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I heard Thorn exude a low rumbling growl at my employer’s name.
“I’m here for a month, but it sounds like my employer doesn’t expect me to last that long. What hedefinitelydoesn’t expect, though, is the possibility of the four of us working together,” I concluded.
“But what’s in it for you?” Ruse sneered at me. “I can’t fathom that you’re actually comfortable with the idea of three people-eating creatures of the night wreaking havoc on the quiet town of Tallpine and beyond.”
“What’s in it for me is that you’ll all give me your word you won’t wreak any havoc, or causemeany harm while I’m doing my best to free you,” I said as I rose to stand. “You’ll all three go back to the way you lived before. In the shadows, on the edge of the wood, in whatever weird little hidey-holes you found. You’ll try to live quietly and adapt to a modern world. Youwon’tkill for sport or fun or for any reason other than plain necessity. Even then, I really have to insist you don’t kill anyone who doesn’t deserve it.”
The creatures looked at each other once again, appearing to communicate silently with one another. I stood in the living room, still surrounded by my salt circle until they made a vow to me as I waited for an answer to my proposal.
Nox, Thorn, and Ruse all looked at me in unison before Nox’s catlike grin shone over his pale face once again.
“You’ve got yourself a deal.”
Chapter10
Ruse
The shifter did his best to subdue the bubbling frustration inside of him. All these years trapped on this property with two harbingers of horror had culminated in this—an unfortunate alliance with a human girl. It was a good thing he’d crossed his fingers behind his back when he agreed he wouldn’t harm her. He hadn’t even been the one to verbalize the contract, so he was unsure if it truly counted.
After Nox confirmed their arrangement, Logan walked forward to shake his hand with such grace and confidence that not a soul would have been shocked to learn she had quite literally just struck a deal with the devil. Ruse looked on as the girl’s long black hair swung like the leaves of a willow tree in the standing lamp’s amber light. He couldn’t remember the last time he stood in the presence of another human in his chosen form, and the smallest fraction of him wondered if she appreciated the sight.
“It’s been a pleasure doing business with you,” Logan said with a sideways smirk.
“I never thought I would say this, but it was indeed a pleasure,” Nox replied in his standard ‘come hither’ tone. Ruse wondered if the shadow man was doing it intentionally or just purely out of habit.
“Perfect,” Ruse cut in, intentionally lacing his voice with a malicious sound.Hell hath no fury like a shifter scorned, he thought to himself, forcing a subtle smile across his sculpted human face. “Now cut it out with this hocus-pocus stuff. It’s giving me the creeps.”
“That’s rich coming from you,” Logan responded right away with a bite of venom.
Ruse cringed internally, but hoped it wasn’t obviously plastered across his face.
“Don’t think I don’t remember your little bobcat act,” the girl continued as she picked up candles off the floor. “I know it was you… amongotherthings.”
“Just because we’ve agreed to be cordial, and just because you’ve decided to try your hand at helping us—not that you’ll really be able to by any means—doesn’t mean we’refriends,”Ruse snapped. “So I’d appreciate it if you kept most of the snide remarks to yourself. Deal or no deal, I can still turn into a bear and shred you to pieces before you can even say ‘oh, no, a bear.’”
The shifter could have smacked himself for how stupid he sounded. For so long, most of his means of building and manifesting fear in his victims was by mimicking their loved ones and seducing them, only to shift at the last moment. He had never truly learned how to beanythingon his own, he had no idea who ‘Ruse’ was at his core, as Ruse had spent every moment of his existence being someone else. Pretending.
Thorn began to emit a low growl in warning. His feral desire for the girl hadn’t slowed or faded, and his instinct told him to guard her even against his own companion.
“Watch yourself, shifter,” the beast snarled. “Wouldn’t want you to say something you can’t take back.”
“And I wouldn’t want to remind you that you’re kibble compared to me, dog,” Ruse responded, unmoved by Thorn’s threats. The shifter toyed with the idea of throwing the fact that he had already tasted the girl, been inside of her, back at the protective beast, but he didn’t want to risk his position in the trio—not quite yet. Until he knew for absolute certainty that Logan was not going to be able to free them from the burden of the Man, he would play along with their unusual game of ‘house.’
The girl exited the living room back to the dining room with her arms full of candles and the salt shaker. Any mild scent of fear that had lingered upon her had faded like smoke on the wind. Ruse took a deep inhale upon her departure, searching the air for any trace of that sweet scent.
“Ruse, you might think you can take Thorn on your own, and you very well might be able to,” Nox said as he began to cuff the sleeves of his black button-up. “But I’ll remind you one time and one time only that you have yet to see the full extent of what I can do. You two still have to exist within the rules of this world. I—” The shadow man looked to the ground for a brief moment before raising his chin in Ruse’s direction. “I don’t.”
Nox’s face flashed an image conjured from the nightmares of demons. His eyes swelled with blood, the corners of his mouth tore across his cheeks in one swift slice, and hundreds of needle-sharp teeth extended downward in a vicious snarl as his lips pulled upward. Ruse and Thorn were both struck motionless, and their eyes began to fade into a dark red under Nox’s influence.
“You three don’t have to stay down here,” Logan said absent-mindedly as she re-entered the living room with a broom and dustpan in hand. “I’m just cleaning up.”
Nox’s face snapped back to normal the very second they could hear her voice, so she was none the wiser to the shadow man’s fear potential.
“Like, I don’t know what you guys do to fill your time, but I’m just going to go back to doing what I do with some added comfort now that I’m not being actively stalked any longer,” she concluded.
The three monsters stood in stunned silence as she began to sweep up her salt circle the best she could. The overhead light in the living room she had flicked on was not nearly bright enough to work under, but she still took her time in sweeping the same spot over and over again to make sure there was as little stray salt stuck to the floor as possible. Not one of them was competent enough in how humans went about their goodbyes to make a polite exit, so as soon as Logan expressed she no longer needed their direct attention, all three skittered away like cockroaches into the dark corners of the house.
“Don’t you dare try to snap at me again, pup,” Ruse said through the mouth of a moth to the great beast as he lumbered up the stairs. “It’s not my problem you’ve got some primordial obsession with the girl. You’ll do better to keep your attitude in check.”
