Page 9 of My Monster's Keeper
Puppy snorts, and Wilder spits out what sounds like a curse in another language. Judging by how the monstrous creature’s lips are thinning, whatever was said was really offensive.
“And who are you?” I ask.
The creature exchanges an amused look with Hartley. “She’s got lady balls.”
Hartley shrugs. “If anyone can survive it, she can.”
I can sense the confusion in the air, so it’s not just me, good.
“I’m Diablos, or Devil. Really, I’m just a demon of some high rank. However, we’re, well, I guess I could call us police.”
“Demons have police?”
“All the magical worlds have police or rather enforcers, guards, security, whatever you want to call it that protect the worlds.” Diablos rolls his eyes. “But in a world that has been growing a belief in devils and evil and nightmare creatures, you keep opening doors with that awareness, and your world keeps brushing and letting more and more of my kind out. So, sometimes I need to reach out and ask for a human to babysit and help us out, especially when we all come to play on Earth.”
My eyebrows raise to my hairline. “Babysit?”
“Indeed. Teach my little team to walk in this world without raising suspicion while they do what I need them to do.”
I narrow my eyes. “That’s…” I glance at the team. “They want to eat me!” I end up shouting.
Diablos has the courtesy of looking away, so he doesn’t laugh in my face, but I can see the mirth lines around his slash of a mouth. He clears his throat a couple of times and looks over.
“Maybe eating wouldn’t be such a bad idea-”
“You take that back right now!” I howl. “Look at that thing-” I point at Puppy, who’s having to be restrained by Frost. “He’s going to take that as permission.”
“Diablos, he can’t see her as anything but food. You need to enforce an order,” Hartley says from where he’s leaning on a pylon.
I can really see the concern oozing off him.
Diablos considers Puppy and then snaps his fingers. “Do not eat her. That’s an order. She is for learning and other things but not food, and don’t hurt or maim or injure or strand her. Do not exorcise her.” Diablos thinks for a minute. “No burning, burying, freezing, electrocuting, or anything that might harm the human.”
Puppy’s mouth has fallen open, his eyes wide with outrage. “She’s meat!”
“I’m not meat!” I snap back at him.
He glowers at me, and I glower back. I reach down just to check my gun is still on my hip. Puppy narrows his eyes.
“Try and eat me, you fucker, and I’ll make sure you have to squat like a bitch dog to piss,” I growl.
His brows snap down, and he lets out a rattling hiss that raises the hairs on my body.
“Enough!” Diablos shouts. “Jeez Louise, this fucking bullshit. I knew it was going to be a pain in the ass. I should have given this job to Lochy.”
I don’t know who Lochy is, and I don’t care. I want to leave. Three of the four are glaring at me, and the fourth is staring at me like I’m the most fascinating thing he’s ever seen.
“I don’t want to be part of this.”
Diablos doesn’t even look up. “Oh, you don’t have a choice.”
“What do you mean, I don’t have a choice?” I growl.
“You were slated to be murdered by your own kind. They know you were there that night. They are coming for you. You need this small pack of…” he pauses, pursing his lips, “monsters? And they need you to track down the omegas and protect them.”
I gape at him and turn to Hartley.
He shrugs. “Suck it up, princess. Di gets what he wants, and what he wants he gets, so just settle in for the ride. They’ll do the work. Just consider yourself the, umm, pilot of a 747.”
