How to Raise an Incubus 4: A Promise Fulfilled

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Three days later, I was standing in Chris Dartwood's kitchen, flipping an omelette on the stove - for Lisa, the pregnant pastor's daughter who was now crashing at Chris' place.

I gritted my teeth in annoyance, wiping the sweat off my brow that was a result of being in front of the heat too long. Becoming a personal chef was not what I'd signed up for.

"Thanks for making me breakfast," Lisa said softly from the island behind me.

I scowled at the frying pan before me. "No problem. Is there anything else I can make you? Bacon? Cereal?"

"Stop with the sarcasm," Chris scolded, and I turned to direct my glare at her. "Like I said, Lisa isn't feeling too well today, and I have my hands full. We help each other out here."

My eyes travelled to the wall clock above a calendar. It was almost ten. "I get that, but when can we get to the other stuff?" I asked, my voice meaningful. I wasn't sure if Lisa knew about demon hunters.

Chris laughed. "Lisa knows I'm a hunter, Rainelle. No secrets here."

I huffed out a breath. "Good to know."

Lisa's eggs were finally ready and I flipped them onto a plate, turning and setting it before her. She looked like crap, but that was understandable. I'd been there before. Instantly, my heart softened towards her.

"Eat," I told her.

She pushed a strand of flaming hair out of her face before grabbing a fork and knife from where Chris had placed them earlier. "Thanks, Rainelle."

"Call me Rae."

"Thank you, Rae. I feel like...like you're the only other person besides Meg who understands what I'm going through." She shoveled a forkful of cheesy omelet into her mouth.

I leaned forward, elbows on the island. "You can talk to me anytime. I know how scared and confused you must be, and I'd be lying if I said your feelings aren't justifiable," I said gently. "But I'm here for you."

I may have sounded like a cheesy school counselor, but I actually meant that. I was more than a decade older than her and I was prone to feeling the exact same way on occasion. The fear of the unknown was a fear like no other. It swallowed you up into an endless, cavernous darkness and made no sense whatsoever.

"Thanks." Lisa gave me a wide smile. "Maybe you can even be here for the birth."

"Yeah. Maybe." This both terrified and intrigued me.

Chris seemed to watch our exchange with open interest. "How have you been feeling, Rae?" she wanted to know, taking a long sip of what she'd earlier informed me was masala chai tea.

I lifted my shoulders. "Okay."

"No morning sickness? High BP?"

Does the nauseating thought of seeing my mother again count?

"Nope. All good."

"And you're taking all your vitamins?"

"Every last pill," I muttered, glancing down at my stomach. Today, thanks to the cool weather, it was hidden under a black hoodie. This morning, I hadn't been able to do up the button of my favorite pair of skinny jeans. I was beginning to live in leggings, sweats and yoga pants these days.

"Don't hesitate to let me know if –"

"Look, Chris, I appreciate the concern," I interjected, "but my babies aren't why I came here."

I didn't realize my mistake until Chris' big brown eyes became even wider. "Babies?"

I took a step away from her probing stare, my butt hitting the edge of the stove. "I meant baby. I didn't mean –"

"Twins," she said, her voice thoughtful, "or...more?"

I kept quiet. Maybe my silence was more telling.

"Twins, for sure," she decided after scrutinizing me. She set her mug on the counter, cocking her head to one side. "You know, Rainelle, twins were said to demonstrate the father's virility – and who's more virile than the lord of all the incubi?"

***

I woke up in a terrible mood the next day. Naturally, after boasting to Chris the previous day that I was doing great, I had to experience an especially awful bout of morning sickness. I hadn't slept much the entire night and it wasn't because I was up with Andrei. No, he hadn't shown for the past few days and I was slowly going out of my hormonal mind. Not that I needed him just for sex. Even simply having his arms around me would've been enough. God, I was such a pathetic mass of cells.

Cut the woe-is-me bullshit, Rainelle.

Temp was in my bathroom suddenly, finding me on the cold floor before the toilet.

"Why didn't you call me, dammit?" he snapped, dashing to my sink to grab my facecloth and stick it under the water. He approached me cautiously, pressing it to my forehead.

"I don't need that," I mumbled, slapping his hand away. I already felt moderately better.

"Yeah, well, what do you need? Help me out here," pleaded Temp, sounding frustrated.

"She needs to take a hot bath and then eat a good breakfast," came a voice I didn't think I'd ever hear outside my nightmares.

My mother stood in the doorway.

I stared up at her for a long time, sure that I was seeing things, until the heavy silence became uncomfortable for Temp and he felt the need to explain what this woman was doing here. In my house. In my father's house. Our house.

"She got a message from Andrei," he explained slowly, and I hated the way he was looking at me like he was deathly afraid of my reaction. Like I was a wild animal prone to lashing out.

"What did that message say?" I asked him, as if I didn't already know.

"That you needed me." Lauren's voice was gentler now. "I didn't know...about what you'd been through."

"Yeah, well, what's new? You never know anything about me." I got to my feet with no problem, conscious that I looked like shit. It made no sense, but I was sorely disappointed that I didn't look my best at that moment.

Seeing my mother was like seeing an ex – I was supposed to look awesome. Cosmic law, for fuck's sake.

But it was kind of impossible to look drop-dead gorgeous in an old, torn football jersey and high-wasted shorts, with the taste of puke in my mouth. Lauren, on the other hand, looked like she'd just been in France or something. Her strawberry-blonde hair was kept in a secure bun and her face was perfectly made up with a blood-red lip and rosy cheeks. The white, flared dress she wore was too dressy for my bathroom. So were the cute little peach heels that finished her look.

"Rae..." Temp began, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. "I didn't know she was coming today."

