Sinfully Delicious

Sinners

Murchadh did his best not to cough from the scent of demon-fire smoke wafting through the air, as he turned from the empty spot where Lucifer had just occupied to where Ferya was standing and watching him with wide eyes. She looked ready to burst into tears, for reasons beyond his reasoning skills.

He frowned then, striding across the last few steps to the counter, searching her for the source of her distress. "What's wrong?"

He didn't care if the fire demon was waiting in the dark with the shifter, he didn't care if Lucifer himself came back, something was wrong, and he needed to fix it. He didn't even stop to try and understand where that urge to help her had come from.

"I'm sorry. But I had to. He said he wanted to know when you came into the shop." She whispered softly, her hand gripping the magical bracelet on her wrist, her body shaking with the violence of her emotions. "I... he could have hurt you."

"Us specifically?" Murchadh frowned in thought, he didn't care about what Ferya had done. Logically, the girl was surviving, and Lucifer was not a creature that one betrayed if one wanted to survive. He would have been more upset if she had refused to follow Lucifer's rules, but it was interesting that the Prince of Darkness was on the lookout for someone.

She shook her head slowly, letting out a slow breath, though her expression was as confused as it was distressed. "Guardians. They think you all work for the Council. I told him that you two were friends of mine, "She blushed furiously then, looking at her feet, the sharp scent of salt stinging his nostrils. "I-I mean..."

Murchadh didn't understand it. This human woman had literally just stood up to Lucifer, she had been managing on her own in an establishment full of the deadliest predators in the nine realms, but she was afraid of him. That realization hit him like a crossbow bolt to the gut and he suddenly realized why the fire demon had been so on edge.

Lucifer had been serious about protecting this shop, this human. He was equally certain that Baltha had burned down the Coven because of those bruises that were still fading on her skin. It all revolved around this human and her new, powerful protectors.

"No, it is all right." Murchadh wasn't good at the whole comfort concept and he glanced at Torix who was glaring towards the corner where the demon had gone.

Cingetorix's back was up, she was spoiling for a fight and probably less able to empathize with Ferya than he was. His partner's distraction left him to try and find some way to calm Ferya down and reassure her, maybe salvage the visit.

He sighed and turned back to the fragile human. "Look, what you did was right, following his orders. I wouldn't have done any different myself. I just want to make sure you are ok. You disappeared a couple nights ago, and we didn't expect to see you in here when we walked in. But Baltha is wrong. We don't serve the Council, we don't serve Lucifer, we serve the city. If there is anyone who is violating any of the Laws, we will protect you."

Ferya looked up to him again, letting out a slow breath. Her expression began to clear slowly, the tears fading from her eyes. "No. It's better here. They're nicer. Way nicer. I feel like I'm safer here."

"How often did Vialen hurt you?" He asked the question he had been meaning to, the one he meant to the day they had found the shop burned to the ground. The one he should have asked the first day he noticed those bruises, and possibly a million times before.

Why had he been just like everyone else, turning a blind eye to the suffering of humans, when they were just as deserving protection as anyone else.

"Whenever she felt like it. Though this was the worst, because I messed up. I was talking to Lucifer the night before and got distracted and closed the shop too early. I left early. She was furious." Her voice was a whisper, her eyes distant, as if she were back in the moment she was speaking about. "She told me she was going to feed me to her coven. But she didn't break anything. She knows how to hurt without breaking."