Read Online Monster (A Cassidy Edwards Novel - Book 1) by Carmen Caine - Free Book Online

was made of dark smoke, standing about eight inches tall, big ears, scrawny neck, body, and feet. His mouth was his biggest feature.
    “Well, hello there, doll,” he addressed me in a Cockney accent. He stretched and, folding his hands behind his back, began to pace around the lip of the bottle. “What’s with slamming the cork on my head, eh?”
    Doll? “Doll” was worse than “Cass”. I scowled. “Cassidy,” I said. “My name is Cassidy.”
    “Whatever you say, love,” he said, giving me a cheesy, utterly insincere grin that showed two large rows of teeth. “My name’s Richard Thaddeus Mavromoustafakis, but just call me Ricky, love. Ricky’ll do fine.” He gave a laugh—a highly irksome, nasal, grating kind of laugh.
    We were interrupted by a growl, followed by a spitting hiss. Lucian’s cat had leapt to its feet, its ears pinned down flat against its skull as its eyes zeroed in on Ricky sitting cross-legged on the edge of his bottle.
    “Oh my, pleasure to see you again, Esmeralda.” Ricky gave a fake grin that only showcased his teeth.
    At that, Lucian arched a discerning brow at his cat. “You’ve met?” he asked in his deep baritone.
    Esmeralda rubbed her chin along the top of his head. Apparently, only Lucian could hear what the cat said in reply. Whatever it was, Lucian sent Ricky a look of outright displeasure.
    The imp’s demeanor changed at once. Jumping to the armrest, he prostrated himself before Lucian like a Japanese Samurai before the Emperor and whispered, “Please, allow me to thank you for the honor of serving under your lordship. I am forever, most faithfully your servant and your servant alone. My loyalties lie with no other than yourself, the Great Lord Lucian Rowle.”
    So, I had a kiss-up for an imp.
    I couldn’t read Lucian’s expression as he eyed Ricky. I was just glad that he waved us both away in an almost weary tone. “Enough. Be gone.”
    Grabbing Ricky and his bottle, I escaped to my seat. The moment I arrived, Tabitha left to join Lucian. I watched the back of their heads pressed close together and felt a ripple of annoyance.
    It had to be annoyance; it couldn’t be anything else.
    “Jealous, eh?” Ricky snickered as I propped my feet onto the seat opposite me.
    “Enough out of you,” I said. “Remember who’s boss here and you won’t get hurt.”
    He was supposed to be  my  imp, after all.
    But from the looks of him grinning at me, sitting on the top of his bottle and dangling his legs over the edge, he looked like a mini-demon, or the proverbial genie out of a bottle, who made sure all of your wishes came back to bite you.
    He didn’t respond. He just sat there chuckling in his distinctly aggravating way.
    He looked like just a wisp of smoke. Intrigued, I waved my hand through him and discovered that he  was  just smoke. Well, most of him. The grin and the eyes remained even though the rest of him dissipated in all directions.
    But he didn’t stay scattered for long. It only took a moment for the smoke to coalesce back into his scrawny eight-inch shape.
    “Hoighty-toighty, love,” he said, shaking his head. “What’s up, eh? Never seen an imp before?”
    I made up my mind right then. Ricky was irritating, plain and simple.
    I was going to ditch him as soon as I could, and I didn’t really care what Lucian thought. Either Ricky was the only imp Lucian could afford, or I’d been deliberately saddled with him as retribution for insulting the warlock’s illustrious heritage. Or both.
    Either way, I had real things to do. I wasn’t in the mood to babysit.
    “Back in the bottle,” I ordered, making a grab for him.
    He made all kinds of squeaking, grunting noises, and kept slipping between my fingers as I tried to stuff him back in. It was like trying to pour smoke into a vase.
    Impossible.
    “Umph. Errp. Enough!” The imp sputtered as my hand clamped down over his head. His ears popped up through my fingers, followed by an eyeball.
    With a growl