Page 7 of The Succubi's Choice
“Have they hurt you?” Katya asks, a voice from behind Miri, but the girl doesn’t break eye contact with Miri.
The girl’s lips part again, as if she’s going to say something, but nothing comes out, which means she was going to lie but the charm prevents her from doing so.
“It’s okay, you can tell us anything.” Miri runs her fingers up and down the girl’s wrist, keeping the connection. “We’re just making sure you’re okay.”
Again, the girl opens her mouth as if to speak, but nothing comes out.
“You go to Valley College?” Miri abruptly changes the subject. “My friend teaches there, what program you studying?”
“Comparative Literature,” she says, the laziness sinking back over her, and she nestles herself back into the pillows.
“Of course you do,” Miri mutters, before giving the girl a beguiling smile. “Tell me, have they hurt you?”
“They didn’t mean to,” the girl says quickly. “They’re my friends, but they’re loud.”
Behind her, out of the corner of her eye, she sees Katya mouth ‘loud?’
“Okay, do you know how long you’ve been down here?”
The girl slowly shakes her head, her eyes still relaxed, as if about to fall asleep. “They take care of me and wake me up for classes. My mom kicked me out.”
“How old are you?” Katya interrupts.
The girl’s eyes flicker, for the first time, to Katya. “Nineteen.”
Katya exhales, because someone volunteering to live in a weird situation is very different from being kidnapped, and lying while under charm is difficult. “Where—“
Her words are cut off by a piercing shriek, echoing down the tunnel, and both Miri and Katya flinch.
Nonplussed, the girl claps the noise cancelling headphones over her ears.
Another shriek flares up next to them, an icepick through Miri’s skull, and she clutches at her head, dropping the meager connection between the two of them...and the clipboard. It makes no noise, nothing that can be heard over the shrieking.
Katya...Katya is worse off. With her human ears and her normal range of dealing with shit, she crumples to the rough dirt ground, clutching at her head.
“Stop!” Miri tries to yell, but can’t even hear herself, can’t hear anything over the sound of the shriek.
Idly, as if it’s not even bugging her, the goth girl holds her finger to her lips, and the shrieking stops, as suddenly as it began.
In front of her, with long hair laying lank down his shoulders, gaunt bags under his eyes, and a small smile across his lips, stands a banshee.
Or, at least, Miri assumes he’s a banshee. She’s never actually seen one—they usually don’t come out from underground as much as most people she interacts with.
Again, as if it’s no big deal, the goth girl hands Miri another pair of noise cancelling headphones, then another to Katya, who takes it with shaking hands.
Her heart pounding, Miri clips the headphones over her ears, belatedly noticing that they have kitten ears on top of them.
With an impatient look in his eyes, the banshee waits for Katya to adjust the headphones, before opening his mouth again.
“She’s mine,” he says, and his voice is still loud, still echoing, still hurting, but understandable.
Katya takes a deep breath, then another, all but visibly getting herself together and pushing herself up.
“Okay, we’re just checking if she’s safe,” Miri blurts out with a hand to Katya to signal she’s talking. She can’t hear herself at all. “We’re with the Organization, we make sure that everyone’s safe.”
“She’s safe,” the banshee snarls, and the goth girl nods along. She says something, but it’s lost in the noise cancellation headphones.
Her heart still in her throat, Miri nods. “We need some paperwork signed if that’s the case,” she says, crouching down and picking up the clipboard from where it lay in the dirt. “That’s all we need, just assurances that she’s safe.” Despite her efforts, her hands shake.