Hellv7 - Chapter 5

“Whoa, Kid. You aren’t supposed to be here.”

Deceit didn’t know who was speaking, but they were right. At least, she thought he was. She forced her eyes open- and instantly closed them again. Everything was white. A too bright color for Deceit to deal with. She couldn’t feel anything, yet she was somehow sore all over. ‘Where am I?’

There was whispering. At least, she thought so.

“Send her back. Now.” A different voice, Deceit found it vaguely familiar. A searing white hot pain. ‘Why was it always white?’

Darkness.

[…]

Deceit awoke in a cold sweat. She could not seem to suppress a sudden nagging feeling of imitate danger, nor find its origin. Everything she saw was bathed in a sticky-sweet red, what was left of the coming sunrise. After a moment, Deceit sighed and pulled a well-worn velvet throw over her exposed, scar marked shoulders.

Nothing moved within her immaculate room as she made her way toward a set of French doors. Beyond them was a balcony, with a suspended porch swing. Deceit braced herself against a cold morning breeze and sat down to enjoy the sunrise.

Four months had elapsed since she had brought James to the Inn, and so far everything had gone smoothly. It was against the Ancient Laws to harbor a Human, but it was pointless to return James to the Human Realm when he already knew so much. Etna, Merci and Deceit had spent hours arguing over it, before finally deciding to keep him rather than turn him over to the Human Preservation Corps (HPC) and wait for his execution date to be posted. Instead, he was labeled as an Unidentified Hybrid and was currently being put through a rigorous crash course in Guardianship Training.

The idea had seemed inconceivable at first- and Deceit would be the first to admit that she had made arrangements for his demise should the need have arisen. Consequently, he had taken to the training quite easily. His smell vanished after only a few days of eating Etna’s cooking, and the Hybrid lie was quite fool proof. After all- who knew what was mixed up in Human genetics?

Etna had even taken advantage of Newt’s “crush” to make the Human’s Missing Persons’ report vanish. There was nothing more any of them could do but to wait and see if he survived training. Waiting, in itself, was the worst thing any of them would have to face, however.