As the blog churns - Maggie point 3

Paula chewed her bottom lip. Did she dare believe Arze? His words of love sounded so practised, so smooth. Too smooth. "How many women have bought your cockamamy story?"

"They meant nothing to me, love. You are the woman of my dreams. Your sweet scent is like catnip to me. I want to lose myself in your soft folds." He nodded towards the bedroom. "You ready?"

She eyed the open doorway. The bedcovers were rumpled enticingly from where he'd been recling earlier. The catnip line didn't sound quite so slick, and it endeared her to him. But if not for the fact that she was highly aroused, she wouldn't even be considering having sex with him. What would it be like making love with a shapeshifter?

Probably out of this world. Too bad she didn't have the courage to find out. "I really shouldn't. I don't even know you."

"You can't refuse me. " Steel threaded through his voice. "Tell her Jolene."

"He's right, dear. The Grimble has sworn to do nasty things to us if you do not service his son."

"Nasty things?"

"Tell her," Arze said.

"All right. He said he'd eat my heart while it was still beating, but not before he dismembered you before my eyes. Please, go along with the program, for all our sakes."

It just didn't ring true. Somehow Mom had snuck this guy in through my bedroom window and hidden my cat. This was her sick ploy to ensure she had grandchildren. "Sorry. You're cute. Without all this spur of the moment pressure and without my Mom here, I might consider it, but I'm just not buying this story you cooked up."

His eyes narrowed. "Your Mom is a deterrent?"

"Yeah. You ever had sex with your Mom in the next room?"

"So be it." He leveled a finger at Jolene. A fizzing sound rent the air as a sulfurous cloud engulfed her Mom. Her clothes fell to the floor and a bright coral snake slithered over to the pool of sunshine by the window.

"Mom!" Paula raced over and pawed through the empty clothes. They were still warm from her body. A body that was no more.

She ran over to Arze and pounded him on the chest with both fists. "What did you do to her? Where's my Mom?"

His good looks shimmered into something else, something she couldn't quite make out. "Now it begins."