“That is why you make the perfect team. Because you might hate each other with the fire of all that burns in hell, but you are more aware of each other than of anything else. It’s unconscious, and it’s as natural to you as breathing. You can hate each other all you want. You can fight and war with each other, but there’s no one else that is better suited to you all than she is to you and you to them.”
We stand there in that silence, and I understand how powerful what he’s saying is, because as my mates, they would have been the most perfect match for me.
I will never admit it. No one will ever know.
I will do this job, and I will leave. There has to be somewhere out there that I can belong. I can learn from these creatures and hide.
I crouch down and turn my head to where the sulfuric scent of the demon is coming from.
“We will never be able to get along,” Brio says softly. “We are a song; she is a scream. We are fish, and she is…a bird.”
I cock my head to the side. What does that mean? What is a bird?
“Well, let’s simplify this a bit, then. Catch me five rogue creatures preying on humans or omegas, and if at the end of five you still don’t think you can work together, then I will release you from your bonds,” Diablos pauses. “All of them.”
There’s a long silence.
“Five? Just five?”
Diablos seems pleased with the response from the Sirens, but I know creatures like Diablos, and there is a trick in here somewhere.
“Yes, just five. I will choose them, though.”
I can sense the silent conversation they are having.
“I want to add a term to the deal,” Ronit says. He walks off with Diablos, and they talk in mutters that I ignore. When they come back, Ronit goes to stand with his shiver.
“We agree to the terms,” he says.
“I need to hear it from everyone.”
The sirens agree one by one.
“Mei, do you agree to five?”
I consider the tricky demon for a long moment. “Fine. I can do five.”
Diablos turns to Leaf, who is standing right behind me, grumbling under his breath.
“Do you agree, Leviathan?”
“You don’t need to ask him, he’s with us-”
“Everyone needs to agree,” Diablos says succinctly.
There’s the softest brush of his fingers across my hair. Just enough that tingles run up and down my spine, and I break out in goosebumps.
“I will be with Mei?”
“Until you capture five.”
“I agree,” he says so fast I almost think I imagined it.
Diablos starts pacing, but I’m distracted by the sounds of Hartley doing something with metal and material. What is that? I wander over and reach out, touching whatever he is building.
“It’s a tent. It’s like a portable den.”
I hum, and Hartley reaches out and takes my wrist. I tense, but he just slowly shows me the outline of the tent and then brings my hand down to the zipper and guides me through pulling it up and down.
