Page 136 of Magic of the Damned

“Hi—” I waited for a name.

“Sabin,” he offered. “I’ll escort you to the house. Dominic put up a flare when he closed the ward here and the others are a little upset. I don’t want them to take it out on you,” he told me. “They would never hurt you,” he quickly added, “but they wouldn’t think twice about using you to show their discontent.”

“Flare?”

“Yes, the ward should be sufficient, but he put up a flare as a secondary warning, giving those who choose to enter an opportunity to rethink. The queen doesn’t like visitors and it is made known.” His tone led me to believe that when you entered unindicated, you didn’t leave, and if you did, you would definitely not be in the same condition.

I was trying not to be rude and stare at the peculiar creature, but it was nearly impossible. A mishmash of human and animal was intriguing. Shifters seemed boring in comparison. He stopped walking. Smiling, he extended his arms out slowly and made a complete turn, giving me a full view of him. I took it all in, trying not to gape.

“You’re lovely,” I said. A lovely freak of nature but lovely nonetheless.

He preened. “I am.” It was apparent I wasn’t the first to give him that compliment.

“What is it like?” I asked. “Being created like this?”

“I don’t know of any other way.”

I was asking the wrong questions but had no idea which ones were right. All the information whirled in my head.

“You want to know what the recreation will be like?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Your situation is different. We were made from nothing. Your question is equivalent to you asking me to recall your birth and all that you felt. I was created like this. Not from another animal. Just a creation of her imagination. I believe you will be her first recreation. First human recreation.”

So he wasn’t formally a panther given humanoid characteristics. Panic overtook me. She’d never recreated a person. It had to be different. Taking slow measured breaths was the only thing keeping me from spiraling into a full-on panic attack. Had I agreed to be an experiment? Was Dominic overconfident in his mother’s abilities and her ego wouldn’t let her decline?

A heavy hand on my shoulder offered some comfort as the heat from it suffused through me. I hadn’t realized how cold I’d become.

“The queen would never agree to something she’d fail at. There are some benefits to dealing with people with egos of her magnitude.” His easy smile caused me to relax. Returning it, I started to walk again, desperate to find Dominic.

Sabin redirected me from the bedroom, where I’d assumed Dominic would be, to a library nicer than the one in his home. Floor-to-ceiling books on mahogany shelves embellished with molding at the top and the odd, animated flowers and vines that slithered along them provided a haunting decorative flair.

Dominic, seated in a black tuxedo chair, looked up from his book. I divided my attention between him and the fantastical range of creatures milling about and reading. Some were as beautifully intriguing as Sabin, and others were disturbing. Beauty being subjective, what I found horrifying may have intrigued others. Two people who were the human embodiment of butterflies walked by. Honey-color skin, coltish bodies, oblong faces, wings tapestries of pastels. Some of my apprehension dissipated. If I came out on the other side with cute wings, I was fine with that. Dominic’s gentle kiss to my neck drew my attention back to him.

After intensely studying me, he turned a pointed look on Sabin.

“Oh, get off and stop being so overprotective. I didn’t say anything to your Luna that would scare her away from here.” Sabin narrowed his eyes on Dominic and gave him an impish look. “Or you. So don’t be giving me any looks.” Sabin bristled with a dramatic wave of his arm. “I preferred broody and cynical rather than this infuriating overprotectiveness.”

Dominic glared. “She’s nervous about the recreation. I just wanted to ensure that the talking panther didn’t make her more so.”

He looked smug when he turned. “Myelinated jaguar, not panther,” he corrected. “I’m always correcting them.”

“You don’t have to. You choose to,” Dominic said, his expression mirroring Sabin’s.

“I live to educate,” he shot back. “There’s no such thing as a panther,” he muttered under his breath as he left with long, confident strides. Thinking that we had inadvertently offended him, I was relieved when he flashed me a grin. Sabin was odd. Marooned in the world of peculiar creatures, I couldn’t help but be amused that the thing he was finicky about was not being half panther.

“How was your meeting with my mother?”

I shrugged. “She very much belongs in your world.”

“And you don’t think you do?”

“I belong with you. I’m not sure about this world,” I admitted. He looked away, a flush creeping up his cheek. I preened. Inching closer to me, he leaned down and placed his hand on my side.

“You are very adaptable, Little Luna,” he growled as he moved his hand slightly, his thumb stroking over my breast. My nipple responded to his touch. I quickly scuttled back and glared at him. The prince didn’t like losing any control, and this was his way of wrangling a little back. Now I was the one blushing from his intimate touch in a library full of kind-of-humans. Pseudo-animals. Or whatever. “You belong wherever I am.”

The heat of his body laced around me. His lips covered mine in a deep sultry kiss.

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