Although the Evil Spider and I had come to an agreement, he was not yet willing to let me go. But instead of continued darkness, he gradually began to make the room a little brighter after I woke up from our usual routine.

I still hadn't gotten the answers to my burning questions but, now that my confidence has gone away again, I just could not bring up the topic on how I came to be. I really cannot handle even just thinking about how much pain I must have put my hybrid beloveds through. And they have no idea that their pain and suffering was my fault. But, on the other hand, I did have questions that could be answered without pain.

"Can I know your name before we begin again?" I asked, barely able to see part of him in the shadowy darkness.

"I suppose I can give you my name at this time." he stated, then uttered under his breath, "Azazel."

I blinked. "Do you hate it?"

Azazel seemed frustrated. "How could I not hate it? I was cursed with this name and my current wretched appearance!"

"Current?"

His breath caught and he became silent. Our talk time had ended. But I had a different idea for myself instead of sleeping.

"I won't ask any more questions about you for now, Zel, but I would like to be able to see my beloveds."

"Are you certain that you can handle it?"

"Is that worry I hear?" I asked with a teasing grin, then heard him grunt above me. The taps along the ceiling still made me shudder, but the tension had eased between us.

Azazel grunted above me, not willing to admit that he was worried for me and that he had been concerned over my well-being the entire time I had been here. In fact, Azazel acted like a hen at times, unless he was really irritated and took away my blanket that left me really cold for awhile. But that had only happened twice so far.

I felt a bit of mana trickle into my core, then smiled and imagined a hologram. Azazel projected the "video feed" to the hologram, then I felt the backs of my eyes sting when I noticed all fifteen of my beloveds sharing a meal around a hearth in silence.

"They are in a room I provided for eating and sleeping." stated Azazel, hanging above me as my breath stuttered.

"Th-thank you," I murmured, then nearly burst into tears when I saw Blaine start crying.

Damon immediately set his bowl down and hugged him, then his white angel wings curled around himself and Blaine as much as they could. Briar was also tearing up as he rubbed Blaine's back.

"Do you see how selfish you are now?"

That hurt, but Azazel was correct.

"I know how selfish I am. I can certainly see it now. But why does that matter to you? It sounds like you want me to escape and return to my beloveds." I replied, staring at Ambrose clenching his fists and biting one thumb as he stared into the lit fireplace.

Uncle Andros and Daddy were huddled together with the former pressing a kiss to the latter's right temple. Daddy appeared to be appreciative. It made me wonder if my daddy had finally handled those feelings that his brother had for him.

"No," rumbled Azazel, then exhaled as I glanced up in his general section. "But I want to be family with my creations. Seeing them suffer in pain is not what I desire."

"Despite creating them and letting them suffer during and after the process?"

Azazel was silent. I took that as my cue to change the subject.

"Why did you choose my mother to birth me?"

He blew out a breath. "Her DNA had the correct qualifications to birth a special creation. Although, I did enslave her to do my bidding as I had with that demon—Aeglaeca, correct?"

"Y-yeah, but I never saw any spider tattoo on her before."

"The tattoo-like marking around her neck has spider webs hidden inside. I designed it in such a way that only the most skilled eye could see them."

"I see, but why did she lock me in that house and beat me up?" I asked, starting to get irritated. "Were you the one who—?"

"No," interrupted Azazel, "that was of her own free will. She was furious to have been tricked into a slave contract, but she had been too blind by greed to notice the important clauses. She always hated you because your existence reminded her of her own stupidity."

I blew out a harsh breath and sighed aloud. "Okay, then why was she obsessed with keeping me from seeing myself and having any confidence in my academic smarts or intelligence?"

Azazel moved over a bit above me. "It was to monopolize every aspect of your life and make you entirely dependent on her because she was all you really knew."

"Then why kick me out?"

"Because our contract forced her to do so. She would have kept you in torment for the rest of your life."

I frowned. "Okay, so why didn't you come get me earlier than that? She could have killed me!"

"No, because that slave contract kept her in line. Besides, eighteen years was not a long time to wait. It seemed to pass by in a blink of an eye for me, Anwyll. I'm well over three thousand years old—much older than even that number."

"Oh, that's true." I mumbled, then the room got quiet for a bit. Then I asked, "Zel, how is it that I was your 'masterpiece' after bouts of testing, despite the varied ages of my beloveds? I'm older than most of them."

