My Silent Demon: Spicy Contemporary

Paranormal Romance Novella (Demons

Book 2) Craig
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/my-silent-demon-spicy-contemporary-paranormal-ro
mance-novella-demons-book-2-craig/
My Silent Demon

Demons

A.D. Craig
 Copyright © 2024 A.D. Craig
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the prior written permission of the
copyright owner. With the exception of public figures, any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental. The opinions
expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s.
No AI was used in any part of the creation of this book. The author also doesn’t give permission for anyone to upload their
books, covers, or commissioned art to AI training sites.
Deny everything. Demand proof.
 TRIGGER WARNING
Warning: This book contains content that may be disturbing to some readers. Please read at your own risk.
If you don’t need a trigger warning, stop reading this message here to avoid spoilers. Triggers are on the next page.
*SPOILERS AHEAD, TRIGGERS LISTED BELOW*
The triggers: Torture, violence, death, period play, blood play, cock warming, explicit sex, and supernatural elements are all
present.
 AUTHOR’S NOTE
Reviews are really important for independent authors. Please consider leaving a review if you enjoyed the book. Just a
line or two would mean a lot.
Thank you!
 Chapter 1
NOTE: This book does have trigger warnings. Please scroll back to read them if needed.

Magdalene
I screamed and ran. I had to run parallel to the driveway to find the road. I couldn’t run in the driveway because it was
too open.
Thunder rumbled, and rain poured from the angry night sky. My bare feet splashed through wet mud and standing water
as I tore out into the darkness. My wet red hair clung to my head.
I could feel the creature behind me. If it captured me, it’d kill me.
I pushed harder through the rain, seeing a gap in the trees lining the driveway. If I could make it there, maybe I could
lose the creature behind me.
No matter how fast I ran, I only seemed to move in slow motion. I knew I had to keep going, though.
My legs carried me across the boggy ground. Lightning struck the surface nearby and caused a shriek to come from my
throat.
The creature would catch me. I ducked into the trees and frantically searched for a place to hide. Shadows of
undergrowth and darkness flashed through my vision. Panic set in when I saw nothing to hide behind. I kept moving.
My breaths came shorter, my heart beat wilder, and tears overtook my vision.
I slipped and fell in the mud. I pried myself from the sucking substrate as fast as I could. An angry red scratch ran
down my arm, and I was completely soaked, but I didn’t have time to feel it. I had to get away.
Branches cracked behind me as the creature grew closer. I ran even faster as I sobbed.
Almost out of nowhere, I spotted a cabin ahead. With relief, I headed there. Maybe I could lock them out temporarily
and figure a way out of this.
My feet left muddy prints over the floorboards of the porch. I shoved through the front door and slammed it behind me.
I felt for a lock and, once it was bolted in place, I turned my back to the door and faced the room. It was warm and dry with
soft lanterns lit throughout the space. The interior of a small cabin.
A kitchen table set in the middle of the room. In a chair at the table sat a man I’d never met before, but I recognized his
face. He would protect me. Relief washed through me. He had dark irises and short hair, his face handsome. His mouth didn’t
move and his gaze never left me, but I clearly heard “I’ll take care of this.” He drained a tumbler of something I assumed was
scotch, set the glass on the table, and disappeared.
That was when I woke up in bed, soaked in sweat from my nightmare. Desperately, I flung my arm into my vision and
breathed a sigh of relief when I didn’t see the scratch from my dream.
I wondered who that guy was. He’d been appearing as a savior in my dreams for months, but I didn’t recognize him.
Maybe he was an actor I’d seen on TV?
I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. 6:57 am. I didn’t have to be at class until 10:00, but there was no way I was
going back to sleep. Maybe I should get breakfast.
I climbed out of bed and looked around my messy dorm room. I’d been lucky and gotten a single room this year but I
did still have to share a bathroom. A shirt and jeans off the floor quickly passed the sniff test, and I pulled them on. College.
I’d mounted a mirror over my dresser where I brushed my red hair and applied dark red lipstick. I paused and studied
my reflection in the mirror. What did others see when they looked at me? My pierced nose? Sharp features? Dark lipstick? I
stared a moment longer before I made a disgusted noise in my throat. Who cared what people thought about me? Fuck them.
I spritzed on some perfume, pulled on my boots and a well-worn band hoodie, grabbed my bookbag and keys, and left
my room.
Quickly, I pulled earbuds out of my backpack and tucked them into my ears.
I saw the resident advisor on my way out and gave him a wave of acknowledgement. When I got outside, I walked
across campus to the cafeteria absorbed in the beat of the music.
I walked into the cafeteria building, prepared to sit alone. I took my earbuds out and got in line for breakfast.
It surprised me when I saw a woman I’d met at orientation, Wynn, and her boyfriend sitting at a table nearby. Wynn
saw me and gestured for me to come over. “Magdalene! When you get your food, come sit with us.”
I nodded at her and picked up a tray, which I filled with breakfast goodies. After I checked out, I carried my tray over
to Wynn’s table. Wynn didn’t live on campus, so seeing her in the cafeteria was unusual.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as I sat down. I put my backpack on the floor under the table.
Wynn pushed a strand of her blond hair behind her ear then gestured at her boyfriend. “Onyx here was craving
breakfast pizza. I can’t deny the monster what he wants. So we came for breakfast.”
 Onyx smiled at Wynn then focused his vision on the pizza on his tray. His dark hair was longer on top and short on the
sides. The man was incredibly handsome. He wore contacts that made his irises look black, but I’d seen much weirder things
on campus. “Thank you, Wynn,” he said. “This made my day.”
She sounded serious when she said, “At least no one died.”
“What?” I looked between them. I’d never met Onyx before so I was unsure how to take their banter.
“Nothing, she’s joking.” Onyx replied. He took a bite of his breakfast pizza and closed his eyes as he chewed.
“How are your classes going?” Wynn asked.
“Good. I have a couple of papers due soon, but it’s going well for my second semester.”
Wynn smiled. “Awesome. I’m so glad to hear that.”
“Are you getting settled in here after all that hassle with your ex?”
Wynn said, “I am. He’s not a problem anymore.” She smiled knowingly. “How’s your dorm?”
I blinked at her. Interesting response.
I decided I didn’t want to ask questions and ignored what she said. Whatever she’d done to her ex was none of my
business.
I grabbed a banana off my tray and peeled it.
“It’s been great. I have a single room and no one’s bothered me.” I opened the banana.
“Great. When I was a freshman, I always thought college was so much better than high school.”
“I agree. I don’t miss high school at all. How’s the new school for you?” I bit into the fruit.
“I’m thrilled with it. I couldn’t have made a better choice.” Wynn beamed and hugged Onyx’s side. Onyx smiled and
kissed her temple.
I smiled. They were a cute couple.
A text message chirped from Onyx’s phone. He frowned, put down his pizza, and picked his smartphone up off the
table to look at it. “It’s Osian. Nothing to worry about right now.”
Wynn rolled her eyes. “Why’d he text you?”
“I dunno. It can wait.” He put down his phone and picked up his pizza.
“Onyx.”
Onyx frowned. “It’ll wait until I’ve had my pizza.” He took a bite defiantly.
“I need you to act like a responsible person right now and not a demon.”
Wynn meant that figuratively, right?
Onyx looked at Wynn, his phone, then his pizza. I could see the moment he decided when it crossed his face. He passed
the phone to Wynn and turned his attention back to his pizza.
Wynn sighed. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Onyx is being a childish asshole today. He’s not usually like this.” She elbowed
Onyx and looked at his phone. He ignored her as she typed something and put the phone down. She said to Onyx, “Osian’s
meeting us here in five minutes.” She looked at me. “Sorry, Osian is Onyx’s brother. He needs to talk to us. I told him to come
here.”
I waved my hand. “No worries. Do you need me to leave?”
“Do you speak sign language?” Wynn glanced at me as she peeled the plastic lid off a prepackaged bowl of cereal and
poured on milk.
I shook my head no.
She said, “Then you’re fine. Osian only speaks sign language. Or in writing.”
“Oh. Is he deaf or mute?”
Onyx frowned and shook his head no, but he kept his gaze on his pizza.
Wynn shook her head. “Not that I can tell. I think he simply chooses not to talk.”
“Huh. That’s unusual.”
“I know. It was a little weird when I first met him, but I found we didn’t need words to communicate as I got to know
him. I got used to his silence after a while.”
Onyx finished his pizza and took a drink from the orange juice on his tray. He looked more focused now.
“You’ve had your breakfast pizza. Are you ready to be normal now?” Wynn asked him.
“Yes. I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Sorry, little one.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips, and they smiled fondly at
each other. Their love was obvious.
Onyx broke away. He looked at me and extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Onyx. It’s nice to meet you.”
I raised an eyebrow but shook his hand. “Magdalene. It’s nice to meet you, too.”
He narrowed his eyes when he heard my name, but he said nothing. His gaze turned to Wynn as he pulled his hand back
and asked her, “Did Osian say what he wants?”
“No, he only said he’ll be here soon.”
“I wonder what he needs to talk about.”
 Onyx’s vision snapped to someone walking into the room behind me. His arm went up to wave at them. “Hey, man.
Over here.”
A few moments later, the smell of peppermint hit me as Osian pulled a chair up to the table.
Onyx said, “Osian, this is Magdalene. Magdalene, this is Osian.”
Like the sea — ocean. Noted.
I turned to greet him. My heart stopped when the face of the savior from my dreams looked back at me.
 Chapter 2

Osian
The red-haired woman, Magdalene as Onyx called her, looked stunned in place. I extended a hand for a handshake,
hoping to snap her out of it.
She took my hand in slow motion, her green eyes never leaving my face.
I’d never seen this woman before so I wasn’t sure what her problem was.
I nodded at her as I pulled my hand back. There, I’d acknowledged her, now I could ignore her. Human custom
complete. My attention turned to the two beings across the table, my brother Onyx and his girlfriend Wynn.
Though Magdalene couldn’t see it — “unaware” humans couldn’t — Onyx and I were demons. We both appeared as
human males to the unaware, but humans who knew of the supernatural or other supernatural beings could see us as we really
looked — no nose, gray skin, dark pupils, and short horns. The only trait unaware people could see was our black irises,
which made our eyes look big. Most demons diverted the blame to contacts.
Onyx’s girlfriend, Wynn, could see us as we really were because Onyx told her the truth, but to my knowledge no one
had revealed our origins to Magdalene.
I looked at the demon across from me and his human girlfriend.
Is she aware? I signed with a slight head nod at Magdalene.
Onyx shook his head no.
Can she sign?
Another head shake no.
I glanced at Magdalene again. She stared at me with a puzzled look on her face.
“Wynn, can I talk to you?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“Over there.” Magdalene gestured at the hall that led to the restrooms.
Wynn’s brow creased, but she pushed her chair back and said, “Okay.”
The women walked to the out-of-way location.
“What’s that about?” Onyx asked.
I have no idea, I signed.
“She acts like she knows you.”
I have never seen her before.
“Huh. Weird.” Onyx stayed quiet for a moment then shook it off. “What did you need to talk to me about?”
I sucked on the peppermint candy in my cheek and signed, Have you heard about the dead bodies in Riverton?
Riverton was only a few minutes away.
“No.”
I saw news today that worries me. Over the past few weeks, police have found five bodies. All college students from
here. All dehydrated, frozen in place, like their life was sucked out of them. I do not know what is doing this, but the culprit
is supernatural. And it is close to home.
Onyx tilted his head thoughtfully. “I haven’t heard anything, but that’s a good eye. Hopefully, we won’t have to get
involved.”
I issued the warning I’d come to give him. Keep an eye on Wynn. Victims have all been college students from this
school. Someone should be with her all the time.
“Thanks, man. I’ll make it happen. I appreciate the heads-up.”
I nodded at him.
He pointed at his tray. “You want breakfast?”
I’d already eaten. I shook my head no and sucked on my peppermint candy. As I stood to leave, Wynn and Magdalene
came back.
“So what’s going on?” Wynn asked as she settled onto her chair. Magdalene did the same.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Onyx said.
Wynn noticed that I stood. “Osian, you’re leaving? Won’t you stay for breakfast?”
I shook my head, held my candy between my teeth to show her, and waved goodbye to her and Magdalene. I walked
away.
***
Magdalene
 Five minutes earlier
“Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Wynn asked as I pulled her into the hallway by the restrooms.
“I feel like I have,” I hissed, my eyes going back to Osian.
The man looked like he’d walked off a movie set — handsome and built, wearing jeans, a dark t-shirt, and a form-
fitting leather jacket. The only feature that was out-of-the-ordinary was his eyes. Like Onyx, his irises were fully black. Maybe
it was that I’d seen him so often in my dreams, but something about him unsettled me. “Tell me he’s an actor or model or
something.”
I looked back to Wynn, who narrowed her eyes at me. “Osian? He’s not famous. What’s going on?”
“I’ve—” I sighed. “This is going to sound weird no matter how I say it.”
Wynn barked a laugh. “You may be surprised. Try me.”
“I’ve seen him in my dreams.”
Wynn’s brow creased. “Osian?”
“Yeah. But I’ve never seen him in real life before.”
“Did you dream about him last night? Maybe you had a premonition about who you would meet today.”
I shook my head no. “Well, I mean yes, I did, but that’s not it. Not only last night. I’ve dreamt of him every night for
months. Hundreds of times.”
“Huh. That is weird. I don’t know what it means.” Wynn bit her bottom lip in thought.
“You see why I’m acting weird, though, right? I don’t know what to make of it.”
“Oh, I get it. Maybe you should talk to Osian.”
“About what? He’s going to be weirded out if I tell him about the dreams.”
“Believe me, it’ll take more than that to weird him out.”
I crossed my arms. “I don’t know. Maybe I should let it go.”
“Why don’t you play it by ear? See what happens? Osian is a good dem— err, guy. You might become friends
naturally. Maybe eventually you can tell him.”
“I guess.”
Wynn nodded. “It seems like a good plan. It should work. Let’s go back to the table.”
“Okay.”
Wynn led the way back to the table. “So what’s going on?” Wynn asked as she settled onto her chair. I did the same.
Osian stood as Wynn and I sat down.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Onyx said.
“Osian, you’re leaving? Won’t you stay for breakfast?” Wynn said.
I shivered when he glanced at me.
He shook his head, showed her the peppermint candy in his mouth, waved goodbye, and left.
“Well, so much for that plan,” Wynn said. She popped a grape into her mouth. “We’ll get you guys together, don’t
worry.”
“Huh?” Onyx asked.
“Nothing,” Wynn said. “Girl talk.”
 Chapter 3

