Conquer (Control) (7 page)

My arms instantly went around Daemon, pulling him closer to me.  With my cheek pressed against his chest, I asked, “Will you tell me about it?  Maybe you and I can find new ways to work out whatever is bothering us.  I won’t run anymore and you can start talking about things more.  We’re partners, remember?”

His arms contracted around me and I felt his head nod above me in response.  “I dreamed about the day…that day…your birthday.  It was the events that led up to what my father did.  I spilled some milk that day and also asked to go outside to play with the other kids.  He was angry and was calling me names and throwing me around.  He liked to call me ‘demon’ and actually thought that was my name.  He demanded it when I was born, but my mom added an ‘A’ on the spelling on the birth certificate without telling him.  However, that’s why she called me Buddy.  She didn’t like the fact that, even though she had managed to change it without my father knowing, my name was intended to be an insult from the moment I came into this world.  He always called me that.”

My heart broke instantly and I wanted to go dig up Daemon’s father, bring him back to life, just to beat his ass and place him back in the ground all over again.  I shared my parents’ abhorrence of abuse, especially abuse of a child.  “Why did your mom take you back if he was like that?  She’d gotten you away from him, why return?”

Daemon’s chest steadily rose and fell as I waited for him to respond.  His hesitancy to answer was a clear indication of his discomfort, but I needed to know this part of him in order to truly understand many of the events of our past.  We both carried burdens from our youth that were out of our control.  Hopefully, together, we would be able to bring those burdens into the open to finally relieve the pain that came with them.

“She loved him, I guess.  I never understood why.  He was always, ALWAYS, like that.  I wish I could blame it on his drinking or one of the many drugs he was addicted to, but in the end, it was just him.  He was a very angry person.  A few weeks after mom and I arrived at The Center, she reached out to him.  Even though he had hurt both of us, my mother was worried for him.   He made promises to her that she thought he could keep.  When we arrived back, it all fell apart almost instantly.”  Pain and remorse was seared into every word he spoke and I wanted nothing more but to reach out to young Daemon and pull him from the nightmare he obviously lived.  The more he told me about his time with his father, the more I understood why he was so angry as a child.  I couldn’t help but think about my parents and the decision they made for Daemon on that fated day.  I needed to talk to them about everything, but I wasn’t quite ready to forgive them for their dishonesty. 

Both Daemon’s and my head turned as the buzzer sounded, indicating Alex had arrived.  Daemon kissed me on the forehead before saying, “Ah, your
babysitter
is here.  We can talk about this more after I return home.”  He flashed me a crooked smile and I loosened my hold on him, allowing him to pull away from our embrace.  I watched as he walked across the room and couldn’t help but admire the way he moved.  He hit the button to send the elevator to Alex before opening the front door and returning to stand by me in the kitchen.

“So, tomorrow, I want to take you to my gym to start training.  Don’t expect anything fancy.  Frank took me there after I came to live with him and I was trained there.  It’s old, and ratty and most of the people there are just as old and ratty as the place, but they are good people.”

An instant smile broke out on my face as I remembered Daemon’s promise to train me to fight.  I was nervous and excited all at the same time. I had no idea how he planned on training me, but I was sure a few pointers couldn’t hurt.  Not that I needed them, of course; but Daemon didn’t know that.

“Who’s Frank?  Is that the person my parents sent you to live with when you came back?”

Daemon smiled as he remembered back.  “Yeah.  He was this crotchety old marine who wouldn’t put up with my punk attitude.  He scared the shit out of me when I first met him, but he was an amazing man.  Taught me mostly everything I know.  He owned one of the smaller bars in town and gave it to me when he passed.  I’m so thankful to him for everything, your parents as well.”  He tapped me on the nose as a silent hint that I needed to deal with this issue with my parents.  I looked up at him sheepishly and shrugged my shoulders in response.

Alex came lumbering through the doors looking like he hadn’t slept in the past week.  Daemon hugged me one more time. “That’s my cue to get out of here, Damsel.  I’ll see you when I get back later this afternoon.”

