Among Demons : A Siren's Voice

Ch. 7 : Potions

*Lora Nex*

Once the guys walked out of the room, I turned to look at Devin, suddenly feeling embarrassed when I caught the mildly amused and teasing look that glowed in her eyes. I tried not to feel as if an awkward secret hadn't been found out, but made things worse instead, fidgeting in my seat while my face heated up.

Thankfully, though, I was able to control myself soon after and smiled up at her a few seconds later. Though my heart was still hammering away in my chest.

“C’mon.” She said with a chuckle, shaking her head when I gave her a quizzical look, still wondering why she was so amused. “We need to change your bandages and check on how you’re healing.”

I got up and followed her out of the room, retracing our steps back down the hallway and into the room I'd woken up in.

She motioned for me to take a seat on the bed before moving into the bathroom. When she came back out her arms were full of supplies that she just spilled onto the desk that had held all of my outfit options. With a focused look on her face, she organized everything and muttered to herself as she did, audibly wondering if she had grabbed enough.

"If it's ok with you, do you mind stripping so I can check your wounds?" She asked me, moving over to the bookshelf and gathering some small potion vials. "If that's too much, then just uncovering the injuries that still hurt or feel uncomfortable would work too."

I wasn't exactly shy about my body or anything, especially around another woman, so I nodded and kicked off my shoes before slipping out of the dress. As I did so I noticed how my body was becoming more and more sensitive to the healing and bruised parts of me. And I attributed this to the simple fact that I was awake, aware and moving around again. So, while I undressed, I struggled not to wince as a few places on my body either pinched or ached with the movement. Though I failed at that completely.

Then, once I stood in nothing but my bra and panties, Devin walked over and started removing the bandages I had sloppily placed on myself after my shower. She was very careful and meticulous as she looked me over, asking me a few times if I was in a lot of pain when she would prod around certain wounds. It was honestly a little surprising and intriguing watching her expertly examine, clean, and rewrap the much larger wounds with ease. In fact, I wondered how many times she had had to use healing potions, gauze and all the other things she used on me.

She moved so smoothly, used each first aid tool and potion with ease and confidence, so much so that I was certain she had several years of experience under her belt.

"There." She said as she stepped back, looking me over once more before she smiled. "You shouldn't feel any increasing pain now that I've given you another coat of healing potion on your more serious wounds." She handed me my dress back and started to clean up the gauze wrappings and empty vials. "Your body is healing pretty fast on its own, but the potions should help it along some more and help numb you to the uncomfortable tightness and ache you’d normally feel." She paused in her cleaning and extended a slightly bigger bottle of glittering pale blue liquid as she continued. "Drink this, so the internal part of your injuries will continue to heal without causing you any discomfort when you move around."

I stared at the bottle while she walked back into the bathroom, no doubt tossing the trash in the bin that was in there.

As I looked into the glass bottle I thought back to the potion I had been forced to drink, my free hand moving on its own to touch my throat as I swallowed hard. My mind soon started to drift down two separate paths as I continued to stare at it. One side accepted the help and was eager to rid myself of the aching soreness that had been growing as I walked and moved. The other side was wondering if I should keep trusting this woman so readily, whispering dark thoughts filled with doubt and fear that made my body lock up.

"Here." Devin appeared right in front of me suddenly, my eyes having been too focused on the vial to see her step closer. "To ease your mind." She then took the bottle from my hand and popped it open, taking a swig from it and showing me how she swallowed it without a problem before handing it back to me.

I took the vial back and mouthed out an apology, feeling embarrassed and a little angry with myself for going down that dark train of thought again.

"Don't worry about it." She said with a chuckle, taking a seat on the bed next to me. "My brother and I did that for each other a lot growing up…" Her eyes became unfocused as she relived a memory, a small sad smile appearing on her face. "We didn't always trust everyone we met… and sometimes… even those we chose to trust ended up hurting us… so we understand." She returned from somewhere far away and tilted her head to face me, smiling a little brighter. "Given the hell you went through just to get away from that Hunter… I'd say you're more than justified in feeling cautious about strangers."

I nodded and smiled back at her, grateful that she understood me and didn't become upset or offended that I felt a bit doubtful and nervous. So, trying to push through the still whispering dark thoughts, I forced myself to down the rest of the bottle, taking it like a shot of liquor. Soon, I became surprised by the overwhelming taste of mint and blueberries that filled my mouth. This made Devin laugh a bit as I stared wide eyed at the bottle, wondering how it was made to make it taste like that.

“A close friend of ours is a Sorceress.” She started to say, still chuckling when I turned to face her. “A very powerful one too, so all the potions she delivers to us are not only potent but taste pretty good when we take it.” She shrugged a little and stared out at the room, still smiling. “I don’t really know what she does, but not a single potion we’ve gotten from her has ever tasted weird or gross.”

I wondered about this as the silence stretched on in the room.

I didn’t have much knowledge about the many other Races of Demons that lived on Earth. But what little I did know, I had learned from my dad who had befriended a few Demons when he was younger. And one of the Demons that had actually been his Mentor and surrogate big sister was a Sorceress that was nearly twice his age when he was in middle school. From what I could remember my dad telling me, this Sorceress had been pregnant throughout the time that she had taken him under her wing. And during that short time, my dad had learned about potions from her and even learned about himself too, since he had been raised by Human parents that neglected him for being born a Vampire. But this Sorceress had taught him that many potions, especially the more serious and difficult potions, were hard to swallow because of their taste. He had also told me that only those with a pure and untainted stream of power and skill that rivaled even the power of the Royal Family, could create potions that actually tasted good.

