The Succubus, the Demon and the Witch

by T. A. Moorman

  “It’s okay.” Tialanna said, looking as though she were choosing her next words carefully. “Just keep going. At this point the only thing that matters is finding her.”

  “So.” Genie took over again as Deelah sent her a silent plea from out of the corner of her eye. See, it wasn’t that she was too nervous to speak, she was already past the shell shock of who they were speaking to. No, there was more to it; her wolf was inside clawing to get free. Desperate to not only find their best friend, but to demand to know why she had been abandoned by none other than the royal family.

  “Like D said, we were keeping her distracted. The two of us had bribed Speedy, a kid panther shifter, to place her presents in her room. Jelissa didn’t want a big fuss over her birthday since she thought it was jinxed. She seemed to always have bad luck on her birthdays. One year she tried some perm from the human realm and her hair fell out. Another year she jumped off the roof after seeing this human movie, thinking she’d be able to float down like the witches in the movie did, and broke her leg, and when we were little she bit into an apple and her two front teeth came out like a couple of Chiclets. Every year something went wrong. The only thing she was looking forward to was doing a couple adult things. And finally learning what the Hel she was, besides being a witch. Guess we know now why the ‘seers’ never saw anything.” Genie said the last more to herself than to anyone else. While she had more control over her temper than Deelah did, she too was conflicted by the reality of the situation.

  “You’re right, Genie. But there’s a reason, more than one actually, we didn’t tell her what, or who, she was.” This came from Elyssia’s sweet, innocent-sounding voice from the doorway. She had been there for a few moments, quietly listening to the children whom she had helped to raise. Children who were now young women and discovering a whole lot of truths about the beings they thought they knew. “The irony of it all? I planned on telling her everything today.”

  “You were what?” Tia jumped straight out of her seat on that note. “What the fuck do you mean you were ‘about to tell her today’? Are you out of your rabid-ass mind?” Her tone continued to escalate with each word. She took a few steps towards her sister but Grimm blocked her way, keeping her legs between himself and the couch.

  “You heard me perfectly well, Tia. How much longer could we let this go on? Her entire life? She’s a grown woman now. Letting it go on this long was more than enough,” Elyssia defended her decision.

  Anya glanced away, obviously attempting not to give off any type of reaction, and Tia practically squealed, “You were in on this too?”

  “Oh, get your panties out of your ass. I know for a fact you were getting ready too. I could feel it.” Anya sighed. “We never had a chance to talk to each other before everything went straight to Hel.” Sitting back farther onto the couch, Anya ran her fingers through her hair then scrubbed them down her face. “Maybe we should have told her a long time ago. And we definitely shouldn’t have bound her powers for this long. Now there’s no telling what could happen.”

  Genie gave a sigh of relief when Chandler’s shoulders sloped as he sighed, sulking for a second before walking over to the back of the couch. He gently pulled at the queen, urging her back into her seat, then proceeded to stoop down and place his head between the two who, the girls suspected, were more alike than either would ever admit, and not just in the looks department either.

  He spoke softly in a thick British accent, saying, “Before the two of you continue on with this conversation, may I be so bold as to remind you of the two young ladies sitting here directly in front of you, absorbing every word coming out of your mouths.”

  “Chandler’s right,” Elyssia chimed in, coming farther into the room to stand behind the two in discussion, placing a hand on each of their chairs. “But I think these two deserve to know the truth, all of it. They’re her family just as much as we are. If we’re all honest about it, we’d admit to the fact Genie and Deelah here are the only family she really knows. We of all people know blood ties aren’t what necessarily makes a family.”

  “Oh, how kind of you, Seer.” Deelah’s voice took on a sultry tone, her eyes no longer her own; they had become the iridescent yellow of her wolf. “Your generosity knows no bounds, does it?”

  “Dammit.” This sentiment came from Genie, recognizing the wolf taking over. Deelah being part-sorceress, she didn’t have to fully shift for her wolf to take complete control and become the deadly beast that constantly lurked within.

