers in my dying voice.
OH, MY GOD.
Too much.
I let out a piercing shriek and stagger away from it.
Chapter 4
Puppy
Ilike the way she smells. But her shrieks are so painfully pleasing. I lick my lips, flicking my long tongue around as I stalk her. Brown fur and pale skins. She is a strange-looking creature. Those blue eyes, like the skies here, are so glassy and wide. I could suck the eyeballs right out of her head. Pop them like candies. Mmm.
Diablos grunts and crouches beside her on the side of the road. She isn’t hurt. I smell no blood, more like terrorized prey. I inch a little bit closer until Stix catches my attention. He scowls and makes a motion with his fingers. I instantly remember the recent episode where the nightmare put a leash on me, and my scales ripple, standing on end, making a silent rattle that causes the two meals to tuck their arms close to their chests.
Loathing floods me. Bitter, cold, and thick like syrup. That spineless piece of nightmare dung got one up on me. Amid my rage and promises of retribution, there is another feeling I hate.
Fear.
I bare my teeth at him, but he simply raises an eyebrow back in silent challenge. The other two of my challengers are strangely quiet this morning, but I suspect they have something planned. The two hate each other, but they hate us more. Because we are, of course, the superior forms.
I shift my weight and flip back into my human form. Without anyone noticing, I’ve crossed closer to the girl again. I inhale, tasting the air around her, and close my eyes in rapture. Her fear is like hot blood. Warm, sweet, and filling.
“Becky,” she says. I like the way she speaks, her voice undulating with interesting notes. Nothing too shrill except those shrieks, commanding, bossy. She’s like a tiny dragon queen issuing orders that she has no way of enforcing. “My name is Becky. I’m a person. I like to jog in the mornings and graffiti walls, even though I’m a police officer and I shouldn’t.”
I hear a noise and shoot off across the road. I jump the fence and find a cat sitting on a garbage bin. It arches its back and hisses. I bare my teeth and growl. The cat, like everythingtoday, decides to be an asshole and swipes at me. I lash out, hitting the can it’s sitting on. It leaps up, landing on the windowsill and looks down at me with laughing eyes.
I should know better than to tangle with our feline brethren.
