Greys IV - Chains

Chapter 40 - Love Me

"Why does someone who's practically the devil have to look so much like an Angel?"

"Yeah, mhm - wait, what?" I was reading the Book of Dust when Ailech broke the studious silence we had been working in for the last hour.

"It's not a compliment, I'm just saying it's messed up that you all look heaven-sent when most Darklings are quite literally demonic. It's misleading."

His voice was sulkier than usual and it piqued my interest. I tried to sound innocent.

"We are misleading. Did something happen?"

"No."

His intonation said yes.

"What did he do?"

"Nothing. I mean - who?"

"Fine, I'll just go ask him then." I snapped my book shut and made as if I was about to get up.

"No, don't - it wasn't, he didn't -" Ailech swore and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking very much like a young Abby before he restarted. "He didn't do anything, really. Unless he can get into minds now too," he muttered the end and I had to try very hard to keep a straight face and steady voice.

"You had a dream about him?"

"You know I don't sleep anymore."

"A happy daydream?"

The smile was clear in my voice now, but I couldn't help it. Ailech's ongoing saga with Malachi was entertaining. And it finally gave me something I could tease him about. He scowled over his book at me darkly.

"He just keeps popping up in my head. And it makes sense, I mean, it doesn't mean anything. We are a tad connected. And it used to happen even before because I healed him so much and was working in him to try to put his pieces back together. Like when he would be upset, I don't know, I knew, even before he brought me back. But now, it's just that he comes to mind at...inconvenient times. It's distracting."

"Wait, were you with Nev?" I felt a little trill of humor at the ramifications, but kept it out of my voice the best I could.

"Maybe."

"And...you couldn't focus on her? I mean, you couldn't..." I trailed off, biting the inside of my cheek to stop from smiling too noticeably.

"No, it wasn't that, I - he just kept appearing in my mind. It's nothing, forget it."

"So you were thinking of him and you could..."

"Forget I mentioned anything!"

"You're the one who brought it up."

"Because he's your nightmare of a brother."

"I'm not the one thinking of him when I'm with my girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend," he muttered, burying his nose back in his book.

I smiled down at the page of Demon types until I felt a prickle change to needles to a current to flames as James neared from somewhere in the Vault. I hadn't seen him since the day before, since he strode out of the gym after his attempt to 'win me over'.

I knew he could feel me too, follow it like a wire connecting us, a map. And after some thought, I had decided to leave our connection intact - in case it awakened parts of him I told myself were still alive, just buried. He walked in and I glanced up casually, like his presence didn't capture my attention and nature and everything else in a chokehold.

His midnight eyes landed on Ailech and his lip curled into a sneer, one I didn't even think he was conscious of. Ailech saw and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'elitist asshole' before going back to his book on psychopathology.