  Turning to Genie, Deelah batted her eyelashes, giving her best friend a supposedly innocent look that was not very reassuring at all as she said to her, “No worries, Genie, I’ll be a good girl. But I think it’s beyond time we got some answers, and I’m growing tired of all this pussy footing around the two of them keep doing. We deserve to know what’s really going on. And I plan on being all the bitch I can be until I find out.”

  Deelah’s not so inner wolf stretched full out within the confines of the chair, extending her long neck, legs, and arms, taking over to the point where she looked like a whole new woman. The red in her black hair became even more defined. She sat straight and rotated her head on her shoulders in a way that personified she thought she was the top bitch, then proceeded to crouch down slightly, putting her arm across the back of Genie’s chair. In a condescending tone, she directed the next statement to Tialanna. “Well, we’re all patiently waiting. After all, time is of the essence, isn’t it?”

  “Watch yourself, little pup,” Grimm warned in a tone that was more snarl than words.

  “Or what?” Deelah stood long and tall, all lean six feet seeming to take up even more space than it actually did. “What’s the big bad wolf going to do to me if I don’t behave? Spank me?” Deelah ignored his answering growl, too caught up in her own emotions to give a damn about anyone else’s. Taking a long inhale, her nose seemed to elongate into a snout. Then right back down to normal-sized, humanoid nostrils, she continued, “Wanna spank me since you never got a chance to spank your own daughter? She is yours, right? Always thought we smelled a lil’ wolf on her, but now we see and smell all these other options—”

  Annnnd that was it. Grimm launched himself at Deelah and had them both across the room with her back against the wall, his hand in a punishing grip around her throat before anyone could so much as blink. He growled in her face so violently his breath had her hair flying back as though she were in the wind. Spittle sprayed as his fangs became almost too large for his normal sized mouth to hold, giving Deelah a much unwanted shower. In a menacing tone, he said to her, “No, I won’t spank you, but I will knock your ass down to size.”

  Deelah whimpered like the scared pup she truly was. All bravado left her tone as Grimm’s wolf stared down to her own wolf’s very soul. Tilting her head back as much as the wall and Grimm’s excruciatingly painful grip would allow, in submission to the clearly dominant wolf, she whined and said in a weary tone, “I just want my sister back.” A single tear fell from her left eye. “And we’re damned tired of being lied to.”

  Grim slowly relaxed his grip, allowing her to slide down to her feet. Plaster rained down to the floor as Deelah’s body was released from the imprint it had made in the wall. Coming back down from his rage, Grim replied so quietly it was as if he were doing so more to himself than to her, “So am I, little pup. So am I.”

  7

  Conflicts of Interest

  “Okay, let’s try this again.” Elyssia sighed and sat back on the couch. She had convinced Tialanna to go for a walk with her husbands in an attempt to relieve some of the tension, explaining to her she and Anya would have a much easier time speaking with the girls—well, more like young women—without all of them around. The wall now decorated with the imprint of Deelah’s body was evidence of how well they all did in the same room together.

  “You look so much like her,” Genie said in awe.

  “Naw, I’m the better looking one,” Anya replied in a playful tone, “White hair is
so much better than red, goes with any outfit. Better than blue too.”

  “Hey!” Elyssia shoved Anya for the barb. The two might not have grown up together, but Elyssia had loved her other big sister from the moment she’d learned of her existence. Being stuck together for the past twenty-five years had helped to seal that bond.

  Deelah and Genie looked at each other in disbelief.

  “Are you two fucking serious right now?” Deelah said in outrage, evidence her wolf was still very close to the surface. “You’re acting like we’re having some sort of little get-together. Not at all like your only niece is missing. She is your only niece, right? With so many lies flying around, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out half of the orphanage was related to y’all.”

  “Deeleah.” Genie gasped. She stared at her friend with eyes so wide Elyssa was afraid they would pop out of their sockets.

  “Oh, come on, Genie, you know damn well you were thinking the same thing. I’m the one currently without a filter, so I said it for the both of us.”

