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Sebastian pushed me behind him, blocking me from oncoming hits. “Oh Birdie, I’ll never let them take you, because you’remine. No one takes what belongs to me.” His voice was pitched lower than his usual baritone, sounding almost manic. But as psycho as he sounded, heat spread in my belly at his words. Did I want him to take me?What the fuck is wrong with me, I don’t belong to anyone! Especially if I don’t survive this catastrophe.
More reptile people ran down the stairs, heading toward us. I heard a strained, gurgling noise to my right. A bright glow encased Ares’ entire body. He stood above a scaly creature prone on the floor. A spear in his hand was plunged into the corpse as a puddle of black blood oozed across the floor. Ares wrenched the spear out and threw it into another creature’s head, pinning it to the wall. He gripped the corpse’s head with his mammoth hands, ripping it clean off, with the spear intact. A bright orange flame sprang to life in his hand, and he lit the severed head on fire. Running into the new group of insurgents, he wielded it like a baseball bat, swinging it into their heads and knocking their heads off, one by one.
“Yo guys, I could play for the Yanks! DiMaggio may have been good, but he had nothing on my swing!” he shouted as he bashed one in the head. “Home run!”
The blond guy laughed. His hands were raised, and he was surrounded by levitating reptilian bodies. He waved to the left, slamming them all into the wall, painting it with black blood.
A crack sounded through the air. Desmond’s entire body shifted, morphing into somethingbeastly. The suit he wore was shredded to pieces. He grew in height and build, his already muscular frame becoming more defined. Matte onyx horns grew from his hairline, curving back along his temple and flaring out again. Glowing gold flecks peeked out from the peridot eyes of which I was so fond. His skin stayed the same color, but when he stepped directly under the light, I could see a red tint. Another snap sounded, and huge black and red wings flapped behind him, spanning well over his height. His calves were covered in thick hair that ran over fetlocked ankles and hooves.He has hooves?He ran past me, a long, thick tail trailing behind him. My mouth gaped, and my heart beat furiously against my chest. Maybe because I had never seen anything like that before? Or maybe because I found his new form so…captivating? Whatever I felt was far from the fear I should have been feeling.
“Calm down, it’s still Desmond,” Ares’ deep, calming voice floated to my ear. He stood next to me, casting his ambient glow on me. “You should see Mal, he’s an ugly fucker when he shifts. Look over there.” He gestured to where the blond man stood.
But instead of a man, there was a furry, horned creature. His clothes hadn’t ripped, but his face turned beastly. His eyes were neon red, and his nose turned into a snout.It looks better than that face he pulled earlier.He approached one of the shifters from behind and snapped his head clean off his neck, dropping it and painting the floor black as it rolled away. I would have screamed, but a foreign sense of calm spread through me, all the way to my fingers and toes. Desmond was standing behind me, his warm palm on my shoulder. His strong presence made me feel the same way as it had back at The Fool.
All four of these men were obviously far from natural. They were paranormal, supernatural beings straight from the books and movies I loved. I assumed the most earth shattering thing I would deal with today was becoming a witch, but these men topped that. If things kept on track, I’d end up meeting an alien by the end of the evening.
“Hold on, Little Goddess, this is going to scare you, but I promise everything is going to be okay,” Ares cooed in my ear. I actuallybelievedhim. He handed me his spear, which had somehow lost its flaming head extension, and spun his hands in front of him in a circular motion, like he was rolling a giant snowball. A glowing blue fireball formed between his hands, and he threw it at a group of reptile shifters. It barreled through a few of them, leaving huge, gaping holes in their abdomens .Then it ricocheted through the room, like a boomerang, returning to his hand.
“You scaly fucks! NO ONE is going to hurt Diana Rossi!” he exclaimed. The earlier sweetness in his voice was chased away by a scratchy, brash rasp. His brows drew together, and he sneered at the growing crowd of creatures surrounding him. “Not today, bottom feeders. You ready to get crunk, turnt, and lit?” They stared at him in confusion, and he puckered up his lips and blew into the blue fire sitting on his palm, like it was a dandelion. The flame spread out in tendrils, whipping around the creatures and burning them alive where they stood.
Some of them retreated, whereas others tried to help their flaming comrades. I stood there, watching the carnage. It was like being at a scary as fuck barbeque. Bodies were laying in crispy heaps on the floor, whereas others were still dying. Even though these creatures were trying to take me, seeing them burn alive and smelling their charred flesh scared me. One minute these men acted normal, the next they ripped thesethingsapart and set them on fire. I didn’t feel safe around them anymore. I wanted to turn and run the other way, but fear froze me in place.
