Hire an Incubus

28.

'I can't thank you enough for this Lisa.' Adam said quietly from the back of the car.

'Hm.'  was all Lisa said in return. 

She could feel in herself that she had changed. Somewhere between meeting Achilles and the present, she had lost some part of herself that could see the goodness in people. She supposed that it was probably quite sad but for some reason she couldn't feel bad about it because her outlook on life really wasn't what was important right now.

Alison was seated in the passenger seat and Achilles was sitting behind Lisa in the back. Every now and then they would lock eyes in the rear view mirror and he would just look at her as if to say 'Don't worry.'

She took a longer look at him. He looked different from when she had first met him. Then he'd been a different type of attractive, he had had longer hair and less stubble, and there had been a definite coldness about him. Something about him had unsettled her. Now he looked a lot more intimidating from the outside. His hair had been cropped shorter and bore more resemblance to Aster's, he had the beginnings of a short beard and there was a hard look of determination in his eye. However, the unsettling coldness had gone, Lisa felt closer to him than ever.

She probably looked different herself. She imagined there was probably more of a iciness to her now. She probably looked tired too.

They drove mostly in silence apart from an occasional remark from Alison. Achilles directed Lisa in the way of driving to his house. When they pulled up outside the house, Lisa spoke before they had all disembarked from the car.

'Adam. Wait. I need a minute.' 

'Sure. Anything.'

Achilles gave her a pointed look in the mirror before opening the door. 

'I'll just be inside if you need anything, okay?'

'Sure, thanks.' Lisa nodded after him and gripped the steering wheel as she watched him walk into the house with Alison.

'What was it you wanted?' Adam said quietly from the back seat.

'It's been a long time since we've seen each other and I need to tell you a few things.'

'Okay, go ahead.' 

'I wasn't asking permission.' She replied, turning to look at him. 'First of all, I thought you should know, I'm pregnant.'

'I thought you might be. I'm assuming it's his?'

'Bingo.' 

'What was the other things?'

'I'm in love with him. He's in love with me.'

'Naturally.'

'We trust each other. Completely.'

'I'm happy for you.' Lisa noticed he looked down as he said it, sounding sad yet also genuine. 

'So when I ask you this, I hope you know it's not under any pretense that I'm going to use it against him or betray him, okay?'

'Got it, what do you want to know?' He replied earnestly.

'I want you to tell me exactly why he got dismissed and everything that ensued after and why everyone at Hire an Incubus is so scared of him.'

'Well, okay. The real reason he got dismissed was because he got that human girl pregnant. We were told it was because he enthralled her, with the intention of completely controlling her. I didn't know that they actually were just in a relationship and she got pregnant. Then Damian freaked out, I still don't know why, and demanded that Achilles be brought to him right away. Then Achilles ended up in Hercules, escaped and then came for Damian, to try and find out what happened to the girl - but it was too late. Damian then tried to exorcise Achilles and ended up sending him to Hell. Then we didn't hear from him for a long time. Then our agents started showing up dead, so we figured he must've come back, so the message got sent out to you, and he came back.'