Page 130 of The Demon's Pet

Why had I never truly looked at him until now?

I suppose because I’d only had eyes for Sam.

It was hard not to fall for a guy who stabbed your attempted rapist and then gave you the orgasm of your life.

But looking up into Zadis’s green eyes, really looking into them, I saw what the others did.

Coldness.

He idealized me and nothing more. I tried to push around him to leave, but he was stubborn and hard to move. “Cleo. The ring.”

I looked up at him, heart thumping like a drum pounded by a barbarian. It felt hard to breathe.

He reached out and grabbed my hand, and I nearly shifted, but he was too fast, and he shoved the ring on my pinky before I could pull away.

The stone almost immediately lit up pink, and Zadis grabbed the ring back and simultaneously shoved me away from him so hard I hit the ground on my butt.

“Deceiver!” he shouted, growing before my eyes as I looked up at him. He’d been about six feet tall, so a few inches shorter than Sam. But he grew at least half a foot taller. His shoulders grew broader, and his hair lengthened.

His ears were even more prominent, and his eyes were larger, giving him an exotic look.

“My warrior form,” he said. “The natural response to finding out a demon is in my home.” He advanced on me. “I’m going to blood-bind you with my ruby so that nothing can ever set you free, you monster.”

“I’m not a monster!” I yelled, dodging back out of his grasp and running for the stairs. If I couldn’t go through the front door, maybe I could hide.

I realized I wasn’t thinking very clearly as I ran down the steps into a musty smelling cellar with a dirt floor and looked around to see glass cases everywhere, floor to ceiling, spaced out about ten feet apart from each other.

Inside, creatures stood, stock-still and waiting, as if posed like still life.

I tried to hide behind one of the cases, which held something that looked like a unicorn, and tried to stifle my rapid breaths.

The animal inside was gorgeous, a black-pelted horse with a shining purple horn. I would have died out of pure excitement that such a thing existed if I wasn’t horrified that it was here as taxidermy.

But as I stared at it, waiting for Zadis to come down, I realized it wasn’t dead. Just still. Like something was binding it in place other than the cage, which merely surrounded it. Its sky-blue irises darted down to meet mine.

A grotesque animal exhibit.

I should have known there was something wrong with this guy. How obsessed he was with my shifting.

There were dozens of creatures down here. I put my hand on the glass, staring sadly at the unicorn. “I wish I could free you.”

The unicorn’s blue eyes merely widened, and I got the sense it was trying to warn me, even if it couldn’t.

Footsteps announced Zadis’s entrance into the basement, his huge, booted feet stomping down into the room.

I peeked out and saw him standing there, and his eyes instantly flicked to mine.

“There’s no reason to hide, Cleo. I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, his tone falsely gentle. “I’ve taken a moment upstairs to calm myself and consider the situation. It’s not your fault you are… what you are.” He looked around him. “These rare creatures couldn’t help their demon taint either. So I sealed them here, where they can hurt no one and no one can ever hurt them.”

I looked around, seeing what looked like a half-shifted werewolf with gleaming yellow eyes and huge claws and a half-wolf, half-human body, semi-covered with fur.

Another case held a tiny creature that seemed to be made of shimmery light-blue liquid in the shape of a little droplet, a small flower on its head. It had tiny blue eyes and little black feet in tiny shoes that sat a few inches below where the water stopped.

I had no idea what it was or how it floated above its own feet like that.

“You’ll have plenty of time to get acquainted with everyone here once I’ve bound you,” Zadis said.

“I’ll fight you,” I said.

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