Chapter 13 Rules
RULES
RAE
Maybe I miscalculated when I decided to put my foot down.
I’ve always refused to be a victim of bullying and would fight back when needed, but standing my ground against a demon who didn’t care about consequences felt suicidal now that I’d followed through.
“Cyn, don’t hurt her,” Zeke said.
“You said it yourself,” Cyn started, his grin returning. “I won’t hurt her unless she wants me to.” He wrapped a hand around the front of my throat.
“Cyn,” Ash warned.
Cyn angled his head. “Do you want me to hurt you?”
I glared at him, and his amber eyes brightened in amusement at my spite. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of hearing the trepidation in my voice when he could feel my racing pulse beneath his fingers.
“Is that a yes?” He leaned in, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. “I could make it so good for you.” His whisper weakened my knees and fogged my mind.
I didn’t like the effect he had on me, or how my mind pivoted between fear and desire—the kind born of adrenaline and proximity, not anything real.
His nose brushed my hair, and he inhaled, groaning. His voice lowered. “Why do you smell like this? It’s not normal.”
“Fuck you,” I hissed through gritted teeth.
The seductive quality of his raspy whisper vanished when he said, “If you stay away from Zeke, sure.”
I blinked; my racing thoughts stopped cold.
Zeke?
My gaze slid over Cyn’s shoulder to where the others sat watching us. Zeke looked nervous, his eyes darting from Cyn to me, hands clenched on the table as if he wanted to jump up and do something. I looked at Cyn again.
“What do you mean?”
“Simple. He wants you.”
I scoffed. “No, he doesn’t.”
His fingers flexed around my throat. “Yes, he does.”
“I doubt that.” I swallowed as his hold tightened.
Cyn loosened his grip, which let me know he had no intent to truly harm me. True to his word.
When I first saw Cyn and Zeke interact, I thought they seemed close, but replaying Cyn’s reactions whenever Zeke got close to me, I suspected there was more to their story than “brothers” like Zeke suggested. Too often, Cyn’s behavior toward Zeke edged past protectiveness into something more.
But if Zeke saw Cyn as his brother, did that mean…
I met Cyn’s eyes. “Does he know how you feel?”
“Watch it.”
Sighing, I let my head rest against the wall and closed my eyes. “I have no intention of meddling in whatever you two have going on. I just wanna live a normal life without demons everywhere I look.” I opened my eyes and studied the pinch between his brows.
Beneath the attitude, I saw the uncertainty in his expression. I didn’t know what landmine I stepped on, but if I wanted to help them get home while keeping my sanity intact and my head on my shoulders, I needed to tread carefully.
“I won’t say anything,” I whispered.
Ezra cleared his throat. “Are you two done? The food is cold.”
Cyn’s hand lowered from my throat, and I slipped past him to return to the table.
“Ash, can you help me get the food? We can reheat it in the microwave.”
“I’ll help,” Zeke said, moving to his knees.
“No, it’s okay.” I glanced over my shoulder at Cyn, who stood facing the wall, staring at his hand. “Go check on him,” I whispered, taking the food to the kitchen with Ash on my heels.
I didn’t have the time or mental spoons to unpack whatever internal dilemma Cyn struggled with, but what I could do was help them out of this situation.
While it hadn’t been my intention to bring them into my world, my actions resulted in their predicament. Maybe that’s why leaving them to fend for themselves bothered me.
“So, you know what most of this food is?” I asked Ash, trying to distract my mind while we waited for the microwave to finish the first plate.
“Yeah, we know of it. We have the same fruits and vegetables as Earth. A lot of processed foods too.” He pulled one plate from the microwave and slid another in. “We’ve brought over seeds and saplings to Elyrdin, so farms grow what we want. We have our own crops too.”
“What about meat?”
“We don’t have Earth animals, and we can’t bring living creatures to the infernal plane. Plants and seeds are another story. But we have similar animals. The guys told me what tastes close to what I know, but I’m only just finding out firsthand.”
I took a plate from him. “Why only now?”
“I’ve never been to Earth. But your eggs taste like gornak eggs.” He set the last plate in the microwave. “Gornaks look a lot like chickens, but with meatier legs, claws, and a spiked crest.”
“Do they have feathers?”
“Yeah.”
The more I learned about Elyrdin, the more I wondered what it looked like. What else remained the same between our worlds?
Once we had the food warm and spread over the coffee table, I took my seat again between Ash and Zeke, ready to face the situation with a clearer head.
