Harlee POV
"Ugh, I have too much stuff." I complained.
"You act as though it's anyone's fault but your own." Sands teased, carrying a large cardboard box through the kitchen.
"I don't know why you won't let us do this the easy way." Sam grumbled as he shoved books into a box.
"Waste of your resources. And I'm the one feeding you." I sniped, then blushed fiercely. Ash leaned in with a laugh.
"I never did say congratulations on cracking that nut did I?" Ash murmured lasciviously. I swatted at them, but Ash easily dodged.
"Next time I have morning sickness at all hours of the day, I'm going to puke on you." I grumbled. I was moody, seriously moody. Ash was blaming it on the nature of the beast, i.e. carrying Incubi children, emotional conduits. I told Ash they could have warned me ahead of time, at which point I was teased for never asking questions.
"Where's Zeev?" I asked softly. He hadn't quite been the same since the Cael toy incident a few weeks ago. I was worried.
"He took Cael to the park today. Said it'd keep them both out of our hair." Ash responded.
"But I don't want them out of my hair." I complained under my breath. Ash looked sympathetic.
"Me neither." Ash murmured.
Zeev POV
Cael silently stared at the sand he sat in. Around him children played and screamed, but he sat simply squeezing a handful of sand.
"Such a solemn little boy. Is he yours?" A young woman asked as she patted a newborn's back from the next bench. I nodded. "I see he takes after his father." She laughed. Cael turned to look at her. I could almost see the derision on his face.
"Oooh what a grumpy look! Looks like you could use a nap little one!" The woman teased. Cael sniffed and turned back to his handful of sand. I noticed a spark between his fingers and moved to block her sight. Cael patted my leg and held a simple glass heart up to me.
"Mama." He said softly and my heart melted. He'd created a tiny glass heart from the sand for Harlee.
"Oh what a pretty rock you found! It almost looks like a heart! That's so neat!" The woman had moved closer to us when I wasn't looking.
"Yes thank you, it is very unique." I bent to pick up Cael, in case he decided to try another stunt with the sand.
"Oh come now, that little one is much too big to be carried around like that now, isn't he? But then again, he's not exactly normal, is he?" The woman's eyes sparked as she looked at me.
"Fu-" I began, but she snapped her fingers and the playground disappeared around us.
Harlee POV
"Wait-did you feel that?" I grabbed my chest. It was like my soul had been ripped in half all over again. What the heck was going on? Suddenly my vision swam and I was seeing from two points of view, mine and Zeev's. I grabbed my head with a moan, I dimly heard Ash calling my name, scrabbling to get into my head, but Zeev had them locked out. Why?
"I can't believe you'd so casually take your Nephilim son out in public like that." A woman's voice spoke. I reached for Ash's hand while my head felt like it was going to split. "Didn't you think that word had gotten around and there would be, well, interested parties, looking for you?" I heard Ash suck in a breath before the woman turned to look at me. THROUGH Zeev, and directly at me.
"Ah-the mother. Yes, you might be useful as well." She snapped her fingers and I felt my body being ripped from our old home. I tried to grip Ash's hands while they yelled, but couldn't hold on, and suddenly was strapped to an upright post or table of some kind beside Zeev. I couldn't tell for sure but it looked like we were in Hell again. I sighed, yanking at my bonds. The room was pretty bare, and around a corner I thought I saw a hall. I heard the woman tsk. "Sadly, you're already pregnant. That is not useful to me. But it's fine, I can work around it. We'll just terminate this pregnancy."
"WHAT?!" I screeched, trying to struggle off the table at the same time that Zeev roared.
"Mama!" I heard a distant voice call down the hall.
"Cael? Zeev where's Cael?" I tried to crane my head to look, but couldn't see much beyond the room.
"I don't know, she just snapped me in like she did you. Did you tell the others who we were dealing with?" Zeev yelled, also struggling.
"How was I supposed to know? I tried to show Ash, but she ripped me away!" I argued back. The woman watched our verbal match for a few more seconds before snapping her fingers again to get our attention. Our heads snapped back to face her.
"Are we done with this conversation?" She asked. I stuck my tongue out at her, and suddenly she was right in front of me, pinching my tongue between two very sharp nails. "Be careful little half-soul. You do not need this tongue to bear more Nephilim." She let my tongue go as I yanked my head back.
"What is WRONG with all of you-if you want a Nephilim so badly, why don't you go create your own?" I spat. The woman laughed.
"Ah dear, obviously your other half never explained how difficult it is to create a Nephilim."
"I mean he did-"
"Or, how rare it is for a DEMON to birth a Nephilim." She continued over me. My head snapped to Zeev. "Fallen Angel or not." I remembered Zeev's words. He had thought we'd have a Cambion. Only Ash didn't seem surprised.
"Zeev?" I asked softly.
"Further, how many Angels do you see running around willing to copulate with humans, much less Demons? It's 'strictly forbidden'." She said mockingly. "And you have three. THREE. All more than happy to lie with you. Even if two are Fallen and one is somewhere in-between. There is a good possibility any of them can produce Nephilim with you, but why experiment? We found the formula that works. Maybe it's because of your soul. So if it ain't broke, don't fix it." She rubbed her hands together. "Now, I want a Nephilim army."
I gritted my teeth. I was getting tired of this crap. And unfortunately I had no power to do anything about it.
'Well that's not particularly true.' Zeev shot through our link. 'You can borrow from us.' I peeked at him from the corner of my eye. Whose power was going to help us get out of this one? The woman in front of us advanced on me with a gleam in her eyes. I growled.
"Stay away from me you bitch!" I yelled as she reached for my abdomen.
"Mama!" Cael's voice echoed down the hall again. It made me struggle harder against the bonds that held me.
"You won't hurt or use ANY of my children!" I screeched. The woman laughed.
"We'll see about that." She responded, she dug her nails into my abdomen and I felt a sharp stab of pain deep inside of me.
"No!" Zeev and I yelled together. Warm, sticky liquid began to run down the insides of my thighs and with dread, I realized it was blood. Zeev roared, sharing my pain, emotionally and physically. A wave of dizziness overcame me as my body began to cramp. I couldn't curl in on myself like I wanted to, so I just wailed. Somewhere I heard cries from Zeev and Cael mingling with my own, and Zeev bucking his restraints, trying to free himself. I was going to pass out, I could feel it. Tears were streaming down my face. Our babies! She was trying to kill our babies! If I could just tighten their hold in my womb. I was screaming now, I couldn't catch my breath.
"Damn incubus spawn, so stubborn and difficult to remove." The woman hissed. "Damn mother's likely to bleed out before..." She sighed, then waved a hand in front of my face. "You still awake? ….Damn, guess I better heal you before I try again." With an exasperated sigh, she flattened her palm against my midriff and I felt the blood flow slow to a trickle and the dizziness recede. The woman rubbed a hand through her hair.
"This is going to take forever." She spat.
"Lil, stop." Zeev panted. "Please" She scoffed.