Chapter Six
Neith
My feelings are conflicting.
The best way to get to know him better and to judge his true intentions is for him to hang out with us, to let his guard down.
“Zephyr?” I call out. “I’m pretty sure you can hear me, in your pocket realm house.
At least I think you can because you answered Ethel.
Anyway, I came to say thank you for the pastries, they look and smell absolutely divine.
I also came to see if you wanted to come up and sit with us?
I think I can explain more of what you felt last night, the death magic, and if I’m completely honest, I’m hoping that you can explain a couple of things to me too. ”
I realize that I’m rambling, so I snap my mouth closed.
As I wait for him to appear, I could have woken him up or something, or he could be naked, I smirk and then frown slightly as my brain throws an image of Zephyr shirtless in his suit pants at me.
Oh damn.
I am not sure how I feel about that at all.
I mean, I know he’s hiding muscles under that suit, but I’m pretty fucking shocked that my brain decided to throw that at me.
Doing the mature adult thing, I ignore it and busy myself with looking at the other things that are in the basement.
It’s a room full of curiosities despite the fact that it’s quite small, and I didn’t really get the chance to look around properly the last time that we were here because there were so many of us in here, and I was worried that Ethel had kidnapped someone.
After seeing Ethel fight off the ghosts, I’m not entirely sure that I could go up against her and succeed.
She’s skilled.
As I reach my hand toward a dust-covered book, the Voices shout a warning at the same time that the book fucking growls at me and tries to bite my fingers.
I smack it, not too hard, and instinctively say, “No! Bad book, it’s not nice to bite people.”
To my utter shock and the Voice's amusement, the book whines as the corners of it droop down like it’s sad.
Clearly not learning my lesson, I reach out again, “Hey, it’s okay. Maybe no one taught you it’s not nice to bite, or I woke you up. I bite people when I get woken up.”
My hand hovers over the top of it too close, considering I got a glimpse of its razor-sharp teeth, and it could definitely take my hand off if it wanted to.
It surprises me when, instead of tearing my hand into a bloody mess, it nudges it gently, almost as if it’s asking for pets.
“Oh, you like pets?” I ask as I stroke the cover and pretend that this isn’t close to the craziest thing that I’ve done. “I can give pets, just don’t bite me.”
It whines again and sticks out a huge forked tongue, panting like a dog that's happy.
It’s cute.
I never thought I would describe a demon book as cute, but it is.
After ten minutes or so of pets and scratches, I realize that Zephyr still hasn’t appeared.
“Huh, I guess he must be asleep or something. I'd better get back to the guys,” I say reluctantly as I stroke the bitey book one last time and turn around.
It whines.
I crumble. I’m weak, I know I am.
“Do you want to come with me?” I ask it and grin as it starts bouncing around the table, growling and yapping.
I’m going to take that as a yes.
But he is in the basement, so I should probably check with House first to see if I can remove him from the basement or if it will cause some kind of apocalypse or something.
“House, can I take the bitey book with me upstairs?” I ask.
I feel House’s familiar magic swell for a moment, and then, to my utter shock, words appear on the wall in front of my face.
“Yes, but he mustn’t leave the property.”
“Wow, that’s new.” I mutter in awe and then add, “Thanks, House, don’t worry, I think he will just be happy to leave the basement.
” I turn back to the book that's been waiting patiently, “I’m going to pick you up to take you upstairs with me. If you are not on your best behavior, I will bring you back down immediately, understood.”
The book yips and then runs around in circles again, and I stare at it for a moment before shrugging. I can’t leave it down here, and House said I could take it upstairs, so I’m going to risk him being a menace.
“Don’t bite me,” I add as I reach for the book and gently pick it up.
He’s heavier than I thought he’d be, but he doesn’t bite me, and instead he nudges my arm gently, his forked tongue snaking out and licking me a few times, making me giggle.
The guys are going to love this.
Giving the basement one last glance, I frown. I was really hoping that Zephyr was going to come and sit with us.
Maybe he’s just really unsociable, and when he heard why I was down here, he thought, nope, that’s not for me, I’ll just pretend I’m asleep. Admittedly, I have been guilty of doing that in the past, so I completely understand the reasoning.
He spent some time with us this morning, but that doesn’t mean anything. He could be someone whose social battery runs out pretty quickly, and the thought of socializing twice in one day is just too much.
“Or he could just not like any of you,” my bitchy insecure inner voice mutters.
I smack that bitch away, we haven’t got time to think shit like that.
I’ll come back in the morning or something, because I am definitely overthinking this, and if I carry on, I’m going to spiral, and then that spiral will become another spiral, which will become another spiral, and I’ll find myself hopping from one spiral to another, curled up in a blanket fort with Asael and Betty.
We don’t have time for that shit.
The bitey book licks my hand again and effectively brings me out of my inner crazy.
As I get to the top of the stairs and walk through the door, I pat the wall, and then, because I’m paranoid and House has never spoken to me by writing something on the wall before, I feel the need to ask House again.
Holding tightly onto the bitey puppy book just in case my paranoia proves to be correct, I ask, “House, can you make the markings on the door glow or write the words again, if the answer is yes. Can the bitey book leave the basement?”
The etching on the door in front of me glows, and I smile as I step through, leaving the basement.
I’m glad that this time my paranoia was proven to be just that, paranoia.
“Alright, Bitey, let's go and show you to the guys,” I grin as I head down the hallway and toward the kitchen. I pause outside the kitchen door, smiling at the sounds of the guys talking and their laughter. Frowning slightly, I look down at the huge bitey book in my arms, “Don’t bite any of them, okay?”