Magdalene
I went to classes like normal for the next few days. Campus security issued an alert warning students to travel in pairs
when possible and not at night. Apparently, some local students were murdered, and this was security’s effort to avoid more.
A few of the students had been in my classes, but I hadn’t been close to any of them. Their murders freaked me out,
though. Rumors circulated that the school might even temporarily close. I hoped that didn’t happen; I had nowhere to go.
Since the alert went out, I’d literally gone to class or the cafeteria, but nowhere else. I also only moved around campus
during the daylight.
My last class on a Friday, my math class, let out. I slipped my textbook in my backpack, zipped the bag, and stood as
the other students climbed from their chairs. The hoodie I wore would be enough to combat the cold outside. I took my time and
was one of the last students out of the classroom door into the hallway.
As I walked toward the exit, a shadow fell in step beside me. The smell of peppermint touched my nose.
I glanced to my side to find that Osian walked beside me.
My heart beat faster.
He wore snug jeans, a gray T-shirt, and his leather jacket. The look was complete with his perfectly spiked hair. How
could anyone be so handsome? My gaze trailed over his firm lips, and I wanted to kiss him.
I shook my head. He’d stalked me to my classroom. He may be handsome but he was still a stalker. A handsome
stalker who had taken up residence in my dreams. But still a stalker. I couldn’t pinpoint it, but as much as I was attracted to
him, something about him made me nervous. Maybe the bad boy, dangerous vibes around him?
I shrugged the feeling off. “What are you doing?” I asked.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and typed, then showed the message to me. Wynn asked to see you. I’ll take you
to her.
“Why didn’t she call or text me? I could’ve met her somewhere.”
He typed, 1. She doesn’t have your number. 2. Safety. Neither of you should go anywhere alone.
I guess the phone number thing was true. We’d never exchanged numbers. And I understood safety. But it was in my
nature to fight with him. How much would he argue?
I rolled my eyes. “We’re grown women, and it’s daylight. We can meet for coffee without bodyguards if we want.”
Osian narrowed his eyes at me. He typed, No. Security alert.
“There may be a security alert, but it’s broad daylight. You can’t treat us like prisoners. I don’t know how Wynn would
react to that, but it won’t go well with me.”
Osian raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He opened the building’s front door and held it for me.
I walked through the doorway into the early spring air outside. “Where are you trying to get me to go, anyway?”
Osian stepped away from the door, which closed behind him.
He typed into his phone. Onyx and Wynn’s place.
“How do I know you aren’t the campus murderer out to kill me?”
Osian smirked. You’ll have to trust me.
My hackles went up at his response, and my argument game ceased. “I don’t trust anyone.” I adjusted my backpack on
my shoulders and shifted away from him. If I ran fast, maybe I could lose him.
Osian rolled his eyes and held up a finger in a “wait” gesture. He fiddled with his phone then held it out to me. I
furrowed my brows and took the phone to see it was dialing out to Wynn.
I narrowed my eyes at him but put the phone to my ear.
Wynn answered frantically. “Osian, is everything okay? You never call.”
“Hey, it’s Magdalene.”
Wynn audibly sighed in relief. “Oh, good. Everything’s okay, right? What’s up?”
“Your friend wants me to go somewhere with him. He says that I have to trust that he isn’t planning to murder me. I
don’t trust anyone like that. You’re his proof that he’s not the campus killer.”
Wynn chuckled. “Osian was supposed to bring you to my apartment if you weren’t busy. I don’t think that’s how the
conversation went.”
I glanced at Osian, who stood on the sidewalk, his hands in his jacket pockets, silently staring at me. Those black eyes
were unsettling.
“That is definitely not how the conversation went.”
Wynn laughed. “Well, I can’t say Osian doesn’t want to murder you. He probably does. But he won’t. I can say he’s not
the campus killer, and I did ask him to see if you can meet with me today.”
 What a weird response.
I watched Osian. He stood in place silently. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Girl talk. I don’t hang out with a lot of women, so I really just want to talk. I’ve also got a nice meal cooking. Osian
won’t hurt you. I swear. Can you come over this afternoon?”
I hesitated. I wanted to get back to my room and finish my essays so I could be done with them. “I’ve got a lot of
homework to do. I don’t know if I can.”
“You’ve got all weekend. Please, please, please.”
“But—”
“Please. I won’t give up easily.”
I sighed. “Fine.” Maybe I should take a chance on these people. I didn’t have a lot of friends at this school.
“Great! I’ll see you in a few. Osian will drive you here, don’t worry.”
Of course he would. I rolled my eyes. “Okay.”
“Okay. Bye.”
I disconnected the call and handed the phone back to Osian. He looked at me, questioning the conversation.
“I’ll go to Wynn’s.”
He nodded like it was an expected conclusion, slipped the phone in his pocket, and pointed to a discrete black car
parked on the street. Together, we walked to the car and slipped inside.
Osian started the engine. He pulled out of the parking space and followed the private school road until he reached the
main street. He waited for traffic to pass and merged onto the street.
I studied his profile as he focused on the road. The outline of his jaw made me want to be closer. His lips looked like
he knew how to kiss. I wondered if he’d let me kiss him.
He’d appeared in my dreams again last night, only this time we’d been sitting on a couch getting to know each other.
Osian glanced at me and gestured in a “what?” manner.
“Who are you?” I wondered aloud.
His forehead wrinkled, and he looped his hand like he wanted more information.
I didn’t want to tell him about the dreams. Or the intense need to kiss him. I shook my head. “Nothing. Nevermind.”
Osian frowned but let it go. We rode in silence before he steered the car into the parking lot outside an apartment
building. He pulled into a parking spot and cut the engine.
He climbed out of the car. I grabbed my backpack and followed him across the parking lot, into the elevator on the first
floor. Osian pressed the elevator button, then once we were in the elevator he tucked his hands in his jacket pockets and rode
up in silence.
The elevator opened into a hallway with two doors along the inner wall. Osian walked us to the first door and
knocked. Less than a minute later, the door opened and Wynn’s excited face appeared.
“Hi!” Wynn hugged me then Osian. I raised my eyebrows in surprise when the silent, tough guy hugged her back. A stab
of jealousy ran through me. “Perfect timing! The turkey just came out of the oven. Come in, please.” She stepped back over the
threshold and held the door for us.
A delicious food smell filled my nostrils as I stepped through the door. The apartment smelled like turkey and freshly
baked bread.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Wynn said as she shut and locked the door behind us. “I may have gotten excited about
visitors and cooked a feast.”
The door entered into a living room with a gray couch, a TV, and a coffee table. Goosebumps lined my arms when I
realized that couch was the one from last night’s dream. It had to be a coincidence, though, right?
Nothing adorned the walls. It looked like a standard, pre-furnished apartment that hadn’t really been decorated. A
hallway to the right led to the rest of the apartment.
“You didn’t have to do anything special for me,” I said. “I don’t eat much.”
Wynn waved her hand. “Oh, no worries. Osian and Onyx will eat anything you and I don’t. I don’t have to worry about
leftovers.”
Osian disappeared into a door in the hallway. I heard Onyx speak but couldn’t tell what he said. Osian reappeared in
the doorway a moment later, eating a dinner roll. His eyes flicked over me, almost analytically. A shiver ran down my spine.
Wynn noticed and said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Come get something to eat.” She gestured toward the door
where Osian stood.
I narrowed my eyes at her statement. I’d “get used to it”? What an odd statement. Again though, I felt like I needed to
take a chance on these people.
Reluctantly, I put my backpack on the couch and moved forward toward where Wynn indicated.
Osian stepped out of the way. My eyes widened at my first glance into the kitchen. The counter was covered with food.
Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, and more. The meal looked like Thanksgiving dinner for a huge family.
 “Wynn, this is too much,” I said.
Wynn gestured no. “Nonsense. I like to cook for others, and I guarantee I won’t have leftovers. Dig in and enjoy.”
Onyx stood at the counter, making a plate. “Hi, N,” he said. He stuck a forkful of mashed potatoes in his mouth then
went back to gathering food.
“N?” I asked.
“I knew the orig...” His gaze snapped to me. He glanced back to his food. “Uh... I knew someone named Magdalene,
and we didn’t get along. So I’m associating you with a nickname instead. N.”
“Not M or Mags or something to do with my name?”
“It does have to do with your name. MagdaleNe.” He gestured to the food. “Grab a plate and eat.”
Onyx finished loading his plate and moved to the island to sit on one of the stools around it. His plate was literally
heaped with food.
Wynn nudged me. “You were just accepted into the family. N.” She smirked at the nickname. “Make yourself a plate
and have a seat.”
I didn’t know what to think. These people weren’t like others I’d met before. Maybe that was a good thing?
I moved to the counter and started making a plate.
“Eat as much as you want,” Wynn encouraged. “You’ve got to get in there before these guys do or you’ll get nothing.
They’re like monsters.”
She walked over to Onyx and planted a big kiss on his lips. The intense look they shared afterward banished any hint
of jealousy I held toward Wynn from my body; anyone would see that Wynn and Onyx were fully devoted to each other.
 Chapter 4

Osian
I had to admit, the human was cute when she relaxed. She had a pierced nose, red hair, and sass. She amused me.
As we had dinner around the island countertop, eventually Magdalene — N — lowered her walls. She and Wynn
laughed and told stories. Onyx joined in sometimes, careful to keep what he divulged mundane. I said nothing. Honestly, most
of the conversation sounded like gibberish to me.
It made me happy to see Wynn make friends. She needed someone besides me and Onyx in her life. The little human
deserved to flourish.
I had a soft spot for Wynn. The woman was like a sister. I loved how she never tried to change our demon natures; she
accepted us as we were.
Standing, I went to the counter for a third plate of food. There was still plenty left. Once I loaded my plate, I returned
to my seat at the island.
I waved at N.
N, pass the hot sauce, I signaled.
Without pausing the conversation, she handed me the hot sauce bottle and kept talking.
I stared at her blankly. Did she... Did she understand what I said? No one interpreted for her, and I hadn’t gestured to
the hot sauce.
I looked at Onyx. He looked just as confused and shrugged.
Coincidence. It had to be coincidence. I shook my head and put sauce on my food.
After everyone ate, and the dishes were in the sink, Wynn suggested poker. N turned her down, saying she wanted to be
in before dark.
“Are you sure? You can’t be safer with another escort.” Wynn pointed to Onyx and myself. “These two are the best
bodyguards out there. I trust them with my life.”
Aww. I nudged Wynn and held my fist out for a fist bump, which she immediately returned.
“Maybe we can hang out this weekend or something, but security said not to be out after dark and I’m not taking any
chances,” N said.
“Okay. Thanks for coming over. You’re welcome here anytime. You have to give me your number before you leave.”
N smiled. “Okay.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “What’s your number?”
As Wynn recited it, N entered it into her phone. “I texted you, so you have mine.”
Wynn’s phone chimed. She grinned. “Great, thanks!”
I popped a new peppermint candy into my mouth and jammed the wrapper in my pocket.
N stood from her stool. “Thanks, guys. I appreciate the food. I’ll order a ride-share and get out of your way.”
I frowned and growled. I didn’t like her suggestion.
Everyone turned to look at me.
No, I am taking you home, I signed.
“You don’t need to take me back to the dorm. I’ll order a ride-share. It’ll be okay,” she argued.
I am available. I am taking you. Do not argue.
“I’ll argue about whatever I want. You don’t have to take me. I’ll be fine.”
I almost replied in anger, but I drew a settling breath and responded with gritted teeth as I signed, I would feel better if
you allowed me to escort you home. Please.
N rolled her eyes. “Fine. Only because you said please.”
A sense of success filled my chest.
Wynn watched our exchange with wide eyes. “N... I thought you didn’t speak sign language.”
N frowned. “I don’t.”
“But...” Wynn pointed at me. “You had a conversation with Osian, and sign language is all he spoke. You replied as
though you knew exactly what he said.”
N’s eyes grew wide. “I don’t... I don’t speak sign language.”
Onyx said, “N, look at me.” When she did, Onyx signed, Can you read this?
N shook her head. “I don’t know what that means.”
Onyx didn’t take his gaze off her. “Osian, sign the same thing,” he instructed.
N looked at me.
Can you read this? I signed.
N blinked. “Yes, I can read that.”
 “Huh.” Onyx’s hand came up and rubbed his chin in thought.
“Maybe they’re fated,” Wynn said.
Fated? My heart beat wildly in my chest. Onyx and Wynn were fated. It happened so rarely that there was no way N
and I could be, too. N and I couldn’t be destined to be together.
“Maybe,” Onyx said.
Convinced, Wynn nodded confidently. “We should tell her.”
N narrowed her eyes. “Tell me what?”
Wynn turned her gaze to Onyx. He looked at me. Hesitantly, I shook my head no. Wynn wanted us to reveal the
paranormal world to N. I couldn’t agree to that. N would be terrified if we revealed our natures to her so soon. She’d barely
been around us. We’d never see her again if we told her now. ...Did I want to see her again?
Onyx took control. “Not now. Let’s leave it for a little while.”
Wynn sighed. “Fine.”
N replied angrily, “What aren’t you telling me? Are you guys shifters or werewolves or something? I’ve only ever
heard ‘fated’ in those shifter books. I thought that was all imaginary. Start talking!”
Wynn half-smiled and corrected her, “You’ve heard ‘mated’ in those books. They aren’t werewolves or shifters. Don’t
worry about it. You and Osian should get to know each other better, though. You’re fated. Soulmates. You’re supposed to be
together.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s not important. It doesn’t define them.” A grin broke over Wynn’s face. “You guys should talk more. Get to know
each other. N, I promise, you’re safe with Osian.”
N sighed. Irritation lined her face.
I had to admit, the fresh development intrigued me. No one had ever instinctively understood me before.
I gestured toward the door.
We should go. It will be dark soon, I signed.
“Okay.” N started to leave, but Wynn jumped off her stool and stopped N. Wynn pulled her into a hug and whispered
something in her ear. N nodded and walked away.
N kept her eyes to the floor and wouldn’t look at anyone. Something made me feel like N was pulling away. A never-
before felt ache started in my chest. I frowned and pressed on the offending area.
“Thanks for dinner,” N said. “See you all later.”
“Good night, N,” Onyx said.
“Thanks for coming over,” Wynn said.
N quickly left the room to grab her backpack off the couch. I followed behind her.
We rode down in silence in the elevator and stayed silent on the car ride. Her anxiety filled the car. I could feel it, and
it only made the ache in my chest hurt more. How unusual.
Which dorm? I thought as I pulled onto campus. I’d have to ask her.
“The Hollowell dorms,” she said without being prompted.
I drove to the building and pulled into a parking spot out front. I disliked the anxiety N projected.
With regret, I thought, I’m sorry. Apologies weren’t easy for me.
I put the car into park and turned to face her, not sure what to say.
N said, “I don’t care that you’re sorry. I want nothing to do with you. Have a nice life.” She flew out of the car and
slammed the door behind her. She practically ran into the dorm.
I blinked in surprise. Had she... Had she... Heard my thoughts?
 Chapter 5

Osian
“You’ve got to tell her,” Wynn said, her arms crossed. “Whatever’s murdering students is supernatural. Plus, you two
are fated. She won’t care that you’re a demon.”
I didn’t look at Wynn and cut my fried egg as I ate breakfast at the island in her kitchen. Wynn was wrong. N would
care. She’d be afraid of me. I’d ruin any chance to win her trust. And just because Wynn thought we were fated didn’t mean we
were.
“Don’t ignore me!”
I flicked a glance at Wynn, then looked back to my plate and continued eating in silence.
Wynn yelled, “You’re infuriating!”
Duh. Demon, I thought.
Without reacting, I picked up my bacon and ate a bite.
“You need to go over there and talk to her. You can’t just let her go. She’s your fated. You’re meant to be together.”
I put down the bacon.
Drop it. Where is Onyx? I signed.
Wynn sighed. “He’s in the shower.”
I nodded solemnly and went back to my breakfast.
“You need to talk to her. Tell her what’s going on.”
Once I revealed that I was supernatural, N would never give me the time of day. Humans were taught to fear demons.
When — if — she found out what I was, anything she’d liked about me would be irrelevant. And, surprisingly, I cared. No one
had ever heard my thoughts before. She was unique. I didn’t want to lose her.
My appetite vanished.
I stood from my seat, walked to the trash to scrape the remainder of my food in there, and deposited the empty plate
and fork in the sink.
Tell Onyx that when he’s ready, I’ll be waiting at home, I signed.
“Osian—” she started, but I’d already transported, disappearing from her kitchen and appearing in my living room.
Demons could travel between places they knew that way. Instantly disappearing and reappearing. For convenience,
Onyx and I traveled between our apartments regularly.
I’d never felt... attached, I guess is the word. Sex had always been casual — one night and done.
But I liked N. I wanted to see her again. Was that what drove others to become “involved” with someone?
Whatever, though. Fated, meant to be, it didn’t matter. N hadn’t known me long enough to trust me. Revealing my true
nature too soon would destroy any chance of a relationship. She wouldn’t even want to be friends with me. I’d been a demon a
long time; I’d already seen how humans reacted to my kind. If I told her now, N would be scared and push me away.
N needed to see the supernatural, though. Then she’d be better protected from whatever was killing people.
The problem was, if I revealed the supernatural to her, I’d sacrifice our potentially fated relationship for her safety. I’d
never wanted a relationship before... But I might want to try with N. She could hear me, which was new. Could I sacrifice that?
I guess to play Devil’s Advocate, there was no chance of a relationship if she died.
I growled and plopped onto the leather couch in my living room. This apartment previously belonged to Onyx, and I
had changed nothing. The rooms were a mirror image of Wynn’s. The only additions I’d made were that my clothes were in the
closet and my food was in the fridge.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the couch. Could I terrify her for her safety?
What if I locked her in a cage to keep her safe until the killer was caught and I revealed nothing?
No, that was just as bad, maybe even worse. She’d be angry.
Could I push aside my selfishness and unveil the supernatural world to her?
I sighed. Onyx needed to hurry the fuck up. I had to do something besides being lost in my thoughts.
 Chapter 6

