Chapter 10
N atalia closed her eyes and looked as if she were mentally counting to five before she spoke again, “you two have had a previous relationship?”
Morgan shrugged as if it was obvious and batted her eyelashes over at Nick.
“Isn’t that like some kind of conflict of interest?” Elise asked, turning her nose up at the angel.
Morgan rolled her eyes. “Not at all. We are all professionals here, well…” She looked Elise up and down, her eyes widening a tiny bit as if what she saw shocked her, “maybe not all of us, but what can you do.”
I could hear the growl come from the back of Elise’s throat and if I was being honest, I wanted to unleash my own growl.
“We are doing just fine as you can see, so really, your presence isn’t needed. So can you go crawl back into whatever socially climbing angelic hole you came out of.” Reese pointed his finger at her.
She swatted it away, looking uninterested. Morgan licked her lips and moved her glasses further up her nose, blowing out a breath as she was already annoyed with us. “I don’t make the rules. If you have a problem with me being here then you can bring that up with Ariel, which we all know you won’t since you’re already treading on extremely thin ice with the man, or did you not stupidly go into Purgatory when he told you not to?”
“We had our reasons, so just back off, Morgan.” Nick ran a hand through his hair.
She pushed out her bottom lip in a pout. “A lot of time may have passed but you’re always one to play the hero.” Her eyes slid over to me, and she smirked. “Although, your motivations could use some work.”
I felt his fingers press harder into my back, but I hardly felt them anymore. “Excuse me?”
Morgan let out a small chuckle. “I don’t recall stuttering.”
I started to stand in front of Nick, when I felt his hand try to catch mine and pull me back, but I pushed it away. Morgan had an inch or so on me, but that didn’t matter to me. She could have been ten feet tall, and I would still rearrange her fucking face. “It’s kind of pathetic that you took this job just so you could throw yourself at a man that doesn’t even want you.”
She was so close to me I could have wrapped my hand around her hair and banged her head up against the wall. “Nick is just a fun little add on to what I’m doing here, not that I needed to explain myself to you at all. You should really be much nicer to me since I could go back and tell Ariel that you’re just fucking around and then oh, well what happens to you then, hmm?” She tapped her chin in thought before laughing.
“Someone who actually enjoys doing Ariel’s bidding is the worst kind of person and believe me, I’m the worst kind of person.” Elise hissed.
Morgan let out a fake yawn and looked over at Natalia. “Wow, you guys get riled up all because I used to date this handsome thing over here. No wonder you let Lilith slip through your fingers, and you were so easily fooled by Markus. Way too busy focusing on the unimportant things.” She tsked at each of us, her eyes settling yet again on Nick. “The company you keep can really drag you down. Sully your name. I’m pretty sure Jonah told you to work with them, not slum it with them permanently.”
Without warning I grabbed her face and focused her attention back on me. “I’d watch my fucking mouth if I was you.”
While most would be quivering and thinking of possible ways to get out of this situation, they’d placed themselves in, Morgan wasn’t one of them. She grabbed my wrist and pushed me away from her. She knew she had the weight of Ariel over me and she looked as if I was an afterthought for her.
“You are really not as scary as they say, Soul Seether. You’re actually kind of adorable, so I can see why he likes you so much.” She reached out and wiped a small amount of dust from the shoulder of my jacket. “I would really hate for everything to go sideways for you and everyone else simply because you can’t learn to follow a few rules. You were Lilith’s little pet right, so you should be used to having a leash.”
“I don’t need a fucking leash, you fucking…” I felt the light dim inside of me and the darkness boiling. The soothing wisps of the dark graced my hand and fingertips, but then they were gone when a hand pulled me back a tiny bit. Nick’s large hand wrapped around mine and he squeezed.
“She’s really not worth it,” he said, pleading in his voice for me to calm down.
One side of Morgan’s mouth lifted up in a slight smile. “Ah, see even I know Nicholas is very good at telling people what to do. You should really listen to him.” The innuendo of her comment wasn’t lost on me.
“So, what…. you just plan on standing on the sidelines and ogling the pretty angel boy over here? Daydreaming about what you used to have until he came to his fucking senses,” Elise asked, tilting her head to the side.
Morgan pressed her lips into a hard line and forced a smile. “Just keep doing what you’re doing, although, you said you had it under control and from the looks of it…” She looked over our heads at the large hole in the wall, “you’ve seemed to misunderstand what under control actually means.” She pointed from the hole to me. “That was you, wasn’t it?”
I gave her a fake smile. “Sure was.”
“Hmm, at least I can tell Ariel you’ve made some sort of progress, so give yourself a pat on the back. You might actually be useful after all.”
“What the…” I started but she put her finger up to silence me.
“Ariel also wants help with his ceremony. It will be a big day for Heaven’s Gate, so he wants every helping hand he can get.”
“He wanted us to help Dani and her training. He wanted to make sure she was all set for when or if things as you so kindly put it, go sideways.” Nick furrowed his dark eyebrows. “What about what happened in the sky the other night, you can’t tell me you and everyone else didn’t see it.”
