“And how exactly would that be worse?” Deelah asked.
“The enemy you know is one thing—you at least know what you’re up against. Someone who you don’t know, well, it’s kinda hard to come up with a game plan when you have no idea who or what you’re even preparing to fight.” Anya sat back, stared off into the distance at some sight unseen. “And if they somehow took her into the human realm, we also need to worry about how being a sin eater demon will affect her.”
“Dear Goddess, I didn’t even think of that,” Elyssia gasped.
“That’s right, Sis, none of us really did. Like I said before, sin isn’t a thing here. We never even entertained the possibility of her ending up there. She’s been her entire life with almost no power at all. If that much power comes on line all at once—power that won’t only be foreign to her, but more than she’s ever learned how to contain or control—it’ll either help her, or it just might kill her.”
8
Pot, Meet Kettle
In the gardens, Tialanna was explaining to Grimm the very same story, which for her was the easy part of it. The hard part came in asking for forgiveness for keeping it all away from him for so long. When she came to the decision to not tell him, she thought she had no choice. They had learned of his whereabouts after searching for him for months, a search she had no part in as she was pregnant with Jelissa at the time. The search was conducted by her mates and her sisters. Truth be told, Tia was glad it had been them and not her to have found him in the condition he was in. She probably never would have forgiven her father otherwise.
They had been searching the entire realm for him after the second battle in the wars was over and found out he had been right under their noses the entire time. Literally. As punishment for betraying him, Tia and Anya’s father had Grimm chained, a prisoner in the catacombs of the castle, their vampire family home, for months. Deprived of light, he had only been given the bare minimum amount of food and water to keep him alive. The only touch allowed him were the whips, fists, steel, the salt, and acid that was literally poured into his wounds, and whatever else his torturers decided to use to beat him with. The vampire king did not take kindly to being betrayed, especially when that betrayal involved any of his children.
When Tia’s mates and sisters found Grimm, he was in ruins, his skin beaten to shreds, actually hanging off his bones in some parts. And his mind… Both the wolf and man they knew were barely there anymore, visions of untold horrors having been planted into his mind by some of the sickest, most twisted sorcerers in existence besides the Rasputins. It took their greatest healers and tons of magick and therapy to put him back together. And he still hadn’t been quite the same since, reverting to being a wolf more often than not. So, when the time came, Tia knew for sure telling him about Jelissa would only reverse all the effort made to make him mostly whole again.
“Grimm, by the time the decision was made to keep her hidden, you were still barely on the mend. I couldn’t risk losing you all over again.” Tia was having almost the same amount of trouble as Anya with trying to justify hiding the truth. “Look, I could apologize to you fifty million times in fifty million different ways, but none of those apologies would change a damn thing. Yes, I should have come clean with you long before now, but it never seemed to be the right time. Do I regret not telling you in the very beginning? No. I don’t. The decision had already been made, so there was no point in risking losing you when I had just gotten you back.”
“Tia, how am I supposed to react to all this?” Grimm asked, his tone a combination of hurt and bewilderment. “So, what, you expect me to take all this in like it’s everyday news? And the messed-up part is I don’t even have the luxury of being able to process any of it, because now she’s missing. You, all of you, kept this knowledge, my daughter, away from me all these years, and now she’s lost to us. What should my reaction be, Tia? Yay, it’s a girl?”
“Why don’t you back that train up, Mister Self-Righteousness, or have you forgotten you lied to Tia for most of her life? Not only about who you really were, but also about who and what she truly was?” Tia knew that Bran had had about enough of Grimm; not that he ever really liked him in the first place. The only reason he’d even bothered pretending he did was for her sake.
“This has nothing to do with you, so why don’t you stay the Hel out of it and mind your own business?”
“First of all, anything to do with Tialanna is my business. Second, that girl you’re referring to came from not my fucking essence, but from my seed. Meaning she was my daughter with or without the elixir, so that makes this conversation doubly my business.” Bran’s eyes took on a dangerous red tint, his true form peeking out. “I suggest you take it down a notch or two, pull up your big boy pants, and worry about what’s really important right here and now. In case that wasn’t put plainly enough for you to comprehend, your ego and what you feel you were entitled to isn’t it.”
Grimm looked like he’d rather bite off his own tongue than to admit Bran was right. “Whatever, you smug bastard. How about you come up with a plan then?” he mumbled.
“I’m trying to think of just that, you arrogant son of a bitch,” Bran replied with a twisted grin, seemingly pleased with himself at the non-insult he threw at his frenemy.
“I swear, dealing with the two of you is worse than dealing with blooming children.” This came from Chandler, who shook his head at the two. “I may not be Jelissa’s father by either essence nor seed, none of that matters to me. Tialanna is my Fated One any child born from her will always be mine, in both my eyes and heart.”
