Innocent Devil’s Harem Ch. 01

I watched as Serenity jumped out of the vehicle, gun in hand, and began running up to Gabriella with it pointed at the ground to the side. "Where is he?" she demanded.

"W-Who?" Gabriella asked, sounding scared.

Serenity looked at her in confusion for a second, before clarifying. "The serial killer."

"He's dead," she replied quickly.

It took Serenity a second to register her words, visibly relaxing a little. "Are you sure?"

Gabriella nodded in response, and Serenity hesitantly holstered her gun, glancing around one last time before kneeling down and wrapping her arms around her friend. They both began crying again.

"Oh Gabriella! I was so worried! I'm so glad you're safe!"

I could finally hear sirens in the distance and decided to get ready to leave before a ton of police showed up. I waited a few more minutes while she and Gabriella sobbed together, before finally dashing further into the forest.

Finding a good spot where the canopy above was thinner, I quickly climbed to the top of a tree, as far as the branches would support me, and then leapt high into the air to take flight.

Once I was high above the forest below, I continued to scan the area for a while longer for any signs of danger, before finally heading home. On my way, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, only to pull it out and see that Serenity was calling. Of course, I couldn't exactly answer it while flying, so I let it ring until the call dropped.

Later on, I would just tell her I was in the shower or something.

Speaking of which, I sincerely did need to take a shower. Something about killing people always made me feel really dirty, even when no blood got on me. Certainly, slaughtering this serial killer hadn't been my first time, although I had never taken the life of someone innocent. Thus far, I'd only killed people who had committed murder at least once, viewing it as an eye for an eye.

And I never felt remorse for slaughtering a murderer, although I did always feel filthy afterward.

Dropping into our secluded backyard, I allowed my body to quickly deconstruct my wings and turn back into my human form. I was glad our house was surrounded by trees without any close neighbors. Otherwise, it would be difficult for me to come and go in this manner.

I then dashed inside and quickly got in the shower to begin rinsing off, in order to get rid of the sensation that was beginning to plague my mind. Unexpectedly, it was washing my hands thoroughly and roughly that seemed to help.

Satisfied that they were clean -- and that my conscience felt clean -- I let the water cascade down the back of my neck and along my spine. After a moment, a deep sigh escaped my chest and I felt my muscles finally relax.

I was glad Gabriella was safe, and that she would probably recover without any physical scarring. However, I knew she might be mentally scarred for life, depending on what she had endured prior to me rescuing her.

Sighing again, I sat down in the shower and tried to clear my thoughts of her, because thinking about the hot redhead was both arousing me and making me pissed again. For one, part of me just felt wrong about jerking off right now, but then I was sincerely pissed at the dead man who might have taken advantage of her, beyond just touching her.

I wanted to stab him in the heart again. I almost wished I had killed him more slowly. Made him suffer more before he died.

'Stop,' I chastised myself in my thoughts. 'She's not yours. And she never will be. Just stop it. She's alive. You did a good thing. Now move on.'

I cleared my mind again, and remained like that for a long time, letting the sensation of the water running over me be my only thought. This was the fourth time I had killed someone, with the last three times all happening within the last three years -- because that's about how long Serenity had been a detective. Prior to that, the first and only other time that I'd killed someone, it had been truly an accident when I stumbled upon the scene. At least, an accident in the sense that I hadn't gone looking for it, knowing what I would find.

Although, me killing the murderer certainly wasn't an accident. It was also the only time I'd been too late to save the victim, and thus the only time I'd killed out of revenge instead of defense.

At the time, I'd only been nine years old, with the incident happening nine years ago. There had been a full moon that night, which meant I was struggling to sleep, as usual -- that always seemed to happen once a month, as if the moon wanted me to come out to play. Or, at least, that's what my nine-year-old self thought.

I snuck out of the house at about 2 AM, only to have my nose catch the trail of some weird smells that confused me. Within thirty minutes of running on foot, I'd discovered the source, shocked by the scene I stumbled upon.

I'd never been a fan of scary movies, since being afraid or startled could make me transform, so it had been especially traumatizing to discover a horror scene in real life.