Morgan sighed. “Of course, that still matters, but Reese can bring her here. As long as she still comes here and strengthens…whatever she is…then that ripple in the sky is taken care of. Any issues that come from the other side are her responsibility or did you already forget what you signed up for, Soul Seether?” She peered over at me with a raised eyebrow. “You both aren’t needed. You and I can help Ariel with things and then we can come here and continue on as if nothing changes.”
Reese let out a joyless laugh. “Ah, so alone time with a guy that dumped you is what you want?”
Morgan clucked her tongue. “I really don’t have to explain myself to you. It isn’t up for debate anyway; Ariel already approved of it. I’m just nice enough to bring you up to speed.”
My jaw hurt from the amount of tension it held as I clamped my mouth shut. Every fiber of my being wanted to run my hand through her stomach, but then that death would have been too quick. I could have always taken her head in my hands quickly and put my thumbs into her eyes, so she would stop looking at what was mine. She wouldn’t die immediately, that way she would be in pain, and I could take my time with bleeding her dry. I wanted so much to wield my dagger again and do the damage I wanted.
Nick knew what he signed up for when he decided that I was what he wanted. I cracked my neck at that fact. Purgatory was filled with the kinds of girls that would break your neck simply because you touched what was theirs or even insinuated you had any ownership to it, regardless of it being in the past. Morgan was different. I didn’t need blood to prove my point.
I gave her a tiny smile. “It’s fine. If Ariel wants to be a dick and think that anyone is going to bow down to him after that ceremony, then let him. Nick can tell me all about all the shitty design choices he’s making when you bring him back to me.”
Reese pulled his eyebrows in and both him and Nick spoke at the same time, “are you sure?”
I waved them off in nonchalance. “Mhmm, I’m sure Morgan is well aware that I’m the one in your bed every night.” I looked casually over my shoulder at my very nervously confused angel, but then focused all my attention back on Morgan. “I trust that Morgan is smart enough to understand the rule of don’t touch what isn’t yours, right? Especially when the thing you are aching to touch has something much better to play with and occupy their time. That must have been something they ingrained in your brain at angelic primary school.”
I heard Elise snicker behind me, but I kept my eyes fixed on the guardian angel before me.
Morgan pursed her lips and looked over my shoulder at Nick. Her mouth formed into a mischievous smile. “I would never. I do want to ask you one thing though?” She lifted one of her shoulders as if the question was going to be nothing of importance as she walked around us, surveying the room and the destruction I’d caused.
She said her next words slightly over her shoulder, like she couldn’t fathom giving me her full attention. “Does he still do that thing with his tongue that I taught him?”
“Oh my,” Natalia, who had remained quiet during the interaction, mumbled.
My hands balled into fists at my sides, but I rallied, like I always did. “He sure does. Maybe I should really be thanking you for my many, many orgasms, huh? Too bad your pussy wasn’t good enough to keep him.”
Reese’s mouth dropped open and I saw Nick close his eyes, shaking his head towards the floor, but there was a hint of smile on his lips.
I had kept my cool, but I still wanted to light her ass on fire. I could feel my palms getting warm, but then small spurts of dark shadows appeared near my feet. I wanted it to stop because shooting Morgan right through that hole in the wall was the last thing I needed. I felt my feet wanting to move towards her and fuck her world up, but a flash of pink hair came across my vision.
Beetee yanked me in the other direction outside of the room. “Let’s go somewhere to cool you off.”
“I’m just fine, Beetee,” I said for what felt like the tenth time. The pink-haired demon had whisked me away, up the stairs, down a hallway and into an empty bedroom.
She fiddled with the bottom of her dress as she paced in front of me. “I know, but I mean you could have done real damage to her.”
“Coming from the girl who can shift into a snake and could do real damage to anyone that comes within two feet of your tail.”
She placed her hands on her hips and faced me. “I don’t love turning into a giant reptile. It’s cool in theory, but I try to keep it as under wraps as I can.”
“Hmph, well, your assistance is appreciated, but I wasn’t actually going to throw her out the hole in the wall.”
“I never said you were…”
I cut her off. “Yes, but I wanted to, and I would have loved to see her break all her bones when she landed on the ground and then I probably would have flown down to pick her up and let her fall back onto the ground just because it was really fun to watch the first time, but I did not. I’m already doing angelic things.”
Beetee snorted. “Sure, if that’s what you call it. Morgan is the kind of person who isn’t going to go away just because you can meet her verbal sparring head on, you know.”
I spun around the room, taking in the bright interior. “Well aware. Her confidence is commendable, but I also know that it burns her perfect exterior to know that I’m the one riding her ex-boyfriend’s cock most nights.”
Beetee’s face turned a shade of red before she turned away to face the only window in the room.
“Is this your room?” I ran my hand along the orange comforter
“Oh yes, it is. Well, my room for now, since Natalia is nice enough to let me stay here. She told me I could decorate it anyway I wanted. She had some of the Enchanters come in and just kind of add in the details I wanted. Their magic is so cool.” She sounded like a starstruck little kid; it was kind of adorable.
