Chapter 11: Amri

I let out a frustrated scream, running to Callyx ready to pounce on him like I did Reaper, but an arm snatches me out of the air and pulls me backwards until I hit a hard chest with a heavy thud.

"Now, now, siren. I can't have you attacking our mate like that." Vincent whispers in my ear, sending shivers throughout my body despite the tension I feel from my fight response.

I snarl at them both, sounding more animal than human and thrash against Vincent's hold.

"Let me go!"

He ignores me and I feel him rest his face on my shoulder. "How did you get in here?"

Callyx motions to the mirror behind him. "Same as you."

"I'm going to kill you!" I scream again. Callyx's chuckle echoes from across the room, making me scream wordlessly at him in anger.

"Let her go, Vinny. I'd like to see what she can do."

I feel Vincent shake his head against me. "No. That wouldn't end well, and you know it. "

"I only had such an extreme reaction last time because I needed to fuck something. You've taken care of that urge for the time being."

I see Callyx smirk as his words hit home. They fucked. They must have fucked before I got here. I know Vincent just explained the bonds and mating to me, but I still haven't gotten used to the fact that they're fucking. That they're fucking behind my back.

My screaming and thrashing start up again. I begin clawing at Vincent's arms around me and smiling when I feel the blood welt up beneath my fingertips. Callyx's smile gets wider as he watches me and stalks toward us, stopping right in front of where Vincent has me held captive.

"Such a pretty little kitten, stuck in a trap and unable to escape me." He whispers, tilting his head to the side and running his finger down my face.

"Be nice," Vincent murmurs to him, "I have a feeling we have to ease her into this."

"That isn't why you brought me here, Vinny, and you know it."

I turn to look at Vincent. "What does that mean?"

Callyx uses my chin to snatch my head back so I'm looking at him. "It means, that from now until I see fit, you are my plaything. My little kitten. No taking it easy on you."

I shake my head. "I didn't agree to this. Vincent just told me about the bonds. I haven't agreed to anything. Damion – "

"Will be dealt with if you do not deal with him yourself."

"I like him. If I can have the three of you, then I want him, too."

Vincent laughs from behind me. "Your little kitten has grown claws, Callyx."

Callyx shakes his head, "Absolutely not, no."

"Yes. If you want me, and I know you do, then Damion gets to be a part of this, too." I hold my head as high as I can while still in Vincent's grasp, and I feel his arms tighten against me. I watch him in the mirror, eyes shining with something that looks an awful lot like pride as Callyx watches us both.

Callyx is relentless, though, and again tells me no. I lunge at him, hands out and ready to claw at his face but Vincent holds me tight, causing my reach to fall short.

"Let me go!" I continue to fight against Vincent's hold, struggling even more when I see the smirk Callyx shoots my way. I don't know why he makes me so angry, but I want to rip his face off. I want to claw it off and watch his blood drip down to the black marble floor, I want him screaming and begging me for mercy. I wouldn't give it to him. He would have killed Damion earlier, I know it, and I haven't known Damion for very long, but I do know he's mine, as much as the Reaper is mine. Callyx already has one person that belongs to me, I won't let him take another.

Callyx steps forward, quicker than my eyes can follow, and grabs my arms. He pins them to my side and lowers his face until he's directly in front of me. "You look so beautiful when you fight, little kitty. You'll look even better with my cock in your mouth and tears running down your face."

"Fuck you." I consider spitting on him, but before I get the chance to, I hear my voice echoing in Vincent's room like it's being announced over some invisible intercom.

"Looks like someone is trying to wake you up, siren."

I hear my name again, and this time, I recognize the voice. "Damion."

"Yes, your prince charming is here." The sarcasm rolls out of Vincent's mouth.

"If he's waking her up, that means he's in her bedroom." The low and threatening tone in Callyx's voice causes me to look back up at him and sneer. "I'll take care of that as soon as I get out of solitary."

