Devil's Plaything

Role Play

This time, Mira was early to her training session with Noah. She didn't want him to be around while she was climbing the ladder to the roof of the gym, just in case she wasn't so graceful while ascending this time. Maybe they had been getting along more lately, but that didn't mean she was going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her fall on her ass.

When she made it to the flat surface that was the roof, she was so surprised to see Noah already sitting at their spot and waiting for her that she stumbled backward.

As if gravity was suddenly working with her instead of against her, she was gingerly stabilized by an external force. She looked at Noah, who was watching her cautiously. She remembered how he had once slammed a door shut without touching it, and how he knocked Sam out without physical contact. Both times, she had been too distracted with bigger issues to process something glaringly obvious: he could move things with his mind.

"Is that a demon power?" she asked him bleakly as she felt gravity around her return to normal once again.

Noah appeared to consider acting like he didn't know what she meant. Deciding that he couldn't convincingly play dumb at this point, he just shook his head. "It's complicated, and I'm not allowed to disclose it."

Irritation sparked in Mira, and she clenched her jaw. She didn't like when secrets were kept from her, and he had a habit of keeping too many. "What about appearing in the dreams of other people?" The question made Noah sigh, but she continued. "I know you've been in one of my dreams." Heat spread throughout Mira's body as she tried not to recall that dream in detail. "And I'm fairly certain that Aiden has done the same—"

"What?" His tone shifted so quickly from casual to deadly that Mira's breath stilled in her throat. He sat up straight, his muscles tensing like he was ready to spring into action at any moment. He looked dangerous. He looked like a predator. "When?" He demanded.

She swallowed, but proudly stood her ground. She had tempted this predator before, and she knew that she could hold her own against him. "It's complicated," she told him, mimicking his tone impressively. "And I'm not allowed to disclose it."

Noah's anger shifted from dangerous to exasperated instantly. "We'll talk more after training." His tone was dismissive, which only made her more upset. He turned to a backpack he had resting beside him and unzipped it.

Mira took a deep gulp of air, preparing to go off on him when he pulled a doll out from his bag. Any words that had previously formed in Mira's mind dissolved instantly and all that she could say was, "what the fuck?"

He wordlessly stood and walked towards her. His nearness was almost as distracting as the hideous doll he held by the hair. He dropped the toy next to her feet and took several steps back. "We need to work on a new psychological approach for you. So, I'm going to describe some scenarios that you and Jasmine here go through, and you're going to tell me how you would handle them."

Mira felt a mischievous grin form. "Is this some weird role play thing?"

Noah's lips pursed as he held back a smile. "It can be if you're into that." Relief flooded Mira before she grew angry with herself for being relieved that he wasn't actually upset. For once, Noah seemed oblivious to the change in her emotions. Mira couldn't help but wonder if he was just pretending not to notice them. "Now, you and Jennifer are walking down the street at night alone, and I am a thief who corners you in an alley with this." Noah reached for one of his belt loops and grabbed a dangling plastic water gun that Mira hadn't noticed before. She stared at him, waiting for a reasonable explanation for the toys. "My roommate works with kids," he explained impatiently. She was surprised by the insight that statement offered into his life. She wouldn't have guessed that he had a roommate, and she especially wouldn't have predicted that he was close to someone whose job was to care for children.

She was shocked when a sudden blast of water hit her torso. She gasped and grabbed her shirt as if she expected to see blood there. Noah managed not to laugh, but he still looked very pleased with himself. "Focus, please," he said with mock patience.

"Don't you dare get me wet again," she warned, her voice dropping threateningly. She had made the effort to straighten her hair, and she was not going to have it ruined in a water gun fight she couldn't even participate in.

"I don't know if I can avoid doing that," he murmured, so quietly that Mira almost didn't catch it. She pretended that she hadn't, even though the innuendo made her heart skip a beat. He cleared his throat and raised the gun, aiming it at the doll this time. "I don't want any trouble with you," he said to Mira, getting back into character. His voice dropped an octave, becoming more foreboding instantly. He was clearly enjoying this all a little too much. "I only want Jasmine here to come with me. You can go."

An inexplicable gust of adrenaline drifted through her body and made her spring into action. She stepped confidentially in front of the doll, feeling very much like a superhero as she planted her feet on the ground firmly. Noah couldn't have looked more disappointed by her response. "No. Bad. Wrong answer." He punctuated each word with a full spray of water from the gun, effectively drenching her shirt.

She was growing increasingly upset that there wasn't a hose nearby she could use against him. "How else was I supposed to save her?" she demanded. She crossed her arms, partly out of annoyance and partly in case her shirt had become see-through.

Noah rubbed his temples with his fingers like she was causing him a world of stress. "At what point did I say that the objective was to save Jasmine?"

Mira laughed humorlessly. "Okay. First off, you keep changing her name every time you say it." She paused, but Noah made no effort to defend himself. She rolled her eyes and continued. "Secondly, I'm not just going to leave her. That would make me an asshole—"

"An alive asshole," he corrected before she could continue. He paused, regarding her with an odd combination of annoyance and fondness. "Try again."

He aimed at the doll once again, waiting impatiently for her to react. A wicked thought crossed her mind, and she tried to suppress it immediately. But it was too late—once the idea occurred to her, she couldn't resist it. This whole role play was a physical manifestation of her relationship with Noah. He held the gun, he held the power, and he held the knowledge. She was going to take those things from him. 

Thank you for reading, voting, and commenting! You all consistently make my day great, and I'm so thankful for the time you spend with this story <3 I hope you're enjoying reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it.

Sorry, this chapter was on the shorter side, I wanted to upload something because it's been a while--I had to upload just a half of a chapter so that I could stay on schedule with my Tapas agreement. BUT Tapas will begin to publish my chapters a week before they are posted on Wattpad! That means this Sunday, you can log on to Tapas and read the already-completed next chapter (that's filled with juicy Noah/Mira-ness). And from now on, you can access the early release chapters every Sunday on Tapas. Here is the direct link to the story: http://bit.ly/2wOyBqs

Also, sorry for all the long ANs. The Tapas info is important and also I'm grateful for your support and always want to let you know!