Azazel scuttled above me towards another corner and rested there for a few seconds before moving down the wall. "I have mentioned this before, have I not?"

"Mentioned what?"

"Memory manipulation."

My eyebrows shot up. "Wait, are you saying that all of my hybrid lovers who I thought are younger are actually the opposite?"

He hummed his answer, so I covered my mouth for a second before I burst with questions: "But how is that possible? Especially with Waltz and his family? And the weird time-travel stuff we did? He's supposed to be about a year or so younger than me!"

Azazel chuckled. "You have never met his family in person, have you? And that was not actually time-travel but a space you created with magic based off his manipulated memories. Hence, that is why time was unaffected when you returned to the outside world."

I gaped for a few seconds, which seemed to make him amused. I tilted my head and then frowned. "So what was Little Waltz then?"

"A version of Waltz that was stored in his brain. One of the reasons he felt better after spending that time with you was because you were healing him from the inside."

"Oh," I mumbled. "Thank you for explaining."

"You are very welcome. Any more questions?"

I nodded as I remembered a few important factors. "What about Briar? We met his old man awhile back. It had actually been ten years, hadn't it? That would mean that he is younger than me. Right?"

"Wrong," murmured Azazel. "He is about a year and a half older than you. For Kyler, he was within my lab while I was still experimenting with some of the finer details of gene compatibility and splicing many years ago.

"As for the issue with your characteristics emerging at the time a few of you got stuffed animals, those were just a coincidences. If you consider the fact that Briar has a black cat plush animal and you have a stuffed bear with a very similar color of fur to your hair, then should you not have bear-related characteristics? Your lover, Zaire, did not have a plush snake and Blaine did not have a bat one. Even Briar's plush animal is just a black cat and not a black jaguar, thus it has nothing to do with the characteristics."

I frowned, although what he said made sense. Did my creator read my mind?

"Yes," he replied simply, then silence befell us. It draped the room with a thick tension that made it hard to digest what I had just heard.

It made me sick to my stomach as the horrible realization sunk into the core of my being. I really, truly was the source of my "Emerged" beloveds' suffering. I had no right to receive their love when I caused their agony and anguish. If they knew how I came to be, there is no way they would forgive me. It's all my fault. Mother was right. I never should have been born. I don't have the right to live.

"Enough," murmured Azazel, and my mana was sealed off.

The video feed of my beloveds blipped out of existence, so the cold, hard cement below me felt more deserving of my presence than the blankets in which Azazel forcibly cocooned me. Tears slipped down my cheeks as I dug my nails into my palms.

"Do you wish to forget?"

"I don't deserve that right. I don't deserve anything. It feels like all of the love I gave to them was built on a lie—deceiving their hearts and minds into a false sense of security. Who knew I would be their greatest source of agony." I whispered, letting the tears burn my eyeballs and drip onto my stinging hands. It felt good to be in pain.

"Anwyll," started Azazel, then hesitated for a split second before continuing, "this is not your fault. I am the one who did this to them—not you."

"It was my fault, Azazel!" I exclaimed, raising my voice for the first time in a long while. "I was born from their suffering!"

Azazel moved closer and I tried to escape, but the cocoon kept me rooted in place. I felt helpless and angry, even more so after Azazel denied me my acts of repentance with magic. He grasped my hands for a moment and then cupped my face, brushing his thumbs under my eyes. I whimpered through my soft sobs and he picked my cocooned form up. I felt him take me up the wall and then he used something to keep me stuck in a corner. Azazel sighed and petted my hair, then hugged me closely as the dam well and truly burst into smithereens.

How could they ever forgive me?

__________________________

"I thought I heard something!"

"But there's nothing here, Alexandre!"

I slowly awakened from the sound of familiar voices moving closer. Azazel was still holding me securely, so I was comfortable. I suppose we deserve each other for the bad things we have caused and done to others just from our existences.

Would it be better to step back from my beloveds? I love them all dearly, but I'm scared of their rejection. I wasn't scared before because I had no knowledge. I feel like I've eaten of the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. No wonder some knowledge needs to remain hidden. I could have gone the rest of my life without knowing what I do now.

"Cease those useless thoughts."

