[h2]Esme Stirling[/h2]

Esme lifted her head from her arm and sat when Cason took her hands again and watched as his frown became a sad smile at her question. As he spoke, her eyebrows went up a little, that’s not something she expected to hear from him. Hearing he was a bit of an empath when he was human was strange for her to hear. She was about to say something when she felt the heat in her hands, but he started talking again, so she listened. As he turned her hands over, she looked down at them. 

She could feel the little magic he was working, so she let him continue. Any other time, she would have pulled her hands away, but she could clearly see how much he was trying to help her. She looked back up at him as he spoke again, going into a story about his past. Never would she have thought he would reveal his past to her or how he became a demon. When he finished, she had no words to respond with as he laughed and put her hands in her lap. 

What was it about her that made him reveal that part of himself to her, other than helping Annabeth? She was pulled from the thought when he made himself comfortable in front of her. Esme pulled both of her legs up and crossed her arms over her knees, then rested her chin on her arms as he confirmed he knew she was an empath. At his sigh, she knew he was preparing himself to say something. As soon as he told her he wanted her to be guarded, she closed her eyes. She should have known that was going to come up. 

Esme remained quiet to hear him out. She tensed up when he mentioned the hellhounds. Hellhounds were one thing she had never planned to come in contact with. She was well aware of the stories revolving around them. She sighed heavily as he finished, opening her eyes to look at him. “If I refuse. I’m assuming you’d say you’d like me to join Sam and Annabeth in the vault.” she stated. She looked away and to the book on the floor she had been looking at before. She rolled the options around in her mind. 

She didn’t much like either option, but she didn’t want to be locked in the vault feeling like a prisoner. She felt bad for wanting to go with hellhounds, knowing how Dean and the others felt about them, but she really didn’t want to go into the vault. “Fine.” she sighed. “I’ll go with the dogs. I just don’t like the fact I can’t see them.” She turned her gaze back to him. “Knowing there's something there watching me I can’t see is a bit unsettling.”