Look What You Made Me Do

B right light fills my eyes when they crack open and pain explodes in my head.

Ugh. I feel like a fucking dump truck hit me.

Swallowing past the dry ache in my throat, I take a slow, even breath in, wincing when it hurts. Damn, I was hoping if I moved a little, the dull ache covering my entire frame wouldn’t kick up a notch. Unfortunately for me, whatever bullshit happened to me isn’t on board with letting me get my bearings. I let my eyes close so the burning in my eyeballs stops and the throb recedes a little.

“Kit? Kit! Oh, shit, man, he’s awake!”

The sound makes me cringe, and despite the excited tone in the speaker’s voice, my brain is far too fuzzy to even place it. Obviously, it’s one of the seven fucking demons who are responsible for this nonsense; I just can’t make my mind sharpen enough to figure out which one. That’s a problem for later, I suppose.

Thundering footsteps echo in my ears as someone responds to the call, and I wince again. I have no idea why they’re stomping around like goddamn Shrek, but it’s gotta stop. Preparing myself for pain, I open my mouth to croak, “Shhhhh.”

A blast of worry rolls over me, blanketing my emotions with fear like I’m being mummified. It’s so trippy. I blink rapidly as I try to cope with the intensity of the feeling battering me. Whatever I’m lying on dips and a soft voice says, “Dude, chill. I think… I mean, I’m not the expert, but I think your emotions are hurting him.”

“They are? How?”

Not another argument. These dipshits argue constantly, and I don’t have the spoons right now.

“Look at him. He’s shrinking into the bed. Get Dottie. Maybe it will help.”

The comment helps me, because I’m pretty sure it narrows who is talking despite their voices sounding like they’re coming from the bottom of a well. I don’t think Slash, Jasper, Zavida, or even Anton know enough about me to remember my girl’s name. It has to be one of the remaining three. I feel safer with that extrapolation given my current physical condition, so I let my body relax against what I now realize is someone’s bed.

Please let it be mine or I may have an issue when I get a better grip.

My throat works again, and my eyes flutter as the dry ache slices into me again. I feel movement, and suddenly, a straw is being placed against my lips. I suck gently, grateful for whichever one figured out what I needed, and when the cool liquid slides downward, I almost cry in relief. I don’t know what the shit happened, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been this physically hurt since the incident freshman year.

“Kit, I think you can hear me. Maybe you’re hurting a lot and that makes sense, but blink once if you can hear us.”

I can do that. My eyes do as instructed, and I hear more than a sigh of relief. It helps me to know there are at least three people in the room, but it could be more. My senses are haywire—much like my brain—and I’m getting a lot of weird emotional feedback, sort of smashing into my consciousness right now.

Of course, I could have a concussion or something and none of that would even be real, so who knows?

Another voice creeps in, low, but quiet. “You’re likely in some pain, though we had the Doc come give you things to help with that. I realize that might creep you out because you weren’t awake when Dank checked you, but no one other than him was in the room. You can ask him when you’re doing better.”

Good catch, whoever. I would have had a fucking panic attack on the damn spot if I thought those guys were all leering at me when I was out cold and…. oh no.

Oh, no, no no no no.

He said Dank examined me. That means their doctor has to know my secret. Did he tell them? He couldn’t have or I’d probably have awakened in a human hospital, not in Hell, right? They definitely wouldn’t keep my secret, even if some of them kind of tolerate me. Their vengeance would be swift after the whole induction thing we just did.

I can’t help the rising feeling of dread pouring through me like a wildfire, and my breaths get shorter as it increases. Digging my hands into the soft material under me, I squeeze my closed eyes, chanting in my head to hopefully curb what I know is coming. I count; I recite mantras. But nothing helps as the spiky anxiety continues to mount, tensing my body and jacking my heart rate into the stratosphere.

You can do this, Kat; fight it.

But my mind is too weak and my body is weaker, so my words of encouragement to myself don’t help. A fierce itch starts on my hands and feet—as usual—and I’m too exhausted to scratch it like normal, so it just burns uncomfortably as I lie still. My gut clenches, then roils like it wants to heave the water up and maybe more, but it expels nothing… yet. The pounding in my ears gets louder and bright spots dance beneath my lids as the vibration in my body pulses with my blood pressure. I pant softly, shaking as I struggle to get the reaction under control before it knocks me out cold again.

“Kit, calm down.”

As if that phrase has ever, in the history of humanity, helped anyone actually do such a thing.

I swallow again when I notice my fingers are trembling. That will move through me like a seizure and I’m too frozen to explain that to my watchers. My panic attack is going to lead to a flashback; I know it now. My injured state—whatever it is—is keeping me from preventing the progression. These guys are going to get a crash course in what’s it really likely to have Kat Camponella tied to you and they will not like it.

Figures this shit would happen when I have the least ability to stop it—that’s my life in a nutshell.

“Fucking hell, Salem, get the familiar over here. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think he’s getting worse.”

Dottie is sitting on my stomach within seconds, then she chitters and climbs up my chest to curl up in the crook of my neck. Her tiny paws and soft nuzzles work like a magic I’ve never known. I almost wind myself from the shock alone when my limbs untense and my heart rate slows slightly. Oriel—I think—was right to ask Salem to bring her in to me.

“His blood presssssure is going down. Good plan, O,” the other voice says.

