Page 8

Drake

Sunday Afternoon

The Sixth Floor

T he sixth floor was quiet tonight. Then again, it was always quiet up here. The floor was reserved for those who needed the solitude from society and those Vane couldn’t toss out on the streets.

The security was lax, I rarely saw anyone outside of the one nurse on duty.

The usual sense of guilt settled in my stomach as I walked down the hall. I should come here more but I couldn’t bring myself to.

Some son I was.

The old nurse, Lana, sat behind the station. She glanced up as I approached, giving me that same pitying smile she always did.

“Here to see your mom?” The same asinine question she asked each time I came up here. I just nodded sharply and stalked past.

It had been a long time since I’d been up here. With Harlow’s arrival, things had been stirring.

My half-breed status didn’t exactly give the demons a reason to clue me in on their plans.

As far as I knew, there weren’t any others around like me, which only made me stand out more. I was a reject among demons and an outcast to the humans.

Then again, a person who fed on desolation deserved nothing less.

“Drake?” my mother called out before I’d even opened the door. She always had a way of knowing when I was close. Or maybe I was just the only one who ever walked these halls outside of the nurses.

“Hello, Ma,” I said as I pushed open her cracked door. She was in her chair by the window, knees tucked in close as she stared out at the grounds below.

At just forty-eight, she looked frail. If she weighed even a hundred pounds, I’d be shocked. Even for an omega she was small.

Her cheeks were sunken, long brunette hair limp and mousy, and her once pretty green eyes were dull.

Dark Haven had taken her life from her, and with it, her beauty.

“Your father came by,” she said quietly. Keeping my composure wasn’t easy but somehow I nodded, taking a seat next to her.

“What did he want?” My voice was sharper than I meant it to be, but she simply smiled sadly at my question. Her age was showing more now, faded from years of life lived in a box.

Despite the fact I hated it, I knew she belonged here. Anywhere else would pump her full of medication for her ramblings on demons. She’d be diagnosed with schizophrenia despite her simply struggling with crippling obsessive compulsive disorder.

Even as we spoke she was tapping out a rhythm on her leg, eyes darting around anxiously.

“Oh, nothing. He offered to take me away again,” she explained. “I’m too old for him now.”

“Demons are timeless, Ma,” I said gently. The demon who claimed her had taken a liking to her, offering her things that I doubted she could make it through, like eternal life in Helheim. I’d never been there, but I knew of it, and a living human wouldn’t survive there. Hell, I wasn’t even sure that I could as a half-breed.

“And I’m not,” she said in an oddly harsh voice. Generally, she spoke at barely over a whisper, as if talking at a normal volume was too tiring.

If I had a way to save her from this version of hell, to give her demon blood and allow him to take her there, I would do it. But I had no real standing with Hel, or any god for that matter.

I was lower than the lowest form of being in their eyes. I’d spoken to the queen of Helheim twice in my life. Once when she told me I shouldn’t leave Dark Haven when I had planned to run away, and once when I stopped feeding.

It was unsettling to know she was watching me, monitoring what I did, but oddly reassuring at the same time. She’d saved my life that day.

Feeding like the demons was something I couldn’t fucking stand. These people suffered enough without being subjected to living their worst nightmares every fucking night.

They were like a succubus, but instead of lust, it was any strong emotion. And the patients here had plenty of those to go around.

“He asked about you.”

It was a lie. The way her hands wrung told me she was ‘trying to do the right thing’ again. But that demon cared nothing about me, just like the others.

They could all fuck off.

I wasn’t less than them, I was more, a survivor in and outside of these walls.

A wave of despair hit me, and I looked up to see a tear track down her cheek. My demon side stirred, hungry and willing to drink it down. She was always lonely and sad here, which was why I didn’t visit often.

Feeding on her, even involuntarily, was fucking sick.

It always felt strange, wrong, or maybe that was just what I thought of the demons.

Of myself.

“You should leave here,” she told me after a long pause of silence. She didn’t mean her room, she meant Dark Haven. But I was tied to this place. I’d never lived anywhere else.

Plus, I had to feed.

