by Coralee June
The fact that they saw humans as invaluable left a bitter taste in my mouth. They were so callous. They didn’t give a shit that every time I fucked and fed, I was ending someone’s life.
“Noted,” I replied stiffly before walking into the room.
The moment I walked through the doors and looked around, a nasally voice stopped me. “Motley! Oh my gods, you look just positively awful!”
I blinked with a heavy sigh. I’d forgotten just how grating that annoying voice could be.
I’d also forgotten that Cheryl was even here. I’d been stuck in my own little prison, most of my time spent in pain and starvation, so I’d forgotten about the others. It almost scared me how I hadn’t thought of the other students once since arriving here. I was a loner through and through.
“How do you have real clothes? They just keep dressing me in hospital gowns,” I said as she strutted up to me in skinny jeans and a flowy top.
Cheryl was practically glowing. Her eyes were bright, and her hair seemed shinier than usual. It was like she’d spent the last month at the spa. “You like? It’s not my usual, but Stiles got it for me. I was getting really tired of those gowns. The color really washed me out.”
I stiffened at the mention of Stiles, but she didn’t notice.
“I guess the hospital gown thing doesn’t really matter for you,” she went on, looking me up and down. “You never did care about how you looked. But for goodness sakes, Motley, would it kill you to run a brush through your hair?”
“Oh, I’m sorry that I’m not glamorous enough for you. I’ve been kind of busy being held prisoner by Spector and forced to do fucked up things while they took away my free will,” I deadpanned.
Cheryl nodded, smoothing down her blonde bob. “It’s alright. I’ll go ask one of the guards to get you something. They’re always very helpful for me,” she beamed mischievously.
“Eww.” I gagged at the implication.
She turned and flitted away, leaving me to look around the sparse space of the depressing cafeteria.
I saw a few Thibault supes sitting around, eating from plastic trays, but most of the people inside I didn’t know. There were only a couple dozen or so, but the thought that all of us here were probably possessed by demons wasn’t a comforting feeling.
“Here.”
I flinched in surprise as a woman with a hairnet and a white uniform shoved a tray of food into my arms. I was barely able to catch it before it could tumble onto the floor. I looked down, finding blood stew with floating pieces of meat and potatoes in it, and some kind of pudding. I think.
“Uhh. Thanks?”
The woman was already walking away, disappearing into the back room that had to be the kitchen.
There were plenty of empty tables to choose from, so I picked the one closest to the exit. It didn’t escape my notice that there were Spector guards stationed around the walls, watching all of us carefully. It also didn’t escape my notice that some of the other Thibault vamps were eyeing me, obviously surprised to see I’d survived.
Ignoring them, I lifted the spoon to my mouth, taking a bite. The bloody stew wasn’t the best I’d had, but it wasn’t the worst either. I sipped it slowly, my shoulders tense as I tried to gain my footing. I guess everyone just...hung around here? While I’d been dying in starving misery, they’d been getting clean clothes and eating food in here and talking to each other. They’d been going on as if this was just another extension of Thibault Academy.
“So you did survive, Motley,” a voice said, just as the three douche vamps plopped their asses on the benches beside me. Byron took the seat directly across from me.
For fuck’s sake. First Cheryl and now them? Couldn’t I catch a break?
“Yep,” I said, slurping more stew and praying he’d go away.
“Damn. I lost two hundred bucks,” Byron said with a chuckle. He exchanged a look with his friends. “I thought for sure that low blooded vamps would be culled through this shit.”
Offended anger tensed my spine. I felt my spider curl up within me, like it was crouching and ready to pounce. But I didn’t need my new demon bodyguard to handle these pricks.
“I may be low blooded, but Spector kept me locked up for longer because I was too dangerous. Too powerful,” I stressed. “They seem to think I can handle it now, but…” I allowed my voice to drift off, letting the implications of my statement hang in the air long enough for his eyes to widen.
