Page 76 of Pareidolia

I’m also not expecting the eight foot moth monster that’s crowded against the corner of the bathroom when I push open the double doors, scowling at me like a fucking menace. His red eyes are blazing so bright I don’t have to turn on the light to make out the snarl on his face.

“What the fuck, Nox?” I’m starting to think I should get the phrase tattooed on my forehead. “What are you doing here?”

“He wants you,” he growls, the accusation low and ridiculous coming from the chest of an ancient creature that apparently existed before man ever walked the earth.

“So?” I don’t understand the issue. He’s seen Noah Daniels around me before, and I’m pretty sure that he felt the same way then as he does now. “He can’t have me.” I laugh slightly. “Fuck, if he took off my shirt he’d see you squirming under my skin… I don’t think⁠—”

Nox snarls again, twisting like a beast and flexing his wings as he stalks forward. “He can’t have you. You’re mine,” he snaps, and I recognize the tone.

Short.

Stacatto.

Full of fury like it was that first night he came to kill me.

“Nox—”

“Mine,” he hisses again and moves to step past me.

“You can’t kill the town ranger just because he has the hots for me if you want me to stay here, Nox.”

For a second I think it’s going to work, that my logic will break through whatever this strange rage is… until Noah’s laughter spills out from the front of the library, and Nox’s eyes narrow.

Fuck.

“You can’t⁠—”

He shoves past me and rips the door open so viciously I hear metal fall to the ground as the hinges snap.

“Watch me.”

CHAPTER 31

NOX

“Nox, wait,” Aspen calls, but I’m not in the mood for human logic. All I could smell was the lust in the air when I came to tell Aspen he’d played human for long enough today. Desire—the desire to pull Aspen away, to take him somewhere.

The desire to take what’s mine.

I’ve given Duskfen and its inhabitants far too much leniency. The gods and Death be damned, and every creature in between who had a hand in making the world. I don’t care if humans hunt me down—I’ll destroy everything and spend the rest of eternity living off Aspen’s emotions alone, whether it’s loathing that I left him as the only living creature or lust to know that I’d cast a world into shadow just to keep him as mine.

The library is mostly empty, but the man is still here. I see him in the corner of the building, by the desk.

Waiting.

Waiting for my mate.

“I’ll make it quick,” I hiss and wonder if he can taste my lie in the air.

“Nox, please.” He sounds desperate. “If you kill him, it’s on camera. Even if it isn’t, people saw him come in here. People probably know he was coming to see me. If he sees what you are, we won’t be able to stay.” He steps in front of me, and his ochre eyes are pleading. “I want to stay. You said you’d keep me safe.”

“He wants you,” I snarl out again. I don’t want human logic. I want death.

“You have me. Please… I⁠—”

“Aspen?” Aspen’s pleading expression turns resolute as Noah Daniels calls his name. He steps in front of me and slips his hand behind his back, wrapping his fingers around the knife he has there.

Even though he’s begging me not to kill the man in front of us, he’s willing to do it for me.