Not as often as the other demons, but still. It was my reality, and even if I’d accepted it, I loathed it as well.

“That’s not an option for me.” My words were blunt and full of honesty, but I still winced as a sob tore from her. I hated to see her sad, but I could barely focus on it as I held my demon back.

She wasn’t a meal, she was my mother.

“It’s my fault. I doomed you to this place,” she choked out. “Raised in these halls... it was no place for a child.”

“My childhood wasn’t so bad, Ma,” I promised.

It was a lie. Seeing her ups and downs so vividly with no escape was hard, having Vane intertwined in every aspect of our lives was even worse. I didn’t like the way he ran things, the way he used these people, the way he never seemed to age or change.

He may not be a demon, but making a deal with them made him as close as a human could be.

His soul was tainted, Hel’s magic giving him power and influence he couldn’t achieve on his own. But at the end of the day, he would die easier than I would.

I’d dreamed of killing him with my bare hands more than once. Any alpha who made their living out of taking advantage of the weak deserved to feel double the pain they’d caused. I’d seen the looks in the patients’ eyes when they left his sessions; I didn’t know what went on, but I knew it was nothing good.

“You’re on fire, dear.” My mother’s voice was full of concern, but I had to breathe a few times before I could reassure her.

Blue flames licked out of my hands, and I squeezed them into tight fists to put out the flames. I tried not to let her see me like that. It would only make her feel more guilty.

Someday I would actually have to call the flames, to master them, but it made me feel more like a demon than ever, and I wasn’t ready to face that reality yet.

I was a master at avoidance if nothing else.

Her fingers tapped the chair. One. Two. Three. Pause. One, two, three, pause. Over and over. It was a familiar sound, nostalgic, and it did the trick. I glanced back at her and smiled; she didn’t mind if it was fake.

“I’m fine, everything is alright,” I promised as I always did. “But now I have to go, I have classes.”

Her eyes brimmed with tears. “My smart boy, going to college now.” She waved me off as they started to fall, and I left the room, knowing damn well I wasn’t the person to soothe her. Tears generally led to sadness and then my demon side would draw it out and feed.

Not fucking happening.

Pushing open the door, I rushed from the room. I would have slammed into Vane if not for him steadying me. The feel of his hands on me had rage flaring and I jerked away. He didn’t react to my string of curses or the angry step away.

“She’s doing well,” he said in a tone that was devoid of any true reassurance. “Nice of you to visit.”

“Some of us aren’t cold and selfish,” I spat out as I pulled away from his touch.

“No?” he laughed. “I’ve heard the cries, Drake. Don’t lie to yourself and act like you’re not just as evil as the rest of us.”

“You’re wrong,” I said as I stalked into the elevator, slamming my hand down hard enough on the down button that the other blinked rapidly. Thankfully, it still worked, the numbers above the doors ticking up one by one as it rose to the top floor.

The moment it opened, I stepped inside and hit the button to close the door along with one. I needed to get out of this shithole and fast.

Between the second and first floor the elevator stuttered and creaked, freezing altogether. The lights dimmed, flickering in and out. A growl erupted from me, and I had to clench my fists as tight as I could to stop myself from breaking this shit and sending me careening to the basement.

“There you are.” I glanced over to see Ivar standing there. For a demon commander he looked oddly unimpressive crammed in a tiny elevator.

He was slightly hunched over since he was taller than the current space. His fire was burning brightly, and his eyes were narrowed on me. I didn’t even have to guess what he was here for.

I’d seen him popping in and out of Harlow’s view. If not for seeing him in the halls before she arrived, I wouldn’t have known his rank.

He was the leader of the demons here, the one who made the deal with Vane on Hel’s behalf.

“What do you want?” I asked with no sense of respect. He might be a commander for Helheim, but I wasn’t one of his people. I was half from that world and half from this, and not by any fault of my own. “I have places to be.”

“Stay away from her,” he crooned, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I didn’t need to know who, he’d obviously formed some sort of twisted connection to Harlow before she even got here.

How was the real question, but I knew I’d get no answers from him.

