Amgyptapan

Chapter 39: Kidnap Rescue/Demon's Curse

Hessa screamed. Nothile weakly turned toward his mate. His eyes widened as he saw that his youngest son was missing. Unfortunately, no-one felt strong enough to go after Lavonda.
"What are we going to do? There's no telling what she's going to do to Erudite!" Hessa asserted.
"I will tell you what we're not going to do," Trinity said, taking charge, "We are not going to panic. We're not going to get ahead of ourselves. And we are not going to underestimate this bitch."
Before anyone could stop her, Hessa turned toward the direction she had seen her son being taken. Trinity and Serena watched as Hessa sprinted after her son and Lavonda. As soon as she had disappeared, Trinity and Serena went to aid the exhausted fighters. The two could tell that it would be quite a while until they were recovered enough to go after Hessa.
"Why did you not stop her?" Nothile demanded.
Trinity replied, "Because, she's a mother. A mother's instincts are to protect her children, no matter the cost."
Nothile protested, "But, she is pregnant! She could lose the baby or get herself killed. She should have waited for me to recover my strength!"
Trinity scoffed, "Hessa may be pregnant, but she's a demonic. She's also a Canine. If I know her, that bitch that just took Erudite better watch out!"
Akiva pitched in, "Nothile, I've known my sister a lot longer than you have. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is going to get in her way, come hell or high water! Besides, demonics tend to have a...tougher womb which enables them to put their lives on the line without risking the growing, developing baby within."

