Page 36 of Seven is Swell

“So,” her father Pax says from the screen, “what’s going on? What’s shakin’?”

"It’s good you’re here, Sir,” I say to her dad. “The more the better.” Jackson looks to me and then he takes the lead.

“Uh, yeah. A few days back, we were running some errands around campus,” and Jackson says this with a challenging side eye to Delaney, “and we stumbled upon somebody who definitely shouldn’t have been here. It was a demon, we’re positive. He was talking about Delaney, but fled as soon as we started questioning him. From what we overheard though, he was making it sound like he was engaged to her and it was a done thing. She knows nothing about it, so clearly, he’s wrong, but we haven’t been able to find him again since.”

“We’ve been keeping our ears to the ground, Sir,” I interject, wanting to give my two cents and make sure they know that we’re still protecting their daughter. “We’ve heard talk about him, so other people are seeing him, but he’s clearly avoiding us. I wanted to get your take on it, and also warn you that it was happening. I just thought there’s something you could probably do to dig into this, just to keep her safe. I mean we can keep her safe too, but more hands are always good.”

Pax smiles. “My mate said that last night too.”

“My gods, how do we ever get anything done?” Delaney complains as she starts rubbing her temples. “Mom, dad, do you guys know anything or not?”

“Wait, you didn’t tell her?” Pax says to queen Gabriella. “Wedidn’t tell her?Nobodytold her? That seems like an oversight.”

Gabriella is tapping her long red nails on the table in front of her looking contemplative. When she finally speaks, it’s in a monotone voice. “Fascinating. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Delaney stands up, prowling closer to the screen. “You know something. What aren’t you telling me?”

“It’s nothing,” her mother says waving her off. “Really.”

“I knew this would happen,” Pax says. He has the decency to look a little chagrined, but not much. “Look, this is probably going to sound a lot worse than it is, but when your mom was pregnant with you, we had to make some hard choices.”

“Please don’t tell mehard choiceswas the name of one of your moves last night,” Delaney mumbles.

“That’s my kid!” Pax says excitedly from the screen. “But no.”

“Okay hon,” her mom chimes in, “as you know, when I was younger, I had an altercation with The Night, who was the ruler of one of the under realms. Apparently eating his soul had some bitter aftereffects, and there was a power vacuum.”

“So, this isn’t a new problem,” Delaney presumes. “This is something that’s been brewing for a while and you chose not to tell me.”

“I’d say it’s more like we were hoping it would never actually be a problem. We did our best to work within loopholes, hoping that it wouldn’t actually affect you.”

“Hell wasn’t happy with our treatment of The Night,” Pax says. His face is suddenly more serious, and I know that this is probably a pretty big deal. “Power vacuum is a mild description. Really, Hell was moments away from declaring war. They wanted control, and they were scared that we weren’tgoing to stop at defeating The Night in his realm. Sure, the guy was maniacal, but Lucifer needed assurances that we were gonna stick to our own business. Everyone knows how powerful your mom is, and Lucifer threatened full-on attacks up here, places we couldn’t easily defend, unless we gave them some assurances.”

“Oh my gods, please tell me I don’t see where this is going,” Delaney pleads.

“We really did have debates for a long time; negotiations back and forth.” Queen Gabriella’s voice is softer now, trying to cushion the blow. “The best option we could think of was promising an alliance between them and us. They knew I had mated with the son of The Night, and they wanted some representation too.”

“So, this guy thinks I’m engaged to him because I am? Is that what you’re saying? Or rathernotsaying?”

Queen Gabby tilts her hand back and forth like it’s something with room for interpretation. “Okay, so I might have promised an alliance between you and Lucifer’s son, but it only activates if you actually sleep with him. So as long as you can resist jumping him, you’ll be fine. There’s no betrothal unless you choose to have one. He’ll probably want to meet you at some point just to see if there’s any connection, but you have every right to deny him. The caveat though is if he does introduce himself to you and you fall for him and give him a chance, well. There will be a ‘congratulations on your engagement’ sex toy gift box coming your way. Sleeping with him is akin to an acceptance.”

“To summarize, if I keep my legs closed, we’re all good,” Delaney clarifies.

“Exactly,” her mom says. “I mean, I know you’re my daughter, but I have faith in you. Hey, maybe it’ll work out for the bestand you’ll actually like him, who knows. Also, I know what you meant, but there are actually some pretty kinky positions that require your legs to be closed. I have a whole book on them in fact. Papa Foster got it for me years ago.”

“Still not a time I want to hear about your sex life. I so don’t need those kinds of visualizations. And you’re totally hoping I like this guy, aren't you? Bet it would solve all your problems if I wanted him; but he’s the son of theliteraldevil mom,” she reminds her.

“And your dad, Apollo, was the son of The Night, and kidnapped me for three days because we had a soul bond. And now I blow him like six or thirty times a week, completely voluntarily, and everything is great. All I want for you is happiness. Really. You know that. I’m sorry it had to be this way, and I know I didn’t have the right to promise anything for you, but it really was for the good of the realm. This was much less than they originally asked for, but we talked them down a bit and we did the best we could. It’s been protecting lots of people having this pseudo agreement in place.”

“So, you don’t think this demon on campus is a threat?” Delaney asks, sulking now.

“He’s under strict guidance to bring no harm,” Pax says. “He’s topside indefinitely now, though his powers were tempered somewhat I hear, so that he’s less of a threat. We’ve been keeping an eye on him occasionally through the years, and maybe he's into some weird stuff, but he’s mostly a stable, decent guy. He’s a bit of a mystery to us as well, but we’ve never gotten bad vibes from him. So do with that what you will.”

“Alright,” I tell her parents. “Thanks for the update. We’ll let you know if anything changes with her, but that’s all we had.”

“Good; because one of her other fathers is making lewd suggestions from the doorway and I must see to it. Take care darlings, hope to see you all soon.”

The screen goes black, and we all soak in the absence of sound for just a second while Delaney starts breathing deeply. “It’s okay. Just don’t let me sleep with him and we’ll be good.”

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