The elevator dropped in temperature as his form grew, shadows and blue fire filling the space around us. I yawned dramatically and laughed out loud as the action had them growing even thicker.

“Aw, did I strike a nerve?” I questioned. “I won’t be doing anything you ask of me, you’re no superior of mine. Last time I checked, you have no authority over me. She’s my scent match and you have no say in the matter.”

He held out a hand and a malicious smile tipped up his lips. I could feel the pressure of his power closing around my throat, but it didn’t hurt. It did little more than make my breathing a bit labored. I let a smirk form as I stared up at him with amusement.

“It doesn’t work on me, demon. Again, I’m not yours to command,” I said with enough arrogance that he snarled at me. “Now let this elevator go before I tell Harlow what you truly are.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” he thundered. “She is mine. If you touch her, I will have you scourged from this world!”

If I hadn’t ever spoken to Hel, I might genuinely be afraid of what he’d do. But she had assured me I belonged here, and she wouldn’t waste her time if there wasn’t a reason.

“You don’t have the authority, and Hel isn’t likely to listen to your little rants,” I corrected yet again. “Demons, even commanders, aren’t allowed to kill humans here. I may be a half breed but I’m still partly human. A deal is a deal, after all.”

He leaned in so his face was inches from mine, the black and white standing out starkly in the faded bronze elevator.

“You dare speak for my lady?” he asked.

He was ready to go to bat for her, yet his ‘lady’ was the one who wouldn’t allow the other demons to harm me. Something she clearly hadn’t shared with him.

He was the first to try and harm me, but she warned me that he’d come for me eventually. Hel gave no answer as to why, but I guess now I had that answer.

Harlow.

She was different than the others here. The stupid girl didn’t realize it yet, thought it was all some big hallucination. Yet she was bringing Dark Haven to life.

The gargoyles were stirring outside, their power growing every day she spent here.

The demons were desperate as they fed now. As if preparing for something.

But what made her different? Why her?

After the conversation in the storage closet, I was positive she knew nothing about demons or Helheim. If that changed, I’d be there to figure it out.

I’d easily learned her schedule, her safe zones, and even stalked as she went to therapy. I’d never let her know but I watched every move she made.

I told myself I was doing it because she was the factor that was changing Dark Haven.

But in reality, I’d felt the sexual tension between us in that closet, knew that she was my mate. Hell, anytime she got near me I was breathing her in like I couldn't get enough of that scent of falling snow and berries. Fresh, peaceful, everything I was not.

Harlow was an unexpected complication, and I wanted a taste of her.

But would that make me any better than my father?

At least with her I was making no promises, and after my mother, Dark Haven implemented mandatory birth control and heat suppressors. So, at least the outcome would be different.

While I got lost in my head, shadowy bands wrapped around my neck, pinning me to the wall and cutting off my air supply. I didn’t panic, but the moment I was free he was going to fucking regret it.

“Unhand him.” Hel’s voice echoed in the elevator, and he immediately withdrew before popping out of existence as quickly as he came.

The elevator whirred back to life, bringing me to the ground floor. The moment the security guards saw me, they let me through, and I didn’t look back until I was standing outside.

A privilege only I had, since I wasn’t truly a patient here.

When I managed to cross the street, I finally looked back at Dark Haven, staring up at the building and wondering just what was coming.

Something moved on the third floor, and I glanced up to see Roman staring down at me from their window. I knew it was him from the pinched look on his face. Hiro was softer than that, his body always hunched like it would make him safer here. But even that didn’t hide his softness from the world. And that genuine submissive nature of his could be intoxicating if I’d let him close enough.

That and his scent was just as addictive as Harlow’s. Though Roman’s… was not.

I refused to touch Hiro. He may be attractive, but I could never tell him what I was. Not to mention I couldn’t imagine feeding from someone I was fucking, that’d lead to some next level self-loathing.

I was a sadist, not a masochist. I was also a self-aware one and chose not to use my own shortcomings against myself.

Roman was the opposite of me. He was a protector, a guardian. Someone I could fight alongside and respect but not give a second thought to.

It was sometimes alarming to see the physical and personality changes between them, but we’d been around each other long enough it was seamless now and a lot easier to differentiate.

