Page 24 of Monster's Obsession

Some of them, like this guy, didn’t seem to believe me when I said it was just because I was a lust demon.

“You guys know each other?” Daruka asked.

“I know him,” the kid supplied, “but he probably has no clue who I am.”

Wow, low self-esteem much? “Krishna,” the dark recesses of my mind supplied.

Krishna lit up like a frigging Christmas tree. Daruka wasn’t nearly as animated, but she was at least mildly impressed.

I’d take it.

“I see you’re making friends,” I pretended to note casually as I scooped pasta onto my plate and reached for the green sauce.

“I wouldn’t eat that one,” Daruka blurted out with a sly glance at Krishna, who snickered.

I eased my hand away. “Why not?”

“The ghoul who helped make it has a cold,” Daruka supplied.

“He kept sneezing,” Krishna added, and the two of them giggled like schoolchildren.

Yes, Daruka, giggling. My libido would be doing backflips if I weren’t so high-strung over this sudden new friendship with some other guy.

“I think I’m missing the joke,” I finally admitted.

Krishna nodded at something over my right shoulder. I glanced, then edged a little to the left so I could look around the winter faery who had shifted over just enough that our thighs weren’t quite touching.

Selina, sitting at the table behind us, wrapped her lips around a forkful of pasta soaked in green sauce.

Swallowing back the bile trying to push up my throat, I pointed at the bowl of red sauce. “I take it this one is safe?”

“I made it, so yeah,” Daruka said.

So she was taking a cooking class. Good to know. As it happened, I was too. Mine was the early morning class, hence how I was able to procure her an egg sandwich on Continental Breakfast Monday. She was obviously taking the late-morning class, which was the one responsible for making lunch for the school each day.

Hmm…

I ladled an extra-large portion of sauce over my pasta.

She rolled her eyes.

“You probably shouldn’t make an enemy of her, you know,” I commented.

“Did you know she’s a freaking Blackthorn?” Daruka asked.

“I do.” I didn’t when I hooked up with her, but yeah, I did now. Just in case I needed another reason to keep her at arm’s length. The last thing I needed was to piss her off and get myself kicked out, thus speeding up the inevitable: taking over as ruler of the elfin forest.

“Is that why she’s such a bully?” Daruka asked. “Because she’s a descendant?”

I actually didn’t pay all that much attention to Selina these days other than to do my best to give her a wide berth. I’d heard about her bullying behavior, of course, because this was a school, and if students were experts at a single thing, it was gossiping.

“Who knows?” I said. “Maybe.”

“She’s had it out for me since literally the first day of our first semester together,” Krishna complained.

Probably because he was an easy target. The kid was so timid, it was hard to believe he was a full-blooded werewolf.

“Uh-oh, incoming,” Krishna mumbled, his gaze suddenly glued to his plate.

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