"Really? An attack? Who could that be from?" I asked softly.

Daddy shook his head. "I don't know, baby. But he seems to be a loyal servant of Azazel."

"A servant of my creator?" I murmured aloud, hugging his neck as he carried me out of the house and towards the attacker who had tried to break through my reinforced barrier.

"Yes, apparently."

I peered at the figure and my eyes widened at the familiar appearance. "You're kidding!"

"You know him, baby?"

I nodded. "I've talked to him once when Mattie and I were traveling together. But he asked to 'borrow me' from you for awhile after our first night together, Daddy. Remember, in the elevator?"

Daddy shook his head and cupped mine, then I kissed his cheek to calm him down. There was nothing to fear, after all, since he's got a really powerful being in his arms. My daddy's heart pounded as we got close to the red-haired, pale-skinned man that looked absolutely furious. It looked like his hair was made of flames and his nails were extremely long and sharp. Bright orange irises burned like real fire.

"Where is he!" shouted Kenith Hudd, Ifrit's reincarnation. "Where is my master? What have you done with him?"

"He's in a room, safely locked away for now and receiving three meals a day." I replied, resting my chin on my daddy's white hair.

Kenith paused, then scowled. "You're lying! His connection with me broke over a month ago and I only recently felt his life force return. What did you do to him!"

"Well, I didn't kill him. He allowed himself to be killed by my beloved rescuers, then I remade his body and put his soul into it since my lovers didn't want him inside me."

The Ifrit reincarnate dropped his hands immediately, then knelt on one knee. "So you were not just a threat to be watched, but also the ultimate creation my master had worked for a few millennia in creating." murmured Kenith, keeping his fiery gaze on my face.

Suddenly feeling uncomfortable, I sucked in my lips. Daddy tucked my head down and I snuggled into his arms.

It had been a week since the whole "talking things out" ordeal and I'm still not feeling super chipper. I know everyone says that it will take time, but I just wonder if it will take me an eternity to move on from inherited guilt due to sympathizing with a murdering psychopath and wanting him to be happy. That mindset still hasn't changed. I wonder if that was programmed into me, so to speak. Aside from my sizing error, maybe this was a character flaw? And an unchangeable one at that?

I flicked my fingers and the man was dragged through the barrier. "Don't pull any crap. You have a temporary pass, which can be revoked at any sign of threat to the ones who live here. That revocation will throw you outside of the barrier into the hinterlands, so be careful."

"Uh, thank you..."

Daddy hummed and turned around. "Let's go." he muttered, then kissed my head. "Why, baby?"

"Kenith Hudd is stupidly honest. If he says he's loyal to Azazel, then he actually is that way. And because Azazel is loyal to me due to our...affection towards each other, then that man is also under me. But even if Kenith chooses to rebel and cause harm, he's outta here."

Daddy ruffled my hair and petted my wolf ears. "I see," he rumbled with a deep chuckle.

"See what?" asked Kenith, who was quickly striding behind us.

My daddy ignored him. I moved my head a bit and looked into Kenith's unnerving orange eyes. "Azazel looks different now."

He raised an eyebrow. "Different?"

"He isn't cursed with a partially arachnid appearance anymore."

"How?"

I stared at him, then he pointed at me. "You?" he asked, then nodded. "Makes sense."

"What do you mean?"

Kenith blinked when I had Daddy phase through the wall into Azazel's room. The reincarnation of Ifrit rushed over to Azazel, who was reading a book while sitting on his bed.

"Master! It's so good to see you again!"

Azazel eyed the man. "Ken, where in the world have you been?"

"I'm not all-powerful, Master!" he exclaimed, placing his hands on the edge of the bed. "I had to wipe out a few tribes and travel thousands of miles to get back to you after your life force disappeared."

Azazel sighed softly and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why did you return? You are free to do as you wish now—no longer bound by blood and magic."

Kenith pouted. "I am doing as I wish. I want to remain by your side, Master. I've told you millions of times by now that I love you."

I was a little surprised by the confession, but they kind of suit each other. They don't mind murdering people in order to achieve their hearts' desires. Azazel noticed my and Daddy's presence, then pushed up off his bed to greet us. Kenith tried to stop him, but my creator wanted to hug me. Daddy has allowed him one hug a day, so Azazel has remained quiet and compliant.

I curled my arms around Azazel's neck and he sighed softly, pressing his face into my right shoulder. His left arm kept my front against his corresponding side. Kenith was watching us in silence, his fingers twitching when he noticed me staring at him.

"Explain," I murmured, and Kenith frowned.

"What?"

"What you meant when you said it makes sense for me to have remade Azazel's body and dealt with his soul. Although I have done something similar before, why was this time a bigger deal?"

Kenith straightened when Azazel looked at him, then he nodded after his master gave the signal to go ahead. "Because my master was never human originally. He was not ever a mortal being." he stated, so I turned my head and looked at Daddy. He was tense.

"What do you mean?"

"Master was a god."

My jaw dropped. Azazel was never playing god! He was one.

Kenith smirked and placed a hand on his chest. "And I have been serving him for thousands of years, even before the curse was cast upon him. Sadly, my body is mortal, but I will find another one once this shell dies."

