The Culler and Her Devil

Chapter 5—Beast In My Basement

Dinner at my parents' estate always brought back the warm memories of my childhood outside the Academy. The dining room was warm, filled with the rich aroma of roasted lamb, fine red wine, and soft classical music playing in the background.

My stepmother, Evelyn, sat at the head of the polished oak table, elegant in a cream silk blouse, her blond hair pinned back flawlessly. Beside her sat my father, Rowan, looking soft and tired in his reader glasses, a gentle smile on his face as he poured the wine.

Director Harlow sat across from me, cutting into his steak. "I'm telling you, Rowan, your daughter is going to outshine both of our careers combined."

Rowan looked at me, his eyes filled with pride. "I never doubted her, Adrian. Though I do wish she’d take a break once in a while. She works herself to the bone."

"Nonsense," Evelyn chimed in smoothly, dabbing her lips with a cloth napkin. "Aria is a Locke. She has a duty to this city, especially with these rabid creatures creating chaos on our streets. The Directorate needs strong leadership."

I smiled politely, taking a sip of my wine, keeping my posture relaxed. Nobody at this table had any idea that Noxen's Devil was currently chained in my basement, draining of strength under my living room floor.

"How is the new ammunition line progressing, Evelyn?" I asked, shifting the focus away from myself.

"Splendidly," Evelyn replied with a proud tilt of her chin. "Our new suppression rounds passed the final stress test yesterday. The Directorate signed off on a full distribution contract."

"To safety and order," Harlow declared, lifting his glass high.

"To safety and order," we echoed in unison.

I smiled, but beneath the table, my hand tightened into a hard fist against my knee.

….

By 11:00 PM, I slipped back into my house and headed straight for the basement.

Down in the dark, the air was freezing. Kaelon was on his knees near the center of the cage, his forehead resting against the cold concrete floor. His dark clothing was tossed aside, revealing a broad, muscular back mapped with pale, jagged scars. Sweat glistened on his golden skin, dripping steadily off his chin.

How he was able to take his hoodie off with his hands cuffed remained a mystery to me. He was breathing in shallow, ragged hitches, his chest heaving as the Void-Iron worked its toxic magic through his bloodstream.

"Time's up, Devil," I said, my boots clicking sharply against the stone floor as I approached the iron bars. "Talk, or I leave you in there until your heart stops."

Kaelon didn't move for three long seconds. Then, slowly, painfully, he lifted his head.

His eyes weren't just golden anymore; they were burning with a terrifying, bloody iris, his pupils narrowed to vicious slits. Fangs protruded sharply over his lower lip, wet with saliva. Blood trickled from his nostrils, black and thick from the ore poisoning his system.

"f*****g human cunt," he rasped, his voice a guttural, terrifying growl that rattled the iron bars.

"You think these cheap metal toys make you strong?"

"They keep you on your knees," I retorted coldly, unholstering my baton and extending it with a sharp, metallic clack. "Where you belong. What did you take from the crime scene in Blackwood?"

Kaelon let out a harsh, bloody laugh, swaying slightly on his knees. "Go f**k yourself, Culler. I'd rather rip your throat out with my teeth and swallow your tongue before I tell you a damn thing."

I unlocked the cell door and stepped inside without an ounce of hesitation. I brought the heavy steel end of the baton down hard against his side, right into his ribs.

CRACK. Kaelon grunted, the impact driving him onto his side, but he barely flinched. Instead, he snapped his head around, his fangs flashing as he tried to bite into my ankle. I stepped back quickly, driving my combat boot directly into his face. His head snapped sideways, blood spraying across the gray stone.

"I don't have time for your pack pride," I snarled, crouching over him and yanking his dark hair back so he was forced to look at me. "Someone is butchering wolves in my city and dropping them on my doorstep. You want to save your people? Tell me what the f**k you found!"

Kaelon’s blood smeared across my glove. He stared up at me through swollen, bloodshot eyes, a savage, terrifying grin spreading across his face despite the agonizing pain he was in.

"Look outside the window, little b***h," he choked out, his chest rising in heavy, desperate heaves. "Look at the f*****g sky."

I frowned, glancing back toward the high basement transom window. The heavy clouds had parted. Floating high above the city skyline was a massive, luminous full moon, casting a stark, silvery beam of light directly down into the yard outside.

I looked back down at Kaelon. His skin was turning gray. His breathing was slowing dangerously, his pulse fluttering beneath the dark veins bulging on his throat. Void-Iron blocked a wolf's ability to absorb moonlight, and during a full moon, when their magic reached its violent peak, blocking that biological intake was like putting a lid on a pressure cooker. He wasn't just weak; his organs were literally shutting down, his body eating itself from the inside out.

Fuck.

"s**t," I muttered under my breath. A dead wolf in my basement was useless. I needed answers, not a corpse.

I reached down, grabbed him by the heavy collar of his pants, and dragged his dead weight out of the cage. "You're not dying on my floor."

He was heavy as hell, six-foot-four of solid, iron muscle, but I hauled him up the narrow wooden stairs, his boots dragging behind us. I shoved open my bedroom door, hauling him toward the center of the room where the large bay window allowed the bright, unfiltered silver moonlight to flood the hardwood floor.

I dropped him into the moonlight beam.

Kaelon hit the floor with a heavy thud. The moment the silver light hit his skin, his body violently convulsed. He let out a long, agonized roar that vibrated through the floorboards. The black veins along his neck began to recede, his lungs gasping in massive gulps of air as his body greedily drank in the celestial energy.

I didn't give him a chance to recover. I dragged his left arm over to the thick, solid silver support pillar near my bed. It was an old architectural beam built into the structure of the house. I unlocked one side of the Void-Iron cuffs, wrapped the heavy chain around the pillar, and snapped it shut tight.

He was anchored. Sedated enough to survive, but trapped.

"There," I breathed, wiping a mixture of his blood and my sweat from my face. "Absorb your moonlight. But you move an inch toward me, and I'll put a silver bullet through your jaw."

Kaelon lay panting against the floor, his back resting against the pillar. The golden fire in his eyes was returning, brighter and more dangerous than before. He wiped the blood from his mouth with his free hand, glaring up at me with absolute, pure venom.

"You think you're smart, don't you?" he rasped, his voice dropping to a dangerous, intimate whisper that sent a cold shudder down my spine. "You bring a monster into your bedroom, chain him to your post, and think you're in control."

"I am in control," I snapped, standing tall over him, resting my hand on the hilt of my sidearm.

"You're a f*****g fool," he snarled softly, his golden gaze dropping down my body, lingering on the subtle rise and fall of my chest before rising back to meet my eyes. "The moment these chains come off, little Culler... I'm going to make you bleed for every bruise you gave me tonight."

"Sleep well, Devil," I said coldly, turning my back on him and walking toward my desk.

I sat down in my leather chair, keeping my weapon resting openly on the desk surface, my eyes locked on him through the dark.