Eva

She shut her passenger door then went around back, a bit early for the first time in weeks.

When her parents heard the back door, they came rushing with questions of last night, making her dread the fact she’d called them.

She told them she was fine and about how the apartments had been broken into, leaving out the part about them being attacked nearly fifteen minutes earlier. However, she didn’t need to, they already knew.

They’d sent Simon to clean up and when he reported back he wasn’t pleased with the fact it had been a Pyropex, or hellhound, to attack.

“They’re like hound dogs,” Her mother explained, going to open the shop doors. “Once they have a scent they stop at nothing to bring in their prey.”

“Who sent it?” She remembered Dante asking that same question.

She looked towards her fathers shrugged shoulders. “Honestly, we don’t know. Simon and Lowell are trying to look into it.”

Speaking of her brothers. “Did you see Simon's bruise yesterday?”

Her mother shook her head disappointingly; the slight wrinkles at the corner of her almond eyes deepened. “That boy has been trouble since the womb. I just…don’t know what to do.”

Evanora hadn’t meant to upset her so early in the morning. Her mother had to excuse herself from the room before she became agitated.

“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean-”

“No, baby.” Her father sighed. “It’s nothing you did. Simon has just…he’s been a handful lately.”

She understood that, but didn’t have time to think about her brother’s shenanigans as a customer walked in for a pick up.

The day was pretty steady with pick ups, tourists, and even some appointments for her parents.

A bit before lunch Simon came in to work with his left wrist bandaged and a busted lip. When he removed his stylish glasses, he also had a black eye nearly as dark as the bruise on his arm from the previous day.

The lesbian couple Evanora had been helping, tried not to but they stared at him just as curiously as she was. Their father, who’d been stocking the shelf with a shipment of crystals that had come in last week, stopped and walked briskly towards his battered son, whispering something within his ear Eva couldn’t hear.

They went to the back while she desperately tried to finish with the couple in front of her.

When she'd basically shoved them out the door, she rushed to the back room to listen to their conversation. Before she entered she heard her mother ask what happened.

She couldn’t see her brother's face but knew the expression he harbored as he gave a hard, sarcastic laugh. “Ask Eva’s half-breed bodyguard.”

She stepped back astonished. Dante wouldn’t hurt her brother, would he?

Evanora wasted no time trying to find out. Lowell had told her Dante owned a little bar not too far from their shop called Inferno. She found it fitting and clever considering his occupation.

She wasn’t sure of the exact address, but it wasn’t hard to find. She left before her lunch break, knowing with her brother there, the shop would manage. Dante’s bar was within walking distance and she made it there in nearly twenty minutes.

If it hadn’t been for the large swinging sign protruding from the wall above the door, she would have mistaken the tiny building for one of the many windowless candle shops close to her parents. The building was small compared to the large professional businesses on either side and Eva thought it was strange for Dante not to be extravagant in its making. She'd only known him for two days, and would never say she knew him on a personal level, but she did get the sense that he didn’t do anything half assed.

She hesitated a moment before pushing open the door, though she wasn’t sure why. She’d come all this way and she wasn’t leaving without at least seeing the man. After pushing open the double door disguised as one, she knit her brows with the realization she was right.

Outside of the bar, Dante looked out of place but within it, he designed it to appear as if he belonged. It held a classic speakeasy feel that Evanora had studied in her highschool home training courses.

The hanging lights were intimate, but provided enough illumination for it not to impair the people drinking under them. She wouldn’t have thought the high ceilings and spacious balcony were possible with the small exterior but somehow Dante had made it work.

If it weren’t for the attire of most of the occupants, she would have suspected time of stopping in this establishment just for him.

She saw him from across the room before he noticed her. He was on the outer edge of the massive bartop, pointing and whispering something fiercely to the worker. The man Dante was speaking with grimaced at his harsh tone, then set the glass he’d been cleaning with a rag down onto the counter. He grabbed three more shot glasses and sat them alongside the one. As he took out a bottle of liquor, his eyes met hers and she recognized him as the young boy who'd brought Dante his car that morning. He appeared human and not any older than her, if he was even twenty, and she wondered how he'd gotten this job.