We weren’t friends, I triggered Hiro from time to time without meaning to, and that was something Roman didn’t like.

We respected each other outside of that, nothing more, nothing less.

I nodded at the alter, and he returned the gesture. I’d noticed him watching over Harlow just as much as I did. It was nice to know someone was looking out for her, especially with a demon like Ivar by her side.

I just wish I knew why I even fucking cared if she was safe here. Which was exactly why I shouldn’t get too close.

To her. To Hiro. To anyone.

“That’s because she’s yours.” The voice in my head wasn’t my own, but I managed to hide my shock. It had been years since the Queen of Helheim dropped into my head and it was no less startling than the last.

“Mine for what?”

Her amusement filled my head, and I winced at the strange feeling. I was standing still on the sidewalk, glaring at the stone wall in front of me. I likely looked crazy, not a good thing for someone standing outside of an institution like Dark Haven. But sharing a mind felt invasive, and I fucking hated the feeling.

“She may have been gifted to Ivar and Kol, but you are her balancing guardian, the one who will hold the group accountable. I need you to succeed, Drake. My protection only goes so far.”

“Who is Kol?” I asked back internally.

She sent a mental image of a towering gargoyle. I hadn’t seen them outside of their stone forms but I’d heard whispers of their existence. Hel’s personal warriors that did her bidding.

Cold, neutral, and swift in their punishment.

“Where is he?”

“Not awake quite yet, but soon,” she promised. “Things are changing, Drake. Keep your eyes open and instincts sharp. Listen to them and stop hiding from your demon side. It is not a curse.”

The sharp command there struck more fear into me than the entire conversation with Ivar had. Hel could harm me, but for now, I was useful.

It was time to actually give into my demon side. If for no other reason than self-preservation.

How the fuck could I do that when it was the part I hated most about myself?

“She is yours as much as theirs, Drake. There are others as well. Sharing her is not optional. I have seen the future, Drake, and you’re a key part of it. Don’t let me down... or Harlow. She’s special.”

Hel was already in my head, she didn’t need me to respond. I could lie and say I didn’t want Harlow or any part of this, but it was a lie I couldn’t hide from her or myself.

This was the kind of purpose I needed in my life and I didn’t even know the details yet. That was enough to truly drive me crazy.

There was always mystery surrounding me. The demons, their purpose, Hel, Helheim... all of it. I’d researched what I could find in mythology, but most of my knowledge was a mix of human books and observations in Dark Haven.

I had a feeling neither were a true depiction of the realm itself.

Just as quickly as she had arrived in my mind, she was gone again, and my entire body sagged in relief.

I may hate her world, her demons, what I was because of it, but I couldn’t disrespect Hel herself. She could kill me with a snap of her fingers.

After the encounter, I was stuck frozen in front of the line of storefronts. I needed to move but I couldn’t quite make myself.

Hel’s words were ringing in my mind.

Harlow is mine.

“Hey there.” The seductive purr in my ear sent disgust rolling through me, and I stepped away. Glancing back, I saw Sarah, a human omega hookup that I was no longer going to entertain.

She was a distraction from my life, and bubbly enough that I couldn’t feed from her. The thought of touching anyone but Harlow or Hiro had me retreating.

She frowned at the open rejection and started to protest but I shook my head. The girl meant nothing to me, and I didn’t care that she was yelling insults at me as I walked away.

She was the reason I’d come out here in the first place. The curvy barista was my usual go-to when Dark Haven was too much. She didn’t ask questions, and I always made her feel good. The whole thing was devoid of emotions, but the release always helped.

“Fucking, Harlow,” I muttered, realizing she was the reason I couldn’t fuck away my tension. The bitch had gotten into my head, and Hel wasn’t helping.

Then again, if it she was meant to be mine, and I’d piss off the demon commander in the process, then why the hell wouldn’t I just fuck her?

That thought was enough for me to turn into the small convenience store I was now standing in front of, not leaving again until I had an armload of snacks.

Instead of running away from Dark Haven like usual, I was heading right back.

Life was fucked up sometimes.