[Rhett] I hoped that changing their focus would get them off the subject of Dolly. It seemed to work, as they nodded and moved back to the body of the vampire. I slowly joined them.“Spencer is going to come look at the bodies tomorrow. Echo asked me to give him one more day to rest. Spencer was sure he was fine, but he experienced Echo’s disappointment and was eager to do anything to make it right.”Victor chuckled at that, and I joined him. I liked that about her. She used her powers to get what she wanted instead of using them sparingly and basically pretending to be human like other supernaturals. Echo was definitely a woman who interested me.“What else do you know about the vampire?” I asked.“Not much. Silence said he preferred donors who were younger, closer to eighteen. I don’t think he drank child’s blood because he wasn’t among the people who fed on Echo. He had very few allies and friends. He also had very few enemies. The man was practically a non-entity.”I looked down at the corpse of the first vampire to feed on my Dolly. Victor was wrong, but I wouldn’t tell him. They were all very lucky Carmen didn’t give me descriptions. I wouldn’t kill them all, as they deserved. Not yet, at least. I would talk to Dolly once we’d taken care of this.She would have a chance to look at any survivors and tell me if they ever hurt her. Then I would make sure they suffered and died. Most of all, I wanted to get at that elf and teach him what it’s like to have a much stronger being treating you like shіt.Rhett, the girl is out of bed. She’s sneaking around the house.“Tell me where she goes,” I said to my darkness.The leaders looked at me. I couldn’t talk to it internally while it was split like this I had to speak out loud. Though they probably wanted to know what that was about, I wasn’t going to tell them anything. It wasn’t their business.“So this nobody vampire died in the cult and the bug decided his body was a perfect host?” I asked.“Yes…. Spencer said the revenant beetle attaches to its host within ten hours of them dying. He said he didn’t know if the vampire was really dead, or if he was taking his rest. When I told him that the heart still beat a little and there were some respirations, Spencer told me that would be enough to stop the beetle from attacking.”“No. The beetle attacked my guest without a host when she was sleeping before she escaped. There has to be some reason for that. Talk to the Templar again and find out why it attacked her. Call me before you do. I want to be there,” I demanded.She’s eating all the meat in your icebox. She’s not even trying to cook it.“Let her. She needs it,” I replied.“Are we distracting you from your conversation?” Trent asked.“I can’t speak to my darkness internally at the moment. I have to talk out loud. It’s split right now and some of it is watching over my guest. She’s raiding my icebox. As you can see, she is comfortable in my home. Do not worry about her.”They didn’t press it further, even though I could tell they wanted to. Victor didn’t seem to mind that I was keeping Dolly to myself, but Trent and Maeve didn’t appear to like it. Not that I cared. It was my choice, and I was keeping her.“When I get up tomorrow, I can talk to Spencer and see what he says about why the beetle might have attacked a living being. Do you suspect there’s something special about her? Do you need help to get information out of her? I can have Echo come meet with her if you believe it will be safe for my wife,” Victor offered.“Though I appreciate your offer, Victor, I already have a lot of information through my own methods and contacts. Knowing what caused the creature to attack her will help me ensure another one won’t try the same thing. If there is one thing I remember from my youth, it’s that where there is one pest, there are always more.”Victor and Maeve nodded, but Trent looked at me with an expression that said he didn’t think I was talking about insects. It was true for all pests. Insects, rodents, and supernaturals. Very few of them traveled or lived alone.I smiled at the werewolf Alpha. Trent wasn’t the weakest of all the leaders, but he certainly wasn’t the strongest. I knew he was fully aware that I was born and raised a hunter. Victor knew it as well. I had no doubt Victor told Maeve.It was actually interesting to me that Victor was surprised when I told him. Had Trent not informed his colleagues of my past? Perhaps he didn’t think it was important. All of them seemed to decide what the others needed to know and when. Even now, they were willing to keep secrets.“If you change your mind, let me know. I know Echo will be more than willing to help, as long as you can control yourself around her as well,” Victor said.“If she were doing this favor for me, I would be more than happy to contain my appreciation for your beautiful Solus Amor and her titillating, vicious attacks. At this time, I don’t have any need for it. Is there anything further?” I asked.The girl is heading back to the bedroom. It looks like she had enough. You might need to shop again. I’m pretty sure she ate every piece of meat in the icebox.I smiled to myself. Now that I knew she was part goblin, I would make sure to have a lot of meat for her. She might be like Rock and need a few other food items, but I would let her take some time before introducing them.“That was it for now. When did you want to go after this thing? Now we know it’s a demon and we have a demon hunter on our side. We might not even need Harmony,” Trent said.