“Is he the oldest?” I asked.
“He is. He has two younger brothers. Both of them are much like Viktor. Both are still in the military, last I knew,” Adrik said.
“His youngest brother wants out. He’s trying to come here when his service is up in a few months. Viktor told him we could give him a job,” Ivan said.
“I’m not surprised. He’s such a helper,” I said. I grabbed one of Adrik’s hands se my hands could fidget as I thought about Viktor. “Okay, what if Stephen breaks them, but Viktor somehow fixes them? That’s what he’s really good at. Squish, you said you can see demons riding around on people looking for ways in now, right?”
“Yeah, they’re looking for weaknesses is what it looks like. Or trying to make their own weaknesses,” he said.
“That’s what Viktor’s good at. He puts the systems in place to make sure everything runs smoothly and there are no outside threats. Between you and Bubba, you can see where the weaknesses are. Viktor somehow fixes that and it’s one less person Stephen has to break. Because while I think. Stephen’s gift is f u cking incredible, I can’t imagine he’s meant to just break half the world’s population and leave them in a waking coma for the rest of their lives. That would be weird. Stephen is the last resort. Viktor helps make sure Stephen isn’t needed very often,” I said.
As I was talking, Adrik showed me his arm, which was covered in goosebumps. had been looking down at my hands that were still playing with Adrik’s hand, but when I looked up at Ivan, he had a silly grin on his face. He pointed to Adrik. “Show him, too,” he said.
I looked back at Adrik, who smiled at me. “We knew you’d be able to figure it out,” he said, kissing my temple. “They’re purple?” I asked, still somewhat confused as to what they were talking about. They both nodded.
“Still slightly weird, but much less alarming than the white, not gonna lie,” Ivan said.
“She went from black to purple the other day. That might be my favorite color transition so far. It was incredible,” Adrik said. I could feel the familiar pull in my chest that meant he was thinking about how much he loved me.
“You’re late to the party, Squish. When are you going to figure out you can strike even more fear into the hearts of regular people?” I asked.
He cut his eyes over at me, his sly grin creeping up one side of his mouth. “Since your dad told me it was possible and I saw Boss do it, I may have tried to make it happen when no one was around.” “Shut up. Did it work?” I asked, completely curious to see if he could make his eyes go dark now too.
He closed his eyes briefly, opening them to reveal his much darker eyes. His eyes were normally golden brown, but they were much darker when he looked at me and Adrik.
“Squish, you’re barely angry right now, too. That’s impressive,” I said. “Did you have to get to insane levels the first time it happened?”
“I did. I kept trying to make it happen without going nuclear, but it just wasn’t happening. I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to feel it. I didn’t want you to come running downstairs, so I waited until I knew for sure you were asleep,” he said, grinning at me.
“You did it at the ungodly hour of 4 am, didn’t you?” I asked.
He laughed. “Yep. I know you’re dead to the world then. It worked. I figured it out and you were none the wiser,” he said.
2/3″Well-played.” I looked at both of them. “You’re both going to need contacts now to keep from scaring the entire world. It’s bad enough when people see it on me. You two have an added intimidation factor. People are going to nin from you.”
“I think that’s kind of the point, princess,” Ivan said.
Sephie
“So, princess, how do you control yours so quickly? You can get your eyes to change from normal to black and back again in a second now, without getting ridiculously angry. What do you think about to make that happen?” an asked.
“Um, I don’t know that I’ve ever really thought about this before. I just kind of do it. But I learned very early in life to think of my anger like a living being, almost. Maybe what I think of as my anger is actually my demon? It’s much the same as when I’m sending stuff to you guys. I just concentrate on it and push it forward,” I said.
Ivan closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them this time, they were much darker than they were just a few moments ago. I couldn’t help but grin at him. “Clearly, that explanation worked,” I said. I turned to look at Alrik. “Have yours turned dark other than that one time when we were all in here?”He nodded. “I was talking to Ivan the other day and they changed. Like him it now, I was barely angry when it happened.”
“You guys are learning much faster than I did. That’s impressive,” I said. Adrik closed his eyes for a moment, opening them to reveal his almost-black eyes. “Yours are getting darker much faster, too. How?” “When you showed me how you control your anger, I started thinking about reine like a living thing too. Maybe we’re just giving acknowledgement to our little buddies in there?” He smiled, his eyes still dark. “Are you asking me because you think I have the answer? Because that’s not a thing I have,” I said. “Has anybody else seen this yet?”
“Not that I know of,” Ivan said.
“I might’ve had it happen in one of my meetings. I noticed a look of surprise on someone’s face and blinked when I noticed my mind was wandering to Ricardo,” Adrik said. His eyes had returned to their normal blue as he laughed about scaring his business associate.
“All this time I’ve been worried it was me who was going to scare everyone off. Turns out it was you,” I said, laughing.
“Told I you that you’re gonna need contacts too,” Ivan said.
Once the guys came back with Chen, Andrei caught my eye. He tapped his temple and raised one eyebrow at me. I took a peak in his head, looking through what he’d seen when he looked into the journalist’s head. When I looked into people’s minds, I could see what they saw, so I got a chance to see the journalist how Andrei saw him. I clearly saw his aura around him, but also saw it was broken in a few places. Dark spots, like holes were visible. Andrei felt nothing bad from him as he talked to Chen. I couldn’t stop looking at the way Andrei saw him. It was fascinating.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.