You dance so flawlessly with the devil that you made him fall in love with your angelic heart.
-Jackie Francois

The text Cameron sent me had panic running through me as I read it under my desk in second hour.

I turn my phone off in a rush, one glance at Jessamine's smile makes me nervous and the fact that Xavier is sleeping beside me doesn't help.

"Jessie." I say, my mood causing my tone to snap her head up.

Her smile quickly turns into a frown. 

"What's wrong?" She asks.

"Cam lost my ring," I blurt. 

My best friend is confused for a second before paling. "When?"

"H-he doesn't know. It could be at home, in the car, ambulance, his house, school, somewhere on the ground." I gulp, my eyes stinging. "I need to leave. I need to find it."

"Calm down." She says softly, reaching to touch me but I flinch back -sending me into the Devil's muscled side. "We'll find it.

"That was my dad's ring. It's the last thing he gave me, the last thing I have to remember him by. The last thing I own that was my dads." My voice is so fast I don't know if she understands me. "What if we can't find it?"

Jessamine grabs my shaking hands, yanking me up from my seat. "Can you put our bags in my locker? Angel, please. We'll be back."

"Uh," Cal looks at me. "Sure."

She pecks his lips but is quick to pull me away to the teacher, I stand by the door as she offers some lame excuse for us to leave. 

Stuffing my hands under my armpits I rock on my heels, she plants her suddenly heavy hands on my shoulders and wills me to look at her. 

"What do you need?" Jessie asks.  

My eyes involuntarily drift to Xavier's sleeping form, noticing how he shifts like he's about to wake up. "Nothing," I choke out, realizing her gaze followed mine. 

"I can wake him up," She says softly.

I shake my head, looking away. "Don't bother, I'm not -I mean it's not worth it."

Pushing to doors open I stumble into the hall, my eyes on the ground as my mind begins to drift to my dad's ring.

It's a grey dragon- -tribute to our family's eye color- -with soft gold under it's wing and for eyes.

The day after those men were holding onto me and shot my dad he pushed it into my palm.

I tried to run to him, hug him maybe, do something that would offer him comfort in the moment but with the only man that didn't run, the one that actually shot him, holding me against the wall I couldn't.

He did whatever he wanted to me and all I could do was clutch onto that ring like a lifeline.

I did that so tight I had blood running down my wrist from where it's horns and sharpened tail were digging into me. Later I would find three scars on my palm, marking the occasion. 

The man threw me to the ground, stepped on my wrist in hopes I would let go of whatever valuable thing I had.

I didn't.

He spits one me. 

Tears stream down my eyes but I can't seem to close them, to sleep or pass out when I look at my clenched fist.

"You're dad's dead." He says this as if it's a common fact, like "The sky's blue." My mouth parts in a silent sob at the sound of his voice, it's a perfectly normal voice. It wasn't what I expected.

He walks away without looking back, as if he didn't just shoot someone and do what he just did to me.

I refuse to believe it.

My dad can't be dead, he's too young, too strong.

The pain running through my body is extreme but somehow I manage to pull myself across the space to my dad.

"Dad." I croak, grabbing onto his stiff shoulders. "Dad, Daddy wake up!" I haven't called him that since I was seven. 

Slowly my eyes take in the raging bullet wounds, the blood that just seems to be everywhere. 

His heart is non-existent.

But it's so big, I know first hand how strong it beats, how much love it  holds.

It can't be torn to shreds.

Trying to scream doesn't work.

With his dragon ring still in my hand I throw myself over him.

Over his wide, glassy grey eyes and tear stained face. Over his arms, the ones that carried me when I was a baby and still swing me around now. Over the chest I would cry into when I had a bad day.

Over his fatal injuries, the gun shots I could have prevented.

I start to bawl.

Why couldn't he just run away? 

Run away when he saw the gun, saw how many guys there were.

How he could never hope to defeat them.

All they wanted was me.

He didn't have to die.

It should have been me-

"Emmeline." A deep voice calls me, warm fingers brush against my cheeks as they wipe the tears I'm sure just fell.

I gasp as I fully rip myself from my memories.

Xavier's face comes into focus, in seconds I throw myself at him -making him fall off his heels.

It's then I realize I must have sank to the floor, him having been crouches over me. 

"Please just hold me," I beg, my entire body curled up on his chest. His hands instantly appear on my hips, helping him pull me flush into his chest. 

Maneuvering us so he's not flat on the ground he presses us close, moving his head into the space under my chin as he sits up against a row of lockers. "I got you." He says, adding a lingering kiss to the base of my throat.

The feeling of safety fills me as his heat does, his smell enveloping my surroundings making me relax into him as the flashbacks that were threatening me leave. 

"What happened?" The Devil asks, despite that name, his wolf like nature, his voice is soft and his hands are gentle and just were they need to be. 

"Dragons are my dad's trademark." I finally explain. "My family's common spirit animal. When I thought I was going to, to kill myself I gave it to Cameron. He's my cousin and the person the ring would go to if I never have kids. I didn't want it to be forgotten on my path of self destruction. But he texted me. He lost the ring. It's what Dad gave me seconds before he died. I don't want to lose that connection to him, I can't lose that." I take a deep breath, wrapping my hands around the back of his neck to pull him closer to me. "I feel so silly -who has a panic attack over some stupid ring?"

"People get upset over a lot of things. Your actions are justified by your emotions, even if they are extreme." His velvet lips move against my skin as he talk, adding to the calm affect he has on me. "You aren't silly for panicking, you're human."