So Devin’s friend was more than likely a force to be reckoned with if she could make potions like this.

“Speaking of my talented Sorceress friend.” She cut in, breaking the silence and making me jump a little when she took the vial from my hand. “I called her about your situation and she just texted me a little while ago.” I nodded and swallowed hard again, wondering what this Sorceress could figure out with the little information I gave Devin. “She told me that, from the taste, smell and color that you described, she could pinpoint only two types of potions that could block a Siren's voice.” She turned her body more as I wrung my hands, suddenly feeling anxious. “The first is a complete silence of your voice, basically rendering you mute. This potion doesn’t have an antidote since it’s extremely potent. But, it does fade on its own, depending on how much you drank.” I nodded slowly to her words, touching my throat once more and trying to remember exactly how much of that gross crap I actually swallowed, while she stood up and placed the empty bottle on the desk in front of us. “The second is a voice stealing type of potion, where your power as a Siren would be taken and given to someone else.” My eyes widened at this and panic dropped heavily into my stomach. “But she and I don’t think this one’s what they gave you because you never said that there was anything red swirling in the bottle, right?”

I thought about it for a moment, closing my eyes to better recall what colors were sloshing inside the large vial. But no matter how many times I pulled on that memory, I never once noticed any spec of red inside it at all. My body sagged heavily when I confirmed my own thoughts, feeling more than certain that they were right and I hadn’t permanently lost my Siren’s call.

“Ok, well, we just have to wait it out then.” She said with a nod, smiling at me when I looked at her with relief on my face. “Your voice will come back on its own, depending on how much you drank. So, hopefully, we’ll get to hear how nice you sound once it's all been worked out of your system.”

I felt weirdly embarrassed and bashful hearing her compliment my voice without having heard it once.

It wasn’t that I hadn't been praised before, being a Siren and all, but most compliments usually came from my dad, nephew and the few kind Humans that lived in our little neighborhood. I’d never fully let my voice out while I was in school or allowed myself to be in any musical type programs to freely sing my heart out. I’d much prefer running under the radar and masking my true voice with a faint rasp so the other students and teachers at school wouldn’t hound me like they did my sister.

She had been a very popular girl since middle school and proudly boasted her singing skills no matter where she was. Her natural talking voice was also very hypnotizing and lovely to listen to, which always created a herd of people that surrounded her, all of them hoping that she would direct a single word to them.

I, on the other hand, didn’t want to be in any sort of spotlight, preferring a calm existence in school over the mass of followers that trailed after Harmony.

“How are you feeling?” The sudden, soft question confused me for a second and I turned back to look at a slightly worried Devin. “You’ve been through a lot in a short time… are you doing ok?”

I took a moment to assess myself, recalling all of the fighting, the fear and the running that had happened that led me to this place. I thought about my family, how small it was now and how far apart we all were. I thought about the darkness that had overtaken me on more than one occasion, telling me to give up, to just lay down and let whatever happens, happen to me as I tried to move and hide in those woods. And I thought about the raw, primal fear of dying that had come over me when that Hunter slashed at my body, my mind conjuring up an image of my sweet nephew who I wanted to see, at least once more.

“I’m so sorry.” Her soft, caring words felt like a balm on my very soul, helping soothe and ease out all of the emotions that I had kept bottled up inside me.

Soon, I was shaking, my body slowly curling in on itself as warm streams burst out from my eyes. I opened my mouth to release the sob I knew wanted to come out, growing even more emotional when not a single sound escaped me.

Devin moved slowly to stand in front of me, her own ringed eyes glistening with tears of understanding, sadness and concern. Without thinking, I launched myself into her open arms and clung to her, feeling her arms wrap around me as she muttered soft words into my hair. Her hands patted my back softly, my body feeling as though it was breaking apart while the torrent of emotions broke out of me. I tried to hold back as more tears filled my eyes, but once that dam was broken, I couldn’t stop.

So I let loose on the poor Succubus that held me, finally letting myself feel everything that I had been keeping locked up. Finally letting my mind unload all of the painful memories that had been haunting my dreams whenever I managed to get some sleep. These echoing memories that tore me apart inside took so long to let go, and I realized that I had also stopped myself from grieving, or feeling anything at all after those Hunters broke into our home.

My mind going numb as it entered survival mode.

The sight of my dad’s bloody body, his eyes that had gone completely black as he slowly bled to death. My sweet little nephew, who I had basically raised as if he were my own, screaming and calling out to me as those bastards pulled us apart. The pain and torture I suffered through as those Hunters tried to use me for their own agenda, boasting proudly about the many uses they had for me and how excited they were to break me. The fear that pounded through every inch of my body as I wondered how long I could hold out, how long I could last before I finally broke and did what they asked.

Everything just exploded out of me, flowing freely through my heart and mind until I was left drained, weak and so very very tired.

Devin helped me lay back once my hysterical crying turned into tiny, shuddering hiccups, treating me in a motherly way as she tucked me under the covers and sat with me. She held my hand and I mutely mumbled to myself, still reliving everything I had gone through. Then, after telling me to allow myself time to heal in every way possible, She left my side, closing the curtains and moving to sit on the wicker seat, smiling at me warmly before I let sleep take over.