Page 47 of A Siren of Beasts

Imp narrowed his eyes at Hisceas, contemplating the whole situation. Rising from my seat, I perched myself on the arm of Imp’s chair but he wasn’t having it. Instead, he looped an arm around my waist tugging me onto his lap. “Shiny, if you are going to sit with me I expect you to sit on me.”

The double meaning in his words had me flushed, causing Rhun to groan and lean his head back. “Don’t say things to her that make her wet. It’s hard enough to be good normally, but knowing she’s horny and in need makes it so much worse.”

“Deal with it, fur face,” Imp growled, then nuzzled his face against my hair. “I love that I can do that with only words, it’s quite a fun trick.”

Milin cleared his throat drawing our attention. “Sorry to cut in on this thrilling banter but I believe the guardian has made a fair point. Knowing what the humans call him might help us in our search. We know the names for things change and evolve with humans over time, it’s best we know the current phrasing used.”

“Fine, I will do as the old fish asks,” Imp grumbled. “You look farther than you should and you might be missing a tentacle by the end of this, no matter how much Shiny likes them.”

“I’ll take that warning to heart, now if you would please do as I’ve instructed, I won’t need to venture any deeper into your mind,” Hisceas said as he reached a hand out to place two fingers on Imp’s temple.

twenty-one

Feeling the guardian enter my mind was uncomfortable and made my skin itch. If it weren’t for Shiny sitting here on my lap, I wouldn’t have let this happen. The things I do for my mate astound even me. Up until I’d met her, I didn’t give a flying fuck about anyone other than myself. My number one priority was me, myself, and I. Why bother looking after others when I could just kill them and eat their souls? Death ravens were feared and hated all throughout the lands because if someone was misfortunate enough to get killed by us there was no chance of reincarnation.

It would seem Shiny was changing more about me than I thought. She now had a second mate, the formidable Guardian of the Sea, who’d never once interacted with others the way he was now. He stuck to his domain out in the water smashing ships and giving humans a watery death. That part I was very much in support of, but now he was here on land and won over my Shiny’s heart. Which I was not thrilled about at all. Although, I’ll admit the need to rip out his soul had lessened immensely once their connection had been solidified.

Wait, did that mean I was going to start getting along with dog breath once she completed her side of the bond? A shiver worked its way through my body at that.

“Raven, concentrate, or I’m going to see things you don’t want me to know about,” Old man tentacle beard warned.

Oh shit, I hope he didn’t hear that. I’d been working extremely hard not to call him names like drool bag, but sometimes they slipped out. Right, okay concentrate.

I returned to that moment when I was heading back from the building where people kept leaving all their shiny treasures for me to take. The first time I did it they said it was a miracle and meant the gods were pleased with the gift and left more—much to my delight. If they wanted to believe I was a god then I wasn’t going to dissuade them from that belief. Humans were stupid enough to believe the gods cared about them or needed their trinkets. Gods were beings that couldn’t be bought or bartered with, that’s why they created us. I would happily let a human do either of those things to keep me from eating their souls. They weren’t all that tasty as it was.

With my prizes tucked away in my pockets, I flew back to the forest where I spotted the two men. They were hiding in a bush but they were talking far too loudly if they were trying to be sneaky. Better yet, they shouldn’t be talking at all, their scent was already giving them away as it was. That’s when I noticed they’d been stalking one of those grazing animals, a deer I think it was called. Many of them hid near the Hollowed Forest knowing it was safer with us monsters than around the humans. Curious as to what would drive the humans to be so close, I perched above them and listened.

“We need to make sure we get this one before the monsters scent its blood. We can’t afford more scavengers to steal this one,” the older of the two humans told the other, who had an eyepatch.

“You don’t think I know that, if you’d actually made a kill shot that dropped the damn deer where it stood we wouldn’t have needed to chase after it,” Eyepatch snapped. “His Holiness is coming in a week, which means we need to store up extra food for him and his followers. They say he is bringing the Speaker of the Gods with him. No one in the country of Drento has ever had the honor of meeting him. The stories say he’s like two hundred years old because the gods refuse to speak to anyone but him, so they made him immortal.”

The older man grunted with a look of disgust. “Don’t believe everything you hear. His Holiness visits us every ten years spewing tales of this damn Speaker, but why is it this is the first time anyone has heard of him coming here? If the gods picked this land for us to inhabit and to build our temples the way they demand, why are the monsters still here?”

“Because of people like you who have so little faith in them. Do you ever give offerings? I don’t see you praying or offering your blood to the stone during the yearly renewal. Maybe that’s why the Speaker is now coming, he knows many of you have lost your faith,” Eyepatch shot back.

The old man lifted his bow and the twang of the sting rippled through the air as the arrow shot true right into the deer’s heart. “Tell me, how does believing in any sort of god or gods keep food in my belly and a roof over my head? As far as I see it, they’ve done nothing for me so why should I do a damn thing for them?”

It was at this point I got bored and decided to move on, leaving them to argue as they collected their kill. Why I knew that conversation was important I didn’t really know, but there was a nagging sense that if it was important enough for them to risk getting so close to the forest—it was noteworthy.

Pulling out of my memory I looked over at the guardian who was frowning as he removed his hand. “Have you seen this Holiness before?” he asked.

“I’ve seen the man they call that a few times, but each time it’s a different human. There normally was a long time in between visits, well long for a human. These two said they come every ten years but I wonder if they pick a different village to visit each time. I only steal from the four that are closest to the forest. The others further inland are too much trouble to get to, even if they have the better stuff,” I shared then peered down at Shiny who was tapping her chin again as she thought.

Not wanting to interrupt her musings, I settled her more firmly against myself and combed through her hair with my talons. I knew she enjoyed it and through our bond, I could feel the stress that all of this was weighing on her. Rhun must have sensed it as well because he picked up her forgotten mug long gone cold and reheated it before handing it to her. She smiled at him, which had irritation churning in my belly. There was no reason for her to smile at him over such a simple gesture. Expressions like that should only be for me, I craved them like I craved finding that next treasure to steal. Granted, that need had lessened now that I had my most prized possession sitting in my lap, but that made me greedy over everything she gave others.

“Imp,” she called softly, snapping my attention back to her.

“Yes, my beloved Shiny,” I answered, letting my talons scrap along her scalp.

Her eyes fluttered in pleasure as she let out a soft moan, completely distracting her from what she was going to say. The last thing I wanted to do was go up to the library and shuffle through old dusty books. I wanted to play with my Shiny, preferably with no clothes on. Now that I’d gotten a taste of what it was like to be with my mate I hungered for it every waking moment.

“Imp, you’re trying to distract me,” she scolded but there was no real anger or irritation in her voice.

“I don’t know what you mean, I’m simply showering my mate in love and affection. If it’s distracting then I guess it means what you wanted to say wasn’t all that important. What do you say we go back up to our nest and you can tell me what was so important there,” I suggested, crossing my fingers she would say yes.

She laughed, which I loved to listen to almost as much as her moans when she came. It also told me that my efforts were not successful.

“You really are a scoundrel aren’t you, Imp?” She teased, flicking my beak playfully.