84. Mimic Children

[Alaric]

"Alaric, are they alright?" Sinclair asked me as he pulled into Damien's driveway and quickly stepped out of the truck, walking to the passenger-side door where he helped Maeve jump down before looking back at me.

"Yes. Mercy made them some oatmeal, and they seem to be doing alright. We didn't want to chance giving them something that their systems couldn't handle." I said with a nod, stepping to the side so that Maeve, Rafferty, and Sinclair could walk through the front door.

"Where are they?" Sinclair asked me after looking in the kitchen to find that no one was there.

"Upstairs, playing with the twins," I responded as I motioned to the staircase and followed behind them as Sinclair led Maeve and Rafferty up the stairs and through the first door to the left, into the room that used to be Damien's before Bast moved in.

"Hello," Maeve said as she stepped into the room, smiling softly at the two young boys sitting cross-legged across from Azeneth and Ciaran, playing with legos which they'd managed to strew about nearly the entire room.

"Who are you?" The older of the two boys asked, eyeing Sinclair suspiciously as he took his younger brother's arm and pulled him closer.

"I am Sinclair, child, and I mean you no harm," Sinclair said, holding his hands up in a show of surrender before taking a few steps to his right, standing next to Damien and Sam.

"You're pretty," The younger boy said as he gawked up at Maeve, watching her as she sat across from him, his dark brown eyes lighting up at the very sight of Maeve.

"Well, thank you, love. I want to heal you, okay?" Maeve said, holding her hand out to the boy, smiling at his older brother as he reluctantly released the younger boy from his grasp, letting him walk to Maeve. "I'm Maeve."

"I'm Timmy, and that's my big brother David, and the baby is Vinny," Timmy responded with a toothy grin, motioning to his brothers as he introduced them.

"They refused to tell us their names or where they'd come from," Damien mumbled under his breath, just loud enough for the vampires to hear him while speaking low enough so that the children could not. "It was like pulling nails to get them to come upstairs to play with the twins."

"Well, they are mimics. They're taught from a young age to hate vampires and recreants." I suggested with a shrug as I watched Maeve pull Timmy onto her lap, brushing his wild hair away from his face to get a better look at him.

"Does anything hurt?" She asked him in a soft and caring tone as she lifted up his shirt to check his stomach, visibly wincing when she saw his pronounced ribcage showing just how horrid those mimics were treating the children as the bruises covering the child's abdomen told a colorful story I'd rather not have seen. *'My god, it's worse than I thought!'*

"Everything hurts," David mumbled with a shake of his head as he kept a careful watch on Maeve, making sure she wasn't doing anything he disapproved of to his little brother.

"I'm going to put my hand on your belly, okay?" Maeve said as she hesitantly put her hand on Timmy's stomach, watching him as she did so. "It's going to feel warm, but it's not going to hurt." She added, waiting for Timmy to nod before her hand began to glow with a warm light, a wave of healing going through the young boy's body, every bruise disappearing almost instantaneously.

"Woah," Timmy gasped out as his eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and confusion, putting his hand on Maeve's shoulder to steady himself as he looked down at her hand on his abdomen, watching as his every scar and blemish disappeared.

"How do you feel?" Maeve asked him, using a hair tie to pull his long and ragged hair away from his face before inspecting his shoulders and back, letting out a sigh of relief when she saw that she hadn't just healed his scars; she'd also recovered his body, as his bones were no longer showing. He appeared to be as healthy as any other seven-year-old child, much to the ever-growing surprise of his brother.

"Timmy, you look..." David gasped as he jumped to his feet and ran to his brother, pulling him into a hug, sobbing quietly into his hair. "I'm so sorry, Timmy!"

"I'm all better now, David. Why are you sorry?" Timmy gasped, trying to pull himself out of his brother's arms, but to no avail, as David refused to let him.

"I should have been able to protect you. I'm a horrible big brother." David struggled out through his sobs, gasping for breath as he looked over at Maeve, his brown eyes filled with genuine sorrow and guilt.

"David, you are not a horrible brother. You remind me a lot of my big brother, you know." Maeve said after giving the brothers a few moments of silence before she got on her knees and put her hands on David's waist, pulling him into a hug as she healed him.

