Loving Merritt Forever

9

Him

My alarm for sunset went off shortly after six, I opened my rest chamber, stretching stiff joints after a long day of not moving. Making eye contact with the only human to ever catch me unaware. She had been able to do it repeatedly now.

Joy, the private investigator typically under the employ of one Damon Black. The former Demon King, now turned quiet family man out in the country with his wife, and her lovers. Leaving Joy short on work. Which had been working out well for me and a variety of other morally chaotic creatures of the night.

Joy was scowling at me, and holding a dossier in her hand. "To what do I owe the pleasure Joy?" feigning dumb, I knew exactly why she was here. I had asked her to look into Merritt's past, wanting to learn as much as I could about my treasure.

"What do you want with the Stonem girl?" her voice hard as stone as her eyes studied me. "So help my God Levi I will stake you now if you've hurt that poor girl."

My eyebrow quirked upwards at Joy's fierce desire to protect Merritt. That probably meant I was not going to enjoy the stories Joy had found about my little dove. "I am probably the only person in her life that hasn't hurt her." yet, I kept to myself as Joy continued to stare me down. "She is mine, if she wants to be." Joy watched me, considering what I said.

Finally Joy's tension dropped, just a little bit. She was magically protected from me being able to harm her directly, but she knew magic wasn't infallible. Being wary had kept the plucky little detective alive this long in her line of work. "You care about her?" she asked again. Suspicious as always of a demon's intention.

"More than anything, she calls to me, enthralls my Demon. She is mine." Joy studied me just a moment longer. "I want to care for her, and if she desires, make her mine for eternity." I rolled my shoulders, joints cracking as my body started to move. "Even if she doesn't want to be turned, I want to make her happy."

The dossier was thrown into my secure resting bunk. "At least someone wants to take care of her. Read that quick and get over your rage before you see her tonight." turning quickly in her smart, practical loafers and letting herself out of what was supposed to be my secret lair. No one had secrets from Joy.

I started to read through my little doves history. Feeling my rage build more with every page. I read her family's medical histories. The three children her parents had aborted before Merritt was conceived and only allowed to reach term because she was a genetic match for her sick brother. Only born to be a living collection of spare parts for her brother. Even her name was like an insult, under those conditions.

I read how they had taken parts of her away her entire life to keep Verity alive, regardless of the cost to Merritt. Reading through years of mental health evaluations, reading notes from child psychologists on how cruel her brother had been to her. How she wanted to do the right thing, strove to be worthy of praise and affection. Notes that her parents might be neglectful towards her needs.

Notes that Verity might be a sociopath or emotionally disturbed followed. How he didn't see his sister as a person. To Verity, she was a resource for him to get what he wanted, nothing more. Verity had done everything he could her entire life to drain her life of any happiness. Any interventions into Merritt's welfare ended inconclusively.

Dating her friends only to break their teenage girl hearts cruelly enough that they felt they had to drop Merritt as a friend. Bullying her from keeping their family home after their parents had died so he got a bigger pay out on his parents estate. All culminating on the final humiliation that led her to me.

People said my kind were monsters, needing to feed on humans to sustain ourselves. I had never been as monstrous as Verity or Merritt's parents had been. The Demon had pushed completely forward, my face that of the monster, golden eyes reading through all the ways Merritt had been done wrong.