Chapter 6 #3
The demon growled, his teeth showing, and Morgan frowned while Perrie’s eyes narrowed. He was further legitimizing their distrust of him with every passing minute. Elsie didn’t reprimand him. He needed to know it was safe to have an opinion among them.
“Doesn’t treating him like a dog make sense, though?” Perrie asked. The witch shrugged, her strawberry-blonde curls sliding over her shoulder. “I mean, if he isn’t a dog, what is he?”
“He’s a demon, Pear. He doesn’t need to be taught how to sit and stay, he needs to learn how to work in a team.
I’m giving him time to recover from his injuries.
He can take as long as he needs,” Elsie replied, explaining more to the demon than her underlings.
“I won’t push things faster than necessary and ruin any chance of us working well together. ”
“I suppose that makes sense. Maybe in time he’ll understand that growling at people is fucking weird when he’s pretending to be human,” Morgan said.
The sudden urge to shift overwhelmed her, and Elsie glanced at the demon in alarm.
His face was stony and emotionless, easily hiding his true thoughts.
Morgan was lucky that growling was all the demon had done.
He wanted to lash out, but he was afraid of the punishment he expected to come afterward.
“He’ll be fine with time.” And therapy. Could a demon’s accelerated healing combat post-traumatic stress?
“Are we working on formations today?” Perrie asked.
When they were at the compound, they trained together.
To keep in shape, but also to continue pushing themselves to improve their techniques.
Not one of Elsie’s squad was ever satisfied with ‘good enough’, and that’s exactly how she liked it.
Elsie didn’t believe in perfect when it came to fighting; there was always room to grow.
“No, you guys can take the day off. Get some sleep and restock what you need, though you’d better hurry if you need supplies. Marko’s closing early,” she said. “I have a meeting with Roz, and I’m going to make Mr. Grumpy over there some clothes.”
Elsie kept herself from sighing. She’d rather be lazy all day. It had been too long since they’d had quality time at the compound. It wouldn’t hurt to let her team rest.
“Why didn’t you tell us earlier? I’d have dragged Marley into a spa day by now.” Perrie’s eyes went moony. Back at her coven, she’d been a lot more girly than her time with the hunters allowed. “Ooooh, you should come with me! We’ll have a playdate!”
“Ha! Yeah right. Who would I convince to babysit him?” She asked, and Morgan practically stumbled backward, disgust on his face. “If Cornick wants to give me an entire person as a gift and call him my companion, they’re going to have to get used to him being treated like an equal.”
“An equal?” Perrie looked at the demon doubtfully.
Not quite. She couldn’t treat him as an equal until she knew he was safe. For now, she would take a supervisory role, ensuring he didn’t hurt anyone, though for now the only person he seemed interested in hurting was her.
“Marley is going to freak out, she’s already pissed you decided to keep him.” Morgan smirked. Annoying Marley was one of his favorite hobbies.
Their healer was the one Elsie worried about most. One of her siblings had been a victim of a demon attack. She hated them with a single-mindedness that made her dangerous.
“I’ll be treading lightly. I don’t want her to leave the squad over this.” Elsie winced.
“She might,” Perrie said.
“I know. I’m hoping she’ll give me time to explain before resigning.
Marley’s the best, we need her,” Elsie stressed.
She wasn’t being overdramatic. Their healer was well-loved, and their assassin, Trenton, was devoted to her.
If Marley left the squad, he would follow, and they’d be two members short.
“I suggest you work on something to bribe her with,” Perrie said. “Maybe get her some personal time, or make her a cute outfit.”
“I’ll take that into consideration,” Elsie sighed. It wasn’t as easy to secure time off as Perrie thought, and it was getting more difficult as the months went by.
“Excuse me,” she muttered, inching past the demon, close enough to feel his heat on her skin. The damned thing was standing in the middle of everything, at the foot of her bed.
She checked her reflection in the small, handheld mirror on the top of her bookshelf, making sure her hair was bound well enough. The braid was thick, and blue strands were already working their way free. Her hair refused to be tamed and needed to be rebraided often.
“Thanks for coming to check on me. I’ll go visit Roz now, and we’ll meet up with you for lunch. If you guys are feeling twitchy, go ahead and practice together,” she suggested, turning back to the others. Perrie’s tension eased down a notch.
Trisse tended to get moody when he wasn’t given something to do.
He was one of the warriors in the group, but he worked with his magic as much as his weapon.
If he had too much downtime, he’d get bored and start fights with people just for something to do.
The guy was a hothead, but he was a killer ally on missions.
When he was working, he gained a focus unlike anything Elsie had ever seen.
“We’ll let everyone know,” Morgan promised. Elsie nodded her thanks and herded them out the door. This day was never-ending, and it wasn’t even noon.