Page 43 of Mate

There was a knock on the door.

This was definitely going to be more bullshit. I couldfeel it. I had to search double-time, because I needed that book.

“Kaci, gotta go!” I heard Beau call out to me, and it wasn’t a normal, ‘Hey, I’m bored, can we leave now?’ It sounded alarmed and full of panic.

“Almost got it!” I called back, suddenly spotting it underneath my sister’s keyboard.

I mean, who keeps anything under a keyboard?

I looked up and I saw a shadow standing in front of the door. It wasn’t a normal shadow. It wasn’t even the shadow of a well-built Lycan. No, no.

This was the sort of shadow from my nightmares when I was a kid and read too much ofScary Stories to Read in the Dark.

The lights suddenly went back on, and the sight was a little less terrifying. Now it was a tall blond guy wearing sunglasses and not a shadow, but I still felt like I needed to be hugging a teddy bear.

“Kaci Iverson, I presume?” He was putting a pair of spectacles in his pocket.

“Kaci? You just missed her,” I said so smoothly that I definitely thought he was gonna buy it. “She went that way,” I said, pointing out the window.

My smoothness didn’t fool him. “C’mon, darlin’. We got a couple of guys who would appreciate your company. Easy way or hard way?” he asked, like it was a paper-or-plastic question.

I didn’t want to go anywhere with this guy.

“Beau?” I asked, suddenly very much wanting his babysitting.

The demon didn’t wait for my answer. He grabbed my hand in his own, which had extremely hard, strong fingers attached to it. It felt like it was bruising already.

When he pulled me out into the hallway, I could see Macy cowering behind Beau. Beau was also pushing her back, away from whoever andwhateverthe fuck had me. “I’m following you out, Kaci, don’t you worry,” Beau said.

“If you want to come, you better get to my car before I do,” the creature warned Beau. Because I was one hundred percent positive that whatever had me was just wearing a blond-man suit.

Beau spun around and pushed my sister through the nearest room’s doorway protectively. “Don’t worry, this is normal, she’ll call tonight. Love your slippers!” Beau chirped. Then he followed me and the creature out. Luckily, he got to the car first.

“What the fuck is this?” I demanded of Beau as the creature pushed me into the front seat of the car and then came around to the driver’s side. That meant I had to sit next to him while Beau would get to enjoy a spot in the back seat.

“The only asshole that could have got me moving,” he grumbled in reply, looking downright pouty now, but at least he wasn’t in protective mode.

…Had he just been in protective mode for mysister?

I was going to unpack that later.

“Kaci, meet Samael. He’s a crossroads demon,” he said, pointing towards the blond man who was turning on the car.

The man turned and gave me a white, winning smile that shouldn’t have been terrifying but was. “Pleased to meet you.”

My brain sort of circled the drain a couple of times on this one.

Lycans I could deal with now that I’d had time to adjust. Witches? Easy. But…

“You’re a fuckingwhat?”

CHAPTER 17

Kaci

“Wait!”

My little sister ran out the front door like a bat out of hell. Her face was still flushed, and she had this googly look in her eyes like everything in her life had just fallen into place and things couldn’t be better. My gaze flicked between her and Beau again. Instead of coming up to me on the passenger side, the little twat ignored me and ran straight up to the backseat where he was sitting. She waved her hand, and he rolled down the window.