Chapter 14 – Empusa
EMPUSA
Between my inhuman ability to heal and Leo’s knowledge of medicine, I was healed up in no time. Well, not no time. It was a week before I felt like myself again, and another week before the burn was healed enough to focus on hunting that bastard Ceuthonymus once more.
The phoenix and the gargoyles were strange during this time.
They treated me like an animal that might run at any moment.
They said very little, if anything, but served me like a queen.
Leo had allowed us to stay at a cabin she’d inherited from her grandfather about an hour out of town.
It was a little rundown, but also a perfect place for us to rest. Between the trees, the fresh air, and the three small bedrooms, I felt more at home than I had since coming to the surface.
The boys gave me the largest room, which had a bathroom connected to it. I was grateful for that because it seemed this baby had decided to do a new thing: play drums on my bladder. I’d never thought much of going to the bathroom, but now it seemed I always needed to go.
But this time was actually strangely nice, outside of my bathroom demands.
The gargoyles and phoenix were neat, quiet, and polite.
I’d never eaten so well in my life, because apparently, Rokad knew his way around a stove.
And Lucas had grown so freaking attached to Charm that I was worried she might want to go with him when we parted ways.
Which brings me to today. The last few days I’d expressed a desire to keep hunting Ceuthonymus. Every time I brought it up, the guys switched the topic.
I will not be distracted this time. Ceuthonymus has to die.
Before the baby is born. Or neither of us will ever be safe.
I’d learned that the hard way. When my mother, Hecate, made an enemy of Hades, she should have found a way to kill the god.
Instead, he’d taken her when she hadn’t expected it and ruined her life and mine.
My child will not grow up in fear of an enemy their mother couldn’t destroy. I swear it.
So as we sit down to a breakfast piled high with bacon, eggs, and pancakes, I don’t even wait for Rokad to sit down. “I need to go.”
“No,” Narath says, almost under his breath.
I lift a brow. “Am I a prisoner now?” Just the word prisoner triggers something inside of me. I was a prisoner once. I never will be again.
Narath’s dark eyes meet mine, and my breath catches. Something about this man reminds me of a darkly tortured soul. It’s as if everything I say to him hurts him, but he just wants me to keep talking. I don’t understand it. At all.
“You are not a prisoner, but you are ours, and that baby is ours too. It’s our task, our most important task, to keep you safe.”
I feel my mouth pull into a thin line. “I don’t need you to do that. I’ve been fine my whole life without protectors, I’ll be fine now. What I need to do is hunt Ceuthonymus.”
“Em,” Rokad clears his throat and reaches for his fork, even though he doesn’t eat, “We’ve thought about that. And, we’ve talked. We’ve decided that it might be best for you to stay here with Narath and Lucas, and for Conley and I to go hunt this monster.”
“No.” The word comes out harsher than I intended it, but I don’t care.
“Ceuthonymus is not a creature to mess around with. He’s powerful, more powerful than you can ever imagine.
If you two hunt him, I promise you won’t be back.
So either I go alone, or with all of you, but either way I know him, his strengths and weaknesses, and I won’t be left behind. ”
“You’re pregnant,” Lucas says.
“Really?” I counter. “I had no idea that when I became pregnant I became useless!”
“We just want to keep you safe.” His voice holds an irritated edge, like I’m being unreasonable.
“And what happens when you’re gone?” The words fall between us, and they crack in a way I didn’t expect.
I squeeze my eyes shut, and for some reason, moments with my mother flash through my mind.
She was with me nearly every moment of my childhood, and then she was telling me to run.
“Run, Em, Run! Don’t ever look back! Just go, get free!
That’s all I’ll ever ask of you!” And, I did run.
But I disobeyed her in one way because I looked back.
And I saw her being surrounded, I saw the blows that they struck against her body as the undead attacked.
Every blow rung through my soul like it was my body being beaten.
My mom had been my heart. I never imagined I’d lose her, but I did that day, and then I was lost.
I would never be lost again. My child would have me in every way he or she wanted, but I’d never rely on another person like that again.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Conley says, his voice gentle.
“You have to realize that this is incredible for us. I don’t think any of us ever thought we’d have a child.
But more than that, we’ve been feeling lost, without any kind of purpose.
Just killing monsters and passing the days.
With you, and our baby, we can have a real life.
A reason to want more than just death and violence. ”
“I don’t want me or my child being a purpose for someone,” I tell them, and as the words leave my lips, I know they’re true.
Part of the reason I’m struggling so much with these guys is that feeling a connection to someone isn’t the same thing as knowing them.
I have secrets, and I’m sure they do too.
And beyond the secrets, we just have so much about each other we don’t know.
Having men stay at my side because I’m carrying their child doesn’t feel like enough.
“We care about you,” Lucas says, giving me one of those smiles of his that makes my blood feel warm.
“You don’t even know me,” I counter.