"Thank you, pretty lady, for healing my brother and me," David said, sniffling as he took a step back and pulled up his shirt, crying out in pain when he saw his body had been healed as well. "Can- Will you please heal Vincent?"

"Of course I will. You don't need to ask," Maeve said as she stood and walked to the bed, waving Bast away from the sleeping toddler so that she could take her place.

"I see now how demons and angels can be friends and even lovers." Rafferty suddenly whispered in my ear, nearly making me jump out of my skin as I hadn't seen or heard him coming to stand next to me.

"Those children have done nothing to deserve the life they've been given, and just because they are not of our species does not mean they do not deserve our help," I responded with a nod, watching as Maeve healed the youngest boy, smiling when he opened his big brown eyes to look up at her curiously.

"What of the monsters who harmed those children?" Sinclair asked, his golden eyes alive with rage as he broke himself away from the heart-breaking sight to look over at Rafferty and me.

"Dead, but after seeing that they did more than starving those children, I wish we'd kept them alive so I could kill them all over again," I growled with a shake of my head, then motioned for the two of them to follow me out of the room, as it was feeling a bit crowded with everyone standing against the wall, watching.

"Monsterous does not begin to describe a being who could do something so outwardly horrendous to three innocent little boys." Damien snarled as he walked out of the room, wincing when he slammed the door closed so hard that the entire house shook, as it was not his intention to do so.

"So, even knowing that those children are of a species that has been the nemesis of vampires, you hurt for them?" Rafferty asked as he followed us down the stairs and out of the front door, looking curiously between Damien, Sinclair, and me.

"It does not matter of what species they are, Rafferty; they are innocent children," I responded with a shake of my head as I pulled out a cigarette, then tossed the pack to Damien. "The taste is strong enough so that we can at least act as if it affects us," I added when I saw the confusion on Rafferty's face.

"What are these sticks? What do they do?" He asked as Damien handed him the pack, turning it around in his hands as he inspected it before pushing the lid back to smell inside. "This is a pleasant but unusual smell."

"It's called a cigarette. It's tobacco mixed with other chemicals that you smoke. The humans call them cancer sticks, as it can cause cancer." Sinclair chuckled as he watched Rafferty, a look of amusement etched on his face as he held his hand out for the pack and held his hand out for my lighter. Sinclair lit the cigarette and took a drag off of it before handing it to Rafferty, who inspected it closely, then touched the amber glow on the top of it, dropping the cigarette to the ground when he realized it was hot.

"I thought angels didn't feel pain?" Damien asked, trying and failing to hide the amusement on his face as he watched Rafferty.

"We feel pain, just as a human does. The only difference is that ours is always short-lived, no matter what caused that pain." Rafferty responded absentmindedly as he bent to pick up the cigarette, then took a small drag off of it, exclaiming out in disgust once he tasted it, tossing the cigarette to Sinclair. "You wish to taste such a thing?"

"We were all around in a time in which nearly everyone smoked, and knowing that the smoking would do nothing to us, we picked it up as well. When we found that we could clearly taste such a thing, it is a habit many a vampire has." Damien responded with a shrug as he gazed out through the forest, his eyes far off as he thought.

"I see. You smoke because it gives you some fleeting semblance of mortality? I can understand that, though I wish I couldn't." Rafferty responded as he looked back towards the house, then smiled softly when he saw the confusion on my face. "I did not think I would come to understand anything that a demon does, as I have hated your kind since your creation. Now, only a day after meeting you, I am finding that you demons are not... Well, you're not the demons I expected you to be."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment," I responded with a chuckle, then looked down towards the driveway where I could hear a faint heartbeat, steadily growing closer. "Lucifer, Octavia informed me that she has hundreds flooding into her town and can no longer hold them all. I wanted your permission to buy the surrounding hotels so that she will not run herself into the ground, providing for her new recruits."

"Is that so? No permission is needed, Alaric. Do as you see fit. if that is the case, I will make preparations to assist her as well."

"Do you believe she is in imminent danger of an attack?" Sinclair asked, looking from Damien, then to me; his golden eyes widened slightly in worry.

