Page 28 of Bitter Sweet Love

My mouth dropped open. “Come on. It’s not doing anything.”

Dez stopped, arching a brow. “Yet.”

My gaze fell back to the little guy. He was staring up at me with a toothy smile. He raised his knees, hobbling back and forth in a strange little jig when our eyes met.

“Jasmine...” Dez sighed, folding his arms. “It’s a demon. It might be a cute-ugly demon, but it’s still the enemy.”

“I know, but...”

But it wasn’t doing anything other than dancing and preening about. As sacrilegious as it sounded, I didn’t think it was right to kill it.

Dez shot me a look. “We can’t just let it go.”

The pukwudgie glanced at Dez and stuck out its tongue, making a very human raspberry sound.

I laughed. “Oh, I like this little guy. If we can’t let him go, can I keep him?”

“Uh, no.”

“I shall name him Herbert,” I announced, ignoring Dez. “Do you like the name, little puke-wedgie?”

“Pukwudgie,” Dez corrected, lips curving upward reluctantly. “Jas, we need to take care of this.”

The earth demon twirled around, hiking its legs up on either side.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” I slowly sat down, careful not to startle it. “Herbert is a good name for him.”

Dez choked, rolling his eyes. “Really? That’s the best name you can come up with?”

I flipped him off.

His eyes narrowed on me.

Herbert hopped onto my boulder, and I held my hand out. He bent at the waist, sniffing the air around my fingers.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Dez suggested darkly, stepping toward me. “God knows what kind of messed-up diseases that thing carries.”

Herbert spun around, doing another dance, and then brought his hand down on mine, as if he were giving me a high five. Then he raised his hand, formed a fist and shook it at Dez.

“Huh,” I said, eyeing it. “I really don’t think Herbert likes you.”

“That’s tragic,” he replied dryly. “I want you to move back from it.”

Ignoring him again, I chuckled as Herbert climbed to my side of the rock and wrapped his hand around my pointer finger. His skin was cool and soft. He jumped once and then again, moving my hand.

“I think he’s shaking my—ouch!”

Herbert had his mouth on my finger, his teeth clamped down! Sharp pain blasted across my hand, and I jerked back. Scrambling to my feet, I lost my balance and landed on my butt, clutching my throbbing hand to my chest.

“Herbert bit me! The little bastard bit me!”

The pukwudgie made a chattering noise that sounded perilously like a laugh, spun around and darted over the boulders. It jumped onto the ground and raced off, stopping only long enough to pick up its spear. Bushes rattled as it disappeared into the growth.

Dez was at my side in a second, kneeling down. He opened his mouth.

“Don’t you dare say I told you so,” I warned, glancing down at my finger. Blood welled up from three little indentations. “I can’t believe he bit me. I thought he liked me.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything. Let me see it.” He reached for my hand. “He broke the skin, didn’t he? Christ,” he muttered. “You’re bleeding. Come on, let’s wash it off and get out of here before more of them show up and decide to take a bite out of you.”

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