AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was a lie. The way her hands wrung told me she was ‘trying to do the right thing’ again. But that demon cared nothing about me, just like the others.
They could all fuck off.
I wasn’t less than them, I was more, a survivor in and outside of these walls.
A wave of despair hit me, and I looked up to see a tear track down her cheek. My demon side stirred, hungry and willing to drink it down. She was always lonely and sad here, which was why I didn’t visit often.
Feeding on her, even involuntarily, was fucking sick.
It always felt strange, wrong, or maybe that was just what I thought of the demons.
Of myself.
“You should leave here,” she told me after a long pause of silence. She didn’t mean her room, she meant Dark Haven. But I was tied to this place. I’d never lived anywhere else.
Plus, I had to feed.
Not as often as the other demons, but still. It was my reality, and even if I’d accepted it, I loathed it as well.
“That’s not an option for me.” My words were blunt and full of honesty, but I still winced as a sob tore from her. I hated to see her sad, but I could barely focus on it as I held my demon back.
She wasn’t a meal, she was my mother.
“It’s my fault. I doomed you to this place,” she choked out. “Raised in these halls... it was no place for a child.”
“My childhood wasn’t so bad, Ma,” I promised.
It was a lie. Seeing her ups and downs so vividly with no escape was hard, having Vane intertwined in every aspect of our lives was even worse. I didn’t like the way he ran things, the way he used these people, the way he never seemed to age or change.
He may not be a demon, but making a deal with them made him as close as a human could be.
His soul was tainted, Hel’s magic giving him power and influence he couldn’t achieve on his own. But at the end of the day, he would die easier than I would.
I’d dreamed of killing him with my bare hands more than once. Any alpha who made their living out of taking advantage of the weak deserved to feel double the pain they’d caused. I’d seen the looks in the patients’ eyes when they left his sessions; I didn’t know what went on, but I knew it was nothing good.
“You’re on fire, dear.” My mother’s voice was full of concern, but I had to breathe a few times before I could reassure her.
Blue flames licked out of my hands, and I squeezed them into tight fists to put out the flames. I tried not to let her see me like that. It would only make her feel more guilty.
Someday I would actually have to call the flames, to master them, but it made me feel more like a demon than ever, and I wasn’t ready to face that reality yet.
I was a master at avoidance if nothing else.
Her fingers tapped the chair. One. Two. Three. Pause. One, two, three, pause. Over and over. It was a familiar sound, nostalgic, and it did the trick. I glanced back at her and smiled; she didn’t mind if it was fake.
“I’m fine, everything is alright,” I promised as I always did. “But now I have to go, I have classes.”
Her eyes brimmed with tears. “My smart boy, going to college now.” She waved me off as they started to fall, and I left the room, knowing damn well I wasn’t the person to soothe her. Tears generally led to sadness and then my demon side would draw it out and feed.
Not fucking happening.
Pushing open the door, I rushed from the room. I would have slammed into Vane if not for him steadying me. The feel of his hands on me had rage flaring and I jerked away. He didn’t react to my string of curses or the angry step away.
“She’s doing well,” he said in a tone that was devoid of any true reassurance. “Nice of you to visit.”
“Some of us aren’t cold and selfish,” I spat out as I pulled away from his touch.
“No?” he laughed. “I’ve heard the cries, Drake. Don’t lie to yourself and act like you’re not just as evil as the rest of us.”