  “Deelah, listen up, and listen good.” Anya was clearly fed up with her charge at this point. When Deelah looked as though she was getting ready to stand, Anya wrapped her winds around the girl’s body, not too forcibly but just enough to get her point across as well as force Deelah to remain in the chair.

  “I understand better than you will ever know how you feel right now. You want answers, and yes, you damn well deserve them, but your flying off at the mouth isn’t going to help you get them any faster. You think we’re calm? Baby, we’re far from it. But you know the saying it’s better to laugh than to cry? Well, it’s better for us to maintain our composure than to blow the fucking orphanage off its hinges. Because if we unleashed the rage we feel right now, that is exactly what would happen. Now sit back and shut the Hel up so we can explain to you why we had no choice but to keep you all in the dark for as long as we did.”

  Genie appeared to be on the verge of tears at this point, looking as though her entire world was crumbling around her. “Could you please? And could you cut Dee a little slack? We woke up to the smaller kids screaming, and what sounded like an all-out war outside. And when we went to Jelissa’s room we couldn’t find her there, or anywhere. We see the Royal Guard, of all people, rushing to get the smaller children to safety. The orphanage, our home, no longer feels safe. We were scared out of our minds. We had no idea what was going on, and still don’t know. Then while we’re searching Jelissa’s room for something, anything that might tell us what happened we hear what sounded like another war breaking out down here. And seeing all of you? The royal family? That was more than enough to shock us stupid, but to learn it was you? That’s a lot for anyone to take in.”

  “You’re right, Genie.” This from Elyssia. “This isn’t fair to you, either of you.” Seeing Genie getting ready to let the dam break, she rushed over and pulled the girl out of her chair and into her arms, kissed her atop her head and let her cry it out. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.”

  “As you guys already figured out, Jelissa is the daughter of the Queen, and our niece.” Anya finally began filling them in. She seemed to follow her instincts and let her Goddess decide which words to choose. “The whole reason this orphanage was even built was to hide her and the rest of you away. Not all of you are orphans. Some of you, like Jelissa, were only here to keep you safe. Well, that was the original goal anyway.”

  “Hold up, wait. What do you mean not all of us are orphans?”

  “Dee, didn’t I just ask you—excuse me—didn’t I just tell you to shut up?”

  Genie shot Deelah a glare. “Fine, I’m shutting up. Jeesh.” Deelah rolled her eyes and mimicked zipping her mouth shut. They could only hope it would remain that way for at least five minutes.

  “As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, again.” This earned Anya yet another eye-roll from the peanut gallery. “You know who Jelissa’s mother is now, but when it comes to who her father is, that’s where things get a little trickier. And the reason for hiding her existence. Lissa doesn’t have just one father, magically speaking anyway. Scientifically speaking, one egg, one sperm, one kid; we might not be human, but we aren’t aliens either. Our genetic makeup as far as DNA and all that is basically the same as a human, just with a few extra layers. So, the birds-and-the-bees concept still applies.”

  With that, Genie spoke up. “If that’s the case, how does she have more than one father?”

  “I’m getting to that. Trust me, the shit was just as confusing to us when we learned what happened the first time around. So I know how insane it must sound to the two of you.”

  “Want me to take over from here?” Elyssia piped up.

  “Nah, I got this. I think. When I’m done, feel free to fill in any blanks though.” Taking an extremely deep breath and letting it all out, Anya continued. “At the very beginning of the wars, right before all the shit started to hit the fan, Tia and Elyssia finally found out about me. Yeah, they know how it is to be kept in the dark too. Anyway, long story sort of short, Tialanna was kidnapped. During that time, her and Bran, the demon version of him—that’s another story too—had a wild time with a couple of others, including her now other husband, Grimm. Grimm was drugged out of his mind at the time and is just now learning the truth of it all. Bran, which is what we all call him now since he’ll never reveal his demonic name to any of us, acquired an elixir, which was a sort of aphrodisiac to help Tialanna loosen up. Not unlike a human roofie, the elixir allowed her to be free to do as she pleased without worrying about what anyone else would think, free from caring about all judgments; being part-vampire, that wasn’t exactly hard. What Bran did not know at the time was the sorcerer he got it from had a deep-seated vendetta against our vampire side of the gene pool. And the elixir was much more than an inhibitor. It was also something to help impregnate her—something the original Bran had cooked up with the sorcerer—and strip a part of the essence from each of her partners and embed their magick and strengths into him. When it was Demon Bran with her instead of the original, things didn’t go exactly as planned.”

