Page 31 of Evil Hearts

“Is he going to kill me?” she whispered, blinking back tears. “I don’t want to die!”

Reed shook his head and made soothing sounds. “No, darling. I promise he’s no threat to you.”

“Fine,” Idris grumbled. She’d missed what he was agreeing to, but she soon found herself right side up and cradled against his chest. Then he sat down in a chair facing the table and settled her on his lap.

His naked lap. She’d seen some fully nude statues at museums before but none of them compared to the stone dick currently digging into her backside. Turns out gargoyles can get erections in their shifted form. This wasn’t knowledge she needed to find out firsthand!

“P-p-please d-d-don’t rape me-me-me either,” she begged, fully crying now.

Idris frowned down at her. “I would never do that. It would hurt you! I’d never hurt you.”

He sounded so affronted; she almost had the urge to apologize.

“I know Idris’s actions were startling, but he didn’t mean to scare you,” Silas said as he sat on the table to her right. He was close enough that if she reached out, she could touch his leg.

“C-c-can I-I-I leave?” she asked, glancing at the door.

Idris growled. “No.”

“Yes,” Silas said, giving Idris a quelling look. “But we need to talk first. If you want to leave after that, we won’t stop you.”

Idris made a grumbling sound but didn’t argue.

“Good luck with that,” Reed said with a chuckle. He was sitting at Idris’s feet with his head resting against the gargoyle’s knee.

Cassi looked down at the wolf shifter and tried to blink back tears. So far, he seemed like the most sympathetic of the three. “I’m sc-sc-scared. C-c-could you p-p-please ask them to let me g-g-go?”

Reed looked up at her with sympathetic eyes even as he shook his head. “Talk to Silas first, okay? He’s a good vampire, I promise.”

What did Reed mean by that? What made a good vampire? They thanked your corpse after they drained you of blood?

Hugging herself, Cassi looked at Silas. “S-s-sir?”

“Silas,” the vampire said. “Please call me Silas.”

“S-s-Silas,” she repeated. “I’m s-s-sorry I bothered you. If-if-if you let me go-go-go I’ll d-d-drop everything. I p-p-promise.”

Reaching behind him, Silas picked her tablet up from the table and held it up between them. “You found a lot of evidence of illegal things in these two apartment buildings. Do you live in one of them?”

“N-n-no, S-S-Silas,” she answered. Fear was making her stutter so bad she was finding it hard to get out more than a word or two without stumbling over the syllables. Maybe they’d get annoyed with her and let her go. “I’m a p-p-paralegal w-w-working for Equal Under the Law. It’s a-a-a non-profit that helps p-p-people with legal issues. S-s-several of the tenants came in-in-in a few weeks ago l-l-looking for a way to-to-to make the managers c-c-clean up the properties. We-we-we were going to help them file l-l-lawsuits after the-the-the managers threatened to evict them.”

“But you decided to come here and try to blackmail me instead?” Silas asked. There wasn’t even a hint of anger in his voice, only curiosity. “What did you hope to get from me?”

“H-h-help,” she whispered. “My sister joined a c-c-cult. I-I-I think she’s b-b-being h-h-held against her will, but no-no-no one w-w-will do anything!”

“I’ll go get her,” Idris said, his deep voice making his chest vibrate and send shivers down Cassi’s spine. How had she forgotten she was sitting on the gargoyle’s lap? “I can bring her to you and keep you both safe,” he promised.

He seemed to like the word safe because he used it a lot. Not that it mattered as long as he planned to rescue her sister.

“Th-th-thank you, uh, Idris?” she whispered, feeling hope flower in her chest. “I’ll p-p-pay you all the money I have. And you can have my c-c-car or anything else I own.”

Silas made a humming sound, drawing their attention. “Perhaps not just yet.”

“W-w-what?” Cassi pointed to Idris. “He s-s-said he could do it. You c-c-can’t t-t-tell him he c-c-can’t.”

“Silas is very smart. It’s important that we listen to him,” Reed commented, shifting his body a little so he was resting his cheek on her thigh instead of Idris’s knee. Cassi wasn’t conscious of moving her hand to pet his head until she felt his soft hair under her fingers. Now he reminded her of a sweet dog looking for affection.

“I’ll retrieve your sister,” Silas agreed. “But it won’t cost you money.”

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