Jene opened her mouth. “Little prick.”

Nice.

“There is no cause for strong language,” Holland said. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to insist you come with me.”

The old lady turned to me. “You’re her. You’re his bitch daughter.”

Thanks for the reputation bump, Dad. “Yes, I am.”

She stared at me, her gaze unsettling.

Try me and see how bitchy I can be.

“I could serve you,” she said. “I’m powerful. I have magic. I can blight things. Look, I made this.” She pointed to the clearing. “Ten years and nothing except grass grows. I’m quiet and hard to kill.”

Wow.

She was trying to peer at me over Holland’s shoulder and her eyes, wide open and unblinking, made her face deranged. A darker yellow, like the color of a rotten citrus, was flooding her irises.

“I can do things for you. Magic things. But I need food. You feed me and I do things for you.” She nodded. “Bring me children. The poor ones. Nobody cares about the poor ones.”

Next to me Derek tensed. Holland stared at her, openmouthed.

“How many?” I asked.

“Not many. One or two a month. Children are easier. Soft bones.”

“Alpha?” Ascanio’s voice held a note of warning.

“Have you eaten many children?” I asked. “I need to know if their parents will cause problems.”

“Only two,” she said. “Years ago. No problems. I threw the bones in the trash. You own the land. I’m the land’s creature, so I will serve you and you’ll bring me food and guard me from the bigger creatures. It’s a good bargain.”

“No,” I told her.

Derek pulled off his shoes. On the other side of me Ascanio did the same.

I shook my head. “You’re an evil thing that eats children. There is no place for you here.”

“You can’t pick and choose,” she said. “I’m part of the land. I was born here. All my people were born here, many generations. I belong here.”

“You should’ve stuck to birds,” I said.

“You can’t have the good without the bad,” she said. “Some creatures eat grass and some creatures eat the grass eaters. We are all born for a reason. You must have monsters to protect your land, and I will protect it well. If you need something, I will do it. I won’t even eat humans, only the ones you bring me.”

“No.”

“You must have servants to do things for you. I can be one. It’s a good bargain. This is your land and I’m your creature.”

A part of me, the deep dark part that felt the magic pulse last night, puzzled over it and decided that she wasn’t unreasonable. The land spawned this monster and I guarded the land, so she was one of mine, too. They were all mine and I could use her.

There it was. Small decisions. Kate Daniels, Queen of the Monsters.

“You are right. You are mine. If you hadn’t harmed anyone, I could have let you find a place of your own away from everyone. But you’ve eaten human children and you want to do it again. There are rules in my lands and you broke them. I’m not here to make bargains. I’m here to punish.”

She stared at me, unblinking. Hatred twisted her face.

“You think you can stop him. You can’t. All of you will die.”

I flicked Sarrat, warming up my wrist. I’d promised Beau I’d let his deputy make the call, and I would keep my word. “Holland, I need that go-ahead.”

“I can take you in,” Holland said. “She’ll kill you, but Milton County will protect you. There is due process.”

She was past saving, but I had to give it to him, he did try.

Bulges rolled under Jene’s skin, like billiard balls moving through her body.

Ascanio pulled two vicious-looking knives from the sheaths on his belt.

“Holland!” Damn it.

She swayed, an eerie sad smile on her face, reached out, and brushed Holland’s face with her fingertips, caressing his skin with gentle tenderness.

“Gladys’s son.”

“That’s right.” Holland nodded. “Come with me. Let me take you in . . .”

“When he comes through with his soldiers and fire, I’ll follow him.”

She took several steps back. “And I’ll feed. I’ll wait until he kills you, Gladys’s son, and then I’ll suck your bones dry.”

Her whole body jerked and shot upward. Her clothes ruptured, and a huge body spilled out, growing bigger and bigger. She fell straight down and gripped the dirt with her hands, her elbows up, as if she were about to do a push-up.

“What the hell . . .” Holland breathed out.

Her legs turned within their sockets with a vomit-inducing crunch, until her knees stuck straight up, like the legs of a spider. Her neck lengthened, thickening, the skin dripping down to form a pouch on her throat. Her white hair fell loose around her giant head, her wrinkled breasts sagged to the forest floor, and a thin strip of gray fur sprouted on her spine. Yellowed claws curved from her fingers and toes. She was the size of a bus.

“Hungry!” She screeched, clicking sharp conical teeth. “I’m hungry!”

Beau could take his instructions and shove them where the sun didn’t shine. “Hit her!”

The two shapeshifters charged in from the sides. The thing that was Jene Boudreaux dashed forward with cockroach quickness, straight at me.

I shoved Holland aside and sliced across her face with my sword. A bloody line swelled across her skin, severing her lip. She slapped me. I flew back, landed on the grass, and rolled to my feet in time to see her kick Derek with her right foot. He hurtled through the air and vanished into the brush. She must’ve knocked him down the slope.

I sprinted to her.

Ascanio sank both of his knives into her side. She howled and rolled sideways, right over him. He went down, pinned under her massive body.

I slashed at her shoulder. Move off my bouda, you bitch.

She snapped her teeth at me, trying to bat me aside with her giant clawed hand, and dug in, crushing Ascanio beneath her bulk. I sliced at her hand, carving at it with precise strikes. She screeched in pain.

Lots of nerves in the hand. Hurts like hell, doesn’t it? Get off the boy.

A dark gray shape burst out of the brush and landed on the creature’s back. Derek thrust his claws into her spine. Jene rolled the other way, trying to pin him with her weight. He jumped off and landed on my right. Ascanio darted over to us, free. His body twisted into a nightmarish blend of hyena and human. His hackles rose and he cackled.