The sun was still out, so its glow made her golden-brown skin much more prominent. The end of her snake tattoo peeked out from the back of her dress and that brought me back to what she’d said earlier. “You intentionally try to hide the fact that you can shift?”
Beetee knotted her index fingers together. “Not so much hide, but I just never wanted to lose control, especially when I was younger. When I learned to control it more, I guess I still just wanted to be seen as remotely normal .”
“Fun fact: you are not.”
The pink haired demon rolled her eyes and let out an exhaustive sigh as she sat on her bed. “The anchoring tattoo on my back makes me aware constantly.”
“Did your parents…” I spoke slowly, wondering if anything I was about to say might upset her. She looked over at me expectantly, “they didn’t make you feel like you had to keep your shifting a secret, right?”
She shook her head vehemently. “Oh my gosh, no! They were protective like any parent would be, but shifting isn’t unheard of in Purgatory, you know that. Usually if you can shift, one of your parents has to have that ability as well, so I always wondered since they told me pretty early on that they adopted me. They always answered my questions if I had any and well, I guess…I never asked the right ones.”
I sat down next to her and placed my hand on her exposed knee. “You never felt like something was off?”
She rubbed her lips together in thought. “Not really. I was so busy making sure I didn’t burst into snake mode in public while simultaneously going through puberty that I didn’t notice.”
I chuckled. “Sounds about right.”
“Did you?”
I nodded, remembering all the times I’d felt like there was something missing or that something in me felt misplaced. I couldn’t help but be envious that Beetee had never had those feelings, but then again, her hybrid status was different than mine. Lilith had made me what I was and pretended to nurture me as if I was always meant to be that way, Beetee had been born out of love, but hidden away never knowing that. We were vastly different, but I liked to think our hearts were always in the right places.
Her voice came out in a whisper. “Lilith must have really had her claws in you deep to make you believe something for so long.” She pulled her bottom lip into her mouth with her teeth. “How did it feel?”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “How did what feel?”
She flipped her hands up, so we were both looking at her palms. “Being both, using both powers. Was it scary? Intense? Confusing?”
I placed my hands in hers. “All of the above. Like something I was always meant to do.
You could feel all those things too you know. I think your dark magic comes from your snake shifting, so we can focus on your light, see how to…”
Beetee put my hands back in my lap with a small smile. “Mm... I don’t know. Maybe someday when I see my moms again. That’s my priority. And of course, making sure you have all the support you can get and if being a snake is how I can do that right now then, I will.”
I watched her lilac-colored eyes as they tried to hold back their sadness. “Okay, if not your hybrid abilities, then what about the Daya issue?”
“Nick’s dad’s girlfriend?”
I nodded, pulling at one of my curls to give my hands something to do. “She is your family even if I’m pretty sure she isn’t fully aware of it yet.”
Beetee’s chest and neck started to gain a reddish color as if she was slightly embarrassed. “I’m awful. I want to speak to her, I do. I just…I don’t want to take a step into Nick’s house with talks of a family reunion when his own family is still rocky and misshapen. I don’t want to create this bond with someone I’ve never known when the people I’ve known my whole life, the family I’ve known are still…” She sighed, “waiting for me to come back.”
“You don’t owe me an explanation, Beetee.”
She tilted her head from side to side. “Oh, I know. I guess I just want my moms with me whenever we do speak, just to make the transition easier. They know the story. They made sure I stayed alive. I think Daya would like to know them just as much as she’ll want to know me.”
“I think regardless of moms or no moms, she’ll be happy to know you’re alive, even if it means she starts hysterically crying in disbelief. You want to support me, so I suppose I’ll just have to do the same for you.” I nudged her with my shoulder and watched as her eyes became brighter.
“One thing at a time, Dani.” She nudged me back.
“Alright, reptile queen, as you wish.”
“That is still an awful…” Beetee looked past me at her window. I followed her eyes and watched as the sky did the same thing as the night before, but this time it was more intense. The ripple stretched out further and wider. You couldn’t see much but black, but a shiver went down my spine. The ripple stayed for a few more moments and then dispersed as if it wanted to make an impression.
Knock, Knock.
Beetee jumped at the sound, holding her hand against her chest. She shuffled to the door, opening it to reveal a very anxious Nicholas.
“Elise said this is where you would take her.”
Beetee shrugged, moving out of the way so he could get a full view of me.
“And so, you found me.” I turned to look out the window again. “Did you see the ripple?”
He started to rub the back of his neck. “Yeah, which means Ariel is going to be even more of an unnecessary prick. We should tread carefully.”
I groaned as I got off Beetee’s bed and walked over to him. I winked at the pink haired snake shifter, placing my hand on Nick’s arm. “I’m going to work harder than ever to be able to be the best hybrid I can be and then once this whole darkness in the sky thing is taken care of, I can burn Ariel to a tiny little crisp.”
Nick laughed, some of the tension leaving his body.
“Is she gone?”
His brown eyes flashed a panicked look but went back to normal. “Yeah.”
I beamed at him. “Good and don’t worry, I trust you with everything I have.” His face took on a look of relief. My smile fell when I spoke again. “You should know though, if she ever talks to me like that again, I’ll kill her.”