  Elyssia saw the pained expression on Anya’s face as she told the girls the sorted tale. What most didn’t know was she had experienced most of the events that took place right along with Tia. She continued, knowing the girls deserved to know who and what their friend truly was, since some of that elixir was given to their mothers as well.

  “Turned out both of their defenses were too powerful for that part of the elixir to work. While she did become impregnated by Demon Bran’s seed, and the elixir did pull away some of the essence and powers from their other partners, it went into the newly forming embryo instead. Into Jelissa. Which makes her not only a witch and a wolf and a vampire twice over, but also a demon twice over too. But, demons come in classifications. While we finally learned Demon Bran is actually a sin eater demon, the other demon they were with that night whose essence is also within Jelissa was an incubus.”

  “Whoa.” This response came from both girls.

  “Yea, whoa about sums it up,” Elyssia spoke. “And we don’t know what will happen now that all her powers are no longer dormant. We can only hope if her powers are indeed online, that will aide in protecting her, and not the other way around.”

  “What do you mean not the other way around?” Genie didn’t bother to try and hide the worried tone in her words.

  Elyssia attempted to continue the explanation, hating herself more with each word as her fear mounted for her only niece. If she and Anya had gone against Tia’s wishes and revealed the truth to Jelissa, would she be safe and sound right beside them now, instead of wherever she was?

  “We bound her powers when Jelissa was born, not knowing how exactly they would affect her, terrified they might even destroy her mentally or physically. We barely know anything about demons really; those that are here keep themselves hidden. For good reason. But to have all that in one tiny little person? To tell the truth, we really didn’t know what
the heck to do. We did know one thing though. If the wrong person had gotten their hands on her, it would not be a good thing. We planned on letting them emerge one at a time, not all at once. And we didn’t know whether she would even go through a vampire transitioning or not. I mean, come on, she was already going to be part vampire through her mom, and with Bran part-demon. Him being a sin eating demon wasn’t really that much of a big deal in this realm, ’cause sin isn’t a thing here; that’s a human thing. Most of them think just looking at someone of the same sex is a sin. Throw in another vampire’s essence and that of an incubus, how does that affect everything else? Not to mention the fact she’s also a witch from the most powerful bloodline? Dammit, what were we supposed to do?”

  At this point Elyssa was in tears, her voice escalating. “Y’all are upset? How do you think we feel? I’m sorry we didn’t tell her sooner. I’m sorry we kept all of you in the dark. I’m sorry for all of it, but we didn’t know what else to do.”

  “Sis, sit for a bit, okay? The temp dropped several degrees in here.”

  Elyssa did as Anya asked, realizing the only reason she didn’t have any tears rolling down her cheeks was because they were turning into ice crystals.

  Anya attempted to finish up. “Look, what’s done is done. There’s no going back, just moving forward. And before you start thinking of Tia as the Evil Bitch Queen, keep in mind something similar was done to us. She and Elyssia were kept in the dark about me and what Tia really was for a long time. Not saying that justifies anything, but the decision was made out of love. Bran has kept his vow to make little Rasputin pay for what he did after he’d learned the real truth of what the elixir was for. None of us wanted the Rasputins to know anything about Jelissa. We thought we were okay when they realized Bran was actually the demon who was summoned and not the little prick who originally made the deal. They didn’t know Tialanna was pregnant. But when Jelissa was born, we couldn’t cloak all that power quick enough. So, since we couldn’t mask her birth, we faked her death, after we bound her magick. All but her witch magick anyway. But looks as though either that plan didn’t work out so well, or they somehow just learned the truth. Or worse, someone else entirely.”