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“Marv, you hearing this? She’s actually trying to talk to us.”

“Of course she is, we’re a delight,” presumably Marv responded.

I raised a brow, but kept the rest of my face carefully blank, noting that for some bizarre reason these mysterious voices didn’t have my grotesque’s accent.

Not-Bane crashed onto his ass, two dual unhinged giggles erupting past his lips at once. “Damn, it has been ages since we were in control.”

That’s not insanely creepy or anything.

He stared at me with solid black, unblinking eyes. “Since you’re his mate, we’ll do you the courtesy of not murdering you,” he said through a cackle and I forced all of my will power into not crawling away like my mind begged me to, “instead, I’ll handle the introductions. I’m Marv, and my dimwit counterpart is Freddy.”

“That was fucking rude.”

“Wait, mate?” I choked out.

Freddy or Marv, I couldn’t tell which, rolled Bane’s eyes. “That’s what I said.”

“For the record, we could still murder her. As I’ve told you and Bane several times, she isn’t his mate,” Freddy snorted.

“Yes, she is.”

“No, she isn’t.”

My eyes widened as one half of Bane’s body tried to stand and the other reached forward and clung to my calf. His tail, curiously, stayed where Bane had left it before these, whatever they were, took over. This conversation is going nowhere.

“Uh,” I cleared my throat, “we can table this debate for now. I have several questions. Also, I would prefer not to be murdered.” Holding up my hands in a ‘what can you do’ gesture, I resumed speaking. “Wanted to make myself clear on that point.”

Distract, distract, distract.

“Pft, you’re no fun,” Freddy drawled.

“Ask your questions, and if they’re interesting enough, we might even answer,” Marv added.

“Right. So, what are you?”

They jostled Bane’s head around like they couldn’t decide whether to nod or shake it. I waited, zipping my charm along my necklace.

“His other personalities” Marv answered.

“No, we’re not,” Freddy countered.

“Fantastic you’ve cleared everything up,” I snarked, heavy with sarcasm.

Marv cackled. “Ohhhh, I like her. Let’s be nice, just this once.”

Freddy, I presumed, folded Bane’s arms. “Fine. He calls us his demons.”

I purposely didn’t respond right away, hoped they’d offer more by arguing amongst themselves.

“That’s not right. We’re so much more than that,” Marv supplied.

“I dono, it’s pretty accurate,” Freddy argued.

“Ehhhhh. Maybe?” Marv said, scraping Bane’s claws against the wooden flooring as if he was trying to sharpen them. “Yes, we’re a part of him, have been ever the clan banished him and broke his brain, but we still have our identities. He doesn’t own us. It was all too easy to slip into his mind and take up residence after that. Boy, was it crowded in there. Those puffy creatures thought they were helping, but now we’re stuck. Fused with his neurons or something. I wasn’t really listening when they explained it to him.”

Freddy made Bane snort, half of his face somehow twisting into an annoyed expression while the other remained jovial. “True. It’s not like we’re some lower-class citizens of Hell. Once, the King of Demons, Lorcan. Shit. Well, he was that but now he’s the King of Hell, but that’s beside the point. He tasked us with⁠—”

“Yes,” Marv blurted, “the King of Hell has sent us on very important secret missions in the past, that we aren’t able to talk about. Do you not remember what happened to Sophia after she bragged to a group of drunken humans?”