Byron really was a dumbass. He got off on making people feel inferior, but when push came to shove, he was a gigantic pussy.
“You’re lying,” he argued. “They just didn’t want someone like you mingling with us. I have a higher level demon, you know.”
Within me, I could feel my spider bristle with amusement, like she knew there was no merit to his words.
“Oh, they didn’t want me mingling, alright,” I replied with a smirk. “They were too afraid I’d kill you all. Maybe I should prove them right?” I asked before leaning closer, letting webs form in my hands.
His charcoal eyes zeroed in on the ropes of silk that danced from my fingertips and started slithering toward him across the table like a snake. He reared back, his gaze fearful when he felt them start to wrap around his legs. A flash of him suffocating danced across my mind, and I knew exactly what my spider had in mind.
But of course, the other two asshats had to intervene.
One second, I was creating a cocoon around Byron’s body, planning to constrict the fuck out of him, and the next, there was a shove at my back, and my face was being slammed down onto the table. My tray went skittering across the slippery surface, bloody broth sloshing as my cheek was pressed hard against the table.
“Stop doing that, you fucking crazy bitch!” Byron’s buddy hissed in my ear. He and his friend were holding me down hard, but they were trying to be quiet so that the guards wouldn’t intervene.
I was about to move my hands to shoot webs around their fucking necks, when I heard a familiar sound.
The noise of shrieking crows exploded around us, and then I felt a new presence at my back.
“Get your fucking hands off her.”
The voice was low. Deadly. Totally unfamiliar. And yet, my spider exulted.
One second, I was being held down, and the next, the sharp claws and unyielding limbs were torn away from my body. I sat up, panting, and when I looked over, I saw a man covered in shadows and crows.
As soon as my eyes locked onto his piercing violet eyes, my breath caught in my chest. But not in a way like I was startled or overcome. It was like something inside of me—inside of my spider—erupted.
He had vibrant blue hair. A dark five o’clock shadow over his strong jaw stood out against his smooth pale skin. Crows dissolved and reformed from shadows to feathers right before my eyes as he stood there staring down at me.
“You,” I breathed, unable to look away.
He was the one who’d brought the crows to Spector’s ritual. I knew that with certainty.
Byron was furiously ripping webs off his body, while his friends were behind me, batting away crows.
In seconds, six guards were there, breaking it up. The guy that came to my rescue didn’t look fussed that the guards were threatening to lock us up in solitary for a month. He just smiled at me with a secret promise I didn’t understand. And my spider? She fucking sighed, like seeing this dude was the best damn thing to happen to her since the first time we’d fed.
I didn’t get it.
“You know the rules, Crow,” one of the guards told him, taking a step forward with a thick black baton like he was ready to thump my rescuer over the head.
“Yeah, yeah. No powers in the common areas. Maybe if you were doing your job, I wouldn’t have had to intervene,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “They were hurting her.”
The guards glanced at me, but I bristled. “I was handling it,” I argued.
Crow’s lips twitched in amusement. “Sorry for interrupting, then.”
The head guard was typing on his tablet, likely alerting the Spector leaders that there had been a fight.
“No powers,” he said with a resounding warning. “You use your powers again, and it’ll be solitary and no food as punishment.”
I cringed at the idea of starving. I never wanted to feel that empty, desolate nothingness again. It was a slow sort of torture, to waste away, and I had every intention of doing whatever necessary to avoid that.
The guards walked off, leading Byron and the others away until it was just the two of us.
“Well, you know my name is Crow. What’s yours?” the hot blue-haired man asked as he held out his hand.
“Motley,” I replied as our skin touched. A slight shiver traveled up my spine, and I watched in awe as his eyes flashed red for a brief moment.
“Don’t use your powers, remember?” he said, his gaze slipping down to our joined hands. To my surprise, tender, intricate lace had spread from my fingertips and wound around his wrist.
