Page 115 of Beauty's Monstrous Demons

An entire hour, instead of snippets of time here and there.

“I want to work on an infusion to try to warm her up,” I say. “I know she’s fighting this in her mind, but science has to be able to help too.”

“Do it,” Samael says. “I’m going hunting again. I’ve felt the bitch a couple of times, but we keep losing her.”

“I’m going to find more blankets for her,” Bast says softly.

“We all have to eat,” Phenex grunts.

We each have our role, and we’ve learned to run with it. Maybe we’ll finally begin to understand how to fight this plague.

Lorelei’s body is a reflection of how she sees her soul, and the changes are showing here as well. Her veins are black and spiderweb over her body, the horns growing at her temples. Even her hair is wild and multi-colored.

The longer she’s asleep, the more her body changes. I think she looks like a beautiful doll, but I would rather she be awake and fighting with me any day.

Samael had a point when he yelled at me for being away so long, so I brush a kiss over her temple as I stand.

“Who’s going to stay with her?” I ask, eyes wide.

Bast is already returning with blankets, and pulls off his shirt to get into the bed with her.

“I will,” he says with a wide yawn. “I need a nap. I’m exhausted.”

Nodding, I turn away to walk out to the little garage in our cottage and across the yard to the laboratory I created. If I can find a way to use our own DNA to continue to help her fight the disease in her veins, it may also help her wake up sooner.

It’s been ten months since Christa hurt our girl.

Enough is enough.

SAMAEL

The Hellhounds have the scent and I’m following them as we run through space and time to catch Christa. The fucking taint eater needs to die.

I’ve lost patience for her, my claws are out, my tail sharpened to a point.

“There she is, boys!” I yell, seeing her hair streaming behind her.

No one realized how much of President Christa’s body was contrived. Her body is made of shadows as she flees from us, her face a snarled expression and ugly as fuck. Hooked nose, long, stringy hair matted and tangled.

She no longer looks like the dignified version of herself that I knew. She’s a goddamned mess.

“Stop!” she yells. “There’s no way to save her.”

“Lie!” I snarl. I can tell, there’s deception in her words. I need to know what the truth is. “Tell me and I’ll make sure the Hellhounds make it swift.”

The hounds howl with sadness, making me smirk. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do that to them. Christa doesn’t know that though.

Dematerializing completely, I make a gamble and reappear in front of her, my hand snatching her throat from the air. While she’s made of shadows and mist, so am I.

Slamming her against the tree next to me, I hold tightly to her neck while she tries to squirm away.

“Time is up,” I whisper. “Lorelei should be dead, shouldn’t she?”

“Yes,” she says. “I don’t know how she’s not. It should have taken minutes for her to have passed.”

“Were you trying to kill us as well?” I ask, brows furrowing as my tail stabs her body into the bark of the tree. More of her shadowy figure is becoming corporeal, and she screams in frustration.

“What’s the death of a few monsters when it means she dies?” Christa asks. “She’s a fucking girl who isn’t supposed to exist. She makes you weak!”

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