I rested my forearms on Azazel's shoulders. "What really happened, Zel?" I asked softly, and he sighed as he looked away.

"I was young, foolish, and had hope. But I was created for a specific purpose—to handle the dead and the transfer of souls. I had never touched any mortal or semi-immortal for one brush of my fingers had plants withering away. My mother creator warned me to never go to the human realm for commingling pleasures as others gods would, but I was tired of handling souls. I watched in envy as other gods and goddesses created families with humans, yet I could not. I had yet to see what the full scope of my being could do to the humans in their realm.

"My mother cursed me, giving me one half of what I so desperately wanted and taking away the other half. I could touch without killing, but I could be not touched no matter what. I was cursed to live in a form all would despise as a punishment for what I wrought on this world. As a god, cursed as I had been, it would have been impossible to kill me had I not allowed it. My death was the only way I could break mostly free of my mother's curse on my soul. And, as a god, my soul is built differently. My soul would have been irrecoverable if I had not made you as perfect as you are, Anwyll."

"Oh," I murmured, then petted his head. "But why did you have to go so far in hurting and killing people? I know it was to create me, but..."

"Because I was desperate for love—for a family. All rejected me when they saw me for what I was and denied reality. I both manipulated and erased my surviving experiments' and creations' memories so they could live in the peace and happiness that they would find in the world."

"But that ended up being Anwyll," rumbled Daddy, grasping my silvery white tail tip. "He was the one who allowed them to feel that way. I am one of his happy victims."

My tail wriggled in his grasp, which made my daddy smile. Azazel patted my back and gently bounced me. I eyed Kenith, who was looking very jealous and envious right now.

"Kenith, how did you come to be a servant of Zel?"

He tilted his head back in a proud manner. "You want to know, huh? It's one of my master's most inspiring encounters. Before I had to start reincarnating, I'd set fire to a village and was feasting on human remains. My master appeared in a flurry of black flames, all of which crept along the ground and caused the bodies to turn to ash as he lifted his skeletal hand to gather the souls of the dead. His cold, dark expression in that coal-black skeletal face made me freeze. He was so beautiful!"

Azazel clicked his tongue and sighed. "To cut the story short, my creation, he asked me to punish him for his crimes, which I did realize later was just a way for him to be close and pester me into a relationship I did not want."

"How mean! I was right there! You didn't have to go through all those years creating him when you could have been—excuse my crudity—banging me or being banged. What a waste, my liege."

Azazel's gray skin flushed. "I didn't have feelings for you."

"And yet you murdered thousands and expected the few surviving creations to love you. What a warped, twisted view. I guess that comes from your time as a god, though." I commented dryly.

Azazel hugged me tighter. "I suppose it does. But this was how I saw it, thus I cannot change things now."

"I understand, Zel."

Daddy chose to retrieve me at that moment, then headed for the door. Before he left I said, "If you attempt something Zel doesn't want you to do, then you will be expelled from the barrier. You have been warned."

Kenith huffed and crossed his arms. "As if I would. I know Master hates me."

"I do not hate you, but you are irritating."

Kenith's fiery orange eyes brightened and he beamed. "Wonderful! I am so relieved Master does not hate me. Let us talk to catch up."

Daddy shut the door behind us and I sighed, then tucked my nose down. "Do I feel worse? No. But what we just learned does not make me feel any better either."

My dearly beloved daddy used his own magic to teleport us to his room. I was immediately stripped down and settled under the covers, then my lover followed suit. My small, slim body almost seemed repulsive now, especially after knowing which races contributed to my small stature. I have yet to figure out why I'm so youthful in appearance.

But the sudden action of Daddy's hands moving my front onto his own was wonderfully distracting from my negative thoughts. I wriggled on top of him as he pulled up the covers. Daddy chuckled and lifted his head to kiss mine. "It's been a rough day so far, baby. You had work as the vampire king and many vying for your attention today, so it's time for a nap."

I yawned right then and there, so I nodded and rested my right cheek on his chest. "A nap sounds amazing, Daddy."

He rubbed my head and his chest vibrated with a pleased draconic purr. "I am relieved, baby boy. I don't know what I would have done if you had said no. Some kind of punishment, perhaps?" he asked in a teasing tone.

"Speaking of which, Daddy, why is your punishment dungeon so scary?"

He snorted and quietly laughed. "Because it was designed to torment the prisoners with their worst fears at random times. Of course, I did not set it to a hardcore degree for the boys here, but I did for Matteo and the scarlet dragon that had infiltrated our home at my mother's behest."

"What happened to him, anyway?"

"He was the one who volunteered with a vampire to track down Azazel."

"Oh," I whispered, then clenched my fists. "So he's not alive anymore."

"No," murmured Daddy, then he kissed my head and yawned. "Sleep, baby. You need it."

"So do you," I replied, then whispered, "I love you, Daddy. Sleep well."

"You too, baby. I love you as well."

Within a couple minutes, I could feel myself drifting off. I wonder what things will be like tomorrow, next week, even next month. It surely should be interesting. And while I recover, I have my beloveds to love and support me all the way through. I can never thank them enough for all that they have done for me; helping me grow and mature as a person as well as loving me despite all my flaws.

My beloveds are all mine. And I'm all theirs, of course.