Demon Mine

by Marina Simcoe

  I couldn’t believe that we actually made it out of there, both free and together! It was the best possible outcome of the tonight’s hearing. The outcome I had been afraid to even dream about. The stress that had been holding my heart in a vise for the past months was finally letting go.

  Yet, Sytrius remained silent. Suddenly, I needed him to say something, anything to make sure he was okay, to make sure that we were okay.

  “Sytrius, I…” I started and paused, searching for words.

  He slammed on the brakes hard and pulled over to the side of the road. As far as I could tell, we were still a few minutes away from the city limits. Its lights could already be seen in front of us, but there were only a few streetlights on the road we were on. In the dark, it looked like there were only wild fields of grass interspersed with random tree outcroppings on both sides of the road.

  For a brief moment, Sytrius sat motionless with his eyes fixed on the steering wheel in front of him. I heard him inhale deeply, and he reached for me across the narrow console between our seats. He pushed his seat all the way back and pulled me into his lap, putting his arms around me.

  “I could have lost you tonight,” he whispered, burying his face in the side of my neck. He pulled the air in again in one long shuddered breath, as if he had held his breath for so long that he had forgotten how to breathe and was starving for oxygen now.

  “But you didn’t,” I whispered back gently, tenderly running my fingers through the hair on the back of his head. “You didn’t lose me. I am here, you are still here, and we are free.” I told him all the most important things of that moment, ignoring the tears pooling in my eyes now.

  “We are free,” he repeated, catching the end of my sentence like a lifeline. He lifted his head and looked at me. The expression of wonder cleared the clouds off his face. “Alyssa, you are my salvation.”

  I smiled at him. His familiar beloved face looked blurry through the film of tears in my eyes.

  “It takes two to make a baby, sweetheart.” I sniffled and cupped the side of his face. “Sytrius, we created a life together.” I remembered Ianuarius taking about seeing Sytrius’s life force inside of me and asked to make sure. “Can you see it? In me?”

  He nodded immediately.

  “Did you see it before? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t know.” He shook his head. Remorse filled his voice. “Never in a million years I would have guessed what I was looking at! Your energy and mine have been so intertwined inside of you after all the time we spent together… I didn’t know.”

  He pulled back a little and looked closely into my eyes before the most wonderful smile spread on his face.

  “I can see him clearly now,” he said, smiling.

  “Him? Isn’t it a bit presumptuous at this stage?” I exclaimed with a laugh that came out still a little jittery from nerves and adrenaline.

  “Why?” He looked confused. “It is a boy for certain,” he added without any doubt.

  “Really?”

  “Yes.” He nodded again with full confidence.

  “Well, to be honest, I would have liked to have a little bit more warning on this one.” I laughed again. “You know, to have at least a week or two to sort through boys’ and girls’ names. To have a chance to guess, or at least to get used to the fact that I’m pregnant at all before finding out the gender of the baby.”

  “Okay,” he readily agreed. “I’ll keep it in mind next time.”

  “Next time?” I raised my eyebrows at him. “There will be a next time?”

  “There could be if we want it,” he answered simply.

  He was right. There could be anything in our future now if we wanted it. We could have a family. We could have a normal life, or as close to normal as one could have it with an incubus. The most important thing was that we now had a future.

  “Oh,” Sytrius exclaimed as if remembering something and patted the large pockets of his pants. He then pulled out one of my favourite granola bars from the side pocket on his thigh. “You must be hungry.”

  “Oh, Sytrius…” I shook my head, wiping tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand, and realized suddenly how ravenously hungry I actually was.

  “Well, you were the only one who didn’t get any food served during the Feeding.” Fine lines crinkled in the corners of his eyes, and his face, finally, lit up with that brilliant blinding smile of his once again.

  Chapter Forty Five. The Aftermath.

  We didn’t get to see Andras until almost a week later. He called later that night after the hearing. Actually, it was the early morning of the following day already when Sytrius’s cell phone rang. Andras called from the base only to let us know that the Council would be extremely busy for the next several days.

  He himself didn’t get to leave the base that night. In fact, he stayed there for most of that week, leaving only to drive to the city to check on Natasha every now and then. The rest of the time, he worked with the Council as they went through many centuries worth of archives, searching for any past incidents of forgiveness.

  All of them knew the story of the incubi punishment and lived feeling the painful consequences of it every day. The story of forgiveness, however, remained only a legend until now. No one remembered encountering a forgiven demon before Sytrius.

  The most important thing for us for now was that his “crimes” against the incubi could no longer be considered as such since he had been forgiven for the ultimate incubi sin by the Divine and was granted the highest gift of love and creation of life.

  The other incubi viewed him as a true miracle now, but I was convinced he couldn’t be the only demon capable of humanity. Even from the limited interactions that I had with other incubi, I learned enough to believe that most of them would be able to love if given a chance.

