Page 92 of Demons In My Head: Exposing the Exiled
He chittered and his tail pulsed as he wiggled from my grasp and settled on my shoulder, like a parrot. Now everything felt right. I had everyone I needed, right here, in this very room. It was hard to comprehend that I’d met these demons with the express intent to destroy them.
"I can't believe I thought I could just waltz in here and take you all down," I said, shaking my head at my own arrogance. "Asrael really had me convinced I was some kind of super spy."
"To be fair," Felix interjected, "you kind of are… and you did manage to get our attention."
Talon snorted. "Yeah, by flashing the bouncers."
"That was strategic!" I protested, feeling my cheeks heat up. "And it worked, didn't it?"
"Oh, it worked alright," Rhodes drawled, his eyes darkening with something that made my stomach flip. "Though not quite how you planned."
No, definitely not how I'd planned. I hadn't counted on the instant attraction, the way their presence seemed to call to something deep inside me. I sure as hell hadn't expected to find out we were fated mates.
"I remember watching you that night," Misha said quietly, his usual silence broken by the weight of memory. "You moved like you owned the place, but there was something in your eyes..."
"Fear? Hatred?" I suggested.
"Recognition," he corrected. "Like some part of you knew you belonged here, even if you weren't ready to admit it."
Snake chittered in agreement, the little traitor. But Misha wasn't wrong. Even then, even when I was dead set on completing my mission, something about The Exiled had felt... right.
"Well," Ashland's voice cut through my reminiscing, "you're home now. For real this time."
I glanced at him, and the raw intensity in his icy eyes caught me off guard, pinning me in place like a butterfly under glass. The way he looked at me reminded me of that first night at Port Black, like he could see straight through me. There was something unspoken passing between us now, loaded withmeaning I wasn't quite ready to decipher, truths I wasn't prepared to face.
The air crackled with an electric tension that made my skin prickle, and I fought the urge to look away first, to shatter whatever this moment was becoming. But Ashland had always been impossible to read, his carefully constructed walls rivaling my own, maybe even surpassing them. Right now, though, those impenetrable defenses seemed just a fraction thinner than usual, offering glimpses of something that made me want to lean in closer, to unravel the mystery he kept so tightly wrapped around himself.
Home.The word hit me harder than I expected, lodging somewhere between my ribs and making it hard to breathe. Because he was right, this was home. Not the sterile halls of Montague Industries where Asrael had shaped me into his weapon. Not the empty apartment I'd kept as a cover. Here, in this underground labyrinth with my demon mates and my undead squirrel.
"Yeah," I managed, my voice rougher than I'd like. "I guess I am."
We started walking together, deeper into the maze, and Snake's claws clicked against the stone floor as he scampered ahead of us. My familiar had always been drawn to the darker corners of places, probably because that's where the most interesting shit usually went down.
"So what's the plan?" I asked, trying to ignore how the neon lights painted shadows across Ashland's face in a way that made my stomach do backflips. "Because if we're hiding out down here, I need to know there's coffee somewhere. A girl can only survive on magic and spite for so long."
"There's a whole setup through here," Felix said, gesturing toward a corridor I'd never noticed before. "Kitchen, bedrooms, everything we need."
"Convenient," I muttered, following them through the twisting passages. "Though I guess when you're running an underground criminal empire, you need a proper evil lair."
Talon snorted. "Says the assassin who showed up in fuck-me boots and bunny ears."
"Those boots were tactical equipment," I protested, but couldn't help grinning. "And hey, they worked, didn't they?"
"A little too well," Rhodes murmured, his voice carrying an edge that made heat pool in my belly.
We emerged into what looked like an industrial kitchen crossed with a high-end apartment. Stainless steel appliances gleamed under more neon lighting, and plush leather furniture created intimate seating areas. The walls were covered in Felix's artwork—massive murals that seemed to move in the shifting light.
"Holy shit," I breathed, taking it all in. "This is... not what I expected."
"What did you expect?" Misha asked, his quiet voice curious.
"I don't know. Chains? Torture devices? A dungeon full of your enemies?"
Misha sighed deeply, almost in annoyance, and we all turned to look at him. “What? I don’t think that’s really out of the realm of possibilities, Mishy…”
“I just remembered I have something I need to take care of.” He stalked out of the room, throwing an “I’ll be right back” over his shoulder.
I looked at Talon with questioning eyes. “What the hell is that about?”
