by Hickory Mack
For a moment, Elsie felt like she couldn’t exhale. She listened to her mate’s words, waiting for the catch, but it didn’t come. Wren had told her exactly what she needed to hear. She hugged both Wren and Frida, resting her head on the spirit’s shoulder, trying to hide the sniffles her traitorous body decided were necessary.
“Thank you for understanding,” she squeaked out, and Wren kissed the top of her head.
“In the end, it has to be something you’re happy with. If you’re not, then I don’t want it. It’s not worth it,” the spirit said stubbornly. Elsie gave a weak smile, knowing what that promise cost her. She’d just promised to let the world die if Elsie couldn’t make herself bring the Dragons back.
Something about being given that freedom made knowing which decision she had to make easier. Wren had given her the gift of assurance that everything was going to be okay.
“I kind of love you, Wren.”
“Kind of? I’ll have to work harder to be amazing then,” the spirit sighed. “I already very much love and adore you, my little reaper.”
She let the cat down and tilted Elsie’s face upward, looking into her eyes for several seconds before kissing her. “I do love you,” Elsie corrected, and Wren rewarded her with a beautiful smile, almost taking her breath away.
“I’m sorry our conversation took such a serious turn. Can we go back to being happy about your element being balanced? We should celebrate!”
“We will, but first you have to tell me what it is you came out here for. Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping or spying on people right now?” Wren questioned. “You seemed upset when you arrived.”
“Oh, actually, thinking about it now, it seems like nothing.” Elsie shrugged. “I was frustrated, but Frost and I took care of it. I wanted to rant and blow off some steam, but it doesn’t feel all that important anymore. You don’t need to be bothered with it.”
Wren started to argue, but Elsie tugged on her hand, her eyes bright. “I’m serious. It’s fine. How should we celebrate? Do you want to go into the demon town and find a place to go dancing?”
The spirit looked genuinely startled at her suggestion. “Gods no! There will be too many people packed close together, giving too many opportunities for someone to touch you. You wouldn’t want me to have to sever anyone’s hand tonight, would you? It might ruin the mood.”
Elsie almost choked on her own spit. Of all the things to say tonight. “As if you really would. What would you like to do instead?”
Wren gave her an impish grin and beckoned her closer. “Let’s play a game. Have you ever played hide and seek?”
“Not since I was a kid,” Elsie laughed.
“Have you ever played it naked?”
The next few days went by incredibly fast, and Elsie couldn’t sit still. She spent a lot of time in the observation room with Kyle and Brian on the lowest level, watching everything going on around her. Cross sat at her side as they watched Cornick beat the shit out of the fox demon then calmly clean up like nothing unusual had happened.
“He’s psychotic,” Elsie complained, fidgeting in her chair as she watched. The fox never fought back, never spoke a word. He never so much as opened his eyes, but Elsie knew he was in there. She felt his mind wander past sometimes, as though the demon was standing right next to her as a spirit. He gave her the creeps, but when she was in this room, all she felt for him was pity.
“We’ll have to be especially careful when we leave this place,” Cross said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he will kill you and anyone else that tries to help you escape.”
“Oh, Cross,” Elsie sighed. “When we leave this place, there won’t be anyone left to chase after us.”
“Right, I forgot who I was talking to for a second,” he snorted. He’d made it very clear what he thought of her plans to destroy the compound. Cross was far more in favor of leaving and never looking back.
“I want to talk to him,” Elsie said, her eyes on the screen, watching Cornick carefully peel off his bloodsoaked jacket and fold it before placing it in the hazardous materials container.
“I’m sure he’d be happy to talk with you. The guy can’t take his eyes off you whenever you’re in a room together,” Cross muttered.
“Not Cornick, the fox.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Why? Look at him, he’s harmless.”
“I don’t believe that for a second, and neither do you. Whatever they’re giving him in that dampening serum is the only thing keeping that thing from killing us all.” Cross shuddered, thinking back to the damage the demon had done.
Elsie still had her dart full of the stuff. She’d been considering injecting it into herself with either Wren or Cross to watch over her. Obviously, whatever it was didn’t last since they injected the fox with it several times a day. So far, she hadn’t worked up the courage to do it.
“Okay, so he’s a little terrifying. He’s still too incapacitated to cause any trouble, thus, harmless.”
Cornick walked out, leaving the orderlies to scrub the floors and tend to the demon’s wounds. They always did that. Cleaned his wounds and documented them after every session the fox endured with Cornick. Their faces never showed any emotion; they just methodically did their job without complaint, finishing quickly and moving on to their next task.
Elsie and Cross watched the orderlies leave, splitting up so some of them went to the supply closet and a pair of them went to the laundry room. They wouldn’t return to the fox until tomorrow. He wasn’t even being fed. Elsie hadn’t seen them give him a single thing to eat or drink in all the hours she’d spent in front of the screens. And yet, the next day, all his wounds were healed, and Cornick’s questions and torture began anew.
