Chapter 8: Dreams

Upon falling asleep, I wasn't enveloped in colors. Instead, a nightmare played out before my eyes. I was living the night I died all over again. The fear and anger consumed me. Seeing his face, enraged me to no end. The burning sensation consumed me once more. I was almost engulfed in it until I felt a hand on my shoulder and a soft voice calling my name. I opened my eyes and my vision was blurry. There was a figure over me. I grabbed the arm and threw it away from me. I heard a loud thump and upon sitting up, I was back in the cottage and heard a groan come from the corner. "Shit Mia, you should not have that kind of power yet" Balthazar said standing and dusting off his pants. Realizing what I did, my eyes became huge and I rushed to help him up. "I am SO SORRY" I blurted. "Great job Mia." Lamia chimed in chuckling. I rolled my eyes at her comment. "First you throw me, and then you roll your eyes at me after putting a huge hole in my wall? Unbelievable!" "No I was rolling them at my demon pair! Not you!" I torted quickly. Balthazar stiffened at my words. "What? What'd I do?" I asked. His mood shifted quickly. "You retained your humanity?" he asked with a look of utter confusionand a harsh tone. "Yes I did. Why do you seem so uptight about it?". "Mia, how many people are in your body right now?" "Me and my demon pair Lamia." "And who has control of the vessel?" "I do. I give Lamia control when it's needed. Why? What's wrong?" "You Mia. You are wrong." My heart broke at his words. My stomach knotted and I wasn't sure how to react. Lamia was quiet. I think she had sensed from the beginning that the way it went, was not the way it was supposed to work and speaking with Balthazar that assumption was correct. "Why is that wrong?" I asked. "Mia," he paused and let out a heavy breath before continuing, "During transition, your soul was supposed to be burned away leaving Lamia in your body and your soul passed on." I argued "But Lilith said some souls survive the transition in her lineage" "Mia, Lilith lied. She's the mother of all deceit. You were never supposed to remain." Now what Lilith said made sense. I was hiding power somewhere and where that somewhere was, I had no clue. "If Lucifer finds out your soul remained, he will take you as his bride. He will not pass up the opportunity to let a human soul leave him again. Much less a human soul living in an immortal body." He glared at me with a serious face. Those piercing green eyes staring back at me. "Balthazar, from what I gathered, Lucifer loved Eve." Standing and putting his hands in his pockets, Balthazar stared at the ground. "And just where do you think Eve's soul went after she died Mia?" "I don't know Heaven?" "Exactly and Lucifer can't step foot there." The realization set in on both me and Lamia suddenly. "Lamia wants to know if she's going to be trapped with me forever." "I don't know." He replied sitting on the edge of the bed and dropping his face in his hands. "Mia, I may be a demon, but for your safety, you need to stay close to me. Demons aren't all bad and some us took these forms after the pain caused during our human lives. You cannot let anyone know about your demon pair. From now on, you and Lamia are one person. " "I understand B." He turned and looked at me sideways asking "B? What's that?". "It's a nickname. Balthazar is so formal don't you think?" "Yea, B it is then.". We sat in silence for a long time. Even Lamia was quiet. "Lilith knows B." He was quiet for a few more minutes before he spoke in a solemn tone "With what I know about Lilith and Lucifer, she's probably going to hand you over to him once you reach your peak power. They go back millenia together" "Have you met Lucifer before?" curiosity getting the best of me. "Yes Mia and he is creulest person that I have ever known.". After more solemn silence Lamia decided to add a comment "What a mood killer this one is. I take back what I said about wanting to make cambions with him". out loud I asked "What even is a cambion?" and dropped my face in my hands. B not skipping a beat "A cambion is a demon child or a half human- half demon child why?". My face paled and internally I heard Lamia laughing. Two can play at that game I thought. "We'll B when we first saw you last night, that was the first comment that came from Lamia and just now she took it back. Said you were a bore." Lamia instantly stopped laughing. "Can you let Lamia come forward?" I did as he asked and Lamia's black eyes came forward. "Lamia?" he stated, "Yes Balthazar?" "You know as well as I do that regardless your status or power unless you're Lilith, an incubus always outranks a succubus. Just because I cannot hear you, does not give you the right to smear my name and make harlot comments." Lamia bowed out. The confident demon pair I bonded with shivered at his words. "I understand Balthazar" "Now Mia please come back forward." that was no issue at all seeming as Lamia cowered into the farthest space occupiable in my mind. "So.... What do we do now?" I asked noticing dusk making it appearance. "I have to feed tonight. You're more than welcome to come along." "Of course" I blurted out without thinking, "I wouldn't miss that opportunity! How do you pick your souls?" B looked at me pinching his eyebrows together. "Mia, the ladies choose me. Regardless of who they are, I feed." A knot formed in the pit of my stomach. I don't know if I could stand by while an innocent was being eaten. "Don't interfere" Lamia said. "He will kill you.". With that B stood up and took off upstairs and started getting dressed. Once again, Lamia took over shifting my body and changing me into another beautiful body. She left my face this time but extended my hair and changed my makeup. "Thank you Lamia." I spoke internally. She then retreated again leaving only me and my thoughts. B came downstairs and did a double take. "You succubus and your shifting abilities are insane." "What can you not shift?" "We can shift once after transition and thats it. We're stuck in the body we choose." "Well that sucks for you" I replied and he cracked a half smile. "Shall we go now?" he asked. "Show me the wild incubus in its natural habitat" I said in a very poor new Zealand accent. B chuckled and out the door we went.