Chapter Nineteen
Greginald
I opened my eyes to a sterile white ceiling; rhythmic beeping surrounded me, and my lungs burned for air I couldn’t draw in fast enough to shriek for my mate. “Esmeray!”
A frantic nurse flailed and came scrambling in as she tugged on lines and fought a tube from my nose that had me coughing and gagging.
I wheezed a breath that didn’t want to cooperate and failed to sit up, head reeling.
Any time I’d lost consciousness before, which was not infrequent with mages on power highs, I always woke in my shifted form.
But this time? Instead, I was in my human form, and I patted my face and neck in sheer panic.
“Mage Hawthorne!” The nurse tried to calm me, but I needed to find Esmeray. I needed to—as I pulled my legs to the side, a sharp pain and tug at my groin made me swear. “Your catheter.”
“F-fuck. Was this entirely necessary?” I bunched my blankets over myself and sank back into bed after recognizing the cold breeze at my back.
“Unfortunately, in the condition you arrived in, yes.” She glared at me, and I pinched my shoulders.
“I want to speak to my mate. Please.” My heartrate skyrocketed on the monitor. “I can’t miss visiting hours.”
“You’ve got seven more hours to visit today. Chill.” She sighed heavily and I glanced at the clock. It was eleven thirty in the morning. Visiting hours in jail ended at one.
“He’s—” I started to tell her that he was in jail, but a familiar face lit up in the doorway—Esmeray. “Here… How?”
“Your stupid plan barely worked!” Esmeray forced his way past the nurse and leaned over me, his belly pressing into my side. Our little one kicked as if to join in the hug that wrapped me tight.
“But it did work!” I chuckled and earned a pinch. “Ow!”
“What do you remember?” Esmeray pulled back, staring at me with wide eyes.
“Uhhh… So. You’re not going to like this.”
“You signed a demonic contract with The Church and had Aus slit your throat.” Esmeray put his hands on his hips and huffed. “And after that?”
“The dream… Is Faunus my father?” I blinked in surprise.
“Yes, and every god and goddess you’ve pestered for favors put you back here on Earth to collect.”
“Ahh, when debt works in your favor. As long as my payments come on time.” I sighed in relief.
“Asshole. What was the gift that Faunus whispered to you?” He shoved at my arm and my cheeks warmed.
“I’ve not tested my powers yet but he, uh… He has given us control over your fertile times. So that we are the ones that get to choose when we have children. He gave me the ability to shift my body more…” I cleared my throat.
“He didn’t mess with your…did he? I like it the way it is.” Esmeray lifted my blanket, and I patted his hands away with a wheeze.
“No! He just gave me the option of matching your drive. Apparently, you want more frequently than I offer, and he made sure I had the ability to tell when you’re interested more.” I twisted my blankets in my fists. “But you chose me again. Given freedom, you wanted me, still.”
“Well, yeah? What part of I love you do you not comprehend?” Esmeray huffed and grabbed my hands with his fiercely hot ones, blood flowing with hellfire.
“What part of hybrid do you not—” I flinched when he smacked my hand and glared.
“Demigod. You’re a fucking demigod. Always have been. And even if you were a hybrid, I’d love you.” His eyes watered.
“I love you too.” He pulled me in and we kissed, mouths crashing as if we’d been starved of touch—which we kind of had. “Mff! Wait!”
A sharp pain radiated down my groin and leg as Esmeray shuffled away with wide eyes. “What? Are you hurt—a—”
“Nerves of steel over here. Don’t get frisky with a catheter in.
” The nurse returned, bustling about as she threw a clipboard on my lap and worked to pull out my IV line and shooed Esmeray off as she went right to business working on the plumbing with an utterly violating twist, clip, and tug that had me shuddering with revulsion.
Esmeray paled, and I was certain I did too. And to make matters worse, my curtain flew back just as my father-in-law waltzed his way in with a flourish. “Good afternoon, my favorite son-in-law!”
Draevus glanced from the nurse, urine-locked tube in hand, to me, and then Esmeray. “I missed the fun part.”
“Father!” Esmeray flopped into a chair to the side.
“Well, I had to have a reward for the good news.” Draevus dismissed the nurse with a hand wave and she gave him a fierce glare as she scuttled out.
“To what do I owe the honor?” I ensured I was covered and huffed with discomfort at the lingering sensation. “Gods alive, things were not meant to go in there.”