"I'm human." I repeat, just letting the point sink in. 

"That you are," He grins against me. "This coming from the Devil."

At this I move his head up, thumbs on his cheek bones as I make his blue eyes meet mine. Xavier stares at me in confusion, eyes flickering between my own. 

"You know you aren't actually the Devil, right?" I ask, honestly worried about the opinion he has on himself. "You're human too."

"Oh?" He asks, eyebrow raising as he purposely shows off a sharp tooth. "I thought I was a wolf."

"You're a Wolf, but not a wild animal." I point out, feeling thankful for the shift in the conversation. "Just like I'm a Carter, but I'm not something people push groceries around in."

At this he chuckles, making me giggle lightly.

When I look back into his eyes I'm startled to find how serious he looks. "I'll help you look for the ring, everywhere if I have to, as long as I need to. Just ask."

I smile at this, leaning forward so I can kiss him lightly. "Thank you." 

Xavier nods, hands tightening on my hips. "Any time." 

Looking around I notice the absence of my best friend and look back to him with a questioning stare. "Where's Jessie."

He rolls his eyes, noticing how slightly freaked out I am. "Chill Carter, it's not like I killed her or something. She's getting you a pass for next hour, so you don't have to do gym when you're panicked. We're gonna skip." The Devil explains, even though if I have a pass he's the only one skipping.

"I am chill, Wolf. Can we go to my house and check for the ring?" I ask, Xavier bites his lip before nodding. 

"We can go anywhere you want."

I huff, laying back onto my bed. 

Officially haven given up searching for my ring in the Thatch house I close my eyes, wanting to escape reality for just a little while. 

Knowing Xavier is in the corner of my room, flicking through photo albums of mine, stops me from having a full blown panic attack.

A soft knock sounds out of my door, making me look up as it creaks open.

Grinning at the woman I grew up knowing as my aunt I grin, seeing a older Jessamine while her dark brown doe eyes lock with my own. 

"Hey Emma," She greets me.

"Hey Fairy," I say back. Her name is Faye and most times I call her Fairy, on occasion her title of Aunt. "What's up?"

"Just wondering how the search was going." Aunt Faye says, her smile real and sweet, sympathetic even. Motherly. 

"Not good," I respond, not bothering to lie. "But I think it will be found."

Moving forward she soothes down my hair and winks. "That's my girl, keep with hope it'll take care of you." I snort at this, she sends me a look while stepping back into the hall. "Anyway I wanted to say it's time for you kids to eat something, I left money for pizza on the counter but you know we just stopped by to get some extra clothes." 

She sighs at this, and I know it's stressful being a lawyer -something her and her husband have in common. Despite being gone often she's very involved in her kids lives and have good relationships with them. Their dad is a different story. 

"Thanks Fairy," I say. "Kick those asshole's right where it hurt when you get back."

She grunts out a affirmative, representing a case where a rapist got a teenager pregnant and then sued her for getting an abortion. 

It makes me think about my own issues.

One of the reasons that man was so mad was because in my struggle I broke three of his fingers like my dad taught me to do. That way in court when they're not convinced it was rape, not convinced he was guilty I could point out the broken bones and ask, "Tell me Judge, does that look like foreplay to you?" 

This girl didn't know how to do that, or defend herself at all.

I flinch at the thought. 

"Well, good luck Emma." Aunt Faye salutes me playfully. "Love you."

"Back to you," I giggle, saluting her as well. "Bye." 

Seconds later she's gone and I hear shuffling then the front door shut. 

Alone again.

. . . not quite.

I think this glancing at Xavier, who is actually smiling down what I assume is to be embarrassing baby photos of me. I take a quick picture before realizing what he's actually looking at.

"Xavier!" I scold. "Put that down."

He ignores me with a growing smirk, continuing to flick through the photos of me as a stubborn fifteen year old trying to keep a straight face while getting my tongue pierced, only to have the next photo be me withering in pain looking constipated.

"No," I shout, scrambling over to him when he flips to my preteen years. "I'm even uglier in those." 

He stands straight, his arm flying above his head as I collide to his chest due to the sudden movement. I would have fallen if not for his other hand wrapping around my wrist. 

"God damn," I whine. "Running into a brick wall would have hurt less." At this he laughs, flicking me lightly on the nose which makes me glare at him.

"What's wrong with these photos, Princess?" The Devil asks, smug beyond belief as he flicks through the pages. "I think they're adorable." 

"Shut up," I hiss. "I got better before I got worse again." My eyes flick down to my body before they shoot back up, barely hiding my insecurities. 

His perceptive blue eyes narrow at me, I take a step back as he drops the book onto my window bench. He steps closer, raising a eyebrow at me.

I know what that look means, he wants to touch me.

And this isn't one of his pleasurable punishments, like the biting at the carnival or the time he held me down and gave me a hickey in the middle of lunch, but he's definitely up to something.

"Why?" I ask, crossing my arms.

He's not surprised by my response, simply amused.

Stupid Wolf boy can tell I'm going to let him touch me, it's written all over my face and body, and from my nonverbal response he has the green light. At this point the fact that he's not touching me is teasing.

"Because," He says. "I would like to address an issue." 

I raise a eyebrow, scoffing slightly. "And this issue has to do with my body."

"Something like that." He grins and it's feral, the look he has makes a shiver run down me. "So?" I gulp and nod.

What I didn't expect was for him to cross the distance between us in the time it took me to blink, grabbing both my wrists in one motion and pinning me against the wall with my arms raised above my head.