“Taking away her purpose will damage her view of your respect for her. I think we can take a couple weeks, so Harmony can have her child and prepare herself for this. You can ask any ranked wolf. They would hate to have prepared for so long and not have a role in it. She will never forgive any of us if we take this from her,” I replied.After training her for so long, I realized that Harmony’s power level was in flux. She wasn’t what they thought she was, but I wouldn’t point it out. Harmony was growing, and I didn’t want her to be influenced by people who might not understand her. Her goddess would guide her to the life she was meant to have.The only reason I believed that was because of the hesitation I felt. That wasn’t common for me. I never felt even the slightest bit of hesitation when I wanted to talk about something. It was obviously an outside influence. If I wanted to, I would disregard it, but I had no reason to.Of course, it meant their goddess owed me. I did her a favor and she would have to do me one as well. I’d address that later.“Fine, we wait on Harmony to be ready. After that, we’re going. We don’t want this thing to get any stronger. You said yourself, the stronger it grows, the lower our chances of beating it,” Trent said.“Indeed, though, when I said that, we didn’t have any information, a demon slayer, or a fully trained triad member. I don’t want anything to ruin our chances of destroying this cult. Oberon and the demon he has summoned need to die,” I growled, remembering all the things Carmen told me both of them did to Dolly.“Your hand’s on your gun again,” Victor whispered to me.“Are you really reacting this emotionally about the woman you rescued?” Maeve asked.“What of it? It’s not only supernaturals that are allowed to have feelings,” I replied.“Is it possible she’s your mate, Rhett?” Trent asked.I laughed. “No. I’m a warlock. I have no mate, soulmate, or anything like that. Sadly, I cannot love, but I need to protect her. I’ll head home. Call me when you talk to Spencer, Victor. Don’t leave me out of things from now on.”With a spin, I let the shadows take me home. I walked into the house and went to my bedroom. Dolly was sitting in my bed, fiddling with her fingers. When I entered the room, she looked up at me with wide eyes.“Hello, Dolly. I heard you got hungry. If you tell me your favorite foods, I’ll make sure I stock the icebox and kitchen with them,” I told her gently.“Why are you nice to me? The big man was right. I’m not good. I get so hungry. The other man said I was an animal. You don’t treat me like an animal,” she said so softly I could barely hear her.Closing the distance, I sat on the side of the bed and held my hand out. She stared at it for a moment before giving me her hand. I gave it a soft kiss and clasped it between my hands.“You are a child. All of your potential lies in the future and the things you are taught. It’s okay to have a large appetite, as long as you don’t hurt anyone because of it. Would you like to stay with me, Dolly? I’ll take care of everything. I can teach you everything you need to know,” I told her.“You don’t think I’m an animal?”Her eyes sparkled with tears, and I could see them glowing a gentle golden color. Maybe it only happened when she was feeling something strongly. I would work with her on that. Hunters looked for any signs someone was less than human. I would need a fae to teach her how to use her glamour….“I think you are a beautiful young lady. It doesn’t matter to me that you’re part goblin, Dolly. From the moment I first saw you, I wanted to give you everything I could. The darkness that lives inside of me doesn’t like anyone, except me… and you. Will you stay here? Let me care for you and help you grow into the woman you were meant to be?” I asked.She looked off into the middle distance. Her eyes seemed to look at something even further away. Was I asking too much of her? Would she decline my offer and ask for her freedom?If she did, I would grant it. When I was human, they told me where to go, what to do, and who to do it with. They forced me to walk, talk, and behave in certain ways. All so my family could flush out the supernaturals living in society.“Mama was my family. Mama said she would protect me forever. She said she would never leave me, but she did. She went to sleep and didn’t wake up. Will you go to sleep, too?” Dolly asked.“I will only sleep for little bits like you do. I won’t leave you like your Mama did. And don’t blame her for leaving. She didn’t want to. A mama never wants to leave her baby,” I told her.I knew that wasn’t entirely true. I’d overheard my mother saying she wished I’d died as a child or that she knew I’d be so disappointing, so she could have abandoned me. Some people don’t deserve to be parents. It sounded like her mother loved her more than mine had loved me.“Are you my new Mama, then?”“No. Only your Mama will ever have that title. You can call me Rhett. If you want to, you could call me Papa or Dad. I won’t make you do that, but you can call me what you want. Do you know how old you are, Dolly?”She looked confused at the question and shook her head. That was unfortunate. We could assume her age until we had some solid evidence of how old she was. I decided she would be eleven.“That’s okay. Did you want to sleep some more?” I asked. “If you want to go back to sleep, I’ll watch over you. Nothing will hurt you again.”“Yes, Papa Rhett.”I chuckled and helped tuck her in. That wasn’t what I thought she would say, but it was cute. Once I tucked her in, Dolly held on to my hand tightly and her eyelids got heavy.“You’re mine, okay?” she whispered.Something about her claiming me like that made my chest tighten. I hadn’t imagined she would actually accept me so quickly. Only my darkness had ever done that. “And you’re mine, Dolly. My baby now and forever,” I replied quietly.She nodded, and her eyes closed entirely. My darkness was happy. I hadn’t lied when I told her my darkness liked her. It really did. I wondered about that. My darkness didn’t like anyone else.