Magdalene
I spent the weekend in my dorm room, working on the essays due in the upcoming week.
Wynn texted me a couple of times, but I hadn’t messaged her back.
I didn’t know what secret she kept from me, but it was big. I knew it made me a bit of a hypocrite since I was keeping
the dreams a secret from Osian, but I didn’t care. My secret was meaningless. Her secret was major. I could feel it, and I didn’t
like it.
Even though I was avoiding Osian, the dreams kicked into overtime. It was like I couldn’t even close my eyes without
his presence. Every time I slept, Osian was there. So was that intense draw I felt to be near him.
After completing my essays, I decided to watch a movie. I turned off the light and took my laptop from the desk, then I
settled onto my bed with the laptop beside me. I nuzzled into my pillow, pulled the comforter over me, and loaded the web
browser.
A knock sounded at my door. I glanced at the time. My eyebrows wrinkled. It was 10:30 at night. Who would that be?
“Hold on!” I yelled.
I climbed out from under the comforter, crossed the room, and flicked on the light. I squinted at the brightness and
glanced at the shorts and tank top I wore; oh well, whoever was at the door deserved pajamas for showing up so late. No
makeup either. Served them right.
Opening the door, I froze when I saw Osian. He looked delicious, as always, in a gray pullover hoodie and jeans. His
hands were tucked into the front hoodie pocket. Immediately, I wanted to throw my arms around him and pull him close. I shook
my head to clear my thoughts.
Can I come in? he asked.
“Uhh. Sure.” I stepped back and let him enter the room.
He stepped inside, and I closed the door behind him.
“You can sit on the desk chair or the bed. Excuse the mess.”
Clothes littered one corner of the room around my dresser, books and papers were strewn across the desk that
stretched in front of the window, and my bed was unmade. My room definitely wasn’t tidied for company.
Your room is fine. He pointed to himself. Bachelor. Osian sat in the desk chair and looked at me. He tucked his hands
back into his pocket.
I shivered. Those black eyes remained unsettling. Why did I want to thread my fingers through his hair and kiss his
eyelids when he closed those eyes, though?
I cleared my throat and crossed my arms over my chest. “What do you want?”
We need to talk.
That’s when it hit me. His hands hadn’t moved nor had his lips. “You aren’t signing. Why aren’t you signing?”
That’s one thing we need to talk about. Sit down, N.
Stunned into silence, I dropped onto the end of my bed. I could only stare at Osian. The voice I heard in my head had a
deep, smooth tone. Was that how he would sound if he talked?
How are you?
I huffed a laugh. “There’s no need for chit chat. Skip to the important stuff. How are you talking to me?”
Osian smirked. Impatient, I see.
I rolled my eyes. “Are you going to answer my question?”
Osian’s expression grew serious. It’s like talking in my mind, I guess. You seem to hear the words I project, not my
internal thoughts.
“Does anyone else hear them?”
Osian shook his head no.
“Why me?”
I don’t know. Maybe it’s like Wynn said. Maybe we’re fated.
“What does that even mean? Is that common?”
Osian shook his head again. Fated means destined to meet. Meant to be together. It’s uncommon. Onyx and Wynn are
fated, which is why I never thought it possible for me. For us.
“Wait.” I tried to project my thoughts, Can you hear this?
Osian didn’t react, he simply stared at me with those black eyes.
I said, “So you can’t hear me, but I can hear you.”
It seems so. An uncomfortable expression crossed Osian’s face. I need to tell you something.
 Goosebumps prickled on my skin. “What is it?”
Osian stared at me.
Tell me, are you afraid of me?
I frowned. “No.” Intensely attracted to, sure, but not afraid.
A look I couldn’t interpret flashed across his face. Surprising. Promise me something.
What an odd statement. “What?”
Promise you won’t be afraid of me, no matter what.
I raised my eyebrows. “Now that scares me a little.”
Osian smiled sadly. I won’t hurt you. Promise me you won’t be afraid.
Hesitantly, I said, “I promise.”
Osian pulled his hands out of his pocket. He pressed his arms onto his knees and leaned forward. Osian hung his head
and looked at the floor. He drew a deep breath then exhaled like he had to convince himself to tell me.
Finally, he said, We live on Earth, right? There’s one big world out there.
I nodded.
What if I told you it’s not one big world, but multiple worlds that coexist with each other. Think ‘normal’ and
‘paranormal’. ‘Natural’ and ‘supernatural’.
I frowned but motioned for him to keep going.
Humans rarely notice, but paranormal creatures surround them. Those creatures — like me and Onyx — look like
humans until you know we’re different. Some people sense it and are afraid of us without knowing why. Once you’re aware,
you see us like we really are. Please don’t be afraid.
I blinked, and, in that second, Osian’s human appearance melted away. Something else sat in the chair wearing his
clothes. The features remained Osian’s but tiny horns poked through his hair and his skin turned gray. His nose was gone, his
black eyes set back further, and tiny decorative white tattoos surrounded his mouth.
I gasped and tumbled off the bed. I scrambled backward until my body was hidden behind the mattress. My breath
came in desperate gasps and my heart pounded wildly in my chest. What was that thing? What had it done to Osian?
I squeezed my eyes closed and reasoned with myself. I was seeing things, right? There’s no way I saw what I thought I
saw. Right? Right. I needed to calm down.
I pried my eyes open and peeked over the mattress.
The same creature sat there, arms on its knees, head hung as it stared at the floor.
I ducked behind the bed again and pressed my back to the wall.
Osian said, I knew you’d be scared. He paused sadly for a moment before continuing. Now that you’re aware, you’ll
see supernatural creatures all around you. Whatever has been killing students is not human. Be wary of anything non-
human. You need to see clearly for your own safety. I’m sorry it has to be this way.
As my heart pounded frantically, I squeezed my eyes shut again. “What are you?” I squeaked.
Osian sounded defeated. Onyx and I are demons. But neither Onyx nor I would hurt you.
Alarm bells went off in my head. Demons?! I’d been told horror stories about demons and possession and the terrible
things they could do to people.
I whispered, “Does Wynn know?”
Yes, Wynn knows. He paused. I’m sorry. I wish things could be different. Please be safe. Goodbye, N.
Suddenly, the room felt empty. Like the air was sucked out of it into a vacuum. I opened an eye and peeked over the
mattress to find the chair empty and Osian gone.
 Chapter 7

Magdalene
I rubbed my eyes and yawned. What a weird dream. I’d dreamt Osian came to my room and revealed he was a demon.
It was so crazy, it was obviously a dream, right?
The light out the window caught my eye. It was way too bright out before my first morning class. I glanced at the clock.
My eyes widened. OMG, I was late!
I stumbled out of bed and hurried to change into jeans and a T-shirt. Pulling my hair back in a ponytail, I didn’t even
take the time to apply makeup. I grabbed my backpack, shoved my cell phone in my pocket, and desperately pulled my shoes on
as I fumbled out the door.
Running to class, I skidded to a stop in front of the closed door. I expected to see a room full of students listening to the
professor, instead I found an empty classroom with a sign taped to the door that read “class canceled.” A glance down the hall
revealed similar signs on many doors.
Clutching the straps of my backpack, I began the walk back to my room. The quad was more deserted than normal,
which was weird.
As I walked up to my building, I saw that many students loaded suitcases into their cars.
My eyebrows furrowed. Had I missed something?
I pulled my phone out of my pocket. A text message notification flashed. I opened it to find a text message from the
college president.
President Alvarez: EMERGENCY ALERT - Due to recent events, Martopia College will close until further notice.
Students, all classes are canceled. Please pack your essentials in a suitcase and leave the dorms prior to 4:00 pm
tomorrow. Furniture should be left and doors securely locked. Anyone still on campus tonight, curfew is 4:00 pm - strictly
enforced!
A sinking feeling filled the pit of my stomach. Where would I go? I grew up in foster care. It’s not like I had a family to
whom I could go. The few friends I had all lived on campus so they would leave, too. Maybe I could rent a hotel room for a
couple of days, but then I’d be in the same boat.
Lost in my thoughts, I returned to my room to pack the essentials in my duffel bag. Laptop, phone charger, a couple
pairs of clothes, makeup.
My phone rang, and I answered it distractedly, without even looking to see who called.
“Hello?”
“N, hey it’s Wynn. Osian told me he showed you the supernatural world last night. How are you doing?”
Apprehension shot through me. “What? I thought that was a dream.”
“Oh. Umm. No?” Wynn stumbled over her words.
It couldn’t be true. I shook my head. I didn’t see anything unusual when I went to class today. Maybe these people were
crazy.
I ignored the topic. Instead, I said, “I got the text about the school closing and students needing to leave campus. I’m
packing now. Did you need something or can I get back to packing?”
“Do you have anywhere to go?”
I hesitated. “Not really. But I’ll be fine.”
Wynn said, “Nonsense, you’re coming here. You’ll have to sleep on the couch but I’ve fallen asleep there once or
twice and it’s pretty comfy. Do you have a car?”
I couldn’t stay with Wynn. She was crazy. The possible choices spun through my mind. There weren’t many. “I’ll be
fine. I’ll figure something out.”
“Don’t be stubborn. You can stay with us. It’ll be nice to have another woman around. Now, do you have a car?”
What other options did I have? None. I sighed. Maybe I could just stay there a few days.
“No.”
“Onyx will come get you. Ten minutes sound okay?”
Begrudgingly, I said, “That’s fine.”
“Okay, see you soon.”
“Okay.”
I disconnected the call. I zipped my duffel bag and sat on the bed to wait for Onyx.
Scrolling through my phone, I saw the latest headlines. Another student was found dead this morning. That brought the
total to six. No wonder the school decided to close.
Soon, Onyx knocked on my door. I climbed off the bed, tucked my phone in my pocket, and grabbed my duffel bag. “Be
right there!” I crossed the room and opened the door.
“Hey, Ony—whoa!”
When I saw him, I shrieked and slammed the door in his face. I pressed my back to the wall and clutched my chest, my
breath coming hard.
Onyx resembled the way Osian looked in my dream last night: gray skin, no nose, small horns, and white tattoos
around his mouth.
That was only a dream last night, right? It wasn’t real.
Onyx called, “N, I’ll be right back. When I am, be prepared to open the door.”
I whimpered and sank to the floor. The supernatural was real? Last night hadn’t been a dream? Wynn wasn’t crazy after
all?
 Chapter 8

Osian
The air in the room changed. Not like the air was vacuumed out of it, but like air was pumped into it. Someone
transported here. The feeling pulled me out of sleep.
Onyx stood in the middle of my room and went straight to the closet.
What was going on? I blinked sleepily at him.
Onyx rummaged through some boxes in the closet until he found what he was looking for. “Aha,” he said. He pulled out
a pair of spectacles and turned around.
He saw I was awake and said, “Hey, sleepyhead. I went to pick up your girlfriend, but she slammed her door in my
face. Apparently, she can see the supernatural world now. But someone didn’t prepare her properly.” He raised his eyebrows.
“So I’m going to give her some glasses to make everything look normal until I can talk to her.”
Wait, why are you picking N up? I signed.
Onyx grinned mischievously then disappeared without saying a word.
I made the ultimate sacrifice last night. Something practically unheard of for a demon. I performed a selfless act. I
deserved to sleep in. My head fell back onto the pillow, and I closed my eyes.
***

Magdalene
Onyx rapped his knuckles on the door. “N, open up. Just a crack. I brought something that will help,” he said.
I hadn’t moved from my seat by the wall.
“Please crack the door. I’m going to slide something through. It’ll help.”
I drew a deep breath. I had to face the supernatural, right? This was something I’d have to deal with seeing the rest of
my life. Damn Osian.
I stood and breathed to calm myself. Then I opened the door and looked Onyx in the face.
He looked surprised but quickly said, “I’m the same Onyx you’ve known all along, I only look different now. I won’t
hurt you.” His black gaze studied my face.
My hands hesitantly went to his cheeks. He closed his eyes as I ran my fingertips over his features. His haircut
remained the same, even if now little horns poked out of it. His skin felt normal and alive. If I closed my eyes, besides the
missing nose and the horns, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
But I had a demon’s face in my hands. A demon!
Suddenly Wynn’s comments about Osian and Onyx being like monsters came back to me. Her veiled speech made more
sense. She trusted them, though, right? She’d said Osian was a good guy. Both demons had said they wouldn’t hurt me. Maybe I
could trust them, too.
I drew my hands back. Onyx opened his eyes and leveled that unsettling gaze on me.
I said, “This is going to take some getting used to.”
Onyx nodded. “It will.” He gestured to a pair of glasses in his hand that looked like ancient spectacles. “These glasses
make everything look ‘normal.’ If you want to use them, you can.”
Hesitantly, I shook my head. “I think I need to see things as they are.”
Onyx nodded. “Okay. Let me know if you change your mind. The glasses are always available. Do you have a bag
packed?”
“Oh. Yeah. I’ll get it.” I’d completely forgotten about my duffel bag. I went back inside and grabbed the bag off the
floor. One last quick look around showed I hadn’t forgotten anything essential. I left the room and locked the door behind me.
I shuddered when I looked at Onyx again, but I braced my shoulders to follow him.
His eyes said he saw the movement and appreciated that I still moved forward.
“May I take your bag?” he asked.
“No, I’ve got it.”
Onyx nodded solemnly. He walked beside me as we made our way down to the parking lot.
Onyx gestured to a sleek but not flashy black Dodge parked out front. “You can put your bag in the backseat.”
I nodded and approached the car. As I glanced around, I noticed none of the other students in the lot even looked twice
at Onyx.
 I tossed my bag into the backseat then climbed into the passenger seat. Onyx put the spectacles in the middle console.
“Got everything you need?” he asked. His black eyes flicked over me.
“Yeah, I think so.” I stared at him. I couldn’t help myself.
He ignored my stare. “Okay. Put your seatbelt on.”
I blinked in surprise. “Really? I didn’t think a demon would care about safety.”
Onyx smirked. “You’re my brother’s fated. You’re lucky if I don’t encase you in bubble wrap. Seatbelt.”
My breath caught at his words. Fated. Meant to be together. Was it really true? Could I deal with that?
Onyx waited until I buckled in before he turned the car on and backed out of the space. He drove forward and onto the
private campus road. A short drive later, he pulled onto the main street.
“Watch out the window as we drive,” he instructed. “There didn’t seem to be many paranormal creatures on campus,
but there will be between here and the apartment. Even if you didn’t know it, we’ve always been around.”
I turned out the window as Onyx drove. My eyes widened with surprise as I saw supernatural creatures everywhere. A
sparkly woman with wings walked into the pharmacy, a furry man (a werewolf?) crossed at a crosswalk, and a purple creature
sat on the library steps reading a book to a bunch of mini-creatures that sat on the stairs around it. These creatures... these
beings... were living life as normal. Previously, I’d have never thought twice about what these beings were doing; they
would’ve looked like other humans.
“We’ve always been all around you, in some species or another,” Onyx said. “You were fine when you didn’t know.
Now that you can see us, we can teach you a few things about the less savory creatures so you can be more prepared.”
I looked back at Onyx. “Like what?”
Onyx frowned. “Like werewolves. Emotional assholes. It’s best to leave them alone.” He shook his head.
He clicked the lever for the turn signal and waited for oncoming traffic to pass before he pulled into the parking lot of
the apartment building.
I needed to talk to Osian. He’d wanted me to see all this to make me safer. He was trying to look out for me, but I’d
treated him like a monster.
Onyx parked the car and turned to me. His dark gaze flicked over my body analytically. “Wynn’s excited you’re here. I
hope you’ll enjoy your stay. I swear to you, there’s nothing to fear from either Osian or myself. Feel confident in that.”
His words meant a lot. “I think I will.”
Onyx nodded. He turned off the ignition and opened the driver’s door. He was out of the car, had the back door open,
and my duffel bag over his shoulder before I was even out of the car.
“I can carry my own bag,” I protested, closing my door.
“Yeah, no.” He shut the back door and headed inside.
I hurried after him. Something long and thin hung from his back. That was... a tail? He had a tail? I hadn’t noticed
before. “Dude, you have a t...”
Onyx held up an index finger. “Hold that thought until we get in the apartment,” Onyx said as he looked around. “In
public, you never know where there are ears.”
The lobby was empty.
Thinking back, Onyx had been careful not to say anything revealing about the supernatural world in the hallway at the
dorms, either. It seemed like he avoided saying anything incriminating where there might be security cameras or where
someone could be listening.
We rode up in the elevator in silence. When the doors opened, Onyx gestured to the ceiling in the hall. “The hallway
has security cameras. Wynn and I live through the first door.” He walked off the elevator. “Osian lives behind the second
door.”
He pulled out a key and unlocked the apartment door. Wynn perked up on the couch when we stepped inside.
Onyx shut the door behind us and set my duffel bag off to the side. He locked the door, including a deadbolt.
He said, “The apartment is private. You can say whatever you want here.”
Wynn approached me and wrapped me in a hug. “How are you doing?” she asked. “Do you need to talk?”
I hugged Wynn back. After everything, I felt better being wrapped in steady arms. I still needed to talk to Osian.
“I’m okay. Where’s Osian?” I asked.
“I haven’t seen him today,” Wynn said. She released me from the hug. “I’m sure he’ll turn up soon.”
I turned to Onyx. “As I tried to say earlier: dude, you have a tail?!”
He grinned.
 Chapter 9

Osian
“You have to see her eventually. She’s living in my apartment for an unknown amount of time,” Onyx said as he laid
across my couch and bounced a tennis ball off the ceiling and caught it.
I signed, I do not have to do anything. I showed her the supernatural world so she would be safe. She can live with
you for as long as she wants. Nothing has changed. You can come see me here.
“Wynn is going to miss you.”
Wynn knows where I live.
Onyx laughed. “You’re going to regret saying that.” He paused for a second. “N asked about you, you know?” He
continued to bounce the ball off the ceiling.
I blinked in surprise. As far as I knew, N wanted nothing to do with me.
I signed, Change the subject. Have you heard anything new about the murders?

