Demon Mom - Ch.15 - Damaged (Patreon)

"So Jim's going to miss the next two weeks with another concussion," Matt said quietly as the four of us started eating our lunch. "He's probably going to lose two more teeth and his jaw's cracked, according to Rahul. And he's banned from sports for the rest of the semester. Two concussions so quickly together mean he's out for health reasons."

After a gulp of his cola Matt continued, "Luis had to get his left arm set and it'll be in a cast for the next six weeks, and Tom's on crutches. I didn't see a cast, but it might be one of those low-profile ones."

I couldn't help it, I grinned despite the ache in my cheek. 

Amber kept looking back and forth between me and Matt. Her eyes were wide and her face looked a little pale. And Melissa just frowned slightly.

"Are you some kind of black-belt or something?" Matt asked me. "Like seriously? I can't see any other way you'd single-handedly do all that."

Melissa spoke up before I could say anything that might get me in trouble, she asked "Did they actually say Mara did it?"

He shook his head, "Of course not. Rahul didn't even mention Mara at all. He claims the four of them were messing around and roughhousing in the stairwell? He said Jim lost his footing and they all went down the stairs. Tom and Luis went along with that. I guess it's less embarrassing than admitting they got their asses kicked by one petite girl."

I giggled but kept quiet. Instead I focused on my lunch. I kind of regretted picking a burger though. It hurt to bite and chew and stuff, my lips and jaw were still tender and achey.

Neither Amber or Matt knew the full story yet, but between the damage on my face and the state of the other guys they could probably guess.

"Do people actually believe that?" Melissa asked. "They fell down the stairs together?"

Matt chuckled, "Of course not. Everyone knows they got in a fight. But nobody knows who they were fighting. People probably think the three of them took on a bunch of guys from another college or something. Nobody's going to suspect, or for that matter believe that they took on Mara and lost."

Amber finally asked me, "So what happened Mara?"

I'd only eaten about half my burg but that was enough. I decided when we got home after drama class I'd ask Lily to heal me, since I wouldn't be seeing any of those guys over the weekend anyways. 

After a gulp of my water I shrugged, "They grabbed me in the hall and pulled me into a supply room? Jim wanted payback for his missing teeth last month. I let him hit me and uh, it hurt a lot more than I was expecting..."

I blushed slightly, and of course they could all see the result in black and blue on my face. 

"Anyways, after that I hit him on the chin. One guy grabbed my and put his hand on my chest so I broke his arm, the other guy took a swing at me so I kicked him in the shin. Then I left."

Amber grimaced as she sipped her root beer, while Matt stared at me incredulously. 

"Just like that?" he asked quietly. "You KO'ed Jim with one punch, again, then you broke Luis' arm and kicked Tom in the shin, then left? What the fuck are you?"

I smirked but once again Melissa spoke up before I could say anything.

"Lucky," the tall sexy blonde stated. "She's very, very lucky."

"Do you think they'll try anything again?" Amber asked nervously.

"Nah," I shook my head. "From the sound of it Luis and Tom won't be a problem for a month and a half, and I guess Jim's not even going to be around for a couple weeks."

She frowned, "What about Rahul though?"

I shook my head again, "He's a coward. He acts tough when he's with his buddies, and he thinks about getting revenge and stuff, but when he's on the spot he just freezes up."

"How do you know what he's thinking?" Matt asked as he gave me another funny look.

Oops, I realized I shouldn't have said that. I hesitated, then tried to make a joke out of it. 

"Uh... I can read minds?"

Melissa gave me a hard look then told Matt, "It's pretty obvious when Rahul's staring at us and shooting daggers with his eyes, you know? Not hard to imagine what sorts of stuff he's thinking about."

Matt looked back and forth between me and Melissa, and I got a really strong vibe that he was starting to wonder if maybe I really could read minds. He was also wondering what I really was, because he didn't buy Melissa's line about me being lucky. He wasn't thinking part-demon, but he was wondering if I was some kind of martial-arts expert or something. 

