I immediately drag Seraphine and Axar to to center rooms of the house, bottom floor. In my mind, this is safest. Easier to exit should she need to, and away from prying eyes that might draw near windows. Ezekiel gathers the staff into the basement. He uses the salts and rituals from the book of Barima's that Seraphine wouldn't relent about. I can't help but feel proud though, even in such dire a situation. If she is this protective of staff she hardly knows, she will be formidable over our child.
We wait anxiously for Nomias's return. I do what I can for Sera in the meantime. I try to keep her comfortable and calm. The task is difficult, considering that I'm neither myself. She spooks at every sound, Axar's hand clutched in hers. Axar is devoid of his typical childish behavior, his sits straight and alert on Sera's other side. That feral, protective boy I first met standing ready to defend one if the few mother figures he's ever known. Although not a word between Yeomorah's side or ours has been exchanged in some time, but you can feel the hostility in the air. It's ominous, foreshadowing events to be. Lucien's presence outside is a bad omen.
I worry for Sera's sake. I scoff at the religious, but I pray some God might take pity on her and look after her. Those familiar fears plague my mind. Heavy and burdensome. What if Yeomorah can possess me and operate his body at once? It's difficult to do such thing in battle, but not unheard of. It would require adequate energy and eventually he would scrap my body. I don't want to be the one to turn on my own. I don't want Seraphine to have to see me slaughtered. I don't want it to come to her having to fend me off either. Sera kisses my throat under my jaw. My body hums in appreciation at her affection. I grip her free hand tightly and I look down at her.
Her mind is flooded with doubt and what ifs, but her eyes hold unwavering faith. She looks to me like mortals do to Gods, like children do to heroes in films. Like I hold of all the answers.
"Nox?" She whispers.
"Yes, lover?"
"You are possessed by Yeomorah on occassions, right?"
"What of it?"
"Can-can we possess demons? I know you can possess humans, but could we possess Lucien?" I smirk down on my emerald beauty, chest swelling with pride yet again.
"We could. But, we need someone to to do it that they wouldn't expect. The person has to be able, and unfortunately not already compromised as myself or they'd be tipped off-"
"I could, if you could help me learn. I mean, I snuck and have been studying it..." She looks down. "But I've never tried it before. I have the general idea of it."
"You're warped of the mind if you think I'm letting you risk the both of you to be a decoy."
"It's perfect though. Nobody knows, even on our friends that I could pull this off. They'd never expect it. I'm also the one they'll be gunning hardest for. I don't have to distract them, they would come to me. Yeomorah has admitted to killing his other children, do you think though that he'd care enough to barter for Lucien? If not, we could at least maybe use him to undermine them." The idea is grand, but the risks aren't worth it. What if she could get Yeomorah though?
"We can't risk it. What if something goes wrong? I could lose you both." She nuzzles her head into me.
"Have faith in me. I would never purposely harm our child either, but I owe it to him to ensure his father's safety and success. Besides, we could potentially be outnumbered. We have my mother, who can only do so much as a spirit now. We have you, I, Axar, Alexavier, Ezekiel and Nomias. Listen to my idea here, if I could get Yeomorah we could easily deal with the others."
"I will have her mother follow her. She won't be alone. I will back you and Nomias up. Alexavier and Axar are used to practicing together, they could team up to guard one another." Ezekiel suggests as he enters the room, Akexsvier and Ivara on his tail. "Seraphine, your requests have been met. I also gave them weapons in there. Knives, those crosses and spell necklaces Barima had. I will do my best to keep anyone from getting to them, but they are not my priority."
"I promised them. They are one of mine." Seraphine defends. I notice her nerves have slowly evolved into determination. "First, before we plan too far ahead though, I need to check on Nomias and let you all know exactly what is going on or that he thinks is about to go on. He knows Yeomorah well." Axar hugs her and I copy his actions as we stand together.
"Be careful. We'll be here. I love you Seraphine." I watch her face closely. "None of this is your fault either. You have nothing to atone for. He was going to come after you either way. I just want you to know that."
"I love you Noxodius. I love you too Axar, mom and grandpa." She pulls me into a kiss and then she turns to leave with Ivara.