“Okay. I wanna make one thing clear before we move forward, or this isn’t gonna happen.” They turned their attention to me. “This is my home. You will respect me. I get you’re not human and could probably snap me in half…”
My gaze slid to Cyn, but when he did nothing more than lift his soda for a drink, I continued.
“But I’m as much of a victim of circumstance as you are. I didn’t mean to bring you here. I was having a really bad day, and I wanted to let off steam. My friends and I played with Ouija boards and other silly games as teens, and nothing ever happened.” I shrugged.
“I think they know by now you didn’t do it on purpose,” Ash said.
“Well, I still wanted to say it. So yeah. Stop treating me like I’m the enemy.
I’m not. Even if some of you seem determined to act like I brought you here on purpose.
” I looked at Cyn and Ezra in turn. “You don’t have to like me, but you will respect me in my home—or at least keep your bad attitude to yourself.
” When they made no move to say anything, I sighed. “Anyway, rules.”
Zeke sat up, tossing a popcorn shrimp into his mouth. “No dog eating. Easy.”
Ash shook his head, leaning back on his left hand and bracing his right forearm on his bent knee. “You don’t even eat dogs to begin with.”
“Well, no. But she said that’s rule number one.” Zeke flashed a bright smile in my direction. “Right?”
He reminded me of a puppy, eager to please. “Right. Rule number one: no dog eating.” I rolled my lips in and tried not to laugh when he waved a hand at Ash as if to say, “See?” It was easy to slip into Zeke’s pace if I wasn’t careful.
Ezra finished the last of his meal and stacked his utensils on his plate. “What other rules do you have?”
“Well, I figured we could work them out together.”
His brow arched. “Together?”
“Yeah.” I twisted my hands in my lap. I hated how nervous Ezra made me feel. “I mean, I’m sure you guys have things you might wanna—you know what? That’s weird.” I frowned. “Why would you have rules for me?”
Trying to walk the line between mutual respect and setting boundaries to keep myself alive and sane made thinking straight impossible.
Ezra tilted his head back, looking down his nose as he considered me. “Do you need rules?”
“What?”
“Rules. Do you need us to give you rules to follow?”
I laughed. “No. This is my house.”
“Then why would you think we should have input if you don’t want us to tell you what to do?”
“I don’t want you to tell me what to do.”
Making a humming sound, he fixed me with that unsettling gaze he used whenever I entered the room, making me feel as though he were peeling away my layers to reveal something forbidden.
“Just because you’re used to bossing them around doesn’t mean you can boss me around,” I mumbled.
I could tell without being told that Ezra led their little group. If his father was the ruler of Elyrdin, it made sense.
“So, what’s the next rule?” Cyn said, cutting into the tension hanging in the air between Ezra and me.
Why couldn’t I engage normally with these men?
They aren’t men, that’s why.
I looked around the room and then at the empty plates on the table. “Food.”
“Food?”
I looked at Zeke. “Yeah. Cyn cooks a lot. I’m used to just grabbing coffee, maybe a small bite before work. But he’s cooked a lot, and I already need groceries without factoring in what you’ve eaten for dinner or lunch.”
Ash frowned. “You need to eat more. It’s not healthy to eat as little as I’ve seen you eat since we arrived.”
I stared at him, taken aback by his concern over my nutrition.
“Zeke needs to eat,” Cyn said, grabbing my attention. He shrugged, as if that provided enough explanation.
“Yes, everyone needs to eat, but I need to buy it. There are four of you, so the grocery bill goes up by default.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Ash said, sitting forward, sliding the container of hush puppies toward me. “Zeke can go with you whenever you need groceries.”
“And how does that help?” I grabbed a hush puppy when he tilted his head to encourage me to eat.
“None of you has a job or money.” My face pinched as a thought occurred to me.
“Actually… how did you get phones and new clothes?” They were all wearing different outfits from when they’d arrived. Similar style, but new.
“About that…”
I turned to Ash, taking a bite of the hush puppy. My heart skipped when he smiled, as if pleased with my compliance. With his long hair, braids, and trimmed beard, his charming smile softened his rugged features, warming them.
“Zeke’s different from the rest of us,” he said.
“How so?”
“He’s a Vithrelas.”
“He’s not a Shyrlivi?” I looked at Zeke. “Didn’t you say you were Shyrlivi?”
“I am, but the Vithrelas are a type of Shyrlivi.”
“Gifted,” Cyn said, leaning back on his hands, playing with a silver barbell between his teeth, confirming my suspicion about a tongue piercing.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Zeke mumbled, averting his eyes.