Sensing his distraction, Dante turned and his gaze locked with Eva’s. There was a quick look of surprise and confusion as he gave her a quick once over, in the way that made her core knot and knees weak. But her hot arousal for the muscled man before her, dressed in casual dark jeans and a tight fitting t-shirt, turned cold when the irritation hit his expression.

The dour in his eyes as they flickered between steely grey to light blue like an SOS signal, made her breathing catch and nearly made her turn around and leave.

She continued her walk toward the men but instead of reaching them, Dante's longer stride met her halfway. He took her by the arm roughly nearly causing her to become unbalanced again. His grip wasn't tight enough to hurt her but was still firm enough that it surprised her.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” He whispered fiercely, nostrils flaring as he maneuvered her away from the middle of the room and back towards a wall near the exit. While he nearly dragged her, he'd been looking around himself.

“My brother, he-”

“Is an idiot.” Dante cut her off sternly. His eyes finally met hers again, still pulsing with his anger.

Despite the fact his hand was still wrapped around her bicep in a tight vise, and she could tell he was pissed, she wasn't afraid of him. If anything she was more afraid of him being upset with her than actually hurting her.

“Coming here, knowing he owed a Bender money. Demanding an extension? Then he’s surprised when he has his thugs beat the shit out of him. Running away with his tail tucked.”

“Wait, so you didn’t…” Her words trailed off as her brows eased from their determination. She knew he wouldn't have hurt her brother.

He arched a brow at her as if she’d insulted him, his nostrils flaring a bit again. “If I wanted to bring harm to Simon Oswald, he’d be dead, not bruised.”

She didn’t like the way he spoke about killing her brother. Yes, he was pigheaded, but he was still her brother and he was in some type of trouble.

“Let me talk to the demon,” she told him, the determination returning. Maybe she could talk some sense into them or at the very least make a deal for his safety.

“Are you stupid?” Dante took a step back, as if almost appalled at the idea, though didn’t release her. “If he’s alone with you in a room, he will not hesitate to devour you whole.”

She felt he was exaggerating but still insisted. “Then protect my brother instead. He apparently needs it more than I do.”

“Do I have to remind you of last night’s events?” His words came out slow, dark, and emphasized.

He didn’t, she was just getting over the fact there was nothing she could have done for Mrs. Well's.

She looked around herself and for the first time noticed the lingering gaze of some of the people in the bar. If they were actually “people”.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Go home,” he told her sternly. “No, go to your parent’s shop. This isn’t a place for your kind.”

Her kind? Before she could ask what he meant by that, he was ushering her out.

“I’ve got business to handle.” His grip on her arm was tight, but no longer uncomfortable as his temper settled. “And it’s not dealing with some love struck woman.”

He seemed to say the last bit rather loudly, as if to make his point to the patrons. After pushing her through the threshold carefully, he closed the door in her face.

She had half a mind to turn back around and demand for him to help her brother but thought against it. She was out of her element. It wasn’t as if she could make Dante do anything.

Defeated, she began her walk back to work only to be stopped by the young man Dante had been angry with. He'd called after her and when she turned, he was jogging up to her with a timid smile on his lips.

“Are you okay?” he asked after seeming to pretend to catch his breath. His eyes roamed over her in a sweep that seemed more curious than sexual.

He was a tiny thing, much shorter than her with dark black hair that made his already pale skin seem paler. He was in nice suit pants and a white button up that she figured was the uniform, though didn't see any other employees. Not that Dante had given her the time to look around.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” She replied politely when what she wanted to do was scream profanities into the universe. Nothing about her life at the moment was “okay”.

They stood there a moment with him just staring at her intently. His pupils dilated, causing her to shift her weight awkwardly until he blurted out if he could buy her a drink.

“Best in the city,” he told her. “Mojito?”

She was about to decline when Dante came from the building and shouted a profanity at him, making them both turn back to the establishment.

“Get your ass back in here or you’re fired.” He pointed his finger towards the door causing the people walking around him to stare in disbelief at his language but Dante only looked at Eva.

The guy gave his attention back to Eva, giving her a weak smile, then reluctantly jogged back towards his job before he lost it.

She watched him go until Dante pointed at her. “Go. Now.”

She wasn’t sure if she liked his commanding tone but still, she did as she was told.

