Page 35 of My Monster's Keeper
“What is this, Nightmare?” I demand of Stix.
“Controlling, binding magic. Blood oaths. I don’t know.” Stix shrugs his shoulders.
“Can we stop it?” Becky asks.
“No.”
The goblin lets out one last shriek, and then it arches its own neck so far back that it snaps. The body goes limp. I reach out and pull my machete from the corpse and sniff.
“That was strange. No prey I’ve ever hunted has broken its own bones in such a way.”
“Goblins are notoriously hard to capture. Even harder to get promises from.” Stix rubs his jaw and studies Becky. I turn to look at her.
She’s still staring at the creature’s body. “Let me go.”
Frost lets her go, and she kneels down and turns the creature’s head to the side. I want to urge her to wash her hands. The stench and greasy hide of the creature are turning my stomach.
“Look at this mark. Wasn’t this on the guy we saw this morning?”
“The human did have a skin drawing,” Frost agrees. “It looks similar.”
I peer closer, noticing the marking for the first time. Its three round circles inside each other, two dark, one light with a thick stripe through the middle that allows the markings colours to be inverted.
“Strange. It’s made up of lots of tiny rings,” Becky murmurs, leaning closer. “Like a barcode.”
“What is a barcode?”
“Puppy?” Becky says sweetly. “Are you hungry?”
The dark-haired grim studies her with his yellow and black eyes. Then he smiles. His piercings catch the light. I turn away so I don’t have to watch the nauseating sight.
Becky paces the area back and forth, waiting while we ignore the sounds of crunching.
“I had his tongue in my mouth,” I hear her mutter, and despite the fact that she’s disgusted, I’m jealous.
Fiercely, unreasonably jealous.
“Come, let’s go,” I snap. “Show me a barcode.”
She peers up at me, startled, no doubt, by my angry tone. “Fine. I will.”
“Good, start walking.”
Her shoulders stiffen, and her chest inflates. I get the impression of rising danger. Her eyes flash and narrow.
I raise my own in challenge. “Well?” I drawl the word out, teasing her, poking at her temper the way I’d insolently challenge the Seelie Princes.
She steps close and cocks her head to the side, looking up at me. Pleasure hits my chest, having her look at me, only me, seeing no one else. Yes, this is what I want. Her scent is warm, slightly sweet and like flowers but spicy. Her lower lip is plush, and I want to bite it. I find myself leaning towards her, captivated by the shine, the flash of a white tooth that peeks out as her lips part. The pink tongue that dips out and swipes across the plump tissue. What would it feel like? What would she taste like?
What am I thinking? What magic is this? I resist her siren spell and step back. She blinks as if she has forgotten where she is, and, despite my rising anger at her manipulations, there’s a streak of pride that I’ve bespelled her as well as she has done me.
***
“Barcodes are stupid,” Stix grumbles. “There is little sense to these lines and markings.”
“There is,” Becky tries to say, but she’s cut off as a woman runs screaming from the shop. Puppy steps out of a curtained area, smiling.
Becky levels him with a flat look that I find strangely infuriating. I want her eyes on me. “What did you do now, Puppy?”
