Guardian Angel

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

"Ryky, if you don't open your fucking mouth in the next three seconds—"

"I'm a grown adult, I don't need you to—"

"One."

"—brush my fucking teeth—"

"Two."

"Like a fucking toddler." I fell silent as Aric stared at me, an eyebrow raised, and the number three just beginning to form on his lips. He waited for me to add more to the rant, and when I didn't, he smiled pleasantly and held his hand out for me to rest my chin in so he could finish brushing my teeth. It took everything I had not to headbutt him in the face.

If I was half the god Niko was, I'd do it, no hesitation.

Unfortunately, I'd also seen him do it hard enough to knock himself out.

And that was the last thing I needed right now.

So I forced myself to obey, placing my chin in Aric's grasp like a fucking dog, and that delighted him greatly because he beamed wider and poked my lips open with the toothbrush until I forced myself to surrender, parting my lips and grimacing as he tried to turn it into some kind of sensual game.

To top it off, I was worried.

According to Aric, this morning we had an appointment with some doctors. He didn't specify what kind, their names, their specialties, or even what kind of appointments they were. Normally I had no problem with doctors for obvious reasons, but considering what I'd seen of their handiwork when it came to victims like Bait? I was not thrilled by the prospect of being tortured by mad scientists.

"Say, ahh," Aric said with a smirk, tapping the toothbrush against my bottom lip. I grimaced and gave him his response, which gave him a strange sick little thrill because he grinned and kissed me on the nose. He took the toothbrush away and let me rinse my mouth out on my own, thank fuck.

I glanced warily at the bathtub as I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and Aric went to get whatever outfit he'd picked out for me.

I don't think I'd ever be able to take a bath again.

Even showers, but luckily Aric skipped that daily routine and went right to the closet to thumb through the rows and rows of hanging clothes. I frowned, glancing at him in the closet as he talked, more to himself than me, about weird delusional stories consisting of our many babies and cute cabin in the woods.

I looked down at my hands.

Holy fuck. Now that Aric wasn't giving me daily doses of poison, I could clearly see what everyone else saw and it was so incredibly frustrating. For a brief second, I wanted to scream over it. This whole time, everyone around me saw him for what he was and my head was in the clouds with the first person to show me attention in goddamn years coupled with poison that literally altered my brain.

And whatever magic he was using didn't help either.

No, maybe that was an excuse.

Honestly, even if Aric wasn't using all of that to control me, when it came right down to it, the whole reason Aric was able to pick me out as his next victim was because he recognized the fact that I was absolutely fucking miserable. He couldn't target someone like Hades, and maybe that was why Aric had a weird obsession with him; the one that got away? Not that he ever had a chance with Hades, Hell and otherwise.

However, that left me.

Close enough to the top to taste the guys sitting there, but not enough to actually play with them. There was a determination in me, yes, but it was easily moldable because my confidence was smashed to pieces. My whole being was smashed to pieces. I had no identity, no self. The perfect blank slate for Aric to scribble on.