Page 58 of The Succubi's Choice

“Not my demon,” she mumbles, hiding her face by taking another sugary drink.

“And you really don’t know what he’s planning?” He asks, all of a sudden intense. “You don’t know why he’s doing all this?”

“Do you?” She shoots back.

He slowly shakes his head, and Miri’s eyes widen, cause she totally thought that he would. “Nobody does.”

* * *

Later,after Thaler and his son leave and Miri’s head swims with exhaustion and her eyes feel like sandpaper every time she blinks, Katya sends her to the cot in the back room, and she crashes so hard she doesn’t wake up until it’s dark outside, completing the thorough fuckening of her sleep schedule.

She comes to with a cool hand against her forehead, and opens her eyes to Katya sitting on the cot next to her. “Hey,” Katya says, quiet and soothing. It’s not quite her professional voice, but only a few shades away. “You feeling okay?”

And the answer sure isn’t yes, but she nods anyways, pushing herself up.

Katya watches her a little too intensely. “You know, if something happens, I won’t judge you.”

And it feels just a hair on the nose, a hair too obvious, so Miri rubs her eyes instead of responding.

“I mean, I would judge you if you went completely evil and hurt a bunch of people, but...” Katya trails off, totally trying for the joke and not quite reaching it. “But other than that, not really.”

“People keep on expecting me to know things, and I don’t,” she says, the words falling out of her mouth unbidden. “I don’t know what to do or what to say, anytime.”

Katya pulls Miri into a hug that has got to be way more embarrassing for her than it is for Miri, and Miri clings back. “I think making you act this way to an Archdemon is a horrible abuse of the system,” Katya says into her shoulder. “And expecting you to stay emotionless during it all sounds like torture.”

Miri buries her nose into Katya’s shoulder, relishing in the contact and feeling pretty sorry for herself.

Gingerly, Katya pats Miri on the back, not quite understanding how to comfort someone.

“It’s just...people keep on saying I’m worth pity,” she says, her voice feeling scratchy and whiny even to her own ears. “That there’s something wrong, that I’m not seeing things correctly, that I’m being mistreated and...”

Katya squeezes Miri a hair more, and Miri presses her face against her friend.

“And then they want me to report on everything that happens and I can’t keep the politics straight and Thomas and the demon know that and it’s just...”

“They know you’re reporting back?” Katya asks, pulling away sharply. “They know and they still...”

“He literally said he’s inviting me because he knows I will.”

Katya’s face doesn’t move, and Miri wishes it would, that she could get her friend back instead of the work mode. “And they sent you anyways?”

“And it feels like such a trap, and then...and then he’s weird and nice. Weird, like he finds me funny or like there’s a joke I don’t know and he was...”

“Cuddly, you said,” Katya repeats, her voice back to gentle. “At the same time while you’re recovering from being partially starved. Anyone could do that to you, and you’d react emotionally, that’s natural.”

She says it as if it’s to be soothing, but it stings in the back of her eyes. “Yeah.”

“He’s...maneuvered himself to be able to manipulate you,” Katya says after a long time with just the buzzing of the overhead lights to soothe Miri’s thoughts. “You’re not doing anything wrong, just...be aware of that.”

Miri nods, staring out at the blank wall of their little cot room. “And the Organization is gonna do tests on me tonight.”

“That’s at least after you hunt and I will be in the next room over.” Katya thumps her hand against her legs, as if getting ready to stand, but not quite there yet. “Because they are fucking this up with you, I can’t believe they put you in the copper room over this!” She bursts out, like that was the thing keeping her up. “You’re literally doing everything they ask for and it’s too much and they’re fucking...punishing you.”

Katya turns to her, and Miri sees the beginning of tears in her friend’s eyes, and she leans back as quickly as possible.

“Please tell me you won’t be going hunting with me,” Miri attempts to joke. “Cause you’d distract everyone away from me, and it’d be weird.”

* * *

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