Page 117 of Beauty's Monstrous Demons

My tantrum makes my world turn upside down, but instead of darkness, there’s a bright light that surrounds me. Fuck, I’ve gone and done it now. I’m going to heaven, right?

Did I finally cause my brain to have an aneurysm? All of this fucking with my brain has made it explode.

“Lorelei, can you hear me?”Phenex’s worried voice flows through the bond. I feel nauseous from the tumbling, and the loud sound of what feels like a tornado crawling through my senses.

Everything is too loud.

“I can hear you,” I mumble. Was that out loud? Or did I hallucinate feeling my lips move?

“This isn’t a hallucination,” Alecto says, chuckling under his breath. “God, you’re so fucking precious. Open your eyes, baby.”

“I can’t believe it,” Bast says, his voice cracking and rough. “I almost fucking missed this. Lorelei, open your eyes. I have to take a piss, but I’ll go in a damn jar if it means that you’ll wake up.”

My lips twitch because I know he doesn’t have any issues sticking his dick where it doesn’t belong.

“She smiled,” Samael breathes. “Lorelei. It’s your birthday. Wake up, baby.”

“My birthday?” I ask, yawning as if I haven’t slept at all before forcing my eyes open.

I’m in a bedroom I’ve never seen before that reminds me of a log cabin, the sun is shining onto my bed, and I’m surrounded by my monsters.

“Happy twenty-first birthday,” Alecto says softly. Reaching out to some plastic tubing next to me, he shuts off the liquid that’s sliding into my vein. “One year asleep instead of a hundred isn’t too bad, sweetheart.”

“Speak for yourself,” Phenex grumbles. “You’ve been a mess along with us.”

“A year!” I squeal, pushing myself up in the bed. Hands support me, with others pushing pillows behind me to prop me up.

“Christa meant to kill you when she injected you with that virus,” Samael explains. “My parents and the Demon Councilwill be torturing her for years to come. We’ve been trying everything to help bring you back. Alecto has been pumping you with an IV meant to warm you up.”

“In my mind, it felt like sunshine,” I rasp, my voice cracking with disuse. “I used it to push away the darkness and shadows. I was sure that it wouldn’t work. And then everything went nuts.”

“You had another seizure,” Phenex explains. “Alecto said it was normal, but this one felt different. So I reached out to you.”

“And I heard you,” I whisper, tears filling my eyes. “I shouldn’t cry.”

“You should do whatever the fuck you want,” Bast growls, taking my hand. “This has been the worst year of our lives, but we also learned so much from each other and you. We all quit working at the university.”

“What?” I ask, shaking my head as I struggle to process that. “Why?”

“I realized I want to create differently than I have been,” he says, swallowing hard. “I’ve been writing you songs.”

“And we’ve been singing them together,” I remember. “You wrote those?”

“Mmhmm,” he says.

“I quit to work in a laboratory I made just off the house,” Alecto says softly. “Samael took up hunting.”

“I had a lot of anger to work through,” Samael grunts. “I think I’m going to work for the Council from now on hunting down their criminals.”

“And I’m going to work for the Council to make sure that history is being preserved as it should be,” Phenex explains. “It’ll give us the freedom to spend more time with you, go wherever you want.”

“My head is spinning,” I whisper, watching as Alecto holds cotton down on my skin as he removes the IV from my arm.He quickly wraps a bandage around it and I can feel the compression from the wrapping.

“This will keep you from bruising, though you’ll heal it quickly,” he says. “Whatever you want to do, it’s your choice. No more working in a dead end job or worrying about money, though. Please. We have more money than we know what to do with.”

“Alecto especially,” Samael says with a smirk. “Today, we celebrate your birthday.”

“I was hoping you’d wake up,” Phenex says, biting his lip. His eyes are shiny with unshed tears and he swallows hard. “I baked a cake, didn’t even pretend to hide it.”

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