Except that was the difference -- it was real life. It wasn't a movie, it wasn't pretend, and I wasn't helpless to change the plot unfolding before me. Nevertheless, even though I prevented the monster from dealing the finishing blow, the pregnant woman still died in my small arms just before the paramedics arrived.

Traumatizing indeed, for a nine-year-old, human or not. I didn't return home that night for almost three hours, and even then, I didn't act normal for months. Everyone knew something was wrong, but I wasn't willing to share with any of them what I'd experienced. Nevertheless, the extra affection I got from my mom, as well as Serenity and her mom, were what helped me eventually recover.

Unexpectedly, I heard Serenity's car pull up to the house, which snapped me out of my trance, prompting me to realize the water had long since gotten cold. Extreme temperatures didn't bother me as much as it seemed to bother normal people, so it wasn't unusual for me to not notice the cold water. I certainly could tell that there was a temperature difference when I was paying attention, so I preferred hot showers like anyone else. But, whether scalding hot or freezing cold, the extremes were easily bearable.

I quickly turned the water off and jumped out.

After drying off, I glanced at my phone to see that I'd showered for over an hour and a half.

I grimaced, as I mumbled to myself. "Well, hopefully she won't be too pissed I used up all the hot water." Although, I knew it should be warm again within an hour, so it wasn't like it was the end of the world.

Quickly brushing my short hair, I then got dressed in black gym shorts and a dark gray t-shirt, before exiting the bathroom to head downstairs when I heard the front door crack open.

However, just as I took the first step, I realized there was a second heartbeat with my housemate -- a heartbeat that was pounding rather quickly. Serenity appeared in the doorway, catching sight of me frozen at the top of the stairs.

"Oh, hey! I tried calling you. They found her!" she announced.

I only nodded, trying to smile as Gabriella stepped into sight, looking straight down, her face actively turning red. Serenity noticed my odd reaction, but continued with her statement anyway.

"She's been through a lot, so she's going to stay with us tonight."

Despite Gabriella's embarrassed reaction, I honestly wasn't sure if she knew who saved her. After all, she'd only met me once, although my face still looked the same when I was transformed -- the only difference was the coloring. I was glad it was dark when I found her, because that meant it was possible she might not realize it was me. However, I still didn't want to hang around too long and give her the chance to figure it out.

After all, I'd spoken to her too, so even just talking too much might tip her off.

"Right..." I said hesitantly, looking away. "She can sleep in my bed."

"Kai!" Serenity exclaimed.

Suddenly confused, I looked back at her, noticing that Gabriella's face was now even more flushed too, almost matching her red hair. Which was so red that I would have thought was dyed were it not for the fact that I could detect the difference in smell between natural hair, extensions, and dyed hair.

And then it finally dawned on me what it sounded like I was saying.

I quickly held up my hands in shock. "No, no, no! I didn't mean it like that. I'll sleep on the couch, obviously. Jeez, way to make things awkward."

But I knew it wasn't just Serenity. Gabriella had misinterpreted what I meant too -- that much was obvious just from the color of her face. Was it because of how I'd said it? Maybe my tone was off?

Sighing, I ignored Serenity's apology and headed back up the one step to grab myself a blanket and make sure my room was presentable enough. I could hear Serenity now apologizing on my behalf, since I'd left so abruptly.

"Sorry, Gabriella. I'm not sure why he's so rude around you. He's normally not like that."

"It's alright," she replied quietly. "I don't think he's trying to be rude."

Serenity scoffed. "Disappearing whenever you're around seems pretty intentional to me. I'm sure he will warm up to you though. He was bullied pretty bad after our parents passed away. I think he developed trust issues from it, because he still doesn't really have any friends."

"What did they bully him about?" Gabriella asked softly, her voice a little more distant now that they'd moved into the kitchen. It sounded like Serenity was heating up some of the potato and bacon soup I'd made.

Had my housemate forgotten her friend was a vegetarian?

"Well, obviously we aren't related," Serenity began explaining. "Some of the kids found out about our situation, and they actually teased him about us living alone together."

