A/N:  Just a really quick note to say that originally I wasn't going to post twice this week.  But, once I get 5 chapters up I can enter most contests, and I'm hoping by doing so that I can get this story more traction.  However, starting next week I will only be posting Fridays from here on out unless I am given a huge reason to put up a celebratory chapter.  :) 

Posted 7/19/21

2827 words.

Perhaps Namjoon's idea to send the three of us out to coerce human targets to be gluttonous wasn't the best idea he ever had. After all, out of the seven of us we were the three who happened to struggle the most with gluttony. Usually the groups are a bit more balanced than they happen to be tonight, but this elusive threat who was somehow constantly managing to elude us was causing our leader to lose sight of the best protocol to implement in these situations. Luckily, I was the most balanced of the three of us on the task tonight.

Hmm. Okay perhaps I should admit to myself that was probably my own pride talking. Tonight we were supposed to work from within the veil, and only send out impulses to convince our targets to indulge in the sin. I didn't know if the other two would succeed themselves.

Seokjin and Yoongi had both chosen to focus on two types of target locations: buffet restaurants and bars. Which should work out fine if they stay in the veil like they had been directed. I was unsure if they would follow that particular order or not. Both of them really did love to eat and drink.

Okay, I had to admit that I loved to eat myself, but honestly my biggest gluttonous vice was the draw of video games. Truthfully, the draw of playing video games was riding a fine line between the two sins, sloth and gluttony, regarding which one was the more prominent sin of the two when it came down to it. I had grown to realize from my experience that there were other dependencies that factored in. If the target were to only just sit there and game mindlessly without much skill or effort applied, then sure that would be more along the lines of being considered sloth. However, if the gamer in question played hours on end due to the addictive thrill of the game itself. If it got their blood pumping, and they were playing strictly for that rush. Then that would be considered more gluttonous in nature.

There was also another type of gamer that could also be considered to be committing a gluttonous sin. Those were the ones who played games as a way to earn extra funds. Now, if it were their actual occupation that's an entirely different situation, because in that case they are earning the funds they need to survive day to day. But if they played hours upon end in an effort to achieve more finances to either fund some frivolous purchase or hobby then that could also be gluttonous in nature. Once again though, even that could potentially cross the line into a greed based sin instead. The deciding factor was simply how far they took it.

So here I was hopping from home to home of my designated targets for the evening. I had learned my marks by challenging them myself last night to games, and learning the home locations of the ones within the area that had already clocked the most hours first. Any I came across that seemed more in the thrall of sloth I would send out a tendril of adrenaline in hopes that it would change the outcome of the sin that they were committing. I had already been to seven houses, and I had just about filled my own personal quota when I was pulled into the unexpected telepathic conversation.

"There is no way she could be! NO way in all of the nine circles of Hell I will believe that!" Hoseok was shouting.

"She heard me, Hoseok. I was able to get in." Jimin responded, although his voice sounded a bit shaky.

"Jimin, relax. I'll handle this. You are weak and need to conserve your energy." Namjoon spoke encouragingly.

Well, that explained why his voice sounded shaky. I thought to myself.

"Do you really think she somehow is?" Taehyung asked.

My curiosity gets the better of me, and before I know what I am doing I am responding with my own questions. "Who? What? I'm confused. What's going on?"

"Damn, I'm sorry. My focus is shit right now. I didn't realize that I opened up the circle of communication to the whole group." Namjoon complained.

I felt Yoongi's presence enter the conversation as well. But unlike myself he hadn't vocalized his appearance. He had a cat-like curiosity and tended to supervise and think things through first. I was the polar opposite due to my more impulsive nature.

Only moments later I felt Seokjin's presence. Of course, unlike Yoongi, he chose to make his presence known. "Who exactly are you talking about?" Seokjin asked.

While Namjoon was the leader, Seokjin was the oldest, and he constantly demanded a certain level of respect due to that fact. However, in turn, he did also highly respect Namjoon's role. He knew he wasn't meant to be a leader like Namjoon was. This was highly due to the fact that Namjoon's most prominent sin was counterbalanced by his sub race's high level of pride. To my knowledge Seokjin only suffered from one vice himself. Gluttony. But the only reason I was aware of him only having the one was because of how often he partook of alcoholic libations and celebrated the many different flavors and cuisine when it came to food.