***

Magdalene
A week passed, but Osian never showed.
The dreams didn’t go away, but now Osian’s demon face showed up in them instead of his human one. I never got a
glimpse of the predator chasing me.
Onyx, Wynn, and I grew closer. We played cards and charades; we ate meals together; and we even started watching a
TV series together. Onyx left part of the day for his job, although I didn’t know where he worked or what he did. I slept with
headphones playing at night because those two were loud about how much they loved each other, and they didn’t care who
knew it.
I’d grown accustomed to how Onyx looked. I easily forgot he was a demon. He reminded me of a big brother, and I felt
completely comfortable with him.
So far, no more murders were reported in the news. It seemed the school made the right decision to close down.
“These cramps suck,” I complained. “I took a Midol but I think later I’m settling down with a heating pad.” My period
had arrived with a vengeance, and the cramps were awful.
A sympathetic look crossed Wynn’s face. “I’m sorry. There’s some chocolate in the cabinet if that would help.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks.”
Her attention turned to Onyx, who smirked about something. Whatever it was, he didn’t look like he was telling. “If
Osian doesn’t come over here soon, I’m going over there,” Wynn told Onyx as we sat down to dinner. Marinara chicken,
mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli, with bottles of water.
Onyx looked at Wynn and shrugged. “He said you know where he lives.”
Wynn’s eyes widened. “He said what?”
Onyx held up his hands. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”
“Why that no good, cowardly, goddamned demon.” Wynn stood from her stool. “Excuse me. I’ll be right back.” She
disappeared from the kitchen, and I heard the front door slam.
Onyx laughed. “I told him, but did he listen to me? Nope. Serves him right.” He cut a forkful of chicken and tucked it
into his mouth.
For a moment, fear struck me on Wynn’s behalf. Wynn was only human. Osian was a demon. “He’s not going to hurt
her, is he?” I asked.
Onyx shook his head. “Wynn’s like his little sister, plus she’s my fated. He would never hurt her. Honestly, I’d be more
worried about what she’s going to do to him. But I’m not worried because he deserves what he gets.” He licked a scoop of
mashed potatoes with his long, forked demon tongue. He closed his eyes and savored the food. Once he swallowed, he opened
his eyes and said, “The food is good. Have you tried it?”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
“Dig in before it gets cold.” Onyx ate another bite of chicken.
I heard a slamming door in the hallway then a bang against the wall where the apartment door swung open. My heart
jumped in my chest. I was apprehensive to see Osian; yes, I needed to talk to him but he’d still told me goodbye.
Ow, ow, ow, ow, filled my ears.
Wynn came around the corner leading Osian by the ear. I bit my lip to hide a smile as I saw the little blond dragging
along the tough, muscular demon who was so much bigger than her.
“I know where you live, all right,” Wynn said. “I can’t believe you said that, like I wouldn’t come get you. You know
better.” She let go of Osian’s ear and shoved him toward his empty stool. “Sit down and join us for dinner.”
HIs peppermint scent washed over me and an intense desire to be near him surged through me. Where did that come
from? I pushed the feeling away and tried to ignore it.
Osian sat. He turned angry eyes on Onyx. You told her? Osian signed to him.
“You said it. Told you that you’d regret it.” Onyx ate his food, not at all concerned. “I didn’t think you’d fear a human
as small as her.”
Wynn went to the stove, picked up a plate, and loaded it with food.
Osian stared at Onyx with wide eyes and signed, Are you kidding? I am terrified of her.
Onyx chuckled and continued to eat his food. I pretended to rub my chin to hide my smile.
For a moment, I saw Onyx’s demon side bright and clear. It was odd to see a demon eating broccoli, but Onyx speared
a piece and popped it in his mouth without a second thought. I never associated “health conscious” with demons. Maybe it was
Wynn’s influence.
Wynn slid the plate in front of Osian. She gave him an annoyed look, shoved a fork at him, then sat down with a glare.
Thank you, Wynn, Osian signed.
She nodded to him.
Osian picked up the fork and ate. For a few minutes, everyone ate in silence. I was painfully aware of Osian’s
presence nearby.
Ignoring it, I cut a forkful of chicken and closed my eyes as the delicious flavor washed over my tongue. I’d never had
food so good.
I opened my eyes and ate a spear of broccoli.
Hesitantly, Osian thought, N.
I swallowed the broccoli and kept my gaze on my food. “Osian,” I said.
How... How are you?
“I’m fine. How are you?”
Alive. It’s usually a plus.
I forced a smile and glanced at him. He looked apprehensive, like a little boy somewhere he knew he shouldn’t be.
I said, “Are we done with chit chat? Because I’m not very good at it so I try to avoid it.”
Osian laughed, but it sounded rough like he hadn’t laughed in a long time.
Yes, we’re done with chit chat.
Wynn waved her fork between the two of us. “It’s really weird to watch you guys talk like that. I mean, weirder things
have happened, but it’s still odd. I like it, though.” She took a bite of mashed potatoes. Wynn swallowed and looked at Onyx.
“Why can’t we talk like that?”
Onyx’s black gaze flicked between Osian and me. “Osian doesn’t talk to anyone. That’s probably why his fated can
hear him when no one else can.” He leaned over and kissed Wynn’s cheek. “Sorry we can’t do that, little one.” A grin broke
across his face as he studied her. “But don’t worry, I’ll gladly say anything you want to hear.”
Wynn’s eyes focused on him. A smile tipped her lips. “Oh you will, will you?”
“Sure will.” He kissed her neck.
She raised her chin and pressed against his lips, her eyes fluttering closed.
Onyx pressed more kisses to her throat.
Osian rolled his eyes. He stood and grabbed both our plates, then nodded to the hallway.
Let’s go. You don’t want to witness what they’re about to do.
He was right about that. Osian walked out of the room. Apprehension filled me, but I followed him. Wynn and Onyx
didn’t notice our absence.
We rounded the corner into the living room.
Osian said, We’ll wait at my place until they’re done. Can you get the door? Please.
I opened the door, and we walked into the hallway. As I shut the door behind us, I locked the knob.
I think my door’s unlocked. Wynn wasn’t too concerned about locks earlier.
I smiled at the memory. Wynn was feisty for such a small woman. I moved down the hallway to Osian’s door and tried
the knob. He was right; it was unlocked.
I opened the door and gestured for him to go inside. Once he was in, I followed him and closed the door.
His apartment seemed to be a mirror image of Wynn and Onyx’s. The door opened into a living room where a black
leather couch set against the kitchen wall, dark end tables on each side. A TV was mounted to the wall across from it and an
entertainment center set underneath the TV for gaming consoles and the cable box. A small table and chairs stood against the far
wall, easy access from the kitchen.
Bachelor, my ass. Not one pizza box or discarded shirt, anywhere. He’d obviously just been trying to make me feel
better when he saw my dorm room.
I took this place over from Onyx. I haven’t changed anything.
I nodded.
Osian put our plates on the table. Sit down and finish your food.
A hesitant smile broke across my lips. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to tease him. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
Osian smiled knowingly. Please.
I sat at the table and pulled my plate to me.
Do you want anything to drink?
“No, I’m okay.”
Osian nodded and sat, too.
My eyes flicked over him, his hair perfectly spiked around his horns, a firm jaw, clean features, and a T-shirt stretched
over his muscular chest. The gray skin and lack of nose barely registered. He’d be a handsome human — when I could see it,
he was a handsome human. Another surge of desire pulsed through me. I tried to ignore it, and subtly clutched my belly when it
caused a cramp.
“We need to talk,” I said.
Osian cleared his throat. Eat first. We can talk once you’re fed.
I frowned. “Once I’m fed? Don’t you have to eat, too?”
I don’t need to eat. But because I don’t need to, doesn’t mean I don’t like to. I’m more concerned about you. You
must eat.
I guess I could understand that. Nodding, I picked up my fork and took my first bite of mashed potatoes.
My eyes widened, and my heart stopped. The potatoes were seasoned with garlic! Supernatural creatures couldn’t
have garlic!
Osian had a forkful of the potatoes poised to go in his mouth. My heart stuttered in my chest.
I reached over and yanked his fork away. “Garlic! Don’t eat them!” My heart pounded frantically. I may be annoyed
with him, but I didn’t want him to die.
Osian looked confused, then his lips tilted into a grin. I appreciate the concern. I really do. But you’re thinking of
vampires, not demons. I’m not a vampire. Personally, I love garlic mashed potatoes.
Relieved, I sighed and handed back his fork. His fingers brushed mine when he took it.
I blushed. “Sorry.”
Osian smiled. Nothing to be sorry about. That was cute.
Osian ate the mashed potatoes then speared a piece of broccoli and popped it into his mouth with a grin.
I felt like a moron.
Osian smirked as we finished eating in silence.
 Chapter 10

Osian
After I put the plates into the sink, N and I settled on the couch. We had to work this out. I was tired of avoiding N. I
liked her.
“We need to clear the air,” N said.
I nodded. This conversation needed to happen. I braced my shoulders for what she was about to say.
N looked at her hands and said, “I don’t appreciate how you told me about the supernatural. You left me scared and
alone. I woke up the next morning with the thought that I had a bad dream.”
I frowned but nodded. Leaving her with the new knowledge wasn’t what I’d wanted to do, but she’d been afraid of me.
Staying would have scared her more.
“I do appreciate that you told me, though. You were right. I needed to know.”
She did. I nodded again.
“Onyx opened my eyes more to the world surrounding me. I was oblivious.” N tentatively took my hand and squeezed
it. Her gaze met mine. “I’m sorry. I broke my promise to you.”
My eyebrows furrowed. She was sorry?
“I said I wouldn’t be afraid of you, but I was. I’m not afraid anymore.”
Ah. I kept her gaze as I brought the back of her hand to my mouth and kissed it.
It’s okay.
She looked away. “It’s not okay. You were trying to look out for me, and I betrayed your trust. I’m sorry.”
As a demon, forgiveness wasn’t my specialty but in this case I could probably overlook her error.
I caught her chin with my hand and made her look at me. Pretend it never happened. Gently, I released her chin.
N nodded. Her gaze trailed over me. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”
What could that be? I nodded once for her to continue.
“I’m drawn to you. I feel a strong need to...” She hesitated. “Be around you...” Her gaze met mine. “To kiss you, every
time I see you.”
My heart leapt, and a growl escaped my mouth. Yes. She could have so much more than a kiss. Whatever she wanted.
I’d fuck her senseless. Whenever, wherever.
No! I shook my head and squeezed my eyes shut. Humans were fragile. I couldn’t lose control with her. She could get
hurt. I must remember at all times.
I opened my eyes and looked at N.
She quickly blinked away tears, and a blank look settled over her face.
Alarmed, I cupped her cheek in my hand. What happened?
With a monotone voice, she said, “Forget I said anything. Let’s just go back to ignoring each other.”
Understanding dawned on me. Fuck. She believed I rejected her.
No, I thought. That’s not what I meant. I’m an idiot.
Desperately, my lips crashed onto hers.
She made a noise of surprise at first, but then she melted into the kiss. Her soft lips formed to mine, and, at its first
opportunity, my tongue slipped into her mouth.
N laughed and pulled away. I flashed her a concerned look. She blushed and covered her mouth with her hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Your tongue... It’s not like a human tongue. It tickles.”
I grinned.
Her green eyes widened when she realized what she said, and she grasped for my hands. “Not that that’s bad or
anything. It’s different.“
I laughed and kissed her cheek.
You need lots of practice to get used to it then, hmm? I thought. I raised an eyebrow at her.
The thought of teasing me crossed her face. But it quickly vanished, and she simply answered, “Yes, all the practice.”
Yes. Without hesitation, I kissed her. My hands went into her hair. I was done denying myself the pleasure of this
woman. I tried to be a self-sacrificing demon, but no more. N was mine.
Before I could close my eyes, her hand rubbed her lower stomach. Concerned, I broke the kiss.
What’s wrong? I asked.
“It’s nothing.” She tried to kiss me again.
I avoided her lips and pressed my forehead to hers. Tell me.
“It’s okay. I’m on my period. The cramps are bad this month, but I’ll be fine. I took some pain medicine.”
 I grinned and bit my bottom lip. She had no idea how much that spoke to me. My half-mast dick instantly hardened.
I wrapped N’s legs around my hips and kissed her. She seemed to be adjusting to my tongue. When she lost herself in
the kiss, I stood. I gripped my hands on her ass and carried her to the bedroom, our lips never breaking. Gently, I laid her on the
bed. N was so out of her head that she didn’t even notice the torture rack against the wall, which made pride swell in my chest.
Leaning over her and still kissing, my hands went to her waist and unbuttoned her jeans.
She broke the kiss. “What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly. “You can’t. We’re not having sex. I’m not easy, and
I’m on my period. We can make out but nothing below the belt.”
Relax. Don’t worry about your period. I’ll help you with your cramps.
I couldn’t hold back my smile as I tugged her panties and jeans off her legs. My blood kink would come in handy here.
I circled my fingertips around her clit. Slowly, I stroked her until I had her worked up and panting. Then I dipped my fingers
between her lower lips. She moaned and closed her eyes. I captured the string of her tampon between my fingers.
Her eyes flew open, and she protested, “Don’t take that out. I’ll bleed on your sheets!”
I don’t care.
I leaned down and massaged her mouth with mine until she forgot about what I was doing.
Gently, I slid her tampon out. I tossed it in the wastebasket under the end table.
Relax. Lie here and enjoy.
I kissed her one more time before I knelt between her knees.
My tongue circled her clit slowly.
N moaned and fisted the sheets. Her clit was obviously more sensitive than normal.
I watched her face as I licked her, her eyes closed and lips twisted with passion. I loved the little noises she made.
My tongue flicked down to massage her entrance. Iron coated my tastebuds. I groaned with pleasure as I closed my
eyes and pushed my tongue into her. Her entrance clenched as she heard my groan. She was deliciously tight, and it only made
my dick throb harder.
I slid my tongue in and out of her tightness, flicking to touch her G-spot every time I pushed in. I treasured the taste of
her blood.
“O-Osian?”
Yes?
My eyes opened and focused on her face.
“Can I — can I grab your horns?” she panted.
Absolutely.
My tongue wrapped around her clit and tugged.
Her hands grasped my horns as she moaned. Both actions went straight to my groin.
I licked her harder, my tongue massaging and teasing her clit with light flicks. She pulled me tighter against her with
my horns.
I slipped a finger inside her as I sucked her clit into my mouth.
N cried out “Osian!” and clenched around my finger as she came. I kept thrusting my finger as she throbbed, helping
her ride out her orgasm. A sated look washed over her face as she panted and rested back against the pillow.
I slid my finger out, then leaned up and kissed her. Her hand slipped around my neck as she sucked on my lips.
I broke the kiss.
Stay here. I’ll be right back.
“Okay,” she said with a smile as she leaned against the pillow and closed her eyes.
I climbed off the bed and walked across the hall to the bathroom. As I passed the mirror, I grinned at the blood smears
on my cheeks. Red wings. I tucked my finger in my mouth to suck her essence off it.
When I reached the tub, I turned on the warm water and adjusted the lever to plug the drain. Wondering if Onyx left any
bubble bath, I opened the cabinet under the sink. I found some, which immediately went into the bath water. I’d give him a hard
time about having bubble bath later.
With one last smirk in the mirror, I used the sink to wash my hands then my face. I’d give N an incredible bath, then
tuck her into bed with a heating pad. Anything to make my fated feel like a spoiled demoness and keep her happy. I was done
with this apart shit. N was mine.
 Chapter 11

