Beauty's Beasts Read Free

watching her, forcing her to work it out.
    “Chicken legs?” she asked blankly.
    “He liked…human legs.”
    The soda can crumpled under her fist. She moaned.
    Nicholas lifted the can to her mouth. “Drink,” he encouraged softly.
    She drank.
    That was when it hit her. She had been sitting in this room with two men for five minutes and neither of them were drooling over her, or slobbering over her.
    Well, they weren’t human in the proper sense of the term. But they were male. Could they even have sex with women? Human women? If the erotic literature was to be believed, they could. But this was reality, not fiction, so…
    She brought herself up short again. She was thinking about sex? Now?
    Riley looked up at Nicholas as she took another sip. He was waiting for her, trying not to show impatience, but that was the only emotion evident in his features.
    She glanced at Damian. God damn, but that was one beautiful man. He sat like Nicholas, his forearms on his knees, leaning forward, fingers laced together. There were thin bands of leather around one strong wrist.
    “If Nicholas was my mother’s partner, how did you know her?” she asked him.
    “I was Nicholas’ lover then,” Damian said. He spoke flatly, without embarrassment, and in the past tense.
    “Oh,” Riley said. She couldn’t think what else to say. “How long had you been together?” It felt like the polite thing to ask.
    “Four hundred and thirty-two years.” Damian straightened and sat back, shoving his hands in his pockets. End of subject.
    “Four…” Riley felt her eyes widening. She turned to Nicholas. “When did you break up?” she demanded, suddenly suspicious.
    Nicholas’ face was like marble. “Damian left for Europe a week after your mother died. This is the first time he’s been back. I wasn’t sure he’d come.”
    “You weren’t sure?” Damian stood up. “We swore an oath, Nick! I’m as bound as you!”
    “We don’t have time for this,” Nicholas said coldly. He sat up straighter and looked at Riley. “You have your mother’s genes. You inherited her gifts. You are a demon hunter, Riley, though you have yet to learn this truth. Time will determine whether you are as great a hunter as Natalia Connors.” He got to his feet. “Something is killing people in New York City. I know it is Lirgon, for the thing is eating their legs, just as Lirgon once did. He has been resurrected, as your mother once feared he might be. Damian and I swore that if this day ever arrived we would protect you and do what we could to kill Lirgon once and for all.”
    Riley stared at the two men ranged before her.
    “We need you to come to New York City with us,” Damian told her. “And there we can show you more about your mother and father’s lives.”
    “And while you are there I will train you to kill Lirgon,” Nicholas added.

Chapter Two
    Deal with it became Riley’s mantra, because once she agreed to go with them to New York, Nick and Damian dropped their human façade and let her see their true natures. They kept their masks in place only long enough to let Riley convince Sabrina that she wasn’t totally out of her mind to leave with them.
    Sabrina took a considerable amount of persuasion before she unhappily accepted Riley’s departure, but Riley refused to just leave without Sabrina’s blessing. Sabrina was the closest Riley had to family in the world. She was her best friend and they had known each other for nearly ten years. They had met when Riley had graduated high school in St. Louis, Missouri, shrugged off the last set of foster parents and become officially independent. She had found a job at Starbucks for the minimum wage and a second at McDonalds across the street. Sabrina had been working at both places as well and within two weeks they’d moved into an apartment together, and acquired two other roommates. They’d been sharing apartments and roommates ever since.
    Sabrina had been persuaded by the same two facts