Page 8 of Zodiac Monsters

He glanced up at the ceiling like he was pondering the question.“Were you in shifted form? Your scent would be particularly strong on a full moon night if you were shifted, especially if you were around a like-species. You said you were dealing with Greek Zodiac Shifters, correct? Not Chinese Zodiac shifters? So you must be a Zodiac—”

Oh my fucking god.

“NO.” I said more firmly and loudly than I should have in a library. “I’m human.” Apparently I needed to regularly clarify this to him. “Humans don’t shift, full moon or not.”

“Right, right. Of course. I almost forgot, Human Lila. My firsthand knowledge of humans is obviously quite limited.” That insincere smile covered his face again.

“What about human… uh… scents. What do humans smell like to shifters?” Things were devolving quickly, and I needed to lead the conversation somewhere helpful before I lost my audience.

“Meat.” He said bluntly and matter-of-factly. “Humans smell like a sweaty butcher shop all the time, no matter how much they try to mask it with perfumes. It’s terrible.”

“Oh.” I frowned. Well, that wasn’t really the description I wanted to hear. I hoped he didn’t hate sitting with me. “Is that what I smell like?”

“No.” Ceto took a deep breath through his nose. “You smell like tobacco mixed with rosemary and sage. Which is fascinating, since I don’t get the impression that you smoke, and I’m guessing you don’t typically wear men’s cologne that would contain either herbal note.” He supported his cheek in his palm as he gazed at me like he was waiting for me to figure something out. I recognized all of those scents from Adrian and Marcus, however, so the reason he was smelling those instead of a ‘sweaty butcher shop’ seemed fairly straightforward.

I nodded along, then figured I’d try one more time to press the point. “And can humans be Alphas and Betas and Omegas? Or is that just a shifter thing? I’ve only seen it mentioned in the werewolf books.”

He started to roll his eyes, then visibly forced himself to stop. Instead, he cleared his throat and met my gaze again. “No, any human who claims that hierarchy is using the language in a very different way. Among humans, it’s simple banter. Amongst shifters, it’s a fixed class system.”

“I see. Well that clears up a little bit.” I lifted the corners of my lips through a strained expression. “Maybe the guy who told me my scent was getting to him just really didn’t want to be around the smell of sweaty meat.”

“Sure.” That made him smile, but it didn’t make him relax. He seemed oddly tense as I breached these topics. Maybe I should back off before I lost my chance at making a friend. Now that we were going to be coworkers, I didn’t want my first job in college to be tense and awkward. It wasn’t worth it to get fired on the basis of being too intrusive. I kind of needed the money.

“Sorry to pry so much. I feel really over my head right now, and you’re the only person who I’m comfortable asking these things.” I shrunk into myself, I wasn’t sure how I came to see him as a safe point of contact, but I guess it was because he was the only one who hadn’t scared the shit out of me. He was an impartial third party who had no reason to deceive me.

“You’re fine.” Ceto shrugged. “I don’t mind answering your questions for the most part. I simply don’t know what all you’ve gotten yourself into, and it can be difficult to relate nuance to someone whose knowledge is still so high level.” Despite saying all that, he didn’t get up, and he didn’t leave. He just waited patiently for whatever my next question might be. “If I understood your circumstances better, it might be easier to give you the relevant cliff notes.”

“That’s fair.” I dipped my gaze to my lap, feeling a bit self-conscious about the idea of explaining. I couldn’t tell him Marcus or Adrian’s secrets, and I absolutely didn’t want to talk about the sexual stuff. That wasn’t relevant anyway. Until I knew Ceto better, I was going to just have to settle for trickle truths. “I don’t know enough to give you much more information than that, honestly. All I understand at this point is some people turn into monsters under the full moon.”

Another student walked into the library and started searching through the shelves. I stopped speaking immediately, and Ceto’s expression tightened. He watched the student from the corner of his eye, and his nostrils flared slightly, like an animal scenting a potential threat.

He returned his gaze to me. “Why don’t we talk about this more after school? We’ll be working together from here on, yes?”

“If you’re still okay with that.” I smiled awkwardly. I’d not officially started yet, and I was starting to worry grilling him for information would make me a much less attractive coworker. He was always so friendly, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t wear out my welcome. Kindness didn’t actually mean he liked me. It was always possible he was just being polite. That’s what I usually reverted to when I was uncomfortable anyway.

His whole demeanor softened. “Of course I’m okay with that. I’m looking forward to it even.” Ceto stated that like it was a matter-of-fact. From anyone else, it might have sounded like flirting, but Ceto always spoke in serious, emotionless absolutes, so I had no such illusions with him.

His frankness put me at ease when I was starting to worry I’d been annoying him beyond redemption. I exhaled deeply then shared a quiet smile. “Then we’ll talk on it more later.”

Ceto nodded before he stood from the desk. He flashed me his demon eyes briefly, and every time he did, my entire body hitched. The crystalline voids of his irises were unlike anything I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t imagine anyone mistaking him for human. Well, maybe I would have if he hadn’t been so quick to assume I wasn’t. He’d revealed himself almost immediately, and I still didn’t know why he’d done so. I wanted to ask him about that too, but I couldn’t seem to get the words out. It was probably better that I press the point in a less public place.

As he closed his eyes and turned to the door, I exhaled a long held breath. “See you later, Human Lila.” He added with an uncharacteristic half smirk. “I’ll look forward to our next little chat.”

With that, I was back to my solitude and back to my books. I frowned at the werewolf encyclopedia that was so obviously inadequate, then I returned the leather bound tome to the Lore section.

Slowly but surely, I’d figure these people out. It wasn’t like I had the choice to ignore them.