“Eh,” Esmeray and Draevus said at the same time.
“Filing that away for later.” I flicked my brows and huffed.
“So, getting off such a sound topic, would you be interested in hearing some juicy gossip?” Draevus sat on the end of the bed and crossed his legs.
“Infinitely.” I pulled my feet back to give him room to settle and gave Esmeray an apologetic look.
“Well, The Church felt you didn’t honor the contract and sent someone in the jail to pester our little Esmeray.
” Draevus rubbed his hands together. “A jailer. He had holymace, one of those little pepper-spray canisters with holy water. Damnedest thing, his gun went off in his holster and shot his kneecap.”
“Good for him.” I nodded sagely.
“Well, it gets better. They sent someone into the hospital to do you harm after you started breathing in the ambulance. Damnedest thing.” Draevus kicked his feet and giggled.
“Demonic contracts backfire if broken. They broke it. Anything they do in retribution will fall on them double their intent.”
I sighed with relief. “So, we’re safe.”
“Looks like it. Unless they have friends who, through no provocation, want to take revenge.” Draevus shrugged. “Still not letting you two move out until the other house is renovated and security is complete. And I’m done with the mess I found in the basement.” His face warped into a sneer.
“Shouldn’t we be doing that? I mean, I appreciate you doing all this for us, but I can afford it.” I nudged Draevus with my foot, and he shook his head. “Consider it a gift for my beloved firstborn grandson.”
“Speaking of.” Esmeray didn’t look at either of us. “Your dearest papa imparted upon me some words I need to verify with a hell-borne cleric.”
My heart skipped a beat, chest going cold. Draevus whipped his head around, eyes wide and ready for pain.
Esmeray shuddered. “Look at our shadows.”
My gaze drifted with Draevus’s, and we stared at the perfect shape of his shadow. No little horns or fuzzy edges, no sense of being stared back at. I checked my own and found it just as lifeless. “Ausmius…”
Draevus gasped, eyes going glassine as Esmeray raised a hand to silence us before resting that hand on his belly. “He isn’t gone.”
“What happened?” Draevus fought the urge to stand, leaning forward with potential in his every muscle.
“Ausmius—he wasn’t a demon. Not really. He was a creature hell-borne of fallen. A child’s soul bound to a family line.”
“Demons don’t have souls, Esmeray.” Draevus’s brow furrowed.
“In a way, I have one now, Father. I am linked with Gre. And Ausmius is the product of nefalem. Their original souls had no place to go once they died beside destruction. No gods would claim them.” Esmeray stared at his belly and twisted his lips.
“Let’s just hope he’s much better behaved as a child than he was a daeva. ”
The soul that had grown so weak in Esmeray’s pregnancy wasn’t growing weak at all; he was slowly inhabiting the growing child within him.
“That’s… It brings up many questions.” Draevus took a soft breath and glanced at me.
As a student of theology and an adequate mage, I’d had my run-ins with spirits of reincarnation.
And in almost all cases, there were no memories handed down.
Elements of the personality were given, but that was all.
“His memories will have to be stripped. He will not be the same Ausmius we knew. In order for him to make the choices in life that lead him to his eventual afterlife, he will start anew. No deity will take him with that jaded mark on him.”
Esmeray nodded. “That’s my take on it, too. I swear if he comes out talking, I’m going to ask if your old orphanage is still in operation.”
“It is, in fact, not still around. They got shut down probably fifty years ago for illegal adoption practices.” I gave Esmeray a flat-lipped smile.
“Call up the goddesses and ask who wants to adopt a little warlock.” Esmeray huffed, and Draevus rolled his eyes.
“This family was doomed from the beginning.” Draevus patted my leg and huffed. “So, what theme were we thinking for the baby’s room? I’m rather partial to dragons, myself.”
“Let’s convene with the hell-borne cleric that Esmeray asked for, and we can decide. They will be a warlock, as you said. It makes sense, contracted by gods and demons, part celestial, part demon, sired by a demigod mage.” I huffed. “We have created something entirely new.”
“Well, I have business to attend to and some bragging to do.” Draevus pulled out his phone and sauntered out, thumbing through his index for a number. He dialed, put the phone to his ear and, just as he rounded the corner, he spoke. “Calamisis!”
And whatever shouting and swearing sparked over his phone, I couldn’t quite make out, but it made Draevus laugh, and a laughing Draevus was usually a good thing.