Chapter Two

Peni

Overwhelm imminent.

Overwhelm imminent.

Shut down in five…

Cut that out, you silly beast. We can’t afford to faint right now. Peni had no idea why his goat form tended to speak like a computer in an old science fiction movie sometimes—it might have had something to do with the amount of time Peni spent watching them—but they could not faint, not now.

He was running, his tiny hooves slipping and sliding over the tiles he’d polished just that morning, heading outside. Peni needed to think, he needed to make sure his heart wasn’t going to burst out of his chest, and he needed somewhere private to do that.

You can’t leave him. Go back. Go back.

Maybe it was all the cleaning fluids he’d been using. Peni had absolutely no idea why his animal half wanted to go back and face a demon that looked like he’d just stepped out of a scene from a horror story. The demon was worth looking at from a purely aesthetic standpoint, but… Peni ran around the back garden and huddled under the nearest bush, his ears twitching at every foreign sound.

Mate.

Gods, now his goat half was bleating like a lost lamb, and that was not a good look. Please, just shush. Keep an ear out for that demon and let me think.

Peni was aware his usually sweet little goat side was muttering, but he knew how to tune that out. He was more focused on how, in heaven’s name, his day had gone so wrong.

The demon in the house wasn’t the one who owned it. Peni knew that much. Dakata, who owned the house, was almost a celebrity. Everyone knew who he was with his fancy cars, pockets of money, and the bands he’d made so successful.

But then I’m not the cleaner who’s supposed to be working in the house either. Which meant technically, Peni couldn’t consider the new demon an interloper when he was pretty much the same thing. Mrs. Danials, the woman who did have the job cleaning Dakata’s house, was in Florida. She had been for months. “Those rich bastards never notice the help,” she’d said, rather crudely, in Peni’s opinion, when she’d offered him the job.

“You just do what has to be done. Make sure it’s between the hours of nine and four, Monday to Friday, and the demon won’t even notice I’m gone. I promise. I’m paying twenty bucks an hour, and I pay weekly on a Friday.”

Mrs. Danials had said more about how her sister was sick, and she was the only one who could look after her, and things like that. Peni knew that was all lies because he could scent it. But the twenty dollars an hour was true and a godsend to a homeless little goat. Peni always felt as if he was constantly struggling to stay one step ahead of the wolves in the world. When he found out the house had a disused basement, Peni thought he’d won the lottery.

It was the basement window Peni was staring at now. He could just make out the outline of the little bed he’d rigged up for himself.

I have to get my things. My jeans, they have to be ruined, and my headphones, they dropped on the floor. We could’ve broken them. I saved for almost a month to buy them.

Stop thinking about that. His goat was still miffed. That man in there is our mate, and you kicked him in the balls.

It was your hooves on his balls, not my feet. Peni didn’t want to even think about that, but it seemed his goat had other ideas.

That was a silly accident. It happens. You know, if you went back in there, on your two feet, explained that our hooves just slipped, and offered to give them a rub and a few smoochy kisses to make them feel better…

Are you talking about me doing that to the demon’s balls? Peni was shocked and a teeny tiny bit intrigued.

They’ve probably got my hoof prints on them. You should kiss them better, at the very least.

Peni shook his head and waggled his ears. He liked that he could do that in his goat form. I don’t understand why you head-butted him in the first place. If you hadn’t knocked him over, then you wouldn’t have accidentally kicked his balls.

I want to sniff his delicious-looking horns. Weren’t they pretty and so studly? Worthy of the biggest goat in existence, you have to admit that. It’s not like I could reach them when he was standing up. I can jump, but not that high… well, not from a standing start.

Don’t use the word studly. Peni shivered. That’s just creepy and weird. His father used to tell stories about how he’d gotten trapped in his animal form and ‘put out to stud’ was how he called it. Forced to impregnate females, all because the non-paranormals at the time had a fascination with tiny farm animals.

Peni wasn’t sure how much force had actually been involved because his father usually had at least three or four women on the go at the same time. It was one of the reasons Peni had been homeless when he took the cleaning job from Mrs. Danials. His dad used to think it was fun to have orgies in the house and didn’t see why Peni couldn’t join in. Peni could think of at least a dozen reasons why not and left.

But that was then, and this was now. Do you think he’ll go out again soon? Peni could hear the demon rampaging through the house. It was a wonder someone didn’t call the police for all the roaring going on. I’ve still got the study to clean, and it has to be close to four by now. I was looking forward to putting my feet up tonight and starting a new book.