"I believe it is something she should prepare herself for. Her pregnancy may give others the idea that she is weak and cannot stand against a direct attack at her throne." I responded with a snort of anger and disbelief, surprising even myself when I realized how much I cared for her. *'Well, she is the sister of your wife. It doesn't matter what she is, only who she is. You shouldn't be surprised that you care for her well-being.'*

"That must be Kerr, then?" Sinclair asked, nodding in the direction of where we could hear a heartbeat drawing closer as he pulled out his phone and sent a message. "I will have Hanna send a group to go along with the mimic."

"You are dispatching your army to assist this Octavia woman because she is pregnant?" Rafferty asked Sinclair curiously.

"Octavia is Bastet and Mercy's sister and the alpha of the biggest pack of mimics in our world. Yes, we will dispatch our armies to assist her without a moment of hesitation." Damien said with a nod as he took out his phone and sent a few messages before looking down the driveway where Kerr was coming into view. "That is her mate, Kerr."

"Kerr? I'm beginning to think that your group has become close because of your uncommon names." Rafferty chuckled softly as he watched the car drawing closer, cocking his head to the side when Kerr immerged from the driver's seat. *'We have uncommon names? Has he never heard his own name?'*

"Another straggler?" Kerr chuckled as he walked around the car to stand before us, trying to blink away his surprise when he saw Rafferty and his very unnerving eye color.

"This is Rafferty, the fallen. He is the thing that was trapped beneath my house. Yes, fallen as in a fallen angel. Please do not ask to see his wings, as he is wearing a nice shirt that I'd hate to see destroyed." Sinclair said as he stepped forward to shake Kerr's hand.

"Don't worry, I won't ask to see them," Kerr gasped out, shaking his head in disbelief as he shook my hand, his eyes not leaving Rafferty as he did so. "A fallen angel? I'm surprised you're still around. You'd think an angel wouldn't want to be around a group like ours."

"I must remain within proximity of Maeve; otherwise, I will return to the statue I was trapped in for eons."

"Is that so? I imagine you are having a load of fun with this one, then." Kerr said, grinning at Sinclair as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the car, looking past us and at the house. "Seems like the whole bands here."

"They are. Maeve healed the children, and it sounds as if she is bathing them now. Why don't you come in, and I'll put the tea on." Damien said as he opened one of the front doors, motioning for us to enter the house.

"Wow, a fallen angel? I don't know how to process that information, but I do know that Octavia is going to be pissed that I got to meet you without her."

"I'm sure she'll have a chance to meet him at some point in time," I responded as I pulled the kettle out of the cabinet and filled it with water before setting it on the stove, assisting Damien as he set out trays for the tea.

"So, you can't be too far away from Maeve?"

"Not currently, but I will take my leave once I've gathered the strength required to do so. After our sparring sessions today, it seems as if that day will come much faster than I'd initially thought." Rafferty responded with a nod, then looked over his shoulder as Sam came into the kitchen.

"Welcome back, Kerr," Sam said as he smiled his hello to Kerr, then held up the duffle bag in his hand to show him, setting it next to Kerr's chair before sitting across from him. "Maeve is bathing the children, Mercy, Bast, and Samantha are playing with the twins."

"How are they?" Kerr asked.

"Well, they are opening up bit by bit, but only to Maeve. They don't much trust the rest of us. I took a picture of the boys and sent it to Octavia so that she can see if she knows their parents."

"Good, thank you. The people who kidnapped them?"

"Dead. If I had known prior that the kidnapping of mimic children was something happening recently, I would have kept them alive." I said with a sigh as the kettle began to whistle, taking it off of the stove to pour into the teacups.

"How much do you know about this, Kerr? Is it something we need to be on the lookout for?" Damien asked as he pulled out his phone and dialed a number, setting it on the table in front of him.

"Hey, Damien, Kerr's there?" Octavia gasped, answering the call almost immediately, her voice filled with anxiety and concern.

"Yes, I'm here, and I'm safe," Kerr responded with a smile, shaking his head softly.

"Don't shake your head at me, Kerr, I'm allowed to be worried. You were supposed to text me when you got there!"

"I swear, Octavia, I just got here. You'll never believe what was in the tunnels under Sinclair's house, though. A fallen angel."

"I- Uh- What? You're fucking with me, right?"

"He is not, I am a fallen angel, and I was trapped beneath Sinclair's house," Rafferty responded, nodding his thanks to me for the tea as he took a sip of it, almost spitting it out over the table when he heard Octavia's shriek of shock and incredulity.

