Unbelievable, page 14
“Like I said. I’m fine, let's keep going.” My breath was starting to smooth out again, but I had renewed vigor. I wanted to prove myself here. Everyone needed to know that I can hold my own, and I am not scared of a fight.
I walked over to where his sword was laying on the ground and used my foot to flick it in his direction.
“Are you sure? “He asked, still obviously concerned.
“Would you stop if I was any other student?” I whispered as my eyes flashed toward the rest of the class.
He thought about it for a second then picked his sword up. “No, I wouldn’t,” he said as he lunged at me.
This fight was different though, it’s like my arms moved without me having to think about it. I felt like I have handled a sword before like something else was coming into focus.
A man I don’t recognize was standing beside showing me how to properly stand with the short swords. Teaching me how to block and attack. This has to be why I felt drawn to this weapon. Could this be Rida’s memories? I think I would remember if some dark-headed man taught me how to fight with a blade.
Focusing back on the fight with Elijah I notice he was starting to get winded, cool! I’m holding my own. I use my right arm to block a blow that was coming from overhead, then I ducked down, bracing myself on my left hand, and kicked my leg out. He fell to the ground with wide eyes and before he was able to get up.
I straddled him, pressing my right blade to his neck.
“I win!” I exclaimed.
“Wow.” “She really just bested him.” “How did she even do that.” “They were moving so fast.” I heard the people in the crowd clapping, but all I could truly focus on was how Elijah was under me, our hips pushed tightly together, his thin workout pants doing nothing to hide his growing erection between us. I kissed him on the nose and hopped up.
With a smile he jumps up and turned away from the class, taking both our swords back to the wall. I see him place a hand on the back wall and take a deep breath before I was bombarded with questions.
“How did you move so fast?” I don’t know. “Where did you learn how to do that?” I don’t know that either. “Can you teach me that last move?” I can try it.
I didn’t get the chance to answer any of the questions, and thankfully Elijah came up to rescue me after just a few beats.
“That’s enough.” He laughed. “That was very impressive, but we can’t linger. Who’s next?” he asked.
A few people put their hands in the air, wanting to get the chance to better their instructor. Only it never happened, no one else beat him. I sat in the bleachers watching, analyzing what they were doing move for move. By the time that I fight Elijah again, I would know all his moves. The band of bimbos never stopped giving me the stink eye, but their Air using friend never looked at me again.
✽✽✽
“I come bearing gifts.” Mercy said as she pushed my door open.
“Oh! I smell pizza!” I said as I walked out of the bathroom towel drying my hair.
“I figured if I was going to invite myself over, I would at least bring dinner, and dessert,” she said holding up what looked like a wine bottle. Elijah wrinkled his nose and Asim flashed to the surface.
“What is that?” I ask.
“Dessert.” Mercy responded.
“Yes, but that doesn’t tell me what it is.” I snarked.
“It's alcoholic blood.” She grinned.
Oh no.
“That’s going to be a no from me.” I pulled out a chair and sat at the bar.
“It’s not that bad, Rida will like it.” Zilli said, “I drink it sometimes, it's sweeter than you would think, and will get you drunk twice as fast.” He pulled some glasses out of the cabinet.
I just shook my head. “Nope. Still not doing it.”
“Thea, come on, have some faith. I wouldn’t lead you wrong,” Zilli said in my ear as he snaked his arms around my waist.
“That’s cheating,” I said with a sigh as I leaned back into him.
Mercy laughed and poured two glasses. She handed one to Zilli, then turned to get pizza. “So, tell me about this new Fire.”
“I don’t know what to say, it just happened.” I shrugged.
“Blue Fire is just a myth though; I have never met anyone that could call it or use it.” Mercy said as she stuffed her face.
“Well then why is it a myth? If no one had ever had it then why is it even spoke of?”
“It was rumored that the Angels are the only ones who could wield blue flames. There may have been one of two other Demons in all of time that have been able to do it.” Angels? no way. Surely Mercy is wrong.
“But I’m a Demon, apparently not just one type of demon either.” At least that’s what it would look like.
“Yea that was going to be my next question,” She turned to Zilli, “how does she have a Jinn if she is a Succubus?”
“That has to be linked to the mark.” He said.
“What mark?” I hadn’t mentioned the brand to Mercy.
I stood up and pulled my shirt up, showing her the sideways three and two dots that Zilli said is the Arabic symbol for Jinn.