You have to go in there and talk to him. He’s our mate.

There was that word again.

Peni sighed, although when a goat did that, it was more like a huff. A huff with a bit of lip flutter because goats could definitely be cute. Why do you keep calling him our mate? With his animal side, it was best to ask than assume. His goat form was tiny, but he was a determined beastie.

Because he is.

There was an example of the stubbornness. No explanation, just stating the most life-changing thing Peni could ever experience ever, as a fact.

I thought demons didn’t have mates. They don’t believe in them.

They don’t call them that, but they have to have them because that one is ours.

Cleaning fluids. His goat’s attitude had to be from working with too many cleaning fluids. Mate or not, Peni couldn’t even think about that right now, there’s a mushroom pasta waiting for us in our little chiller. It only needs five minutes in the microwave. And remember, I bought brownies for dessert. Plus, we have three new books from the library waiting for us. A perfect evening, in other words.

You wouldn’t be spending time with books or a mushroom pasta if you just went in to speak to our mate. Seriously, I want to see if I left hoof marks…

On his balls, I know. Peni was grateful he could have conversations with his animal half. Not all paranormals were blessed like he was, and Peni was aware of how lonely his existence would be without his other half. It’s not like he had any friends. But he sometimes wondered who was in charge of their shared form. Do you think I could sneak back in there and grab my stuff from the kitchen?

Yes. Yes. Let’s go back inside and get your stuff.

Hmm. His goat was too eager. I’ll go on two feet so I can pick my things up. Peni decided he wouldn’t put it past his goat side to deliberately run up to the demon and pull a fainting act.

It’s called a swoon. You have to admit he’s swoon-worthy. He is. He is.

Peni shifted and then immediately glanced around. Shifter or not, he hated being naked outdoors. Or indoors. Or anywhere, really. He saw too much of that when he’d lived at home. Tiptoeing across the lawn, he opened the window into the basement and slipped inside. It was a bit of a jump down, but Peni was used to it.

Now, to work out where the demon was. Unlike the modern interior of the house, the stairs up into the main house were proper old and made of rickety wood. It was one of the reasons Peni believed that made him safe down in the space he’d created for himself. Anyone bigger than a hundred pounds would likely snap the wooden boards as soon as they stepped on them.

Making sure to avoid the boards that creaked, even under his weight, Peni crept up to the door and put his ear against it. In Dakata’s house, the door to the basement they’d hidden in another cupboard—a big one in the laundry that backed onto the kitchen. Perfect for Peni to sneak in and out of if the owner of the house came home unexpectedly. That had only happened the once, but Peni had been so grateful for his escape route.

He had to be careful stepping into the cupboard. He kept his bucket and mops in there, and they would make a noise if he knocked them over. Cupping his hands over his cock and balls, Peni leaned against the cupboard door. All he could hear was his heart pounding. Now is not the time to faint.

A door slamming made him jump. Except as he listened, Peni realized the demon had left the house. That’s my cue. Pushing open the cupboard door, Peni tiptoed in double time through the laundry and into the kitchen, so grateful to see his clothes in a heap on the floor. And my headphones, yes!

Grabbing up his things, Peni eyed the discarded cloth he’d been using to clean the counter. It wasn’t in his nature to leave it there, so he quickly scooped that up, too, whisking a clean cloth from the drawer and folding it, putting it on the edge of the kitchen sink. He threw the dirty one in the washtub in the laundry on his way back to the basement.

“I did it,” Peni whispered as he was finally behind the basement door again. He made his way carefully down the stairs, and then had a thought, and dashed back up the stairs and slid across the bolt. He didn’t like the idea of being locked in anywhere, but at least he’d have some warning if anyone was trying to get down to the patch of the basement he called home.

“Pasta and books. Pasta and books.” Peni liked to put on his small television that he’d got from a thrift shop in the evenings. He kept the sound low, especially if Dakata was home. But as his current demon problem had turned up when most people were at work, Peni didn’t dare risk it. “Let’s get this pasta cooked before he comes home.”

You should talk to him.

He’s not home, and Peni might have felt a bit smug. There was nothing his goat could expect him to do about that. With luck, by the time Dakata or that other big demon came back, Peni would be asleep, and in the morning, everything would be back to normal.

Please let everything go back to normal.