Daemon met Alex in the living room and did the fist bump thing guys do with each other.  It was odd, once again, seeing the two of them getting along and I was sitting somewhere between joy and annoyance at their sudden friendship.  On one hand, I was happy that there were no longer bad feelings on Alex’ part, but on the other, I hated that their friendship involved a pact to keep me under control.  I don’t appreciate being controlled.

Daemon waved goodbye and walked out the front door, softly closing it behind him.  As usual, Alex had his ballcap pulled low over his eyes and he was wearing the same shirt and jeans from the night before.  My eyebrow arched at his appearance and he responded by flopping himself down on the large sofa by the balcony windows.

Where the hell did David go?

Alex glanced over at me and said, “So, can I trust that if I fall asleep, I won’t wake up to find you out chasing psychotic criminals?”

“Nope.”  I remained in the kitchen leaning against the counter as I answered him.  I had to hide my smile behind the mug I was holding. “Since you decided to sign up for babysitting services, I guess you are just going to have to suffer the consequences.”

Alex moved his head so that he could look up at me from under the brim of his hat.  “You’re a bitch.  I hope you know that.”  He let out an annoyed sigh.  “Well, at least tell me there is some coffee left in that pot.”

I shifted to the left to block Alex’ view of the half-full coffee pot.  “Guess again, big guy, it’s all gone.”  I feigned a sad face by sticking out my bottom lip.

Alex sighed and pulled his hat even lower on his face, his massive form taking up the majority of the couch.  “Whatever, Paige.  I know there’s coffee over there and I’m about to come take it…by force, if necessary.”

“That’s funny, because by the looks of you, you would fall pass out after the first ten laps I made you take as you are chasing me and the pot around the apartment.”

He pulled his hat back up to glare at me, then replaced it over his face.  “Whatever, Paige, just get me a cup would ya? I had a long ass fucking night because
someone
couldn’t choose to piss off a normal psychopath that only murders and shit.  Oh no, you’ve got to pick the guy that likes to blow shit up too.”

“Not funny.  And definitely not the way to convince me to give up any of my java goodness to you. You, sir, are an ass and you don’t deserve a cup of my liquid paradise.”  My nose turned up in indignation. 

At that moment, David sashayed himself back into the living room.  He smiled brightly at me before stopping dead in his tracks at the sight of Alex.  “What the hell happened to you, Alex?  You look like you’ve been wearing the same clothes for a week.”  David leaned his body in Alex’ direction and sniffed the air above him.  “And you smell like smoke. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to move over to that wingback chair over there.”

Alex grinned as he peered out at David from underneath the brim of his hat.  “And why the hell do I have to move?”

Crossing his arms over his chest, David gave Alex a sharp look that indicated he thought Alex was a moron.  “Because I sit on that couch and I don’t want to be sullied by your putrid hygiene and apparent lack of more than one pair of clothes.”

“Then why don’t you go sit in the chair.  I’ve already
sullied
the couch.”   Alex settled back and made a show of rubbing his smoky clothes all over the leather.  David threw up his hands and walked determinably into the kitchen.  He pulled a mug from the upper cabinet and shoved me aside to get to the pot of coffee.  Alex looked up as David poured.  “What the hell?!”

I peeked out at Alex from the other side of David and grinned.   “HE didn’t yell at me for pissing someone off, so HE can share in my happiness.”

David suddenly stopped in mid-motion.  “Who’d you piss off now, Paige?”  The apprehension in his voice was obvious and I could have sworn I saw him tremble.

“No one new.”

David nodded and blew out a little sigh of relief.  Bringing the mug to his lips, he eyed me from over the rim.  “Is he still mad about the woods incident?”

Alex’ laugh echoed through the room.  “The woods incident?!  Ha!  That’s child’s play compared to last night!”

After turning around to set his mug on the counter, David grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me to face him.  “Did you do something stupid AGAIN last night?!”

“No!”  I threw my hands up to get David to let me go.  “Chris blew up Tomb last night while Alex and I were there and…”

“He did what?!”  The color immediately dropped from his face and his mouth hung open in a mixture of terror and disbelief.  His head swung around to face Alex.  “And you were there?”

Alex groaned while pulling himself into an upright position.  “Yep.  And, as usual, Paige had to go running away and almost get herself killed…again.”