"Sweetheart, could you leave us alone for a moment?" Lauren asked him.

Temp looked from me to her and back again, chewing on his lower lip. "Just hear her out, Rae. And don't try to kill her," he implored me.

I wasn't going to kill Lauren. No, I was going to kill Andrei for springing her on me. I gave Temp a reluctant nod.

"Don't upset her." This, he said to Lauren before he left us alone.

I turned to flush the toilet before I headed to the sink. Lauren's reflection in the mirror stared at me somewhere over my shoulder. I took a deep breath.

"Why did you come here, Lauren?"

"Andrei said that –"

I splashed my face with cold water. "You don't have to be here because he ordered you to. I don't need you."

Our eyes met in the mirror. Hers, big and brown and lined with eyeliner. Mine, green and bloodshot and filled with anger.

"I'm here because you don't want to need me, but you do," she had the audacity to claim.

I spun around to face her, unable to believe her words. "Have you really deluded yourself into believing that nonsense?" I let out a snort. "God, Lauren, do you think we'll go maternity shopping once together, and I'll forget how you were never there for me my entire fucking life?"

"No, I don't think that, Rainelle. With the way we left things last time..." She sighed loudly, as if flooded by memories of the moment I'd seen my forever-thirty-five-year-old mother and wanted to kill her. "I've been where you are. I know I'm the last person you'd want to see right now and I know I don't deserve to share in your happiness – are you happy?"

"That is none of your business."

"If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't have been able to enter this house," she said, suddenly changing tack. "The ward is still up, remember?"

"What has that got to do with anything?" I hissed.

"I want to help," she whispered, nervously tugging at the flares of her dress. "I had Raymond when I had you. I had Vitaly when I had Templeton. You... You don't have Andrei."

The truth hurts, doesn't it?

What did I have? I had stolen orgasms every other night by his hand or cock. I had pain, I had pleasure. I had tears, I had anger. I did not have Andrei.

"Get out," I said through clenched teeth, fisting my hands at my side. "Get. Out. Now."

Lauren's lips parted. She made a move towards me.

"I said, leave me alone!"

She paused, giving me a slight nod. "I'm sorry, Rainelle, but I will be back. I'm sorry," she repeated.

And then she was gone.

I stood there for a long while, just watching the space where she had been standing. The door was pushed open a crack and Selene stuck her head in.

"Rainelle?"

"I'm okay," I whispered, when I was anything but.

Selene came all the way inside. Within moments, I was wrapped in her arms, inhaling her unique flowery scent. I was going to have to apologize to her for getting snot and tears on her Alexander McQueen dress.

***

I was getting good at letting friends' phone calls go straight to voicemail, but when an unknown number flashed on my screen, I didn't hesitate to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Rainelle, it's Chris. I'm outside your front door."

My eyes swiveled up to the ceiling. Unlike Temp, Selene had refused to go out to feed tonight, so she'd brought a woman home. Thankfully, I didn't recognize the statuesque brunette who was currently having the time of her life with a succubus in one of my guest bedrooms. I would've felt guiltier than I already was if I had.

"Rainelle? You there?"

"Um, yes. Yeah. I'm coming outside," I told Chris, ending the call and scrambling off the couch.

The weather forecast had predicted light showers that night, but so far, it was just a cool, starry night. I stepped outside, clutching a cashmere throw around my body. Flicking the outside lights on and closing the door behind me, I found Chris sitting on the steps of my porch. She patted a space beside her.

"You ran out of my house so fast, you forgot this," she said, once I'd sat down.

She held my ring up and I let out a shocked gasp. I hadn't even noticed it was gone. I didn't even recall taking it off.

"Thanks," I murmured, going for the little piece of jewelry. But Chris held it out of my reach.

"I gotta say, Rainelle, I would never have expected Raymond's daughter to be carrying the children of a demon king," she remarked, eyes boring into mine. "It's clear as day you're in love with him, and of your own volition."

I stared back at her, defiant. "I never expected to be here, either. But it happened, and I wouldn't go back in time to change things."

She gave me a strange look before handing me back my ring. "So I'm starting to think I know why you came to me," she murmured, watching me slide it back onto my finger. "It's common knowledge that Theodore Bunting, a hunter, now possesses the magic of a witch. It's also common knowledge that he has a – hmm – demon familiar who just happens to be a powerful demon king. Bound to him for a decade...unless he can find a way to make it permanent."

My breathing was quickly growing erratic. "Permanent?"

"If I were him, that's what I would want. Lifelong protection and all that jazz," Chris went on, smoothing her hands down her folded legs. "Of course, Theodore has his own agenda. Who the hell even knows what he wants? The man always struck me as a few sandwiches short of a picnic."

I swallowed. "Do you know where he is? Have you seen him lately?"

Chris rose to her feet, looking down at me. "Oh, honey, as unprepared and pregnant as you are, I wouldn't send you after him."

"Being pregnant isn't a debilitating condition," I uttered through gritted teeth.

"Of course, it isn't – but you'd never forgive yourself if something happened to your babies, now would you?"

Just the idea of my stupidity getting my children killed was enough to placate me.

"Come see me tomorrow," Chris told me, releasing a heavy sigh.

I instantly perked up. "You'll...help me? Just to clarify, I'm not after a demon – I'm after a hunter. I intend to kill a hunter."

 She gave me a kind smile as if I'd just said the cutest thing ever. "I've always been a sucker for forbidden love, and you don't get more forbidden than good and evil, darling."

"Andrei's not evil," I heard myself say. "He's a demon who doesn't know that what he feels for me is love."

"Then hang in there, hon. Who knew demons were just like mortal men?"