One Soul Book Two

Chapter Fourteen R18+

****Please note that this chapter addresses themes of suicide.  I understand this issue can be very upsetting, please skip this chapter if this issue will impact you negatively.***

Harlee POV

The logical part of my mind was screaming at me that I should be terrified.  There was a freakin’ Demon that looked like a Dragon flowing across the floor towards me.  I had just been afraid of this Demon in human Form.  And angry at them.  But suddenly, I was excited as a little kid about cuddling up to them as a gigantic lizard?!  Well, I’d always had a thing for animals, and this was like meeting a dinosaur or mythical creature to me in some twisted way, I made excuses for myself.

“I’m not a lizard Harlee, I’m a Dragon.”  As if to prove their point, Ash unfurled an unbelievably long wing and clunked me on the head before blowing a puff of smoke.  Something in my head broke loose at that and I shoved the wing aside.  A fuzzy memory trying to get my attention.

“Wait-you look different now, don’t you?”  I tried to compare Ash to the memory version of them in my head, that was still incomplete.  Ash crawled up on the bed carefully, snaking their long body in front of me, and I was momentarily distracted.  I reached out a hand and ran it across Ash’s side as they passed.  Ash twitched and jumped around to look at me in surprise and then wriggled closer, exposing their belly where the scales turned softer, fleshier.  Ash hummed as I ran a hand over the soft scales of their chest.

“I changed, well we all do really, based on our soul’s states, or Corruption, and what-have-you.  Once you and Zeev fully accepted me and then told me you loved me, and then when you wanted my child, and.. well let’s just say it had some positive effects.”  Ash murmured.  As my hands moved lower, something wrapped firmly around me and drew me closer against Ash’s belly.  When I looked, it was Ash’s tail and I giggled helplessly.  I heard a deep rumbling sound as I pet Ash’s belly, and I looked up surprised.

“Are you..purring?”  I asked.  Ash twitched, then listened.

“I suppose I am.”  Ash shrugged, then curled around me, coiling their body and tail around me, wrapping me in cool scales that gradually warmed with my body heat.  The pur grew louder and Ash closed their eyes, resting their head beside me on coils of their tail and body.

“We said we loved you?”  I asked softly, now stroking Ash’s face.

“Mhmm.”  Ash murmured.  “It was a while ago.”  I wrapped my fingers in Ash’s mane.  This was the most fantastic thing I’d ever seen.  I really wanted to investigate Ash’s wings too.  The nearly transparent membranes stretched between opal colored, what fingers?  Bones?  Would the membranes feel like a balloon, or something different?  Maybe I’d read one too many fantasy stories.  Ash shifted slightly and I brought my mind back to the subject.  It must have hurt Ash to be near me knowing I couldn’t remember telling them I loved them.  Ash’s coils tightened around me slightly and I relaxed against the ones up against my back, letting myself be soothed by the cool, rumbling circle, even as my heart was once again broken and conflicted.

The baby kicked and Ash nudged my stomach with their giant snout as if to quiet it.  Internally, I was still battling a ton of doubts, but I couldn’t suppress another helpless giggle  Seeing such a gigantic creature being so tender.. Purring even..  It shifted things in my mind a little.  How could I be so afraid of Ash-such a tiny little creature themselves, and not this huge thing, that coil crush me with a stray flick of its tail?

“Hey!  I can hear you, you now!  I’m not little, and I would never hurt you Harlee.  Not intentionally.  In any Form.”  Ash’s voice was a mixture of amusement and contempt.  I stroked their mane.  I thought I was beginning to understand that.

Zeev POV

A wave of contentment nearly knocks me off my feet, and stirs a jealousy in me so fierce it makes me want to murder someone.  Well, one someone in particular.  Ash.  I take my anger out on a few humans instead.  One man who manufactures meth in a rented home with his wife and two daughters, all of whom he beats, and two dog fighters.  I destroy the meth lab as an afterthought, just for the Hell of it.  No use in the mom getting any ideas.  On the way back to Gabe’s for the night, not really satisfied, because I can’t have her..  A half whispered plea catches my attention.  Perfect Demon fodder.  I focus on it and follow it to its source.

It’s a vague plea for help.  Not urgent as in ‘I’m about to die’, but still stressing the need and pain of the supplicant.  Not specific either.  Intriguing.

“I don’t know what to do, I can’t do this anymore.  I just want to die.”  The voice whispered.  Ah, catnip for Demons.  I arrive to find a rather low income home, the ‘prayer’ issued by a teenage daughter.  She’s not a pure soul, quite a bit of wrath for that, some lies, lots of self-destructive tendencies.  Typical teen, especially one typical of low income youth in the US during this time period.  Yet, perhaps, there’s still a glimmer more purity than many.  I sense that overall she’s stayed pretty moral in some misguided attempt to please a religion she’d fallen out of and unappreciative parents.

