Page 107 of Reforging Onyx

“I’ll behave,” Onyx said, a little irritably. “It wasn’t like I was going out of my way to misbehave last time. It’s not my fault you had him there.” He paused, going still. “He isn’t going to be here tonight, is he?” He wasn’t sure he could handle seeing the blond witch or his obedient, uncollared pet.

“No,” Dominic replied, shaking his head. “He will not be in attendance. A Council representative and two of his assistants will be attending.”

At least there was that, though Onyx doubted any representatives of the Council would be much better. They’d all be rich, corrupt supes who were a plague on humanity. Literally. This didn’t bode well at all, and he didn’t like it.

“I thought you might spend time with Shane in the gym after lunch,” Dominic offered.

“Yeah, okay." Onyx was relieved that he wouldn’t be expected to sit still through Dominic’s work day — or at least, not all of it — while he anticipated how fucked-up the night could get.

Dominic nodded, finishing his coffee and rising. He collected his laptop and files from his desk drawer and gestured for Onyx to precede him out the door to head to the office. “I have acquired a book for you,” he said conversationally on the way to his office.

Onyx eyed him dubiously.

“It’s titled ‘Surrounded by Psychopaths: How to Protect Yourself from Being Manipulated and Exploited,’” Dominic told him, lips twitching in amusement when Onyx snorted.

Onyx settled down on the floor by Dominic’s desk, nodding. “Thanks. How many people are surrounded by psychopaths, though? That seems weird.”

Dominic chuckled. “There are more of them at high levels of business management than you might think. C-suite executives are notorious for having psychopathic traits, if not being psychopaths in full.”

“Okay, that doesn’t surprise me,” Onyx remarked. Business people, supes, it was all the same. Maybe he’d learn something from it, or maybe it was just some bullshit book. He paused. “Can I get a bean bag chair or something in here? The cushion on the floor isn’t very comfortable.”

“No,” Dominic told him as he sat down at his desk. “That would not maintain proper optics, but we can find you a more comfortable cushion.”

Onyx sighed but nodded. It had been a long shot. He was lucky he got the cushion, he guessed, but it really wasn’t very comfortable for long periods of time. He’d taken to resting against the side of Dominic’s chair in the days leading up to the attack to get more comfortable, though he’d been gun-shy about staying so close to the other witch since then.

Dominic took the audiobook chip out of the case that had been left on his desk and offered it to Onyx, along with his headphones. Opening his laptop, he started to work.

Onyx took the chip and slid it into the slot in the headphones, putting them on and adjusting the cushion so he could lean against Dominic’s side. He didn’t make a big deal out of it, but it was closer than he’d been willing to get when he didn’t have to.

Dominic smiled faintly at him, but thankfully didn’t otherwise react to it or comment on it.

The book was interesting as it went through the different traits of a psychopath — and he definitely recognized Dominic in each one. He wasn’t sure it would actually teach him how to avoid being exploited, because that was out of his control, but maybe he’d pick up a few things when they got to the mechanics of it all.

He paused it when Dominic tapped him on the shoulder some few hours later, and he got up so he could sit at the desk and dig into his lunch. “You’re definitely a psychopath,” he informed Dominic.

Dominic chuckled. “I rather thought that went without saying,” he said, voice rich with amusement. “Learning anything interesting?”

Onyx shrugged. “Apparently it can be genetic, which explains an awful lot about witches in general,” he remarked. “And parents could make it better, but obviously witches don’t want to make it better. So they’re basically breeding a bunch of psychopaths.”

He took a gulp of water, then went back to eating as he mulled over what he’d started to learn. Witches’ general predisposition toward psychopathy was certainly starting to make more sense.

Dominic hummed in agreement. “Witches and psychopaths are typically drawn to power, especially those who are already powerful. It becomes a reinforcing trait when powerful families are selecting for characteristics that will help make them more powerful, more ruthless. They may not be consciously selecting for psychopathic traits — though I imagine some certainly are — but they are achieving the same end result regardless.” He paused to eat, then continued, “Contrary to what many believe, psychopaths do have emotion. What we lack are sympathetic emotional structures. Empathy, sympathy, compassion. Though compassion is a difficult one to define as such. There are times when what I feel may be close to compassion.”

Well, all of that made sense — except Dominic feeling compassion. That didn’t make sense. “What, about animals or something?” he asked suspiciously.

Dominic chuckled. “Animals I care little about because they have no value to me. My family, my sister. I know that she cares for me, and I care for her. I would be concerned if something were to happen to her, and furious with any who would seek to harm her in any way. When she is upset about something, I am not immune to that fact, and would seek to ease her distress if I were able.”

“Is that learned behavior?” Onyx was rather proud of himself for understanding that phrase a little better. “Caring for her, I mean? If you potentially come by this from genetics?”

Dominic smiled, and the approval did something weird to him that he didn’t understand or particularly like. “Difficult to say for certain, but not impossible,” he acknowledged. “There are things that I realized I should care for and do not. My brother, for example. I would not be so concerned were something to happen to him, though I might feel obligated to involve myself out of familial duty.”

Onyx tilted his head to the side, considering. “Why do you think you care about her but not him?” he asked curiously. He had cared deeply for his family, and he’d cared about many of the rebels they’d lost over the years, too.

Mostly.

It had been hard when they hadn’t trusted him at all.

He might’ve been mostly cold on the outside in response, but he was far from a psychopath himself.