Page 41 of Monster Mansion

“What business is that of yours?” I asked with a touch of venom. Of the three creatures in the house, Ruse was the least friendly with me, and I wasn’t exactly in the mood to entertain his nonsense when I was in the middle of something much more important.

Ruse revealed himself in the form of a fluffy black cat jumping down from his hidden perch up on a high bookshelf. “None, truth be told.”

I couldn’t be certain how long he had been sitting there, or if he’d been in another shape before this one. Despite my suspicion, I couldn’t help but scratch his head absent-mindedly when he rubbed his feline figure against my leg. I yanked my hand back in disgust when I realized what I was doing.

“I don’t know why you think you have the right to come and talk to me like we’re friends,” I scoffed, turning my body away from the cat. “Not after what you did to Jake.” My voice cracked as I called him out for what he had done.

“Oh, your little one-night love affair, you mean?” Ruse asked as he sat on his haunches. He gave one of his paws a single lick and wiped his face. “He’s fine. I can’t promise he’ll ever speak to you again or want to set a single toe back in this house, but I can promise you he didn’t experience some grisly demise, though it might have been fun.”

I glared back at him suspiciously. “I saw all the blood, Ruse. How am I supposed to trust what you said?”

“I meant what I said before,” he responded through lifted feline lips that made it look like he was snickering. “Okay, perhaps he’s asmidgedinged up. I did have to wipe up a rather large amount of blood after I clocked him good in the nose. Kid was about as tough as a wet napkin. I don’t know what made him faint—the swift knock to the face, or the fact that it was an exact copy of himself throwing the punch. Can’t say for certain.”

He shrugged smugly, then went back to licking his paws for a moment while the news settled inside me. If he was telling the truth, which I wasn’t even that certain he was, this wasreallygood news. I let out a sharp exhale of relief, followed immediately by a twinge of uncertainty.

“How am I supposed to believe anything you say?” I asked as I pulled my legs into me and held onto them. “You played a pretty rotten trick on me to begin with. Pretending tobehim and all.”

Ruse began to step lightly over the photo album I’d been flipping through on the floor. As frustrated as I was, it was still mildly amusing to watch him perform all the weird catlike quirks one would expect. It was like as he shifted, he also took on the mannerisms of the body he occupied.

“You don’t have to believe anything I say,” he purred. “You are the master of your own destiny. Which is truly a gift within these walls, Logan, especially for a young lady such as yourself. All the rest weren’t really given that option, including myself. But rest assured, Nox’s inevitable lecture about how we aren’t in the risky business of killing for fun means it would not be worth me killing your scrawny, pissant boyfriend.”

I hoped he could feel my anger through my stare. I wasn’t sure why the shifter had come to bother me, but it seemed like he was here just to gloat. He was like the world’s worst version of Salem fromSabrina.

“Would you like some help? It appears you could use some help,” he said as he met my angry gaze with his wide yellow eyes. His fluffy black head looked back down at the measly piece of information I’d acquired. “Because I’m not sure all this effort is worth it when I could, you know, just tell you the answers you’re looking for. I’ve already heard you slamming about this place. Perhaps I could save you some time and some trouble.”

“You’ve already proven to me that you can’t be trusted, so I don’t know why I would give you the benefit of the doubt a second time,” I said as I rolled my eyes and looked at the floor.

“Because, unlike my companions you’ve grown so attached to, I’m the only one who knows the first thing about how human family politics work,” Ruse explained matter-of-factly. “I’m the only one who has spent time living as a human, who has interacted with them extensively, and who actually fucking listens when they speak.”

“They listen to me when I—”

“You don’t count. You’respecial,” Ruse scoffed. “You’re apparently the only human that Nox doesn’t see as some sort of cattle, and that Thorn noticed for any reason outside of a growling stomach.”

As much as it stung, Ruse had a point.

“How come you know so much about us?” I asked as I started to feel myself relax. “Humans, I mean.”

“Before we got stuck here, people for me meant community,” he explained as he laid down right on top of the photo books on the floor. Typical cat. “And for creatures like me, that goes a long way. Shifters don’t often get accepted in animal groups—I think it’s got something to do with our scent. Animals are much more in tune with that sort of thing, and can tell right away when something seems off. Humans, however, are much less like that. If you’re friendly and helpful and don’t give them reason to not trust you, they’ll usually let you stick around…” His voice trailed off.

“Until you couldn’t be friendly, helpful and trustworthy anymore?” I asked, filling in the blank.

“I had to eat eventually,” Ruse responded, like it was the most innocent thing in the world. He rolled over onto his back and batted at the ceiling playfully. “But I can tell you whatever you need to know about the family that owns the house. I’m very observant.”

I weighed my options in my head, still unsure if I could trust Ruse. I hadn’t even given myself the chance to truly process what he had done to me—how he had crossed that clear boundary of consent. I wouldn’t have let him touch me if I’d known the truth, if I’d known it hadn’t been Jake who was shoving his face between my legs, but I had to admit Ihadliked it. I’d liked what he’d done, even if it felt dirty and wrong to admit it. As skeptical as I was, I knew it could be my best shot at success if I let Ruse in on my plan. Maybe it would even adjust his attitude toward me.

“I need to know if Jonas Silver has any other surviving family, or if there’s anyone else who could step in and take ownership of the curse over the three of you,” I explained.

“Why? Are you going to try to kill him or something?” Ruse asked as he rolled back upright.

“Yes,” I answered sternly. “Assuming the effort would be worth it. If I kill him, and the curse immediately transfers to some other member of the Silver family, then that kind of makes a bigger problem.”

Ruse popped up to his feet and trotted over to me on silent cat paws before jumping onto my shoulder and draping himself over my neck. “And what, pray tell, makes you think that killing him is the answer to all our problems?”

“Lady from a magick shop told me that a curse can’t exist if one of its necessary elements is removed,” I shrugged, allowing Ruse to find a comfortable position. My guard was still up with him, but I knew it was a nonsensical grudge to hold while he was offering me an olive branch of help.

“Well, I would practice your murder techniques because ‘the Man’ as the others call him—our Mr. Jonas Silver—never married or had children.” He paused for a moment and glanced down at the photos before me, including the obituary. “He and Daisy were the only children of his parents' marriage. Daisy fell from a tree in her youth, which it appears you already knew, and his parents died from old age. Well, that and years of throwing back the wine and bourbon.”

My pulse began to race as the news hit my ear.

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