Namjoon sighs. "We were certain we had caught the suspect's trail tonight. We were wrong. But we were able to track a cambion after all, only... Well, there is more to it than that. She seems to be much more than simply a cambion. Also, it's concerning, but she doesn't completely understand her abilities. It's also become obvious that she doesn't really know what she is either. I'm certain due to said abilities though that she is most definitely a cambion with demonic parentage under the Dominion of Lust. The more puzzling thing is...."

"The more puzzling thing is that Jimin was able to telepathically communicate with her. There is only one reason that should be possible." Taehyung explains, his words almost sound excited at the aspect this truth unveiled. Well at least excited for him, anyway.

I felt my eyes widen as the information practically shook me to my core. "She has to be like us right? I mean she has to be half demon, and half--"

"Fuck! Please don't vocalize it! Let's not act like this shit is all set in stone until we know for certain!" Hoseok is not behaving like himself at all, but I think I can understand why he is feeling this way. He will rebel against it until this woman somehow convinces him otherwise.

There is only one thing I care to know right now. The rest I suppose can wait, although I would be lying to myself if I didn't admit I was intrigued. "What's her name?"

"Everleigh." Despite Namjoon's earlier suggestion to him, Jimin still chose to take a moment to share that answer telepathically.

"Everleigh." I muttered aloud into the echoing silence of the veil.

"We are going to convince her to come back with us." Namjoon informed us.

Excitement infused impatience began to overtake me. I honestly couldn't wait to meet her. To see her for myself.

I was entirely too used to having one of the others with me when I did this part of the job. The temptation to go against Namjoon's suggestion is eating away at me. I nearly double over in laughter at my own mental pun. I honestly thought that I could not be tempted from the veil. I thought the way the veil colored the plates and trays of food in black, white, and gray would make the food seem unappetizing. Yet despite that my salivary glands still tried to work overtime flooding liquid into the recess of my mouth.

I was just about to say screw it and break Namjoon's imposed rule of the night when the telepathic conversation started playing in my head. I only reacted by asking an inquisitive question to know more. Unlike Hoseok's outrage at the possibility they were posing I instead felt numb. I channeled that numbness to keep the memories of other moments I felt this way at bay. But it didn't seem to work. I instead found myself getting caught in a memory where I had been thinking something similar of a different female. I never wanted to remember her crystal silver eyes, alabaster skin, or the pale blue strands of hair that seemed to dance on the breeze whether there was any breeze of air to lift it or not. Before more memories could attempt to filter through my mind I mentally shut down any visual conjuring of them.

I realized in a moment that we weren't completely dissimilar, Hoseok and I. We were both mentally defying the possibility of what they had been suggesting until we had some sort of proof. Then perhaps I wouldn't feel numb. There was no way of knowing until I was certain one way or another after all.

Because of this huge curveball and memories I wished had been kept buried deep inside me, or at least in the past, I surprisingly lost my appetite. That fact at least in turn made it easy to regain my focus on the task at hand. I managed my quota for the night in under an hour. I didn't linger, even though a part of me heavily considered it. The receptacle that the sin deposited into didn't have a set volume to it after all; I could continue working past my quota for the night if I so chose. Instead, I decided to hang up my job for the night and head to our rendezvous point; I was assuming I would be waiting for the others to arrive. Surprisingly Jungkook was already there, and he was pacing.

"Wow, you are acting as skittish as your alter." I tease him when I am only a few steps away.

He scowls at me for the briefest of moments before he goes back to his pacing. I'm surprised he doesn't try to argue with me about his alter. When he opens his mouth and asks a question it happens to be in regards to the one thing I don't want to focus on. "Seokjin, what if they are right? What if she is like us?"

I sigh. After attempting to do my best to push it from my mind I get sucked right back into mulling over the possibilities once again. "I don't think it's possible she is like us. At least not completely. Not with the fact that she has cambion-like abilities. Nor with the fact that she didn't seem to know what she was."

"Oh." Jungkook frowns at that thought.

"Yes, unlike our demonic transformation she was at least born that way. Now, if she is a.." I pause over the word. It's not one any of us like to use due to its negative implications, but there hasn't been a word invented to take its place. I sigh and push myself through the comment, despite how the word makes my skin crawl. "I suppose it's possible that she may be a halfbreed like us. But, until we meet her and get some kind of glimpse at her abilities we won't know for certain."