The distance back to her parents' shop seemed longer than it had before and when she finally reached the building her feet were sore from walking in the stylish pumps she’d chosen to impress Dante with. Now her attire just seemed… as if she were trying too hard.

And what was she doing exactly? Doing the exact thing her parents had told her not to do? No, nothing had escalated that far. At the moment, she didn’t even like Just Dante or his commands.

Lowell came out of her parent’s office wiping his mouth with a napkin and holding fast food bags, which she figured had been lunch. He seemed surprised she was leaning against the back door massaging her left foot.

“Hey, sis.” He sang with a smile and if Eva didn’t know better, she would have called it sweet if he hadn’t looked towards the door nervously. “We've been trying to call you. Where have you been?”

For a second, she debated not telling him but she hardly kept anything from her brothers and wasn’t about to start now, especially with the circumstances.

“I went to Inferno.” She removed her other heel and limped past Lowell only to have Simon come from the front of the shop and block her path.

“What?” Lowell asked gravely. “You went-”

“Why?” Simon snapped. “What were you thinking?”

Her parents came from their office, questioning what Simon was yelling about, and before her father could close the door, she noticed the man sitting in front of his desk.

“I went to tell him I didn’t need a bodyguard.” She answered her brother's demands. She'd redirected from the front of the building to just sitting at the loveseat in the hall. While she spoke she continued rubbing her feet. “After seeing Simon, I decided he needed the protection, not me. Who’s the man?”

They all ignored her question; her father posed another. “What did Dante say?”

She looked at the office door then at the studious gaze of her family. Her gaze finally rested on her father.

“Well, before kicking me out, he called me stupid, and reminded me of what happened last night. Who is the man?”

She demanded the last question a bit more forcefully than the last time with narrowed eyes. The last time a strange man had come into their shop and sat in that seat her world turned upside down.

Her parents exchanged glances but before either could speak, the door opened revealing an Asian man dressed in full black with a duster that wasn’t nearly as long, or cool, as Dante’s. He looked maybe around her age but there was a hardness in him she couldn't place.

He looked down at her with eyes so deep brown they were almost black and a smile on his full peach lips. His nose was a little crooked, just as Simon's was after he’d gotten it broken twice in the same month, and his hair was a dark black pulled back into a tiny bun with a few strands loose around his face.

“My name is Monroe. Edgar Monroe.” He extended his hand but when she didn’t take it, he flexed it and pulled back. “I’m with The Society. I’m your new bodyguard.”

“I don’t need a bodyguard.” She didn’t care if she was being blunt. She didn’t want one, let alone two, strange men following her around all day and night.

“It seems you don’t have a choice,” the man replied. She'd finally caught his accent. Korean, like the K-dramas she watched. He arched his abnormally perfect brow; they were styled better than her own. “I was the Reaper sent to help clean the mess–is he going by Dante again? That Dante, left on the side of the road like, well, roadkill.”

“It was an alley.” Eva felt the need to correct him.

“Regardless, Pyropex's are extremely dangerous to face alone-”

“I wasn’t alone,” she interrupted.

“And Dante would have been killed if it hadn’t been a rogue hound.” He continued right over her, aggravatingly. “Then where would we be?”

She held onto the remark about Dante being near invincible and instead stared the man down.

“I’m here, aren’t I?” she asked through clenched teeth. “Not dead, not scratched, like Dante had gotten. He’s fine by the way, though none of you even asked. It’s not like he’s incapable of handling it.”

“He was really only a temporary solution.” Her mother finally spoke up. “Monroe will be with you now.”

“For how long? Until I lose my-” She couldn’t help the way her face contorted and became hot knowing that everyone in this room knew of the situation. “Or is he the one supposed to take it? Is that the way this works? The Society gets to decide what I do with the rest of my life? Give me away like a sex-slave?”

“That is not what we’re doing.” Her father grunted, more uncomfortable than upset.

“Hmm,” she weighed against his response, tilting her head to the side as she grimaced slightly. “Low-key, that is exactly what you’re doing.”

“Please. You shouldn't feel like we're forcing you to do anything.” Again, Monroe extended his hand to her, palm upward while he tried to explain the situation. “While this is a requirement, you have a choice in the matter.”

