Cameron went cold at those words. “Pardon?”
Janice laughed at her startled expression. “She be a demon, love,” she repeated. “Surely you knew that. Right?”
Um… nay. She’d hadnoidea.
Her stomach fell straight to her feet as she turned to gape at the “girl” who blinked innocently at her. “You’rea demon?”
“You won’t be holding that against me, now, will you? I like you. You seem very nice… and sweet. Are you sweet?” She blinked innocently at Cameron.
Her heart pounded in her chest.Sweet?As in “to eat” sweet?
That would be the natural assumption, especially when dealing with a demon that like as not would want a bite of her flesh!
Squeaking, Cameron jumped away from the wet demon, ready to fight.
Yet for all that, Cameron’s hair remained dark and she stayed in her human body. Which only confused her more, as that didn’t normally happen around creatures of this ilk. Especially not if they meant harm to her or another.
“What are you?”
The demon shrugged. “Naked and wet. Bit cold and getting colder. You said you’d take care of me? Is there some mead about? I rather like mead for drink. It usually warms me when I’m cold like this.”
Disarmed by the oddly charming beastie, Cameron gaped at Janice, who seemed to be as equally perplexed by their guest. The creature appeared about as guileless as an infant. So either she was harmless…
Or the most treacherous creature ever born.
No wonder men were terrified of women, if this was a sample ofhow they appeared duplicitous in their eyes. She finally understood how her brother felt whenever he dealt with her when she was in one of her more contrary moods. It was, indeed, quite confusing.
All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door. “Miss Jack? You there?”
Never had she been happier to hear Kalder’s deep, resonant voice. She went to open it and allow him and Bart to enter their small, cramped space. But to her instant dismay, their entrance, as quiet as it was, also disturbed her sleeping companions. And while Valynda woke up in a relatively polite mood, given the unholy hour of it all, the same couldn’t be said for Belle.
She hated to be disturbed when she slept.
And Sancha came awake downright hostile and ready for war. “What the bloody hell is this, mates? Ship better be on fire and demons best be at the gate! Or else your bullocks are about to be in me fists!” She glared at Bart, then Kalder, with fury in her eyes and hell’s wrath twisting her lips.
Smirking, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Half that statement be right.”
Sancha growled fiercely as she righted herself in her bunk. “Ship on fire or I’m about to take a testicle from you both?”
“Demon at the gate.” Kalder crossed the small cabin to grab said demon by the arm. “Why, Chthamalus? Just why?”
“Why what, my lord?”
He let out a frustrated growl. “Why did you choose to be a woman just now?”
“So as not to scare the humans. It’s what you always said, is it not? Kill none without direct orders. And even with orders they mustbe armed, and at least over four and a half feet high, or we have to let them go… per your namby-pamby dictates.”
Bart laughed.
Kalder raked him with an irritated grimace. “You laugh, but his kind once ate an entire nursery of children.”
“Not what I’m laughing at. What I find amusing is that he thinksyou’rethe namby-pamby.”
Cameron bit back a laugh at the thought herself. Bart had a point. Kalder was the last person she would use those words to define, as he was a bit surly most days, and quicker to brawl than most.
“Any rate,” Kalder said, turning back toward the demon, “I think it best that—”
Something struck the ship hard and spun them about. The impact was so abrupt that it knocked Kalder, Bart, Cameron, and Chthamalus to the floor. Janice barely managed to stay in her bunk while Sancha fell from hers and let out a curse so foul even Bane would have been impressed with its color. Belle was thrown into Valynda’s bed, and then the two of them landed in a sprawled heap on the floor.
