Halfling (editing in process)

Chapter Thirty-Four

It had been two weeks since they had moved into Maven's safe house. The house was built underground on a cliffside. A waterfall just began underneath the only window in the house, a beautiful lake pooling at the bottom of the cliff. They had spent the first week setting up protection wards all over, making sure Lucien could not track them, making sure they wouldn't be found by the incubi and succubi that searched for them, and making sure that no one accidently discovered the cellar-like door under the root system of a giant tree.

Payne had been keeping a careful eye on Aria since they had discovered her pregnancy, and Maven and Javen had been busy straitening up the house. There were only three bedrooms, and Javen had started working on another nursery. The house stayed mostly silent at all hours, all of them too numb, too shocked to converse. Javen had questioned Aria if she wanted him to make room for the young that she was carrying, which resulted in a huge fight between Payne and Javen while Maven soothed Aria. The girl wasn't doing well, the shock from Lucien confirming her worse fears continuing through the weeks. She often stared out the window, down at the land below, her mind obviously somewhere else. The agony in Payne's eyes as she sat and watched her, day in and out was enough to drive the other couple insane.

Meanwhile, the damage to the outside world was just beginning. Maven was using magic to communicate with her dark elf contacts through a method no one understood. Hordes of incubi and succubi were raiding human cities, raping, pillaging, kidnapping people and taking them back to the underworld to allow Lucien to torment them. The human world was in a panic, and the elves were doing their best to defend their settlements, keeping the demons off with heavy magic and wards. It was clear that Lucien had to be stopped before the whole world would fall into ruin, but it was unclear how it could be done. How could they stop someone that had an army of sex demons? They were just a group of four, two pregnant, and their allies in hiding to protect their own behinds.

"Aria... Aria, look at me. You need to eat. You didn't eat all day yesterday, and I swear if I must hold you down and spoon feed you like an infa-... Please get up." Payne said quietly, gently pulling Aria up from her place at the window. "Come on, Maven fixed some stew that smells simply divine, and you are going to eat some of it, do you understand me?"

Aria slowly nodded her head. Payne led her to the table and sat her down; sighing as Maven and Javen carefully avoided looking at her as they ate. Payne glared at them both and sat down next to Aria, beginning to eat herself. Aria's hand trembled as she tried to pick up the spoon, a string of curses leaving her as she dropped the spoon. She picked up the bowl and flung it across the room, the bowl shattering against the wall, stew slowly dripping down the wall. She pushed herself backwards and got to her feet, her arms curling around her middle

"He won't stop! I keep trying and trying but he won't stay out of my head! We can put up as many wards and runes as we want to and he won't find us, but he can still get into my head. He can still show me those women he raped; he can show me how he throws them to the others and lets them mutilate those girls! He keeps telling me what he will do to me, and keeps talking about my baby! I can't stand it, I can't! I-I..." Her eyes locked on a carving knife sitting close by.

"Aria, look at me, you don't want to do that." Payne said quietly, Javen already getting up slowly, creeping beside Aria while Maven watched. "We talked about this, he can't find you, he won't be able to touch you, and that baby is not going to be evil. You are going to teach it how to be good."

"I haven't slept." Aria whispered, shaking her head as she took a slow step forward. "I can't sleep. If I sleep he is there. He can say all he wants about what he is going to do to me, but I must watch as he calls those girls by my name, watch as he breaks them, kills them, sometimes both. I get to think about how many lives he is ruining because he wants me. I could stop this, I could just go, none of you would be in danger any more, he might stop this crazy attack on the world, you won't have to worry about your kid Maven, and Payne, Payne you can find someone else now your blood lust is under control, someone that likes the idea of taking turns whipping each other. I'll probably die just like my mother did, I already got pregnant like she did, like mother like daughter right? So I should just go. I should just go and let him have me. Save you all from this. It's for the greater good."