Page 97 of Enticing Monsters

I glance over his shoulder, searching desperately for Sera’s familiar shock of bright-pink hair. My panic intensifies when I don’t see her, Foster, or Kian anywhere.

“Where are?—?”

“They’re coming separately,” Tristan says. “I wanted to get Cadmus here as soon as possible.”

Cadmus?

I must’ve spoken the name out loud instead of just in my head, because a strange man steps forward. I try to keep my surprise off my face, try to maintain my impenetrable mask, but it slips, regardless of my intentions.

I’ve never seen anyone like him before.

Cadmus ignores me and rushes towards V’s still form, the prince’s chest barely rising and falling as he struggles to take a breath.

“Who the fuck are you? Get away from my brother?” Avril screeches.

She jumps to her feet and balls her hands into fists.

“Avril, relax. He’s here to help. He’s a basilisk,” Tristan reassures her.

“A basilisk?” God, I need another drink, preferably something much, much stronger than wine. “That’s impossible. Their kind have been extinct for years now.”

“Maybe on Earth,” Tristan murmurs.

“Are you telling me…?”

“That he’s from Faerie? Yeah. And he may be the only one capable of healing V.” Tristan chews on his lower lip as he watches the basilisk anxiously.

Avril has stumbled away, moving until her back is flush against the wall, and Cadmus leans over V. Then, he places his lips to the prince’s.

“What the fuck?” I exclaim, my shadows coiling around my hands in preparation to strike.

The door to my spare room opens, and Gage steps out, looking disheveled and confused after just waking up. His gaze homes in on Cadmus—taking stock of his strange features and his lips on Vs—and lunges forward.

“He’s sucking the virus out.” Tristan places a hand on my arm, stopping me from marching forward. “Look!”

With gritted teeth, I focus on the two men before me.

“Holy fuck. I think it’s working,” Avril breathes, shuffling from foot to foot.

“He’s able to draw anything out of a fae’s blood—whether that’s a poison or a virus or a disease,” Tristan explains, the words tumbling over each other in their rush to escape. “We weren’t sure if it would work because he can’t heal the virus in Faerie, but if it’s a mutated version of it, then he should be able to, and yeah. I’m going to stop talking before I pass out.”

He sucks in a ragged breath, places his hands on his knees, and lowers his head.

V’s skin certainly isn’t as pale as it was before. Color returns to his limbs and cheeks, turning them ruddy.

Cadmus gasps and wrenches himself away from V, collapsing on the floor by the prince’s bedside.

“Are you okay?” Tristan asks, moving towards the basilisk.

I place my arm out to stop him before he can take more than a few steps. Tristan and the others may trust this basilisk, but I don’t. He’s a stranger in my home, and right now, he has my family’s life in his hands.

Tristan throws me an odd look, but I don’t explain myself.

I already almost lost my little brother once. I won’t risk it again.

“That was…” Cadmus shakes his head rapidly as he gets to his feet, his features twisted in disbelief. “That was unlike anything I’ve ever encountered before.”

“We think it was the virus found in Faerie,” Tristan says. “A weaponized version of it.”

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