“I would rather you teach her to come on command.”
Shem’s eyes glistened with glee. “Oh, believe me, Ram. I plan to.”
We playedchess until Lilith began to stir. My heart leapt the moment my name tumbled from her sleepy lips.
“Ramel?”
Fuck.The fact that my name was the first thing on her tongue when she woke up did crazy things to my insides.
I abandoned the game and went to her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I ran my hand down the side of her perfect face. She smiled up at me, and my stomach flipped.
“Hello, deathtrap, how did you sleep?” I asked, kissing her softly. She made anmmmsound, and whatever was left of my heart melted.
“Good, I was tired,” she murmured against me.
I chuckled. I bet she was.
Pulling back, I stroked her cheek. “I need to do some work for the upcoming meeting,” I informed her. “You’re going to spend the day with Hazai.”
The smile immediately slipped off her face, and I frowned. Shem hadn’t been kidding. She was not happy with him.
“But I want to spend the day with you,” she said, and I felt my chest tighten. Even if she was just saying that to get out of spending time with Shem, it felt goodto hear she wanted to be around me.
“We can spend time together tonight. Right now, I need to take care of some things.” She genuinely looked bummed out, and I tried to ignore the pang of guilt in my gut.
“Give me your hands, I’ll unchain you, and you can get dressed. Shemhazai will take you to breakfast.” I ignored the way her eyes darkened again at the mention of Shem’s name and uncuffed her wrists. With a wave of my hand, I manifested some clothes I had collected from that shitty haunted apartment she used to live in, and her eyes lit up.
She ran her fingers over the dark leggings I had coupled with a soft Iron Maiden T-shirt, and her eyes welled with tears. I felt a small pain in my chest at the fact that something so small could make her so happy. I bit the inside of my cheek. I really was a fucking asshole.
“If you’re good for Hazai, I’ll give you the rest of your clothes, and you can sleep in whatever you’d like tonight,” I told her. I was hoping we had turned a corner. I found myself not wanting to punish her as much as I wanted to reward her. She was so fucking cute when she smiled. Hopefully she would need less and less correcting over time.
Was there something else nice I could do for her? I looked over at Shem and cocked my head to the side, thinking. Finally, I had an idea. Waving my hand, I manifested a large TV to stand at the end of the bed.
“Hazai mentioned the two of you used to watch scary shows together. Maybe this afternoon, you can get caught up while you wait for me.”
Shem gave Lilith a hopeful grin, but she just scowled at him. His smile faded, and he narrowed his eyes at her. I sighed. He had his work cut out for him.
“Be good, deathtrap. I’ll see you later.” I leaned down to kiss her on the head. She looked up at me, and her eyes softened incrementally.
“I will.” She promised me, and even though I wasn’t sure I believed her after her lie from the day before, I still liked to hear her say it.
“I am a monster, and that’s what monsters do.”
—KLAUS MIKAELSON, THE ORIGINALS
Shem leaned against one of the posts at the end of the bed and watched me get dressed. I felt a rush of gratitude to Ramel for bringing me something so familiar. I had missed my clothes, and it felt nice to be wearing pants after having been more or less naked for so long.
Once I was dressed, Shem abruptly clipped the leash back onto my collar and gave it a gentle tug as he made his way toward the door.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I snapped. He gave me a bored look as he tugged on the lead again.
“Do I look like I’m kidding? We told you that you would be leashed if you tried to leave. We have these rules in place for a fuckingreason,Lilith. Until you can learn to behave, you will need to be supervised. It’s for your own good.”
“You’re a fucking asshole,” I growled as I followed him out the door. He shrugged.
“That may be so, but that doesn’t change anything. The leash stays on until you can convince me you’re not going to leave again.”
We went to the dining hall, and I was at least allowed to have my own seat this time.