Mercy turned to Elijah, “Does she have one for you?” she asked him.
I blushed “We haven’t…” I started but couldn’t make myself say it.
“He can’t touch anyone else, and you’ve been here for weeks and you haven’t put the poor boy out of his misery yet?” she gawked at me.
I felt my face get hotter, then Elijah pulled me into his arms. “It’s okay love, seriously. Ignore her. We will have our time, whenever you are ready.” He kissed me gently on the mouth.
“Anyway, so a Jinn and blue Fire, anything else new?” Mercy said.
Rida flashed to the surface, “She is one hell of a sword handler.”
“Oh yeah, she kicked my ass in class today.” Elijah chuckled. “How is your arm?”
“What happened to your arm?” Zilli questioned.
“It was nothing, I missed a block and the blade cut my arm, I cauterized it with my blade and went about my business.” I lifted the sleeve of my shirt to show the mark, it was significantly smaller than it had been, my Demon blood healing it quickly, it should be gone by tomorrow afternoon.
“It will be gone by the end of the night,” Zilli said in my head. I guess that’s one way to heal it.
“You cauterized it yourself?” Mercy asked.
“Yeah, I didn’t want any special treatment because I am fated to the instructor.” I raised my arm and placed my hand on Elijah’s face. “He wouldn’t have let anyone else stop, so I didn’t let myself stop.”
“Damn woman. I doubt anyone will be calling you a cry baby now,” she said.
Mercy hung out for a while, we watched some tv and finished the whole pizza. About an hour after the guys left to do something else Mercy jumped up.
“What?” I asked her.
“Dude, if you are fated to both Elijah and Zilli, what about their other brother?” she asked.
“Do they just have the one other brother?” I responded.
“You don’t even know? And you didn’t answer my question.”
“No, I mean they have mentioned that it might be a possibility for me to be fated to all of them, but I never asked how many bothers they have. I am scared to even be with two of them.” I said.
“Do you mean in general or like, at the same time?” She laughed a little.
“Just in general. That’s why I haven’t been with Elijah, in the human world it’s kind of a bad thing to have more than one boyfriend, and then I find out that there are more than just the two of them. I couldn’t bring myself to ask how many brothers they have; I don’t think I want to know.” I admitted as I fiddled with my fingers.
“Oh, honey. It is completely normal in the Demon world to have more than one partner,” Mercy said.
“So, I’ve been told.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, they do only have the one other brother. He’s a Vampire.” That did make me feel a little better.
“Yeah, Ambrose, right?” I said. “He sold me my fake ID on Earth.”
“I should be surprised, but I’m not.” She sat back down. “You know, you shouldn’t be ashamed that you have more than one mate, it’s kind of how our world was designed. Even Lilith herself had multiple partners, that’s why her sons are all different Demons. None of them share the same father.” I had learned more about my own mates' family from Mercy than I have from them.
“Do you know why they don’t talk about their mom?” I never asked them because every time Lilith comes up in conversation, they get all short and snippy.
“I don’t, but I heard that Zilli and Elijah have hated her since right after she had Ambrose. No one knows the truth and they won’t talk about it, so it’s just been left at that. Whatever it is though, it has got to be bad. I heard that they haven’t seen her in 15 years. Rumor has it that she doesn’t come to campus because Zilli is always here, she built this school, and she doesn’t even visit it.” Oh. Well, that’s more than I expected.
“How strange. I can’t imagine having that much of an issue with one of my parents.” I might still be mad at my parents and have very little to do with them right now, but they are still my parents.
Elijah opened the door with ice-cream right then, Mercy looked at her watch and stood up.
“On that note, I’m going to go home. It’s getting pretty late.” She blew me a kiss and pulled the door shut behind her.
Chapter Fourteen
Elijah
“I thought you might like this,” I told Thea as I handed her the ice cream. I remembered the number of times I had seen her eat ice cream; she didn’t seem to have a preference. Chocolate and frozen were all that matters. Oh and no fruit, she doesn’t like frozen fruit. I’m sure it’s a texture thing.
I tried like hell to retain everything that she told me. I wanted to be able to shower her with all her favorite things, and to do that I needed to know what they are.
She hates rom-com, scary movies are her jam; She loves to be scared so bad she screams and jumps out of her chair, then she laughs at herself. She likes to watch re-runs of that TV show about witches, even though she knows the Demons are complete crap, and she loves anything based on a comic book. She doesn’t drink soda, and she hates lemonade, she doesn’t like onions unless they are fried, and she wants all her food to be spicy. She likes a little coffee with her creamer and breakfast any time of the day.
