Page 14 of Their Lethal Pet
“I heard all your words, but only one interested me,” Reaper replies, setting his dagger down on the desk. “How exactly are theybreedingthese humans?”
Orcus shoots him a wry look. “You want me to pull up a portal window so you can watch?”
Reaper’s mouth curls into an intrigued smile. “As a matter of fact, I do.” He cocks his head. “However, I was actually asking how they’re making these humans worthier of monsterkind. Are they infusing them with specialgenetics? Such as… genetics that will allow a human to take a knot?”
“Or a barb?” I interject, my inner predator suddenlyveryinterested in this conversation.
“I don’t know.” Orcus falls silent, perhaps following our train of thought to the possibilities of humans being genetically modified to be more compatible. That, no doubt, was Reaper’s intention when he mentioned aknot. Because Reaper himself didn’t have one. Only Orcus did. And it impeded him significantly when searching for appropriate bed partners.
After a beat, Orcus shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter. What I’m trying to say is, the elite humans treat the non-elite like commodities more than people. It’s disgusting.”
“Sounds more archaic than disgusting,” I say, thinking back on mortal history and the times when royals very much ruled the Human Realm. Although, I suppose that was more about an uneven distribution of wealth and resources, not necessarily about treating other humans like cattle.
“I’ve been focusing on one of the Elite Cities,” Orcus continues. “Primarily because there are supernaturals living there among these elite humans. I’m trying to better understand their security protocols. However, they keep sensing the portal—just like Hades warned me they would.”
I pull my feet to the ground and brace my forearms on my thighs. “Are they hostile toward it?”
Orcus shakes his head. “No, just interested.”
“Have they tried to communicate?”
Another shake of his head. “Not yet. But I haven’t stuck around long enough for anyone to try.”
“Then they’re not efficiently tracking your portal movements,” I translate.
“No. It could be because I’m doing sporadic hits in various places, or they’re just used to portals randomly appearing and disappearing. It’s hard to say.”
“Well, if that’s true, we could slip over now instead of forcing Maliki to put his neck on the line with Lucifer,” Reaper points out after listening to my back-and-forth with Orcus.
“If we create a portal door now, they’ll very easily track us, and I would prefer not to deal with another world’s politics,” Orcus replies.
“You mean Hades would prefer to avoid another world’s politics, but has no problem putting Maliki in the path of Lucifer’s wrath.” Reaper’s no longer smiling, his irritation over Maliki’s upcoming sacrifice evident. The pair of them are good friends, which means Reaper will do whatever it takes to protect Maliki.
Just like Reaper would do whatever it takes to protect me and Orcus, too.
He might be sadistic and borderline insane, but he’s a good ally.
Orcus sighs. “Maliki volunteered.”
“Of course he did,” Reaper returns. “Maliki will do anything Hades asks of him.”
“Same could be said about us for Orcus,” I murmur, shrugging. “Maliki’s not the only one taking a risk, Reap. We all are.”
“No.” Reaper points at me, the reaction causing my lips to quirk up. “We’re not doing that.”
“Why not?” I ask, feigning innocence. “Too intimate for you?”
“I don’t know,kitty cat. What do you think?”
My eyes narrow. “That’s a terrible nickname.”
“The same could be said forReap.”
“That’s literally your name.”
“And you’re literally a cat,” he tosses back at me.
“I’m a fucking jaguar,Death Fae. Not akitty cat.”
