“Go for a drink, Mason,” I decide. “Really. I’ll be fine for a couple hours. There haven’t been any threats yet and we’ve been here quite some time.”
He debates this before shaking his head. “Come with me.”
I don’t really want to in all honesty. Bars aren’t really my thing. “I’ll find something to do here.”
“I’m staying then. We’ll both find something to do.” He doesn’t let me reply. He continues talking, going into a story about he and Aria once on a hunt. He knows I love hearing stories, especially ones from the past that happened before I was born. It’s surreal to think how old he is. He tells me a story from the sixties and Aria spending far too many hours on getting her hair just right. I try to imagine the three of them dressed in sixties attire and can’t.
“So anyway, Aria showed up to this fundraiser with the worst hair I’ve ever seen. The sixties wasn’t her decade. Thank god her hair style choice didn’t affect her ability to track down the demons, because holy man. It was so terrible, really,” he says through an amused grin. He sprawls out on the couch and crosses his legs, his hands behind his head. I sit crossed legged on the floor listening vividly.
“What was your favorite decade?” I wonder with curiosity.
He doesn’t have to think about it. “The first one I ever lived. My family was whole. I had friends. I had a normal human life. I had parents. Oh, and none of us were psychotic.” He pulls the coin he plays with sometimes from his pocket and just holds it in his hand.
“What is that?” I ask.
He grunts. “Just an old coin. My dad gave it to me when I was young.”
I debate asking him if I can look at it. “You play with it a lot.”
“I think of my family a lot. My family is my life, even now. I would do anything for any one of my siblings without blinking an eye.” We’re silent for a moment before he asks, “Have you spoken to your mother lately?”
A dagger feels like it’s ripping through my heart. “No. There’s no point. She’s messed up. She hates me and she’s probably happy I’m gone.”
“You ever wonder if your father was the one who messed her up? You know, like I can’t imagine he was very loving. Plus, compulsion messes some humans right up. Maybe it scrambled her brain. Wouldn’t be the first time. You know, most mothers of halflings are bad moms because if they weren’t, they’d never let their kid go when it was time they had to. It’s natural.”
I have to admit that I’ve never really thought about this, not that it makes me feel any different about her, but I do find myself pitying her a little. She didn’t choose her path any more than I chose mine.
“I’ll go visit her one day. Once I know I won’t take her soul when I see her. I still feel uncomfortable around humans.” I brush my hair back behind my shoulders with my fingers.
Mason starts to say something but stops. I look at him, urging him to continue. “The first couple days I was a demon, I struggled with that too, but only for a couple days, Megan. Now I’m fine. My senses have all adjusted and I feel normal. Terry told me it’s abnormal for a new demon to struggle with the urge more than four days. I mean in normal situations, obviously if you don’t consume souls often then you can lose control, but you consume them regularly and you still crave them constantly. That’s not normal. If it were, new demons wouldn’t be allowed to be released into society so soon after turning.”
I know he’s right. I’m not sure if it’s my will power that’s lacking or if there’s something seriously wrong with me.
“Aiden’s mentioned to me and Landon, too, that I’m like my father. I don’t really understand what he means, but he’s said it on more than one occasion,” I share with him.
Mason makes long eye contact with me before saying, “Your dad was addicted to souls. He consumed more than he should’ve. He would lose himself to the hunger and struggle to get back to reality. At least that’s what Terry told me.” How much do Terry and Mason talk about?
“I’ve done that a few times, but I think I’ve gotten better.”
Mason nods. “Aiden thinks it happens most when you’re scared, when you’re uncomfortable. He thinks it’s some instinct that kicks in when you’re most vulnerable, which is when you’re consuming a soul.”
A knock on the door surprises both Mason and I. Of course, Mason nearly lunges for the door while telling me to stay back. When Mason opens the door, Terry stands outside of our condo, looking like he’s in a hurry. “Come, Megan,” he begs.
I cock an eyebrow before listening to him. I have no reason not to.