"I know Hessa is strong, but I can not help feeling protective of her while she is pregnant. I just do not want anything to happen to her or our unborn child." Nothile revealed.
"If anything, Lavonda should be worried about herself, and not us about my daughter." Molahs remarked.
Nothile smirked and replied, "A while back, Hessa did tell me about a demonic curse called the Putrid Mortus. She told me that it was one of the most powerful curses in the world, even more so than even the Dai-Athene."
Molahs, Chandrakant, and Akiva burst into laughter. Trinity, Nothile, Takai, Ioyazi, and Serena were confused. They hadn't heard anything about the Putrid Mortus that could be considered funny. The first three, unfortunately, were the only ones who understood what was so hysterical.
"Sorry. It's just that the Putrid Mortus is perfect to use on Lavonda. What was so funny was that we don't doubt for an instant that Hessa would use it." Molahs explained.
Meanwhile, Hessa was tracking where her son had been taken. Her search had taken her to a series of warehouses. Lavonda and Erudite's scents emanated from each one. Her high sense of smell was confused and thrown off.
With a heavy sigh, Hessa dropped to her knees then into a sitting position. She closed her eyes and focused on the surrounding noises. Next, she carefully focused on placing scents to each sound. After that, Hessa forced her mind to toss out every irrelevant combination.
After her mother died, Hessa had been trained to track by her father. Molahs had used a similar trick to what she was currently facing multiple times. Eventually, Hessa learned to stop and use the technique she was using now. The way this...trick worked was by being still, you could focus on sounds being made and siphon out the sounds and their scents until you are left with the one you were tracking.
Hessa's eyes popped open as she found what she was looking for. The warehouse she wanted was near the far-end. A cruel smirk rose on her lips as she rose to her feet. Keeping her eye on the warehouse she was heading toward, Hessa began walking with purpose at a brisk pace.
Rage welled up inside her as she approached the warehouse Lavonda had taken her ten year old son. To make a more effective entrance, Hessa kicked the door. Though it was a heavy, metal door, Hessa's front kick shattered it as it were glass. Hessa strode inside and began looking for Lavonda and Erudite.
She found them in the fourth room she searched. Lavonda had Erudite lying unconscious on the floor and was writing runes. Surrounding the unconscious ten year old was a large pentagram. From what Hessa could figure out, the pentagram was going to be used in transmodifying Erudite into something else.
"I see you weren't the least fooled by my...diversion." Lavonda remarked.
"Because, unlike you, I am a decent person, I will give you just one chance to get up, leave, and never bother me or my family again." Hessa stated, reigning in her fury.
Lavonda scoffed and replied, "Oh, how nice! You are giving me a chance to live. A chance you never gave Ankhsetha."
Hessa retorted, "Your past self had every chance to leave but decided that killing my true love and I was more than worth ditching that chance."
"Well, I assure you," Lavonda returned, "that this time, you won't be able to walk away unscathed!"
Before Lavonda had a chance to turn back to what she had been doing prior to Hessa's interruption, the half demoness pulled her up by her hair. Lavonda cried out in pain. Hessa gripped the tresses in her hand and punched her captive with her other. Blood immediately spurted from Lavonda's nose.
In retaliation, Lavonda clawed at the hand gripping her hair. Another punch broke the cartilage of Lavonda's nose. The human woman almost sobbed from the break. A third punch landed directly on Lavonda's right eye, most possibly creating permanent damage to the optic nerve that lies within the eyeball itself.
Hessa hesitated when she heard Lavonda whimper. A look at her handiwork brought her back to her senses. Before her, the bloodied face of Ankhsetha's reincarnation stood against her ire. Hessa sighed and released her hold on Lavonda's hair.
If you know what's good for you, you'll take this chance to go your way and live." Hessa suggested, an apathetic tone hiding her pity perfectly.
"What's wrong freak? Morals getting to you? Human emotions like guilt are wasted on an aberration like you. You are nothing but a half breed, a freakshow, a malformed monster!" Lavonda declared, despite the intense pain she was in.
Hessa had started looking over her son by this point. As her ears and mind processed Lavonda's words, she straightened her posture while kneeling. For as long as she lived, Hessa would never allow anyone to know just how much being called those things cut her inside. Hessa had secretly been ashamed of her heritage for all seven hundred and forty three years she had been alive.
Just as Hessa was about to respond, she noticed that Lavonda was shaking standing over her. In her hand was a plain, sharp dagger. Hessa's eyes widened; not so much in terror for her own life, but for the life of the child growing within her. Acting on instinct alone, Hessa lunged to her feet and used her claws to pierce Lavonda through the heart.
Lavonda's gasp escaped as a gurgle. She looked up at Hessa as she collapsed to her knees. The dagger in her hand fell as her grip loosened. Only when she could hold herself up no longer did Hessa jerk her hand back.
Hessa watched, impassive, as the light dimmed in Lavonda's eyes. Dead, terrified eyes looked up into Hessa's apathetic ones. One thing Chandrakant had taught her when their father wasn't being overprotective was that, when killing an enemy, it was best not to allow them to see what you really feel. Despite that, Hessa had taken a human life and felt guilty.
Hessa sighed deeply. To avoid Ankhsetha's second reincarnation from coming after her family, she would have to nip the rebirth in the bud. She would have to perform the Putrid Mortus. With a look back to make sure her son was still unconscious, Hessa got started.
As she had described to her mate just days before, the first to get ripped off by Hessa's teeth alone was the corpse's left arm. The right arm soon followed. The process was repeated for the cadaver's legs. Hessa stopped for a moment before quashing her humanity and gnawed through her victim's throat until the body was completely dismembered.
Spitting blood that wasn't hers, Hessa rose to her feet. She wiped her mouth with the back of her left arm. Looking around, she saw a convenient can of gasoline and an already lit candle. Hessa poured the half-full can onto the amputated carcass and tossed the candle onto it.
The gasoline promptly caught fire. Hessa had been careful to pour the fuel just so that there were five different fires conjoined into one. One of the fine rules of the Putrid Mortus was that the body could not be burned as one. To do so would render the curse null and void.
Hessa turned away. She was certain that the fire would burn out on its own. She picked her unconscious son up. With Erudite in her arms, Hessa walked out of the warehouse and headed back to where she had left her husband and the rest of her family.