Free Web NovelChapter 46: Chapter 45: TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
SATURDAY MORNING - THE DAY AFTER TRANSFORMATION
Eve woke slowly, her body feeling different in ways she couldn’t quite articulate.
Everything was sharper. Clearer. More.
She could hear Damian’s heartbeat from across the room where he stood looking out the window. Could smell Damon’s unique scent....leather and gunpowder and wild forests....even though he was in the bathroom. Could feel Silas’s presence downstairs through the bond, a warm constant connection that told her exactly where he was and what he was feeling.
And she was hungry.
Not desperately, not the overwhelming starvation from last night. But there was a low, constant pull....a need for sexual energy that hummed beneath her skin like a second heartbeat.
"You’re awake," Damian said without turning around. "I can feel you through the bond."
"I can feel you too," Eve said, sitting up. The silk sheets felt like heaven against her now-hypersensitive skin. "All three of you. It’s like having a constant awareness of where you are, what you’re feeling."
"It’s the same for us," Damian turned to face her, and Eve’s breath caught.
God, he was beautiful. She’d always known he was attractive....all three brothers were devastatingly handsome....but now, with her succubus senses fully awakened, she could see the energy radiating from him. Life force and sexual energy and pure masculine power that called to her nature like a beacon.
"You’re looking at me like you want to eat me," Damian observed, a hint of amusement in his voice.
"I do," Eve admitted. "Is it always going to be like this? This constant awareness of sexual energy? This hunger?"
"Dr. Thorne said it would settle as you adjust to your nature," Damian said, moving to sit on the bed beside her. "But yes, you’ll always be aware of it. Always need to feed regularly. It’s part of what you are now."
Eve looked down at her hands....at the elegant claws that tipped her fingers, retracted now but ready to extend at will. "I’m not human anymore."
"No," Damian agreed. "You’re not. Does that bother you?"
"I don’t know," Eve said honestly. "Yesterday I was human. Today I’m a succubus. A creature that feeds on sexual energy. It’s a lot to process."
"You’re still you," Damian insisted, tilting her face up to meet his eyes. "Still the woman who fought to survive thirty hours of agony. Still the woman who held back a transformation through sheer will. Still the woman we love. The rest is just... details."
"Important details," Eve countered. "Like the fact that I might be supernatural royalty with enemies who want me dead."
"Which we’ll deal with," Damian said firmly. "Together. But first...." He stood, pulling her to her feet. "First you need to feed. You’re hungry. I can feel it through the bond."
"I fed last night," Eve protested weakly, even as her body responded to his proximity.
"Last night you were starving after holding back for over thirty hours," Damian corrected. "Today you need maintenance feeding. Dr. Thorne said daily, possibly multiple times. So we feed you. Then we shower, eat actual food, and go see your mother like you planned."
"My mother," Eve’s stomach twisted with anxiety. "How do I tell her? How do I explain what I’ve become?"
"Honestly," Damian said. "She’s your mother. She loves you. She’ll accept you no matter what."
Eve hoped he was right.
********************
SATURDAY, 10:00 AM - MEMORIAL GENERAL HOSPITAL
The drive to the hospital was tense.
Eve sat between Silas and Damon in the back seat, Damian driving, and tried to figure out what she was going to say. How did you explain to your dying mother that you’d never been human? That you were a succubus? That everything she’d believed about her daughter was a lie?
"Your pheromones are spiking," Silas observed quietly. "You’re anxious. Try to control them before we get inside....you’ll cause chaos if you walk through that hospital broadcasting at full strength."
Eve focused, trying to pull the pheromones back, to contain the aura of sexuality that naturally radiated from her now. It was like trying to hold water in cupped hands....possible, but requiring constant concentration.
"Better," Silas said. "Not perfect, but manageable. Just....try not to interact with too many people. And definitely don’t make eye contact with human males. Your eyes alone could enthrall someone if you’re not careful."
"Enthrall?" Eve asked, alarmed.
"Succubi have natural enthrallment abilities," Silas explained. "Usually it requires intent, but newly transformed succubi sometimes do it accidentally, especially during moments of strong emotion. So....avoid eye contact, keep your pheromones contained, and don’t touch anyone except us or your mother."
"This is terrifying," Eve muttered.
"You’ll get better at controlling it," Damon assured her. "It’s only been twelve hours since your transformation. Give yourself time to adjust."
They parked and made their way into the hospital. Eve kept her eyes down, her pheromones tightly controlled, acutely aware of every person they passed. Even with her supernatural senses contained, she could feel their life force, their sexual energy. It was like walking through a buffet while starving....tempting and overwhelming in equal measure.
"Room 3847," Damian reminded her, his hand steady on her lower back.
They took the elevator in silence, Eve’s anxiety ratcheting higher with each passing floor. What if her mother was too weak for this conversation? What if the truth was too much for her to handle? What if.....
"Stop spiraling," Silas said quietly. "Your mother is strong. She can handle this."
They reached the room. Through the window, Eve could see Margaret propped up in bed, looking frailer than she had just days ago. The treatment adjustments hadn’t worked. Her mother was dying faster than anyone had anticipated.
"Do you want us to wait outside?" Damian asked.
Eve shook her head. "No. I need you there. All of you."
They entered together.
Margaret’s face lit up when she saw Eve, but her expression quickly shifted to confusion as she took in the changes. Eve’s eyes, still glowing faintly amber. Her hair with its new gold streaks. The way she moved with supernatural grace.
