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Apparently soundproof bubbles aren’t just a demon trick.
“Would you believe me if I said I’m not hungry?”
He glares at me. “Not even a little.”
“Sorry. I don’t have a better answer than that.”
His mouth pulls down into a severe grimace. “What the fuck is going on with you and those demons?” A wolfish growl edges into the question.
No itchy, no itchy,I chant internally, readying my response. I’d already noodled it out earlier this week, thinking this exact thing might happen.
“Basically, I need their help, so I’m doing whatever I can to make sure I stay in their good graces.” A little off my prepared script, but I’ll take it.
Austin’s face turns a shade of purply red I’ve never seen on a human before. “Are they hurting you? Starving you? Are you involved in some weird sex-cult thing against your will?”
My jaw drops. Is that what they think?
According to their faces, yes. They absolutely do.
“They’re protecting me from Vlad’s compulsion to make me his blood mate or something. And no, they aren’t hurting me. Unless you count the emotional damage I took from seeing Enzo’s bedroom unprepared.”
“Look, I’m gonna level with you here,” Jess says, grabbing my hand. “Wait, what’s wrong with Enzo’s room.”
I shake my head, the look on my face enough to get Jess to move on.
“The stats on people who’ve been through the trauma associated with cults is pretty clear, Dove. Most join some type of high-control group even after they leave, because it’s all theyknow. It’s what feels like home to them. It might be a different type of church, or a narcissistic person, or even a culty direct sales group.”
“Where are you going with this?”
“Dove, we’re seriously concerned that if the heirs were hurting you, you wouldn’t necessarily recognize it.”
“Oh, I see. You think I can’t tell when I’m being used. Trust me, Jess. I’ve been used in some way or another my whole life. I know what it looks like, and I’ve gotten pretty good at playing along while getting exactly what I want from people.”
Also, I wasn’t in a cult. Sure, Malachi has me under an iron grip. And, yes, a lot of Celestian doctrine is like the cults Stevie and Jess described.
But that doesn’t mean anything.
“You’re certain?” Stevie asks.
“I am. If they’re using me, I’m doing the same. Trust me, guys. I’ve got this handled.”
Stevie and Jess nod, both seeming at least a bit relieved.
Austin, though…
Wrinkles his nose. “You reek of them. But mostly you smell like fear, Dove. What aren’t you telling us?”
Uncontrollable laughter bursts from me. “So, so much, wolf boy. There’s how I got here, and why I need the heirs to believe that I’m a demon and why I’m here in the first place, but mostly I’m not telling you the biggest secret I have so please, please stop asking because I can’t always keep my mouth from being a bitch-ass snitch.”
It’s a stream-of-consciousness confession that I have no power to stop.
The three of them sit in stunned silence for several heartbeats.
I just admitted that I wasn’t a demon to them.
Hopefully, they didn’t catch it nestled in with all the rest.
“What do you mean, you need them to believe you’re a demon?”