They watched some of the other screens as well. Most of them were generally pretty boring—empty corridors or the stairwells. There were several cameras in each of the surgery auditoriums, but none were in use that day. When the auditoriums were active, they always seemed to be performing the same procedure: drilling a hole into demons’ skulls and inserting a tiny object.
So far, Elsie hadn’t found anybody willing to tell her what it was, but she was willing to bet every piece of gold in her pocket dimension that it had something to do with how the hunters had controlled those demons out on the battlefield. She would randomly come across demons in the compound, and the vast majority had that same blank look on their faces.
Occasionally, she’d see something behind their eyes, some awareness of who they are or where they were. They wouldn’t respond to her questions, trying desperately to blend in with the others. Pitying the poor things, she’d decided to leave them alone. Even if she could steal them away and release them back on Earth, they’d still be under hunter control.
The last of the orderlies left the fox’s room. The lights turned off before the infrared turned on, continuing sensory deprivation. He would only have light and sound while Cornick or his orderlies were in the room.
Elsie stood up and gave Cross a serious look. “I’m going to stop time in his room, so you won’t be able to see what’s happening on the camera. For you, I’ll be gone for a second at the most.”
“Don’t do this,” he groaned. “At least take me with you.”
“If anybody happens to be watching the camera in this room, they’ll see me leave. If you were to come with me, it would cause a lot of questions I’d rather not have to deal with just yet.” She opened the portal and stepped through, leaving Cross and his protests behind.
The brujo wasn’t as demanding as Wren, with her constant tendency toward overprotectiveness, but it was still a little much. She’d gone from not having anyone care about her at all to having concern and prickly bossiness coming from multiple directions. It was a bit of an adjustment.
It was cold in the fox’s room, even colder than other places in the compound, and it made Elsie question why. If their goal was to take away any sensory input, why make him uncomfortably cold?
She
turned on one of the lights so it was still dim, but at least she could see the demon. They’d taken away the fine kimono he’d been wearing, replacing it with scrub pants and leaving his chest bare. The guy was well put together, but the muzzle obscuring the lower half of his face kept her from admiring his beauty.
“Do you remember me?” she asked, feeling stupid. “I told you I didn’t have a choice, but you should know how much I regret it. I’m looking for a way to get out of here, and when I do, I’ll help you escape as well.”
“I know that’s not enough to atone for my part in bringing you here—” Elsie froze. The vast and suppressive awareness of his mind pressed down on her. It was almost too heavy a weight to bear, and she grabbed a table to keep from falling to her knees. He made Frost’s psychic communication seem like child’s play by comparison.
“I’m sorry,” she gasped out. He was so fucking angry, and there was no doubt he could crush her without thinking about it. This creature had earned his name, the devil’s black fox.
‘You and I will meet again someday, little reaper. And when we do, I will take great pleasure in finding out exactly what it takes to make you scream,’ he vowed, his deep voice tinted with a slight Asian accent.
Elsie’s entire body trembled, and she let out a scoff of disbelief. She’d been afraid for her life when that mage had tied her to Frost, but this demon’s threat was enough to make her fear to continue living. He would find her someday and make her pay for what she’d done, of this she had zero doubt.
“They cursed me,” she said quickly in her own defense.
‘Why do you see your misfortune as an excuse for what you’ve done?’ he demanded. Elsie shivered. She didn’t have an answer for that. When he’d told her she’d had a choice, this was what he’d meant. She could have chosen to die rather than harm others, but that wasn’t the choice she’d made.
The fear of him was taking over her every thought. Elsie wanted to throw herself at his feet and beg forgiveness, but then she caught one of his tails twitching out of the corner of her eye. A tail as black as night.
“Like you’re one to talk,” she said, trying to make herself sound braver than she felt. “What excuse did you have for killing millions of people?”
The next sound to reverberate through her head was dark, sardonic laughter, with just the slightest feeling of amusement. Elsie wondered when the last time anyone had dared talk back to him was, and whether or not that person had survived the act.
‘We are not the same,’ he replied. ‘I attacked those who had dared to attack me first. You? You attacked someone who had nothing to do with your problem. You say you’re cursed? Well, so what? So’s the whole damned world. Take personal responsibility for your actions.’
“I’m trying to. Even if you hunt me down afterward, I’m going to do whatever I can to release you,” she repeated. The demon paused for a second, and she could feel the suspicion in his thoughts. For the first time, she noticed something else. An undercurrent of exhaustion and longing. He made it look like he was unbothered by what Cornick was doing to him, but clearly, the fox was not above being affected.
“After that, I’ll destroy the Hunter Clans myself.”
His surprise was tangible, and so was his very amused disbelief. ‘For that, you will have to wait your turn. The hunters are mine to do with as I wish.’
He said it with such cold resolve Elsie couldn’t help but believe him. The fox was incapable of escaping, but if he said the hunters were his, they were his. “At least save some for me.”
There was no response. The staggering presence of his mind was gone, and Elsie finally felt like she could breathe. She’d been right. If she could free him, there was nothing that would stand in his way. She looked up at the fox for a long moment. Would it still be considered using him if he was getting exactly what he wanted? She’d benefit from the chaos he would cause, after all.