Magdalene
Life with Osian was good. I felt safe with him.
Every night I slept at his place. While I was on my period, he had no problem helping ease my cramps and simply held
me through the night. He didn’t push for more, content to help me feel better. I don’t know what I expected from him, but it
wasn’t that.
My period had been over a few days now, but Osian didn’t push to do more. He feasted on my pussy every night, but
he declined anything in return, saying my pleasure made him happy.
I treasured his warmth. He always seemed warmer than me, and having his arms around me while we slept was
perfect. I slept like a baby every night. I didn’t even have the dreams anymore. Quickly, I forgot about them.
We spent a lot of time with Wynn and Onyx. Playing games, watching TV, eating. They felt like family.
Onyx and Osian worked with Wynn and I on self defense moves every other evening in Onyx and Wynn’s living room,
furniture shoved out of the way.
Osian caught a punch I threw at his throat.
Good, he thought.
“Three more victims have been found,” Onyx said as he caught jabs from Wynn. She was much more advanced with
self defense than I was. “Both of you need to be careful. The victims were all college-aged kids and their bodies looked like
dried out shells. The killer isn’t stopping. Even with the campus closed, it’s still not safe.”
“Were the murders on the news?” Wynn asked.
“No, I heard about them through my work.” Onyx dodged a kick Wynn sent his way. He grinned. “Nice.” The grin
melted from his face. “Promise you’ll be careful. Both of you.”
“I promise,” Wynn said.
“Promise,” I said.
Onyx nodded.
“Do you ladies want to switch partners so you can experience different techniques?” he asked.
Osian growled. Touch her and die, he signed.
Onyx smirked and held up his hands in surrender. “Only a suggestion. Guess we won’t be doing that.”
Osian cradled his arms around me protectively. As he glared at Onyx, I kissed him softly to reassure him.
“Osian, you know better. Onyx would never hurt me,” I said.
Sorry, he signed to Onyx. He didn’t look sorry.
Onyx laughed. “I like seeing you worked up like this. Get out of here before I keep going to make you even angrier.
Because if you stay, I’ll keep going on purpose.”
Demons. At least he warned us.
“Thanks for the heads up.” I grabbed Osian’s arm. “Let’s go.”
I opened the front door and shoved Osian through.
“See you guys later!” I called.
“Dinner’s at 7!”
“Thanks!”
I closed the door behind us. My gaze met Osian’s.
“Why are you so mad? Onyx was trying to protect me.”
He sighed. I know. I’m sorry. Osian wrapped me in his arms and hugged me. I feel protective of you. I know he didn’t
mean any harm, but I couldn’t help myself. This is new for me. I’ll try to be better.
I pressed my lips to his in a quick kiss. “Thank you.”
A big smile crossed his face, and he nudged his head toward his door. Shower?
“Sure.”
I was curious what his demon body looked like. Was it similar to a human body?
Osian scooped me up in his arms.
I squealed.
He laughed and transported us into the pitch black bathroom.
“We were literally less than five seconds away from here! We could’ve walked!” I protested.
Too long. Osian stood me on my feet and kissed me.
I broke the kiss. “I don’t know if you noticed or not, but it’s very dark in here.”
Osian stretched his arm out and flicked on the light switch.
 I can see in the dark so no I didn’t notice. Better?
“Much.”
He kissed me again, and I quickly lost myself in the kiss. His lips were warm and welcoming. My hand cupped his jaw
and my eyes closed. I sucked on his lips and deepened the kiss.
Nice idea, he thought while still kissing me. Don’t forget, we need to shower. Grab on.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and kept kissing him. He leaned us down while he turned the water on and
adjusted the temperature. His lips never left mine. When he was happy with the temperature, he turned on the shower and
pulled the curtain shut.
Let’s get you naked, he thought.
My yoga pants were gone in no-time, and he only broke the kiss long enough to tug my shirt over my head. Quickly, he
flicked the clasp open on my bra and tossed the garment aside. I stood there naked in front of him as he kissed me silly.
My hands went to the hem of his shirt and tugged it over his head, our lips only apart for a second. I ran my hands
down his abs and squeezed his hips before sliding my hands into his basketball shorts. A little wiggle, and they easily fell
down his legs.
I stood naked with this demon for the first time. My demon. The idea didn’t scare me as much as it once did.
Our lips broke long enough for us to pull the curtain back and step into the shower.
I admired his muscular body, barely noticing the gray skin tone. My gaze rested on his cock, a darker gray than the rest
of his body and more than ready to have some fun.
After shutting the curtain, Osian flicked his eyes to me. He grinned mischievously. He wet his hair under the water
stream, then shook his head like a dog, launching water droplets all over. I squealed and laughed, shielding my face. He’d
effectively gotten me out of my head.
Osian wrapped something around my waist, pulling me closer. He kissed my neck and ran both hands into my hair.
His tail. He’d pulled me closer with his tail. I knew he had one, but he kept it hidden. I’d never really seen it.
“Shower,” I murmured. “Let’s get clean first, then we can move this to the bedroom.”
Smart girl. He kissed my pulse point.
“Focus. Shower.”
He sighed. Okay, okay. Osian grabbed the shampoo off the shower ledge. Come, let me wash your hair.
Osian washed my hair and my body, then let me wash his. When we were done, I bit my lip and stroked his cock with
my hand. The tip was a soft point, and his shaft gradually widened until it reached his base. Small bumps lined the length. I’d
bet they would feel delicious.
Osian pulled me close and kissed my forehead. Are you sure?
“I’ve never been more sure about anything.”
Osian’s eyes closed as I stroked my hand over his cock. That feels divine. Bed.
He transported us into the bedroom.
I laughed. “Did you even turn the shower off?”
No. It doesn’t matter.
He leaned in to kiss me.
I put my hand in front of his lips. “We’re not wasting water like that. Turn off the shower.”
Osian gave me an annoyed look.
“I mean it. We can have fun afterward.”
Grumbling, Osian disappeared.
He was back a few seconds later wearing a grin. You promised me fun.
He captured my lips with his.
“I did.” I backed us up until my knees hit the mattress. With a smirk, I sat down. I wrapped a hand around his cock and
pulled him closer. My tongue slid along the bottom of his length. The bumps were a little weird at first but I quickly grew used
to them. I met his eyes and sucked his cock as far into my mouth as it could go, putting my hand at the base to stroke the rest.
He stared at me and ran his fingers over my jaw. Fuckin’ perfect.
I bobbed my head a few times, letting him hit the back of my throat.
Osian hissed in pleasure.
Enough of that. Next time I come, I want you on my cock.
Goosebumps broke out on my skin as he pushed me down on the bed, then climbed between my knees and kissed me. I
wanted that, too.
 Chapter 12

Magdalene
Osian rained kisses down my throat and chest until finally he sucked a nipple between his lips. He licked and teased
with enthusiasm.
His tail stroked the other nipple.
I moaned and closed my eyes.
Watch me. Eyes open, he thought without removing his mouth from my nipple.
My eyes blinked open, and my gaze met his. He grinned at me then sucked.
Good girl.
He worked my breasts over as I moaned and panted mindlessly beneath him.
His cock slid through my lower lips a few times, lubing it up. He stopped worshiping my nipples only to kiss me. His
soft lips against mine felt perfect. As his cock pushed against my entrance, I sucked his lip into my mouth.
Osian groaned and slid into me in one thrust.
I gasped in pain. “Stay still, please,” I murmured. Burning overwhelmed my senses.
Shit. Are you okay?
I nodded and grasped my hands against his back to hold him still. He wrapped his tail around my hips to hold me
close.
Osian pressed a kiss to my lips but held his lower body still. I was too eager. Take as long as you need.
It burned. I wasn’t a virgin, but Osian was much more “well endowed” than I’d been with before. His cock filled me.
You’re so tight, he rumbled.
Osian pressed kisses to my lips and waited patiently as my body adjusted to him. I tried to relax against him, and we
made out while he held still inside of me.
After a few minutes, gently, I rocked against him. The pleasure was so intense, I moaned against his lips.
“Please move,” I murmured.
Are you ready?
When I nodded, slowly, he slid out of me then back in.
I gasped again, this time in passion.
Osian groaned. You’re hugging me so close. I won’t last long.
“Me either. That’s okay,” I panted and pressed my body against his. “We can take longer next time. Fuck me, Osian.”
He growled and thrust into me. Every stroke made me moan. Osian captured my lips with his and found a steady pace.
His thumb stroked my clit as he pounded into me.
It didn’t take long until I whimpered and writhed with need. I felt my walls tightening around him.
Come, he whispered in my mind.
I shattered around him with a cry, my fingers gripping his back and pulling him closer. He came with a groan right after
me. My pussy clenched around him and milked him for every drop, the warmth of his cum feeling right.
He went to pull out, but I stopped him.
I’m too heavy. Let me move beside you.
“You’re fine. Stay here,” I said.
Osian pursed his lips. An idea clicked in his mind and he nodded. He wrapped his arms around me and turned us so
that he was on bottom and I laid on his chest, still inside me.
There. Compromise. He kissed my hair.
“I can live with this.” I nuzzled into his chest and closed my eyes. Orgasms exhausted me and I was ready to go to
sleep.
We didn’t talk about it before and maybe we should have. I assume you don’t want kids right now. Are you on birth
control?
My eyes opened, and I trailed my fingers through the hair on his chest. If I wanted to get my degree, I couldn’t have
kids while I was still in college. I’d never finish. That was why I started birth control pills in the first place. “I am. Are you
clean?”
Yes. Demons have a hotter body temperature than humans. I can’t catch or carry any diseases. I’m clean. The only
complication might be pregnancy. But if you’re on birth control, there’s nothing to worry about.
“Mmm. Okay.” I closed my eyes again.
Osian chuckled. Are you going to dinner? We have some time, but it’s supposed to start at 7.
I yawned. “I’m not hungry. Going to nap.”
He kissed my temple. Okay. I’ll bring you a plate. Get some sleep.
I fell asleep snuggled into Osian’s chest, pleasantly comfortable with the warmth of his cum and his cock inside me.
 Chapter 13

Osian
N and I sprawled side-by-side on my couch. She was wrapped in my arms and tucked against my chest as we watched
a mindless TV show.
A blanket covered our lower bodies. If it didn’t, any visitor would see the front of my jeans was open and her skirt
was up around her hips, my cock pressed inside her.
I kissed N’s hair. Resting like this was peaceful, and I felt so much closer to her. Cock warming, she called it. She said
there was nothing sexual about it.
“What’s your favorite food?” she asked.
Spaghetti with meatballs and cheesy garlic bread. My stomach growled. You’re making me hungry.
She laughed.
I smiled and nuzzled my nose against her neck. One of my hands slid under her tank top and cupped a breast. She
pretended not to notice, but I knew she did when her nipple pebbled under my palm.
“That’s my meal, too. What’s your favorite color?” she asked.
Orange. Yours?
“Red. Some kids in elementary school tried to convince me it couldn’t be because red is a boy’s color, but I told them
to go fuck themselves.”
I laughed. Of course you did.
N giggled and her pussy squeezed my cock. I groaned and bit her shoulder. Behave, I repeated to myself. No sex.
I was a terror as a kid. You would’ve hated me.
I released her shoulder and ran my tongue over the bite marks my teeth left.
“I could never hate you.” N squeezed my arm.
We’ll have to agree to disagree. Pretty sure I inspired a few of the Ten Commandments.
N laughed and smacked me. “Liar.”
I never lie. I kissed her neck.
“What’s with the peppermint candy? You always smell like peppermint.”
I used to smoke. The candy helped me kick the habit. But I’ve never kicked the candy. Who would want to? It’s
delicious.
N laughed. I pressed my face into her hair.
What was your childhood like?
“I grew up in foster care. Besides that, it was pretty normal.”
My arms tightened around her. Why foster care?
“My parents left me in one of those baby drop boxes at a fire station. The ones where you can leave a kid within so
many days of birth, no questions asked. After that, I bounced around. I acted out a lot, and no one wanted to adopt me.”
That was rough. She tried to sound flippant, like it didn’t hurt her, but I could tell that it did.
You were a little demon, were you? I teased to break the mood.
“I guess I was,” she laughed.
I’ll keep you. It won’t be adoption, though. I pushed my cock even further inside her. It pressed against her inner
walls and filled her pussy.
She gasped. “I’m okay with that.” She took a moment to breathe through her pleasure. “Stop, though. This is about
being close without sex.”
I grumbled and kissed her neck. My hand squeezed her breast.
She asked, “What do you want to know about me?”
Hmm. My mind went to her terrified face the night I revealed the supernatural to her. You were afraid of me when you
found out what I am. Why?
“I apologized for that.”
I know. What were you told?
She sighed. “One of my foster families was very religious. Church twice a week and prayers before everything. Before
I got on the bus, before we ate, before bed. They told me demons would corrupt me and steal my soul.” She swallowed.
“Demons were to be feared. I’m sorry.”
I squeezed her against me. Don’t apologize for what others taught you. Demons are to be feared. But you’re fated to
one. You get an exception. I kissed her cheek. Plus, souls have to be freely given. We can’t steal them. Unfortunately. Do you
know how much fun that would be?
 N laughed. “I can only imagine. What was your childhood like?”
Onyx and I had... Let’s say “nontraditional” childhoods. We were demons, after all. I grinned at her.
Suddenly, air felt like it was pumped into the room.
“Osian, do you have any tortilla chips?” Onyx shouted from the kitchen.
I was about to mentally shout back to him, then realized what I was doing and shook my head. It was easy to forget that
others couldn’t hear me.
Can you tell him they’re in the cabinet above the sink? I asked N.
“Cabinet above the sink!” she called.
A cabinet banged, and a bag rustled. “Found them. Dinner’s in 20!”
The air was sucked out of the room.
N laughed. “He’s a whirlwind.”
I hummed neutrally. I’d have to take her word for it. After being around him for so long, I was used to the chaos.
“We should probably get ready for dinner.”
Do we have to? I nuzzled into her neck and squeezed her nipple.
N laughed. “We have to.” She slid off my cock and sat up. “Get ready.” She kissed me then got up and walked away.
I laid on the couch and flung an arm over my eyes. Evil woman. This denial was torture. If I didn’t know better, I
would swear she was a demoness.
 Chapter 14

Osian
“You never work. How do you have money?” N asked as we sat down for lunch. She shoved a plate with a sandwich
and chips across the table at me.
Brioche bread, ham, cheese, and veggies, with mustard. My favorite sandwich. And N made it for me, which made it
even better.
Onyx and I made a few investments when technology started becoming popular. We aren’t billionaires but neither of
us need to work. He just works so he doesn’t get bored.
I tore a bite of sandwich with my teeth and closed my eyes as I chewed. Delicious.
“When technology started becoming popular? But that was...”
I opened my eyes and looked at N.
Her eyes were wide. “How old are you?”
I swallowed my food and smirked.
Too old. If I tell you, you’re going to think I’m an old man.
Shock crossed N’s face. That wasn’t my intent. I frowned and watched her.
“The comment Onyx made about knowing someone named Magdalene. He stopped himself but he was about to say ‘the
original,’ wasn’t he? He knew the original Mary Magdalene?”
I nodded. They had a rivalry. She wasn’t that bad. But Onyx can be competitive.
Her mouth fell open.
Surely, she had questions. I put my sandwich down to face the inquisition.
N closed her mouth, then she asked, “Your Ten Commandments joke?”
I shrugged. Yeah, that wasn’t a joke. I was a naughty child.
N was quiet for a moment, then she said, “That was so long ago. You’ve lived... I mean...” Her gaze met mine. “I
probably only have 80 more years. That’s nothing to you. Why are you with me?”
My eyebrows furrowed. Whoa. That took an unexpected turn.
You’re my fated, I answered simply.
She scoffed. “What bad luck is that? You get a small blip of time with me, a few seconds of your extended existence,
then you get to be alone forever. I hope you get more than one fated because it sounds like a miserable life otherwise.”
I reached for her hand, but she pulled it away.
She asked, “What if I reject it? Will that release you?”
My hand went to my chest in physical pain as the words stabbed through the heart. I didn’t want her to reject our bond.
I loved her.
My eyes widened. I loved her.
I thought, N, you don’t understand.
Tears filled her eyes. “Sure I understand. You’re fated to have me for a temporary lover. A short fling. I get it.”
I launched out of my chair and rounded the table.
“I’m sorry you’re stuck with me,” she sniffled. “Tell me what to do to make this easier for you and I’ll do it.” Her gaze
fell to the floor. I tried to meet her eyes, but she wouldn’t look at me.
How heartbreaking. I dropped to my knees and took her hands in mine. Have you talked to anyone about what it
means to be fated? Onyx, Wynn?
She shook her head. A tear rolled down her cheek.
Look at me.
She shook her head.
N. Magdalene. Look at me.
Tentatively, she raised her gaze from the floor. She met my eyes. Another tear slipped down her cheek.
Don’t cry. I reached up with one hand and wiped her cheek. You know fated couples are essentially soul mates, right?
Meant to meet and be together?
She nodded, more tears falling down her face. “I’m sorry you’ll be alone.”
I shook my head. I won’t be alone. You’ll be with me.
N huffed. “If you give me that ‘you’ll be with me in spirit’ shit, I’ll punch you.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help myself.
Quickly, my hand went up in a placating motion.
No, the thing about being fated is that we’re meant to be together.
 N rolled her eyes. “For a fling, I get it. You don’t have to rub it in.”
I shook my head. No. For as long as we live. The minute I climaxed with you, the deal was sealed.
Her eyes widened. “What deal?”
We officially became a fated couple. You’re still human, but you heal faster, your life is extended in the form you
wore that day, and we are linked. We will always be able to find each other. You are mine and I am yours, indefinitely. I
thought you were aware. It was why I never accepted your offers to “return the favor.” I thought you knew what it meant.
She raised her voice. “You’re saying I’m going to look like this forever? That I’m going to live forever?”
Not exactly forever. I flashed a smile. Not a vampire, remember?
She laughed. Relief flooded my chest. I needed to hear that laugh.
You will live with me for an extended period. Hundreds of years. Millennia. It’s indefinite. Not written in stone, like
a human life. We can be killed. We will perish eventually, but not for a long time.
“So I won’t leave you alone?”
I shook my head.
She grabbed my hands and squeezed them. Relief flooded her eyes.
“What about if we had kids? What would life look like for them?”
Surprised, I stared at her. She might want to have children with me? I barely held back my growl of appreciation.
I cleared my throat and shook my head to think clearly. Any children between us would be cambion — half human,
half demon. They, too, would have extended lifelines.
I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Please never talk of rejecting me again. I touched my hand to my chest. It
hurts. We are fated to be together. There is no me without you. I love you.
A smile broke over her lips. “I love you, too.”
Good. Because you’re stuck with me.
N grinned. “I can deal with that.” She leaned in and kissed me.
I smiled and returned the kiss.
 Chapter 15

