Acrasia

Deceit.

           I walk briskly beside my father. Our strides full of arrogance and purpose as we prepare the large house for our dangerous guests. Yeomorah will likely bring an entourage to accompany him. I keep replaying his words in my mind. She isn't in fantastic health. She might not ne able to stand. My temper rises as I imagine him hurting her, all her delicious blood seeping onto the floor just wasted. I wonder if she cried for me? If she knows that I'm going to bring her home? Has Yeomorah told her that she will be here today?

          Much of our extended family and family friends have flocked here to assist my father. They are none friends of mine. I stay in my thoughts as I pass them with my chin high, not addressing them. Seraphine's lineage was a dead end. According to what we traced from her father, Samael had no mate or child. Being reclusive and a whore, he had a long list of lovers but no personal information really. No sightings of him with a child or buying for one. The man had a hated of children, and other men. In short, if he couldn't eat from it or fondle it, he despised it. Samael is full blood incubus. Her mother, and Seraphine honestly, might as well not exist. Both are untraceable. When I had contacted Samael, he at first vehemently denied Seraphine. Once I had given him my name and my father's title, he immediately claimed the girl and offered to help me find her. Seemingly excited to throw the child he neglected at me, likely to boost their families' name.

          Mother sat with Axar, coaxing him to relax. He has been pent up and anxious since Sera's departure. She hasn't called me out yet, but she has sent me haughty looks of disappointment. She knows I performed some sort of stunt, and I find it difficult to meet her all knowing eyes.  Axar is in his outfit that Sera got him again, mother managed to have it washed while he showered the night before. He is the guardian of the burdensome fish now. He rains fish food down on the pitiful thing like a monsoon. It now resides in his bedroom, so I don't have to look at it thankfully.

         I've remained on high alert all morning. Something is going to happen. I can sense it. He was too hesitant earlier about bringing Sera here. He was supposed to already be here, and now he's late. I turn to father who has already taken the initiative to contact him.

        "Yeomorah, we're expecting you. Is there a problem?" My father interrogates. He has a point, while Yeomorah loves mind games, he is never late. Asmodeus has beat into the minds of his relatives the importance of one's word.

          "Yes. Which one of you miserable bastards had me ambushed?"

          "What do you accuse us of?" I bellow out before father can speak. "We have done nothing save for waste time waiting for you only to hear lousy excuses. Where is Seraphine? Why are you not here?"

           "I've given no excuses, frankly having your bitch and the upper hand, I do not need to. Seraphine is missing. We've had two entities enter our territory here, and I do believe they are responsible for her disappearance. First a woman distracts and attacks my men in the halls, then a man outside managed to evade us and dissapeared with Seraphine." A man has Seraphine?

           "I'll be there in twenty minutes to assist you in finding her."

           "That's not necessary. I'll find her by evening, and I will meet you there with her. I'm still interested in making a deal." He doesn't want me there. Why? Perhaps I am paranoid, but I know when I've been deceived. I highly doubt he is telling the truth in it's entirety.

           "Thank you, Yeomorah. Should you need any help in finding her let us know." Father interjects.

             I storm off upstairs to the balcony outside my bedroom.  I sit there for some time just staring down at the grass below. It's the unknown aspects that are killing me. I plot, I manipulate, I judge the odds. I like to know, like my grandfather I too love knowledge. I like to have a feel for where things are going, a sense of direction, even a simple clue. At the moment I have nothing. I only know a powerful, shady demon royal lost my Seraphine. I know that Sera was injured. I don't even know that he was being honest about her being kidnapped by two strangers. For all that I know, she is dead. I have heard takes of how quickly he goes through his feeding slaves, pets.

        If he had tasted Seraphine I've no doubt he would have drained her dry. He doesn't need to feed as we incubi do, he has no use for absorbing energies, but he loves to relish in fear and blood. His kind can drink blood, and feed on souls and flesh. Energy is more of a drug to then than food, as instead of nourishment it only brings them a minute thrill. It only feeds their ego. They do however, love to be fed from. It is said that royal blood among demons can kill those who drink it, but intoxicate those entities in small doses. It also can temporarily heighten abilities, resulting in higher sex drive for those succubi or incubi feeding from them. Even their energy can give as temporary boost. Which is why demons love being fed from. They love knowing that they can be pleasured for hours, their partner will be drugged with desire to keep feeding and will draw out as much lustful energy as they can. They better not have fed Seraphine. With her lack of knowledge and control she might have relented. Just the thought of her fevered with bloodlust and writhing beneath Yeomorah as she hungrily sucks at his throat for sustenance only darkens my mood further.

          I turn back to the grass, halting as I was about to step back inside. I hear commotion and see bodies emerge from the sparse woodline. I set my jaw, tensed, until I realize who I am looking at. From my perch in the balcony, I have a bird's eye view of of Samael struggling to maintain control of a wild Seraphine. Her body is bare, her hair a mess. Even her body appears to be bruised and marred. Samael is having trouble fending her off and trying to hold her at once. I don't hesitate to jump from the balcony and dash towards them to offer my assistance. Seraphine uses Samael's surprise to throw him off balance, twisting his arm from her roughly, as she runs the opposite direction. 

        Seraphine is fast, but still injured. She doesn't have the speed that she had the day she escaped me on the highway. We pursue her from different sides, and I stalk a bit longer than I should to admire the view of the body I have missed for the past few days. Her father makes the first move, launching into her path and trying to catch her around her waist. She dives forward away from him, unsteadily, and begins to weave around trees. I sneak closer while she's focused on him. He moves to attack once again, and I join him. I take her legs from under her while he twists her arm, pulling it in towards his body. Sera spins and lands with her upper half face down at Samael's feet, her keeps tweaking her arm as she whimpers.

        I do not expect the scream that leaves her mouth to rattle the trees around us, nor to temporarily incapacitate us. She launches herself back up to run again, but even in my daze I am able to move quickly enough to tackle her. She bucks and fights beneath me, Samael steps over and snatches her legs to still them. I raise my fist for a merciless blow to her temple. She falls slack into the earth below her, body limp and manageable now. I raise and roll her over, thrusting her up and over my shoulder. Samael flanks me, watching as we approach the house.

       "You'll want to get in quickly, and to keep a tight security." He says as he patrols the perimeter with a stern gaze.

       "Yeomorah?"

       "Likely. The biggest threat right now is her mother. You cannot let her have Sera."

       "Why deny her her own mother?"

        "Seraphine should never have been born. She is a mistake in our bloodline. Her mother wishes to legitimize her, in both of our families. Her mother's father is ill. He has lived more than several lifetimes for their kind, and now he wishes to prolong his life. Seraphine is key to that. Ezekiel is not a good man, he has long fallen from his God. He is a fallen angel. He conceived Ivara with a human woman. He has conceived several other children over centuries, and ever so often he calls on one to sacrifice a child in his name. The last couple didn't heal him. Nothing happened. Seraphine's brother was spared, Ezekiel would not take Ivara's only son. Instead he recently asked for her only daughter. Seraphine is a nephilim-succubus hybrid. Only one quarter human. Ezekiel believes that her succubus blood will allow him to absorb energy to stay youthful and alive instead of sacrifices. He is willing to claim the little mongrel, and put her on a pedestal until her sacrifice. He has brainwashed her mother into thinking that she will be honored as well and that he will shower her with praises and gifts."

         "Since you despise Seraphine so much, why didn't you just surrender her?"

         "Why would I let her win? Why should I relinquish my daughter for her to use to better her father? That man is despicable. If anybody is using my daughter it's going to be me."

        "You're claiming her?" I quirk a brow as we stride through the door.

        "I am now, son."