Just then Anya walked into the gardens with Elyssia no more than two steps behind her. The look on her face revealed before her words that what she had to say, none of them was going to like. “Uh, we need to talk,” she said, to no one in particular.
With a resigned sigh, Tia asked the question none of the rest of them wanted to. “About what, exactly?”
“There’s something none of us ever took into account, since we thought it would never be a factor as we aren’t really around any humans except the donors you guys use. She was never around them because that side of her never transitioned or even made so much as a peek. And Bran usually snacks on their sins as you and Chandler feed anyway. So, in actuality, while here, at home, in this realm, you know, it wouldn’t really be a problem and so far, it hasn’t been.” Elyssia was attempting to explain, though her explanation was coming out as a jumble of thoughts, with one sentence running right into another. And she was beginning to sound like a bumbling idiot.
Pinching the bridge of her nose and letting out a beyond-exasperated sigh, Tia said in a deadpan tone to her sisters, “Spit it out, one of you, whatever the Hel it is you’re trying to say.”
“Well, you know how we never really worried about what type of demon Bran was as far as what Jelissa would inherit from him? I mean we did worry about it, and we asked him about it, but we didn’t really worry it would be a factor over here on account of the factions in this realm don’t really care about sin the way humans do—”
“Elyssia!” Tia, Bran, Grimm, and Chandler all shouted at the same time.
Elyssia stopped mid-fidget; she had been stepping from one foot to the other in the same spot while she rambled on. “Don’t shout at me!”
Anya rolled her eyes to the back of her head. “What Elyssia is trying to point out is, we overlooked something ever since first learning of Jelissa’s disappearance. What if she’s in the human realm?”
This gained her a ton of swearing in response.
“Yeah, my thoughts precisely. We never got around to thinking of a contingency plan for what we would need to do if Jelissa was in the human realm, for whatever reason. With everything that’s going on in that realm right now, there’s no doubt in my mind that will awaken her sin eater side, and no doubt it will be completely starved and become a ravenous beast in the midst of an open buffet.”
* * *
Bran dropped right whe
re he stood to sit on the ground, knowing better than anyone what his daughter would be up against should that happen. Also knowing what could happen when a starved demon went on a rampage. As old as he was, it was no longer an issue for him; in comparison Jelissa was only just a babe. Worst, she would be like a child in the candy store for the very first time. It wasn’t that a sin eater demon needed to consume sins to survive. What the consumption did was fuel their power. But the child had more than enough power within her as it was. And too much of even a good thing was just that—too much. He had no idea if she would be able to control that much power, let alone contain it, the latter being one of his greatest fears.
His other fear? If she was in the human realm, would the demon blood running in her veins make her subject to the laws of his kind? Or would her other bloodlines protect her from just that? He didn’t know. And he had never brought up the subject, or even worried about any of these things until now. And that alone made him feel like a damned fool.
Another fear: she was not a registered demon so she had no summoning name, but what if her birth name could be used as one? As a matter of fact, that right there could be something to be used in her favor. Could they summon her back home? Could it really be as simple as all that? There were too many variables, too many unknown factors to make any type of decision one way or the other.
Bran had so many thoughts and questions running around like racehorses through his demonic head but he didn’t want to bring them up because he was afraid of worrying Tia even more than she already was. He was already scaring the shit out of himself. And a frightened demon was a dangerous demon, which made one more thing for him to worry about in regard to his daughter. Then again, maybe it would make her dangerous enough to harm her captors? That thought brought a sly smile to his lips. A smile that was just as quickly wiped away by the reality of the situation.
He really did need to let them all in on all the details that being a sin eater demon consisted of. As much as he would like to not care, his little girl’s life was at stake if he didn’t. For them to even begin to formulate a plan of action, all the actors had to be laid before them.
Except for his true name. That he would still hold on to at all costs. As much as he loved and trusted his new family, that was the one thing he would never give them. Not so much he –wouldn’t – the fact of the matter was he couldn’t.
Another thing he had kept to himself all this time was he’d had Rasputin fry his summoning name from his brain before he had formed any attachments. When he’d gotten into this realm, he hadn’t wanted to take any risk of slipping up and allowing someone to learn it and use it against him in some way. One thing he wouldn’t reveal was if he did need to go to the human realm to rescue Jelissa, he would be taking the chance of being summoned. Them not knowing his summoning name meant they would not be able to summon him back, and he could be stuck there or sent back to his own realm if that happened.
Plus, chances were greater than not that she was indeed within the human realm. He still hadn’t had the chance to fill them all in on the fact their Jelissa was not the only one missing. And now that he had sat and really given himself a chance to think about the implications of which factions also had someone missing, the implications of that hit him like a Mack truck. The young ones missing were a werewolf, a vampire, and he’d also smelled an incubus creeping in the back of the mob that morning. For any type of demon to come out of their hidey hole without even attempting to mask their smell meant their young must be among those missing also. So, whoever held his daughter planned on unleashing everything within her, possibly all at once, and what better place to do that than the human realm where there was sin galore?
