First Demonic Dragon - Chapter 1114: Into The Thick of It
Chapter 1114: Into The Thick of It
“….”
Odessa stared at her father for a curiously long time without even bothering to blink.
Abaddon loomed over her ominously like a great big monster. Yet, she was unafraid.
Abaddon turned his heads in every direction skeptically.
After making sure the coast was clear, he turned to his daughter and hissed at her fearsomely.
Odie didn’t flinch.
After Courtney and Bashenga had similar reactions during their childhood, Abaddon should have known to expect this, even if it did sting his pride a little bit.
It wasn’t that he necessarily wanted to scare his children, but he was so accustomed to being a symbol of dread and terror that he had begun to question whether something was wrong with his kids’ development. Maybe they didn’t process fear?
Courtney was the biggest reason for this theory… what five-year-old can recite the entire script from ‘Children of the Corn’ scene by scene?
But Odessa was an otherwise normal human aside from the special way she communicated.
…At least he thought so.
“You’re gonna be a real hit at Halloween, huh?” Abaddon whistled.
At the mention of the holiday, Odessa held up her hands and jumped out at her father while making her own hissing imitation.
Abaddon started to tell Odie that the only thing scary about her was how dirty she got from playing outside.
But then she put more effort into her scare.
The shadow behind her rose up and shapeshifted into the form of a humanoid winged creature.
Abaddon would not exactly call it a dragon. It was a lot of things, honestly.
But above all, it was certainly not something he would expect his cute daughter to be carrying in her shadow.
When she was done, her shadow went right back to where it came from and Odie developed a proud look.
It was probably because of how taken aback Abaddon seemed. Ten separate faces and all of them were now wearing the exact same facial expression.
“…So what I’m hearing is you don’t need a costume?”
‘Want costume!’
“After what you’ve shown me you don’t even need it.”
‘Costume please…’ Odie held out her hand.
Abaddon thought his child was getting too smart for her britches. She had begun to think that adding a cute ‘please’ onto the back of her requests was a guaranteed way to get her whatever she wanted.
She was only right some of the time.
“…I think you’ll make a very cute princess.”
‘Obviously. Wanna be an astronaut!’
Abaddon pictured his daughter in a spacesuit. She would practically be a fluffy, white marshmallow with puffy cheeks and a button nose.
“Okay, fine… as long as you let dad take lots of pictures to put on DragonBook.”
Odie held up her thumb in agreement.
Abaddon used one of his heads to glance behind him at K’ael, who had been relatively quiet as he tried to accomplish the goal of seeing inside of a wall-socket.
“What about you, son? Got anything you want to be for Halloween?”
K’ael looked back at his father in confusion. Abaddon had forgotten that he was too young to know what he meant.
“It’s a holiday where you dress up and go to people’s houses, then they give you candy.”
‘Give you candy’ was basically all K’ael heard. He forgot all about his wall socket and crawled up to his father impatiently.
The door to the kids’ room swung open and Audrina walked inside with Erica close behind.
“Perfect timing.” Abaddon turned to Audrina and lifted Odie by her waist. “Are you sure you didn’t push this one out instead of Lillian?”
Audrina ran her fingers through Odie’s hair. “I’m fairly certain the honor wasn’t mine. Why the confusion?”
“Your baby is doing freaky shadow stuff.”
Odie looked back at her father accusatorially.
“…But it’s very cute nonetheless.”
Odessa turned back around.
Audrina’s purple skin glittered underneath the daylight streaming into the room.
Abaddon thought she looked particularly beautiful today for some reason.
She kneeled in front of Odessa and took her plump cheeks into both hands.
“Well, you know our baby here is special. I’m sure I had something to do with her talents, I just wish I knew exactly what I did so that I could take more credit for it.”
Abaddon thought that was the most Audrina-like thing he had ever heard this woman say.
“Lillian gave up everything she had for Odessa to live.” Erica reminded. “Even the girl’s rightful heritage and powers. But all of that energy and divinity didn’t just go anywhere. Her shadow is the only thing that keeps her holding onto what’s rightfully hers.”
Abaddon knew that already, but he still had questions.
Just how much power was in Odie’s shadow? Would she ever be able to use it freely, or would she be relegated to only giving commands?
But the biggest question of all was- is Odie’s shadow a mindless extension of her, or was it an entity that would eventually develop its own psyche?