Honestly, I could go on, I don’t think there is one thing that she ever told me that I didn’t remember.
“Ooo! This is one of my favorite flavors!” She jumped up and kissed me before she took the ice cream.
Since Zilli’s classroom today she had been more forward with me. I love that she was getting more comfortable with this situation, but I hoped she wasn’t doing it just for me. I am content just being here for her until she is ready for anything more. I just want her to be happy and right now she is.
“You love any flavor from this brand,” I snipped as we sat down on the couch. No surprise, the tv is set on one of the many shows about a superhero.
“That’s not true. Some of them have fruit in them!” Of course.
“Did you have a good afternoon with Mercy?” I asked as she snuggled into my side.
“I did, we just talked and watched tv. Nothing to it.” Her words were innocent enough, but her face told me that there was something there.
“You should just go ahead and tell me whatever it is that you feel guilty about, we can get it out of the way and enjoy this ice cream,” I told her.
“Well, we talked about y’all.” I love when the Texan in her voice came out, it’s so adorable. “She told me that there were only three of you, which I wasn’t sure about, but I am kind of glad. I know y’all told me that I might be mated with all of you, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that there aren’t like 6 or 7 brothers. But she told me that you don’t talk to your mom.” She spits it all out pretty fast, and she wouldn’t make eye contact with me.
She has this chronic rambling thing that I love. She does it any time that she is even slightly flustered or uncomfortable.
“Love, you don’t have to be embarrassed that you found information on us, we haven’t exactly been forthcoming with it. It’s true that we only have one other brother, and no we don’t have a great relationship with our mother. Ambrose is still young, he hasn’t had the life that Zilli and I have had without a mate, so he isn’t thrilled about meeting you, and if I’m honest, he is actively avoiding you.” The slight hurt in her eyes told me that maybe I shouldn’t have been quite so honest.
“He doesn’t even know me, and he’s already decided that he doesn’t want me, that’s not very nice,” she said in a soft voice.
“Trust me, it’s not that. As I said, Ambrose is young, and he has had this thing with Jessica for a while now. He is my mother's baby boy; he thrives on her approval—she approves very strongly of his relationship with Jessica. So that’s his normal, and that’s how he wants it to stay. He hasn’t lived the years that I have or the way that I have.” She raised one of her hands and placed it on my cheek.
The feeling of her skin on mine is amazing. Touch outside of intimacy was the only sort of physical contact I could have that didn’t result in death, and even that didn’t feel like her hand did. Her skin is slightly warmer than it was this morning, I’m only a little surprised. Now that a Jinn has been unlocked inside her a lot of things were going to change.
“I’m going to start doing some research into cases where Demons might be one type of Demon but harbor a Jinn too. I’ve never heard of it but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t out there. There have to be answers somewhere,” I told her as I leaned into her hand, maybe she wouldn’t notice that I was purposely changing the topic.
“I’m concluding that I am always going to be the oddball out. I was raised on Earth, killed someone with a kiss at 18, controlled Water like it was nothing, got a brand when I had sex for the first time. I almost killed a girl on my second day of knowing that I was a Demon, now I have blue flames and a Jinn,” she said it all so matter-of-factly that I almost believed she wasn’t bothered by it.
“We will figure it out, like I said, there are answers somewhere. I’ll go to the ends of the Earth if needed.” Granted there isn’t a lot that I wouldn’t do for this woman. Just sitting on the couch next to her made my whole day better. I’m grateful for this time with her, and I appreciate Zilli giving us this time alone. He gets to spend his nights with her, and no matter how much I understand, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous. I hope that she will realize how normal this was and come around, but even if she never shared her bed with me, I would be here.
“Tell me about your school back on Earth?” I prompt her, just something else I could learn about her.
“Like everything?” I nod for her to continue. “Well, we start school at 6, and have 13 school years before we go on to college, which is pretty much just 4-8 more years of school.” Humans have always been interesting to me, but they put too much influence on their money. “How do Demons do childhood?”
