Beauty and the Beast (Demon Tales 1) Read Free

demon for as long as she
could, eyes drawn as if by magic—until her captor dragged her
through an archway that led to another darkened room, snatching
those intriguing yet terrifying eyes from her view.

    * * * *
     
    Brigg watched Helki enter the Great Cave,
dragging a pretty but battered-looking human female in his wake. He
observed as the slight woman staggered along, pulled by the
irritated-looking vampire-pirate. Brigg had to admit he was
intrigued.
    The noise in the musty room, filled with
demons from all realms, buzzed around his ears. Chatter of all
kinds roared in the cave, but Brigg couldn’t tear his eyes away
from the human female. Questions hummed in his mind. Why would she
be here? Why did Helki have his grubby mitts on her? Bringing his
thoughts back to himself, and why the fuck did he care?
    He leaned against the wall, his brother Torc
to his side, and Brigg tried to ignore the cacophony of
conversation all around him. His sight trained on the petit
scruff-bag as she staggered behind Helki. A small fog of confusion
began to build in his mind, making him resist the urge just to
storm over and demand an answer from Helki as to why he held her
captive.
    Brigg hated humans. Hated. Forever scarred
by the brutal race, changed for all of time by one such as she
walking with Helki, Brigg had long since learned that humans
spelled trouble. But even as he thought it, his heart gave a
breath-stopping rush of adrenaline when her gaze turned his
way.
    Stunned by the cobalt blue in her eyes,
Brigg couldn’t breathe. Her face, although filthy, was a vision of
perfection. Slight features and ruby-red lips, framed by a wealth
of raven-black hair, gave her the look of innocence and sin all at
once. His cock throbbed, affected by the blue-eyed beauty.
    He watched her, watching him, the urge to go
over to her stronger now that he had seen her face. She was staring
at him, as if she saw him—saw the man under the fur, which was
insane. Her lips parted on what looked like a gasp. Irritation
flashed through his mind when he realized that he wanted to hear
that gasp, to know what she sounded like. His attention narrowed to
her in such a way that Brigg felt shocked to his core.
    Repulsion filled his chest for her kind,
making him stay rooted to the spot, as if teethred by an invisible
chain. The words They did this to you hissed through his
thoughts like an angered snake. He ground his teeth against the
painful words, biting back the certain anger that always climbed on
his back whenever he thought this way. Even so, when she
disappeared through the opening on the far side, Brigg
followed.
    Pulled by an unseen force, he had to see
what Helki was doing with her. He told himself that it was merely
nosiness and boredom that made him follow—not the heart-stopping
sadness he had seen in her eyes, nor the way his own heart had
turned over at the thought of her.
    No, he was Brigg—hater of the humans.
    But still, even as he followed, pushing
through the eclectic crowd, Brigg had to admit that his pulse-rate
was rising at the prospect of seeing her closer.

Chapter Two
     
     
    The darkness of the new tunnel was a shock
to Cally’s eyes. Blinking fast brought no relief against the wall
of black. The last time her captive had taken her to the toilet
room with the deep holes in the floor, she had still been too
concussed from his bat to really take it in.
    Feeling oddly affected by the hairy Demon
and his stare, Cally followed her captor for a few minutes without
really paying attention to the route. Light began to pour into the
tunnel, fed from a bright source up ahead. She recognized the room
in front as the very same ‘toilet’ he had brought her to
before.
    With a nasty shove, her captor propelled her
into the noxious room. Pits scattered all over the floor made the
surface look like a black holey cheese. Slime and god-knows-what
else made the floor alternately slippery and sticky. She held her
breath against the odour and looked