The demon floats over to me, standing at my side as he looks down. With a snap of his fingers, a tall chair appears, and he makes himself comfortable, then gives me the scary smile again. “We can discuss that, Prince Jasper. Let us try to unravel this together. I believe it will be very beneficial.”
I hope to fuck so because my brothers are revolting one by one; I have to get this under control.
Love To Hate Me
Kit/Kat
Oriel’s declaration made me feel like crumblinganda bit like I could fly, which totally fucked with my ability to process. He didn’t seem surprised, though, and we spent the rest of our free periods snacking on the food he’d squirreled away for me while I sat in the circle of his arms. I worried he would be upset that we weren’t… exploring… but he seemed content to talk about his hoard, pointing to various sections with glee.
It helped me center myself—both the food and the gentle support.
By the time we finished and O led me out of the weird magical pocket, I was settled and able to grab his hand to lace our fingers together. That made him light up with happiness, his dark features full of a joy that was in direct contrast with his goth-y appearance.
“KK, this was the best lunch I’ve had in a long ass time,” he says as we make our way out of the maze that he took me down to get to his secret spot. “I’m glad I demanded to whisk you away, even if it pissed His Royal Pissypants off.”
I frown, tilting my head to look at him in confusion. “Why thefuckwould Jasper give a shit if you wanted to hang at lunch? I’m his least favorite student in the entire place most days. I’d think he would be happy to see the back of me.”
The crow demon tsks, shaking his head as we leave the building, heading into the main quad on our way to the arena. “Little shadow, I don’t think I can answer that question any better than he could. Jasper has deep-rooted issues around expressing anything outside of anger. That was the only thing rewarded positively in his house, and he learned to embrace it as self-defense.”
Jasper’s shitty home life was evident when I met his father, but I can’t ask Oriel to betray his trust by explaining further—it’s not fair.
“I don’t think anyone with an ounce of awareness could miss that,” I reply with a sigh. “But the dudehatesme, despite knowing I’m not a spy or a plant. Honestly, other than my dickhead foster brothers, I’ve never met anyone who pushes my buttons this hard.”
“Hmmm,” O replies as we cross the last part of the main area and head to what will surely be the scene of a disaster or my humiliation as always. “I don’t think those two reactions are the same.”
Snorting, I pull Dottie out of my bag, letting her climb to my shoulder and get some fresh air. She napped most of our sojourn to his hoard, and I’ll want her alert while I’m on the field for Weapons & Tactics. I trust my demons not to accidentally harm her, but the other idiots? Not a chance. I realize I called themmy demonsand my face heats, so I focus my eyes on the ground as O guides me to our destination.
“Well, Blake and Bryce scared me and Jasper doesn’t, so that’s sort of true.”
Oriel laughs and squeezes my hand gently. “While that’s hysterical and I wish everyone else had heard it, I don’t believe that’s why it’s not the same.”
I wrinkle my nose, sneaking a look up at the amused demon. “Jasper obviously has issues, you know? But… I think somehow I know that while he’s mean as a defense mechanism, it’s because he doesn’t know how else to react to shit. It’s been drilled into him, and I get that sort of trauma response.”
“You fight him at every turn, little shadow.” His fingers flex around mine and I duck my head again, smiling at the ground. “You’re not exactly oozing empathy, mm?”
“It’s one thing to have baggage and learn how to either stow it or drop it at the door,” I finally say after a brief pause. “It’s another to pick it up and throw it at other people to protect yourself.”
“I’ll give you that. Jas has never tried to sort his shit, except for when he finally admitted his feelings for Zav. He had to do that, or we were all going tokick his ass.” I look up, surprised as fuck, and Oriel shrugs. “I can’t get into their shit, but Zav was conditioned—like all of us—by his idiot parents and there was only so much unintentional trauma we could allow Jasper to recreate.”
“Someone stopped him? I find that hard to believe. He doesn’t listen to any—ohhhh.” My eyes widen and I look at him as realization dawns.
Oriel nods, his eyes dancing. “Yep. Slash told him to get his shit together in a way that conveyed what would happen if he didn’t. No one else has that kind of sway over him… well, except the Z-man now because… dick.”
My snort is so loud it almost hurts and my crow demon beams. When I recover, I purse my lips at him. “That was not appropriate, Oriel Bloodstone. I don’t need to know about their… crotch Olympics.”
“Oh, but I think you do, KK.” My flush deepens, and he laughs darkly. “It may be extremely relevant information someday—you never know.”
Fat fucking chance of that, buddy.
It washard to focus for the rest of that day after that little trip, but I managed to successfully do it without revealing what went on.
Unfortunately, today has been less easy because inquiring minds definitely wanted to know, and I’m not ready to share.
The second gift Oriel gave me from his hoard—the sports bra—is probably one of the most helpful things I’ve been handed since I arrived here. He assured me it’s clean, and a sniff of the material confirmed that it’s not teeming with someone’s fluids, so I took it into the bathroom to change. Unwinding the damn bindings makes me sigh in relief; they’re not the best method and it’s hot as fuck being mummy-wrapped with this stuff. I look down at myself, noting that the potion Dank gave me is working.
The kindly demon’s ‘girly bits’ potion has kept me from being scented—at least, by the demons here—and hiding the sparkling kawaii tattoos that popped up after the damn initiation. I didn’t realize it would serve double duty, but the fiery headed doctor refused to tell mewhythe damn things disappeared after a week of taking his meds. He simply said that the potion was crafted to conceal all traits that would identify me as a demon capable ofreproduction.
Whatever the fuckthatmeant, I can’t tell you.
