Before I turn onto Rose Street, laughter and music reach my ears. I pound on Josh’s door and wait. I do not like the idea of a door separating me from my female.
The door swings open. It’s Josh, with a blonde woman hanging on him. The top of his costume is gone, as is his shirt, and I’m wondering what has been going on here.
“Heyyy, Ko-bro, you missed the costume contest.” The scent of alcohol and sex fills my nostrils.
“I’m here for Kenzie.”
“Kenzie flew the coop. Didn’t stay to see who won.”
My horns rise to their full height as I advance on the male. “Where did she go?”
He pokes me in the chest. “Man, those are some big muscles. You could have won.”
“Kenzie,” I remind him, my patience waning, but I won’t get any information from an unconscious man if I punch him like I want to.
“She was flirting with some spider then left.”
“A spider?” He’s too drunk to make any sense.
“A smooth-talking guy in a spider costume,” the female explains. “They left about an hour ago.”
“Which way?”
“I wasn’t really watching.” She slips a hand down Josh’s chest. “We was upstairs, kinda busy.” The woman’s hand slides lower down the male’s torso. “But when I came back down, they were both gone.”
Josh kisses her neck, causing her to giggle. I shove him aside and enter the house. The male stumbles and falls, and remains down, too drunk to rise. The female licks her red-painted lips as her eyes roam over me.
“Since your girl hooked up with someone else, and Josh is… Honestly, I don’t think any part of him is getting up for a while. How ‘bout the two of us get to know each other?”
“The male in the spider costume. Who was he? Where can I find him?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “No clue. The guy was just some party crasher looking for a hookup. And he found it. She was all over the guy.”
I storm away from the home, horns pitched forward and claws extending from my hands upon hearing a male lured my female away.
Unparalleled anger seeps into my being, but I thrust it away and focus on finding my female. Kenzie is not like the blonde at the door, latching onto any male within reach.
I feel like I already know you.
Kenzie’s words were sincere, spoken with heart.
My stomach knots. She wouldn’t have left without me.
Except I was late. I failed to uphold my promise.
Krike. How am I going to find her among her own people where she blends in, when I cannot even find one drekking grud who has green scales and yellow eyes and cannot disguise his appearance?
CHAPTER NINE
KENZIE
What the fuck does this grud want with me? A shiver runs through me as I recall how he shoved a rag in my mouth, tied my hands behind my back, slung me over his shoulder, and carried me two miles through dark alleys and condemned war zones to this abandoned building that’s no bigger than a two-car garage.
He could have killed me outside Josh’s apartment, but he didn’t.
The hulking, scaled creature hasn’t moved from that spot since he dumped me on the cold cement floor. Glowing yellow eyes stare at me from across the room that smells of garbage, mildew, and death.
Dirty, filthy creatures. I haven’t smelled that particular scent since I was a child, but it’s not one a person forgets.
