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!
-00000-
"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?"
I sighed. "Not that really matters, no."
"You can talk to me, Lilith." Her face reddened slightly. "I know I'm not Victoria, or even Aqua, but...I'm here for you. For whatever you need. You don't have to act tough like you do for the others." Her dark eyes searched mine.
I reached out and grabbed ahold of the arm that was blocking my way, running my fingers down towards its rough palm. I knew that she shaved every morning to try to contain the masculine body hair, but her muscled forearm was already dark with stubble. I grabbed her hand between mine and looked up at her intensely.
"Except I do have to act tough, Cyri," I felt my voice rising slightly and the werewolf blinked as I rounded on her. "Because deep down, I'm still Charles fucking Finch, a history teacher for overprivileged brats who lived a quiet, sheltered, sexless life with a woman I loved more than anything in the world. And that woman threw me away like a piece of garbage because I turned into some kind of hermaphroditic freak! And to deal with the pain of that rejection and the confusion of a world rapidly falling apart, I took on this persona, became 'Lilith,' this sexy, confident, feminine badass who for some reason everyone looks to solve their problems!"
At this point I was practically yelling, Cyri's trembling hand crushed in my desperate grip. "And if I don't keep it up, I might remember that I butchered half a dozen people! I might become absolutely terrified that an ancient monster lives in my head and wants me to either fuck or enslave every person I meet." I felt the corners of my eyes grow wet and I looked away from the terribly pitying look in Cyrilla's eyes. "I wake up every morning confused and alarmed, because I don't feel right. It feels like I don't fit in my own skin. I mean, look at these!" I roughly squeezed my breasts through my shirt, and now Cyri looked away with a blush. "They're just absurd! And that's not even going into the madness between my legs, trust me on that one!" I breathed heavily and tried to ignore the curious looks my outburst had attracted from the nearby guards.
"I have to be okay with who I am now," I whispered, "because if I'm not, then I don't know how to keep living like this." My eyes burned as I tried to hold back the torrent of tears that threatened to erupt. I kept my eyes solidly on Cyri's chest and refused to look up.
I felt her hands touch at my shoulders and begin tugging at me, slowly, hesitantly, as if she was afraid I would run or something. "Don't," I warned haltingly, but I found myself pressed against her chest as she pulled me in and wrapped her arms around me. I struggled for a moment, even putting some real strength into it, but her arms were solid as iron around me and refused to budge.
Eventually I settled, and simply allowed her to hold me for a moment. The tears that threatened to escape never did. "Why do we keep ending up in this position?" I mumbled into her chest.
She chuckled, the entirety of her chest vibrating with the deep hum. "Because we're both very fucked up individuals." She let go of me, and I pulled back. Her face was sympathetic, even after the barrage of pent-up anxiety and rage I had just thrown at her.
"I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that."
The werewolf, normally so somber and withdrawn, had a gentle smile on her face. "I told you, I'm here for you. If you need to vent, I can take it." She patted my head affectionately. "I'm a big girl...now. I actually used to be rather short. Just about your size, pipsqueak"
I glared up at the grinning woman who easily had a full foot of height on me. "Shut up. Go...chase a cat up a tree or something, you big mutt." She just laughed, and with a yank, we were back on our way down the path. I tried to hold onto my scowl and wallow a bit more in my self-misery, but Cyri was insistent, and something about the rarity of that big toothy grin of hers made the weight of the last week not so hard to bear any more.
"Hae, wait up!" I yelled. The fox-woman turned around and tapped her uninjured foot with all the impatient energy of a six-year old before Christmas. Hell, if Congress actually went through with the alliance with the monsters, we might really have something to celebrate about. Maybe things could go back to some semblance of normalcy. I let a little grin slip. Maybe Christmas would come early this year.
Of course, I had to fucking jinx it.
