Page 6 of Zodiac Monsters

I blinked a few times. “You really are a gentleman.”

“Of course.” He nodded along like he was patting himself on the back. “You can reject a one-sided mate scar at any time, so there was no risk or danger in putting it there. It would also ward off any shifters who might take an interest in you under the pull of the moon by disguising your scent with mine. I figured that was a better alternative than subjecting you to the emotional and social detonation of having one of your other classmates finding you spread eagle on a lunch table and dripping with demon come.” The visual alone, when spoken out loud and by a guy I’d been crushing on, was among the worst things I’d ever imagined. “I did what I had to do. I hope you can forgive me.” He rubbed his neck, and I was surprised to see Marcus looking so vulnerable. His apology was unexpectedly sweet, and I wanted to tell him he didn’t do anything wrong.

“I really appreciate it.” I covered the lower half of my face with my hand to hide a fraction of the flush in my cheeks. The real Marcus was nothing like the possessed Aquarius Marcus. “I don’t know what I would have done if I was still there during breakfast rush. And I’d probably never be able to look you in the eye again if I’d woken up at your place after all that, having no idea how you were related to any of it.”

He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me a little closer. “Don’t give me too much credit.” He chuckled. “I marked you without asking more because I was afraid of what might happen if I exposed myself to the full moon by leaving. It can be hard to guarantee I won’t transform any given month, especially with a touchy trigger like the Capricorn’s, and I didn’t want to risk hurting you by leaving the dorm. It was safer for my sanity and our future relationship to have done it all this way.”

Future relationship?Dammit, now I couldn’t be mad at Marcus. He was sweet, respectful, and always thinking about my best interests. The only time he deviated from that was when his whole brain was literally being controlled by moon hormones, and I didn’t understand enough about his species to judge fairly.

All things considered, I was fine, and the crimes I was holding against him mostly involved enthusiastically satisfying me over and over again using magic that I didn’t know he had, so his lies were fairly inoffensive deep down. I couldn’t imagine what it was like to navigate the world as a supernatural creature trying to blend in with humans, never knowing who you could trust. Wearing a mask, day in and day out, always hiding your true self—I didn’t have the capacity to successfully pull off such a thing. He deserved a bit of sympathy.

“Well, at least one of you was raised right.” I half smiled, trying to come off as more easy going than I actually felt. “You two aren’t even the same kind of magic thing though.”

“Right, sorry, I should have been more clear. He’s my half-brother. We share a mother, who you may have now guessed was a Zodiac Shifter. His father was an incubus, who she married, and my father was a vampire, who she had an affair with.”

Oh shit.“Sounds like you have fun family reunions.”

“They’re like having a birthday party every day, but instead of cake, they serve nine-day-old road kill.”

This time I really did throw up in my mouth. “I can smell that metaphor.”

“At least you can’t taste it like I can.” He squeezed my shoulder affectionately, and we very quickly were on easy, comfortable terms again. Actually, I was more relaxed around him now than I was before, oddly enough. There was something about someone having seen you naked with your face contorted in orgasm that removed any pretense from casual conversation.

Like, what was I going to do here, at a bus stop on a cold February morning, that was more embarrassing than begging for dick and tentacles?

Nothing. Literally nothing. We could finally be real friends now.

“You know you owe me a lot more of an explanation than that, right? If you want me to trust you again, I need full disclosure going forward. I need to know what a Zodiac Shifter is, how vampires work, what other magic things exist that I don’t know about—the whole nine yards.”

“I think that’s fair. There’s no real point in trying to hide it from you anymore.” He tapped his finger against his chin. “How about next Sunday? We can go somewhere private, take our time, and I can put everything out on the table. Let’s call it a date.” He smiled and my cheeks flushed, and he might always have that effect on me.

“Deal.” I confirmed. Somewhere in my gut, I knew he was still the one with the upper hand even as I was the one making the demands. I suppose there were worse ways for a guy to feel like he was winning though. If going on a date with me was viewed as a coveted prize, then I was okay with being tricked into it.

I just had to roll with all of these punches and keep my guard up a whole lot higher than I’d been keeping it. I was now marked by two psychotic monsters who would turn into weird astrology creatures on the full moon every month, and I didn’t know what to make of that. This was either going to be the death of me, or my ultimate slutty awakening.

Because my human body could totally survive a Vampire Taurus or a winged, Incubus Aries. I could only hope they never both ended up triggered at the same time.