That tell just identified it as X, but they rarely shows their shifter side, I thought. I frown as the fear and panic subside slowly, realizing I need to see what is actually going on around me, even if it hurts. Dottie burrows closer, rubbing her tiny face against my skin, and I sigh as warmth fills me. My little thieving friend is one of the best surprises I’ve ever had and this just clinches that opinion.

I give my body a few more moments to wind down, then I force my lids open to squint around the room. There’s not a lot of light, despite what I thought earlier, but I’m surprised to see four half-shifted demons staring at me with various expressions on their faces. When I look at each one, a feeling forms in my gut, and it’s like I’m sensing how they feel. Oriel is the one whose worry is gnawing at him. Salem feels guilty, X is afraid, and Anton is confused.

What the hell is with this shit?

“What… happened?”

They look at one another, then at me, and finally, Oriel takes my hand gently. “You said all the words. Then after the last bit, this tremendous wave of power sort of crumbled the fucking ceiling, and we all shifted. By the time we got control, you were buried under a shit ton of rubble.”

“If you could not do that again, it would be great,” Xerxes mumbles and Anton takes their hand, squeezing it. “Freaked me out.”

“Samesies,” Salem pipes up. “Slash and I had to dig you out since the rocks were so damn big and I was worried you were a Kit Kat-shaped pancake. Cute in theory, bad in practice.”

I think I’m smiling sheepishly, but I honestly don’t know for sure. “Sorry.”

“You sure as fuck didn’t mean for that to happen,” Anton says with a scoff. My pulse jumps when I think he’s being an ass, but he follows it up with an explanation. “Jasper pushed that damn fancy ceremony with the Latin and shit, even though we do not know what powers or forms you have. It was a dumb risk to take.”

Wait, what?

“But I’m not?—”

“Kit, you brought the ceiling down,” Oriel says, as his dark eyes scan my face. “You said the words and this big… burst of energy yanked you off the ground, then you sort of… exploded. The ceiling came down, and we all had our animal forms come out without us intending it.”

“I did not.”

Salem gives me a lopsided grin. “Sure did, Kit Kat. I’ve never in my life had the bear come busting out when I didn’t want him to. But it was pretty badass.”

Frowning, I try to sit up and my body creaks painfully. “I…”

“Is he awake finally?” The deep rumbling voice is loud, and my eyes widen. I tense up, gripping O’s hand when the door flies open. The rest of the clown car piles into the room, sucking up the space and the air as they assemble along the walls.

“Shhh!” X admonishes as they glare at the three demons. “His head hurts and he’s having trouble. If you act like dicks, Annie and Salem will toss you out on your asses.”

Annie will? What don’t I know?

Jasper rolls his eyes, huffing as he stays in the corner with his tail whipping in irritation. “Coddling the little shit won’t help.”

Dottie pulls out of her small ball and scampers down my body, standing on my stomach as she shakes her tiny paw at the dragon. Oriel laughs softly, holding a finger out for her high-five, then turns to his grumpy leader. “Jasper, shut the fuck up for once, man. Admit you made a goddamn mistake. We shouldn’t have gone so hard, especially in an unshielded space with someone we had zero knowledge of what might emerge if it got triggered.”

Salem points at him, making a finger gun as he says, “Bull’s eye, man. O nailed it.”

The Prince throws his hands up and snarls, “Zav, please tell these dipshits that absolutely nothing we did, even in Latin, should have caused that kid to go nuclear.”

The red-headed Kitsuné has been silent so far, but he rubs the back of his neck and his tail flicks before he says softly, “You might think I’m just saying this, but Jas is right. The induction is the same regardless of the language and whether we do it fancy or plain. That shouldn’t have happened and he wouldn’t have known it would. I didn’t or I would have stopped him.”

I blink. He would have?

“That is true, bantam ,” Slash says.

It’s the first time he’s spoken since they entered, and I study his face carefully for deception but don’t find any. The weird gut feelings agree with my eyes, so I nod. “Okay.”

“But now that is has…” Zavida says as his brows furrow. “We need to figure out what you really are. Not knowing how to help you will cripple you at Discordia and it’s too cutthroat for you to wander around without powers for long.”

Licking my lips, I gesture for Salem to bring the water closer. I take another sip before I ask, “I thought you said the induction would help?”

“It will and it won’t,” Jasper says with an eye roll. “It will take you off the lower level morons’ lists. But being associated with us gets you onto other lists that are less… obvious and more dangerous.”

Mother. Fucker.

“I don’t understand how this helps, then.”

Oriel grins at me, squeezing my hand. “Because even if that asshole fucked up, it got something inside of you to loosen the hinges. We need to finish prying the lid open so you have access to all of whatever it is you have locked away inside.”

“I think it’s a snake like me,” X says with a grin. “Did you see the scales yet?”

Scales?!

Panic grips me again, but Salem scoots closer, pressing his leg against mine as he sighs. “Well, I’d hoped to ease you into that part. But since the excitable enby other can’t keep their pants on…”

“Fuck you, Salem,” X chirps good-naturedly. “I look fucking amazing in skirts. You couldn’t hack it.”

“That’s a bet for later,” Oriel winks at me, then arches a brow. “You ready to see a piece of this? It’s not in a private place.”

Great, that means they’ve all seen it.

“Yeah. Not fun being the last one in the room when it’s my skin.”

He lifts the hand he’s holding, then pulls the clip off the gauze on my forearm. It unravels slowly, and as it does, my eyes turn to saucers. Every so often, an eruption of iridescent scales in jeweled hues graces my skin as if someone tore open my human skin with claws to reveal them.

Holy. Mother. Forking. Shirtballs.