“Hurry now, we have to go,” Terry insists.
“What’s going on?” Mason wonders, putting on his shoes.
Terry’s expression is grim. “Aiden has lost his fucking mind.”
Mason and I share a glance. “What are you talking about?” Mason asks. “Like hell has made him crazy?”
Terry nods. “He’s been torturing Crispen all week. He’s not himself. He killed a servant this morning for almost nothing. He put a death order out on my son.”
“Forrest?” I ask, interrupting him.
Terry nods.
“For what?” Mason demands.
Terry shrugs. “Not bowing to him while entering a room.”
Landon comes rushing through the doorway of the place, scanning it for something. His eyes land on me and he looks relieved. “Aiden’s coming for Mason, like with Crispen, he wants revenge. He’s lost it. We have to go now.” Landon grabs my wrist and pulls me from the room. I don’t resist his pull. He pulls me outside to a black pickup truck that I don’t recognize and motions for me to get inside. No one seems to worry about the humans seeing our inhuman speed, so I don’t either. I glance to the back seat of the truck as Landon and Mason jump in. Terry gets into the driver’s seat. In between Mason and Landon in the back is Crispen. He’s bloody and looks dead. The sight is scarring. I nearly puke at the sight of all the blood. Lastly, Forrest lays across the floor of the back seat unconscious.
“What happened to him?” I screech. “Are they alright?” I ask, concerning both Forrest and Crispen.
Landon nods. “They’re fine. The nice thing about Forrest being a demidemon is that human medications can knock him out. He was getting yappy.”
Mason snorts out a laugh.
“We drugged him because he wouldn’t come with us. He wanted to fight Aiden. I think he has a death wish,” Terry says sounding concerned for his son.
Mason clears his throat as Terry begins driving out of the city very, very fast. “Okay, someone explain what’s going on.”
“Aiden snapped. He’s lost it,” Landon explains what we’ve already been told.
“Well, from the looks of it, we’re doing something we shouldn’t be doing. We shouldn’t be going against Aiden’s wishes, yet both Terry and I are,” Mason shouts.
Terry takes a sip from a water bottle in the center console. “My whole life I’ve served the royal family. Millennia. Please don’t tell me that you really think that after all that time I could still possibly be controlled by pure sires. I built up a resistance long ago, but I’ve chosen to remain loyal all the same. It’s like how over time you can build a resistance to common viruses. Something in my blood has me resist a pure bloods demands. Subsequently, since this has happened, any son or daughter I’ve given birth to has the same ability. Not only is it passed down like that, but also if I share my blood with another...or one of my children do.”
Mason’s head snaps up and he looks to Terry with wide eyes. “How’d you do it?” he demands.
Landon and I share a look of confusion but Terry seems to know what Mason is asking. He answers, “I just put a couple drops of my blood in your morning coffee once. You must remember also that Aiden commanded you to disobey him if he lost it. Both of these things likely play a part in your decision to do this.”
Now we’re all exchanging looks. I’m lost. I’m not sure what exactly is going on here.
Terry expl
ains that he has a third child named Rose who was the one who began the rebels years ago when she felt changelings were treated unfairly. She was able to concur this because she wasn’t fazed by the pures’ demands and lure. She could think for herself. She began the rebels and with her blood created more changelings and demidemons with resistance. Rose died years ago, long before I was born, but Maxwell restarted the movement when the rebels shared their and his sister’s cause with him. Forrest, like his father, remained loyal to the royal family.
“Forrest and I understand the need for things to be run a certain way. We see past the selfishness that the rebels cannot. The rebels want to rule this world, they’ve even recruited pures to help them in this endeavor. They want to exterminate the human numbers and make them the servants. They don’t understand that that’s not our reason for existing.”
“You can’t tell me that every changeling they make resistant joins them,” Mason says.
