Waiting for Mercy (Cambions) (48 page)

She stumbled and if not for the uneven ground we stood on, she might have stayed on her feet.  Feeling no remorse, I walked past her.  I heard laughter I assumed was from other players on the team but I didn’t look back.  If Luke gave me a wary look, I would be hurt.  So I just kept walking to the parking lot.  I passed Flynn who was headed to practice now and by the look on his face, he’d witness my show of strength.

Maggie had been impressed with me standing up to Kristen.  Like the best friend she was, she praised me and asked if Flynn had gotten a video of it we could post on Facebook.  Of course, I didn’t know what Flynn had done, because I didn’t hang around to see.  We chatted about my showdown in detail on the way to her house.

When Luke eventually picked me up, I expected him to mention the Kristen thing.  But surprisingly he didn’t.   My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and froze at the text message that was there. “We’re home.”  The other text message listed was from my other word of the day I’d registered to receive text messages from.  Selcouth.  This definition seemed totally poignant.

hackneyed
(adj.)
unoriginal, trite

The moment had come.  I wasn’t properly prepared for the showdown that was about to occur.  Luke drove me home.  Mom and David were already there.  Walking into the house, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  But everything was quiet inside. 

“I can go home and come back later,” Luke said.

Looking over at him, I said, “No, I need you here. Are you hungry?” I asked.  Feeling nervous, making food was the first thing to come to my mind.  Walking into the den, he nodded at me.  He got me.  He knew I needed to cook to calm my nerves.  So I left him with the television and game console figuring he wouldn’t be bored. What I’d really hoped for is that Flynn would come down and they would hang like old times.  Neither had spoken about what their talk had been about the day I’d taken Maggie home from Luke’s and left Flynn there.  Seeing Flynn alive and well the next day, I’d left it alone for now.

Walking into the kitchen, I headed for the refrigerator to assess what there was to cook.  Flynn and I hadn’t been home much while they’d been out of town and we had ordered out when we had been.  But mom knew me well.  I was the cook, but she bought the groceries.  She was good at knowing what I would need for certain dishes.  The refrigerator was stocked.

Steak was on my menu today.  It was relatively easy and a crowd pleaser.  I found potatoes in the pantry and brought that out to roast them.  Paired with a simple salad with sliced fruit and nuts, and voila, we have a meal.  Gathering what I needed, I got to work on my simple meal plan.  Turning on my ipod in the ihome, the silence was filled with my latest playlist.

Not too long, David walked in. “Hey you, it’s good to be home.  I see you’re going to whip us up a home cooked meal.  I’m looking forward to it.”  He came around and gave me a hug with a kiss on my cheek.  Unable to stop it, I smiled.  David was a great guy and the anger that bubbled in me was reserved for my mom, not him.

“Mercy,” a voice said. Looking up, I nearly sliced into my finger instead of the potato.

“Mom,” I said tightly.  “You look good.” And she did.  Australia had agreed with them.  They both looked tanned and happy.  Too bad I couldn’t say the same.  Her tan just reminded me of Luke, who had lost his ever present glow.  Maybe it wasn’t her fault directly what I’d done to Luke.  But she’d kept so much from me that I made mistakes I might not have if I’d been informed.  And I was tired of sitting back and waiting for her to give me the answers I needed.

David not being a stupid guy readied himself to leave after giving my mom a kiss on the cheek as she sat down at the bar counter.  Maybe he already knew some of the things that had happened because he and Flynn had an open relationship.  Leaning over to me, he said, “Don’t be hard on her.” Giving him a tight smile, he left us.

Trying to be the dutiful daughter I asked a mundane question first. “How was your trip?”

“Good,” she said.  And that was it.  She was expecting a fight, so why not.

Bracing myself, I chopped and watch as each of the baby potatoes fell in half under my knife.  “Well, my time has been less than stellar.  Let’s see if I can summarize for you. Maggie might be a werewolf, Paul is calling up demons, Flynn ran off to Paimon, Sebastian and I almost got killed by hell spawn, Luke had a trial where I went and damned him.”  Finishing, I looked up to see my mom pale and stunned. “Yes, and I blame you,” I said straight to her face.

“Mercy, how is this my fault?” she retorted, a little too quickly.

Holding my chin with the hand that held the knife, I angle my face skyward and said, “Hmm, let me see.  Maybe because I don’t know what I’m capable of and I’m messing up all over the place.”

She got up out of her chair and headed to the refrigerator. “I told you not to date.”

With the knife still in my hand I pointed at her. “And like that’s really the answer?  I’m surprised you didn’t send me to a convent when I was little.”

“I thought about it,” she replied, like that was a viable option.

Stunned, I looked at her. “You can’t be serious. Who are you and what happened to my mother?” I asked.  We had been so close and now she was like a mystery to me.

Turning she looked at me with angry eyes. “I’m asking myself what happened to my daughter.”

“Your daughter wanted a life,” I said.  It was a little weird to talk about myself in third person but there you have it.

Popping the top on a can of soda, she said, “And you had to choose to date an angel.  Flynn would have been a better choice.” 

My eyes popped out of my head the same time my jaw dropped.  I couldn’t believe what she just said. With my mouth agape, she continued. “Do you know what a situation you put us in by dating Jonah’s son.”

“Uh, no,” I began sarcastically.  “Because I’ve never met the man and I’m not sure what he means to you, us, our family,” I complained. “Maybe if you told me more about what I was and what the rules were, I could make better decisions.” Not that I agreed with her about the Flynn thing. “I mean I’ve had enough of you hiding stuff from me.”