"How do you feel about that possibility?" He doesn't hesitate to ask me. I don't have to ask him the same; it's written all over his face. I'm not sure I have ever seen him this excited. Nor am I certain I have seen him even close to being this excited, or at least I can't recall an exact moment. We have been with each other for a century or two. It is possible a similar moment where he had been this excited has simply slipped my mind.

Compared to the rest of us Jungkook is practically a boy. He did of course have to deal with the ridicule until he reached adulthood, but where he had a couple of decades, before his demonic transformation, the rest of us already had centuries of enduring the ostracization and mockery from our peers, who were full blooded. Unlike us.

"I don't know how I feel about it all, truth be told. I've lived too long to invest my emotions in possibilities. I choose instead to rely on indisputable facts." If Jungkook looked too closely at my face he might be able to read how I was veiling my emotions. I could lie to others, but I couldn't completely lie to myself. I wouldn't deny that there was something exceptionally seductive about the possibilities that lay ahead of us. I just forced myself not to linger over those possibilities like Jungkook did.

Namjoon's suggestion be damned. I thought to myself as I arrived at the first bar. I wouldn't consume enough alcohol to get drunk. After all that would probably take the bar's entire shelf of alcohol plus whatever they had stocked in the back. Hmm, actually even that amount probably wouldn't get the job done. However, I also wasn't about to just fucking sit in the veil forcing myself to refrain from the libations and simply focus solely on the job I had to do.

I could do this shit with my eyes closed. Actually I would find sleep a lot more fucking appealing than this grunt work. Hmph. Then again that was my main vice. Of course sleep would appeal to someone that is plagued by sloth after all.

I mentally sighed as I sat at the bar stool. I ordered a lowball glass of whiskey neat. On the rocks? Tch. Please. The fucking ice just takes up space that could be filled with more of the amber colored, liquid ambrosia. I sip at the drink before I trail my eyes over the establishment.

Outside of alcohol this particular establishment didn't have much more appeal to it. It had a single 32 inch television hanging above the bar. The muted musical notes playing in the joint were outdated and came from the speakers of an equally outdated jukebox. There was a solitary pool table which I found myself smirking at the fact that there was an 'out of order' sign over the mechanism. An intoxicated patron would still be sure to slot their coins in it regardless. Hell, I smirked even more after discovering that the damn thing still ran on quarters. Most places had switched to digital card readers at this point after all. This bar I chose was probably the most dilapidated joint in town. What renovations that had been done were probably only in some kind of piss poor effort to keep the place up to code.

I start to recenter my focus on the patrons. Sensing that they all have a great desire to just fall inside the bottle, or even bathe themselves in copious amounts of liquor. Figuratively of course. Seems like a completely different type of sin to waste all of that alcohol to me. The problem with those desires they are feeling is their conscience isn't allowing them to go along for the ride. That's of course where I come in.

I mentally communicate with their moral compasses and suggest their consciences take a hike, at least for tonight. I even pull the bartender into my web and convince him to not worry about dram shop laws for the night. Let the patrons become overly intoxicated. No need to worry about the legal risks tonight. But, while I'm admittedly a monster I am not a completely evil monster. I also convince him to make sure that each of those intoxicated individuals has another way of getting home if they happened to have driven here.

The conversation that began rolling around my head had me changing my focus. I allowed my curiosity to take a front seat and listen intently to the conversation. I honestly wasn't sure what to make of the information. But with me curiosity was quite often front and center, thanks to my alter, and I chose to focus on that.

The itchiness underneath my skin, that was always there, began to grow fiercer. I ignored it while I continued sipping at my drink and allowing the receptacle to carry on depositing gluttony into its reservoir. I was lucky the receptacle had no limit on volume as I far surpassed my quota after an hour without even realizing it.

The itchiness in me grew though, and I knew that I couldn't control it. I paid the bartender and left the establishment. Once I walked to the back alley and made sure I was alone I slipped back into the veil. There I telepathically explained to Jungkook and Seokjin that I needed to go for a run. That's when I let the beast residing inside of me completely take over my body.