"Grandpa?" Ezekiel repeats. She smiles anxiously.
"It means grandfather too." He kisses her head as she passes. My heart sinks as she retreats. I can't help myself as I rush after her and pull out the ring that I was planning to gift to her. It is pale I can't handle the thought of something happening and it never gracing her finger. I push it onto her hand and I lean down to place my forehead on hers.
"You are mine, Seraphine. One of us will die before I let you go. Remember that. If you can survive Samuel's abuse and neglect, a lifetime of poverty and disappointments, and all of my failures as well then you can handle anything. Go find Nomias now. Use caution, and do whatever you have to do to protect yourself. Forsake anybody else if it means your survival. I mean it." She wraps herself around me and I can feel her feeding. She winks at me and I pat her bottom as she saunters away full of energy and determination.
"You finally took my advice, I can see." Alexavier smirks. I bite my tongue
"I was planning to do so on my own anyways." We quietly bicker and discuss strategies among us, when Ivara appears in the doorway.
"So far, everything is well. Nomias attacked Lucien and sent him to tell his father of our arrival tomorrow. He expects they'll return tonight though, so we are going to continue to keep our guard up. It-Seraphine was discussing her idea with Nomias, until they were cut short. Apparently your brother and his mate are here to help. Seraphine didn't say anything, but gave me the look to watch his mate. Does she have history of being untrustworthy?" Ivara glares at me.
"Livienne and I had history together while she was with my brother. Seraphine doesn't know her." Or of this. "She threatened Seraphine once to me." My head flies up, sensing Seraphine. I watch her return, nervous that she might have overheard.
"You don't have to be so uptight now. I'm back and I'm fine. Your brother is back too. He's here with his vermin and I don't trust it. I don't want any of our plans spilled to them. I didn't even tell Nomias exactly which person I was after because they showed up. That woman kept giving me attitude. We tell them nothing."
"While Livienne is a buffoon, Narius is still my brother. We have to include him."
"Listen to me on this please. That woman hates me. I can feel it. I have no idea what her deal is, but she kept scowling between me and my belly. I will knock her head off if she tries me Nox. I'm not risking our lives with that woman. How convenient they show up around the time frame Lucien did?"
"Come with me, away from everyone just for a minute. I need to clear this up." She sighs and Iead her out of the room. We walk for a moment and stop, Seraphine immediately recognizes the area.
"This is where we talked last time, when you swiped me."
"It is. Seraphine, you know that i love you. You are the only one I've ever said those words too. I told you I would no longer keep things from you, so I am going to address this before you find out from others." She eyes me warily as I gather my nerve. It's hard to speak with her looking at me this way. I'm still not used to feeling so uncertain in a woman's presence. "That woman and I had at one time had a fling together. She was still with my brother at that time. She hates me and is envious of you. My brother does not hate me, he was severely disappointed with me though. He has not spoken to me since I revealed this to him in your absence." Her jaw drops.
"You did this to your own brother." She whispers, voice thick with her humiliation. "And we are letting these disgruntled people into our business why? They could have ulterior motivates. I'm trying to keep us all alive here. I can not trust them."
"Well, I can Sera. He is my brother. We need them. There is strength in numbers. Do I like her? No. She's tough though. He will keep her in line. Whatever issues you have with her, it's time to get over it. I'm not risking us all over jealousy. "
"Im not risking us all on the vengeful and shady. He couldn't keep her in her own bed apparently, how will he keep her in line? I had a plan. I had evened-"
"A plan you couldn't have possibly pulled off. You are pregnant. She is stronger than you. We need strength. If that offends you, so be it. I can't bring myself to care about petty feelings you might be experiencing when we are about to we are about to risk it all, because of you. Mere months ago you lived as a human. You are in over your head and risking my child-" She raises her hands in dismissal. Tears stream her face. She pulls the ring off her finger and slides it into my pocket.
"I've heard enough. I've had enough. Go tell them everything, fill them in. And when you all defeat Yeomorah, you can go back to fighting over her or sharing her, whatever it is you guys do. I want no part of this fuckery." She storms off to join the others and I call after her and follow in hot pursuit. I see Livienne ahead and I push myself harder to get there before Livienne can set her off. I shouldn't have told her. I shouldn't have said anything until this was all over.