It nudges me and licks me again.
Again, I’m going to assume that means that he isn’t going to bite them.
I’m sure it will be fine.
“Hey!” Van greets me with a smile, and I return it as I sit down in my seat.
My smile is wide as I notice that there is a considerable number of pastries left, and it looks like they only had one each.
“I’m assuming that Zephyr didn’t want to come up?” Raiden asks, as he reaches for a pastry and prompts the others to do the same.
I grab one and shake my head, “Nope, I didn’t even see him. I did find this though.” I grin as I put the book on the table.
“A book?” Raiden asks, his eyes alight with interest.
Looking down at the Bitey book, I realize that he’s got back to looking like a normal book.
“Not just a book,” I grin as the guys look at me like I’ve finally lost my marbles.
I mean, I did lose them. It still makes me sad, actually. I had an awesome collection. There was this purple one that looked like a galaxy and a completely black one, which sparkled if you looked at it closely enough. I was devastated when I lost them.
“Neith?” Coen asks, looking amused.
I shake my head, “Shit, sorry, I was thinking about my marbles.”
“What?” Reed asks this time, looking thoroughly confused and rightly so.
“Nothing,” I reply. Explaining would probably just confuse them all more. Instead, I tear off a piece of my pastry and hold it near the book, “Gently.”
The bitey book's tongue snakes out of its mouth, and then he gingerly opens his huge mouth and takes the pastry from my hand. As soon as I’ve let go of the pastry, the bitey book shows its true colors and chomps down on the snack, somehow managing to make an incredible mess from the small amount of pastry that it was actually given.
It turns around in circles, yipping and bouncing around excitedly, wanting more.
“What the fuck?” Griff mutters.
“What the hell is it?” Reed asks. “I mean, obviously it’s a book, but even Raiden’s enchanted ones don’t behave like that.”
“It’s got some fucking big teeth,” Coen grins as he moves to get a better look. “They’re fucking huge.”
Baz chuckles and asks, “Where did you find him?”
“In the basement,” I reply, when Van frowns and opens his mouth, I add, “And before you say anything, I double checked with House twice to make sure that I could take the book out of the basement. I think that House can answer questions directly when someone asks it in the basement because he wrote on the wall, yes but the book can’t leave the premises, or something like that, but when I asked him when we got back upstairs, just in case it was a trick and the bitey book was actually the one trying to get me take him out of the basement for some nefarious reason, House did its usual thing in order to communicate, no words on walls. ”
The guys all stare at me for a moment, and I grin. Yeah, that was a really rambling way to explain things, and probably far more information than they actually needed.
As usual in these situations, River catches up to what I’m trying to say before anyone else.
“Right, so he’s friendly, it’s safe for him to be up here, but he can't leave the house or grounds,” he summarizes for everyone.
I nod, “Yep, that’s what I said.”
“I don’t think it was,” Baz says, a teasing spark in his eye.
I do what I always do when one of the guys teases me, and I stick my tongue at him while I give him the finger.
His laughter is husky and rich, and my smile widens just from the sound of it.
He should laugh more.
From the look in his eyes, his laughter surprises him, and I’m guessing that he hasn’t had the chance to laugh much over the last few decades.
The bitey book hops around the table as we all rush to move the plates and food out of the way, and he takes nibbles of every pastry that we don’t move quickly enough, making us all laugh.
The book, which I have just decided in all my wisdom is now called Bitey, goes around to each of the guys and cautiously nudges them for pets.
“He really is just like a puppy, but in book form,” Doc says as he cautiously pets the top of Bitey.
“He’s pretty cute,” Baz says as he scratches Bitey under the chin.
“He seems to like you,” I grin when it’s clear that Bitey has decided that Baz is the chosen one and stops wriggling, staying tucked close to Baz.
“Is the book snoring?” Reed asks with surprise.
“Bitey,” I reply.
“Huh?” Reed asks, his opal eyes confused, and his dark eyebrows rise in confusion.
“The book, I’ve called him Bitey,” I explain, as I finally take a bite of the pastry that I’ve been holding. I moan, “Fuck me, that’s good.”
“Well, if you insist,” Griff grins.
I burst out laughing.
“Dude, that was bad,” River chuckles.
Griff shrugs, still smiling as he says, “Yep. Worth it though.”
“You know I shouldn’t be surprised that the book decided to come up with you.
House and I have been trying to convince him to come up for decades, with no such luck.
He’s been sulking,” Ethel chimes in. “I am surprised that he didn’t bite you.
He bit Zephyr a few times before he finally let him stroke him. ”
“Wait, is Zephyr going to miss him? Do I need to take him back down?” I ask.
I can’t get over how lonely it must be for Zephyr down in the basement. I really don’t fucking like it, and I’ve got no idea how long he’s actually been down there for, but something tells me that it’s been a while.
There’s a heavy pause, and I start to wonder if Ethel is even going to answer me, but finally she replies.
“I am sure that Zephyr won’t mind. His situation is complicated, and I am, unfortunately, not at liberty to discuss it,” she replies.
I share a look with the guys, well, that couldn’t have been much clearer unless she hit us over the head with it. Don’t ask questions about Zephyr’s situation.
“Alright, Ethel,” I reply, because there isn’t really much else that I can say.
“I guess we have a new guard book dog pet thing?” Ransom grins.
“What do we feed it?” Raiden asks. “What was it eating in the basement?”
I shrug, “Honestly, I have no idea, but there wasn’t an obvious food source, so either it doesn’t eat, or House was feeding him, and if House was feeding him, then I’m reasonably certain that he’s going to continue to do so.”