Magdalene
Wynn, Osian, and I sat on her couch, playing Uno. Osian sucked on another peppermint candy.
“Let’s get out for dinner,” I said.
“Like what?” Wynn asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Why don’t we have a picnic? Something to get us outside.”
Wynn lit up. “I love that idea. We could practice our self defense in the park, then have food afterward. It’ll be good to
practice on uneven ground.”
I looked at Osian. He nodded at me to show that the idea met his approval.
Wynn continued, “I’ll pack a picnic basket. Fried chicken sound good? What are you feeling?”
“Wynn,” I protested. “You don’t have to cook every night. We can stop by the store to get stuff for sandwiches or
something.”
Wynn waved my concern away. “Onyx and Osian cook, too. They’re gourmet chefs compared to me. But I like to cook,
and we don’t have classes right now. It’s no problem.”
“You need to relax. Take a night off. We’ll be fine,” I reassured her.
“Only if you’re sure...”
“I am. It’ll be fine. I’ll get dinner, you take the night off.”
Wynn smiled. “Okay, but only if you’re sure.”
“I’m sure.”
Wynn nodded. She looked down at her Uno cards.
I shared a small smile with Osian.
Good girl, he thought.
Pride filled my chest. I liked that he approved of the idea.
I’ll reward you for your good behavior later. He winked at me.
I knew Wynn couldn’t hear him, but I still blushed.
***
Harder. Jab. Jab. Cross, Osian instructed. He caught each blow without using gloves or flinching. Good.
The sun was still up in the park, though a spring chill remained in the air. Wynn and I had worked up a sweat
practicing, but Osian and Onyx didn’t look like they’d exercised at all.
“That’s enough for tonight. Let’s eat before it gets dark,” Onyx suggested.
“Sounds good,” Wynn panted.
Osian grasped my hand, and we all headed to the bench where the takeout bags with subs and bottles of water waited.
Onyx reached the bench first and called out the sandwiches. When we each had our food, Onyx threw the bags away.
“How about we swing?” he suggested.
“I love that idea,” Wynn said. “Let’s do it.”
Sandwiches and waters in hand, we each settled into a swing on the park’s nearby swing set. I went right back to
middle school as the water bottles rested on the ground and we all acted like kids on the swing.
Onyx finished his sandwich and hopped off his swing to push Wynn.
“Higher!” she giggled and shrieked.
Osian followed suit behind me, and soon remainders of sandwiches were discarded and it became a competition as to
whose woman reached the highest.
Everyone giggled, laughed, and had fun.
As we swung, a beautiful sunset touched down directly ahead.
Surrounded by my new family, that was the happiest and most peaceful moment I’d felt in a long time.
 Chapter 16

Magdalene
Osian pressed me against the bed, my hands restrained above my head by his palm.
A smile crossed his lips as he leaned over me.
You’re beautiful.
He leaned down and pressed kisses to my throat.
I moaned and pushed closer to him.
He trailed kisses down my neck and chest until he sucked a nipple in his mouth. His tongue flicked against it while his
free hand teased the other.
Osian’s tail stroked my pussy, brushing from my clit to my entrance repeatedly. It felt wonderful.
“I don’t know how you do that. It has to be like rubbing your head and patting your belly at the same time,” I breathed.
He chuckled. Talent.
His tail pressed into my pussy.
All thoughts left my mind. I moaned as his tail stroked in and out of me slowly and he teased my breasts. I closed my
eyes in pleasure. His cock rested hard against my pubic bone.
Can we try something? he asked.
I moaned. “Anything. Whatever you want. You can do anything to me.”
He let go of my nipple to laugh then captured it again.
Do you trust me?
“Absolutely.”
I opened my eyes to look at him. Osian looked so handsome as he sucked my nipple. When he pinched hard with his
fingers and sucked hard, I groaned. The pain/pleasure combo went straight to my pussy.
Yes, I would do whatever Osian wanted.
He let go of my nipples, but his tail continued to tease my pussy. I whimpered under his tender motion.
Still restraining my hand, he reached for the nightstand beside the bed and opened the drawer. I watched as he pulled a
dagger out of the drawer.
His tail stroked into me again, and I moaned. When the wave of pleasure passed, I asked, “What’s that for?”
Trust me. Can I use it?
I nodded. He’d only brought me pleasure so far. He wouldn’t hurt me. Right?
Osian went back to pressing kisses over my chest and fucking me with his tail. I closed my eyes and pretty much forgot
he even had the dagger until I felt him slice my chest right above my heart.
I gasped at the unexpected pain and my eyes flew open.
Relax for me, he thought.
His mouth closed over the cut, and he sucked. He groaned when the blood washed over his tongue.
Osian’s groan made me tremble. My eyes closed again, and I moaned at the unexpected pleasure. Pleasing him pleased
me.
He kissed me, and I tasted the iron on his lips. His forked tongue caressed mine, and he sucked on my lips.
I opened my eyes to watch him. His were tightly squeezed shut, and he was passionately into this. His cock was rock
hard against me.
Osian had a blood kink, I realized.
I broke the kiss and whispered, “Cut me again.”
Osian looked at me, and his eyebrows furrowed. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “Cut me.”
Osian smiled. Yes, ma’am.
“You call me ma’am again and we’re going to have words.”
He raised his eyebrows. Yes, my queen.
“Better.”
He shifted his hips and his tail slid out of my pussy only to be replaced by his steel cock.
My breath whooshed out of me as he slid his length in.
“Yes,” I breathed.
I watched him take the dagger and slice a cut between my breasts. I was in too much pleasure for it to even hurt.
Osian’s tongue licked the blood brought to the surface, then his mouth closed over the wound to suck more blood out.
His hips thrust his cock further into me when his mouth sucked.
 We both moaned. Quickly, we lost ourselves in the pleasure. Osian released my hands and captured my lips, then he
fucked me senseless. We were so caught up in the friction and slide of our bodies, that we didn’t even notice as we rolled and
fought for dominance, chasing our pleasure. He was on top, then I was on top, then he was again.
The dagger knicked a spot in my ribcage. Osian’s mouth quickly covered the cut and my blood pulsed into his mouth.
His tongue probed the cut, and he moaned.
When his mouth found mine and he kissed me, I could taste the iron on his tongue.
He broke the kiss and grinned. Hold onto me, my queen.
I grasped my arms around his shoulders and threaded a hand through his hair. I kissed him hard.
Osian groaned and pounded into me. I cried out his name and came hard. He gasped as I clenched around him, and he
pumped his warm cum into my pussy.
He pulled out and dropped beside me, panting.
Thank you, he thought. I never say those words, but thank you.
“Whatever you need.” I gestured at my chest. “I probably need to clean these up.”
Osian smiled and shook his head. That’s a nice thing about being fated. You heal fast. Those cuts will be gone by
morning.
I smiled. “Well then. That’s convenient since we’ll be doing that often.”
Really?
I loved how turned on the taste of my blood made Osian. I pressed a kiss to his mouth. “Really.”
 Chapter 17

Magdalene
“I want to surprise Osian,” I said to Wynn, standing outside her door. “Do you have any Parmesan cheese?”
Wynn’s face broke into a goofy smile. “Aww. He’ll love that. No, unfortunately, I don’t have any.” She gestured over
her shoulder. “Let me grab my keys, and we can run to the store.”
I shook my head. “Nah, I’ll walk down there real quick. The store’s right around the corner. I’ll be back before it gets
dark. You stay here and keep the men distracted in case they come home before I get back.”
Wynn grinned. “Sounds like a plan. Be careful.” She hugged me.
I returned the hug. “I will.”
***
“That’ll be $11.45,” the teenage grocery store cashier said. He looked too young to be there, like a baby high schooler
playing dress up in his parent’s store uniform. Whatever, not my problem.
I swiped my debit card in the card reader. A few moments later, the receipt printed, and the cashier handed it to me.
“Thanks for shopping with us today,” he said.
I nodded and grabbed my two shopping bags. I walked to the front door. The apartment was around the corner; it
should be a quick walk. My headphones went into my ears, and I connected them to the Bluetooth on my phone, which I tucked
into my pocket as beats played.
I stepped from the heated store onto the sidewalk outside. The spring breeze was chilly, so I stuffed my hands into my
hoodie pocket, still grasping the bags. The bags were light enough to hang out of my pocket. Gray clouds filled the sky,
indicating it might rain later.
The sun would set soon, the sky already growing dim. I’d have to walk fast to make it back before twilight.
I walked up the sidewalk. The sheer number of supernatural creatures caught my eye as I went. A family of trolls
perched inside a restaurant I passed. A beautiful woman with wings sat behind a clay wheel at a pottery shop. They were
beautiful. I never would’ve noticed these people before.
The music pounded in my ears as I continued home.
Osian treated me like I was precious. A smile broke across my face as I thought about him. Sure, he had a few
eccentric tastes, but I couldn’t ask to be treated better. I’d even started thinking of his apartment as home.
I couldn’t wait to surprise him with dinner. He deserved so much more.
When a hand roughly closed over my mouth, I had just enough time to widen my eyes before pain exploded through the
back of my head and everything went black.
 Chapter 18

Magdalene
I couldn’t see anything. There was a blindfold over my eyes. I could feel that I was tied up in a fetal position on the
floor. A quick inventory told me that my hands and ankles were bound. The back of my head throbbed. My shoes were missing.
Distantly, I could feel a pulse that connected to Osian. I’d laid on his chest enough that I could tell that heartbeat
anywhere.
I groaned, wishing I was with him.
“Oh good, you’re awake,” a masculine voice said with excitement. Footsteps walked closer to me, the wooden
floorboards creaking under the added weight.
Right by my ear, the voice whispered, “Welcome back to reality, princess.”
Goosebumps rose on my skin, and my heart kicked up. I smelled Axe body spray like my captor had doused himself in
it.
My mouth was dry. “Who are you? What do you want?” I croaked.
“I want you to run like a dog before you feed my friend. Woof,” he barked in my ear. I jumped and tried to scoot away
from him. I didn’t move far.
He laughed, and the footsteps moved away.
He said, “My friend doesn’t come out much during the day so you do have a chance to escape. We’re in a forest at
night, surrounded by only trees for miles. Run and scream all you want. Lucky you, it’s raining so my friend might have a hard
time scenting you. Avoid him until sunup, you can go free. If not, he’s going to eat you.” My captor made an eerie slurping
noise.
My heart pounded wildly in my chest, and I whimpered.
“This is the only warning I’ll give you. The more you’re afraid, the more you’ll help him. Fear has a strong scent.”
These men wanted to kill me. Could Osian live without his fated? Were they killing two beings tonight? His laughing
face flashed before my eyes.
No. I shook my head. They couldn’t kill me. I had someone else to live for. I wouldn’t let them.
The floor creaked as the footsteps approached again. The scent of Axe overwhelmed my senses.
My captor cut the ropes on my feet and hands, then he roughly made me stand. His hands held my arms behind my back.
I tried to yank away.
“Hold still,” he hissed.
He cut my hoodie and yanked the remnants off my body. That left me in a tank top and jeans. I was going to freeze.
“Can’t have you too comfortable now,” he whispered in my ear.
I shivered.
“Move.” He shoved me.
I stumbled forward, unable to see because of the blindfold.
A door creaked open. “Good luck.” He shoved me outside and slammed the door behind me.
Rain drops soaked me and I could feel that I stood on wet concrete.
I pulled the blindfold off.
My eyes widened when I saw the landscape from my dreams. I stood in front of an abandoned house in a clearing that
was surrounded by trees. A rutted driveway led to the house, and a dark Jeep parked at the end.
I heard another door open, and a dog began to ferociously bark and snarl.
My stomach dropped.
Like in the dream, I screamed and ran. I had to run parallel to the driveway to find the road. I couldn’t run in the
driveway because it was too open.
Thunder rumbled, and rain poured from the angry night sky. My bare feet splashed through wet mud and standing water
as I tore out into the darkness. My wet red hair clung to my head.
I could feel the dog behind me. If it captured me, it’d kill me.
I pushed harder through the rain, seeing a gap in the trees lining the driveway. If I could make it there, maybe I could
lose the dog behind me.
No matter how fast I ran, I only seemed to move in slow motion. I knew I had to keep going, though.
My legs carried me across the boggy ground. Lightning struck the surface nearby and caused a shriek to come from my
throat.
The dog would catch me. I ducked into the trees and frantically searched for a place to hide. Shadows of undergrowth
and darkness flashed through my vision. Panic set in when I saw nothing to hide behind. I kept moving.
 My breaths came shorter, my heart beat wilder, and tears overtook my vision.
I slipped and fell in the mud. I pried myself from the sucking substrate as fast as I could. An angry red scratch ran
down my arm, and I was completely soaked, but I didn’t have time to feel it. I had to get away.
Branches cracked behind me as the dog grew closer. I ran even faster as I sobbed.
Almost out of nowhere, I spotted a cabin ahead. With relief, I headed there. Maybe I could lock them out temporarily
and figure a way out of this.
My feet left muddy prints over the floorboards of the porch. I shoved through the front door and slammed it behind me.
I felt for a lock and, once it was bolted in place, I turned my back to the door and faced the room.
It was completely dark, only moonlight streamed through the window beside the door. In the moonlight, I looked down
at my arm. The scratch that was still there throbbed. So did the back of my head. This wasn’t a dream.
 Chapter 19

Osian
I paced in front of the apartment door and nervously ran a hand through my hair. Where was she? Night had already
fallen outside. I could feel she wasn’t nearby through our fated link but I didn’t want to invade her privacy.
I’d returned to the apartment earlier with Wynn’s direction and hints to wait patiently. But something was wrong, I
could feel it. N’s heartbeat had accelerated.
Maybe she was having sex. I didn’t like the thought of someone else touching her, but demons did that all the time in
relationships. It wasn’t the end of the world. She could’ve told me, but maybe for some reason she thought it had to stay secret.
Human prejudice, maybe?
I sucked on my peppermint candy in worry.
Intense fear broadcasted through our connection, and my heart stuttered. Shit. That wasn’t sex.
Without another thought, I transported into Onyx and Wynn’s living room.
Onyx pressed his body over Wynn’s as they made out on the couch. I rolled my eyes and cleared my throat.
Onyx broke the kiss and turned his head to look at me. “It’s your own fault. You didn’t knock first.”
Not important. N is missing, I signed.
He frowned and moved into a seated position. Wynn sat up, too.
“What do you mean N’s missing?” Onyx asked.
Something is wrong. I can sense it.
Onyx turned to Wynn. “You saw her last. Where was she going?”
Wynn furrowed her eyebrows. “She planned to walk to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for dinner. She
said to stay here to keep Osian distracted, that she’d be back before dark.”
Onyx looked at me. “But she hasn’t returned?”
I shook my head.
“Can you feel her? Is she okay?”
She is alive and scared. Her heartbeat pounds like she is in distress.
“Well, shit.” Onyx opened the coffee table and grabbed a handgun. “Wynn, stay here and keep the door locked.”
“Okay.”
Onyx stood and tucked the gun into his waistband. He walked to me and grasped my arm. His black gaze found mine.
“Let’s bring her home.”
I nodded and used the fated link to transport us to N.
 Chapter 20

