Page 14 of Beauty's Monstrous Demons

“Did you hurt your ankle? Why do you insist on wearing these boots anyway?” he growls.

“Why are you stalking me?” I ask in return as he jogs down the stairs. The monster who walks past us looks shocked, and I wonder if this is behavior that’s out of the ordinary for him.

I wouldn’t know, since outside of terrorizing me last night, I don’t know a thing about him.

“Answer my question first, Lorelei,” he insists, making me swallow hard.

He shouldn’t know my name.

“My ankle is fine, I just found out something that took me by surprise,” I say, my nostrils flaring as I inhale his scent again.

“I still want to know why you can’t wear normal shoes,” he grunts, placing me carefully on the ground once he’s descended the stairs.

“Shoes cost money, and these do just fine. They haven’t failed me yet,” I say archly.

“Until you fall and break your neck,” he counters angrily. “I’ve waited a long fucking time for you, which means you can’t die anytime soon.”

“I’m not, I mean, I don’t plan to?” That sounded about as confused as I currently feel.

“Good,” he says.

“Um, I guess I should go,” I murmur. He seems angry with me, and I don’t want him to be. My eyelashes flutter as I breathe his scent in again, trying to memorize it. Everything inside of me is torn.

“I’m not great at this,” he sighs. “I’m Samael. Do you know how hard it is to talk to you when everything inside of me wants to cart you away and hide you from the world?”

“No, why don’t you tell me about it?” I rasp, not entirely sure if this is the right thing to do. I’m completely working on instinct and need, and I want to know if his hair is as soft as I think it’ll be, or if he likes to cuddle.

Such odd thoughts.

“Have you had dinner yet?” he asks, glancing out the windows as he changes the subject. “Is it too early for that?”

“I have class soon,” I say reluctantly. “Will you walk me?”

“You’re not scared of me?” he asks.

“Why would I be?” I ask.

“I’m coming on really strong. Your backpack straps are making indentations in your skin, give it to me,” he says, pulling it off to easily sling it over his shoulder. “Do you know you’re mine? I need to know.”

“Yeah,” I whisper, biting my lip. “I do. The second the wind came through the building, I knew. Why couldn’t I tell yesterday? That was you, wasn’t it?”

Sheepishly, he nods. I swear, if he could blush, he would.

“I’m a fear demon,” he explains. “Every part of me wants to hunt you, feed on that fear, and then fuck you into the ground.”

My heart is thudding, imagining it, and his eyes roll back as he groans.

“Lorelei,” he groans. “You’re so responsive, but we can’t talk like this. You’re going to pull every monster in the fucking building to you. Walk with me and tell me about what you were doing in the lab.”

My sidelong glance has him grinning at me as he grabs my hand and gently pulls me into walking. Samael was watching me while I was working. I have my very own blue skinned stalker, and I don’t think I’m mad about it.

CHAPTER 4

SAMAEL

Ihaven’t held a girl’s hand in more years than I can remember. She’s so tiny, her almost colorless blue eyes expressive as I walk her to class. There are stares of course, but the blasts of dread and fear I send their way help to steer them in another direction.

Lorelei shivers, glancing at me.

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