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“What the fuck is that?” Kael asks quietly.

“It looks like an oversized otter pup,” I say, smiling at it as it eats its newfound meal.

It suddenly clicks with them that I was just stabbed. Daemon snaps his head to me and starts trying to inspect my body and where all of the blood on me should be coming from. “Where are you bleeding from?” he asks frantically.

“I’m fine,” I say. “I’m okay. I’m not bleeding.”

“Lilith! He stabbed you,” Callum says as he moves closer to me, not believing that I’m okay.

“I think he healed me,” I say. “He like… slobbered on me, and the pain went away. Now I’m just bloody and covered in puppy slobber.”

“That isnota puppy,” Daemon says. We all look over to see that he is purring and chewing on the now mangled corpse. “It has scales.”

“It’s a puppy,” I say as I move over to sit closer to it.

“Are you insane?” Kael asks as he grabs my arm.

“Oh, stop it,” I say as I pull away from him. “He just broke a guy’s neck, healed me, and is now eating said guy. Call me crazy, but I don’t think he wants to hurt me.”

“Is everything okay?” Dad asks as he runs into the tent. “We heard… Woah.” He stops as he sees the creature, then looks at me while I pet it.

“What is that?” Leli asks as she comes in. “Why are you covered in blood?”

“Were you guys not able to move?” I ask as I grab a shirt from my bag before pulling it on.

“Yeah. It’s like we were paralyzed,” she says. “Can you please tell me what’s going on?”

“Some witch came in here when we couldn’t move,” I say, focusing all of my attention on the creature beside me.

“Are you okay?” Daemon asks, moving closer to me. I see Striker and Vash are now in the tent with us, but I go back to petting my new friend.

“No,” I admit. “Just tell them.”

Daemon goes through everything and explains what happened with the witch. He hides the details that I would never be able to say out loud but leaves out the part where I was terrified that they would suddenly hate me for what he forced me to do. I know that will be a conversation later, but I understand why. I doubted their loyalty to me.

“But you’re okay now?” Dad asks, kneeling down to pet the creature. He has completely devoured the witch and is lying on his back as I rub his belly.

“Yeah. Whatever he did to me healed me,” I say.

“He’s a Suthul,” Dad says. “They were thought to be extinct, but this little guy proves otherwise.”

“Little?” Callum chokes out. “It’s as big as Lilith.”

“Yeah, He’s not fully grown,” Dad says. “His saliva has a healing effect on demons, so since you’re half succubus, he was able to heal you.”

“I think I’m going to call him Thuly,” I say with a smile. He rolls slightly before reaching out to grab onto my hand, holding it in his paw.

“Looks like it imprinted on you,” Dad chuckles. “Congrats, Mom.”

“He’s such a cutie,” I say, still rubbing the soft fur on his belly.

“He just ate a person,” Striker says, shocked.

“I wonder….” Daemon starts.

“What?” I ask. Callum and Kael laugh and move over to sit with me.

“So… That guard that assaulted you,” Daemon says.