Page 68 of All Your Deadly Truths (The Filthy Duet #2)

He sighs. “She is a complex being, and I knew that telling her what I am would end in her casting me out. She trusted no one, Sydni being the oddity, until you of course.” He bows his head in my direction.

“She’d seen me plenty of times before we made our way to Sidence, but to her, I was just a stray feline.

So when I chose to stay with her, why would she think anything more than I was just another black cat looking for attention? We’re a dime a dozen.”

I want to know why he decided to move into her life when she arrived in Sidence, but equally so the rest of the story.

My gaze quickly finds Sydni, who is staring, wide-eyed and mouth agape, as she sits onto the couch. Brice and Niyla look equally as baffled. It’s Kayn that doesn’t seem bothered or concerned.

He grins at me. “Luce had one. She was quite chipper, definitely nothing like this guy.”

“Does every Demon have a Familiar?”

My friend nods. “Never thought to ask where hers was. They can be any animal. Luce’s was a white lioness; can’t just go to the grocery store with one of those.”

Mister ‘ ahems’ us. “Let us not trail off. If I had told Xeraphine what I was, she would not have taken too kindly to it,” he says through what I’d classify as a groan. It’s like a growl, but tiny and nearly a purr.

“Enlighten me. I’m a bit ignorant to her kind, and yours, apparently.”

“I shall start from the beginning, then. Us Familiar are created for our Demons as a presence amongst eternity. No creature truly can live forever, as you mortals are still susceptible to death, she is cursed to live forever no matter how many deaths she succumbs to. It is why we exist.” He does a quick sweep of everyone in the room, maybe checking to make sure we are paying attention, but who knows.

“Succubae Amoro’s are awakened at birth, but Xeraphine’s needed persuasion.

I do truly believe that if not for her mother kidnapping her at eighteen and forcing it to emerge, she would have lived a Mundane life. ”

Silence fills the room. Is he suggesting she wouldn’t have turned to a Succubus? That my little demon could truly have had a normal life if not for that damned woman?

“I wish I had been there for her, but wishing is for children and fairytales.”

“You were born when her Amoro appeared?” He nods at my question, so I continue, “Then why didn’t you dig her up? Why didn’t you go to her?!”

“I tried to find her, Kairhyse, but even if I had been able to connect to our bond, it wouldn’t have mattered. Her eyes need to see for me to.”

“Because she was buried…” Sydni murmurs, her already low voice carrying an unmistakable ache.

“The one thing we don’t need the bond for, is to share in our suffering. I felt her pain, and every time she would die, a piece of me shattered. You cannot begin to imagine… I was created to serve and protect her, so to immediately wake to her dying, has haunted me.”

I can see the pain between his small eyebrows, and while I can feel the pinch of anger toward the feline, there is an agonizing ache in my stomach. He had suffered for months having to feel her die, and awaken, to only die again.

“I looked, but was unsuccessful. When she was dug up, I was capable of finding her after a few weeks, but kept my distance. Feeling her pain may seem like the worst of it, but watching as she tried to come back from that… That was torture.”

“Wait… You have been watching her ever since?” I look over at Sydni, small droplets of tears drawing down her cheeks. “The train tracks… All the times she…”

When I peer back at Mister, all of his hair is standing on ends.

“I nearly told her then what I was, but unlike you, Sydni, or anyone here, Xeraphine does not need coddling, she needs to be the one to pull herself from the darkness that was forced upon her. Regardless… I was the one that pulled her body from the tracks, and I laid with her until her head regenerated.” She had spoken of never being found—but that wasn’t true at all, she had someone there for her.

I wonder if, in another life, Mister had revealed himself to her, would she have felt less alone in the world?

“Over the years I watched her, stayed by her side and allowed her the freedom to get her own revenge. After the incident with the train, I kept a distance no further than a sprint away, then closed that gap between us when she moved to Sidence.”

“Why all of a sudden did you make yourself known?” I ask.

“Intuition, I suppose. Plus, she was getting closer, and I knew once she had killed the five that took her life, I was going to introduce myself as her Familiar. She’d made it very clear, never wanting to know more about her kind.

Xera resented her … father, for making her the way she was, even if she at the same ti me, loved it.

I’d planned to help guide her into the life she deserved, not the one she was heading toward. ”

“Suicide.” I hate saying it, but she’d shared on several occasions that was her plan after her revenge. Death. Begging Belial to take her into the Beyond and away from this life.

Mister nods.

“That day at her apartment,” Sydni continues. “Why didn’t you tell her about the bomb?”

“A talking cat telling that girl there was a bomb in her apartment… Do tell, what do you think her reaction would have been?”

I bite the inside of my cheek, not wanting to agree that his insinuation is correction.

