“So you’re a...crow demon?”
A grin stretched across his face. “Something like that.”
I watched him carefully, and for some reason, I felt desire start to rise from my gut. I shouldn’t need to feed again. Not after the constant stream of humans they’d been bringing me. But for some reason, Crow was making my spider hungry.
I mean, really fucking hungry. I needed to shut that shit down.
“So,” I began with a cough while taking a step backward. I was starting to think that being here with the others was dangerous. Something was seriously wrong with my spider. Would she ever be satisfied? Or would I always crave more? “Does everyone meet up here every day to eat? They’ve been keeping me in my glorified dog crate this entire time.”
“People have been slowly joining the group. Once they think you have a good hold on your demon, they let you play with the others,” Crow explained while looking me up and down. “Sometimes it takes others longer, depending on how dangerous they are.”
“How many are left?” I asked, while looking around the room.
“Some didn’t survive. Some I suspect are still in their own glorified dog crates,” Crow answered. “But don’t be disillusioned by this mandated group time. This entire building is still a cage. Just bigger.”
He leaned even closer to me, and I breathed him in as his haunting words fluttered over me. He was absolutely right. This was a cage. We were stuck answering to Spector’s whims. The number of dead bodies in the training room because of me was proof enough of that. But I was in survival mode. I didn’t trust myself out in the world right now. It was easy to blame Spector for the terrible things I’d done, but when it came time to feed on my own terms, I wasn’t sure the last strands of my morality could handle the decisions I had to make if I were out there on my own.
That harsh realization made me bristle. Why the fuck was I flirting with this guy? He was hot, yeah, but with my new demon involved, there was no way I could ever act on my interests. I would never be able to fuck for fun again. I’d never be able to find someone I liked and share intimacy with them. I’d have a lifetime of partners and a full belly, but I’d never have love.
“I should go back to my room. I’m not really hungry,” I muttered.
I started to walk away, only to feel him following me. “What are you doing?” I asked, turning around.
He skidded to a stop, frowning like he hadn’t even realized he’d been trailing me. “Er, nothing,” he said, scratching at the back of his scruffy blue hair.
“You were following me.”
“I…” His frown deepened when he noticed one of his crows suddenly flap over and land on my shoulder.
I stiffened, my blue eyes going wide. I was not a fan of birds. Outside, fluttering around all singsong and shit was fine. But any time people kept birds for pets, it kind of freaked me out. Plus, now the crows were sort of tied to the ritual, and I was pretty sure I had PTSD from that.
“Get it off!” I hissed, too afraid to move.
Crow ignored my panic, cocking his head at his bird. “Interesting.”
“What’s interesting? Did it shit on me or something?” I turned my head to look, but the thing pecked lightly at my ear—not hard, but like it was giving me a playful nip. An embarrassing little squeal escaped me, and I snapped my head back to face front. “Crow…”
The bird hopped closer along my shoulder, and then the damn thing thrust its beak against my hair. “Is it...nuzzling me?”
Crow’s eyes crinkled at the side, and he let out a laugh. “Shit, I think it is.”
“Tell it to stop!”
“You don’t understand,” he said, shaking his head. “My crows don’t like other people. Ever. They tolerate those who are around me that pose no threat. But I’ve never seen them act like this.”
Before he’d even finished his sentence, I suddenly had three more birds landing on me. One by one, they hopped over my shoulders, their beaks nipping at my hair, cawing playfully as they ruffled their smoky feathers. And all the while, Crow was just watching it all, with a mix of fascination and amusement.
Obviously, I’d get no help from him.
Reaching up, I grabbed a bird in each hand and dropped them on his shoulders. The other two, I brushed off me in a shooing motion, and they cawed at me and landed on the ground with something that sounded like disappointment.
“Stay,” I ordered, pointing at them where they were gathering at my feet. There were more of them gathering around, and they were looking at me like I was a shiny new birdfeeder they wanted to nest on.
Before they could decide to take up permanent residence in my red hair, I slowly backed away to the doorway. I had a feeling that if I showed them my back, they’d pounce.
“Oomph.”
My back hit a body, and I turned to see the same guard who’d escorted me here. “Done already?”
“I think that’s enough mingling for me today,” I said with a nod.
He grunted and gestured for me to walk ahead, and then he led me down the hall toward my room.
I looked back once, seeing a dozen or so birds watching me as I went. A flock of crows was called a murder, so the fact that I seemed to have them as a fan club did not seem like a good omen.
As we rounded a corner, my steps skidded to a stop when a booming noise ripped in the air in front of me, followed by a gravelly, inhuman shout.
I screamed and ducked as a door three feet away from me was suddenly exploding open in metal splinters, a body made of black stone careening out of it and landing hard against the wall on the
