Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge [Kait]

Chloe responded to Loch’s compliment with a smirk. She loved it when people got flustered like that, especially when it was her fault.

Two girls Loch knew disappeared, and Loch was a kelpie. That would be damning enough for the torches-and-pitchforks situation. As little as she wanted to break the law, this was actually looking kind of serious. She was happy for the subject to change for a little while – she needed to think about this whole amulet situation.

“Well, to answer your first question, I don’t even know if I’m a demon.” Chloe leaned against the wall, next to Loch. “For what it’s worth, I remember being a human, sort of. But that could have been an implanted memory, or a symptom of you messing up your summoning ritual, or a bunch of shit. Even if my memories are true, maybe my real dad is a demon, so that might make me a demon too I guess?” She shrugged. They were uncomfortable thoughts to deal with, certainly, but they didn’t bother Chloe anymore. She had grown used to it. “I know a kid who can see souls who thinks I’m not a demon, but the chef, Aurum, says he has powers that only work on demons, and we know those work on me because fuck living in a world that makes sense.”

Chloe chuckled. She couldn’t remember when she stopped thinking these things were troubling and started thinking they were funny. “The place I remember living in was a lot like this place. Isolated boarding school for magical kids who aren’t supposed to exist, in a world almost exactly like this one. The big difference is, there was only one kind of magical person, as far as we knew. Most of us could pass for human. Being one of the three kids who couldn’t, I wasn’t even allowed to leave the school. I hated most of the other kids there, because…” another shrug. “You know. Usual high school bullshit I guess. Oh! and there was a looming threat of genocide once the public learned about us. That part was pretty cool.”

Chloe realized that she was starting to rant. She also noticed that Loch still looked tired. He was not about to make it up four flights of stairs on crutches without help.

“Uh… you want me to carry you up the stairs? It wouldn’t be too much trouble for me.” Chloe realized she might have to feed on him a little to make it easier. Or maybe that was just her cravings talking.

“Yes.” Chloe answered immediately. She hoped she didn’t sound too desperate. It had been too long since she last fed. Well over a week, aside from the occasional, seconds-long snacks she’d managed while bumping into people. “I, uh, also want to make sure you can make it up there… oh, wait. Duh. Shouldn’t this building have an elevator?”

Chloe held up a finger, signaling him to wait, then went inside and around a few corners. She reappeared in a matter of seconds, holding the door open for him. “Stairs are for chumps, you have an elevator. As much fun as I would have carrying you up…” Chloe wasn’t being sarcastic. The way he squirmed at the suggestion almost made her want to do it anyway. Maybe if he got tired enough on the way to his room…

“Anyway. It’s right around that corner.”

Chloe opened her mouth, as though she were about to speak, then thought better of it and looked away, gathering her thoughts. How could Loch live in this building without knowing about elevators?

“An elevator…” the demon began to explain, “Is a… box you can stand in, to let the building carry you up or down to a different floor. So you don’t have to use stairs to go upstairs. This is completely safe,” she assured him, “Unless you’ve angered the spirit of the building. Then it might trap you in its elevator for weeks on end or try to kill you. That probably won’t be a problem, though.”

The elevator had a panel with two buttons in the wall next to it, one with an arrow pointing down, and one with an arrow pointing up. Chloe pushed the one with the up arrow, and the button glowed with a pale orange light. A faint rumbling could be heard beyond the elevator’s smooth steel doors. A high pitched ding and the doors slid open by themselves, like a layered steel maw, revealing a well-lit, closet-sized enclosure for them to stand in.

“After you,” she said.

Loch seemed horrified. Chloe tried very hard not to laugh. Did he actually believe her?

“I mean, it’s either this or me carrying you. You aren’t well enough to go up stairs by yourself right now.” As she spoke, she followed him in. Her tail twisted past her and tapped at a button labeled 4, which also lit up.

The doors closed by themselves. The floor began to rumble and move below their feet. For a second, they felt heavier as the elevator accelerated upwards. A number above the inner doors told them what floor they had reached, letting out a faint beep whenever they got one floor higher. Chloe was looking away from Loch, staring at the doors.

She didn’t actually expect him to believe her. She had forgotten that spirits were probably a real thing in this world. Maybe possessed elevators were a real thing, too.

Chloe couldn’t see why Lochlann wanted to go shirtless, but she wasn’t going to complain. They were already going to do this whole casual-supernatural-intimacy thing. She wasn’t going to let herself feel bad about ogling him, either.

She sat down on his bed. “I have homework, so alcohol’s probably a bad idea right now. Let’s just, uh…” she tore her eyes from his torso and made eye contact. “You know.” It was already weird. There wasn’t much that she could do to make it weirder.

Lochlann said that he still thought they should ‘do it.’ It took Chloe a little bit too long to realize what he meant by ‘it.’ She blushed a little. The feeding was already getting to her head. “Guinevere,” she said. “Right. Um… maybe we should see if we can skip breaking the law? I could take her for coffee or something and talk it over with her. So it would be public and she wouldn’t try anything. If she would want to try something. But hopefully I could get her to give it back.”