Page 24 of Don't Pray

He watched me with irritation, but I didn’t think it was directed at me. “Forty years ago, a group of men who wanted power summoned one of the demons we know. The demon—Aamon—agreed if the men gave him something in exchange. Just like we did with you, baby girl. What they gave in return were their souls. While you slept, I investigated all of this and found the reason why you suffered.”

Mephistopheles leaned back and uncurled his fingers from his fist. He held his hand, palm up in front of him. A blue flicker sparked in the middle of his palm then a blue fire burned inches from his hand.

I stared at it with round eyes, and my lips parted.

“How’d you do that?” I gasped and leaned closer to the table to get a closer look at the fire. I squinted my eyes and noticed faces in the flames. My mouth dropped, and my heart jumped to my throat. “Is that—”

“Yes,” Mephistopheles purred. “It’s their souls. I hold it and have power over them. Since they made a deal with Aamon, no one thought to check on you all. They wanted power and immortality. There wasonecatch. They weren’t allowed to pray. We all knew these types of men. They followed god and the bible that men have written to the T. I never liked humans.”

His face changed as he looked at me. Softness filled his otherwise hard eyes. I knew I had to be an exception, and that made my heart race and body tingle.

“Aamon was aware of their obsession with god, so he took away their ability to call upon him. If they were to ever pray and we heard, the contract would be voided, but Aamon would still keep their souls. It seems they used their power and control for the worst. We demons normally wouldn’t care, but since meeting you and hearing the small things you tell us about what they did, it enrages me. No one hurts what’s mine.” A muscle popped in his jaw, and his nostrils flared. “What’sours,” he corrected as he glanced at the other two demons.

I drew my bottom lip between my teeth and peered at the two men sitting beside me. Legion looked just as pissed as Mephistopheles. Asmodeus had a blank face, but his hands were fisted on the table, and his shoulders were tense. I turned back to Mephistopheles, who closed his hand, the fire disappearing with the action.

“So what happened was because of you?” I whispered.

Mephistopheles blinked and lowered his eyebrows. “No, little one. We weren’t aware of what they did. Aamon is the one you should be blaming.”

I shook my head. “But it wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t make a deal with one of your kind.”

My stomach churned, and heaviness weighed on my chest. My breathing quickened as my heart picked up its pace. I could feel my panic attack coming and didn’t know how to stop it. It was like a freight train, and I stood on the railway watching it come in.

Legion grabbed my shoulder, forcing me to look at him. He leaned forward so we were at the same eye level.

“Kitten, I need you to breathe.”

“I-I’m trying.” I gasped for breaths and grabbed my chest. “I can’t breathe.”

“The healer prescribed her meds to help with anxiety attacks. Grab it,” Asmodeus ordered and grabbed me to sit me on his lap as he pushed back from the table to give us room. I struggled to escape his hold, but he held me against him.

“Let us help you, little one,” he murmured into my ear.

Mephistopheles shot up from his chair and strode to the kitchen island where my meds were. He snatched up the bottles and came around the table to kneel beside the chair Asmodeus and I sat on.

“Which medicine was it?” Mephistopheles growled.

“Hydroxyzine,” Legion answered while handing Asmodeus my glass of water.

I shook my head, still gasping for breaths and feeling like I was about to jump out of my skin. The walls around us moved in and out like they were breathing.

My schizophrenic symptoms always worsened when I freaked out. My mind ran a million miles a minute, making it hard to pinpoint what the hell I was thinking. All I could feel was panic and worry that demons were the reason why my old world was a shit-hole.

“It’s your fault,” I gasped, and a sob bubbled up my chest. I looked at the three men working on getting the pill from the bottle and handed it to me. I popped it into my mouth and swallowed it with my water. “It’s all your fault why I lived in fear. Why the world was ending and using women as incubators and punching bags.”

Mephistopheles narrowed his eyes. “Baby girl, I need you to shut up for a second.” My eyes rounded, and my jaw dropped. He put my medicine bottles to the side and cupped my cheeks, making me stare right into his ice-blue eyes. “I’m taking care of the problem. The only reason why I know all of this is because I looked into it. It’s notourfault, but I swear on my life that I’m taking care of it. Trust your Daddies, Ava.”

I slowly caught my breath and came down from my panic.

“Aamon had good intentions of squashing your world’s ability for religion, mainly for the Christian god. He didn’t intend for the opposite to happen and the human men to use their religion to enslave,” Mephistopheles continued and stroked my cheek with his thumb.

“We’ll make it right,” Legion murmured.

“They will pay for what they did,” Asmodeus promised.

I sobbed and turned away from Mephistopheles to bury my face in Asmodeus’s chest. His masculine scent of pine and a hint of mint filled my senses. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, holding him closer to me while I sobbed.

It felt like hours passed before the medicine kicked in, and the three demons helped me down from my freakout. I kept my face buried in Asmodeus’s chest, not wanting to leave his hold. He had wrapped his arms around me and held me close, humming a song that I didn’t know but didn’t want to ever end.

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