"God damn it, I should have gone with you," Octavia said with a pout I could almost see through the phone, causing me to start chuckling softly.

"Did you receive the picture I sent you?" Sam asked after giving her a few moments to get over her shock.

"Yes, I sent it out. I'm waiting to see if anyone recognizes them."

"This kidnapping of mimic children, how deep does it run?" Damien asked as he took his place at the table, sipping his tea quietly as he waited.

"I'm not sure, but from what we've heard, they are kidnapping mimic children to try and force their mimics out before they're ready. I imagine that's why they're starving the kids, though I don't entirely understand the reasoning behind it."

"It seems obvious to me. Look at the way these vampires are treating the children, despite what they are. If they can successfully get the children to their side, they can send them after vampires who would treat them as your group has, letting their guards down." Rafferty said with a shrug, causing the room to fall into dumbfounded silence, as what he said was shocking but had to be true.

"Oh, no, Maeve!" Sinclair gasped, then jumped to his feet before running up the stairs, slamming the door open just as Bast screamed out.

"Mercy!" I called as I ran after Sinclair, walking in the room to see two little wolves, standing over Maeve's dead and bloodied body, snarling at Bast, who was trying to protect the already dead Maeve, her eyes blood-red as she bared her fangs to the two wolves.

"Maeve!" Sinclair cried out as he ran to her, slapping the two wolves away with a single swipe of his hand before pulling her into his arms as he mumbled to her quietly, brushing the stray hairs out of her face before he looked down at her belly, rubbing it softly as he watched her. "Why?" He snarled at the two wolves as they picked themselves up shakily from where he'd thrown them, his golden eyes narrowed in hatred.

"Are you alright?" I asked as I bent down next to Mercy, pulling her into my arms before looking at Azeneth and Ciaran, who seemed to be entirely unharmed but terrified.

Azeneth was gawking wide-eyed at the scene unfolding before them; her green eyes widened in terror as she gasped out for breath, then looked to her left at Ciaran, who nodded as he let out a shaky breath like he was trying to convince himself to do as Azeneth asked.

Ciaran was breathing heavily; his electric blue eyes narrowed as he glared at the bigger of the two wolves; I assumed he was David, who had blood dripping down his chin. "You killed her!" he snarled as he jumped to his feet and tried to lunge at David, yelling out in a mixture of horror and rage as Damien wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him against his chest, refusing to let him get near the wolves. "Let me go!"

"Ciaran, no. I'm sorry that you had to see that, but Maeve will heal." Damien said, groaning out as Ciaran continued to struggle against him, his eyes turning into two balls of flame as he screamed out in a fury.

"She will, but will the baby?" Ciaran cried out as flames shot from his hands, successfully forcing Damien to release him as he roared out from the pain, falling to his knees as he swatted at his shirt to put out the embers.

The moment Damien released Ciaran, he immediately ran forward at the two wolves, pulling them both into a hug, engulfing the young wolves in his flame. Though the wolves fought their hardest to get free, their loud and terrible howls of pain meant nothing to Ciaran as he trapped them against his body, crying as he burned the wolves alive.

"Rafferty, why isn't she healing?" Sinclair murmured as he frantically tried cleaning the blood from Maeve's throat, but to no avail, as the wound continued to gush forward, with no signs of her healing power stopping it.

"I do not know," Rafferty responded in a hoarse whisper as he kneeled on the other side of Sinclair, the light in his eyes dim and nearly extinguished as he put a hand on Maeve's shoulder, trying to heal her.

"Ciaran, did you say baby?" I asked him softly, watching as he dropped the two wolves to the ground, his eyes now returned to their regular blue, his shoulders shaking softly as he cried.

"Maeve was pregnant." He said as he fell to his knees, tears streaming quietly down his cheeks as he continued to watch Maeve, waiting for her to heal, his cries only getting louder the longer we waited.

"Ciaran," Bast whispered softly, her emerald eyes filled with tears as she watched her son, the heartbroken look in her eyes driving a dagger into my heart.

I looked down at Mercy in my arms; her golden eyes widened in shock as she looked up at me, gripping the fabric of my shirt with all of her strength as she fought back the cry of pain crawling from her depths. Though I knew she wanted to avert her eyes, she looked back at Maeve, her breath catching in her throat as she witnessed the anguishing heartbreak of the strongest man we all knew.

