Page 27 of An Invocation of Monsters

Oh, my. If a human guy had said that, it’d sound kind of dorky. Coming from Drazan, it was… well, pretty sexy, to be honest.

The world lurched as the Klee’s tentacles slowly disengaged from me, and he lowered me into the knee-deep water.

Where I was basically level with his engorged cock. Up close, I saw the veins beneath his sleek skin, the tapered head begging to have lips wrapped around it…

Nope. I was going to evaluate my life before I did this.

I looked up at the monster, trying not to breathe too hard. My nipples were still hard, my stomach churning from the sheer force of the want and desire in me.

It was a feeling so alien I had no idea what to do with it.

“You don’t even know my name,” I said. “How can you want me to be your mate?”

Drazan leaned down, brilliant crimson battling a softer hue in the bioluminescent spots on his body. Elle. You are my Elle.

My mouth opened, but nothing came out for a moment. “Did Toth…?”

We denizens of the Void know your name now. We felt you cross the barrier, and the doors opened for you. The monster’s tentacles drifted over my shoulders as he spoke. The doors have not opened willingly for many, many years. You are meant to be here.

“This place is the Void?” I looked up at the swirling sky, the stars disappearing into the black abyss. Yes. That made absolute sense.

Our home, and soon to be yours. So few humans are touched by the Void enough to sense it, but you have fully entered this realm.

This place was Toth’s home, and he’d sworn on it to never harm me.

And, in truth… it was beautiful. Now that my terror had abated—and, strangely, I felt protected by this monster’s presence—I could appreciate the primordial wildness of it, the beauty of the stars and glowing lake.

It was the sort of world where I could just breathe and exist. Where no one would chase me, out of their minds with desperation, where I wouldn’t fear someone finding my secret and turning me into a commodity.

I hugged myself, trying to rub goosebumps off my arms.

My mother’s initials were carved in the ruins of the Lodge. I was not the first person to cross through the door…

“Have you ever met another human woman?” I asked Drazan desperately. “Her name was Gillian. I might… look a little like her…”

He shook his head before I was even done speaking. I’ve only observed humans from a distance. None of them ever intrigued me enough to lure me from the depths. Perhaps there were others, but I was asleep for it. I waited until the right time to surface.

I was surprised at the weight of my disappointment. If my mother had penetrated the Void, there had to be a monster who had seen her—and then I might have my answers to what she was doing here.

“Okay, that’s fine…” I licked my lips, stopping immediately when I felt Drazan’s attention narrow in on that tiny movement.

As intrigued as I was about what exactly he could do with those tentacles, I still felt unusually… well, shy.

After Brady, it wasn’t like I’d racked up tons of experience with interest from the opposite sex.

And now even that wouldn’t matter, since I wasn’t dealing with a human male.

For now, I wanted to regroup. Hell, I’d even tell Juno everything once I stopped reeling from the fact that I’d managed to jump off a dock and into an alternate universe.

“Can you bring me back to my world? They probably think I’m dead.”

Drazan knelt so we were eye to eye, several of his tentacles thrashing. You’ve only just arrived, Elle. I have so much to show you.

“And I’d like to see it… after I confirm that they’re not dredging the lake for my corpse.” Not that I believed they would actually bother to look for me.

And, to be honest, the urban explorer in me was freaking out at what a creature like Drazan might be able to show me. Places no other human had ever set foot.

It was a dream come true.

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