Beautiful Monster: The Hunt (Book 2) Read Online Free

you won’t understand any of it, but I will. It’s important. It’s a book of spells. Just pronounce the words as best you can. Start at the very beginning. I’ll know what page I’ll need when I hear the names of each spell. Can you do that for me, sweetness?”
    The girl hefted the weighty tome and moved over to the window, settling her back against the wall. “ZoZo can,” she said, her tone serious and unquestioning. The child opened the book to the first page and began to read in a slow, stutter.

Chapter Six
     
    Boris, or rather, Alexei as he had happily come to think of himself, couldn’t hunt that evening. What was he going to do with the woman and child in his attic? And who in hell were they? It was obvious she had mistaken him for Alexei. She wanted him but in her need, he felt something else, too. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
    She was gorgeous, but not his type, simply because she was a she . He abhorred women, always had and they’d abhorred him until he took Alexei’s form. Now, it seemed, they couldn’t get enough of him; always chatting him up, touching his hand, his arm, his shoulder whenever they got the chance. He put up with it. It made hunting that much easier, but he only ventured near to feed. No sex. Never sex.
    He had no trouble attracting men either and for that, he was thankful. So very thankful. He was finally freed from his long-tortured existence in the prison that had been his face and body. Being Boris was a curse. Being Alexei was the best thing that had ever happened to him. It was too bad Alexei had to be obliterated for Boris to be transformed. He was beautiful and Boris did enjoy the young man’s company. Alexei was cheerful and carefree; the anti-Boris in so many ways. He may now possess Alexei’s body, but he didn’t possess his personality. Boris was still a brooding monster at his core.
    A shutter ran through him when he remembered what he used to look like. His bulky frame; the pitifully thin hair he plastered to his scalp with all sorts of lotions to try to cover his bald pate. His eyes, red-rimmed and droopy, his large bulbous nose, and his barely there lips. He could go on and on about his shortcomings, and how they’d made his eternal life a living hell, making him a recluse. He’d been miserable, but now, everything was different. He’d taken over Alexei’s house, abandoning his dilapidated old mansion. Alexei’s place was old but it was in much better shape than his was and though he’d made a promise not to fill it with junk as he’d done in his old abode, it was a habit that proved impossible to break. He’d decided instead to think of himself a collector of sorts. He didn’t hoard, he merely kept things in case he needed them later. Boris’s latest obsession was with mirrors. He had hand mirrors in every room as well as at least one hanging on a wall so he could admire himself. His face and physique were a sight he’d never tire of appreciating.
    Boris’s thoughts returned to the woman and her imp. She was like him, an ancient one. She was also excellent at masking. He could barely read a thought, except for the lustful ones that made him want to retch. Perhaps he should kill her and keep the imp for himself. He could go up there right now and take away the girl, and let the woman go hungry until she turned to dust. He would like that. A smile crept onto his face with that thought and he went in search of a mirror for a glimpse of himself.
    His smile widened and his dimples deepened beneath the neatly trimmed black whiskers as he admired his reflection. He raised a brow and turned his face this way and that, taking in every angle of his perfect face. Should he go back to the attic and steal the imp? Something told him, no, not yet. First, he needed to find out who the woman was and why she was in his house. Boris was not only a curious man, he was suspicious. Could she know his secret? He didn’t think so but he wasn’t about to