"Trouble in paradise?" Livienne coos mockingly as Sera passes her. Sera stops in her tracks. I stop too and watch their interaction.
"No. I got rid of the problem. He's yours now. Have fun fucking brothers. You stay the Hell away from me until this is over. After this, we will never see one another again."
"I will. I greatly enjoyed myself last time. What a shame though, everyone talks about how you are so tasty to feed from. Nox should have kept his pet for us to feed from. I would love to-"
Seraphine grabs Livienne by her throat and pushes her into the wall. Livienne can't keep up with Sera's speed as she becomes consumed with her rage. Pummeling Livienne so hard I can hardly grab her for her thrashing. Livienne wails in shock and tries to fight back as I desperately attempt to pry Seraphine away. Sera manages to gouge Livienne's eye with a razor sharp claw as I heave to haul her back.
"I told Nox before, and I'll tell him again! I'll-I'll..." Livienne breaks off in sobs of agony clutching her eye. "I'll kill you!" Seraphine slams her head back into mine and leaps out of my caged arms. She is lightning fast and incredibly nimble as she flees through the house and out the front door. Livienne writhes and cries louder in the hallway until I hear the others come to aid her.
"Noxodius! What is the meaning of this?"
"There's no time! Sera-I've got to go find Seraphine!"
"No! Don't go! She'll hurt you Nox. She's possessed. Look what she did to me. All because I asked her about the baby..." Livienne calls. My blood bubbles in my veins. Lying cunt! I stagger towards her with intent to kill. She set Sera up! She instigated all of this.
"How dare you lay there and fucking lie! You provoked her. She was already upset and you antagonized her!"
"I did no such thing! I don't know why you can't let by gones be by gones. I'm not some sort of traitor, Noxodius. After everything I can't believe you would think of me that way. I was only trying to get to know your sorry bitch-"
"All of you, silence!" Grandfather bellows. "Livienne is family. Seraphine was too, but we cannot sit here and let her attack others like she runs the house. She was a guest here, and welcomed here until now. If she has left, let her go. This type of asinine and violent behavior towards our family will not be tolerated. She is no longer welcome here. Let her deal with Yeomorah on her own. It is her family's problem to begin with." Ezekiel, Ivara, Alexavier and Axar all step forward and turn their backs to me tp face him.
"I think I speak for all of us when I say that if she's not welcome, we will not be here either. Perhaps you've forgotten wise one, but it was you who made the deal with Yeomorah. Will be your head he comes for. As for attacking others, that bastatd there recently killed staff and has attacked us regularly since Yeomorah got into his head. Perhaps Noxodius isn't the only one here that Livienne has bedded? Perhaps Livienne is the one who's really controlling everyone here. Perhaps Yeomorah has little to do with it. Doesn't look like you'll get to name your next great grandson after all. Good luck. " With that, they are gone just as soon as he spoke.
I stand, watching my brother and grandfather make over this liar before me. I walk towards them, to go retrieve my things and I step on Livienne's gouged eyeball enjoying the sensation of it bursting beneath my shoe. I should have let Seraphine kill her. I should have believed Seraphine's intuition. We were doing so well. How will I find her now? How will I fix this? I grab the important things from the room and I go out the window and leap onto the ground. I follow the path where Sera's scent and aura lingers. I can't go through this again. I need her. What if I die and never see her one last time? What if I die and she doesn't even know? She just takes another and goes on with her life as if I never happened. What if she dies? How will I know? I'll never know my son...
"SERAPHINE!" I scream into the night. Exhaustion sets in as I push myself to a gait I never knew possible. I weave like a hungry predator across the forest floor, not able to halt as a force slams my sides and I tumble across the ground. I come to a screeching stop, only to see Sera above me with her boot on my throat. Her eyes are dark and menacing, not matching the hurt on her face.
"You believe me now, don't you? All I had to do was play into her game to expose her. You wouldn't take my word, but instead you told me how you truly felt. Am I weak now? Am I worthy now?"