The Cambion's Hoard

The room was quiet except for the frequent beeps of the machines. My mom and Linus had come in after the guys left. I knew they were still there because Mom squeezed the life out of my hand. Being with both my parents at the same time was uncomfortable. These two had never occupied the same moment in my life.

My mother took a quick breath, the one right before she said something with determination. I heard her lips pop, no sound came out.

It was silent for a moment, I feel like my father had held off her words.

"Rose." Again she stopped.

"Linus. Would you stop doing that!" Mom pulled her hand away from her, probably thrusting both to her hips.

"No." The bed jiggled. Linus must have leaned against it.

"I am trying to have a conversation with my daughter." She sounded exasperated.

"I'm aware." I knew that tone. One he used when an employee said something painfully obvious.

He would tuck his hands under his chin and roll his eyes up under a tilted brow. I'd seen more women wet themselves from that look. Even if he was annoyed.

"She needs to come back home with me, Linus." Her words hissed through clenched teeth.

"No, she needs to go home with her mates." Linus's voice was low.

"Absolutely not!" I jumped as Mom slammed her hands into the bed.

Linus's shoes clicked across the floor. His voice was barely above a whisper. "Candice on this one thing you will listen to me. I wouldn't encourage this but she was going to find someone, and there was a high probability he wouldn't be human. She needs to stay with those men."

"Get away from me." Her words were hurried.

"I'm sorry. I've always found it difficult to be around you." His shoes squeaked as he moved his feet.

My mother scoffed. "Only because your entire being thinks with your dick."

I sat up straighter at that. I had never heard my mother say something like that. Even about Linus.

I could feel my dad's anger roll off of him. "We both know why that is Candice."

"Uh, I want in on this conversation." I grabbed the bed rails and leaned forward, intrigued.

"No." They said simultaneously.

"Um, yes. I have been in the dark about your relationship. Also, I need something to take my mind off the overwhelming sense of panic rising in my chest."

"Rose it is not the time." My mother took my hand again.

I tugged it from her grasp. "Uh, if not now when? You two have never been in the same room my entire life."

I jumped when Linus stroked my cheek. "You know you were conceived before the Demon Accords, right?"

I nodded my head.

"Before the accords, demons could do whatever pleased them with humans. I could feed in the public, and seduce anyone at any time. Mind you we still practiced our habits in the dark." He chuckled sadly.

"Linus I am begging you do not do this." My mother's words sounded small.

"She has to learn sometime, Candie." Norman didn't even call her that. She'd always hated it. Was my father why?

It was silent for a moment then Linus slowly exhaled. "I met your mother in a dive bar. A total back alley, hole-in-the-wall place. I saw your mother, she was dancing and it was hypnotizing. She moved like a naga, swaying her curves to the rhythm of the music. I was hooked."

A chair scooted across the floor. "Funny I'd never been seduced before. I also never wanted to seduce again. I fell in love with your mother. She became my sole satiation. I proposed a year after we met and a few months later she found out she was pregnant. I was over the moon.

"But outside our walls, the world was crashing down around us. More and more women were coming forward about what demon magic forced them to do. More violence, assaults, and more rapes." He spat the word like a bad taste.

"As an incubus with the forethought before the calamity, I did my best to let women know what I was. Let them know that I intend to seduce them to have sex. Of course that all stopped once I met your mother."

I turned my head to the side of the room my mother had last been in. "Did you know?"

"I knew what he was. He was the most awkward man I'd ever met. I didn't believe him at first. When a woman approached him at the store, and he declined her request only then did I believe him. He'd told her that he could no longer partake in the carnal delights of another's flesh. Told her I was his last release." She sounded so sad.

"Rose, this does not get easier for us. What you and I are, are subject to high scrutiny. We can arouse people with a glance, coerce them to spill their darkest desires with a single whisper, and make them relax into anything we command with a single, lingering touch. We are monsters spurred by our unquenchable needs.” His chair bumped into the wall. The thud blatantly loud.

"Then when she was 3 months pregnant the Demon Accords were put into action. If a demon so much as made a transaction without written and notarized consent, jail. No trial, jury of our peers, or second chances. Locked up for as long as they could."

He laughed again and I could hear his pain. "Someone your mother knew found out I was an Other and then out came my secret. I used to actively seduce women, and I'd seduce them with the gifts I was born with. When police discovered your mother was pregnant, that was it. They said I raped her, I forced her to bear my child. I was sick when the accusations came. She did her best to comfort me. Your mother tried to convince them I had done no such thing. It didn't matter. Judgment had been passed."

The foot of the bed sank as my mother sat down. Much like Patti, she began stroking my leg. I took a shaky breath. My parents had wanted to be together. They loved each other.

"You were in one of the prisons?" The Accords had been amended since my childhood. Enough so my father could run his business.

"Mmm. I served 5 years. After five, it was deemed that my abilities would have long worn off your mother. She once again gave her testimony that I had not forced her into anything. I also think telling her to move on with Norman helped. He saved me by loving your mother. He picked me up, I refused to see her, I was afraid of ruining their lives. I told him to make sure she knew I'd take care of you but it would be best if we didn't see each other. That and you wouldn't have contact until you were an adult."

I sat there and processed what they said. My parents had conceived me out of love not what I'd always believed. I had thought I had been a product of rape. Mom had never made it seem like that but we studied the accords in school. I'd made my assumptions.

Tears streamed down my cheeks. My mother got up and pulled me into her arms. She stroked my head as my sadness and relief left my body.

"Ssh, my sweet girl. I had to pretend to dislike your father. We wanted you to be safe, and free from the judgment that had been dealt to him. I can't pretend that I understand everything going on in your life. I'm scared that they would kill you if it was only an accident. I only want to protect you."

I pulled back. "I know. I just always thought things and they were wrong. So wrong."

"Rose, your mother and I had dreamed of children. You are our miracle. It's very rare for one of our kind to be born from another species. If that were the case we'd be prolific as dragons. We can only breed within our own kind. You are born from a rare mating. A true mate."

His hand wrapped around my ankle. "She is the only one that will ever fill the missing pieces of my soul."