“Okay, but just so we can see you’re wrong.”
She grins. “Okay.”
I sit on the metal table, feeling silly. She pulls over the ultrasound machine and gently tugs up my shirt before squirting a clear liquid on the little wand. Then, she pushes it on the belly.
My eyes hurt because of how hard I’m staring at the monitor. I’ve never seen an ultrasound machine. I have no idea what I’m looking for, but the grey and black and white dance together, showing nothing that makes me alarmed.
And then, I see it. There’s no denying the clear shape of a baby surrounded by darkness. My mouth falls open, and I watch it move like a foreign creature that’s found a home inside of me.
“This can’t be happening.”
“Em, you’re going to be okay.” She follows up her words by pushing buttons on the screen.
I scoot off the table and away from her, shaking my head. “No, you don’t understand. I can’t be pregnant. My only goal in life is to kill monsters. There’s nothing outside of that. I don’t have a home. I don’t have a real job. I can’t possibly take care of another person when I can barely take care of myself.”
Dr. Leo puts her hands out like I’m an animal she’s trying to calm. “It’s okay. You’re in shock right now and everything seems scary, but it’s going alright.”
How can this be alright?
“I need to go,” I say, sprinting for the door.
“Em!” she shouts.
I glance back at her. She looks like she wants to say so much, but then she just says, “Are you going to be back for the dog?”
The words slip out of my mouth. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything right now.”
Chapter 11
Rokad
* * *
Responsibility is not always an easy pill to swallow. From the time we were young, I was responsible for my brothers. And I failed them. Over and over again. The demon within Narath was too powerful, and he was too dangerous, and so he was enchanted to sleep. Lucas was forced to guard the phoenix alongside me, even though I knew all along it was simply an excuse to keep us away from the sanctuary and the other gargoyles.
This time, I hoped things would be different.
I was wrong.
There was something about our night with Em that changed something within us all. I’ve seen it in Lucas. I’ve seen it in Conley. And in a different way, I’ve seen it in Narath. Lucas and Conley seem less and less interested in hunting monsters. They speak about creating a home. Any town they like they discuss how we might be able to live there. Or that a cabin in the woods might make for a lovely place.
While Narath talks incessantly about Em. He keeps a map on him now and marks off places that she’s not. He asks any locals he comes across if they’ve seen her, giving them her unique description. And when we finally find each monster we’re hunting, the fury he unleashed on our enemies is unlike anything I imagined. It’s beyond the chaos in the past.
I think he might end up hurting us all.
And yet, I don’t want to give up so soon. I don’t want to return to the sanctuary and tell our grandfather that I failed again. That one of my brothers has no desire to be a monster hunter, while the other is too dangerous to exist in this world. Not only do I believe Conley will be imprisoned once more, but I believe we’ll all lose our freedom, one way or another.
“She has to be here.”
I glance over the fire to where Narath lies on his blanket, staring up at the stars. He doesn’t have him map out, but he doesn’t need to for us all to know who he’s thinking about.
“She hasn’t been at any of the other places,” Lucas says softly.
He lies near me and Conley. Lucas and I have silently made an agreement to watch over the phoenix more closely. Narath’s rage is often unexpected, and we know who his first target will be. Even though Narath still sees Conley as his enemy, there’s nothing left of that inside Lucas and me. To us, he’s as much of a brother as Narath is.
“But this place has had a lot of attention in the media. Too many buildings are being burned to the ground, and people going missing, for this to be anything but supernatural. This isn’t an arsonist. This will bring her, I know it will.”
“And what then?” Conley asks. “She ran from us last time.”
“Because she didn’t know us well and we spooked her,” Narath snarls.
I sit up, watching my brother. Will this be the time he attacks the phoenix? Narath has begun to swell and his eyes flash with rage.
And then, Lucas says, “Maybe you’re right.”
Narath’s anger fades away. “You think so?”
Lucas nods, hands behind his head, looking casual, even though I can sense the tension in his body. “She’s hunting monsters, the same as us. We’re bound to run into her eventually. And this time, we should try to take it slower. We should try to show her who we are and what we could have together.”
“And what’s that?” Conley asks.
I wonder the same thing, but Conley was brave to ask. Anything he says lately seems to get under Narath’s skin, but the topic of Em especially.
“Well,” Narath draws the word out. “We could have… everything with her.”
“Everything?” I ask, feeling confused.
Narath sits up, his big body highlighted by the angry flames. “Em calms that side of myself that scares even me. She draws us together, all of us, in a way I never thought possible. Why couldn’t we have happiness with her? Maybe we’ll never have children, but we don’t need children to have a family.”
“You want a family?” Conley asks softly. “With me?”
Narath studies him for a long moment. “I know how I am.” His words drop like stones between us. “But what you don’t know is how much I hold back. The anger within me is all-consuming. The need for violence and anger like the need for breath. I know that my past and my love for my brothers keeps me sane, but I think I could feel that same way about you, with her around. With her to calm the wrath within me.”