“Why would you want to die?”  I asked, circling her as she wept on her bed.

“Just everything!”  She answered me without hesitation, and I got a flurry, almost an onslaught of memories and information from her.  This girl’s heart is an open book.  From bullying at school, to abuses at home, to the very poverty surrounding her, dogging her every step, the constant struggle of her everyday life is slowly tearing away at her heart and soul, and I have to admit it tears at the half of mine.  I hardened my Heart against that feeling of sympathy.

“And just what do you expect me to do about it?”  I purred, and her thoughts became anguished.

“I don’t know!”  She cried.  “I just need help!  Even if it means.. You just.. End me.. I can’t, I mean, I’m too scared..”

“To commit suicide?”  I purred and she trembled, then nodded.  “Well I can’t do it for you.  It’s against the rules..”  I cooed.  It’s a bald-faced lie.  But I wanted to see her reaction.  She heaved a resigned sigh, thoughts scattered across her mind, feelings of being trapped, wondering what was even real.  And then the very real and shockingly strong lack of surprise at being forced to live.

“Maybe there’s something else I can do to help.”  I purred, manifesting as my human Form in her room.  It won’t take much to get a Contract out of this one, though Harlee would have objected.  Thrown a fit really, if I was being honest about it.  I wonder briefly if the reason I’m doing all this is not to spite her.

Harlee POV

Pain rippling through my abdomen, nails dug into the soft flesh there, the heartache of losing one of my children…  I gasped.  The pain was real.  And once I was awake, I could tell.

“Shh Harlee, it’s just Braxton-Hicks contractions.  False labor.”  Ash soothed, rubbing their large, scaly chin on the top of my head.  Ash’s coils were cool and comforting, wrapped protectively around me.  For a moment I panicked until my brain could catch up, and then I realized little Cael was curled up next to me as well, and my heart nearly burst.  It was like having the world’s largest living stuffed animal secret to share with your child.  It was almost.. magical.

“Hey!  I’m not a stuffed animal!”  Ash grumbled, flashing their teeth.  I giggled and the corner of their mouth lifted.  The deep rumbling started up behind me again.  Cael stretched and heaved a contented sigh, which made me want to hug his little body to mine tightly and never let go.  He was just so gosh-darn cute.  I had to satisfy myself with brushing his hair off his face, since my belly got in the way.  His little cheeks were flushed red with sleep and he truly did look Angelic.  I leaned over and kissed his forehead.

“I love you, little Cael.”  I murmured to him, my heart so full of love I could barely contain it.  Now if only my chest didn’t feel so unbearably empty.

Zeev POV

Angels-how did they catch up to me?  Well I guess I hadn’t exactly been as cautious as I should have been.  Especially with that last Contract, I lingered too long, took my time with that Contract.  I’d managed to promise nothing and still secured her soul.  But still, this was too much like that first night-the night I met Harlee-

A spear plunged through my back, pinning me to the ground.  It went straight through my shoulder and chest to nail me to the asphalt, buried at least a foot deep.  I snarled and fought back, twisting and trying to free myself.

“I don’t understand this one.”  The Angels sure were taking their time catching up with the thrown spear.

“It’s an Abomination.”  Another Angel answered.

“It has a human soul.”  A third remarked, aghast.

“But.. how?”  One asked.

“Look-it’s Bound to other Demons.  As a Human would be Bound.  How is this possible?”  I tried to crane around to see them, but somebody kicked my jaw.  I hissed.

“We should try to locate the others it’s Bound to.  It looks like a whole nest of them.”

“Brothers, you don’t think-I had heard stories, but didn’t believe them-is this the Demon/Human Hybrid?”

“No, it can’t be-where’s the other half?  They were said to never be apart from each other.”  Scoffs one of the first.  One of them grabbed hold of the spear and shook it.  I roared

“But the Mark on its neck..”

“Can you imagine if it is?  The renown we will receive in Heaven for destroying them?”  I flinched.  They’re talking about killing Harlee now!

“Hush brother, that’s prideful and sinful thinking that will have you Fallen and in no better shape than this monstrosity.”  The speaker kicked me.  I am going to kill them all.

“Let’s trace the Bonds back to the others before killing it.  I’m interested to see what we’ll find.”  Asserted the one that appeared to be in charge.  A white-hot hand descended on the Mark that connected me to Harlee.

‘Haree!’  I howled in my mind as everything sizzled and popped around me.