  Andras asked us to stay in Belarus until at least some rough lines of the new legislature were drawn. The Council needed some time to wrap their minds around the new developments and see our situation in a new light. Even though the Council no longer had any say on our fate, we still needed some information from them. We both wanted to gain a better understanding of what to expect from our own future as a human-incubi couple.

  Personally, I sincerely hopped that Andras would be able to unearth some information about any possible descendants from the couples like ours. Ever since the fact that I was pregnant finally settled in my mind, I was falling more and more in love with my unborn son. I was worried about him and wondered what the future life may be for the one born to a human mother and an incubus father.

  Meanwhile, with the danger finally gone, I was glad to have a chance to explore the country of my parents.

  Instead of waiting in Minsk, Sytrius and I took a train to Gomel, the city in the South of Belarus where my parents were born and raised. Gomel was not what a Western person would consider a tourist destination. There weren’t many places for sightseeing, but it was calm and quiet – something both Sytrius and I craved at the moment. We stayed in a guesthouse in the centre of the city and visited Francisk Scorina Gomel State University where my parents met as students and fell in love.

  We took long walks in the beautiful, vividly green at this time of the year Gomel Park with a historical palace build in the 18th century. The last private owner was chased out of the palace shortly after the Russian Revolution. Ironically, it was located in a walking distance from Lenin Plaza.

  Yes, Belarus was one of those few places in the world that still had plazas named after Lenin. As life moves on everywhere else in the world, there are some places where history stands still and some places where it curves and loops like a wormhole in time.

  We had been in Gomel for a week when Andras was finally ready to meet us face to face. We took the train back to Minsk and waited for him at the same hotel where we stayed the night before the hearing. Staying in the same place brought back memories of the intense stress and the fear of imminent loss I had not so long ago, making me appreci
ate the way everything had transpired at the end even more.

  Usually affectionate and not afraid to display his feelings in public, Sytrius kept even closer to me after the hearing. He made sure to have some form of physical contact with me at all times, be it holding hands when we walked, keeping his hand on the small of my back or just having the sides of our thighs touch when we were in a car or on a train.

  We met Andras in the living room of our hotel suite in Minsk. I sat on the couch across from his armchair when Sytrius walked over from the kitchenette with a cup of tea for me and a bottle of water for himself. He didn’t offer any drinks to Andras. Other than in Munich, I never recalled seeing Andras eating or drinking anything.

  Out of his austere long robe, Andras wore a pair of worn jeans and a short black leather jacket. His long thick hair was tamed into a messy bun at the back of his head. He must not have had the time to shave that morning, because the dark stubble was covering his cheeks and jawline.

  Despite working at the incubi base day and night for the past week, he actually looked much better here in Belarus than he did in Munich. The hollows of his face had filled in, and his golden brown skin had a healthy ruddy undertone. Overall he looked relaxed and refreshed, like an incredibly handsome rock star after a successful stay in a rehab.

  “How was your trip?” he asked me when Sytrius put the cup of tea on the coffee table in front of me before lifting me up and sliding onto the couch under me so that I ended up in his lap. There was enough room on the couch for both of us to sit comfortably side by side, but the closer we were the more content both of as felt at that moment.

  “Good, very good actually.” I wrapped the fingers of one hand around the back of Sytrius’s neck and held my tea up with the other. “I’ll tell you all about it one day, but I’m too anxious to hear all of your news first.”

  “Where do I start?” Andras smiled and leaned back into his chair.

  I felt Sytrius inhale a lungful of air, and fired off my own question before he had a chance to ask anything. “Us. How about you start with us? Have there ever been other couples like us?”

  “We found a record of one.”

  “Only one?”

  “There might have been others, but it was so long ago. They either lived in secret or the records of them haven’t survived. The couple we have any information about died more that a millennium ago, in the tenth century.”

  “Did they have children?”

  “There are no records of any descendants, but there is no reason why there couldn’t have been any. The incubus male was one of the Forgiven.”

  “Are you sure? How do you know?”

  “He aged. The human woman left her home to run away with him. They lived for centuries away from human and incubi worlds, until humans finally found and executed them. They both were elderly by then, but they had a long life and could have had many children.”

  “They lived for centuries?” Did I hear it right?

  “You can’t give something without getting something in return, Alyssa. The world needs to keep its balance. You gave Sytrius mortality – he gave you a longer lifespan.”

  Well, the way I saw it, I took Sytrius’s immortality, something that in my opinion should be devastating to lose. However Andras, like Sytrius, seemed to adhere to the notion that immortality was part of the incubi curse and loathed it.

  “How much longer?”

  “According to the archives, that couple lived for close to eight centuries together before they started to age and were executed shortly after. Once it began, the aging process seemed to progress at the more normal human rate.”

  “So, it’s a long life and the youth that lasts for centuries? All for the ability to die? It doesn’t sound like a fair trade to me, darling.” I turned my face to Sytrius. “I hope you don’t have buyer’s remorse.”

  “You’re forgetting the ability to love deeply, to laugh freely, to live fully and to be a father.” Sytrius smiled at me. “It looks to me that I got the better part in the deal, after all.”