"Eve?" Margaret’s voice was uncertain. "What happened to you? You look....different."
Eve pulled a chair close to the bed, the brothers positioning themselves protectively around her. "Mom, I need to tell you something. It’s going to sound crazy, but I need you to listen. All the way through. Can you do that?"
Margaret’s expression shifted to concern. "Of course, sweetheart. What is it?" ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
Eve took a deep breath. "I’m not human. I never was. I’m a succubus Mom, A supernatural being. I was bound as an infant, had my nature suppressed with magic. The binding spell broke last night. I transformed. This...." She gestured to herself, to her glowing eyes and changed appearance. "This is what I really am."
Silence.
Margaret stared at her daughter, her expression unreadable. Then, incredibly, tears began sliding down her weathered cheeks.
"You remember," she whispered. "Oh God, you remember."
Eve blinked in confusion. "Remember what?"
"What you are. Where you came from." Margaret reached for Eve’s hand with trembling fingers. "I’ve been waiting twenty-three years for this day.
Dreading it and hoping for it in equal measure."
"You knew?" Eve’s voice cracked. "You knew what I was?"
"Not at first," Margaret said. "When I found you, you looked human. A tiny baby left on my doorstep in a basket, wrapped in blankets so fine they must have cost a fortune. There was a note....just two words: ’Keep her safe.’"
Eve’s heart was pounding. "You found me? I was....I’m not even your biological daughter?"
"No, sweetheart. You’re not. I found you on a winter night twenty-three years ago. I was young, alone, desperate for a child I could never have naturally. And there you were....a miracle. A gift. I took you in without question." Margaret’s grip tightened. "But as you grew, I realized you weren’t quite human. The way you looked at people sometimes, like you could see right through them. The way men were drawn to you, even as a child, in ways that weren’t natural. I knew something was different. Special."
"Why didn’t you tell me?" Eve asked, tears streaming down her face now.
"Because the note said to keep you safe," Margaret said simply. "And I thought maybe keeping you ignorant of your nature was how I kept you safe. I thought maybe if you never knew, you could just be my daughter. Just be human. Just be safe."
"Do you know who left me?" Eve demanded. "Who my real parents are?"
Margaret hesitated. "I don’t know for certain. But I think....I think they were important. Powerful. There was something else with you, in the basket. A locked box with a seal I didn’t recognize. I’ve kept it hidden all these years, waiting for the day you’d transform and I could give it to you."
"You have a box?" Damian asked sharply. "With a seal? What kind of seal?"
"I’ll show you," Margaret said. "Your grandmother....she kept it for me. When she died last year, she made me promise to give it to you when the time was right. It’s at the house. Hidden in her old room. Behind the false panel in the closet."
Eve’s mind was reeling. A box. A seal. Evidence of her real parents. "What’s in it?"
"I don’t know," Margaret admitted. "It’s locked with magic. I could never open it. I think....I think only you can open it. Only you, with your true nature revealed."
"We need to get that box," Silas said immediately. "Today. Now."
"I’m dying," Margaret said bluntly, looking at Eve with clear eyes. "The doctors won’t say it directly, but I can feel it. Days, maybe a week at most. I need to tell you everything I know before I run out of time."
"Mom...." Eve started, but Margaret shook her head.
"Let me talk. I need to tell you this." She took a shaky breath. "When you were five, a man came to the house. He was beautiful...inhumanly beautiful....and he asked to see you. I refused. He told me you were in danger, that people were looking for you, that I needed to keep you hidden. He put something on you....touched your forehead.....and you stopped glowing."
"I glowed?" Eve asked.
"As a child, sometimes your skin would shimmer with golden light," Margaret explained. "Usually when you were happy or excited. After that man touched you, it never happened again. I think....I think he reinforced the binding spell. Made it stronger. Kept you hidden for longer."
"What did he look like?" Damian asked, his voice sharp.
"Tall. Dark hair. Eyes that changed color depending on the light....sometimes blue, sometimes gold, sometimes silver. He had an accent I couldn’t place. And he moved like....like water. Like gravity didn’t quite apply to him the same way it did to everyone else."
"Supernatural," Silas said. "Definitely supernatural. Possibly another succubus if he could reinforce the binding."
"He said one more thing before he left," Margaret continued. "He said, ’When she awakens, give her the box. It will tell her everything she needs to know. And tell her we’re sorry. Tell her we never wanted to leave her, but we had no choice. Tell her we loved her more than our own lives.’"
Eve was sobbing openly now, the brothers surrounding her with their presence and strength through the bond.
"Your real parents loved you," Margaret said gently. "But they couldn’t keep you safe. So they gave you to me. And I loved you like you were my own. Because you were my own. Are my own. Biology doesn’t make a mother. Love does."
"You’re my mom," Eve said through her tears. "You’ll always be my mom. But I need to know where I came from. Who I really am."
"I know," Margaret said. "That’s why I’m telling you everything now. Go to the house. Get the box. Learn the truth. And Eve...." She pulled her daughter close, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"Whatever you find out, whatever you discover about your past....you’re still my daughter. Still the little girl I rocked to sleep every night. Still the brave woman who’s fighting for her life. Nothing changes that. Nothing."
"I love you," Eve whispered.
"I love you too, sweetheart. So much." Margaret’s eyes were already closing, exhausted from the conversation. "Now go. Get the box. Find out who you really are."
