Among Demons : Succubus Divine

Ch. 35: A Mothers Protection

After leaving the precinct we went to Amanda's house and thankfully entered without having to deal with her mother. Kane and I hastily gathered the young Human’s belongings and stuffed them into Kane’s car. She didn’t pack much except a duffle and suitcase bags worth of clothes, as well as filling her old backpack with her chesired sentimental items. When she finally told us that everything else could be left behind, mainly because her mother had bought it for her knowing she didn’t like it, we rushed back into the car. I sat in the back with Amanda as we drove away and noticed how she flinched when she caught sight of a small silver car heading in the direction of her mothers house. I didn’t ask if it was her’s car and simply hugged her to help keep her calm.

The next few days we spent gathering information about the missing Griffin and my frustration was climbing.

It was starting to seem more and more like the soon-to-be father had just vanished into thin air. Not even his car could be found after he had dropped off Amanda. And the Griffin's roommates weren’t much help either since they were all distracted with their own personal problems to even realize that one of them hadn’t come home in a while.

I reached out to my brother and Nyla to see if they could dig something up for me after wasting one whole day of chasing down people that knew Mathis. And of course, Nick quickly jumped on the possibility that Hunters were behind the missing Griffin. It wasn’t an impossible idea but I didn’t want to focus too much on it just yet. Because if it was true, and Hunters had somehow gotten a hold of Mathis because of what he was, then there was zero chance that we would find him alive.

Griffins were different from many other Shifter-type Demons and typically stayed frozen in their animal state if they died that way. Their bodies don’t Shift back into their Human form. And from the accounts of Demons that had survived encounters with Hunters… Griffins in their animal form were typically stuffed and turned into morbid taxidermy statues that Hunters keep within their secret hide-outs. Treating them like trophies or training tools for new recruits.

Kane was visibly growing more and more anxious too and I knew his mind had swung in that direction at least once. So, to help distract Amanda from the grim and distant reactions she was getting from the both of us, I drove her to the Demon Village to finally check on her baby that following Saturday.

“This is amazing!” She breathed as we drove through the front gates, her eyes wide as she stared out the window. “It’s so much bigger than I thought!”

I smiled and steered my car towards the farther right corner of Village where most of the clinics were. Once I parked, I slowly walked towards the doors with Amanda close behind me, pointing out a few buildings across from us.

She nodded along and continued to smile as she took in the small condos, little shops and restaurants that could be seen across the way.

Once inside the clinic I helped her fill out the paperwork required, since she was a new patient here who would need to return throughout her pregnancy. It took a while and we ended up waiting for her name to be called for much longer than I thought. Of course, I understood that the small stack of pages needed to be filed, but it was still annoyingly boring to just sit there waiting. Then, when her name was finally called, I smiled and nodded at her encouragingly, waiting for her to stand from her seat and follow the Fay Nurse.

“Devin…”

I raised a brow once I caught the look of anxiety and panic that swept over her face, my arm coming down on her shoulders in a half-hug.

“You ok?” I asked her, glancing at her hands that were now gripping the corner of my jacket.

“I… I don’t wanna go in there alone…” She muttered, looking at me hopefully. “Will you… can you come with me?” I watched her gnaw on her bottom lip as she waited for my answer, gripping my jacket tighter as she breathed out a soft, “Please?”

I smiled and squeezed her shoulders, nodding to her before pulling us both out of our seats.

We followed the kind Nurse with Manda still gripping my jacket and entered a small room with a medical examination bed right in front of the door. A leather rolling stool was pressed against the little cabinets in the corner and an uncomfortable looking plastic chair was across from the exam bed. I guided Manda to the bed and held her hand for a moment to calm her before I sat on the sorry looking chair a few feet in front of her.

The Nurse was calm and soothing as she gave a clear plastic cup to Manda to pee in and showed her where the restrooms were. After she came back the Nurse checked her vitals, height and weight and asked her some basic questions about her health before leaving us alone. She looked calmer now that we were just waiting for the Gynecologist, rubbing her slightly pooching belly every so often. And when the Doc, an older Elven lady, entered the room, her eyes shone with excitement.

Her pregnancy was confirmed and the Doc had Manda lay back on the bed to check how far along she was with an Ultrasound, making Manda wince when the cold gel was spread across her belly. It made me a little uncomfortable to see it all go down right in front of me, since I had always been one to think that I would never experience something like this. Not even indirectly, like I was now. But I stayed throughout it all and held her hand while all three of us kept our eyes glued to the screen. A little fuzzy white shape appeared not long after and the Doc took some pictures and measurements while Manda quietly cried, muttering something to herself. It reminded me of a partially melted gummy bear and I made Manda laugh a little when I told her. It was a sweet moment to watch as Manda tightly held the little square picture of her growing baby after getting off the bed. Almost as if she feared the thin, flimsy looking page was suddenly going to fly away from her.

