“You rejected me first! You don’t get to pin this on me!” he bellows at my retreating back, but I don’t turn around to face him. “If you walk away from me—”
“Then what? Thought this was just business?”
I glance over my shoulder and find him furious, skin flaming red and veins prominent. “It is.”
“Then you’ll have no problem keeping this relationship strictly professional, will you?”
“No, I won’t,” he grits.
“Fine.” I give him a fluttering wave as I head into the other room to change.
“Fine!” he shouts, right as I slam the door behind me. My chest heaves as my breaths form a ragged, painful rhythm, and I lean against the door as my eyes squeeze shut. My fists clench so hard my nails dig into my flesh, a couple of them breaking the skin until it bleeds.
Sheer stubborn pride is the only thing that prevents me from leaving and never returning. Micah doesn’t speak as I join him in the hallway, though his lips tick up in the tiniest smirk as he eyeballs my outfit.
“Not a word, angel.” I glare at him as I take his offered arm.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, demon.” His pretentious smile makes my blood boil all over again, but before I can respond, he whips us away.
Chapter 9
Micah
“In pursuit of a suspect on foot heading northbound on Magnolia Lane!” The human police officer wheezes into his radio as his feet smack against the ground. He doesn’t look like he was built for a foot chase. Sweat pours down his forehead and his round apple cheeks are splotchy and red. He grips his belt, yanking his pants higher over his portly stomach.
“Copy that,”a tinny voice crackles through the speaker. “Can you provide a physical description?”
“Fucker’s huge… six-foot-eight, if I had to guess. Ripped as fuck, probably pushing three hundred pounds.” His breath saws from his lungs as he grabs his belt again. “He’s… he’s wearing a bodysuit… a leather one, BDSM-style… and a rabbit mask.”
There’s a momentary shocked silence that’s only filled with the thudding of feet on the ground, and the insistentsqueak, squeak, squeakof Xalreth’s outfit as he sprints. Overhead, I hover with my fist shoved against my mouth as I watch in pure joy.
“Can you repeat that?”
The officer’s voice is broken and breathy as he tries and fails to keep up with the giant demon. “There is… a giant fucking man… wearing a skin-tight leather bodysuit… and a goddamned rabbit mask. He was approached after… we received a call about someone… aggressively egging houses.”
“Okay, wow, copy that… has suspect been engaged?”
More leathery squeaks fill the air as Xalreth curses under his breath, the muscles of his ass positivelypoppingas he sprints. His Armageddon-level fury feels like it might scorch the entire earth, but it seems premature to jump in and save him after our fight.
I might’ve been being an asshole, but he was being one, too. Reluctant as I am to admit it, he’s hurt me more than once. If you take a swipe at a predator, don’t be surprised when it extends its claws. Sure, we had a moment at the park, but it doesn’t detract from the years I’ve sat in silence and listened as they mocked me.
Maybe it’s petty to watch him suffer, but he needs to swallow some of his pride and ask for help. Until he does, I’m just enjoying the show.
The armpits of the officer’s uniform are darkening as he huffs like a steam train. “Tried to… talk to him… but he kept screaming… ‘I am The Easter Bunny.’”
“Iamthe motherfucking Easter Bunny!” Xalreth bellows back. “Micah! Micah, I’m going to fucking kill you!”
“Suspect delusional… possible second personality or schizophrenic episode… threatening bodily harm…”
Xalreth shouts in his native tongue as he runs faster, and there’s a loudriiiiipas his suit splits right up the back seam. His smoky gray, muscle-bound ass is exposed for the world to see, and I can’t help my bark of laughter. More curses slip free as he reaches behind him, trying to stretch the defeated material to cover himself while not losing momentum.
A kinder man might choose this as the time to interfere and pull him from the chase.
I am not a kinder man.
“Micah!” Sirens wail around us as he bellows, blue and red lights bouncing off the brick homes lining the street. They shine off his patent, skin-tight suit, reflecting every bulge on his body.
And his teeth.
