First Demonic Dragon

Nita was the one who felt it first.

She was in the bath with Aisha – allowing the warm water to soak into her bones while they laughed and indulged in some mild flirtation.

And then she felt it.

An absence.

A giant, gaping hole in her heart where her first love used to be.

She felt like she had been punched in the gut.

Nanoseconds later, Aisha got the same feeling. She shed a brokenhearted tear without even realizing why.

No words were exchanged between the two women as they bolted out of the tub.

They grabbed nearby bathrobes and didn’t even bother to dry themselves off before bolting out of their room.

They vacated their realm quickly and arrived back at the main house in under a minute.

In unison, they rushed towards the kitchen where Belloc was standing around with their sons under each arm.

“Oh, hey. Either of you seen-“

“W-Where is Thea?!” Nita exclaimed.

“I dunno, she was here like a second ago, but then she just disappeared. I thought maybe she ditched me to go hang out with one of you.”

At that moment, the sound of frantic footsteps came into the hall and three more women came running towards Belloc.

“Where’s Thea?!”

“I can’t feel her!”

“It’s like she’s gone, Bell!”

When looking back on that moment years later, Belloc wasn’t sure how he didn’t drop his nephews from the shock of that revelation.

–

Family gatherings are generally chaotic. Even for a species of inhumans.

The volatile nature of such gatherings is often amplified in times of stress and paranoia.

It just so happened that right now, the Tathamet home was experiencing both of those things.

So one could only imagine just how loud and explosive that things had become now that another member of the family had gone missing.

Arguments were beginning to spring up all over the house.

The family’s more militant members were pissed and out of patience.

They perceived the eldest daughter going missing as an attack on them. Their very blood wouldn’t allow them to stay still.

Satan usually had a very hard time getting others in the house to join his cries for blood and murder, but as of right now, he had half the house backing him.

“It’s bullshit! How many times are we going to keep getting hit before we crush these fucking twerps in response!? What the hell do we have all this power for if we’re not doing anything that matters with it!?”

“It’s because we have so much power that we can’t just run out and destroy things recklessly every time we feel like it!” Lusamine snapped.

“Besides, we don’t even know anything yet! What are you going to do, go out and obliterate the first demon you find?? You’ll spark war with almost every eastern pantheon at that point!”

“So what!? I’d like to see those pissants fight back over a few measly demons! Getting my great niece back takes precedence over everything else, consequences be damned! If Abaddon were here, he would say the same!”

“Then maybe it’s a good thing he’s not here right now!”

A hush settled over the room.

Lusamine felt her back get hot. Slowly, she turned around to stare at the children with an apologetic look on her face.

“…I didn’t mean anything by it, kids. You know I love your dad. It’s just… when it comes to you and your moms, he has a real tendency to…”

“Go scorched earth..?” Mira smiled weakly.

Lusamine nodded.

“…I don’t know if this one is Percival and Chaos related. At least, not directly…”

Everyone followed the sound of the small voice and found Jazmine sitting beside the fireplace with her head in her hands.

She, and the rest of Thea’s wives hadn’t budged the entire time they’d been sitting here. It was like they were in shock.

But for some reason, Jazmine seemed the broodiest of all.

“She had been… feeling weird over the past couple of days.” Jazmine finally admitted.

Nita was instantly bewildered. “What?? Weird how!?”

“I don’t know… She was getting little headaches and stuff… then one day, she almost fainted. I-I saw her body kind of flicker in and out of life like a flame… I thought she was just having trouble holding her form together. Like when she was a kid.”

“You knew and you didn’t say anything..?” Sabine could not hide her hurt.

“She begged me not to!” Jazmine looked up with tears running down her cheeks. “And even when I was going to, that was the day Abaddon and Asmodeus had that big fight, and I-It just didn’t seem like the time to be dropping more bombs in the house!”

“But what about the rest of us!?” Nita stood up. “You two aren’t in this relationship by yourselves, you know! We also had a right to know that something was wrong with her!”

Jazmine dropped her head again. Her body was wracked with tremors as she sobbed silently into her hands.

“Let’s all take a breather for just a moment…”

Sei got down to her knees in front of Jazmine.

A handkerchief formed in the center of her palm, and she used the piece of white fabric to wipe down her face.

Jazmine was hotheaded and relentlessly mature, but right now she seemed like a simple little girl.

“Let’s start from square one. You said Thea was flickering. What did that look like?”

“Oh… Well..”

Jazmine held out her hands and created a small rainbow colored flame.

Within the fire, a replay of a scene played for her to see.

Sei stared at it carefully, watching at least three times over before coming to a conclusion.

“This… looks like a failed summoning.” She surmised.

“A summoning!?!” The entire room said at once.

“You’re just pulling shit out of your unimpressive little ass now.” Satan dismissed. “The kid would have said something if she were being summoned.”

Sei had kept her cool all day, but now she was remarkably close to losing her temper.

“If you all don’t mind my input… I can confirm that this does appear to be a failed attempt at a one-way summoning.”

Everyone looked towards Shin, who was sitting next to his kids and Courtney.

“…How long have you been here, tin-man?” Satan pointed.

“I’m choosing to ignore that…” Shin sighed as he turned back to the flame. “My computer analysis is placing this at an above ninety percent match.”

“What the hell is a one-way summoning?” Apophis asked.

“It’s what it sounds like. It’s a manner of being invoked or summoned that doesn’t allow the one being called to refuse.” Sei grimaced. “Human witches typically use them on biblical demons and pixies so that they can harvest magical material from them.”

“It takes a lot of work for higher beings, though… like months of preparation work. In addition, you would need a binding artifact strong enough to hold the one you want to imprison. Also…” Shin rubbed the back of his head.

“Don’t stop talking now, Pinocchio, you’re already a real boy!” Darius slapped Shin on the back of the head.

Shin growled something unkind under his breath. “… You need something personal from the being to call them.”

“How personal?”

“Like a horn or a toenail clipping kind of personal.”

Thea’s wives made even more troubled expressions.

“No one who’s not family gets close enough to Thea to take something like that from her. She doesn’t even leave the house most days.”

Sei rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “…We have to figure this out quickly. I’m concerned not only about Thea, but about who could have captured her as well. The only item that might be powerful enough to bind her is…”

“One of dad’s artifacts…” Belloc guessed.

Sei nodded. “As I recall, he didn’t manage to find all of them…”

Somehow, the mood became even more grim. No one wanted to say it, but the possibility that Percival and Chaos were involved had just shot up exponentially.

Apophis suddenly stood up.

He glanced around the corner and found Gaia standing in the shadows by her lonesome.

When their eyes met, she showed him an apologetic, sheepish smile.

Apophis’ heart dropped to the bottom of his feet.

“…Where is he?”

Gaia twirled her fingers awkwardly.

“…He said he loved me today, you know? Well, he didn’t say it, so much as he alluded to the possibility that he could still be in love with me, and he let me touch his chest and put my boobs against his back, and I think we could’ve had sex, but I didn’t want to push my luck and-“

“Gaia!” Apophis grabbed the ancient goddess by the shoulders. “We don’t have time for this! Tell me where he’s going before he does something stupid!”

Unfortunately for Apophis, Gaia was a woman in love. Which meant that she wasn’t going to tell Apophis anything that might’ve gone against his brother’s wishes.

“…You shouldn’t have tried to keep him out of this… You know just how much she means to him. But I wouldn’t worry. I’m sure we’ll all figure out where he’s been in about an hour or so.”

That was exactly what Apophis was afraid of.

Without thinking about the consequences, he grabbed Gabbrielle, threw her on his shoulders, and bolted from the house.

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