And I didn't need any kind of demonic intuition to know what was on Melissa's mind. She wanted me to keep my mouth shut before I got myself into any more trouble.

Amber finally said, "Well I'm glad you're ok. Mostly ok. And I hope you're right, that they're not going to bother any of us anymore."

"We'll be fine," Melissa stated.

Then she changed the subject, "Amber were you going to come by tomorrow after work? We're having a little get-together, my brother and his boyfriend are coming in from out of town. We'll probably order something in for dinner, maybe play some board games or something, put on some music, and there'll be lots of drinks and conversation and stuff."

From the expression on the cute brunette's face I had a feeling she wasn't that excited about the idea. She'd come a long way in the last five or six weeks, but at heart she was still shy.

"What time would you need me there?" she asked.

Melissa shrugged, "Any time? We probably won't be having dinner till seven or eight? It'll probably be either Chinese or maybe we'll order from that fusion place again, if Sam and Troy like sushi? Or if you're coming I'm sure Sue will want to order that regardless, since you and she both like it."

Amber thought for a few more minutes then nodded, "Ok. I'll come straight to your place from work, I'll probably get there around seven or just a bit after."

"Cool!" I grinned. "It'll be fun, and I'm sure you'll like Sam and Troy. They're both pretty cool."

Melissa smiled too, "As long as we keep Troy and Susan away from the trivia games."

I giggled, "I bet Sam won't let his boyfriend even bring a trivia game this time. That other one was fun though, I wouldn't mind playing that one again."

"I'll text Sam and let him know," she smiled. And she actually did, she pulled out her phone and tapped out a quick message to warn him not to let Troy bring any trivia games, but the other kind were ok.

After that Melissa and Amber and Matt just finished up their lunch while I drank the rest of my water. We talked a bit more, then it was time to get to class.

Our drama teacher hassled me a bit about the lump on my face, he was the first teacher to even mention it. He only brought it up though because apparently I couldn't 'emote' and 'project' properly with half my face swollen. Other than that it went ok, and when it was over me and Melissa met up with Amber and the three of us drove home together.

She didn't stay to visit though, we were just giving her a lift since she lived around the corner. She had plans for tonight so after thanking us for the ride she headed home to get changed.

Me and Melissa went into the house and grabbed some drinks, but before we went to get comfy in the living-room she stopped and gave me a serious look.

"Mara," she said in a quiet voice. "There's something I've been thinking about since Susan got that registered letter the other day, and this is the first chance I've had to mention it while we're alone. Can you please ask Lily to not eat my parents? I'm not saying she killed Susan's aunt, but... I just want to make sure she knows I don't want her to do anything to my folks. Ok?"

I stared at the tall blonde for a second then nodded, "Sure Melissa. I don't know if Lily had anything to do with Sue's aunt, but I'll make sure she knows you don't want her to..."

"I understand," Lily spoke up in my head. "And if you don't mind Mara, I'd like to speak with you about something else. Would you please come inside for a little while?"

"Ok Lily," I replied. "Melissa, she said she understands. And she asked me to step inside and talk to her, but I think that's about something else?"

I added with a grimace, "Maybe I'm in trouble again. I'll catch up with you in a few minutes."

Melissa looked relieved about Lily not doing anything to her parents, then smiled "Tell her you're sorry and it won't happen again."

I grinned, then while Melissa went to relax in the living-room I headed down to our den incase Lily wanted this to be private. I sat on our old recliner down there and closed my eyes, and a moment later I was with her in her apartment.

"Hi Lily," I greeted her with a hug, then sat next to her on the leather sofa. "Am I in trouble? What's going on?"

She smiled, "You're not in trouble Mara. Not this time anyways. You need to be more careful though with what you say in public. You're lucky Melissa covered for you a few times at lunch."

That made me grimace, "Sorry Lily. So what did you want to talk about?"

Her smile faded as she became more serious. "It's regarding the idea you had last month, of draining energy from Verothilas. I've been working on that problem since you first suggested it, and with the more recent revelations you've shared, my interest in this project has only grown. And now I believe I have a solution."