With a triumphant effort, Bran stood to say four words he’d never thought to utter in his entire existence. “We need to talk.”
9
The Evil Bitch That Did
Laughing sinisterly like the evil hag she truly was, Jelissa’s captor watched on several surveillance monitors as all the events she had orchestrated played out in vivid color. All her carefully laid plans were coming to fruition as she sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed the show. The surprising advances humans had made in this realm were beyond remarkable, and since she had one of the younger generation of techno-mages in her back pocket, the possibilities became endless. Being able to watch them in real time trying their level best to decide where they should even begin looking made the past twenty-four years among these mongrel humans well worth the wait.
She didn’t bother looking over at the other monitors which held her captives on display in vivid technicolor, as said captives were in the middle of certain deeds she’d rather not see. Though she was oh so glad of what they were doing, since all the energy that could be gained from the incubus and the succubus part of Jelissa was being absorbed into the collars around their necks. Just the thought of all that delicious power she planned on taking in herself had her damn near creaming her pants.
She wouldn’t be so stupid as to take it all in at once, oh no. That would be a meal she would be able to savor for a long time coming, taking in only small amounts at a time.
That poor girl had never stood a chance at life. No one, no matter what bloodline they came from, would ever be able to hold in that much power. Not that her living a full life was ever the intention; the babe had been born to die anyway.
The wicked bitch could not wait to see the look on those poor imbeciles’ faces when she did return to Underlayes. Now that will definitely be a Kodak moment. Maybe she would even allow them to survive for a short time. There would be no way no how they could stop her. She would be the strongest being in existence. So much so, maybe she wouldn’t stop there. Maybe she would take over the human realm as well. Oh, the possibilities were endless.
The poor idiots thought they were rid of her for good. Little did they know it was not that easy to get rid of her. She knew secrets about their bloodline they never would and were too stupid to find out. Did they never think to try and learn the reason their bloodline was damn near extinct? Then again, wisdom did come with age, and they were still relatively young, and more than a little dumb. Her own ambition had come at the tender age of fifteen from witnessing the slaughter of her family, right before Underlayes had been created. She had vowed revenge right then and there, swearing to herself never to give a damn about anyone. Love was useless, nothing more than a tool to be used against those dumb enough to feel the emotion. Determined to never allow love to be her ruination, she had placed a spell on her own heart to make it as cold as ice. Which made stealing the last of her own flesh and blood daughter’s life force even easier than stealing candy, or power, from a baby. After all, she had given her life in the first place. What was so wrong in taking it back? The ungrateful wretch didn’t deserve it anyway, refusing to place the spell over her own heart.
She had been willing to share the power with her, allowing her rule by her side as mother and daughter, but love, something that had never brought the poor idiot anything more than heartache and despair, was something her daughter chose over her one too many times.
She may have even allowed Jelissa to rule by her side after draining every last drop of magick and power from her. Too bad the little bitch had no chance of surviving.
10
Last Dance
Deciding that getting some semblance of order would be the best course of action before even attempting to come up with a viable plan, especially since they really didn’t even have so much as a starting point yet, the group split up. Anya and Kierra stayed with the girls at the orphanage, looking for whatever it was they might have missed, hoping some vital piece of evidence would pop out at them, even slap them in the face, at least that was the lie they told everyone. Everyone else went back to the palace. Ellyssia and Darvyn went to gather the Royal Guard to not only fill them in on what was going on, but to also gather arms, suit up, and decide what would be best to do about the remaining orphans now that the one place they believed the
m all to be safe had been compromised.
The task of wrangling in the families of the other missing young fell to Chandler and Grimm. The disastrous duo had ended up drawing the short straws with that one, as Bran was in their living quarters trying to explain the demon dynamics to Tialanna, and what those implications might mean for their daughter.
Bran paced from one end of the living quarters to the next while Tia sat, clearly impatient, on their overlarge sectional couch. He could tell she wanted to say something, but was willing to wait for him to speak first, even though silence had never been one of her strongest virtues. He just didn’t know the best way to say what had to be said.
When he finally did stop, he dropped to his knees directly in front of her, shedding a single tear from his right eye. Bran could see the worry in her eyes as she said, “Baby, please, talk to me, ’cause right now you’re scaring the shit out of me.”
“We’re gonna lose her, Tia, we’re gonna lose our baby girl,” Bran said when he finally found his voice, as raspy as it was and filled with grief and anger.
Leaning forward, Tia captured her demon’s face within her hands. As Tia looked into her lover’s eyes, he knew she could see his pain went soul-deep. “Hey, we haven’t completely lost yet. We’ll find her.”
The Succubus, the Demon and the Witch Page 6