  Smiling, I touched my forehead to his temple as he turned to Andras to ask his questions.

  “What is going to happen now? How about your proposal and the changes to the law?”

  “The proposal will have to be revised now.” Andras smiled broadly at us. “In view of the most current developments, I’m confident I can push for more than I initially asked for. You and Alyssa proved that the ultimate purpose of incubi is not merely to continue to exist, but that we too can learn and evolve, strive to be better beings. Hunger had been our curse for centuries, but now we know that we don’t need to harm anyone to satisfy it. You showed us how it can be done. We can be loved and cared for. We can even learn to return love. Now, we need to work with humans on new guidelines for human-incubi interactions. If we get them right this time, the incubi would not have to suffer from hunger any longer. Instead, we would face the same problem that humans had been dealing with for centuries: to find the person who would care about us, and whom we could trust with all our secrets. Meanwhile…” he winked at me, “I’m including your idea of the live dance show in the proposal, among other things.”

  “Really? You know that by putting all these gorgeous men out there, you may be doing women a huge favour!” I laughed, but then added seriously, “There is still the ethical issue of skimming energy without letting women in the audience know what is going on.”

  He nodded. “The proposal will go to the secret human society in Zürich. So all our actions will be sanctioned by humans as well.”

  “The same secret society that sanctioned my kidnapping as well as the kidnappings of many other women? I wouldn’t use them as a moral compass to navigate human ethics.” I wasn’t even trying to keep contempt out of my voice.

  “I do have a much more reliable ‘moral compass,’ whom I plan to run all aspects of the new proposal by first,” Andras assured me with a sly smile that made me gasp in realization.

  “Natasha! You told her?” I put my cup down and clasped my hands in front of me. “How did it go?”

  The smile on his face grew wider.

  “She didn’t run,” he said with delight and still with a little disbelief. “She didn’t believe me at first. She was shocked, a little frightened, worried… She still is all of those things to one degree or another. She hasn’t agreed to move in with me yet, but she lets me walk her to work now, and even lets me send her a car with a driver to drive her when I’m not there.” Delight and wonder sparkled in his whiskey-coloured eyes when he talked about Natasha. It was obvious that he truly cared about her. “She likes to hold my hand,” he said and added softly, “without the glove.”

  “Oh Andras! I am so glad to hear it!” I was genuinely exited for him.

  “I told her about you. She wants to meet you one day.”

  “I’d love that!”

  “I still have a favour to ask from you. Both Councils decided to suspend all kidnappings indefinitely…”

  “Both Councils?” specified Sytrius. “Raim is intending to uphold the decision too?”

  “He has no choice. Most Council members are welcoming the changes. He cannot fight it. He has already officially lowered many restrictions on human-incubi interactions outside of the base, to allow incubi to skim any positive emotions from humans now. The same way we had done it in Munich.”

  “So, what is the favour that you want to ask of me?” I reminded.

  “Urgh! Not another favour!” groaned Sytrius. “What did I tell you, Andras? No more favors from her!”

  “I can hear him out. I’m not agreeing to anything yet.” I patted the back of his heck soothingly.

  “We need your help with assimilating kidnapped women back into human society.” Said Andras.

  “Are they being released? How can I help?” I perked up immediately.

  “We had started the process here in the East. Natasha was able to recruit qualified professionals through the hospital where she works. She is organizi
ng counseling sessions and putting together support groups to help the women to recover and go back to their lives. Most of them are doing very well. I was hoping you could help us do something similar in the West.”

  “I may have to meet with Natasha rather sooner than later then. I would like to learn more about her work here. Do you want me to work with Western Council? With Raim?” I clarified. As much as I wanted to help, I wasn’t in any hurry to face that demon again any time soon.

  “Not unless you want to. We have resources in place there already through our human contacts in Canada. What the women need, though, is somebody who would listen and truly understand them. So, I thought, since you were in the same situation once, you may be able to help them better…”

  “I would love to at least try. It means we should be going back to Canada soon, eh?” I turned to Sytrius.

  The enthusiasm I felt at that moment was enormous! I could never be truly happy as long as there were others suffering the same fate that I was fortunate enough to run away from. If I truly could help them put it all behind them and get on with their lives, it would give my own life a new purpose.

  He smiled at my excitement. “It looks like we should.”

  EPILOGUE

  He liked watching her sleep. She used to sleep on her stomach before, but the growing swell of her belly wouldn’t let her do that any longer. Now she slept on her side instead, curled into a ball.

  It was early in the morning, two days before Christmas. They came back to Munich from Canada a week earlier and were planning to stay here for a while. They had been looking for a house or an apartment to rent so that they could spend some time here – maybe a few years – before they would have to change countries again.

  It looked like it was what they would have to do at least once a decade now, if they wanted to continue to live within human society: move countries, change identities, leave friends behind to make new ones elsewhere.

  The life of a nomad did not bother him. He had spent most of his existence being tied to one incubi base or another. He welcomed the chance to see and learn new things freely, having the whole world open to him now.