*'Maeve isn't healing? Why the hell isn't she healing? I wish I could take that pain from your eyes, Mercy, but I do not think I could stand another ounce of pain, as I can barely hold the weight of my own.'* I thought, then kicked myself mentally when I saw the pain in Sinclair's eyes, showing me that no pain I was feeling could hold a candle to what Sinclair was feeling. *'She was pregnant? Oh my god, Sinclair is going to be a father! He's- He was, going to be a father.'*

"I know she is still there, somewhere. I can feel her!" Rafferty yelled; the glow in his hand grew to a blinding brilliance as he put his other hand on her stomach, pushing everything he had into healing her, the color draining from his face, the longer he continued.

"Rafferty, you need to stop." Mercy said as she took a step forward but stopped when Sinclair snapped his head up and locked gazes with her, his once golden eyes now a brilliant purple, his lip twisting back into a snarl, successfully stopping her in her tracks.

"Sinclair," Damien growled lowly as he held his arms out to Ciaran, telling him to get away from Sinclair, as none of us knew what the purple in his eyes meant, but we didn't need to know, to learn not to test it.

"S-Stop," Maeve choked out through gasps, whimpering softly as she tried again to utter a word but just didn't have the strength to do so.

"Maeve! But, your heart isn't beating!" Sinclair gasped as he looked back down at her, swatting Bast away so he could put her head on his lap as she tried again to speak, but couldn't as she couldn't get a breath in her lungs to do so.

"Maeve, I knew you were still here. Why aren't you healing?" Rafferty asked as he leaned over to look down into her eyes, searching them as he couldn't understand how she could still be alive, without a heartbeat. That surprise was shared by everyone else in the room, as we hadn't heard Maeve's heartbeat since the moment we came into the room, so she shouldn't have been able to speak at all.

"She can't speak, and her thoughts are too jumbled to hear, but she's saying something about her heart." Azeneth suddenly said as she pulled herself out of Samantha's arms and crossed the room to stand next to Rafferty, looking down at Maeve, cocking her head to the side as she concentrated. "Heart... can't...heal? Why can't your heart heal?"

"Sinclair," Rafferty gulped as he turned Maeve to her side, gasping out as he yanked a small wooden stake out of her heart, glaring over at the two dead wolves as he tossed it towards their charred bodies. "The sliver couldn't push itself out, so it was trapped. She can't heal if her heart can't beat."

The room blew a collective breath of happiness and relief as we watched Maeve's throat began to heal, the sound of her heartbeat ringing through my ears like a divine harmony that calmed my every worry.

"You're okay!" Azeneth and Ciaran gasped as they pulled Maeve into a hug, lifting her off of Sinclair's lap in a swift singular movement, hugging her so tightly, I could hear the sound of her vertebra being crushed.

"Aye, until you two are done crushing me!"

"Hey, gentle!" Sinclair whispered with a breath of happiness as he put his arm between them, pushing the kids to give her breathing room before looking back at Rafferty, "What about the baby?" He murmured almost inaudibly.

"It appears to be alright," Rafferty said after a moment of watching Maeve's stomach as if he could see the fetus within her.

"Thanks to you, Raffey. I couldn't heal, but all of the power you were giving, it was keeping the baby alive." Maeve breathed out as she turned to face him, throwing her arms around his shoulders to pull him into a hug.

"I- You are welcome," Rafferty responded, trying to blink away his surprise at her sudden embrace as he hesitantly put his arms around her, leaning into her hug.

"Oh my god, so, you're both okay?" Bast asked as she stepped forward, looking from Maeve to her belly, smiling when Maeve nodded before turning an icy glare to Sinclair. "Excuse you, Mr. Alexander?" She growled before slapping him across the face, the sound of the impact making Mercy flinch softly in my arms.

"W- What have I done?" Sinclair gasped, his golden eyes widening in shock as he lifted a hand to his cheek, the clueless offense in his eyes making me chuckle softly.

"Sorry, maybe I should rephrase. Excuse you, Mr. soon to be a father?"

"Oh, I found out last night, Bastet. My god, you did not need to strike me." Sinclair grumbled, trying to act as if he was upset, but couldn't hide the smile peeking at the corners of his lips as he spoke.