“Then, let us get to know you.” Conley runs his hands through his blond waves in a way that I’ve come to realize means he’s frustrated.
I look down at my belly, then the men at the table, and take a deep breath.
Fine, let’s see how this whole honesty thing goes.
“I am known as Empusa. I am…a monster. My father was a demon, and my mother was a monster, the first witch, and powerful. And as such, I realized I had a strange thirst when I finally escaped the Underworld. I was forced to linger at crossroads and wait for dark-hearted men. I used their attraction to me to get close to them, and then I killed them.”
No one looks surprised.
I frown. “You guys are gargoyles. You hunt things like demons and monsters.” They fucking know this. Why are they acting so innocent?
Conley sighs. “Well, first of all, I looked into it when that monster called you Empusa, and I learned of your legend. I explained it to the guys, and…we kind of all agreed that we didn’t give a shit.”
My jaw drops open.
Narath speaks next, his voice low and uncertain.
“And we aren’t exactly purebred gargoyles.
Our father was a demon. We don’t know more than that, but our demon sides have caused us a great deal of trouble all our lives.
The other gargoyles want nothing to do with us.
And I was considered too dangerous to even be a hunter of monsters until recently.
That’s where my insatiable thirst for blood and violence comes from.
And the fact that even you think I’m dangerous. ”
They must be joking. Demon gargoyles?
But they all look serious.
“So none of you care that the mother of your child is a monster feared by many?”
Lucas grins. “I actually think that’ll make you a pretty badass mom.”
Again, none of them seem surprised.
I frown and pile my plate with food, then start to eat.
They do the same. I can feel all eyes on me, but I ignore them.
What does this all mean? My biggest secret, they just don’t care about?
That means I don’t have to worry about them killing me in my sleep, especially since they seem to have been aware of it this whole time they were taking care of me.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the issue with Ceuthonymus.
“I appreciate that all of you can accept that about me, but I’m still hunting Ceuthonymus. It’s what I do. So, you either accept that, or we part ways. Today.”
“We’ll always be at your side,” Narath says without hesitation.
My gaze goes to him. “And if this is going to work, you can’t ever hurt Conley again.”
His mouth draws into a line.
I settle back in my chair. “What if he’s the father of my child? What if I have a phoenix baby?”
Silence swallows the room, and Narath looks panicked.
Lucas answers. “Rokad, Narath, and I are in a Brotherhood. Not just because we’re triplets, but because we’re family.
Not just blood family, but a chosen family.
We’ve known since we were boys that we would share a woman, if we were lucky enough to have one pick us.
No matter who the father technically was, we would all be the father. ”
“But Conley isn’t in your Brotherhood?” I ask, sounding confused.
Rokad and Lucas exchange a look, and then Rokad answers. “Lucas and I have built a relationship with Conley. If he was willing, and Narath could put aside their differences, we would willingly have him in our Brotherhood.”
Narath stands, his massive form looming over the table. “A phoenix in a gargoyle Brotherhood? Impossible! Gargoyles and phoenixes are enemies. We should be tearing him into pieces, not sharing our woman with him!”
“Gargoyles and monsters are enemies,” I say.
Narath’s gaze swings to me, and there’s panic in his eyes again. “Not you and us. Never you and us. But Conley isn’t like you.”
“How?”
He grumbles. “He’s a phoenix.”
I stare at the big man. “So you won’t accept him?”
“Never!” he says with a glare.
“So if I have a phoenix child, the three of you will be gone?”
Narath’s confidence falls away, and he stares at me, saying nothing.
“I won’t be,” Rokad says.
“Nor I,” Lucas says.
Narath looks around the table. “So it’s just me that feels this way about the phoenix?” Hurt crosses his face, there and gone in a flash. “I’m sure it would be easier for everyone if I went to sleep again. Wouldn’t it?” Before any of them can answer, he turns and storms out the door.
I release a breath I didn’t know I was holding. My heart aches as I look at Narath, disappearing outside the screen door.
“He’ll come around,” Lucas says. “This is just a lot for him.”
“I don’t know if he will.” Conley pokes at his food, looking sad.
Some part of me wants to fix this broken dynamic, but I have no idea what to do or say. Just like Narath, I feel out of my element.
“I guess we still have time to figure that out, but we don’t have much longer before Charm has her puppies and I have my baby.
” Rokad looks relieved, until I keep talking.
“Dr. Leo has agreed to watch Charm for this next week or two, since she knows about dog pregnancies. In that time, I plan to kill this monster and be free of him.”
“Em--”
I cut Rokad off. “I’m leaving in an hour. You guys can come with me, or not. It’s your choice, but I’m not going to just sit here and hope you guys don’t die hunting him. Understand?”
After a long minute, Conley nods. “But this time, we do things differently.”
Now, that I can agree to. I might be a monster hunter, but I’m also pregnant. And as much as I want this guy dead, I’ll be more careful the next time I run into him.
“How?”