Savage Saints (Monsters of Saint Mark's)

“But I’m not in love with her. I just need to start somewhere.”

I make a face at him. “You know what? Whatever. You’re not my responsibility, Tomas. Do whatever you want.”

“Thank you. I will.” He pauses, watching me place candles. “What are you doing?”

“Creating a romantic atmosphere.”

“Oh, that’s lovely. Pie is going to adore this. She makes you a better monster. You know that, right?”

I do know this. But I’m not going to admit it to Tomas. “Light candles or go away. I’m busy here.”

“I’ll leave you to it.” And he disappears.

But a few moments later, when I’m looking through our box of pastes, the eyebrow monster appears. I’m just about to growl a fuck-off warning at him when I notice he’s got two fluffy, white robes in his hands. He holds them up for my inspection with a wild grin on his face.

I force myself to be polite. “Are those for us?”

He nods.

“Thank you.”

He nods again. Then hangs them from a hook and walks out.

No sooner is he gone than another monster appears.

“Now what?” My growl is even more growly than usual. Because at this point, I’m more than annoyed. I’m starting to get pissed off.

This is one of the apothecary monsters. He’s holding two jars of paste. He thrusts them at me and I take them.

“What is this?” I ask. He lifts the lid off one and the smell escapes, filling the entire cave with the scent of honeysuckle. “Oh,” I say. “That’s kind of nice. Pie will love it.”

He caps that jar, then lifts the lid on the other. Immediately the scent changes to eucalyptus. Then he points a finger at me and winks.

I can’t help myself. I smile. Because I see what he’s done here. The honeysuckle paste is for Pie, to ease her tension and relax her after a long day. But the eucalyptus is for me. Well, for Pie too. It’s so she can polish my horns without burning her hands.

He puts the lid back on and nods.

“Thanks,” I say, holding up both jars. “That was nice.” He doesn’t leave though. He waits. Like he needs something from me. “What?”

He makes a motion of eating.

“Oh. Fine. I told Tomas we’d come. So we will.”

This satisfies him. Because he turns on his hoof and leaves.

Once he’s gone, I take the pastes over to the wooden box and set them inside. It’s a good thing he brought them because the box was empty. Those apothecary monsters were thorough. They threw out everything.

I guess maybe I should reluctantly admit that they are not all bad.

In fact, the sanctuary is starting to run like a well-oiled machine these days. And as far as my life goes—yeah. I smile big thinking about how my life has changed in the last month.

It’s good.

No. It’s… nearly perfect.

I can leave whenever I want and even though I don’t like looking like a human on the outside, it does make things a whole lot easier.

And Pie. Yeah, it sucks that she has to work for Tarq. And the Book of Debt, of course. Everything about her slave status is horrible.