"Hop off it, you cheeky bastard," Maeve giggled before leaning forward to kiss Sinclair's cheek, then looked around the room until her eyes landed on the two charred wolves to her left. "You did that?" She asked Ciaran, her hazel eyes lowering in sadness as he threw himself into her arms, pressing his face into her throat as she rubbed his back, consoling him with calm whispers of adoration and understanding.

"I'm s-sorry. You weren't healing, and they were just laughing about it! The things they were thinking, I couldn't stop myself." Ciaran cried into Maeve's throat, his body shaking from his pain as Maeve scooped him into her arms and sat with him on the bed, rocking side to side.

Bast and Damien both took a step forward to try and take Ciaran, as was expected from his parents but stopped when Azeneth looked up and shook her head at them, telling them not to. Though neither Damien nor Bast seemed very happy about being told they couldn't console their child, they reluctantly nodded their agreement, as they trusted in what Azeneth said.

"It's okay, Ciaran. I know you didn't mean to. It's okay, we all get mad sometimes, aye? Look at what I did to your poor and unexpecting table!" Maeve mumbled softly, smiling when Ciaran chuckled through his tears.

"The table isn't two kids, though."

"You're a wee babe too, aren't you? I don't care how grown you think you are because you aren't. You have parents that love you more than life itself and will do everything in their power to let you have a normal childhood. Why don't you live the life your ma and da are working so hard to give you?" Maeve said her accent was getting so thick that I almost couldn't understand her words unless I concentrated on understanding them.

"Sam, alert the lieutenants. If this is something they've been planning and building up to for weeks, they need to be on the lookout for any crimes committed by mimics." Damien said over his shoulder to Sam, who nodded and pulled out his phone, leaving the room without a word.

"Samantha, Mercy, follow. You can learn the process first-hand." I said, motioning for the two of them to follow Sam, smiling softly to Mercy as she looked up at me. *'You're a lieutenant now, Mercy. This is your job. As much as I wish I could keep you in my arms, you must learn.'*

"Daddy, I'm sorry," Ciaran said as he pulled himself out of Maeve's arms and ran across the room, jumping into Damien's arms, which seemed to come as a pleasant surprise to Damien, as recently the kids had been acting more independently, and had not done such things in a while.

"You do not need to apologize, Ciaran. We understand why you did what you did." Damien said, kneeling so that Ciaran could stand and he could put his head on his shoulder, wrapping his arms around him tightly.

Ciaran stayed like this for a while, enjoying the embrace of his father for a few long and heart-felt moments before pulling away to hold Azeneth's hands as she searched his eyes, asking questions that no one else could hear. "Yes, I'm fine. I- Yes, I'm fine, I swear."

"I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't even move," Azeneth whispered, biting her lip as she squeezed Ciaran's hand, her gaze falling to her feet as she let out a shaky sigh.

"I'm your brother. It's my job to protect you, Azzie, no matter what." Ciaran said, taking her shoulders, shaking her softly as he glared at her, pursing his lips when she responded through their connection. "I don't care if you're older than me. You're older by, like, three seconds. God, stop lording that over me, already!"

"Don't yell at me, Ciaran!" Azeneth growled, narrowing her eyes as she glared at Ciaran, then shook her head with a sigh. "Why are you answering everything I say out loud?"

"We promised that we would if Maeve and the baby were okay, Azzie," Ciaran said, cocking his head to the side as he watched her curiously. "You don't remember? You said, 'If Maeve and the baby are okay, I swear Ciaran and I will stop being secretive and tell mommy and daddy everything they want to know, I swear.' And I said I would do the same. You said it a few minutes ago, don't you remember?"

"Well, yeah, but I didn't mean it," Azeneth responded with a groan, closing her eyes as she nodded reluctantly, then straightened out her dress before looking from Bast to Damien, then looking back at Ciaran.

"Yes, you did, Azeneth. You meant it with every ounce of your soul, and since Maeve and the baby are okay, we have to stick to our promises." Ciaran said, taking a deep breath as he looked over to the bed where Maeve was rocking the toddler back to sleep, then to his right where the two wolves remained, straightening his tie as he clasped his hands behind his back, straightening his back as he looked up at Damien. "We're ready to tell you everything we know. And from this point forward, we won't hide anything from you."