It wasn’t appealing to Eva how calm the man seemed when he spoke. Was he not infuriated that he was basically going fuck her to prevent the end of their world?

She posed this question to him, sugarcoating the sex part, and his brows arched upward momentarily.

“It’s the way of our society.” His easy answer confounded her. “I would never be upset with our traditions.”

He was brainwashed. This Eva was certain of, and she wouldn’t let her parents do the same to her.

“No,” she refused, leaving her painful shoes and walking away. When they called her back, she stopped and asked what choice she had in the situation. “I can go along with this and live unhappily for the rest of my life or I can refuse and-and-”

“And die.” Simon supplied earning a hard look from everyone in the hallway.

Eva sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

With her eyes closed it was easy to imagine this whole thing was just a dream. Everyone wasn’t in danger. Her parents hadn’t lied to her, and other realms did not exist.

The even breathing of those around her made it hard to hold onto that thought and, when she opened her eyes, the illusion shattered.

“Think about this from my perspective, please? Could you all do that for me?” She was trying not to snap at them, knowing her parents wouldn't tolerate the disrespect much longer. Then she wondered if this was the reaction Dante had worried about.

Even when she'd hid herself away in her closet to cry the previous night, it had been because of her neighbors death. Not the attack, not her family pressuring her. She’d finally broken down because she had been directly responsible for someone dying. How could she not feel remorse over that?

“You all knew about this-this society or whatever.” Her hands moved around as she tried to make her point. “And the existence of other worlds with actual demons. Not the ones you used to scare me with as a child so I’d be ‘a good little girl’. Imagine for a moment everything you had once known was a giant LIE. You’re forced to have bodyguards. One that wants to procreate with you to prevent a demon war, and I’m just supposed to say ‘okay’ and be alright with everything. Just like that?”

When they didn’t respond she shook her head. “No, not possible. So, could everyone just give me a damn minute to comprehend or come to terms with the fucking situation?”

Before they could agree, she was still speaking over them, not even caring she'd swore in front of her parents. “Because this is a big fucking deal. If this thing gets out…”

“It won’t.” Monroe shook his head. “She won’t. We’ll make sure of that.”

Eva would have rather Dante oversaw that didn’t happen and she had to ask herself if she meant protecting her or sleeping with her.

She was positive she meant the first but felt she needed to clarify it within her own mind.

“Let's all just…take a beat. Put a pin in the conversation until we've all calmed down.” Lowell suggested after locking eyes with his angered sister. “Go and eat lunch. We’ll… we will all talk about this later.”

He nodded towards her again, willing her to listen and she felt defeated and embarrassed by her outburst.

After looking to her parents for confirmation that they were cool with Lowell's advice, she nodded and they made a path for her to enter the office. She plopped onto the worn couch with crossed legs and began to eat the lunch Lowell had probably brought.

Simon came in after her and stood on the other side of the room, watching over her awkwardly.

“Are you going to watch me eat or what?” she asked snarkily around a mouth of food.

“Are you dumb or what?” He countered. “Going to a supernatural bar alone, knowing-”

“Please don’t start with what I know.” She sighed around the food in her mouth. “They don’t know Dante is helping keep you alive, do they?”

He seemed confused.

“But still, you're a dick to him.” She swallowed and continued. “He didn’t beat you up, another demon did. Who do you owe money to, besides Dante and the demon at the bar you were gambling with?”

He was silent.

“You need to get your stuff together, like deadass? Before you end up-” She couldn’t continue without her voice quivering.

She couldn’t imagine a life without her big brother.

His phone vibrated in the silent room and when he removed it from his pants pocket, his expression paled.

He met her curious stare, shrugged off his reaction, and ignored her last statement.

“Maybe you should give me the pendant to hold on to.” He began to reach for it, but her hand went to the crystal around her neck as she stared at him. “I could handle it if something were to happen. I’ve been…training for this. I’ve fought demons before.”

Before she could answer him or ask what he meant by that, their parents entered the room, and Simon left quickly without a glance back.

She wasn’t sure what he meant by he’d been fighting demons and she wondered if that was the reason he’d been getting bruised lately.

If it was, she wished he would stop before he ended with something far worse than a busted lip.