"You're kidding, right?" Gabriella said in disbelief.

"I know it's ridiculous," she replied. "I really wish they hadn't found out to begin with. But when everything first happened, he was sent to a foster home for about a month, because he's actually adopted, and the missing adoption paperwork caused a bit of a snag with me being able to take care of him." She paused. "I'm not sure if it's because they wanted to try to find his real parents, or why it even mattered, but some of the teachers found out about the issue with his unexpected change in living situation, and I guess it spread to his classmates that way."

"He's adopted?" Gabriella repeated, clearly choosing to focus on that aspect, sounding surprised. "At what age?"

"His parents adopted him when he was about two years old," she replied, before returning to the bullying topic. "But you know what's interesting? Even though he doesn't really talk to anyone, I think he still cares about them. For example, there was a fight at school a couple of years back -- both of the guys involved were kids who had bullied him in middle school -- yet he stopped the fight without hurting anyone, defending the kid who was getting beat up." She paused. "He's also always doing nice things for strangers, just little stuff even, like opening the door for people when we go out. I'm really proud of the man he's becoming."

Honestly, I had conflicting feelings about my older friend's statement, especially the last part. Because a big reason why I did stuff like that was because I wanted to make her proud. I needed her approval, probably more than she'd ever know, and in a way she'd likely never be able to give me, since I had no intention on ever telling her my secret.

The risk of rejection and losing her forever wasn't worth it to me. However, I didn't linger on those thoughts long, since I heard her place a bowl down on the table in front of Gabriella.

Sighing again, I quietly dashed to the stairs and called out to her. "Serenity, that has bacon in it!"

She immediately apologized. "Oh, I'm sorry Gabriella! I forgot!"

"No, it's fine!" she exclaimed. "I'm not religious about it. I've just grown up as a vegetarian because both my parents are. Although, I have to admit I've never eaten bacon. Only chicken a few times."

"Are you sure?" Serenity asked. "I can get you something else."

I heard Gabriella take a big bite in response, causing my housemate to chuckle. I then heard her shift in her chair in surprise. "Wow, this is really good! You're a really good cook!" she exclaimed.

Serenity laughed again, sitting down at the table with her own bowl. "I'm horrible at cooking. Kai made this."

It was quiet then, which only made me wish I could see Gabriella's face, desperately wondering what her expression was like.

"He...he did?" she finally managed.

"Yep," Serenity confirmed. "He does basically all the cooking around here. One day when he was fourteen, he officially banned me from using the stove for anything other than boiling water." She laughed again. "He was kidding of course, but I think I've only cooked a handful of meals since then."

"Oh..." Gabriella said quietly. "So...he eats potatoes?"

I could tell Serenity was confused by the question. "Well, yeah. Why?"

"No reason," she said quickly, shoving another spoonful in her mouth.

Of course, that only confirmed my worst fears. Gabriella must have recognized me after all, because her heart rate picked up significantly. Not to mention the weird question about my diet.

What did she think I ate? People?

I wondered if I could still somehow convince her that it wasn't me, in the event she asked about it, or if that was a lost cause. 'I can just play dumb,' I thought to myself. 'Act like I don't know anything.' I wasn't sure if it would work, but it was my last chance at this point.

Serenity was still talking about me, whispering now. "I don't know how he does that."

"Does what?" Gabriella whispered back.

"Know I was about to give you this soup."

Gabriella paused for a moment before responding. "Well, it does have bacon in it, which is a pretty strong scent. Maybe he smelled it when you were heating it up and just assumed?"

"Yeah, maybe," she agreed. "But he's always done things like that. Like when I came home earlier, I was crying. And somehow, he seemed to know. Normally, he just waits for me to come inside, but as soon as I pulled up, he came out to get me."

"Maybe he saw you from the window?" Gabriella offered.

I groaned internally, suddenly realizing what she was doing. She was covering for me. She did know it was me, and now that she realized my housemate didn't know my secret, she was helping me hide it.

Dammit! I already liked her a lot, at least physically. Why did she have to start covering for me? I mean, it was what I both wanted and needed, but now it was like we had our own little secret. I groaned again at the thought.