“No, many just go off and live amongst the humans, hiding from the law of the demons. Others are like Forrest and I, still a functioning part of our society, just blending in. Many changelings they make resistant are caught and killed because they cannot be made to obey.”
We are all very silent for a long time.
“You expected this would happen. That’s why you gave Mason your blood,” I realize slowly before anyone else seems to.
Terry doesn’t deny it. “I’ve known Aiden a very long time and hell has always seemed to bother him greatly. I had no doubt that he staying there for extended periods of time would mess with him. I actually thought it would happen sooner than it has, but I think you’re to thank for this much, Megan.”
“Maybe that innocence about you that I told you about, he isn’t just trying to preserve because he likes it, but that he needs it to level him out,” Mason sort of grumbles.
It isn’t a moment later that I hear Aiden’s voice in my head. “Megan, where are you?” he asks.
I don’t reply right away because I don’t know what to say. “What do you mean?” I ask, stalling. “I’m in Jacksonville where I’m supposed to be.” It isn’t a lie; we haven’t technically left the city yet.
“Love, I want you to come back with me. I miss you,” he urges in the purr I can’t resist.
“Are you speaking to him now?” Terry demands, looking worried as he notices that I’ve zoned out.
I tell the boys that I can handle Aiden, that I’ll just go back to him and he’ll be fine. This lands me a punch in the face from Terry, a punch that knocks me right out. Apparently he doesn’t like this idea.
Chapter 9
I wake up on a couch in a hotel room. Crispen seems to be covered in a new batch of blood like someone is trying to keep him knocked out and I can hear Forrest yelling at someone across the room.
“He’ll kill you, Forrest,” Terry says in a growl. “I know him better than any of you and I know that when he’s like this he’s unstoppable. Ask Mason. He tried to turn him into a demon once when he lost it.”
Mason nods. “Yeah, it’s true Forrest.”
“Well, he didn’t succeed,” Forrest says obviously.
“Because of Megan,” Terry answers.
“Exactly. Send her to fix him,” Forrest suggests and I hear something loud slam down. I assume it’s his fist colliding with something.
“No! It’s past that. I convinced him to visit her last week, remember? He was fine for a day and then lost it completely!” Terry scolds.
A hand rests on my shoulder and I realize that my head is resting on Mason’s lap. He runs his fingers through my hair delicately.
“Then I guess the solution is to send Megan back to live with him in hell!” Forrest shouts loudly. “Solution is right in front of us! If she’s the only thing that keeps him sane, then she shouldn’t leave his side!”
Terry’s face goes red. “Think with your head, son! She’ll get killed. How long will this plan work? She gets killed or gets Aiden killed then what? If she’s dead, he goes completely off his rocker, there’s no telling what he’ll do. If he’s dead, what is going to happen to this world? There is no one capable of running things. He—even as dark as his head is right now—he at least knows how to rule people.”
“Guys, cut it out, Megan is awake,” Mason says loudly.
Forrest ignores Mason. “At least let her see him. Why are we running from him?”
“Because he wants her back in hell. He’s gone so nuts that he doesn’t care about her safety. We’re running because if he finds her, she’s dead, and if she’s dead, then he’s going to do something stupid. Megan, get ahold of Aiden and tell him you can talk through your minds but you can’t see him. Don’t give him any clues as to where we are or who you’re with.”
I nod. It’s not like I can give him any clues when I have no clue where we are. I’m desperate to speak to Aiden, to hear his side of this so I mentally call him.
“Aiden?” I ask. “Are you there?”
“Megan?!” he replies quickly in a rush. “Where are you? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. I don’t know where I am, but I’m safe. Aiden, what’s going on?” I ask with worry.
He hesitates. “The rebels have been attacking often lately. I’ve lost many changelings and even some of the royal family is dead. It’s not safe here. Terry is missing and Megan, Crispen escaped. I need to have you here.”
The begging in his tone almost makes me agree. “If it isn’t safe, why do you want me there? Wasn’t the point of me leaving to keep me out of danger?”
“I need you, love.”
