Parker lets out a sigh. "It's nice to see you too, mom."

She scoffs. "If you were home more than once every other month I might just believe that." Turning to face us she crosses her arms across her chest, and her eyes automatically narrow on me. Her attention shifts to my and Parker's joined hands, and she hisses, her face hard. "A half-demon? You cannot be serious, Parker."

"Mom," Parker says, voice heavy with a warning that says he won't tolerate his mother shitting all over me.

She glares at me for a long minute before turning her glare to her son. "Why are you here?"

"I told you we would be here for a few weeks, mom."

"And you brought a disgusting half-demon here? Why?" Her tone makes it clear that no answer is good enough for her.

"I've also already answered that question too," he says with a tired sigh.

She makes a non-committal noise in her throat. "You didn’t tell me she was a half-demon,” she spits. Turning her attention back to me, she says, “You may be welcome in my home now, half-demon, but the only reason you're here and haven't been killed the moment you stepped into my home is because my son is taking responsibility for you."

I tilt my head as I take in the hatred gleaming in her eyes, the anger pulsing out of her, so thick it's suffocating. "This hatred you have of half-demons, it's more than just a prejudice isn't it?"

Parker squeezes my hand in warning, but I ignore it.

"Listen, I don't know what one of my kind did to make you hate us as much as you appear to, but I'm not going to stand here and let you insult me. I don't give a shit who you are. You can insult me all you like, just don't count on me keeping my mouth shut after this."

"You dare speak to me like that in my own house?" She seethes taking a step toward me. "You are nothing, little demon spawn. Nothing but a waste of my time. Leave now."

"We're not leaving, mom," Parker speaks up when I open my mouth to tell her where she can shove it. I'm thankful he and the rest of the guys kept their mouth shut while I was talking to her. She needs to understand that I won’t hide behind her son.

"You don't have to, but I don't want it here," she hisses, her silver eyes turning red as her anger rises.

I bite my lip to hide the smile I can feel wanting to escape. "Yeah, calling me an 'it' doesn't really mean shit. No one in this room is human, so don't we all kind of qualify as an 'it'?"

"Mercy," Parker scolds in my head, "you're not helping."

"We've got enough crap to deal with than your mother taking whatever shots she thinks she can at me, Parker. It's better that she realize now that she won't, and can't, intimidate me."

Parker's mom opens her mouth but doesn't get a chance to speak before I interrupt her. "Look, I'm not here to be a pain in your ass. I'm not here to do whatever it is you think my kind are notorious for doing. I'm just here because this is where Parker and the rest of the guys believe is safest. I'm sure we can manage to get along for the short time we'll be here. Then I'll be out of your hair and you'll probably never see me again."

Someone snorts from behind me, and I think it's War.

"Probably?" she sneers.

"Yeah, there's no telling what the future is. Contrary to what a lot of our world believes it is not set in stone. So, yeah, probably."

She glowers at me. "Fine. Let me get one thing straight here first, my son is not one of your playthings. You will keep your hands," her eyes dart to our joined hands then come back to me, "to yourself."

I raise a brow. "I'm pretty sure I don't consider people 'playthings'. Just as I'm also pretty sure that your son is a grown man who doesn't need his mommy telling him who he can and can't play with on the playground."

She steps directly into my personal space. "You little bi–"

"Mom!" Parker snaps. "Enough. You've said your piece, and Mercy's said her’s. Back off."

"Mercy?" she asks, eyeing me up and down and then she chuckles, a dark sound that grates on my nerves. "Of course. You're the one the supernatural world is in a buzz about, aren’t you? It figures that you'd be a disrespectful little shit."

"In order to get respect, you need to give respect. You've shit on me since the moment you scented me. That doesn't gain respect in my book."

"Oh? What about respect for your elders, little girl?" Her face turns into an ugly scowl when I laugh.

"Woman, I don't treat people with respect until they show a little in return. So tuck your bitch back in, and then maybe we'll actually get along."

"Alright, enough of this," Hunter says from directly behind me. He places his hand on my shoulder and steps around me, forcing Parker's mom to step away. "Bianca, you and Mercy will be at this shit all night if we let it happen. I sure as shit don't want to waste more of my life listening to you insult Mercy. I'm fairly certain the rest of my team feels the same, including your son."

Bianca looks at Parker, and I see him nod his head in my peripherals. She inhales deeply then lets out the breath slowly. "Fine. I'll play nice. For now."

"Big of you," I mutter under my breath, barely audible, but I know Parker hears me because he snorts a laugh and tries covering it with a cough.