"Wow really?" I was grinning again and it was hard not to feel excited. "How? When? What do we have to do?"

Lily didn't seem as enthusiastic about the whole thing as I felt. She replied calmly, "I'm still working out some finer details of the magic I'll be using. And right now the biggest thing I need you to understand is this is all very experimental. My hope is to reproduce the same kind of energy release we experienced at the solstice, but it may be more. Or it may be less."

She got even more serious as she continued, "There will be some risks, and unfortunately there's no way for me to do this without exposing you to those risks. We'll take as many precautions as possible of course. For one thing we won't be doing this here at Susan's house. And that brings me to what I need your assistance with. I'd like you to start researching remote locations we can rent. Like a cottage, or a cabin. Somewhere isolated, so we can attempt this well away from any humans."

I frowned but nodded, "Ok Lily. I don't actually know anything about that sort of thing? But I don't think there's a lot of people going to the cottage at this time of year, you know? It's more of a summer thing."

"That's my understanding as well," she replied. "Nonetheless I'd like you to try and find us something. Preferably in the next few weeks. Within the month of April, if possible?"

"Ok Lily," I agreed. "I'll do my best."

"Thank you Mara. Now about the risks..."

It took her a few minutes to explain all the potential risks she could think of. It boiled down to the most-likely outcome being either nothing would happen, or maybe I'd become a little more demon and a little less human. Then at the other end of the scale she said there was a tiny insignificant little chance that maybe the whole thing would get out of control and go off like a giant bomb, killing the both of us instantly and levelling a few dozen square kilometres around us.

"I'm confident enough in my magic that I don't believe either of us will be in any mortal danger," Lily explained. "But I cannot say with total certainty that it's impossible. So I felt I should tell you Mara. And the decision is yours, if you do not wish us to take the chance then we won't. I'll keep working on the problem and see if maybe I can find a way to do it that rules that possibility out entirely."

I thought for a few moments, then asked "You're sure that the chance of blowing us both up is really small?"

Lily nodded, "Yes. I'm willing to try it, but as I said, I won't force your cooperation."

"If you think it'll work, that's good enough for me Lily." I stated firmly. "I trust you. I don't know how any of this stuff works, but if you think it's safe and you're willing to risk it then so am I."

She gave me a sympathetic smile, "Thank you Mara. I appreciate your trust and faith in me. I must clarify, I never said it was safe. There are dangers and risks, I just don't believe death is one of them."

"Yeah I get it," I smiled back at her. "And I heard what you said about me maybe becoming more demonic, but that doesn't scare me."

She watched me for a few more moments then stated, "You still want wings. I doubt that's going to happen Mara."

"You can't rule it out though right?" I asked with a hopeful grin. "I mean, it's possible?"

Lily rolled her eyes, "Possible but unlikely. Now why don't you get back to Melissa, she's probably wondering what we're up to."

I hesitated, "Before I go, I'm curious about something. Sorry if it upsets you. You said you got more interested in this idea after I told you about those dreams I had of your daughter right? And last week you said you wanted to make things unpleasant for Verothilas. What's it going to do to her, when you pull magic out of the brooch?"

Sure enough my demon mom seemed uncomfortable with the question. She didn't try and change the subject or anything though. She was quiet for a moment, then when she spoke in a voice that was soft but dangerous. 

"Verothilas will feel it. And it's going to hurt."

That was all I needed to know about that. 

I got to my feet and gave Lily a gentle hug, then asked "Can I tell the others about all this stuff?"

She hesitated. "Actually Mara I'd appreciate if you kept it to yourself for now? In a day or two I'll arrange to meet with Melissa and Susan and Amber, and the five of us can all discuss it together. I wanted to speak with you first, because this is something you and I have to do together. The three of them can sit it out and stay clear, but you can't."

"All right Lily," I nodded. "I understand. And I'll start looking for a cottage or whatever. Oh and could you please heal our face now? I think I've had enough of being bruised and swollen and stuff."

She smiled again, "Thank you Mara. And yes, it's all healed now."