Osian
Onyx and I appeared in the darkness of an abandoned shed. Our eyes saw in the dark so that wasn’t a problem. The
shed was empty except for a few old farm tools, and the floor was made of soil.
N huddled against the door, soaked and bleeding. Tears streaked her face. She shook, whether from cold or fear I
didn’t know.
N, I said.
“Osian!” she cried. She lunged in my direction.
I caught her and wrapped my arms around her. She felt so good in my arms. I closed my eyes and hugged her close. I’d
keep her safe.
My eyes flew open when, suddenly, the door rattled on its hinges like something flung its weight against it.
“N, what’s out there?” Onyx asked. He went to the window beside the door to look out. Another window was on the
back wall.
“A—” she sniffled. “Some kind of dog. The guy who took me said it would eat me. That’s all I know. Oh, it doesn’t
like daylight. If I can avoid it till dawn, I can leave.” She pressed her face into my chest.
Onyx made a hmmm sound and kept his gaze out the window. “So there’s one guy and whatever this dog is?”
“As far as I know,” N murmured against my shirt. She sobbed.
Onyx thought aloud, “What leaves dehydrated husks of bodies and can shift into a dog? Has a helper to find souls for
them? Werewolves shift but they don’t leave husks. They don’t typically have helpers either.”
An image of a pale human man with empty black sockets for eyes flashed through my mind. A shudder ran down my
spine. Soul eater, I thought.
“Osian said ‘soul eater,’” N relayed.
I’d forgotten he couldn’t hear me. I squeezed her in appreciation. She pressed her face back against my chest and
shivered. She had to be freezing. I enveloped her tighter in my arms.
Onyx glimpsed whatever was outside the door. “And your guess would be spot-on.”
Soul eaters were created by placing special stones in a person’s stomach and chanting a spell. That person then had to
consume souls or permanently disappear. The longer they existed, the paler their skin became and the more their eyes sank in
until they disappeared. It was a punishment usually enacted by scorned individuals.
A soul eater could transform into a dog to pursue its prey. They took the souls from their victims’ bodies and hoarded
them in their home base, feeding from the souls until there was nothing left.
They were basically invulnerable. Only removing the stones from their stomach and killing them would release the
hoarded souls. And they were hard to kill.
A soul eater would fight if we tried to take it down. But we had to destroy it to keep N safe. This wasn’t something we
could ignore. The creature had scented N already and would find her soul irresistible. It would always pursue her. Onyx knew
that, too. Either Onyx or I, or both, could be seriously injured or killed in this fight. But we couldn’t walk away.
Onyx watched the creature through the window as he said, “N, Osian is going to take you home. Stay with Wynn. Don’t
leave the apartment.” He turned from the window. “We’ll take care of this.” He spoke with a confidence I’m not sure he had.
N flew from my arms to hug Onyx. “Thank you.”
He hugged her back. “Anything for my brother’s fated. We’ll be home soon. Let Wynn care for you.”
The door rattled again.
Onyx nudged her toward me. “Take her home. And come back. Soon.” He shot a serious look my way.
I nodded at him.
I wrapped my arms around N and transported her into Wynn and Onyx’s living room.
Wynn sat on the couch, and she gasped when we appeared. “N! Are you okay?” She scurried off the couch toward N.
Please look after her, I signed to Wynn. She’ll heal fast.
Wynn nodded.
I kissed N softly then released my grasp on her. I thought, I love you. I’ll take care of this.
“I love you, too.”
I memorized the lines of her face and her features as she nodded. Even rain-soaked and bloody, she still looked
beautiful. At least I had one last look if this was the last time I saw her.
No matter what happens, care for yourself. I love you.
Her eyes widened. “Osian—”
I gave N one more quick kiss, then I transported back to the shed.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
suppressing discoveries which were not patented. But, assuming
that to be possible in some cases, it operated even now, for it was
well known that Patents were bought up for the purpose of being
suppressed, and it was understood also that inventors were the
persons who derived the least advantage from their inventions. His
conclusion, therefore, upon the whole matter was that the time had
at last arrived—even if it had not arrived some time ago—at which
the public interest would be promoted by the entire abolition of the
present system of monopoly.
[This speech and the succeeding one have been obligingly revised
for the press by the speakers.]
 SPEECH OF THE RIGHT HON. LORD
STANLEY, M.P.
Lord Stanley said that, agreeing substantially in the arguments of
the honourable and learned gentleman who had just sat down, he
should not have troubled the House if it had not been for the
circumstance that he was chairman of the Royal Commission which
sat upon the question of the administration of the Patent-Law some
years ago, and he thought, therefore, that it might be expedient he
should state what was the result which that inquiry produced upon
his mind. There was no doubt that, quite apart from the principle of
the law, the details of the law, as at present administered, were not
satisfactory; and, if the law were to continue in any form, he believed
that in the report of that Commission various suggestions would be
found by which the most prominent objections to its present working
might be removed, and fair trial might be given to the principle itself.
But it was impossible to carry on an inquiry of that kind, even limited
as it was—it was impossible, at least, for him, and he believed he
was not the only one in that position—without finding a doubt raised
in one’s mind whether any Patent-Law could be framed in such a
manner as not, upon the whole, upon the balance of good and evil,
to do more harm than good. That conclusion, he was bound to say,
was totally opposed to his earliest impressions upon the subject. He
resisted it for some time, but the more he had to look into this matter
—the more he had to consider how great were the practical abuses
and inconveniences of the existing system, and how difficult it would
be to remedy them—the more clearly it appeared to him that the evil
was really irremediable, being inherent in the principle itself. On this
subject of Patents there had been a certain amount of prejudice,
particularly in the minds of literary men, who appeared to think that
Copyright was only a modification of the same principle, and that if
Patents were abolished Copyright would follow. The analogy seemed
a plausible one, but he thought that, on being looked into, it would
not hold water. The difference was simply this: He did not rest it on
any abstract ground as to the distinction between invention and
discovery, but on the obvious fact that no two men ever did or ever
would write, independently of one another, exactly the same book;
each book, be it good or bad, would stand alone; whereas it might
happen, and often did happen, that two or three men, quite
independently of one another, would hit upon the same invention.
That alone established a distinction between the two cases. He was
not disposed to place the objection which he entertained to the
system of Patents upon the ground of any abstract impropriety in
giving a man a property in ideas. To a certain extent you did in the
case of Copyright recognise a certain qualified and temporary
property in ideas; and if it could be shown that a man’s ideas had
been of a nature to add greatly to the wealth of the country, he did
not think that any abstract considerations of the kind mentioned by
the honourable member (Mr. Macfie) would induce anybody to
grudge to such a man any reward to which he might fairly be entitled,
provided that that reward could be given in a manner free from
objection on other grounds. The objections which he felt to the
principle of Patents were threefold. In the first place, you could
hardly ever secure the reward going to the right man. In the next
place, you could not establish any proportion between the public
service rendered and the value of the reward received, nominally, for
that service. And, thirdly, you could not by any arrangement that he
had been able to discover, prevent very great inconvenience and
injury being inflicted upon third parties. With regard to the first point
—the difficulty of securing that the reward should go to the right man
—it must be remembered that a Patent did not, as some people
supposed, bring to the holder of it an immediate pecuniary
recompense. All that it did was to give him a right to prevent any one
else from using his invention without paying for it, and if that Patent
were infringed he was entitled to take legal proceedings. But
everybody knew that law was costly, and that Patent suits were the
most costly of all. It was notorious that Patents were continually
infringed by persons who well knew they were infringing them, but
relied upon the inability of the inventor to incur the expense of
defending his property. If a poor inventor took out a Patent, and the
Patent promised to be productive, in nine cases out of ten he was
obliged to sell it to some one who could command capital enough to
defend it in a court of law. If the Patent remained in his own hands, it
was quite sure to be infringed, and then he would probably be
crushed by the law expenses. He did not know whether it would be
possible to obtain accurate information upon this point, but he really
did not think he should be exaggerating if he said that in nine cases
out of ten—probably in 99 out of 100—the reward was obtained, not
by inventors or their representatives, but by persons who had bought
the Patent on speculation and at a very low rate. He said at a low
rate, because there was a great deal of uncertainty about such
property, and until a Patent was tested by actual working you could
hardly say whether it was valuable or not. What was the practical
effect of this? Why, that a few great firms in any branch of business,
buying up at a low rate any new Patent applicable to their business,
and prepared to fight for it, could so hamper other competitors as to
secure a practical monopoly. The reward, therefore, did not, as a
rule, go to the men who, on the ground of the public service
rendered by them, were intended to receive it. As to the second point
—that the reward might be great and the public service very small—
that had been dwelt upon by the honourable and learned gentleman
opposite, and little need be added to what had been said by him.
The merit and novelty of the invention might in many cases be
almost nothing, and, yet however obvious it might be, however much
it might lie, so to speak, in the high road of discovery, if it applied to
any article of general use, the pecuniary reward derived from it might
be absolutely out of proportion to the novelty or value of the
invention. It would be easy to give instances, but he apprehended
that the fact was familiar to every one who had studied this question.
Then, with regard to the injury to third parties, it commonly happened
that half-a-dozen men who were competing in the same line of
business were upon the track of the same discovery. Each of these
half-a-dozen men would probably have hit upon the invention which
was wanted, independently and without communication with the
other. But the first who hit upon it, and who took out a Patent for it,
was thereby entitled to exclude the general public and competitors
from the use of that which, if he had never existed, they would
probably have hit upon within a few weeks. A and B reached the
same point, one a week or a fortnight before the other, and A
became entitled, by the mere accident of such priority, to exclude B
from a process which, a little later on, B would have hit upon for
himself. Another case was that where the successful working of a
process depended not upon one, but upon several successive
inventions. The first two or three, not leading to any immediate
practical result, might not have been thought worth patenting. The
last link in the chain gave to the whole their commercial value, and it
was the person who took out the Patent for the last invention who
got the benefit of the whole, yet it might not be the most important
invention in the series. He would say nothing of the inconvenience
and prejudice to manufacturers in general. That was obvious
enough, and the question was whether there was any
counterbalancing advantage. These were the considerations which
led him to the conclusion that it was impossible to defend our system
of Patent-Law as it stood. At the same time, he did not at all disguise
from the House that there were certain inconveniences and
difficulties in the way of abolishing Patents altogether. You had to
guard, in the first place, against the danger of encouraging inventors
to keep their discoveries entirely to themselves. In some branches of
business, no doubt, that would be possible, and the obvious effect
might be to shut out the public, for a much longer period than would
be the case if Patents were allowed, from the use of some valuable
invention. Then it had been suggested by the honourable member
who raised this debate that there might be a system of State rewards
for the encouragement of really meritorious inventions. Without
putting an absolute negative on that plan, he must observe that it
was one which could only be established at great cost, and it would
be a very difficult thing to apportion among inventors the rewards to
which they might think themselves entitled. The distribution of the
rewards would give rise to endless complaints, and would occasion,
however unjustly, suspicions of jobbing and partiality. With regard to
the suggestion thrown out by the honourable and learned gentleman,
of the possibility of granting Patents, not as a right, but as matters of
discretion only in certain limited and important cases, the Select
Committee considered that point, and he was bound to say that the
difficulty of carrying it out appeared to his mind almost insuperable.
There would be found great difficulty in drawing the line, and it would
not be an easy matter for any one to exercise so large a
discretionary power as to decide to what inventions Patents should
or not be granted. He did not know what tribunal would be fit to
exercise so great an authority, and he was sure that none would be
able to exercise it in a manner to give satisfaction to the public. The
most fit persons to decide in such a case would be the first to see
the difficulty of deciding on any intelligible principle, and would on
that ground decline to undertake the duty. Under these
circumstances it appeared that they were landed in a position of
great embarrassment. He was convinced that the Patent-Laws did
more harm than good, and if called on to say aye or no as to their
continuance, he should certainly give his vote against them; but, as
this was a matter which required particularly careful handling, he
should be content to leave the question in the hands of the
Government, and he thought it was well worth consideration whether
they could not, starting on the ground that the abolition of the Patent-
Laws, wholly or partially, was desirable, institute some inquiry with
the view of discovering, if possible, the best substitute for them in
certain cases.
 PATENT RIGHT.
Paper by Mr. J. Stirling, Presented to the Glasgow Chamber of
Commerce, and published by permission.
First: Patent-right cannot be defended on the ground of justice.
The object of a Patent-Law is to establish a “property in ideas:” but
this involves the double fallacy that thought can and should be
appropriated. The end of all law is to ensure the universal freedom of
human action. Hence the law of property secures to every man the
product of his own labour. It gives to each an exclusive right to the
material embodiment of his productive energy, to be possessed or
alienated by him at will. But in so doing it leaves unrestricted the
productive energy of every other man. The freedom of one (as
represented by his property) is thus consistent with the freedom of
all.
But thought cannot be appropriated. In thought there is no material
product to be made the object of a proprietary right. There is no
“thing” to be possessed or alienated. The law can only, therefore,
give the exclusive use of an idea to one person by injuriously limiting
the intellectual activity of all others. A Patent-right, therefore, is less
a “property in ideas” than a monopoly of thought.
Again, a true right of property is universal in its application; it
extends to the products of all industry, however humble. But it is
instinctively felt, that a proprietary right applied to every individual
idea would be essentially absurd. Patent-Law, therefore, is
essentially partial in its application. It picks out certain favourite
ideas, and confers on them an anomalous and oppressive privilege.
There seems no good reason why the ideas of inventors should be
especially favoured. An invention is a means to a special end, and
should be recompensed by him who has the end in view. If any ideas
deserve a public recompense, it is those general ideas whose
application is of universal utility. But Patent-Law ignores the
discoverer of general ideas, and while conferring rewards, at the
expense of the community, on empty schemers and puffing
tradesmen, it passes over the services of a Newton or an Adam
Smith. The law of Copyright, indeed, gives to the philosopher a right
of property in his published and material works, but it leaves (most
justly) his ideas to be used and elaborated by whoso can and will.
Again, Patent-Law is founded on a conventional, not a natural,
right. It is not, like the ordinary law of property, based on an universal
intuition of the human conscience, but it is one of those laws by
which unwise legislators have striven so long and so vainly to give
an artificial stimulus to human industry. Hence the arbitrary nature of
its enactments. The ordinary right of property is unlimited in its
duration—passing from generation to generation. But common
sense revolts, instinctively, against a perpetual monopoly of thought.
A Patent-Law, therefore, can never be more than a weak
compromise with principle—the legislator undertaking to secure to
the patentee his ideal property during the biblical term of seven or
fourteen years. Now, if the inventor have a right at all, he has a right
to more than this. To cut down a real and acknowledged right of
property to seven, or even fourteen, years were a grievous wrong.
Patent-right goes too far, or not far enough. Either a Patent is no
right at all, or it is a right for all time. If ill-founded, it is a robbery of
the public; if well-founded, of the patentee.
Mere priority affords no good ground for the exclusive right to an
invention. The free exercise of thought is the common right of all.
Wherefore if A excogitate a principle to-day, and B, by independent
thought, excogitate the same principle to-morrow, both have an
equal right to benefit by the discovery; and A has no natural right to
debar B from the legitimate fruit of his intellectual effort. It may be
even that A had no real priority of thought, but was only more
knowing, more greedy, or was simply nearer to a patent office, and,
though latest in arriving at the idea, was the first to secure a legal
monopoly of its use. To found a right on such a race for priority is
evidently irrational. The simultaneousness of discoveries and
inventions by different minds, is a well-established fact in the history
of science. Certain facts and reasonings, all tending in a given
direction, are before the world. These act simultaneously on various
minds, and produce in each the same development of thought. Now,
with what justice do we pick out one of these many thinkers and give
him a monopoly of the common thought? Nor is the injustice
confined to the original idea, of which we grant a monopoly. By tying
up one idea, we stop the whole course of thought in a given
direction, and thus interfere generally, and to an indefinite extent,
with the intellectual activity of other men.
The inventor benefits by the ideas of the community, and has,
therefore, no right to a special privilege for his idea. The universal
thought of mankind is a common good; all benefit by it freely, and all
are bound freely to contribute to it. Every thinker owes an
incalculable debt to society. The inventor has the benefit of all
foregone human thought, of all existing civilization. He has the
unbought advantage of all laws, all language, all philosophy. He has
the free use of all the methods and appliances, spiritual and material,
which have been painfully elaborated by the thinkers and workers of
all time. Why, then, should he alone have an exclusive privilege, in
respect of the infinitesimal addition which he may make to the work
of ages?
Secondly: Patent-right cannot be justified on the lower ground of
expediency. The object of a Patent-Law, in the supposed interest of
the community, is to stimulate invention. But invention needs no
artificial stimulus. Nature has amply provided all needful and
wholesome encouragement, in the additional profit afforded by
improved methods of production. In the natural course of business,
every producer is spurred on by his material interests to invent for
himself or to encourage the inventions of others. The whole history
of industrial progress is an unceasing striving after improvement,
with a view to profit. The few thousand patented inventions are as
nothing compared with the innumerable improvements produced
daily and hourly in the ordinary course of business, with the vulgar
view of gain. The best stimulus to invention, therefore, will be found
in the natural competition of producers; but Patent-Law destroys this
competition by an unjust monopoly, and thus tends indirectly to
weaken the natural impulse to improvement.
 Invention may be even over-stimulated. In all her arrangements,
Nature provides for a due equilibrium of powers and tendencies.
Thus the various faculties and temperaments of man—the sanguine
and the cautious, the speculative and the practical—are nicely
balanced. The result, when things are left to themselves, is a happy
combination of ingenuity and caution, and, as a consequence, a
continuous but prudent course of improvement. But if, by
conventional rewards, we give a factitious impulse to the inventive
faculty, we destroy the natural equilibrium of capacities, and foster a
scheming, fanciful turn of mind, at the expense of thoroughness and
a patient working out of sound ideas. This result has actually
occurred in the United States, where the factitious value attached to
invention has tended to produce an almost total sacrifice of solid
workmanship to a flimsy ingenuity.
Patent-Law does not even attain its proposed end of quickening
the progress of real improvement; on the contrary, it is found in
practice seriously to hinder it, the monopoly granted to one inventor
necessarily obstructing the progress of every other. Hence, an
eminent inventor has lately said: “The advance of practical science is
now grievously obstructed by those very laws which were intended
to encourage its progress.” That Patents seriously obstruct the
natural development of ideas, is best seen by the sudden advance
which usually follows the expiry of important Patent-rights. The
natural course of improvement, dammed back by artificial obstruction
during the continuance of the Patent, is set free on its conclusion,
and a new impulse is given to the development of ideas and their
practical application.
But the public is not the only sufferer by Patent-right. Without
doubt the heaviest evil falls on the patentee. The inventor is led to
give an excessive development to his talent, and is seduced into
reliance on a law that can give him no substantial protection. The
difficulty of defining original inventions is a practical bar to a
satisfactory Patent-Law. The whole history of Patents is a long-
continued story of litigation and disappointment; and the more
admirable the invention, the greater is the certainty of difficulty and
loss. It must be a worthless invention that the patentee is left to enjoy
in peace. Whenever a Patent is worth pirating, the inventor may
depend on being involved in a maze of litigation that disturbs his
peace and ruins his fortunes. And the more the Patent privilege is
extended, the worse the evil becomes; the intricacy and the
multiplicity of details baffling every attempt to define the rights of
competing inventors.
At this moment the heaviest complaints against Patents come
from our great inventors. They repudiate the proffered privilege as
“injurious to inventors,” and complain of being “borne down by an
excess of protection.” As is natural, they who are most occupied with
the advancement of invention, feel most acutely the grievous
obstructiveness of the Patent-Law. Not enough that they have to
battle with natural difficulties; at every step they meet obstructions
which a well-meaning but perverse law places in their way. Nor do
these obstructive privileges confer any real advantage on the empty
schemers whose monopoly they establish: they merely give them the
vexatious power of hindering the progress of better men. The mere
“pen-and-ink inventor” has neither the energy, nor the perseverance,
nor the practical ability to mature his crude “idea;” but to this man the
law awards the dog-in-the-manger privilege of effectually obstructing
the natural progress of practical improvement.
These practical evils the advocates of Patent-Law do not deny; but
they attribute them to the defective execution of the law, not to its
vicious principle. Hence a never-ending cry, as in the case of all bad
laws, for more legislation, for more stringent regulation, for stricter
investigation, and more thorough registration of Patents. But no
tinkering at details can avail. The whole system is radically unsound;
and the only effectual remedy is to lay the axe to the root.
A sentimental plea in favour of Patent-right has been set up by
some, on the ground that the inventor—the man of thought, as he is
called—must be saved from the toils of the capitalist, ever ready to
prey on his superior intellect. This silly sentimentalism could only
originate in an utter ignorance of the relations which naturally subsist
between capital and talent. The capitalist is the natural ally of the
inventor, whom it is his interest to employ and encourage. It is a chief
part of the business of every producer to search out every one who
can help him to improved methods of production; and the
remuneration which, in one shape or another, it is the interest of the
capitalist to offer to the really clever inventor, will always form a surer
and more substantial reward than the delusive privilege of a legal
monopoly. As to the complaints we hear of neglected talent, we may
safely conclude that they arise more from the exaggerated
pretensions of conceited schemers, than from any obtuseness to
their own interests on the part of practical men of business, who
refuse to profit by their inventions.
On the whole, Patent-Law seems a blunder, founded on the
antiquated notion of giving State encouragement to certain favoured
modes of human activity. It is no part of the duty of the State to
stimulate or reward invention; the true function of Government is to
protect, not to direct, the exercise of human energy. By securing
perfect freedom to each individual, we shall best provide for the
progress of the community; nor can any law be conceived more
detrimental to the common weal than one which lays restrictions on
perfect freedom of thought.
 ARE INVENTIONS PROPERTY?
BY M. T. N. BENARD,
Editor of the “Journal des Economistes,” July, 1868.
(Translated and Reprinted by his obliging consent.)
In the number of the Journal des Economistes for last December
there appeared a very conscientious paper on “Property in
Inventions,” by our learned colleague, M. le Hardy de Beaulieu. We
would have preferred that some master of the science had published
an answer to this article, which it seems to us is based on a wrong
principle, and that he had given to the readers of this journal the
opposite view of those ideas so ably set forth by the honourable
Professor of Political Economy at the Belgian “Musée de l’Industrie.”
We believe that this question has acquired sufficient importance
and reality to merit being fully argued and cleared up; and, no other
having taken up the pen in answer, we shall endeavour to set forth
the principle which alone appears to us true and admittable.
We throw out these ideas for discussion, hoping that the subject
will be taken up by one of our masters in the science, and that this
great debate will be carried out in a manner suitable to the
imperishable doctrines of justice and equity, which form the basis of
political economy.