“Way less school for one thing. But there aren’t ‘jobs’ in our world either. Some are favored by Lilith, some by Lucifer, and those people have nicer things, but we build or acquire our houses, we are provided clothes and shoes to pick from, and given food and supplies to cook. Our worlds run rather differently. Humans are always fighting for more for themselves and Demons take what we want, and everyone provides what they can.” I realized that the way I put it made it seem like Demons are nicer than humans when in all reality a lot of demons will kill and take what they want from whoever had it.
“Do you get to pick where you live or are each type of Demon limited to one circle?” she asked.
“We can live wherever we want but each circle has more of one species, we tend to stick to our kind.”
She looked deep in thought, then she asked, “What about you and your brothers? Where do you live when you aren’t here?”
“Ambrose still resides in the Second circle with Lilith, but 15 years ago Zilli and I had a house built for ourselves in the Seventh circle. Maybe I can show you one day.” She didn’t look excited about the idea of going to Hell, but I’m sure when she saw the house, she would change her mind. The humans have a picture of Hell that they use that is nothing like the reality of it.
“Isn’t that the circle for violence?” She asked sheepishly.
“It is, one day I’m sure that we will explain it to you, but honestly we like to fight and that’s the place to do it. So, we picked a spot. Vampires tend to stick to the Second which is lust, Shifters on Fifth which is anger, Jinn on Seventh, and Incubus on Eighth which is Fraud. But you can find some, of any and all of them, anywhere else. And lately, we have been seeing an influx of people into Limbo, which is odd. Demons used to work their way up to the Center to be closer to Lucifer, but since his fall out with Lilith a few hundred years ago Demons have been picking sides and not following him so blindly,” I explained.
“I thought that Lucifer was the leader of Hell and Demons though, so wouldn’t people side with him?” Thea questioned.
“Well, they ran Hell together for a long time and some people had a favorite. She could never go against him though, so I don’t see a point in the whole thing.” I could see the wheels turning in her head.
“Are you Lucifer’s son? You are Lilith’s oldest, aren’t you?”
I shook my head. “No, I am the love child from her first and last affair. She refused to give children to Lucifer, and when she ended up pregnant with another man’s baby, he was livid. A lot of people were surprised that she lived.”
“Wow!” she hissed. “Humans know nothing…”
She snuggled into my side again placing one hand on my chest. I imagined this was what Heaven felt like. Well, Heaven for a Demon anyway. I didn’t think things could get any better than this. I leaned my head back and just soaked it in. I felt her head shift so that she was looking at me.
I walked over to where his sword was laying on the ground and used my foot to flick it in his direction.
“Are you sure? “He asked, still obviously concerned.
“Would you stop if I was any other student?” I whispered as my eyes flashed toward the rest of the class.
He thought about it for a second then picked his sword up. “No, I wouldn’t,” he said as he lunged at me.
This fight was different though, it’s like my arms moved without me having to think about it. I felt like I have handled a sword before like something else was coming into focus.
A man I don’t recognize was standing beside showing me how to properly stand with the short swords. Teaching me how to block and attack. This has to be why I felt drawn to this weapon. Could this be Rida’s memories? I think I would remember if some dark-headed man taught me how to fight with a blade.
Focusing back on the fight with Elijah I notice he was starting to get winded, cool! I’m holding my own. I use my right arm to block a blow that was coming from overhead, then I ducked down, bracing myself on my left hand, and kicked my leg out. He fell to the ground with wide eyes and before he was able to get up.
I straddled him, pressing my right blade to his neck.
“I win!” I exclaimed.
“Wow.” “She really just bested him.” “How did she even do that.” “They were moving so fast.” I heard the people in the crowd clapping, but all I could truly focus on was how Elijah was under me, our hips pushed tightly together, his thin workout pants doing nothing to hide his growing erection between us. I kissed him on the nose and hopped up.
With a smile he jumps up and turned away from the class, taking both our swords back to the wall. I see him place a hand on the back wall and take a deep breath before I was bombarded with questions.
“How did you move so fast?” I don’t know. “Where did you learn how to do that?” I don’t know that either. “Can you teach me that last move?” I can try it.
I didn’t get the chance to answer any of the questions, and thankfully Elijah came up to rescue me after just a few beats.
“That’s enough.” He laughed. “That was very impressive, but we can’t linger. Who’s next?” he asked.
A few people put their hands in the air, wanting to get the chance to better their instructor. Only it never happened, no one else beat him. I sat in the bleachers watching, analyzing what they were doing move for move. By the time that I fight Elijah again, I would know all his moves. The band of bimbos never stopped giving me the stink eye, but their Air using friend never looked at me again.
