Page 44 of Beauty's Monstrous Demons

“With all due respect, that wouldn’t be any of your business even if I was up on a pole dancing,” I mutter. I’m trying to keep my voice low because rumors have a way of circulating. “I’m just trying to keep gas in my car and food in my fridge.”

“I went by your dorm room,” he says, changing the subject so quickly my head spins. “They said you haven’t been home.”

“Stalker,” I pretend to sneeze into my arm. “That’s also none of your concern.”

I’m beginning to think that my cute long sleeved dress and thick tights were a mistake based on how he’s staring at me. At least the tights are going to help keep my scent down.

Hopefully.

As the timer goes off, I turn off the burner and swing the beaker off it so it hangs suspended as it cools.

“Now what are you doing?” he asks, his features sharp as he watches me.

“I’m going to let this cool and do some math homework,” I state before he’s yanking me to him.

My back hits the wall, his hand around my throat without hurting me and his arm underneath my ass as he drags his nose up my throat.

“What sort of trickery is this,” he growls. My feet aren’t touching the ground and his fangs are gliding over my skin.“You’re not supposed to fucking exist.”

“No tricks,” I gasp, frozen between fear and concern for how upset he sounds. “Why shouldn’t I exist?”

“The world killed you,” he mutters. “Sickness, bigotry, you’re just too fucking fragile. I don’t deserve a second chance. Why do you smell so good?”

“Why can’t I smell anything from you?” I ask, unsure of what’s happening.Why is he so upset?I want to help, but I don’t know if I can or not.

“I dampen and hide my scent,” he says.

“That’s what I’m making now. A descenting spray,” I explain. “For some reason, it doesn’t work on my scent matches.”

He snarls as he snaps his teeth at me, making me shriek with surprise. Who the fuck does that, anyway?

“I’m expected to share you?” he asks, annoyed. “How many of them are there?”

“Alecto, don’t be a child,” Samael says, appearing next to us. “You’re scaring her, and only I am allowed to do that.”

“Out of everything I didn’t know about you, I didn’t peg you for a fear slut,” Alecto says, dropping me. Shrieking as I fall, I’m caught quickly by Samael, who lunges forward.

They’re so tall, they don’t think about how far I have to fall if they drop me. Well, Samael and Phenex are always careful. Alecto is a dick.

“Trust me,” I gasp, “discovering I have a spoiled monster as a scent match wasn’t on my bingo card for today either.”

“Is this why you don’t live in your dorm anymore?” Alecto asks. “You’re shacked up with Samael?”

“Someone broke into her room and fucked with her shit,” Samael replies, holding me close to him. “There was no way I was going to allow her to spend another night there.”

For some reason, the possessiveness he exhibits doesn’t bother me as much as Alecto’s does, and I curl up in his grasp.

“She’s supposed to be dead,” Alecto hisses instead. “This is going to fuck everything up.”

“Your path to suicide?” Samael asks.What?!“Do you really think I don’t see the despair in your eyes? You’re older than I am, with every living member in your family dead. Take this as a mercy, Alecto. Killing yourself won’t help anyone, least of all Lorelei.”

I don’t understand what’s happening, and I look back and forth between them. It feels as if they’re having a conversation all their own, and I wonder how well they know each other. It’s clear though they share the trauma that comes as the long years pass them by, each one leaving their own scars. How old is Alecto anyway?—

“Three thousand, three hundred and twenty-two years old,” he says. “Your thoughts are very loud, and your face says a lot without a word being spoken. Samael is also speaking tales thatdo not bear being discussed. When I finish the reasons for which I’ve been put on this earth, I’ll leave it.”

“Just like that?” I ask. My mind is racing, struggling to process things and what the fortune teller told me. His words are reminiscent of someone who truly believes that their time is growing short, and I don’t want that for him. “What if I told you that your death is tied to mine?”

I don’t know why I said that, but there’s something very sad about the creature in front of me. He swings haphazardly between anger and sadness, as if the path that he’s set has to be the only one. Samael mentioned that Alecto’s family was dead, which seems to be the driving force for his own death.

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