Page 79 of Lustling

Please baby. Just let us know you’re okay.

Dad

If you don’t respond soon, we’re calling the police. This isn’t funny.

We WILL file a missing persons report if you don’t answer us.

A hot, tight knot coils in my gut. I have been avoiding this conversation because I do not know how to explain the truth. How do I say I was in Hell, trussed up in a heap of blood and sunburn and laughter, that I learned how much of me was weapon and how much of me was hunger? How do I say I was reborn, and that rebirth came with teeth?

If I answer honestly, I imagine the words sliding across the room like acid.Sorry, Mom, Dad. I was busy being reborn as a demon and having the best sex of my life with three men who are not human.That will not land well. Not with them, not with anyone.

The couch dips beside me and I do not have to turn to know who it is. Deimos is there, quiet as a shadow taking shape. He watches the phone for a long moment, his face folding into concern when he sees the sheer volume of messages. He does not reach for it. He does not reach for me either. Not yet.

“What do you want to do?” he asks finally, voice low as if the question itself might trigger a siren.

I set the phone down and tilt my head back, letting the ceiling be something neutral. “I have to go see them,” I say. Saying it makes my throat catch.

Deimos’s violet eyes flick up to me, unreadable. He does not like the idea. I can feel the close, hot tension that lives in him like a held blade. Still, after a long moment, he asks only, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I tell him. “I’ve been avoiding it long enough.”

He studies me, that predator’s calculation moving behind his eyes. Then he nods. “Alright. We’ll go together.”

Bastion’s voice rolls in from the kitchen as he and Cassiel appear at the doorway. “Go together where?” he rumbles. Heleans against the doorframe, still shirtless, still dangerous in the very casual way of a man who can break a city with a shrug.

I stand and meet all three of their gazes. My words come steady. “I need to go see my parents.”

Bastion smiles easily, like this is the kind of errand he would love to make theatrical. “Then we’ll all go.”

I hear the menace in that generosity and shake my head before he finishes. If all three of them show up at my childhood home, my parents will think they answered a different kind of knock. They will see titans at the door and call the police for a cult. I picture the neighbors’ shutters slamming closed and feel my chest tighten.

“No. We can’t all go.”

Deimos’s jaw tightens. “Well you can’t go by yourself.” His voice is sharp enough to cut. It is frustration folded into a command. He moves to step closer and his hand reaches for me, possessive and reflexive.

I step out of his reach before he can touch me. I do not want the refusal to become a struggle. I want this to be mine to answer, not an invasion to stage.

I turn to Bastion and press my palm to his broad chest, feeling the solid heat there. “You can’t come, my beautiful brute,” I murmur, keeping my voice softer than the word. His golden eyes glint. “You’re way too intimidating.”

He chuckles, a low amusement vibrating through him. The smile in his mouth is disappointed but indulgent. He brushes his thumb along my jaw and tilts my chin up. “Fair enough, Hellcat,” he says, and his hand is gentle in a way I hadn’t expected.

One down.

Deimos steps forward, as if to volunteer, as if his presence will be the only proper armor. “Cassiel and I will come with you,” he states. It sounds decided, not offered.

I hesitate then meet his gaze. My answer comes from a place that annoys him and delights me both. “I’m sorry, but you have to stay too.”

The question in his eyes sharpens into suspicion. “Why?” he asks.

I offer a smirk even though the choice is practical, not playful. “You have a temper. You’ll spook them.” The scowl comes hard and fast.

“Cass will come with me,” I say, like bargaining.

Deimos shoots Cassiel a sudden look, sharp as a thrown knife. “Absolutely not,” Deimos says before Cassiel can answer. His tone is final. It sits in the room like a decree. “You cannot go without any of yourpropermates.”

At that exact moment I hear Cassiel inhale a sound that might as well be pain. The reminder is blunt and cold: unlike Deimos and Bastion, he has not yet claimed me in the ways the others have. There is a fissure in the safety I thought I had. Shame prickles at me because it is mine to own.

I place a careful hand on Deimos’s chest and let the heat of him steady me. “I will be okay,” I murmur. The words are softer now, meant for him and for myself. “Wewill be okay.”