“I haven’t known her for very long,” Kayn says through a sigh. “My guess is she would have thought you were a Shifter and likely torn you in half.”

“Correct. It is also why I never approached her before. She hadn’t known the type of Shifters that took her, and Kairhyse, you know Xera enough to understand she would have never trusted me. Ever.”

He’s right, and I fucking hate that he is. My girl deserves to have those in her life that she can trust and count on. Not those that lie and are deceitful. I know, deep down, that this cat, her Familiar, did what was best for her. There is just a thick layer of bitterness that hangs heavy over it.

My friend clears his throat. “I’m going to assume this is why you haven’t been by her side this entire time. But, clarify for the class. Is it because Xera and her Amoro were disconnected until recently that it took you so long to find her?”

“Yes.” The feline nods. “I tried to follow Tali when they stuffed Xeraphine into a van, but without my abilities—those didn’t awaken until our bond snapped into place—I’m merely a cat.

I ran for as long as I could, but it was useless.

I returned back to the apartment to wait.

” He looks up at me. “For you, or Sydni, but no one came. It had been a week by the time I got back, so I could only assume that you had already gone on your way to find her.”

“Then when she connected with her Amoro… you just…”

“I didn’t get a good look at the location, because minutes later, she was through the Gates of the Beyond. I saw Alaric, and using my connection to my creator, I was able to find Ismael, and here we are.”

I’m cautious with how I speak to him. Something about yelling at a cat feels wrong. “When Daigo took her, why not make yourself known to Sydni and I? You could have helped us!”

“Suppose the same rules would apply. Making you trust me would have been difficult and time consuming. ”

“Yet you took the chance now…” There’s a bitterness to my response.

Mister says nothing, and drags his gaze to Kayn.

A heavy, frustrated sigh escapes me.

“However, I would have taken that risk in your distrust. If I hadn’t been knocked out by the blast and disoriented, I would have. When I was fully capable of thought, the only person around me was Tyson, and I don’t trust him. He smelled rotten.”

He pauses, stands, and walks around on the marble countertop.

“Xera only trusts two people; Sydni and you, Kairhyse. So, I’d not have risked telling Tyson anything. I waited for you both to return to me, but once you had set out, you never came back—not until you had her. Plus, I’m not entirely sure what I could have helped with, but I would have.”

“That day Tali took her.” I want to ask why she never fully trusted Tyson, but that feels like a very Xera thing. Still, the fact that she trusted me completely at the time—it makes my heart beat again.

“I need to be very clear. I had no idea what her mother was, nor did I know anything about a prophecy.” I wonder if Ismael gave him that little bit of knowledge on the drive up here.

“If I had, I would have made sure she knew. I’d have risked her pushing me aside to give her every advantage in this life.

” There is no doubt in my mind he’s telling the truth.

“I felt her at the door. Another demon. I’d tried to warn Xera the same way I did about the bomb.

She searched for her phone, likely to call you, when her mother commanded her to open the door. ”

A full-body chill runs down my spine. I know my little demon must have been petrified—stripped of control when she was usually the one pulling the strings.

“Tali tried to attack me, but Xeraphine put herself between us. It was the first show of love her Demon ever gave to me, then to watch her mother take her head off… It was the first time my heart broke. It fueled my hatred and anger, and kept me chasing for longer than my legs were meant to carry me.” He plops to a seated position, his paw tapping onto the counter.

“My master and I are very similar, it’s why we will, for our eternity, be inseparable.

I hate to be touched, do not like to be coddled, and would rather be run over by a bus than be held.

As with her, Sydni… and you, are the exception to those feelings. ”

Is he asking me to pet him?

“No, Kairhyse.” My eyes widen, shocked because, did he just read my mind? “Sort of. Now that you two are bonded, I’m capable of connecting with you, too. Now, do me a favor, summon one of your shadows for me.”

“Noctis Duplicatus,” I barely say above a whisper.

A shadow of myself forms, and Mister walks on all fours toward it. “Now, have your shadow form hold me. I would like to become accustom with it. ”

I think I maybe dreaming, honestly. It wouldn’t shock me because all of this seems so… unreal.

“I still don’t like that you didn’t tell Phiny-bear,” Sydni says, and it feels like forever since I’ve heard her voice.

As my shadow reaches out and grabs hold of Mister, he growls low. “I did everything right by her, and I’m not here for your approval.” He rubs his head against its neck, and I sigh.

“Do you see what is happening to Xera right now?” I honestly don’t blame Syd for feeling that way, but I’m going to side with the feline on this one. My girl is complicated, not a many thing is black and white in her life.

After a moment of pause and snuggling up against my shadow, Mister’s gaze turns to me. “I promise, you don’t want to know.”