Disclaimer and Acknowledgment: All persons engaged in sexual activity or otherwise sexualized are over 18.
Thank you to my editor, LiterKnight, for their continued assistance in helping me put out better-polished installments of this series!
My deepest apologies, but there is no sex in this chapter. A travesty, I know. I'll try to make up for it later!
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"Okay, just take it slow and steady," I cautioned, and winced as the hand on my shoulder dug in with sharp claws.
Hae Chung, the kitsune I had rescued several days ago, offered an apologetic smile and eased her death grip. She took an experimental step with her injured leg, appeared to balance for a moment, but, with a cry, her full weight fell back on my shoulder as the limb buckled.
"I'm...I'm sorry," she whispered softly. After a pleading look towards a patiently waiting Cyrilla, the werewolf stepped in and handed her a crutch.
"It's alright, Hae," I said, holding her steady as she put her weight back onto the crutch with a frown. "Dr. Lima said it will take some time to regain use of your leg."
Hae looked sullen as she began to hobble forward, back towards the looming CDC building. Her fox ears were folded low and her many tails drooped. "I need to be strong when they come for us," she muttered. "I want to be able to hold my children when I see them again." She looked back at me. "How long until the fairies rescue us?"
I shared a look with Cyri. "It's the third day," I said. "I imagine we'll find out any hour now."
Hae smiled, reassured, and began the long walk back to the CDC facility, hobbling determinedly all the while.
In the hours after King Oberon's surprise broadcast, Fort McPherson had become a panicked mess, monstrous soldiers alternately celebrating and cursing below ground as human agents and soldiers were driven into rapid crisis meetings and hurried preparations. In the midst of it all, I had been left alone, Elizabeth giving a terse promise to get me back to camp by dinner before rushing off to parts unknown.
I had used the unexpected solitude to come to grips with the rapid-fire revelations that had been thrust upon me. So many unknown factions had plans for the Turned: the Militia, the 'Conclave', this 'Project Tartarus', and now these 'Monstrous Seats.' I had no idea if any of them were even remotely trustworthy. Magical humans, new monsters, old monsters, religious zealots, and secretive government agents, all with different agendas. As far as I saw it, my only agenda was to survive and protect the ones I cared about. Figuring out what the hell was actually going on was a secondary, but no less important interest. It was clear that the government had no idea of the magical underground community, and I rather doubted that the Militia was anything but a reactionary paramilitary force. That left the Conclave and the Seats, the Seats being the one that hasn't tried twice now to enslave me. With all this in mind, I decided to temper my enthusiasm on our imminent 'rescue,' but remain tentatively hopeful.
When a harried-looking Elizabeth had returned hours later, I was hurried back to the prison camp, which unexpectedly was in just as much of a frenzy. There were no electronic devices allowed inside the camp; we had all been stripped of our phones. I was expecting to have to break the news myself to my friends, but as it turned out, two enterprising goblins had been spying on one of the guard towers when the broadcast came through on some of the radios there. The news had spread like wildfire throughout the camp. We had now reached the promised third day, and to say that the mood of my fellow monsters was complicated would be an understatement. Many welcomed the announcement with enthusiasm, but others were much more reserved, wary of what this new threat held for the monsters in the camp.
Before I had been returned to the camp, Elizabeth had given me a furtive kiss and a request. Though I had turned down her offer of participation in Tartarus, she recognized that I still wanted to be useful at the camp, rather than just waiting around. Given that I was already likely to be spending lots of time in the recovery suites with Aqua, she asked that I help guard and assist the other monsters recuperating there. Many of them had been injured in the riot earlier in the week, and more than a few of them had killed or injured soldiers in the process, leaving them in a complicated position. While they needed continued treatment, they were also considered dangerous, and having more soldiers in their rooms was likely to just make the situation worse. Their fuzzy legal situation was only further complicated by the Fae's threat of recompense for imprisonment. That's where I came in.
I, along with Victoria and Cyrilla, have taken up residence in the CDC building these last few days as we assumed unofficial positions as both guards and nurses' assistants for the monsters housed there. It wasn't a job without issues, but it allowed us to be close the Aqua and do some good while the rest of the monsters waited in suspense for how the government would respond to Oberon's threat and offer.
Cyri bumped my shoulder and brought me out of my reverie. She nodded towards the retreating figure of Hae. "Hard to imagine that the poor woman burned half a dozen men alive. She's basically a soccer mom." She wasn't wrong. Hae was a sweetie, but she was...fragile. I shook my head.
"They took her children away from her," I responded. "Really, I'm not all that surprised that she snapped. I might have too in her position." I looked up at the hulking werewolf whose body was most distinctly male, and yet held a woman inside. "And besides, looks can be deceiving."
She chuckled, and the fuzzy ears poking through her hair twitched. "As we know all too well."
We walked in silence for a few moments along the pathways towards the main building, keeping Hae in sight as she led us onwards. The air somehow felt less stifling out here, far from the fences of the camp. The soldiers were inescapable, however, standing guard near any possible egress away from the facility and towards the city or the countryside. Freedom may be coming, but it wasn't here yet. I grimaced. Assuming the government actually accepted the offer.
"How are you doing with that, anyway?"
"Doing with what?" I responded as Cyri looked down at me with furrowed brows.
"Come on, Lilith, I'm not the only one whose sex and gender became a fucking mess after we Turned. You just never really talk about it."
I shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I just sort of...accepted it?" I looked down. Sometimes it was almost easy to forget about the dramatic transformation I had gone through. The overfull chest of my tan shirt jutted out suggestively, appearing to mock my words. No matter what I wore, it always seemed to scream 'suggestive,' to me.
"Don't get me wrong, having tits and a vagina? It's really damn weird." I blushed. "Fun, but weird. And the way people look at me now...like I'm some sort of candy bar they want to unwrap. And then there's the voice and the mannerisms and...I've gotten more hugs from non-romantic partners in the past week than my entire life as a man, you know that? I guess I figured it's just another thing to get used to in this new world. Or hell, maybe I'm actually a gibbering mess on the inside and the only thing keeping me complacent is the fucking demon in my head manipulating me subconsciously." I offered Cyri my best facsimile of a reassuring smile. "But hey, sex is even more amazing now, so I shouldn't really complain about my fraying sanity, right?"
Cyri was not impressed. Her broad features were drawn into a concerned frown, and with a look towards our closing gap away from Hae, she put out an arm and stopped me. "But there's more to it than that, isn't there?"