✽✽✽
“I come bearing gifts.” Mercy said as she pushed my door open.
“Oh! I smell pizza!” I said as I walked out of the bathroom towel drying my hair.
“I figured if I was going to invite myself over, I would at least bring dinner, and dessert,” she said holding up what looked like a wine bottle. Elijah wrinkled his nose and Asim flashed to the surface.
“What is that?” I ask.
“Dessert.” Mercy responded.
“Yes, but that doesn’t tell me what it is.” I snarked.
“It's alcoholic blood.” She grinned.
Oh no.
“That’s going to be a no from me.” I pulled out a chair and sat at the bar.
“It’s not that bad, Rida will like it.” Zilli said, “I drink it sometimes, it's sweeter than you would think, and will get you drunk twice as fast.” He pulled some glasses out of the cabinet.
I just shook my head. “Nope. Still not doing it.”
“Thea, come on, have some faith. I wouldn’t lead you wrong,” Zilli said in my ear as he snaked his arms around my waist.
“That’s cheating,” I said with a sigh as I leaned back into him.
Mercy laughed and poured two glasses. She handed one to Zilli, then turned to get pizza. “So, tell me about this new Fire.”
“I don’t know what to say, it just happened.” I shrugged.
“Blue Fire is just a myth though; I have never met anyone that could call it or use it.” Mercy said as she stuffed her face.
“Well then why is it a myth? If no one had ever had it then why is it even spoke of?”
“It was rumored that the Angels are the only ones who could wield blue flames. There may have been one of two other Demons in all of time that have been able to do it.” Angels? no way. Surely Mercy is wrong.
“But I’m a Demon, apparently not just one type of demon either.” At least that’s what it would look like.
“Yea that was going to be my next question,” She turned to Zilli, “how does she have a Jinn if she is a Succubus?”
“That has to be linked to the mark.” He said.
“What mark?” I hadn’t mentioned the brand to Mercy.
I stood up and pulled my shirt up, showing her the sideways three and two dots that Zilli said is the Arabic symbol for Jinn.
Mercy turned to Elijah, “Does she have one for you?” she asked him.
I blushed “We haven’t…” I started but couldn’t make myself say it.
“He can’t touch anyone else, and you’ve been here for weeks and you haven’t put the poor boy out of his misery yet?” she gawked at me.
I felt my face get hotter, then Elijah pulled me into his arms. “It’s okay love, seriously. Ignore her. We will have our time, whenever you are ready.” He kissed me gently on the mouth.
“Anyway, so a Jinn and blue Fire, anything else new?” Mercy said.
Rida flashed to the surface, “She is one hell of a sword handler.”
“Oh yeah, she kicked my ass in class today.” Elijah chuckled. “How is your arm?”
“What happened to your arm?” Zilli questioned.
“It was nothing, I missed a block and the blade cut my arm, I cauterized it with my blade and went about my business.” I lifted the sleeve of my shirt to show the mark, it was significantly smaller than it had been, my Demon blood healing it quickly, it should be gone by tomorrow afternoon.
“It will be gone by the end of the night,” Zilli said in my head. I guess that’s one way to heal it.
“You cauterized it yourself?” Mercy asked.
“Yeah, I didn’t want any special treatment because I am fated to the instructor.” I raised my arm and placed my hand on Elijah’s face. “He wouldn’t have let anyone else stop, so I didn’t let myself stop.”
“Damn woman. I doubt anyone will be calling you a cry baby now,” she said.
Mercy hung out for a while, we watched some tv and finished the whole pizza. About an hour after the guys left to do something else Mercy jumped up.
“What?” I asked her.
“Dude, if you are fated to both Elijah and Zilli, what about their other brother?” she asked.
“Do they just have the one other brother?” I responded.
“You don’t even know? And you didn’t answer my question.”
“No, I mean they have mentioned that it might be a possibility for me to be fated to all of them, but I never asked how many bothers they have. I am scared to even be with two of them.” I said.
“Do you mean in general or like, at the same time?” She laughed a little.
“Just in general. That’s why I haven’t been with Elijah, in the human world it’s kind of a bad thing to have more than one boyfriend, and then I find out that there are more than just the two of them. I couldn’t bring myself to ask how many brothers they have; I don’t think I want to know.” I admitted as I fiddled with my fingers.
