by Dakota Brown
Dad looked away first, working his jaw.
"You afraid I'll bring him home for Christmas and embarrass you in front of who? The rest of the family? Your oil field buddies? You going to tell Rick and George that all of a sudden, you don't like them because they have native blood? What about black people? Huh? Why is this a thing for you?"
"No," he finally grunted. "Of course not."
I crossed my arms and continued to glare.
"I'm sorry. This is all just a lot to take in. We weren't expecting any of it."
I refused to relent.
He stopped talking.
"Honey, we're all tired. We should continue this tomorrow. It's been a long day," Mom tried to soothe us.
"Yeah, I think Victoria and I are staying up here tonight. We'll get you a ride back to town." I turned and walked angrily back to the cabin, shutting the door more carefully this time, before leaning against it.
Everyone stared at me, and suddenly, the entire day caught up to me. I leaned against the door and shuddered.
Ed was at my side before the others and put his arm around me, pulling me back into the house.
Victoria's parents both looked surprised and glanced at Doc. He was only paying attention to me. This really was going to be complicated. It was clear my parents could only know about Doc, but the guys acted comfortable with Victoria's. Probably too comfortable.
"You all right?" Doc asked when Ed basically walked me back to the couch.
I leaned back and sighed. "I told my parents we were staying here tonight, Victoria."
"That's fine with me," she replied. She glanced at her parents, and they nodded.
"Doc, if one of you wouldn't mind giving the girls a ride down tomorrow, we can take Sofia's parents back to their hotel in Victoria's car."
"That's fine."
I sat up. "Shit, the knife."
Everyone stared after me again as I hurried out to Victoria's car. My parents stared, but I ignored them, throwing open the back seat. Though it was dark, I checked for blood. I couldn't smell or see any, other than what was left on the knife itself, so it was probably good. I grabbed it and shut her door.
"Victoria's parents are giving you a ride back down. We'll talk tomorrow," I said as I hurried back inside.
Once there, I held out my prize.
The magical attack it deflected had cracked the handle, and the blade was blackened. Otherwise, it still looked serviceable.
"It's got blood on it," Victoria's father stated.
"Yeah, I had to stab Alex to get out."
That got some raised eyebrows.
"Is he okay?" Victoria asked hesitantly.
"Um, well, I don't know. I didn't outright kill him. He still tried to blast my ass with some magic before I jumped out the window."
Everyone continued to stare.
"I was trying to escape. What did you expect?" I didn't mention that the blood was probably Doc's because I thought Alex's had already been burned off in the magic fight.
The guys would know, but they weren't going to say anything, either.
"It's got runes or something on it. Seemed important, so I kept it after I used it to escape." I hadn't seen the runes until just now. No one needed to know that, either.
"Well, on that completely reassuring note, we should get going," Victoria's mother said. "It was nice to meet you, Sofia. I'm looking forward to talking more tomorrow."
She offered me a hug, and I took it. Her father did the same before they all shook hands with the guys, hugged Victoria, and left.
I waited until the sounds of Victoria's car faded before I dropped the knife and started shaking.
Allan was there in a moment, wrapping me in a hug.
"Oh my gods," I finally freaked out a little.
He pulled me back to the couch. Victoria moved so the four of us could sit together while I shook. I thought I might have to have a good cry later. Right now, I was still just reacting.
Victoria picked up the knife and set it on a bookshelf before kneeling in front of me.
"You're okay," she said.
I nodded. "Yeah, I know. I jumped out a second story window without even looking first." I gasped. "And we had to fight mages. And then my parents. They're never going to leave me alone."
"Do you know why they want you?" It wasn't so much a question of if I knew, but if I wanted to tell them. I could tell from Doc's tone that he knew I had that answer.
"Yeah. Apparently, my age and untrained abilities make me an ideal candidate to host a greater demon they really want to summon. They're never going to leave me alone until I can hold my own. Doc, what are we going to do? Do you think you can teach me?"
The guys were silent long enough that I could tell they had no idea, either.
"We'll find someone," he finally said.
"But what my dad said..."
"We don't know if that's actually true or not, and the most important thing is to keep you safe. We'll figure everything else out as we come to it."
They held me while I shivered.
"Host. What does that mean, exactly?" Victoria asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Lesser demons like Ash can manifest on this plane without a host. The more powerful demons need a body to inhabit, as their forms are so foreign to our energy signatures that they can't interact otherwise. They're powerful once they're here. Whoever it is they're after won't like being summoned and imprisoned. If they get Sofia, and managed to summon the demon into her, the demon will take over her mind and body, essentially trapping Sofia until there's nothing left of her." Doc kept his voice neutral while he explained. I wanted to scream. That couldn't happen.
"Well, fuck that," Victoria declared. "We have to keep you safe. Sam was here, by the way. She gave this to me." Sofia touched the necklace at her throat.
"I thought I smelled her scent on the couch," Ed replied. "There wasn't really a good time to ask, though."
"Well, you'll have some protection at least. We'll have to talk to her and see if she has any ideas about what to do next. In the meantime, we're safe here, and we're all exhausted," Doc replied.
"Victoria can sleep in my room," Allan offered. "The sheets are clean."
"Thanks, Allan." Victoria stood up and looked at us, a grin spreading across her lips. "Where are you going to sleep?"
"We all sleep in Doc's room, anyway," Ed replied nonchalantly.
"Oh, really?" She waggled her eyebrows at me.
I blushed, but was not about to sleep alone. I guess I hadn't mentioned sleeping arrangements to her.
"It's a werewolf thing," Ed insisted matter-of-factly.
"And you talked the non-werewolves into it."
Ed grinned. "Of course."
She matched his grin before glancing at Allan. He took the hint and led her down the hallway to his room. "There shouldn't be too many cooties. I almost never sleep in here," he said.
She laughed.
I took a quick shower and changed into one of Doc's flannel shirts. Ed's heated stare made me tingle when I came out of the bathroom, but he just gave me a quick kiss before inhaling my scent and rumbling in approval. Doc and Allan also had quite a lot of blood on them and needed to shower. Ed crawled into bed with me and held me while we waited.
"I've got you," he said when I shivered, and placed a gentle kiss on my lips.
Doc slid under the covers and curled up around me, arms tight across my stomach. He kissed my neck, and I pressed into him. Allan joined us last, sprawling across Doc for a moment so he could kiss me, and then spooning with the vampire so he could also wrap an arm around my stomach. Ed curled up against me, so that I spooned him.
The weight of the everything hit me hard, and I clung to the guys. I had no idea if I was going to be able to sleep tonight, or ever again, but we had solved every problem we possibly could at that point, and rest was the only thing left to us.
We would fight back. I wasn't about to give up everything I'd just found, or my life, without a
hell of a fight.
Author's Note
Thank you so much for reading my debut reverse harem story! More is coming soon! Reviews are so very important, especially to new authors and are greatly appreciated! Even a line or two will do!
About the Author
Dakota has two passions in life: writing and cinnamon tea. Tea so strong she ought to be able to see her future when she drinks it, and the writing? Well she hopes it makes you see stars when you read it. She creates reverse harem romance novels filled with things that go bump in the night. That handsome werewolf walking down the street? The suave vampire you’re just dying to get a taste of? You’ll find them enraptured by charming, smart ladies ready to make those bad boys work for their affection. When not writing, Dakota can be found on the back of a horse out on the trail or tending the animals on her farm.
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Other Works
Mountain Magic Trilogy
Becoming
Demon's Touch- Coming soon!
Reckoning- Coming soon!
