Daughter of Both

Chapter 8

When I reach the bottom of the stairs Maze and Dreagon are sitting at the bar. Markus and Zeek are nowhere that I can see. "Ah darling, I knew that outfit would look great on you with those hips of yours." Maze purrs. Dreagon turns towards me and his mouth pops open. I take a few steps towards him "Can we go check on Grim now?" Maze tilts her head in confusion and Dreagon chokes on whatever he just took a sip of. "Ah, sorry Maze, I meant to mention this to you last night. Scarlet has made friends with a hellhound." Her eyes double in size. "I'm sorry? Made friends? With a HELLHOUND? Whom you've named Grim?" Her voice is a few octaves too high "Well, yes. He understands me and I think I'm going to keep him." her eyes grow bigger, which I didn't even think was possible. "He does listen to her, I've seen it." Dreagon tells her and her mouth drops open. "Alright, let's go check on Scar's pup then." She stands up "Though if he's close then I don't know how your brothers and I haven't sensed him." She starts making her way towards the front door and for some reason I start to get worried about him, like something's not sitting right in my stomach. I rush out the front door and instantly start yelling for him "Grim, are you here buddy? Are you okay?" All three of us are standing at the top of the stairs leading into the house that sits up off the ground by at least one story. Minutes tick by and none of us hear or see anything "Come on Grim, where are you?" I say mostly to myself. I yell his name a couple more times and after a moment he comes barreling out of the trees across from us. We're all surprised to see a giant bear chasing behind him. At first I wonder why or how this thing think it stands a chance against Grim, but then it shifts into a person and that person is Markus. "Get back here mutt! I'm not done with you so stop running!" Something flashes in his hand before he's lifting one of those weird blue swords, getting ready to strike. "NO!" I scream, causing Markus to hesitate long enough for Dreagon to blink in between them. Markus growls "What the hell are you doing? This thing is at our home, we can't let him report back to those evil bitches!" Dreagon glances towards me before looking back at his brother "He's not going to report to anyone, except maybe Scarlet. She has claimed him and he seems to have accepted." Markus lowers his sword and looks up at me, locking eyes and staring for a minute. I don't break contact or look away. "I take full responsibility for him." I tell him and he shakes his head before looking back at Dreagon "Alright, brother." Is all he says before turning back towards the trees and disappearing. My feet fly down the steps, my feet barely touching some of them. "Grim, my goodness are you okay?" he nuzzles into my shoulder and I wrap my arms around his neck. I don't know why I feel so close and connected to this hellhound, but he feels like family and I'm so glad he's okay. Marcus comes back through the trees with a basket of some kind of fruit "had to go back and get these. That's why I was out there to begin with and I saw him. Now I understand why he didn't try attacking me or fighting me when I challenged him." Grim growls at him and I shush him "He didn't know Grim. Everything's okay now." Maze comes up next to us. "Will you show me how well he'll listen to you?" I pull back from Grim and look at her. "What would you like for him to do?" I ask and she smiles. "I don't know. Sit, lay down, roll over? Anything really, I just want to see how well he listens. It's unheard of for anyone to have control over them, unless they're in hell." I nod at her and take a step back from Grim "You willing?" I ask him and he huffs at me "Alright, sit." He does so and I list off a few more commands, which he listens to. Maze looks extremely surprised and interested, Dreagon doesn't look surprised at all. I guess he got all of that out of his system last night when he first saw how calm Grim acted around me. At some point Zeek came out of the house and said something to Maze, causing her face to fall slightly. Dreagon walks towards them and Zeek speaks quietly to him. I turn back to Grim and slowly pet him along his head. Dreagon walks back over and lets out a huff "Zeek needs my help with something. I shouldn't be gone long. An hour tops." I nod my head "that's fine, maze, grim and I will be fine here. I need to speak to Maze about something anyway so it's okay." He raises his eyebrows at me, but I just smile. Zeek and Dreagon disappear and I take my chance to talk to Maze alone. "I need to talk to you about something." She doesn't even look surprised "let's go back inside and chat, Grim is welcome to join us." He jumps up at her words to follow us inside. We take a seat at a large round table in the dining area, with her sitting next to me "what's on your mind honey?" I hesitate for a moment, not sure how to start. "Well, a woman came to me in my dreams. She said she knows your mother and therefore knows you. She also said she knew my mother and was one of her closest friends. She told me that you knew the spell to unlock my powers, that you could help me. She said you're different then other demons. So, will you help me?" For the first time she looks surprised. "What was the woman's name?" Is all she says. "She said her name was Sabine." She nods her head "Of course. Yes I will help you. If Grim already listens to you now, just imagine what you can do once your powers are unlocked! It's probably going to be very overwhelming so I think we should wait for Dreagon to return." I shake my head. I would prefer it, but I can't rely on him all the time. This is something I need to do myself. "I would agree, but I think I want to do this on my own. I can't always lean on him and I've gotten through most my life alone. Can we do it now?" She stares at me for a few seconds before glancing towards Grim. "Alright, Grim will help me if needed I'm sure." He huffs but nods his head at her. She jumps from her seat and goes to the kitchen "I'll make a tea to help with the process. It'll be just a moment." I smile at Grim "this is crazy ya know." He huffs at me again.