Page 362 of Evil Hearts

But I wasn’t in the fucking mood, no matter what Rune said about what I’d supposedly felt.

“I didn’t say shit.” I shoved Rune backward, my scales shimmering in the torchlight nearby.

Those fucking flames were a godsdamned nuisance. Fucking furballs needed them to stay warm or some shit. I was perfectly fine being cold-blooded, however. The dark, briny deep, that’s where I belonged. It had been a mistake to think that could ever change.

Rune sighed, reaching up to grip my hand. But it wasn’t a challenge. It was something far worse—an act of sympathy.

“Don’t, Rune.” I jabbed a finger in their direction. “Don’t fucking start this shit with me.”

“Baltz,” they insisted, “she isn’t them. I know what you went through before I found you. Aki isn’t—”

“You know nothing of what happened. Not really. And a human is a human.” I threw off his hand, resuming my attempt to just get the fuck out of here and back to my nest.

“She’s our human,” Kenta offered, and if it was anyone else, I’d have punched them in the damn jaw and left. “I can sense nothing to punish her for. If anything…”

He paused, and damn that bastard to all the hells and back, but I couldn’t leave. Kenta had been the one to tend to me when Rune had come back with my half-dead ass, my black blood slowly draining out of me from all the stab wounds.

So when the fucking cat had something to say, I couldn’t ignore him.

“What, Kenta? Just spill.”Never said I’d be nice about it, though.

“If anything,” he started again, walking up to me with his forked tail swishing about his legs and his green-slitted eyes glowing, “she might understand some of your pain. Her own family…I can sense an evil about them. We’ve read about the basics of her past from the therapy transcripts. Aki was…abused. I do not doubt that it stretches farther than those records indicate.”

It was my turn to sigh, and I let my head fall back on my shoulders. The gentle hum I’d felt in my horn since she arrived was still there. Aki was still on the property, and she was…in pain. It was related to all of us, but it was significantly tied to me.

“Baltz, she’snotthem.” Rune offered the words in a whisper, their hand going to my shoulder as they stood behind me.

I couldn’t keep my tail from flicking, still affected by physical contact after all this time—even when it was one of my mates.

My mates.

The truth was I didn’t know if I could handle another person to care about. It all just seemed like an invitation to get hurt. And a human? Come on, I was supposed to trust one of the very things whose brethren tried to kill me? What kind of sick joke was the universe playing?

It burned, just the thought of itburned. My tail snapped again, the tentacles that wrapped around my hips squeezing up like my fists. I’d never been a particularly relaxed creature, but it was downright impossible for me to be so now.

The world had not changed. Humans were still terrified of what might be lurking in the shadows, bumping in the middle of the night and ready to eat them up. Sure, some of us did, but it was a prey versus predator-situation. I was just feeding. And their dumb asses came into my waters.

I never went out searching for them. We never did, any of us…monsters. We kept to the black, to the myths and rumors. We weren’t real to them. My little cadre of assholes here wanted to keep it that way. I had to assume that most of us did. We were spread out all over the globe, and it had been centuries of successfully remaining nothing but stories to the humans.

It was safer that way.

“Get your ass up to the roof and bring her inside,” Keika demanded.

Glaring at her, I furrowed my brow, ready to wrap the little cat up in my tentacles and squeeze until she whined for me.

“Watch it, kitten.” She sauntered over, throwing her arms around my neck despite how she knew I wasn’t in the mood to be touched. “Ugh, Keika. Are youtryingto get punished?”

A soft purr rumbled out of her chest, and she smiled up at me, her flaming tails dimmed since she was at least smart enough to remember that I hated fire.

“Maybe,” she flirted, “but I still think you should go get her regardless. Kenta’s right. You’ll understand her best.”

Grumbling, I quickly realized that I’d lost ground in this argument. I wasn’t getting out of it, and they all knew that Iwoulddo what they asked me. I cared for them, as much as that pissed me off.

“Fucking dammit,” I dragged out with a sigh. “Fine! But she’snotmy mate. So get that out of your mouths.”

Rune chuckled under their breath, and I wanted to reach down and snag that ever-out dick of his and pull. Not that clothing wasmuch of a thing for any of us, but at least mine could be tucked away out of sight.

Damn modern proprieties infecting my brain like a poison.

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