Lucas and I lock gazes. This was entirely unexpected. I never thought there would be a world that Narath wanted Conley around. And Narath never spoke about that uncontrollable side within himself. It feels like we’re having some kind of major breakthrough, and I didn’t want to do anything to ruin it.
I see my brother open his mouth, and I shake my head. Lucas is many things, but a peacemaker he’s not.
“Maybe… that could work,” I say. “If she wants that.”
Now all the looks of disbelief are trained on me.
“What?” I ask, shifting uncomfortably.
“It’s just,” Lucas scratches the scruff a beard he hasn’t yet shaved off. “It seems like your only goal is to hunt monsters and make dear old grandpa proud of us, even though we know that’ll never happen. Every time we talk about something more, you shut us down.”
I feel creases between my brows. “Do I?”
“Yes,” they all say at once.
Shit. “I’m sorry. I’ve been trying to find a way to keep us all together. For things not to go wrong again.” The last word cracks, and I don’t know what else to say.
“Our success or failure isn’t all on your shoulders,” Lucas says each word carefully, more serious than I’ve ever seen him before.
I try to laugh. “It feels like it sometimes.”
Conley shakes his head. “That’s just your personality, but we’re all here with you, trying to make this thing work.”
I release a breath I never knew I was holding. “Okay. Well, let’s find the monster in this town and keep an eye out for Em. If she doesn’t show up, we’ll actively search for her, and I’m sure we’ll find her. Then, we can see if she’d be interested in exploring something more than we already have.”
Narath smiles, a real smile, and it makes a lump form in the back of my throat. He never smiles.
Conley pulls the little watch from one of the pouches on his belt. “It’s late enough. I think it�
��s time to go look for this fire creature.”
He’s right. The fires all happen around midnight, and I had a feeling we were getting close to that time.
So, we all stand up, reroll our blankets, and tie them to our backpacks. Conley puts out the fire, and then the night feels strangely dark and far too quiet.
“We split up to cover the most ground. If you see the fire, focus on the person who is lighting it. Follow them. The other people will see the smoke at some point and follow.”
“Got it,” everyone says.
I shift into my stone form and launch into the sky. We’d already mapped out the most likely places the person would strike next, and where each of us should stand guard. I only hoped that whatever happened with the monster, we found Em tonight.
My brothers and Conley had hope for the first time in longer than I can remember. I’d do anything to keep that being dashed away.
Chapter 12
Empusa
* * *
My alarm starts beeping and I jerk awake. Charm stirs in the bed beside me, and I peel my eyes open to see her yawn. I scratch the bag of her head gently, and she pushes into me. Her fur is strangely soft now that she’s had a little time with good meals, baths, and good care, which is something I’m glad of. I pet her for a little bit, then sigh, and get out of bed. Standing for a minute, trying to coax myself into going and taking a shower.
It’s strange. I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired in my life, but apparently, Leo says that’s normal. There are a lot of freaky things happening to me now that she says are normal. I’d gone back to Leo after I’d rationally accepted my pregnancy and gotten a couple of ultrasound pictures of the baby I've carried with me ever since. They help me, at least a little, to feel like all the weirdness of my body is normal, even if I think I’m more afraid to have the baby than to actually be pregnant. By my calculations, I should be about four months along. And as for Charm, her pups should come in the next month or so.
So, basically, we’re two tired pregnant ladies. And as much as I want to stay in bed all day and eat, there are monsters to hunt.
Fortunately for me, Charm seems to like this strange life I lead. She actually seems to get as restless as I do when we’re in one place for too long. And I think she has a dog’s instinct when it comes to assholes. Several times she was already growling, hackles raised, before a person with a dark soul approached me.
I kind of thought having a dog would be like having a child. A dependent who could do nothing for themselves. Charm, instead, felt like a partner. I enjoyed her more than I imagined.
“Time to hunt a monster,” I tell her.
She gives a soft bark. Her barks are always quiet, which is nice when I’m staying at a lot of motels with policies forbidding pets. The only time she seems to bark loudly is when I’m in danger, and I appreciate the backup.
I dress slowly and repack my bag. Over the last few months, I’d actually started to accumulate things. As much as I didn’t like stealing from the evil people I killed, it was necessary to survive in this world. And that money no longer just buys me food and places to stay, it also buys me clothes, brushes, hair ties, and I even sprung for a series of pictures in a booth of me and Charm. The pictures were tapped inside my suitcase, next to my ultrasound pictures.
“I’m becoming a regular human,” I tell Charm.
She stretches on the bed, then leaps off gingerly. At first, I wasn’t sure how much to baby her with her leg, but it quickly became apparent that she didn’t want to be babied in the least bit. She was maybe a bit slower than other dogs, and grew tired, maybe a little faster. But she usually kept pace with me when I was hunting, and seemed to give her bad leg as little mind as her other legs.
Charm moves to her bowls in one corner, and I go take a quick shower, then dress in clean clothes. I pull on the jeans that I’d recently purchased and frown. Already, they were getting hard to button. Fortunately, Leo had given me her number and a cell phone. She’d put it on something called “her plan” and told me not to worry about it. I texted and called her, probably too much, with baby questions, because I didn’t have a clue what was normal.