I.
“The man who first made a hut,” says M. le Hardy de Beaulieu, “a
piece of furniture, a cloak, or some necessary of life, would no doubt
have thereby excited the envy of his neighbours, and he would
frequently have been deprived of these objects by violence or by
strategy, before it would be generally allowed that they ought to
belong to him who made them, and that it was at once the duty and
the interest of the community to guarantee him their possession
against every attack.”
We acknowledge that the man who first constructed a hut was
perfectly right in making good his claim against those who would
have deprived him of it, and that he was justified in vindicating his
claim by force. He had employed his time and strength in building
this hut; it was undoubtedly his, and his neighbours acted up to their
natural right and in their own interests in helping him to oppose the
intruder. But there ended both the right of the individual and that of
the community.
If this first man, not content with claiming his hut, had pretended
that the idea of building it belonged exclusively to him, and that
consequently no other human being had a right to build a similar
one, the neighbours would have revolted against so monstrous a
pretension, and would never have allowed so mischievous an
extension of the right which he had in the produce of his labour.
Nevertheless, this man had exercised imagination and
combination; he had invented the shape, the size, and the
arrangement of the whole structure; he was the first to conceive—
probably after many efforts of mind and thought, after long study,
after observations made on the nests of birds and the hut of the
beaver—that pile of branches, of dead wood, of leaves and of
stones, of which its shelter is formed. He was an inventor of the first
class. How is it, then, that the sentiment of justice which prompted
him to claim his property did not prompt him at the same time to
claim exclusive possession in the idea, the result of a long train of
reflection? How is it that the same sentiment of justice which induced
his neighbours, the community, to lend him armed force to preserve
for him the possession of his hut, did not go so far as to grant him a
property in his idea? No one dreamed of asking him for the
permission to imitate what he had made; no one thought he was
committing a crime, or doing him a wrong, in making a copy of his
hut.
Property can be a right only when its principles tend to the general
good and are useful in advancing the interests of the human race.
And if, in our day, imitation of an invention is not generally
considered as guilty an act as robbery of tangible property, it is
because every one understands the difference between an idea and
a thing made or done.
The inventor of a particular weapon, or certain furnishings, or
tools, had all possible rights in the constructing and possession of
these weapons, furnishings, or tools; but these rights could not be
extended to the hindering of his neighbours from making tools,
furnishings, or weapons, in every way similar. If the community had
admitted an exclusive right in these inventions, it would have died in
its germ, civilization would have been a dead letter, and man would
have been unable to fulfil his destiny.
Thus far, then, there was not, nor could be in principle, any
question of exclusive right of invention. This right was only thought of
when all notions of social right had been obscured by laws which,
like that of Henry II., declared that the right of labour belonged to the
Crown, and when there had grown up the idea of licensing labour
and granting exclusive privileges for its exercise. The institution of
the pretended property in inventions was a retaliation against the
suppression of the abusive right of masterships and corporations.

II.
Doubtless invention, as M. le Hardy de Beaulieu remarks, consists
in the discovery of a new scientific principle; but we cannot admit,
with the learned Professor, that the new application of a principle
already known, that the discovery of a natural agent hitherto
unknown, or of new properties or other modes of action of natural
agents, or of materials previously discovered, are inventions.
It is probable that coal was known long before any one thought of
putting it in a stove to be used as fuel. It is certain that stone was
known long before any one thought of employing it in the
construction of walls.
To pretend that the discovery of the combustible quality of coal, or
of the use to which stone might be put, gave a right to the discoverer
to exact from his neighbours the payment of a royalty before
employing this fuel, or this material for construction, is also to grant
that he who, centuries before, had thought of burning wood to warm
himself, or of seeking the shelter of a cave, ought also to be
recompensed for the trouble he had in discovering, appropriating,
and working out either this source of heat or this means of shelter.
Invention, we acknowledge, consists in the discovery of a new
scientific principle; it can often place, as M. le Hardy de Beaulieu
says, new gratuitous forces at the disposal of the community; but
does it follow that the inventor has an exclusive right in the property
of this discovery? We think not. The inventor of the compass,
whoever he was, has rendered an immense service to the
community; but could his invention be claimed as private property?
Does it not, on the contrary, enter with perfect justice into the public
domain?
Napier, the discoverer of logarithms, has rendered the most signal
service to calculators and navigators; but can his invention, the
knowledge of which may, either orally or by the printing-press, be
extended indefinitely—which any one may use privately, in the quiet
of the study—be put upon the same footing as landed property,
which a single man may cultivate—as house property, which may
belong to one or several, and which cannot be seized upon without
its being observed, and to the great scandal of all? Evidently not.
And if the law has never tried to appropriate inventions of this
class, it is because there must be something tangible, limited, and
final, giving the power to regulate its employment or possession.
It is not correct to say, besides, that the inventor does not deprive
the community of any portion of the common property which it
possessed before the invention. Before the invention the thing
discovered existed in embryo—in nature. This germ was multiple; it
existed as frequently as there were men; and the inventor pretends,
by the property in it which he claims, to deny it to all others and to
hinder its germination.
The right of the inventor is limited to that of working out his idea; it
is identical with that of a man who has discovered and cleared a
field; but it is not, like his, exclusive. He who invents and he who
clears can possess their property as long as they like and as they
like; but there is this difference between the field and the invention:
the first can be cultivated only by one without doing an injury to the
proprietor, while the invention may be used by several without
hindering, diminishing, or suppressing the working of it by the
inventor.
I have cleared a field, and cultivate it; if one of my neighbours
desires also to cultivate the same field, he hinders me from
exercising my right—he interferes with my working—he
dispossesses me.
I have discovered the combustible nature of coal: in what way
does my neighbour, who cooks his food on a coal fire, hinder me
from exercising my right, or interfere with the working of my
faculties? of what does he dispossess me?

III.
We have not, as we think, to take into consideration more or less
the difficulties of inventors; we have not to inquire if every invention
requires a more than ordinary degree of intelligence, special
knowledge, great perseverance, &c. There is a multitude of
occupations in life which require all these qualities, but no one has
ever pretended that on account of these qualities, probable sources
of success for them, they had a right to any favours, immunities, or
privileges.
The inventor of a useful discovery has quite as much, or more,
chance of making a fortune as the manufacturer who confines
himself to the beaten tracks, and only employs the known methods;
this last has had quite as much risk of being ruined as any searcher
after discovery. We believe that they are on an equality as to
position; for if the inventor may be ruined in not finding what he
seeks, the manufacturer may see all his looms or his machines
rendered useless, all his outlets closed, by the introduction of a
cheaper means of production. Why make a golden bridge for him
who enters the arena with arms more subtle and more finely
tempered than those of his adversary?
Notice that the manufacturer also renders a service to the
community—no doubt in seeking his own profit; but is it not so with
the inventor? Why then demand a reward for the one which is not
asked for the other?
The manufacturer who, in using the old looms, manages his
factory so as to reduce his prices by 10 or 20 per cent., and who in
consequence can furnish stockings (supposing him to be a stocking
manufacturer) to a number of those who were not rich enough to buy
them at the old prices, undoubtedly does a service to the community
equal to that which it would receive from the invention of a machine
which would make the stockings 10 or 20 per cent. cheaper.
The farmer who by superior ploughing, more skilful manuring, or
more careful weeding, increases the yield from two to three quarters
per acre—does not he also render a signal service to the
community?
The sailor, who finds the means of shortening voyages by utilising
certain currents or winds, in modifying the spread of his sails, &c.—
does not he increase the gratuitous natural forces placed at the
disposal of the community?
Why, then, if there is question of rewarding this class of services,
should they not ask for privileges, favours, and exclusive rights?
Why not go so far as forbid any one to arrange his factory on the
plan of the manufacturers of whom we have been speaking? Why
not forbid any farmer to weed, plough, or manure, like his neighbour;
or any sailor to follow the track of the first, without paying to those
who gave the example a previous and perpetual royalty?

IV.
“The property of an invention having required for its creation the
same labour as that of the soil, and this work offering less chance of
success and results of probable less duration, it is as legitimate at
least as landed property,” says M. le Hardy de Beaulieu; “and there
is no argument against it which may not be applied with equal force
to the individual and permanent occupation of the soil.”
The soil, to render all the productions that the community has a
right to expect from it, ought to become and remain a personal
individual property. Invention, on the other hand, cannot give all the
results that society can draw from it, unless it be public property.
Herein lies the immense and irreconcilable difference between
property in land and that of invention. Besides, land cannot become
unfertile, unproductive, or lose all its value as property, except by
some convulsion of nature which would deeply unsettle it. An
invention, on the contrary, may become quite valueless in ten years,
one year, a fortnight even, after being discovered, and that by the
superiority of a subsequent invention.
What becomes, then, of the property of this invention? What is its
worth? Has the inventor a right to damages?
If you construct near my field a factory from which escape noxious
vapours, hurtful to vegetation, and if I can show that you have
deteriorated or destroyed my crops, you, according to the laws of
every civilised nation, owe me damages; would you claim damages
of the inventor, whose discovery had rendered that of one of his
predecessors partially or completely unproductive? If property in
invention is equal to property in the soil, damages are incontestably
due. We do not think that a single advocate for this class of property
has, however, dared to carry his logic thus far.
The proprietor of a field may leave it uncultivated, the proprietor of
a house may leave it shut up as long as he likes; no law obliges to
put in a tenant, or to open it for lodgers. The laws of all countries
contain, with slight modifications, the following clause, quoted from
Art. 32 of the Law of 1844:—“Will be deprived of all his rights ... the
patentee who shall not have commenced the working of his
discovery or invention in France within two years, dating from the
day of the signature of the Patent, or who shall have ceased working
it during two consecutive years, unless that, in one or other case, he
can satisfactorily explain the causes of his inaction.”
 It would be very easy for us to cite other differences in the nature
of these two classes of property; we shall only refer to one more,
which points out how solid is the property in land, and how uncertain
and ephemeral the so-called property of invention. Land, considered
as property, increases in value from day to day; there is no invention
whose value does not diminish daily.
M. le Hardy de Beaulieu further adds, that “the inventor, in taking
exclusive possession of his idea, harms no one, since he leaves all
which previously existed in the same condition in which he found it,
without in any way lessening the social capital on which he drew.”
We should require, however, to come to an understanding as to what
may be called the social capital; for if the exclusive property of
invention had existed from the germination of the idea which led to
the construction of the first hut to the making of the earliest weapons,
tools, and furniture, it is difficult to know where we should find it. By
putting property in invention on the same footing as property in the
soil, all that man uses or consumes would belong to the descendants
of the first inventors, and every one would require to pay a sort of
rent for its use. The inventor of the wheelbarrow would have to pay a
royalty to the inventor of wheels, and the maker of the plainest pump
would pay an annual rent to the inventor of the lever or piston; there
would not, there could not, be any social capital.
But it is wrong to say that the exclusive possession of an idea
hurts no one, because it leaves what previously existed in the same
condition. I, or my neighbour, might put together ideas to form the
basis of an invention; this faculty of combination belongs to each of
us; with exclusive possession it belongs only to one. It cannot be
said, then, that no one is hurt, and that everything remains in the
same position.
After having said that the property of invention is in every respect
similar to property in the soil, M. le Hardy de Beaulieu places,
nevertheless, boundaries to the extent and duration of the first. He
says: “It is not meant precisely that property in an invention ought to
extend over the globe, nor that its duration should have no limit in
time; all property, in fact, is bounded by the cost of preservation,
maintenance, and working, which it requires, already, long before the