Page 51 of My Monster's Keeper
When I’m still using the door to hold me up, Frost pulls his fingers from me and turns away. Wilder takes his place, and instead of touching me, he picks me up and carries me back up the stairs and into bed.
“Sleep now, strange little warrior.”
I mutter under my breath. But my eyes go wide when instead of Stix crawling into bed with us, Puppy does. He brushes my hair back from my face and touches his tongue to my cheek. It takes me a moment to realise he’s tasting my tears.
“Thank you.”
He frowns slightly and then shuffles closer. His body is hot, but it feels so good against my aching body. I tuck myself into his hold and exhale softly.
“You’d be the first person to ever trust a Grim,” Wilder says softly. “No one gives them kindness.”
I don’t answer Wilder, but the words play on my mind, and I wonder if that’s true of all four of them. Who has shown them kindness? I reach back and take the Fae’s hand, tugging it around me and cradling it between Puppy and my body.
My sleep is full of dreams that don’t make sense. Grant plays at the back of my mind, teasing me with his deep frown. He keeps asking me to find him.
Sine appears laughing and telling me that I’ve missed the point. That I’ve missed the biggest clue.
Wilder, Frost, Puppy, and Stix are in trouble, I can feel it in my dreams, but, no matter where I look, I can’t find them, and when I wake up in the middle of the night, Puppy is licking my tears from my face.
Our eyes meet, and I reach out and cup his cheek.
“Don’t go away tonight. Just stay here.”
He blinks, confused, and then frowns. “You are mine until I eat you,” Puppy snarls softly. “I don’t leave my prey.”
I snuggle in closer to him, and, on impulse, kiss his lips. The kiss startles both of us. His eyes are still wide and staring at me. I hesitate, and then soften the kiss, tugging his bottom lip and tracing the seam of his mouth with my tongue.
His lips part, and I tentatively push my tongue into his mouth. He tastes like darkness and whiskey. I shift close, pressing myself against him, wrapping my arms around him. He doesn’t kiss me back, but he allows me to kiss him.
I draw back, panting.
“What was the purpose?” Puppy growls.
“It’s a kiss. Just a kiss,” I say.
“Why?”
“Because I like you.”
He blinks at me. “You can’t.”
“I can.”
“I’m going to eat you.”
“So you keep saying.”
We glare at each other until he suddenly rolls me on my back and straddles me.
“I’ll eat you now, then, and be done with it.”
I shrug. “I don’t believe you.”
He opens his mouth, showing all those teeth, his mouth stretches impossibly wide, and then he jumps, vanishing into the shadows. Gone. But not far.
And I’m still alive. I smile smugly and roll into Wilder. Puppy can’t eat me yet. I don’t know why that makes me so happy, it just does.
Chapter 15
