Page 24 of The Succubi's Choice

There’sno way she’s fucking hunting today, and Lundy tells her in no uncertain terms that she’s effectively under protective house arrest. He loads her fridge up with appetite suppressant and informs her she’s off sick from work for the next two days...and to reply to texts as normal.

She’s sitting on the couch when Gabriel comes bursting in after his class, holding his phone in one hand and his hoodie in the other.

“What the fuck?” He says, spotting her ensconced in a blanket on the couch like a sad burrito. “He’s stopping you from hunting?”

“Good evening, Gabriel, good to see you too,” Miri says, tucking herself deeper in to the blankets. She’s pouting, she knows she is, but fuck today. “I take it Lundy told you?”

“Actually, Katya called me.” He drops his briefcase and hoodie, flopping down on the couch next to her. “Seriously? He’s starving you?”

“Not really,” she says, poking her head out from under the blanket. “It’ll be a week or two before I starve.”

By the unamused blinking, she takes that she’s miscalculated Gabriel’s mood.

“It’s just for a few days, I’ll be okay.”

He tugs at the blanket, pulling it down so he can see her entire face. “Katya says you’re in danger?” He asks, his voice quiet, but the quiet sort of rage that guys sometimes get, where they drop their volume in an attempt to not blow up.

She shuffles out from under the blanket, gingerly leaning her head against his shoulder in the most platonic way she possibly can. “So there’s an Archdemon who they made me investigate, and Lundy got hurt, and the Archdemon tried to visit me,” she says in all one breath, cause if she stops and pauses it’ll be even more ridiculous than she thinks. “And Katya doesn’t know and I’m not allowed to tell anyone.”

Gabriel doesn’t move underneath her resting against him, keeping so still she can feel his heartbeat. “I thought demon was a misnomer?”

“Apparently not.”

“Huh.”

He shifts, then, and she presses up against his side.

There’s a long silence, and she settles deeper into the physical contact and into the feeling sorry for herself as the moment stretches on, focusing on slowing her breathing down and not fucking crying. On not overreacting and not making Gabriel uncomfortable and not getting up and going hunting anyways, despite what people are telling her to do.

Her phone beeps, and she flinches before digging it out from underneath the blankets.

“Oh hell no.” Gabriel plucks it from her hands before she can open the text. “You are not dealing with shit right now.”

She can’t really find it in herself to argue, so she just watches as he unlocks it. “It’s just Lundy saying he’ll send you information.”

She thuds her head back down on his shoulder. “Sure he will.”

“Well.” He flips the phone back to her, she scrambles to catch it. “That’s bullshit.”

He sits with her for a bit, a warm presence right next to her, and if she wasn’t so miserable it might have been pleasant.

“Is Jacqui coming over?” She asks, after a long silence, and she tries to keep any bitterness out of her voice.

He gives her the look, the look of him being perceptive and yet a bit too smug. “She was planning on it, do you need me to call it off?”

And that’s really tempting, because seeing someone else flirt when she’s not allowed to sounds pretty fucking painful right now, but she shakes her head like the good friend she’s always supposed to be. “I think I’ll go to bed, so do whatever.”

Unwillingly, like it’s actively painful, she peels herself away, her skin immediately missing the contact, like the air is sandpaper against her nerves.

---