"Parker knows where the guest wing is, you'll all stay there." Preferably away from my son.

She didn't say it, but the implication was there in her tone. Jesus. Mommy dearest really doesn't want me around her little boy.

I don't wait for any more words to be exchanged, I turn, pulling Parker with me and walk out of the office. "Where are we going?"

Parker chuckles and takes the lead, pulling me down the hallway into a corridor of the huge-ass house that looks like it's kind of abandoned. "Here." He gestures to the door beside him. "You can stay in here, Mercy."

"Your mom is something else," I comment as he opens the door and ushers me inside. I raise a brow at the extravagance of the "guest room".

"I did try to warn you," he says, a smile playing at his lips as the guys chuckle.

I shrug. "It's not anything I haven't dealt with before. It's also not the worst I've heard. I'm used to it." Doesn't make it any less annoying, though.

"We'll all be in rooms surrounding yours, so we're not separated," Parker explains as he turns to leave.

"Wow, your mom is letting you sleep near the filthy half-demon?" I ask with a grin. "Bet you she loves that idea."

He chuckles. "She doesn't know, though I'm sure she'll be pissed when she finds out."

Hunter looks at me over Parker's shoulder. "You're free to explore the house and grounds while we're here, but only if one of us is with you."

A growl slips out of my mouth as I narrow my eyes at him. "Seriously? It's supposed to be safe here, why do I need an escort?"

"It's just a precaution, Mercy," Hunter says, exasperation clear in his tone.

"Okay, I get that. I really do, but I don't think it's necessary here. Unless you think Torn can get to me here.” He doesn’t say anything. “Do you really think I need an escort?”

Hunter finally puffs out a breath. “Fine. If anything happens call for one of us immediately. I don’t want to take any chances.”

I give him a mock salute. “You got it. Now go. I need to be alone for a few minutes.” No one moves. I grind my teeth. “Please?”

“Alright, guys, just pick your rooms from the ones surrounding this one, then,” Parker says as they all exit my room.

Once they’re gone and the door is shut, I make my way to the bed and lay on my back. Covering my eyes with my arm, I let out a calming breath.

So much is happening so fast, and I just don’t know how much more I can process. The bullshit the devil was talking about, my dad being alive, Torn being after me now instead of Payne. The lies and the secrets that the guys are keeping from me when I’ve been nothing but open to them.

I’d really like to say that it doesn’t matter and that it doesn’t hurt. But it does matter, and it does hurt. I wish Xena had come with us so that I could talk to her in person to figure this shit out.

“Xena?” I call out to her with my mind, praying like hell we aren’t far enough away that it doesn’t work.

“Yeah?” Her voice comes back, faint but there.

“You got a minute to talk?”

“Of course. I’m assuming you mean talk about whatever’s going on with you and your team?”

“It’s not really my team,” I point out. “But yeah, that’s what I’m not understanding.”

“What’s there to understand?”

“Um, take Talon, for example. Ever since we met, he’s been a dick. He hated me, Xena. Yeah, he eventually started cooling toward me, but, when I was with Payne, it was like a switch flipped in all of them.”

Her soft laugh echoes in my head. “Mercy, they like you. You already knew that Hunter and War did before you even left for Payne’s, right?”

“Uh, yeah. How did you know that?”

“I saw you. You were leaving a room with Hunter, then War came up to you and kissed you. From how cozy you looked with Hunter, it wasn’t hard to guess what had happened between you.”

“That’s not creepy at all,” I tease.

“Shut up, you know I can’t control them,” she says with a laugh.

“I know. But that doesn’t really explain the others.”

“Mercy, for such a smart girl, you’re pretty dumb.”

“I am not, I’m just confused.”

“They all like you. They all want to be with you. And you want to be with all of them,” she adds gently.

“I-,” I start to deny it but I can’t. “Yeah. You’re right. I just can’t handle the secrets from them. I barely know anything about them except what’s relevant to learn at the time that I fucking learn it.”

“Mercy, they’re all equally as closed off as you are. They’re probably having just as hard of a time telling you about themselves as you had telling them. They’re also focused on you and your safety right now. Their secrets–their lives before you entered it–haven’t been a factor for them.”

“I guess.”

“Don’t give them a hard time, Mercy. They’ll open up to you more and more as time goes on. I promise.”

I let out a sigh. “Alright. Thanks for talking me out of losing my mind on them.”

She chuckles. “No problem. I’m helping your mom get Vivian ready for bed, so I’ll talk to you later.”

“Sounds good.”

“Patience, Mercy. Drop your anger and your frustration with them. It won’t always be this way.”