Free CARNAL, The Beast Who Loved Me by Victoria Danann Page A

Kellareal?” she asked.
    Free’s lips parted and he looked surprised, like that wasn’t the sort of question he’d been expecting, but to his credit he answered in a simple and straightforward manner. “No.”
    “You made an open-ended deal?” He nodded. Rosie secretly thought that lacked foresight, at the very least. An open-ended deal with an angel? If people realized that angels and demons were first cousins they’d stop doing that shit. “Have you thought about a renegotiation?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    Free looked honestly puzzled by the question. “Because that’s not the deal I made.” He paused. “And, truthfully, I’d never considered it.”
    “So your people are going to be locked in a perpetual struggle with monsters. FOR ETERNITY?”
    Free’s jawline hardened. “That’s the deal I made.”
    “Well, it sucked.”
    Free wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but he surmised it was disapproval.
    “Compared to what we had before, this is paradise.”
    “Paradise,” she said drily.
    “It’s not one-sided. The humans give us medicines we don’t have when we need it, money if we want to buy something, healthy livestock, and fruit and vegetables they grow in the valley. Most importantly, they leave us alone. Which is exactly the way we want it.”
    Rosie pressed her lips together.
    “You have something to say?” Free asked.
    “I don’t think Kellareal would approve of me being rude to my host.”
    Free sat back and adopted a closed look, like he was preparing himself. “Say what’s on your mind.”
    “Either end the conflict or renegotiate the deal with Kellareal. Sacrificing your people for a never-ending war is insanity.”
    Free looked sober, but not angry. “I don’t see how either of those things is an option.”
    “Why not?”
    “The Rautt live on the other side of the wasteland. They can see us coming for hours. And prepare. It would be all of us against all of them and they hold a defensible position.”
    Rosie felt her demon blood stirring. There was a loophole. “From what Kellareal said, the Rautt set this up on their terms, destroyed technology so that there would be no weapons with a range further than a person can throw.”
    “That’s right.”
    “Well, you didn’t agree to that?”
    Free’s brows came together for an instant before his eyes cleared. And slowly, very slowly, he formed a ghost of a smile. “I didn’t agree to that. I only agreed to protect the human population from the Rautt. How I do it was not part of the deal.”
    “Exactly.”
    “I suppose you have a suggestion to go with your insight.”
    “I do.
    “The Rautt killed the humans who had technological knowhow. Probably the military strategists as well. But a lot of those people had already passed on gene pool proclivities. I’m going to bet there are some alive, right now, who could meet the challenge of designing weapons that would bring an end to this.”
    “What would stop those humans from also designing the means to imprison us?”
    Rosie raised her chin. “You’ve been here twenty-five years.” Free nodded. “You made friends with any of the humans in Farsitsit?”
    “Farsuitwail. I don’t know that I would call them friends, but there are people I deal with regularly.”
    “Okay. Those people see you as people. Not animals.”
    “You’re suggesting it’s possible to make weapons that could simply wipe out the Rautt and solve all our problems?”
    “Weapons exist elsewhere that could do that. Yes. There’s no such thing as life without problems, based on what I’ve seen so far. But people do manage to live in peace. Sometimes for long periods of time.”
    Free took in a big sigh. “I have another son.”
    “I know. Crave.”
    Free’s eyes jerked up to hers. “Yes. Crave. I don’t know for sure if he’s alive, but I can’t…”
    “One step at a time. What do the humans have going on in the way of education?”
    He cocked his head. “I don’t know, but I can