The furry one had one of them hog-tied in some kind of yellow binding. Sebastian placed his hands on its head and settled into a deep concentration while it writhed around. Desmond walked over to us, his tail swaying behind him. He was naked, and hisequipmenthung between his legs. I diverted my eyes, because for once, I was too flustered to drool over dick.
“Are you okay?” he hesitantly asked, like he already knew the answer to that dumb question.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Fuck no. I’m not okay.” I glared at him and Ares, my breath sawing in and out of my lungs. How could I possibly be okay? We were surrounded by dead, burning reptile-people corpses and the only other people who could help me get away from these men were frozen. And most likely not equipped to do so if they weren’t. “Who are you people?!”
Ares started to laugh again, but his laughter sounded unhinged. He bent at the knees and hoisted me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing. I pounded my hands on his lower back, trying to force him to let me go, but it was no use. I had felt my fair share of men’s backs, and none of them felt as if they were cut from granite. He slapped the back of my thighs and the burning sting shut me up immediately. With a rumbling voice he said, “Oh Little Goddess, we’re absolute monsters. But we’re your monsters. Welcome to your new life.”
Desmond and Ares’ eyes locked, like they were having a silent conversation. Ares took his hand off my thigh, and started to turn clockwise in an even measure. The furniture and draping on the walls caught fire, the flames dancing around the room.He must be setting the club on fire!
“Wait! Don’t you want to make sure everyone is out before you do that?! What about Charlie!” I screamed.
“Oh yeah, good point,” Desmond nonchalantly said, as though it was an afterthought. “Mal, port them out.”
Mal snapped his fingers, and everyone disappeared. In the blink of an eye they weregone. How could all of this seriously be happening right now?
Before I could ask where the people went, the room spun. Blackness closed in around me.
Diana screamed like a banshee when we arrived at the house.My Little Goddess does not enjoy fading.The feeling of freefalling through the void when you traveled from one place to another could be disorienting if you weren’t used to it. Desmond wasn’t exactly gentle when he got us out of there, as we were in a rush. I loved the sounds of her feral, angry screams. They weren’t horror movie screams, but they certainly weren’t sex shrieks…yet.Give me time, and I’ll have her on her hands and knees screaming the right way.After one last punch to my back, she suddenly went limp.
“Hey, you quit? I was enjoying my massage.” I was met with silence. What if she was hurt from the fight, or fading was too much for her? “Diana, are you okay?”
“No,” she groaned. “I think I got hurt back at the club, I’m bleeding.”
Not today, Satan. I’d just met her. There was no way I was going to give her up already. Diana and I had so much life ahead of us to experience. We haven’t had time to go knife shopping or take cooking classes. She needed to see my trophy room, and I still needed to ask her about play-hunting. It wasn’t her time to go, gods dammit! I gently laid her on the ground, searching her body for a blood stain or broken bone, but I couldn’t find one. She started moaning, holding her arm while she writhed in the dirt.
“Desmond!” I shouted. He was already at the front door, but he turned at my frantic cry. My anxiety was spiraling out of control, icy fingers of panic wrapping around my throat. I needed Desi; he was a lot better in emergency situations. “Diana’s hurt, but I can’t figure out what’s wrong, she might–”
Ouch. What the fuck?She hit me square in the chest with a blast of strong, iridescent magic. It sent my body flying a thousand feet or so, giving her the perfect opportunity to vault up from the ground and run for the woods that joined the border of the property line. She was fast for a witch… like superhumanly fast.Witches shouldn’t be able to run that fast.If she wanted to run, then I was more than happy to chase her. I had been fantasizing about hunting her down all night.
“You let her get away?!” In demon form, Desmond looked extra angry. The red skin, horns, and deep, gravelly voice didn’t help. He needed to calm down. She wasn’t going anywhere.
I checked my watch, giving her a thirty second head start. “Calm down, Daddy D, she won’t get away. Here, hold my spear.”
A few hundred years ago, I met this warlock who magicked my spear to turn into a pocket knife when I didn’t need it. He did it for a hit on the guy his wife left him for. Best deal I ever made. I took off my shoes too. Italian leather wasn’t quite ‘chasing my future wife’ material, since it scuffed so easily.
I ran toward the forest using my superspeed and inhaled to pick up her scent. She smelled like roses, something earthy, confusion, fear, and a little wisp of lust. It was quite the heady concoction, hitting my senses bone deep and spurring me on to find her. Her intoxicating scent grew stronger the deeper into the woods I ran, calling forth an animalistic urge from the darkest recesses of my mind.