Embarrassed, I yanked my hand back before my spider could make any more. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
Something about him had my fangs aching. I noted the scar on his upper lip and the way he looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks. He was wearing simple black sweatpants and a black shirt, both with the Spector logo on them like everyone else seemed to be wearing. Well, everyone except Cheryl and me. For some reason, when I looked in Crow’s violet eyes, there was a sense of familiarity in his stare. I found myself leaning forward, wanting to take his hand again and press my head against his chest, which was just fucking weird.
“Motley! I got you this!”
Cheryl suddenly appeared, slightly breathless, and shoved Crow out of the way to force a pile of clothing into my arms. I looked down and picked up the pieces with pinching fingers. “Uhh…”
Bubblegum pink lingerie, something that I was pretty sure was a cape, and bell-bottom jeans is what I had to choose from. “Seriously?”
She shrugged. “Well, I may have picked through the pile first,” she admitted. “But I’m sure that cape thing could be used for a nice wraparound dress.”
Crow reached over her and plucked up the pink lace. “This needs a try-on at least,” he said with a smirk.
Blushing, I snatched it back from him, bundling the fabric up in my hands.
“Well?” Cheryl pressed, staring at me.
“Well what?”
She sighed. “A thank you would suffice.”
Was she serious? She kept looking at me expectantly. Oh, yep. She was serious.
“Thank you sooooooo much,” I replied in an overly exaggerated voice.
“You’re welcome,” she said primly, before flashing away again.
I shoved the clothing onto the bench before turning back to Crow. “It was you and your birds who broke into the ritual,” I said, looking around to make sure we weren’t being overheard.
He nodded, brushing off a crow that had landed on his shoulder. “It was.”
“Why? I mean, why did you do that?”
“Because I want Spector to burn to the fucking ground,” he said evenly, not even trying to be quiet about it.
My eyes darted around to the guards nervously, but if they heard him, they didn’t seem to care. Huh. I guess Crow was often vocal about his distaste of Spector.
“So you’re a...crow demon?”
A grin stretched across his face. “Something like that.”
I watched him carefully, and for some reason, I felt desire start to rise from my gut. I shouldn’t need to feed again. Not after the constant stream of humans they’d been bringing me. But for some reason, Crow was making my spider hungry.
I mean, really fucking hungry. I needed to shut that shit down.
“So,” I began with a cough while taking a step backward. I was starting to think that being here with the others was dangerous. Something was seriously wrong with my spider. Would she ever be satisfied? Or would I always crave more? “Does everyone meet up here every day to eat? They’ve been keeping me in my glorified dog crate this entire time.”
“People have been slowly joining the group. Once they think you have a good hold on your demon, they let you play with the others,” Crow explained while looking me up and down. “Sometimes it takes others longer, depending on how dangerous they are.”
“How many are left?” I asked, while looking around the room.
“Some didn’t survive. Some I suspect are still in their own glorified dog crates,” Crow answered. “But don’t be disillusioned by this mandated group time. This entire building is still a cage. Just bigger.”
He leaned even closer to me, and I breathed him in as his haunting words fluttered over me. He was absolutely right. This was a cage. We were stuck answering to Spector’s whims. The number of dead bodies in the training room because of me was proof enough of that. But I was in survival mode. I didn’t trust myself out in the world right now. It was easy to blame Spector for the terrible things I’d done, but when it came time to feed on my own terms, I wasn’t sure the last strands of my morality could handle the decisions I had to make if I were out there on my own.
That harsh realization made me bristle. Why the fuck was I flirting with this guy? He was hot, yeah, but with my new demon involved, there was no way I could ever act on my interests. I would never be able to fuck for fun again. I’d never be able to find someone I liked and share intimacy with them. I’d have a lifetime of partners and a full belly, but I’d never have love.
“I should go back to my room. I’m not really hungry,” I muttered.
I started to walk away, only to feel him following me. “What are you doing?” I asked, turning around.