“Mercy, maybe I haven’t told you because I’m not sure what you are,” she shouted.

That made me stop and think.  Softly, I said, “How can you not know what I am?”

She bit her lower lip as it began to tremble.  Part of me wanted to feel sorry for her, but another part of me felt sorry for me.

“Mercy, it’s complicated,” was her answer.

Shaking my head, I said, “Time for excuses is over.”

“I know,” she said. “I never meant to get pregnant.”

Pausing for the second time, I looked at my potatoes like they had more eyes than they did.  No one should ever hear that they were unwanted.  If I looked in her eyes at this moment, I just might cry.

“I love you, and you need to understand that cambions and humans don’t breed.  Like succubus and incubus can’t breed.  Pure demons can only breed with humans but not with each other.  We, cambions on the other hand, can only breed with each other not humans.”  Swallowing, she paused.  But I still didn’t meet her eyes.  “So when your father came along, I had no idea that I could get pregnant.”  It all seemed weird since Camions were the result of pure demon incubi and succubi mating with humans.

Now I did look at her. “What was he then?” I asked, making reference to my human father.

“Human,” she said way too fast. “You need to understand the whole of it.  A succubus demon is charged with getting human souls.  There aren’t many left here on earth after the treaty in the war that removed angel and demon war from our realm.  But half breeds still exist.  Cambions aren’t responsible for collecting human souls, instead we are cursed with the thirst of the human life force.  When you didn’t have the need to feed Mercy, I assumed that you were just human.  So I told you nothing hoping you could live a human existence.”

“What about Paul, why didn’t you tell me then?” I asked thinking back to the almost lethal kiss between us.  I wasn’t sure interrupting her when she was being forthright was the best choice, but there it was.

She looked down and said, “I made a mistake Mercy.  I should have told you more.”

“Can we compel people?  Can we take what we need without physical contact?  Are we somehow addictive to other humans?” I asked in a rush.  She was talking and I needed to capitalize on it.

“Like succubi, we are physically attractive to humans.  We can compel them during the act of taking.  The human you take from will be more attached.  It is worse if that human already has an attraction to you.  It’s magnified.”

“Paul,” I whispered.

She nodded. “Yes, Paul.  You guys remained friends Mercy, I never guessed you would affect him like that.   I really have no idea to what extent you are similar or different than me.”

Moving, I grabbed a bowl.  Dumping the potatoes in, I lightly seasoned them.  Spreading them on a cookie sheet, I prepared to roast them. “Great, I’m not a normal anything,” I muttered more to myself.  “What else should I know?  What is your secret because there has to be more?”

“Mercy,” she said.  I looked and saw the pleading in her eyes.

Shaking my head again, “You can’t keep this to yourself.  What are you hiding from me?”

A tear spilled from her eye but I wasn’t giving in yet.  There would be hugs later after I knew all of it.  She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.  Her eyes got huge and I followed her line of sight as I was putting the potatoes in the oven.

There in the kitchen stood a man with a grin on his face.  He wiggled his fingers and I looked over at my mother and her mouth was shut. “Now, Julie, no breaking the rules.”

I wanted to scream. But with all that happened in my life this was comical.  This man’s sudden appearance was almost laughable.  He wore a deep plum colored suit with leather gloves in his hand.  He didn’t look threatening but I could feel the power wafting off him.  He wasn’t bad on the eyes either despite the color of his suit.  His hair was molded like he’d been wearing a hat.  It reminded me of Paul.  Paul.  Where had Paul been? I hadn’t seen or heard from him in a while.  But whether we were in danger, trumped me feeling bad about not following up on him and the missing Sebastian.

“Ah, Mercy McKayla,” he breathed. “It’s good that we finally meet.  But you really should have remained the docile little girl.  Tsk, Tsk, you are crossing a dangerous line.  One I really can’t let Julie cross.”

Reaching for my knife, I grabbed at empty space.  Somehow I knew that a knife wouldn’t be effective against whatever it was that was in my kitchen.  It had just popped in and held my mother still with a wave of his fingers, but a girl had to try.

“Ah, Mercy, you are cute. But it’s not good to play with knives.”

Instinctively, I was about to cry out for help.  I mean I wouldn’t just sit here and be slaughtered or whatever this man had in store for me.  But another figure appeared in the room. Jonah.

“Belial,” Jonah said.

“Jonah,” Belial answered.

“Why are you here?” Jonah said.  I was star stuck with Luke’s father standing near me.  He was taller than his son and just as imposing close up.

Waving a hand that held leather gloves, “Your charge was about to break her covenant.”

Jonah looked at my mother then his gaze fell on me. His stare was lethal and I shrunk back into myself despite wanting to stand strong.  He knew what I’d done to his son.  And I had no excuse.  “Belial, she is not yours to command,” he said flatly, as his gaze turned back to the other man.  His words may have seemed like they were meant to help me.  But his stare had been clear.  It was duty not anything more that made him speak in my defense.

“Really,” he said. “Even you know that I was left to oversee the operations over the earthly realm in addition to other duties.  You haven’t forgotten, have you?”

“That may be true, but Julie has chosen a different path,” Jonah said. “Mercy too.” He didn’t bother to look at me and there was no way I was going to contradict that statement.

“Maybe my son can help with that.” My head snapped back to the stranger in our midst. My heart filled with dread waiting for him to speak the name. “Rabhartach. Adhamhnan. Teimhnean.” R-A-T.  The names rolled off his tongue in a familiar Scottish brogue.