Manda kept the image of her baby pressed against her chest as the Doc talked to her about her prenatal care, foods to avoid and what to look for in the weeks to come. She also told us that her little fuzzy bear was nearly 3 months old too, estimating the baby’s due date to be somewhere around mid-to-late September, since she had conceived in December. It shocked her a bit that Demon pregnancies were the same length as Humans. But the Doc and I explained that, while genetically different from Humans, Demons are technically born exactly like Humans. The reason for that was simply to help ease the burden of labor on the mother while also lowering the risk of harm to the baby, since giving birth to a newborn with Supernatural gifts would undoubtedly end in a chaotic disaster.

Just imagining a woman giving birth to a baby Shifter in its animal form, a Vampire baby with only fangs in its mouth or a Fay baby with glowing little wings would be quite the shock. Not to mention, terrifying to a Human woman.

I also explained, with the help of Doc, that Demon children tended to gain their powers, or special abilities as they grow older, with most races maturing during puberty, while others slowly and steadily gaining control of their powers after the age of five.

After thanking the Doc and scheduling her next appointment, we climbed back into my car and slowly made our way out of the Village.

“A September baby.” Manda chatted excitedly, her eyes still glued to the ultrasound in her hands. “That’s a month before Mathis’ birthday! We’ll get to celebrate it all together with our little baby!” I smiled at her, feeling affected by her happiness. “Oh! I wonder when Kane's birthday is! We could all have a big old celebration as a family with our baby’s Uncle too, if he, you know, decides to stay here, of course. I know they both have family outside of Seattle, but–”

Her words were cut off by the loud ringing of my phone and she simply smiled and continued to talk to herself, only softly this time while I answered.

“Hey! Where are you?!” Nick's frantic voice made me flinch a bit and I frowned at how breathless he sounded.

“Leaving the Village with Manda.” I told him, hearing some rustling sounds as well as the rack of a gun slide loading a bullet into the chamber. “Why? What are you doing Nick?”

“We think we found him.” He huffed, cursing after some crashing sounds that I assumed were him dropping his phone. “Mathis, we think we found him, but we need to get to him fast, Dev, like now.”

“You think?” I pressed, gassing my car once I passed through the gates of the Village. “Why isn’t the intel accurate Nick? And who's with you?”

The thumping of running feet were followed by the slam of a car door and someone's muddled voice could be heard saying something to him before he answered me.

“I’ll fill you in when you get here, ok? Just met us by the docks on the south end of the fishing square… you know, the one where the rich people go to rent out storage space for their equipment.” The roar of his truck reached me as I redirected my car in the direction he spoke of, glancing at Manda who was now blankly staring at me, still clutching the picture. “And Dev… you need to warn Manda before you get there.”

“Why?”

Something in my gut was yelling at me that I should know the reason, but I didn’t want to fully acknowledge it. Not after the blissfully happy moments that Manda had just gone through back in the clinic. I didn’t want to have to bear witness to this innocent Human girl's pain and betrayal that were only being caused because of her love for a Demon man. It crushed something inside me to know, deep down, what it was that my brother was going to say. Yet my mind pointedly turned in on itself at the thought of having to see another kind and accepting Human being tortured for welcoming my people with open arms.

“Her mother…. Dev, Manda’s mom is the one behind all of this…”

I closed my eyes tightly as I rolled to a stop in front of a red light, feeling the faint prick of tears begin to choke me as I worked to calm myself.

“I had some of our guys look into Manda’s home yesterday after her mom bombed her phone with all those calls.” I nodded as I resumed driving, gripping the steering wheel tightly with one hand. “They came to the office this morning with a stack of papers that looked suspicious so Kane and I went through them while you guys headed to the Village.” I glanced at Manda again and tried to smile, failing to ease her worry when I caught the growing anxiety in her gaze. “In that stack, we found a page filled with weird white-out sentences, like Manda’s mom tried to blank out its contents and write over it.” Another pause came from Nick as he pulled his phone away from his ear to say something before returning. “Kane managed to scrape off the white-out and found evidence that Manda’s mom had hired some young Hunter recruits to make Mathis disappear…. Dev….” He sighed, sounding angry and worried. “She applied for a second loan on her house to pay extra for his torture…. The page shows how she basically handed them all kinds of valuable family items to make sure Mathis is beaten for weeks as punishment for getting close to Manda…” My foot pressed down on the pedal harder, making Manda gasp as we zoomed through the streets. “And when Nyla’s people hacked into the woman's email… we found that… She finally gave the order to kill him… for getting Manda pregnant.”