“That’s just because Cornaith is a piece of shit.”
My gaze shifted to Ezra. They said Cornaith was his father, but he didn’t seem bothered by Cyn’s rude description of his father.
“Cornaith uses Zeke’s abilities to his advantage,” Ash said, drawing my attention away from Ezra’s icy gaze that ensnared me once again. “Vithrelas are rare, but special among our kind. They can manipulate people’s minds.”
“He’s psychic?”
“Something like that, but it goes beyond what humans believe are psychic abilities.” Ash paused as if choosing his words. “He can do a variety of things, but in this situation, he can use the power of suggestion to get the things we need without harming someone.”
“How does that work?”
Ezra glanced at Zeke before looking at me. “He can seize information in their minds and weave a vision from it, which distracts them from what is actually happening around them. Father often uses Zeke’s ability to get information or search places we otherwise wouldn’t have access to.”
Zeke shifted uncomfortably. “It’s not as straightforward as that.”
I looked at him.
“I can’t just go poking around in your brain and find out whatever I want. I can’t see all the thoughts in your head.”
He pressed his lips tight, a divot forming between his brows before they shot up.
“Oh! Think of it like this! When I want to connect, I think of the person, and it’s like I step into a hazy room full of smoke and blurred pictures.
I can’t see any of it clearly. But I feel what I need and then, wham, I’ve got them in a snare and the vision they see unfolds.
I don’t always get to see what it is, but sometimes I do if they are really open to me. I don’t like that.”
“Why not?”
The whole thing sounded confusing, but I’d already figured out that Zeke struggled to express his thoughts clearly.
“Vithrelas work with desire,” Ezra said. When my mouth dropped open, he added, as if knowing where my mind went, “Nearly every being desires something. It isn’t always sexual.”
Why does that word sound so wicked out of his mouth?
Zeke sighed. “When it is sexual, I don’t like seeing it. Other Vithrelas feed on it, but not me. I hate taking advantage of people, so I only use it if I absolutely have to—unless I’m playing jokes on these guys.” He looked at Cyn. “Except him. He doesn’t let me use it on him.”
“You really want to see my desires?” Cyn laughed at Zeke’s shocked expression. “Didn’t think so.”
“Considering the blood, I’m afraid to—mmph!”
My eyes widened as Cyn slapped his hand over Zeke’s mouth.
That wasn’t the first time someone had referenced blood and Cyn. Part of me wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but the more they described Zeke’s abilities, the more he sounded like an incubus. I had to know.
“Is a Vithrelas an incubus? I mean, what we know as demons are actually infernals… is this another case of humans using the wrong word?”
Ash raised an eyebrow. “Incubus?”
“In stories, humans talk about a demon called an incubus—or succubus for female versions. They feed on sexual dreams.”
The guys exchanged a look.
“You’re not far off, but as I said, it’s not always sexual,” Ezra said. “While he can, he doesn’t typically put others to sleep.”
“But I can dreamwalk.”
I looked at Zeke as he shrugged. “I don’t do it, though.
I don’t have a reason to invade someone’s dreams. Other Vithrelas will invade dreams to learn more about someone or live through them.
” He hugged himself, scratching his shoulder.
“Like in your incubus stories, we can feed on the emotions of the dreamer. But like I said, I don’t do it.
I’ve never been comfortable with it. It’s private. ”
Cyn set his drink aside. “So, what other rules do you have?”
I spent the next hour going over how things worked in my home.
I told them about my neighbors, my work schedule I’d post on the fridge, and that I expected them to share the chores. I refused to clean up after four men.
Zeke didn’t like the rule about my bed being off-limits.
Part of me almost left that rule out, remembering how nice it felt with him next to me. But I couldn’t get close to them. They were demons, not humans. I needed to remember that.
I programmed their numbers into my phone, and they did the same. I hadn’t considered their need for a phone, but when Ezra explained it’d make it easier to reach each other if one of them got summoned somewhere else on Earth again, I understood. They’d said Elyrdin phones didn’t work on Earth.
I still couldn’t wrap my head around a demonic world with the modern conveniences of Earth.
Cyn didn’t cause problems the rest of the evening, but I remained cautious. Given his previous behavior, it wouldn’t surprise me if he snapped my neck if he decided I was more threat than help.
I needed to stay one step ahead if I wanted to survive living with demons—even if all I had to work with were basic house rules, boundaries, and stubborn optimism.