Gryphon's Glenn

Chapter Twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE

Manny was restless. Something had sent his energy into a frenzy, and he hadn't fed recently enough. He was still weak from giving Luna the energy to save Jamie.

It was worth it, he thought. Jamie was one of the only people Manny still considered to be a close friend. They had been part of his life before he'd lost everything, and they hadn't let Manny push them away after his brothers were gone. If he'd lost Jamie, he wasn't sure he would have handled it.

A knock on his door demanded his attention. He opened the door, not sure what to expect. What he saw was a powerful young woman who radiated magic he'd never felt before. Her eyes fell to his abs appreciatively, but unlike most people, she had no trouble looking away. That was intriguing enough to make him let her into the room before closing the door.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

"I'm Lillith," she explained.

Manny nodded in recognition. "Luna told me about you and your friends. We appreciate you coming to help us out. What can I do for you?"

"Manny... I know you're not alright."

He studied her. It felt like she could read him, which made him uncomfortable. "I'm fine," he lied.

"Your energy is in chaos. I happen to know why that is."

"Oh, really? Would you care to share?" He asked with an arched eyebrow.

She sighed. "I'm going to bring something up that you don't want to talk about," she said.

"Go ahead. If I don't want to discuss it, I won't."

"Did Luna tell you we found out who the traitors are?"

"She did."

"Well, we figured out what Doe did. She resurrected someone... Isaiah."

Manny stared at her. "Isaiah is alive?" He repeated.

"Yes, but it's just his body... Isaiah is very weak. I think I sense him, but he's just barely holding on, and the thing in his body is trying to absorb the little bit that's left of him. Still, he's fighting..."

"What can we do?" He asked urgently.

"For now, Isaiah's body is trapped in a pocket realm... The entity possessing him is an incubus, Manny. A powerful incubus who should be dead."

No, he thought. This isn't happening. I killed him. He remained silent.

"Your brothers were your half-siblings, weren't they? That's why you're the only one who is an incubus. The man who raised you-"

"Was my father," Manny said firmly. "Blood tie or not."

Lillith nodded. "Of course he was. I'm sorry. But this incubus was your biological father."

"My brothers never knew. He took my father's form to attack my mother," Manny admitted. "He would have killed her, but I somehow stopped it... I still don't really understand how I protected her when I had barely been conceived, but she survived. She figured out the truth and told my father, but he accepted me anyway. He loved me. He didn't care where I came from."

"I know you killed him, Manny... He told me you banished him before. What happened?"

Manny considered lying, but he suspected it was pointless. For some reason, he felt like he could trust Lillith. He sighed. "I met him when I was six years old. He appeared to me in my dreams, which is an easy way for an incubus to get to someone they can't reach physically. He told me who he was, and that was when he..." He looked away from her. "He triggered my powers."