She assured me of two things. Getting big was normal as a pregnant lady. Getting this big this fast likely was because the father of my child was either a huge gargoyle or a huge phoenix. Either way, bigger than the typical father.
I sigh, finally getting the button in its place. I didn’t particularly like clothes shopping, but it looks like I’d need to go again soon. Pulling on my bra, I find the thing has either shrunk or my boobs are trying to keep pace with my belly. Either way, I barely get the front closed, and then pull on my black tank top.
When I’m done, Charm is waiting by the door, her bowls empty.
I grin at her. “Ready to do some hunting?”
She pants in response.
I clean up her bowls and put them away in the bag I keep of dog items. Then, I take our stuff out to the car. Leo said I might have to train Charm to use a leash. But so far, she kept close and quiet. Things I appreciate.
Hopefully, we’d be back tonight, but I always plan for a quick getaway, so I pack our stuff in the trunk of my car, a car I actually bought from a shady dealer with cash, and then start strolling down the main street in town. Charm carefully stays at my side, and we walk together in contented silence. No one else is out this late in this tiny town. Signs blink from the main buildings along the way, but nothing feels off.
Maybe we’re in the right place. Maybe we aren’t. But I’m determined to know for sure before we leave.
I’ve been walking for maybe twenty minutes when a strange sensation curls up my spine. I tense, looking around, but see nothing to alarm me. Beside me, Charm grows tense too, and then I know something is up. Without a word, I slide into a nearby alley, and Charm follows closely at my heel.
I kneel down, and Charm lays beside me, although the hairs on her back are standing on end.
Suddenly, the building across the street explodes into flames. I leap to my feet and race towards it. In the shadows, I spot a man. His gaze meets mine, and then he’s running.
Charm is barking wildly behind me, and I dart down the alley across the street.
Above me, I hear a cracking. A sign on top of the building is heading straight for us. I don’t think, I just act, curling myself around Charm. My eyes close, and I stiffen, waiting for the impact of the burning sign.
But it never comes.
I feel hot embers strike my flesh, and I look up.
Conley, the phoenix, is lifting the sign above us. The fire races over his hands and his body, but he doesn’t seem to care, his focus is entirely on me. “Go!” he shouts.
I don’t hesitate, I grab Charm and start running. We’re out of the alley in seconds, to the woods behind the building. Looking back, I see Conley throw the sign onto the alley ground and then he hurries after me.
“Are you okay?” I ask, heart racing.
His hazel eyes catch mine, and I see that there’s ash and soot on his face.
Unable to help myself, I reach up and try to rub it away.
He catches my hand. “We’ve missed you.”
Butterflies flutter in my belly, and I drop my hand. “We have to hurry or we’ll miss him.”
Disappointment comes and goes across his face, and then he nods. “Lead on!”
I put Charm down. She seems to study him for a moment, decide he’s no threat to us, and then turns toward the woods. She barks again, her angry bark, and we race after her into the darkness of the woods.
Even with her bad leg, she’s fast. I find pride swelling in my chest as I watch her lead us onto the monster that we must catch. She’s ferocious, and I’m glad yet again that the fates brought her into my life.
Just as the fates brought this phoenix and his friends.
I try to push the thought away, but it lingers. They’re here again, hunting with me. That much is clear. I knew this moment might come again, and yet, I
still don’t know quite what to say to them. They made their stance on babies and children clear, but will they change their minds when they realize the mother of their child is a monster?
To my shock, I stumble. But before I hit the ground, warm hands are already there, holding me upright. I glance at the phoenix and the strange feeling moves through me. I actually have to shake myself and pull away from him to keep going, not wanting to let Charm out of my sight.
When we break free from the trees, Charm is at the edge of a strange clearing, growling up ahead of her. I let my claws elongate and inch forward through the long grass, with Conley at my side. But what I see next makes me freeze. The center of the clearing looks like a meteor hit it. It’s caved in and black, burnt to a crisp.
And there are several burned bodies thrown into the center of it.
A man stands behind the burned bodies, smiling. But there’s something off about his face. Something I immediately recognize. This man is not only not human, but the creature has taken a human body to hide within. The bodies only last a few weeks at best before they rot and have to be replaced.
This creature is one to be very cautious of. Using a human body like this requires power, far more power than any of the creatures I’ve faced so far, save the cyclops.
“Hello,” he calls. “Empusa, it’s been a while.”
A chill rolls down my spine.
“You know him?” Conley whispers at my side.
“I don’t know,” I whisper back, and then say louder. “I’m not sure who you are, with your new face and all.”
He looks down at himself, and that overly large smile of his falters. “Ah yes, the human skinbag I wear can be a bit deceptive.”
I wait, studying him.
And then he looks back at me. “But surely you recognize my work,” he sweeps a hand at the bodies in the pit.
Burned bodies? Burned bodies. Hell. “Ceuthonymus?”
Empusa's Hunger: A Reverse Harem Romance (Monsters and Gargoyles Book 8) Page 7