He skidded to a stop, frowning like he hadn’t even realized he’d been trailing me. “Er, nothing,” he said, scratching at the back of his scruffy blue hair.
“You were following me.”
“I…” His frown deepened when he noticed one of his crows suddenly flap over and land on my shoulder.
I stiffened, my blue eyes going wide. I was not a fan of birds. Outside, fluttering around all singsong and shit was fine. But any time people kept birds for pets, it kind of freaked me out. Plus, now the crows were sort of tied to the ritual, and I was pretty sure I had PTSD from that.
“Get it off!” I hissed, too afraid to move.
Crow ignored my panic, cocking his head at his bird. “Interesting.”
“What’s interesting? Did it shit on me or something?” I turned my head to look, but the thing pecked lightly at my ear—not hard, but like it was giving me a playful nip. An embarrassing little squeal escaped me, and I snapped my head back to face front. “Crow…”
The bird hopped closer along my shoulder, and then the damn thing thrust its beak against my hair. “Is it...nuzzling me?”
Crow’s eyes crinkled at the side, and he let out a laugh. “Shit, I think it is.”
“Tell it to stop!”
“You don’t understand,” he said, shaking his head. “My crows don’t like other people. Ever. They tolerate those who are around me that pose no threat. But I’ve never seen them act like this.”
Before he’d even finished his sentence, I suddenly had three more birds landing on me. One by one, they hopped over my shoulders, their beaks nipping at my hair, cawing playfully as they ruffled their smoky feathers. And all the while, Crow was just watching it all, with a mix of fascination and amusement.
Obviously, I’d get no help from him.
Reaching up, I grabbed a bird in each hand and dropped them on his shoulders. The other two, I brushed off me in a shooing motion, and they cawed at me and landed on the ground with something that sounded like disappointment.
“Stay,” I ordered, pointing at them where they were gathering at my feet. There were more of them gathering around, and they were looking at me like I was a shiny new birdfeeder they wanted to nest on.
Before they could decide to take up permanent residence in my red hair, I slowly
backed away to the doorway. I had a feeling that if I showed them my back, they’d pounce.
“Oomph.”
My back hit a body, and I turned to see the same guard who’d escorted me here. “Done already?”
“I think that’s enough mingling for me today,” I said with a nod.
He grunted and gestured for me to walk ahead, and then he led me down the hall toward my room.
I looked back once, seeing a dozen or so birds watching me as I went. A flock of crows was called a murder, so the fact that I seemed to have them as a fan club did not seem like a good omen.
As we rounded a corner, my steps skidded to a stop when a booming noise ripped in the air in front of me, followed by a gravelly, inhuman shout.
I screamed and ducked as a door three feet away from me was suddenly exploding open in metal splinters, a body made of black stone careening out of it and landing hard against the wall on the other side. The plaster cracked where his body fell against it, but before the black-stoned man could get to his feet, Spector guards were on him. Vines appeared from nowhere and wrapped around his unyielding body as earth elementals trapped his limbs and pinning him to the floor.
With another shout, the man punched his fist into the ground, making the entire floor shake with his fury. I scrambled for purchase, throwing my arms out to catch myself as I fell to my knees. The movement made his head snap over to look at me, and then a surge of power and hunger rose up inside of me as our eyes locked.
Out of my control, webs shot from my fingertips and wrapped around the guards.
And this wasn’t the usual few strands that slowly worked their magic. This was like five thousand strands immediately hooking onto the guards and swathing them in the silky ropes. They were thicker than usual—and from the way the guards were struggling to break them free—they were stronger too. Much stronger.
“Oh shit,” I breathed, as power lashed out of me, sending more and more webs to his attackers, watching the guards drop like...well, flies in a web.
When the guard behind me made a choking sound, I noticed that some of my webs had come for him, too. They were wrapping around his neck like a noose, ready to hang him from the ceiling.
