AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It’s a warning. Monsters hide. Not from fear, but from caution. I notice he isn’t flashing his eyes at everyone. Just at me. Why? Because I went bellowing in my big bull voice across the whole damn market and he doesn’t want the girl with him to freak.
Which means she’s the oblivious kind.
I push myself further back under the thin white awning that covers the top of my stall. Some other guys in my row start packing it in. It’s not even ten! I personally prefer to stay out until at least two to get the post-bar traffic.
It’s cold and rainy. Minegold is warning me to keep to the shadows. I could put on my concealment medallion, but for some reason, I don’t. Minotaurs don't have great luck with concealment charms that we don't make ourselves, and taurosapien witches and warlocks are few and far between. Although I always have one on my keychain, when I slip it around my wrist, the effect isn’t appealing. I come out looking like a hairy troglodyte wearing a beer hat the size of Texas. It's not a flattering look.
And that matters why?
I don’t know.
I doubt most humans would find a guy with a bovine head and soft hair all over his body very sexy either. And if we’re getting personal, things really get complicated downstairs. I'm not talking about my junk, I'm talking about having hooves and a tail.
Okay, yes, and the junk, too.
Most humans would freak out, and I don't blame them. Maybe that's why I love the story of Pasiphae and Aspro so much. The queen really had to look past all her preconceived notions about beauty and fall in love with his protective and good heart. I am sure that when Aspro first started checking out the queen in a way that went beyond friendship, he had to get used to her flat human face and her tiny, weak, mostly hairless body. Interspecies relationships are not one-way streets, but they are definitely weird dark alleys you don't want to go down without being armed.
Aaaannd we're back to weapons.
Work is slowly taking over my life.
Man, I need a date.
I wish that girl next to Minegold would notice me, even though it would end badly.
Don’t be stupid, Milo. Just because she’s short and cute and new in town and gives you a sudden hyperfixation like when you’re working with antique fae-crafted silver...
Where was I going with this?
“Who is that?” I slouch out of my stall and over to Genesis, the elderly gargoyle who runs the stall next to mine. He barely looks up from the glassy-smooth polished stone amulet he’s making from his own discarded skin. With his wings folded down against his back like a haute couture cape and his horns hidden under a mass of thick silvery hair, he could almost pass for human.
“Who?”
“There’s a girl with Minegold. Human, I’m almost positive.”
Genesis squints in the misting drizzle that will turn to sleet as the temperature drops. His craggy face suddenly loses its normal bland expression. “Oh! I know her. That’s Peterson’s new assistant. I saw her leaving the clinic on Solstice.”
“Right, on Solstice.” The longest night of the year. The early darkness meant a longer period of wakefulness for Genesis and his clan.
“Peterson and I arranged the Solstice Swap this year, and I flew over to help him load up the gifts. I saw her leaving with those fool headphones on. Humans. Stupid and oblivious.”
“Hey. Not all humans.” My tone was prickly.
Genesis is over two centuries old and he doesn’t give a bat’s wing for my opinion. “All the humans in Pine Ridge are, or they’d get the hell out.”
I snort. If I had listened to my dad and gotten my nose pierced with the traditional ring when I was eighteen, it would be flapping like a doorknocker in the wind. “Yeah, okay. Do you know her name?”
“Nope. Don’t need to. I don’t have a pet. If she sticks around long enough, Peterson will mention her. Why do you care?” Genesis gives me a long glare, his nightlight eyes flickering white.
“I just didn’t recognize her, that’s all.”
I go back to my stall, but my tail is twitching, a sign of restlessness.
She likes my kind of music.
She’s checking out the Night Market and she works in town. If Peterson hired her, she must be a safe bet.
And she likes animals. She’s a vet assistant.