"The hell you will!" I had felt Vincent's hold on me loosen when Callyx stepped forward since he probably thought Callyx could handle me. Well, I'll show them that I'm not a woman to be ‘handled' like I'm some toy or knickknack. I shove out of Vincent's hold, knocking him backward, and throw myself toward Callyx.

He catches me in his arms, placing his hands under my butt to hold me up, and I feel his hardness through our thin Melford scrubs. I reach up, grabbing a handful of his hair and yanking his head back so he's looking me right in the eyes.

"I want you to look into my soul, and feel how serious I am when I say, if you touch another hair on his head, I will kill you. You will be joining Vincent much sooner than you planned and you may think that's a good thing, but then you won't be able to finish whatever the hell kind of quest he put you on to help me get prepared for the Underworld. So go ahead, touch Damion, because if you do, you will fail Vincent and you will forever wonder what it feels like to fuck me."

I hear Vincent chuckle behind me as Callyx's eyes search mine. "Yes ma'am."

I slide down Callyx's body and turn around, leveling Vincent with a look. "Now, how do I wake up."

Vincent walks over to the large mirror that he and Callyx came through and then waves his hand in front of it. "Just walk through there."

I nod my head, "Thank you."

I begin to walk through the mirror, but Vincent stops me before I get further than my fingertips in.

"Could I get a kiss?"

I look back at Callyx, seeing him watching us with interest, and I feel myself decide that if they are okay with this, then so am I. What they don't know, though, is that I will be getting Damion to agree as well. I'm not giving up Damion, not when I already feel so strongly for him in such a short amount of time. A feeling like that must mean something, and I plan on figuring out what it is.

"Yes." I whisper, watching Callyx from over Vincent's shoulder as he leans in and places his lips against mine, kissing me until I have no choice but to close my eyes and immerse myself in him. The feeling of his lips, the whiskey and citrus taste of him, the hard contours of his body. All of it consumes me and sets me ablaze. Knowing that Callyx stood a few feet away watching Vincent kiss me like I was his reason for living, that made the flames burn even hotter.

My name echoing across the room again causes Vincent to pull away with a sigh. "I guess you can go now."

"Goodbye, Vincent," I say, biting my lip and smiling at him. Movement over my shoulder catches my eye and I see that Callyx has come closer. He moves to push past Vincent, but I start walking backward into the mirror, feeling its coldness ripple around me. I nod my head at him, watching in curiosity as his eyes fall at my movements. "Callyx."

I quickly turn and make the last step through the mirror, gasping when the full effect of the portal washes over me. It's cold, but not like the river I jumped in was cold, this is thicker than that. It feels like I'm walking through gelatin in the refrigerator. I can see my bedroom at Melford in front of me, Damion seated on my bed and trying to shake me awake, but the image is cloudy. Everything else around me is a milky silver color. And the sound, it's hard to even think with the faint but overwhelming hum that echoes in the silver space between me and my room.

As I get closer, I realize it's another mirror that shows the image of my bedroom. A few more steps bring me to the mirror, and I can hear Damion calling my name once more.

"Amri, you're worrying me, wake up, please." He sounds worried, his voice is low in a whisper, most likely to not get caught in a patient's bedroom after hours, but I can tell he's also trying to be loud enough to wake me.

I back up a few steps and run toward the mirror, jumping into it headfirst.

I gasp, shooting up out of bed and looking around my room for Damion, finding him seated right beside me like the mirror showed me.

Crazy fucking portals. I had never felt anything like that in my life, and I shiver when I remember the thick, wet feeling of the silver surrounding me.

"What the hell were you dreaming about?" Damion's whisper brings me back to the present, pushing aside memories of the portal .

"I was with Vincent."

"Oh." I see his eyes roll before he lays down beside me, bringing me in close beside him.

"You were fighting someone while you were dreaming, Ree." He whispers.

"And that…was Callyx."

"What?" He's no longer trying to whisper and instead it comes out as a half yell.

"Shhh. We don't want you to get in trouble for being in here."

His phone buzzes in his pocket and he slides it out, looking at the screen and laughing softly. He types out a quick reply and then puts his phone on the bed next to him.