David’s head swung back to me. “What were you doing there?”

“Daemon and I were driving back from my parents’ place and Logan called to report that Chris had been spotted at the club.  We went by so Daemon could deal with the cops.”

“Why were you at your parents?”

“So I could yell at them for lying to me about Buddy.”

His eyes bugged out as a vein noticeably pulsed at his temple. “Wait…what? Your parents lied to you about Buddy?”

I nodded.

“What…why…”  He shook his head as he became more frustrated.  I giggled a little over the amount of information a person can miss over the course of eight hours of sleep.

“How did you find out your parents lied to you about Buddy? 

“Daemon.”

“Daemon knows Buddy?”

“Daemon is Buddy.”

David froze.  Literally, froze.  His muscles didn’t twitch, his eyes didn’t wander.  I was concerned because it didn’t appear that his chest was moving with his breaths.  At that moment, he was a mannequin whose expression was a mixture of shock and disbelief, with a sprinkling of confusion thrown in for good measure.

Alex chuckled and pushed himself up to walk into the kitchen.  As he approached, he reached out and patted David on the back.  “I know, man.  That was my reaction when Paige told me at the club.”

David stood there mouth agape.  I jumped slightly when he finally spoke again.  “What did your parents lie about?  How did you find out Daemon is Buddy?  How are you acting so calm about this?  How is Alex so calm about this?  Did Tomb really blow up?  How are you two even alive if you were there?”

A sympathetic expression played over my face as I watched David attempt to process what he had just learned.  His never ending barrage of questions was staggering.  He was like a computer that short circuited from too much input.  I probably should have broken all of this to him little by little, but I had to admit it was more fun watching him flip the fuck out.  “There, there, David, let’s go to the couch and I’ll explain everything.”

My arm went around David’s shoulder and I gingerly walked him over to the sofa.  We sat down and as I settled into the soft, cozy leather, I heard a distinct clink of glass against metal.  My head spun to the kitchen and, sure enough, Alex was stealing the last of the coffee.  My brows furrowed as I glared in his direction.  Alex turned to look at me while pouring out the last of the contents, his lips turning up into a large, shit-eating grin.

The bastard!

Chapter Four

Over the course of the next several hours I explained everything that had occurred while David was sleeping the night before.  Okay, maybe
explained
is the wrong word.  Rather, I
dissected
every little detail and nuance until David felt satisfied that, even though he slept through the events, he knew enough to feel like he had actually been witness to everything.  At some point during my story-telling, Alex had returned to the couch and I received a thorough talking to from both of them for venturing out into the woods during a lightning storm.  Apparently, I’d made some doozies of dumb decisions in the last twenty-four hours.  But who could blame me?  My world had been turned upside down, shook around, dropped to the floor, kicked around like a tin can, and then handed back to me to deal with the crumpled and tattered version of my life.  

The afternoon dragged on as Alex slept on the couch and David and I sat around bored out of our minds.  The only entertainment in the place was the TV in Daemon’s room, so David and I eventually found ourselves snuggled up on Daemon’s bed, watching old movies.  Eventually Alex joined us and our two man pity party became a threesome as Alex quickly fell back to sleep.  I’m not sure when exactly David and I fell asleep, but I can imagine it didn’t look very good when Daemon came home to find the three of us cuddled together on his bed.

Daemon cleared his throat which caused me to instantly wake up.  I went to sit up but found that David’s head was on my shoulder and his leg was tossed over mine.  I pushed his head aside and…was that drool?  Ew.  After removing his leg, I turned to remove Alex’ arm from around my waist.  Scootching off the bed, I stood up and shuffled over to wrap my arms around Daemon as he continued standing in the doorway.  Resting my head against his chest, I said, “It’s not what it looks like.”

Daemon’s chest vibrated from silent laughter, which was replaced by his low voice.  “It looks to me like you fell asleep with two of your friends while watching TV.”

I looked up at him just as his head lowered to place a kiss on my lips.  “Like I said, it’s not what it looks like.  We were actually making wild monkey love with each other.  A couple of circus performers were involved, but they had to go home early.”