“I’ll see you again soon,” she said, then shut off the lights and returned to Cross. He didn’t react when she returned, just stayed in his seat like she hadn’t been gone at all. His eyes slowly turned her way, and she could see anger there.
“You were only gone for a second, but I could feel your fear,” he said quietly. “What happened?”
“Will you take me back to my room?” she asked, looking toward the door. Cross stood and brushed past her, leading the way. They were both silent for the almost ten minutes it took to get from the bottom floor to the inside of her suite, where both Frost and Frida lay curled up together, sleeping.
As soon as the door was shut behind them, Elsie stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Cross’ waist, resting her head on his shoulder. The demanding questions he’d been about to ask died. They’d been careful to maintain space between them, knowing that strengthening their bond would make it more difficult to pretend to be nothing more than a prisoner and the head of her security. They’d never embraced before.
“You’re right,” she told him. “He’s dangerous.”
The brujo softened, holding her so tenderly it hurt. “He didn’t hurt you?”
“No,” she answered. “Just threatened to.”
“He did speak to you then,” Cross said thoughtfully. “I thought he might. He sees you as a bigger threat than Cornick. Someone worth replying to.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Elsie admitted, though she should have. With how frightened she’d been, she’d forgotten how much power of her own she had. She was a reaper. She could throw his six-tailed ass in a hell dimension for his crimes... if she could survive the attempt. He wouldn’t make it easy.
“Are you always so impulsive?” Cross asked, and Elsie shook her head.
“No,” she answered, pulling him over to her couch so she could sit down cuddled up with him. “I prefer to stay home and have lazy mornings in bed, then build puzzles, read books, and paint. I’m generally the one stopping others from being too impulsive.”
She looked pointedly at Frost as she said that last part. Elsie liked to have plans, or at the very least, think out her actions before acting. “I guess I didn't see visiting the fox as impulsive since it was one step toward a long goal. When we leave, he’s going to be a part of it. I was going to have to encounter him eventually, and it seems best to do so while he can’t physically harm me.”
“I see,” Cross said, putting his arm around her shoulders and stroking her arm with his thumb. “In your head, it made perfect sense, but to me, it was sudden. It would help if, in the future, you start sharing your ideas before you decide it’s time to act on them.”
“That sounds reasonable,” Elsie agreed, leaning into him, grateful for how hard and warm he was. Whether he knew it or not, his strength was helping her calm down.
“Someday, this will be normal, but my heart is pounding like some young pup.” Cross laughed awkwardly. “What we have right now isn’t enough. I want more of this.”
He touched Elsie’s cheek, and she looked up into his dark eyes. “I do too, but it isn’t safe right now.”
“I think it’s my turn to be impulsive. There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Cross said. He pulled her closer, leaning in for a kiss, and for a second, Elsie panicked. All the memories of the fear she had, keeping Saint safe and hiding their relationship, overwhelmed her. His kiss was gentle and patient, reminding her of who he was and where they were.
This man wasn’t Saint. She didn’t have to protect him from the hunters. The worst they would do if they found out about their relationship would be to kick him out. She shouldn’t even worry about that. Cross was her mate, and he wouldn’t do anything to compromise them. Her brain and her heart decided to fall into sync. This was okay. It was better than okay. Elsie responded, letting her lips soften and mold themselves against his. He had a slightly spicy taste to him, like a curry with the perfect amount of ginger.
She could feel the strength of their bond growing, and welcomed it. Maybe she hadn’t wanted him at first, but the longer she spent
with him, the more Elsie knew that this man was hers. Her lips parted, but he pulled away, touching the pendant around her neck.
“I’ve never seen it do that before,” he said. Elsie lifted it in one hand, finding that the green stone was glowing.
“Neither have I. I didn’t know it could do that. I think it means Wren needs me,” she said, looking up at Cross’ face. “I could wait a little while, spend some more time with you…”
“No, you should go. If she’s never done it before, it must be important. Maybe take that wolf with you? Just in case,” he advised. Elsie nodded her agreement.
“Okay.” She got up and crossed the room, touching the top of Frost’s head. His eyes opened slowly and looked up at her without a sound, the feeling of a question pressing into her mind. “Wren needs us.”
The wolf groaned and got up, stretching his paws out in front of him and yawning. He looked at Cross with a mix of annoyance and disdain, as if asking why the brujo wasn’t going instead. Elsie gave Cross a brief smile, wishing Wren had better timing. She wanted to spend more time with him.
“We can continue another time,” he assured her.
“See you soon.” She opened a door back to Earth and felt exactly what Wren wanted her for as soon as she did. All of her reluctance disappeared, and she ran through, barely remembering to close the door behind her.
Wren stood in the middle of the clearing, looking every bit as perfect as she always did, but Elsie’s eyes weren’t on the earth element. She couldn’t take her eyes off the man standing next to her. He gave her a beautiful smile, and her heart skipped a beat.
“Mistress.”
“Saint,” she breathed, then ran into his arms.
Chapter 36