“No, you need to snap out of the darkness hell has you wrapped up in. When that happens, then I’ll see you again, but not until then.”
“Megan, what if I told you that this time I don’t want to give up the darkness? What if I told you that I like the darkness? It makes me stronger; it makes me a better leader. Do you know how difficult it is lead the entirety of the demons when you have a conscience and very human emotion? It’s almost impossible. That’s the reason demons are the way they are. If it were an easy job, we’d all have consciences.”
I’m quiet too long, tears coming to my eyes as what he’s saying sinks in. If he doesn’t want to emerge from the darkness, then how am I supposed to get him back? “Aiden, you once told me that you thought your having a conscience made you a better ruler.”
“I believed that too. Until I had to make the most impossible decisions, until I seen some of the things I’ve seen. I can’t erase those memories and remembering them while I have so much emotion is knee buckling, it’s agonizing. I can’t handle that sort of pain for an eternity. I gave into the darkness because I couldn’t hold the weight of everything any longer. I’m sorry, love, but this doesn’t mean that I’m not me any longer.”
I want to scream. “Aiden, you sentenced Forrest to death!” I burst, forgetting that this isn’t something I should say.
“How do you know that?” he asks skeptically.
I ignore his question. “The Aiden I know never would have done such a thing.”
“That Aiden is dead, Megan. That Aiden was weak and far from a leader.”
“Well, that Aiden wasn’t too much of a coward to face reality. He didn’t need to hide behind darkness to face problems, no matter how tough. He was strong, not weak.” I go to say something more but I know it’s useless and I stop. “For however long you’re going to be a slave to your inner demons, I don’t want anything to do with you. I don’t even want to speak to you.” I say this rashly without thinking about it completely.
“If that’s how you feel, then fine. You can never understand the things I have to do. You can never understand me. But just you wait, you’ll see what you’re missing, you’ll get over your pettiness, and you’ll come running back. I don’t have a doubt about it.”
The tone in his voice makes my cheeks go warm with anger. “I’ll never come back to you, not after this. Not now, not ever. I think sentencing your allies to death an
d torturing your own brother warrants a certain hatred in me towards you. Why would I ever want to be involved with someone so cold?”
“I’m a demon, Megan, nothing more. I’m tired of pretending to be something I’m not. This is me, and if you can’t handle that, then that’s that. I love you more than you will ever understand. Nothing will change that, but I will not force someone to love me who clearly does not. Good luck in your endeavors and goodbye. I do wish you all the best. As you so wish, I will not speak to you. I will, however, wait for the day you show up on the castle doorstep begging for a second chance, begging for my forgiveness.”
With that he’s gone. I focus back in on reality to find the entire room staring at me, even Crispen’s eyes bore into mine as he lays on the floor barely conscious. Tears slide down my cheeks in a rush.
I feel Mason’s arms around me tightly. He’s trying to soothe me, but I can’t be soothed. I need to be alone but there are like six of us jammed into a tiny hotel room. Privacy isn’t an option.
They let me cry, looking away to give as much privacy as they can. Mason holds me tighter and pulls me into him. He doesn’t speak because he knows that I just need to cry for a while.
A few minutes later, once the men realize that I’m not about to stop crying any time soon, Landon leaves to return to check in with hell before Aiden notices that he is missing, too. Terry keeps an eye on Crispen who looks so weak that he shouldn’t even be breathing. Forrest, too, watches Crispen closely.
“Why not let him beat me to death?” I hear Crispen ask in a raspy voice. “Why bring me here?”
“Because he isn’t himself right now and when we get him to snap out of it he’s going to hate himself for lying even a finger on you. If we’d had let him kill you, he’d never forgive himself,” Terry answers calmly, like everything will be alright. Maybe, once you’ve lived as long as Terry, things aren’t so urgent, so dramatic.
Mason shifts upon hearing Crispen’s voice. “Are you really that cold?” Mason demands, as if snapping.
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