'Dammit, dammit, dammit. You can't be with her,' I chastised myself. 'She'll make you transform every two seconds for the rest of your life!'

I'd already long since realized that being with someone wouldn't be an option for me, but it wasn't like I was lonely. I had Serenity after all, and as far as I was concerned that was all I needed. Granted, there were a lot of complications that came with that arrangement.

For one, what was I supposed to do if she ever finally got a boyfriend?

I'd been lucky that she'd put it off for so long, despite the fact that she was twenty-three and objectively hot, with her instead focusing on making sure that life was stable for us by not having random men in the house. But I knew it might happen eventually, especially when she realized she didn't have to bring them home, and could instead go to their place.

Just the idea made me feel conflicted in so many ways.

Being completely honest, I would probably end up feeling jealous if she dated, though I knew I had no right to, especially with the age gap.

However, it was much more complicated than that, with a strange desire in me almost wishing she would date.

Why?

Honestly, because there was a shameful part of me that wanted to hear her fuck. And then there was an even more shameful part of me that wanted to be the one fucking her. Obviously, if I could really choose, then I'd pick the second option, but I knew that was never going to happen in a million years.

Or at least, it felt like it would be a miracle to have my significantly older friend actually be able to view me as more than that, more than a friend, considering we'd known each other for so long and we'd gone through so much in the last five years.

The platonic way she felt about me was probably already set-in-stone, and would likely never change. If anything, she'd probably be sincerely weirded out if she knew how I felt deep down.

Which meant I could almost live vicariously if she dated, especially with my heightened senses.

At the very least, I felt like listening to her fuck was definitely better than nothing, although I was aware of the fact that I'd probably feel miserable and jealous once I'd jerked off.

But I knew I shouldn't even want that, or even think about it. And with Gabriella? I couldn't have her either, even if she somehow decided she was okay with the fact that I wasn't human. I shouldn't even hope for such a thing, because the devastation that would come, when things didn't work out, would be unbearable.

Feeling annoyed and defeated now from my own dejecting thoughts, I ran back to my room to grab my earbuds, so that I could try to ignore their conversation. Technically, I could still hear what they were saying if I concentrated, but I had gotten fairly decent at ignoring all the external stimuli bombarding my mind every day. I then gathered the large blanket I planned on using and headed down the stairs.

Both Serenity and Gabriella stopped talking when they heard me, and my housemate called out my name, but I ignored her.

Turning on the lamp sitting on the small table on one side of the couch, I plopped down on the soft cushions and got comfortable. Getting my earbuds in, I then turned up the volume as loud as I could tolerate with my sensitive ears and tried to settle in for the night. I was able to successfully ignore them for about ten or fifteen minutes, but then I heard someone walk up to me from behind the couch.

Quickly sniffing the air, I relaxed when I caught Serenity's comforting scent.

"Kai," she said. "I'm going to take a shower, and then head to bed. Can you please be nice to Gabriella? She's been through a lot."

Without turning down the volume, I waved my hand to acknowledge her. "I used up all the hot water. Sorry," I said sincerely. "It might be warm enough now for a few minutes of heat, but you may have to wait another half hour."

"Oh." She paused, not seeming upset. "Then, I'll just make sure Gabriella can rinse off first. I can take one in the morning."

'No, no, no! Don't tell me that, Ren!' Suddenly, all I could see in my mind's eye was Gabriella naked in the shower, imagining her heavy unsupported breasts as water ran across her large nipples, her otherwise thin body exposed, vulnerable, wet...

Shit! I was a virgin if I'd ever known one!

I quickly covered my head with the blanket as I felt my hair begin to turn white. "Sure," I replied quickly, wanting to get rid of her now. "I really am sorry about the hot water. I put plenty of blankets and pillows on my bed for her. Please make sure she feels at home."

I could tell Serenity was surprised by my sudden hospitality, but I already regretted my own words. My hair was definitely white now, since I finally registered that Gabriella was going to be spending the night in my blankets, cuddling with my pillow. I knew the scent she left behind wouldn't leave my bed for at least a week...hopefully longer.