"Who was that?"

"My sister, Jyl. She's a night guard here and she works in the camera room. She had texted me and said it's about time you woke up."

"So that's how you're able to be in my room right now." I laugh. "I didn't even know you had a sister."

"Twin sister, actually."

My eyes widen. "Really?"

"Yep, my poor mother."

"And you both got jobs here?"

"I got the job here first, and she came on about ten months ago. She's usually in the camera room, though, since she also has a certificate in robotics and mechanics. Also, for that reason, she is able to loop the cameras after tonight, so it looks like I was never in here."

"And she doesn't care that you're fraternizing with a patient?" I would understand if she does care. If my brother was a nurse dating one of his mental patients, then I would probably have something to say about it .

"No, she knows that I don't fall for just anyone, and she trusts me."

"You have a good bond with her."

"I do."

I smile, happy he has someone like that in his life. I never had siblings, and it's probably a good thing I didn't. With my mother dying when I was little, and my father being the way he was, he would have either scarred another little girl or raised a little boy to be his mirror image. Both would have ended up despising him - of that, I'm sure.

"So," he starts, "Callyx was also in your dream."

I nod.

"And is this like your other dreams? Where they're real?"

I nod again. "He told me what happened with you two today." I can't see Damion's face very clearly, since it's mostly in shadow, but I can see a faint black eye and dried blood on his scrubs. When I grab his hand, waiting on him to respond, I see the healing cuts on his knuckles.

"Did he tell you why?" Damion shutters beneath my touch.

"No."

"He was making comments about your ass, talking back and forth between one personality and the other. Then he started talking about how I couldn't handle you and he started making assumptions and I…snapped. I don't like people talking about you, Amri. I feel like enough people have made assumptions about you during your life and if I can stop another one from being made then I will."

I smile sadly as his words hit home. He's right. People have always made assumptions about me. I'm too lazy or I'm a gold digger after Timothy's money, I'm a liar and jealous of my father's girlfriends, or worse, I'm faking my mental state, my depression, and doing things for attention. That one hurt the most.

"But," he continues, "that man can fight. I still don't know why he let me go, but my manager and I both watched the cameras, and it looked like he was speaking to someone right before my handcuffs broke."

"That would have been Reaper. Vincent."

"So, the only reason he didn't kill me…was because the Reaper told him not to?"

"Yes."

"Huh." He lets out a little laugh. "It looks like the Reaper is denying more souls than he's taking."

I laugh with him, smacking his arm when we get too loud and then laughing even harder.

"Did he tell you why he didn't want my soul?"

"He didn't want me mad at Callyx."

"Well, he probably should have thought of that before he started messing around with both of you without telling you. I mean, who does that?" Damion shakes his head and rolls on his back.

I follow him, laying my head on his chest and run my fingers over his abdomen. I stay silent for a few moments, weighing my options and wondering if now is the best time to tell him. I guess there really is no good time to tell him I'm going to be participating in a polyamorous relationship – and that I want him to join in.

"Um, well it's not exactly like that."

"What do you mean?"

I sit up, running my fingers through my hair nervously and taking a deep breath to ready myself. "Reapers…they take more than one mate. Callyx, Zain and I…apparently, we'r e Vincent's."

Damion's eyes widen and I see the anger start coursing through them. "What?"

He gets out of bed, pacing my room back and forth, his eyes never once glancing over to me. I wait for what feels like forever for him to say something, but he never does.

"Damion. Could you say something…please?"

He looks over at me, hands clenched in fists. "Are you leaving me?"

"What? No. Of course not. I really, really like you, Damion." I get up and cross the room to where he stands and I take his hands in mine, lacing our fingers together. "If I'm being honest, it kind of scares me how much I like you in this short amount of time."

"So, you told him you wouldn't be with him?"

I grimace. "Also, no."

Damion takes a step back, looking at me in my eyes and squeezing my hand. "What are you telling me, Amri?"

"I'm telling you…I want you to be in a relationship with us. All of us."