Alter egos are sometimes troubling. And no one knew that better than Abaddon.
“…Should we be trying to put the two of them back together?”
Audrina and Erica didn’t look particularly alarmed by Abaddon’s pondering and shrugged in response.
“I don’t really see the need. Let’s not make it a thing until it becomes a thing.”
Audrina lifted up her daughter above her head and smiled.
“Right now, we have the cutest little baby that has ever existed. She’s perfect from head to toe and I wouldn’t change a thing. Besides, she won’t need her powers to fight because Mommy will knock down anyone who comes within ten feet of you. Isn’t that right, baby?”
Odessa threw out a series of punches in response.
Abaddon suddenly felt much less anxious. His wives were right. Odie was perfect just the way she was.
“If you’re interested in solving mysteries, maybe you can help us with one.”
Erica crawled in between Abaddon’s coils and made herself deeply comfortable.
“I don’t know why either of you are so physically blessed. It is the only one of god’s mysteries that still eludes me-”
“No.” Erica paced her hands over her husband’s snout to keep it closed.
“Well, I’m also curious.” Audrina lifted up Erica’s gown and stared between her legs. “I never knew miracles could be so decadent.”
‘Amen.’ Abaddon nodded.
Erica brought an exhausted hand to her brow. “Guys. Kids are right here.”
“Yeah, but they don’t understand us yet, so that means we still get to enjoy the fun of saying whatever we want around them.” Audrina beamed.
“And what do we do when they’re older, and traumatized because they can recall their childhoods with perfect clarity?”
“Laugh just like we did with the first twelve?” Abaddon offered.
Audrina nodded. “I like that plan.”
“I thought you would.”
Abaddon and Audrina started to kiss, but Erica held her hand up between their lips.
“Again, no.”
“”Tch.””
“I’m talking about the bat in the basement. What are we going to do with him?”
“Camazotz? Just brush him a little bit and maybe give him a bath. I’m sure he’ll perk then.” Abaddon nodded.
Erica grabbed her husband’s center head by the horns and shook him. “DAGON. The father-in-law we’re keeping prisoner!”
“Oh…shoot him into a sun or something.”
Audrina placed a hand over her breasts, touched. “Oh, honey… that’s what I said!”
“Great minds think alike, darling.”
“Aww, come here.” Audrina reached for Abaddon again.
Just like before, Erica placed her body between the two lovers before they could lock lips.
“We cannot just fire Dagon into space.”
“”Why not??””
“Because Isabelle still seems attached to him!”
That single revelation caused Audrina to freeze up.
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t noticed.
Every day, Isabelle went to feed their father without being asked.
Granted, she only gave him small amounts of rat blood, but still… the fact that she gave him anything at all was a testament to the fact that she still held some level of sympathy for him.
Audrina had been telling herself that her sister was torturing their father by making a high-class vampire drink rodent blood. But she knew that Isabelle wasn’t that malicious. She was good and pure.
She was still hoping that her kindness would be able to chip away at Dagon’s rocky, ugly exterior.
“That girl… she’s a big believer that love can drown out hate. I think my mother read us too many princess stories.” Audrina laughed nervously.
Compared to Isabelle, she was far more cynical.
She didn’t really believe you could weather down hate with love. She thought it had to be surgically removed to be fixed.
“I know you don’t want to do anything to hurt your sister. Not when the two of you are just getting close. But-”
“I know, I’m not comfortable with him staying down there forever either. I’ll think of something.”
“…No rush.” Erica said softly.
Audrina smiled softly at her. She could tell her love was trying to be comforting.
She also crawled on top of her husband and made herself comfortable. For a while, the three of them sat together in silence while they watched the kids play with their toys.
It wasn’t long until the wives started to become drowsy, but they closed their eyes as they held hands.
“By the way… Ayaana wouldn’t have happened to have shared with the two of you Hastur’s location, would she?” Abaddon suddenly asked.
“”She did.”” The girls replied with closed eyes.
Audrina yawned. “We’re not supposed to tell you though unless you’ve had something to drink or a cigar.”
“Why…?”
“She’s pretty sure you’ll freak out.”
“Why would I do that?”
Erica let out a yawn of her own as she pulled a blanket over herself and Audrina.
*Yawn* “She’s 90 percent sure he’s in Dola…”