“Oh, honey. It is completely normal in the Demon world to have more than one partner,” Mercy said.
“So, I’ve been told.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, they do only have the one other brother. He’s a Vampire.” That did make me feel a little better.
“Yeah, Ambrose, right?” I said. “He sold me my fake ID on Earth.”
“I should be surprised, but I’m not.” She sat back down. “You know, you shouldn’t be ashamed that you have more than one mate, it’s kind of how our world was designed. Even Lilith herself had multiple partners, that’s why her sons are all different Demons. None of them share the same father.” I had learned more about my own mates' family from Mercy than I have from them.
“Do you know why they don’t talk about their mom?” I never asked them because every time Lilith comes up in conversation, they get all short and snippy.
“I don’t, but I heard that Zilli and Elijah have hated her since right after she had Ambrose. No one knows the truth and they won’t talk about it, so it’s just been left at that. Whatever it is though, it has got to be bad. I heard that they haven’t seen her in 15 years. Rumor has it that she doesn’t come to campus because Zilli is always here, she built this school, and she doesn’t even visit it.” Oh. Well, that’s more than I expected.
“How strange. I can’t imagine having that much of an issue with one of my parents.” I might still be mad at my parents and have very little to do with them right now, but they are still my parents.
Elijah opened the door with ice-cream right then, Mercy looked at her watch and stood up.
“On that note, I’m going to go home. It’s getting pretty late.” She blew me a kiss and pulled the door shut behind her.
Chapter Fourteen
Elijah
“I thought you might like this,” I told Thea as I handed her the ice cream. I remembered the number of times I had seen her eat ice cream; she didn’t seem to have a preference. Chocolate and frozen were all that matters. Oh and no fruit, she doesn’t like frozen fruit. I’m sure it’s a texture thing.
I tried like hell to retain everything that she told me. I wanted to be able to shower her with all her favorite things, and to do that I needed to know what they are.
She hates rom-com, scary movies are her jam; She loves to be scared so bad she screams and jumps out of her chair, then she laughs at herself. She likes to watch re-runs of that TV show about witches, even though she knows the Demons are complete crap, and she loves anything based on a comic book. She doesn’t drink soda, and she hates lemonade, she doesn’t like onions unless they are fried, and she wants all her food to be spicy. She likes a little coffee with her creamer and breakfast any time of the day.
Honestly, I could go on, I don’t think there is one thing that she ever told me that I didn’t remember.
“Ooo! This is one of my favorite flavors!” She jumped up and kissed me before she took the ice cream.
Since Zilli’s classroom today she had been more forward with me. I love that she was getting more comfortable with this situation, but I hoped she wasn’t doing it just for me. I am content just being here for her until she is ready for anything more. I just want her to be happy and right now she is.
“You love any flavor from this brand,” I snipped as we sat down on the couch. No surprise, the tv is set on one of the many shows about a superhero.
“That’s not true. Some of them have fruit in them!” Of course.
“Did you have a good afternoon with Mercy?” I asked as she snuggled into my side.
“I did, we just talked and watched tv. Nothing to it.” Her words were innocent enough, but her face told me that there was something there.
“You should just go ahead and tell me whatever it is that you feel guilty about, we can get it out of the way and enjoy this ice cream,” I told her.
“Well, we talked about y’all.” I love when the Texan in her voice came out, it’s so adorable. “She told me that there were only three of you, which I wasn’t sure about, but I am kind of glad. I know y’all told me that I might be mated with all of you, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that there aren’t like 6 or 7 brothers. But she told me that you don’t talk to your mom.” She spits it all out pretty fast, and she wouldn’t make eye contact with me.
She has this chronic rambling thing that I love. She does it any time that she is even slightly flustered or uncomfortable.
“Love, you don’t have to be embarrassed that you found information on us, we haven’t exactly been forthcoming with it. It’s true that we only have one other brother, and no we don’t have a great relationship with our mother. Ambrose is still young, he hasn’t had the life that Zilli and I have had without a mate, so he isn’t thrilled about meeting you, and if I’m honest, he is actively avoiding you.” The slight hurt in her eyes told me that maybe I shouldn’t have been quite so honest.
“He doesn’t even know me, and he’s already decided that he doesn’t want me, that’s not very nice,” she said in a soft voice.