I blinked and slowly rubbed my eyes, the face of my creator. He had eight eyes as dark as night, just like a spider. Azazel's dark auburn hair seemed dull and straw-like in texture, too. His skin was a dark gray with some lighter ash-gray patches down his throat and chest. His nose was slightly crooked and a long scar cut across his face from one cheekbone to the other, having been distinctly sliced over his nose as if to remain as a cruel reminder of a horrific past. Azazel's lips were human-like, but it looked like his jaw could unhinge like a snake. I had a feeling he had inhuman teeth too, based off the thick yet sharp talon-like fangs that curled under his jaw from his upper teeth.

And then I noticed he was, indeed, a spider. His pelvis was connected to an enormous abdomen with eight huge spider legs and four "feet" rested on either side of me against a thick webbing that looked rather sticky. His human-like upper body was quite slim, but he was not lacking in strength in any way. Azazel just looked like a spider monster.

"I was expecting screaming, not a thorough once-over of my hideous appearance."

I couldn't help my soft giggle. Azazel's lips twitched and his eyes seemed to convey some sort of happiness, but then he stiffened and turned his head. He hugged my form tighter and I sensed him put some sort of invisible shield over us just as the walls trembled. I huddled in Azazel's arms as a loud boom nearly burst my eardrums because the wall to my right had practically exploded. I peered over Azazel's left shoulder to see what all the fuss was about.

"I can sense him," growled Gavin, and I nearly squeaked. I could barely believe they were so close. They were within jumping distance, if they could catch me thirty feet below.

Matteo nodded. "Master is here. His scent is strongest in this area."

Gavin lightly punched Matteo's side. "You pervert," he stated, although in a joking way because he was laughing.

Matteo didn't take any offense and actually agreed. "Yes, I am Master's pervert."

Gavin had a playfully disgusted expression, then he was grabbed by Zaire. "What?"

"Predator," hissed Zaire, his tongue flicking out to taste the air. Kyler agreed with a furious growl, his anger overwhelming any fear he likely had of his former tormentor.

Everyone stiffened, then Damon inquired, "What kind?"

Daddy looked up towards the ceiling, close to where Azazel was hiding us. "The master of this building—the one who took our little wolf."

Russet shivered and Angel patted his head. It was then that I noticed they were decked out in different kinds of armor over their clothing. Both leather and metal mixes for my stronger lovers and modern armor for my weaker ones. That made sense.

Azazel looked at me. "This is your last chance, Anwyll. Will you say goodbye to them forever and live with me? Or will you speak up and have them battle with me to win your powerless self back?"

"Is there not a third option?" I whispered softly. "Like where we live in near harmony."

He shook his head. "My desires and ideals are unrealistic with how much evil I have poured into this world. Not only have I hurt all my creations, but even you, my precious masterpiece. There will never be another you for as long as I am cursed to live unchangingly—until this world no longer exists or my life force is fully snuffed out."

I teared up a bit. "I-I'm sorry for—!"

"Not one part of this is your fault. All of the things that came to pass are from my hands, my decisions, and the results of those actions are my burdens to bear alone. Do not blame yourself any longer, Anwyll, my dear little wolf. You deserve to love and be loved—beyond what I desired for my own self." he whispered, gently kissing my forehead. "And, because I know what your answer to my question will be, I will play my role until the end. It was nice to feel comfort from another being, especially one that had no intention to betray and or kill me."

"Wait, Azazel..."

Azazel stopped moving away from me as I reached out for him. He teared up a bit with all eight eyes and hugged my form tightly. He loosened the cocoon and held me a little bit closer, so I tried to hug him that much more fiercely but was unable. That made me confused, but Azazel squeezed my form a bit tighter.

"Azazel, I'm sorry I hurt you. I know you've done a lot of evil things in this world aside from creating hybrids, but I hope you know that I actually kind of enjoyed the time we spent together. I know you only wanted a family, even while people kept coming in droves to end your life. So I also hope you know that you were kinda like a big brother to me—or at least how I imagine mine would have been."

He chuckled as eight tears rolled down his cheeks and stung a few of his eyes lower on his face. "I know."

He resettled me into my cocoon and used magic to chain me in place, although nothing hurt. I let my tears fall as he removed the barrier and played his role of the villain to the very end.