I quietly asked a few more questions to my brother before hanging up and weaving through the streets of Seattle. Manda sat just as silent as I drove and only glanced out the window a few times before we came closer to our destination.

“Manda…” I started, slowing down as we entered the parking lot closest to the large storage buildings by the docks. “The guys think they found Mathis.”

Her eyes widened and she sat up straighter, searching my face for any trace of a lie.

“They still need to fight their way through to get to him safely… but once everything is clear, I’ll guide you to him, ok?” She looked around frantically as I continued through the parking lot, her body freezing a bit when we neared my brother's familiar truck.

“Is it… Hunters?” She whimpered, hugging herself as we passed by the parked vehicle.

I sighed, hating to do this to her now but knowing it needed to be done.

“Yes.” She flinched, tightening her hold on her torso and curling in on herself. “And we know who reached out to them…”

Her head rose up with tears in her eyes as she waited to hear the name of the person responsible. But as I opened my mouth to tell her, still crawling through the near empty parking lot, her gaze shifted to something just past me, through my own door window.

“Mom?” She said suddenly, sitting up as I stomped on the breaks.

I turned and watched as the woman from a couple days ago was angrily pacing in front of a small silver car. Her phone was pressed against her ear and she could clearly be seen screaming. The pacing stopped suddenly and her arm holding the phone dropped away as she glared towards a small cluster of storage buildings a fair distance from the parking lot. She then tossed her phone into the passenger side of her vehicle before stomping towards those very buildings with a malicious look on her face.

Manda jumped out and darted towards her mother while I frantically turned into the closest parking space and turned off my car.

“Manda!” I shouted, racing to get to her just as her mother caught sight of us.

They both froze before Manda started moving again with me close behind her. I didn’t want to leave her alone knowing that her emotions were running wild thanks to the pregnancy. And her child being a Griffin was only going to amplify those feelings too, so things could take a very nasty turn for them both.

“What are you doing here?” Manda demanded, glaring tearily at her mother who now looked flustered and irritated.

“Don’t use that tone with me!” The older woman snapped, her eyes bouncing down towards Manda’s belly before locking eyes with her daughter. “I should be the one asking you that, Amanda. What do you think you are doing working with these things?” She blindly gestured to me while keeping her gaze locked on Manda. “They don’t care about us! They only want to use us to ensure their own survival!” She finally turned her gaze to me and glared, her eyes burning me with her hatred and disgust before Manda moved to try and cover me.

“Mom.” That one word held so much contained rage and pain that I quickly gripped the young Humans shoulders to try and calm her. “Tell me… why are you here?” Her arm came up and pointed towards the cluster of storage buildings across the way, making her mother tense even more. “We have evidence pointing to the people responsible for Mathis’ disappearance… So why are YOU here?”

The silence that stretched on after that statement rang painfully in my ears and I watched as the older woman grew increasingly more panicked.

“MOM!” Manda snapped, her breathing now rushing out of her as she panted before her mother completely came undone.

“I PAID THEM!” She screamed, glaring as she cried and tried to reach her daughter. “I needed that filthy monster to stay away from you but you wouldn’t listen to me!” Manda flinched and stepped back, pressing her back to my chest while her mother continued. “I was only trying to protect you! You’re all I have left, Amanda! I couldn’t lose you to those things! Not after losing your father!” She whimpered and choked on her sobs for a moment, glancing at her daughter with pleading eyes. “I didn’t want you to suffer like I have… you don’t know what those creatures are capable of… your father and I were both used up and thrown away by them… they don’t care about Humans.” She took a small step closer to us, reaching out to Manda one more time. “Please, try to understand that killing him… destroying any chance of those creatures gaining a hold on you… it’s the only way to protect you.”

“And my baby?” Manda challenged weakly, sniffling after a short silence. “What about my child, mom? They’re not guilty of anything…”

The woman glanced at her stomach again, frowning before turning away. I wondered if Manda had caught the faint look of disgust that had flitted past her mother's eyes. But I kept quiet, occasionally looking towards the buildings as I wondered how my brother and Kane were doing.