“Trust me, it’s not that. As I said, Ambrose is young, and he has had this thing with Jessica for a while now. He is my mother's baby boy; he thrives on her approval—she approves very strongly of his relationship with Jessica. So that’s his normal, and that’s how he wants it to stay. He hasn’t lived the years that I have or the way that I have.” She raised one of her hands and placed it on my cheek.
The feeling of her skin on mine is amazing. Touch outside of intimacy was the only sort of physical contact I could have that didn’t result in death, and even that didn’t feel like her hand did. Her skin is slightly warmer than it was this morning, I’m only a little surprised. Now that a Jinn has been unlocked inside her a lot of things were going to change.
“I’m going to start doing some research into cases where Demons might be one type of Demon but harbor a Jinn too. I’ve never heard of it but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t out there. There have to be answers somewhere,” I told her as I leaned into her hand, maybe she wouldn’t notice that I was purposely changing the topic.
“I’m concluding that I am always going to be the oddball out. I was raised on Earth, killed someone with a kiss at 18, controlled Water like it was nothing, got a brand when I had sex for the first time. I almost killed a girl on my second day of knowing that I was a Demon, now I have blue flames and a Jinn,” she said it all so matter-of-factly that I almost believed she wasn’t bothered by it.
“We will figure it out, like I said, there are answers somewhere. I’ll go to the ends of the Earth if needed.” Granted there isn’t a lot that I wouldn’t do for this woman. Just sitting on the couch next to her made my whole day better. I’m grateful for this time with her, and I appreciate Zilli giving us this time alone. He gets to spend his nights with her, and no matter how much I understand, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous. I hope that she will realize how normal this was and come around, but even if she never shared her bed with me, I would be here.
“Tell me about your school back on Earth?” I prompt her, just something else I could learn about her.
“Like everything?” I nod for her to continue. “Well, we start school at 6, and have 13 school years before we go on to college, which is pretty much just 4-8 more years of school.” Humans have always been interesting to me, but they put too much influence on their money. “How do Demons do childhood?”
“Way less school for one thing. But there aren’t ‘jobs’ in our world either. Some are favored by Lilith, some by Lucifer, and those people have nicer things, but we build or acquire our houses, we are provided clothes and shoes to pick from, and given food and supplies to cook. Our worlds run rather differently. Humans are always fighting for more for themselves and Demons take what we want, and everyone provides what they can.” I realized that the way I put it made it seem like Demons are nicer than humans when in all reality a lot of demons will kill and take what they want from whoever had it.
“Do you get to pick where you live or are each type of Demon limited to one circle?” she asked.
“We can live wherever we want but each circle has more of one species, we tend to stick to our kind.”
She looked deep in thought, then she asked, “What about you and your brothers? Where do you live when you aren’t here?”
“Ambrose still resides in the Second circle with Lilith, but 15 years ago Zilli and I had a house built for ourselves in the Seventh circle. Maybe I can show you one day.” She didn’t look excited about the idea of going to Hell, but I’m sure when she saw the house, she would change her mind. The humans have a picture of Hell that they use that is nothing like the reality of it.
“Isn’t that the circle for violence?” She asked sheepishly.
“It is, one day I’m sure that we will explain it to you, but honestly we like to fight and that’s the place to do it. So, we picked a spot. Vampires tend to stick to the Second which is lust, Shifters on Fifth which is anger, Jinn on Seventh, and Incubus on Eighth which is Fraud. But you can find some, of any and all of them, anywhere else. And lately, we have been seeing an influx of people into Limbo, which is odd. Demons used to work their way up to the Center to be closer to Lucifer, but since his fall out with Lilith a few hundred years ago Demons have been picking sides and not following him so blindly,” I explained.
“I thought that Lucifer was the leader of Hell and Demons though, so wouldn’t people side with him?” Thea questioned.
“Well, they ran Hell together for a long time and some people had a favorite. She could never go against him though, so I don’t see a point in the whole thing.” I could see the wheels turning in her head.
“Are you Lucifer’s son? You are Lilith’s oldest, aren’t you?”
I shook my head. “No, I am the love child from her first and last affair. She refused to give children to Lucifer, and when she ended up pregnant with another man’s baby, he was livid. A lot of people were surprised that she lived.”
“Wow!” she hissed. “Humans know nothing…”
She snuggled into my side again placing one hand on my chest. I imagined this was what Heaven felt like. Well, Heaven for a Demon anyway. I didn’t think things could get any better than this. I leaned my head back and just soaked it in. I felt her head shift so that she was looking at me.
