“I could be more powerful, yes. I’ve had offers, but I do not wish to owe anyone anything. I believe innothing.” He nodded resolutely, bitter, no doubt, from what he was.
“Show me your hands and tongue. I’ll note your lack of a mark.” I wrote out some notes and checked his tongue then his hands, cast a revealing spell and had him shift to his human form, a rather pale white-haired young male with a sculpted body so taut someone could grate cheese on it.Good grief.
“So, in my professional opinion, you don’t have the capability to do it, and I’m recommending you to The Church of Plurality for a neutral third-party confirmation. They’ll back me up. At some point, he’s going to get a settlement out of the coven admitting no fault, but we’re going to try and tack on anever sue us againclause.” I gave him a shit-eating grin that he reciprocated.
“Sneaky. Then we canactuallycurse his dick?” He gave me thumbs-up, and I pursed my lips.
“I heard nothing. Saw nothing.” I waved him off and stared at my letter once more.
I opened the document and saw a letter explaining their tests, how they only receive very few results like mine and wanted another sample at some point if I was willing to be in a control group.
I turned the page and glanced over the paper, mouth open. My alpha father had indeed been a reticulated giraffe, mixed with other varieties of shifter with the reticulated giraffe dominating them. My omega father? No data had been in the system, no smaller percentages. Classification?51.04% extra-planar.That surprised me and I leafed through the other pages, explaining that it could mean I was part ghost or banshee, maybe an eternal, but from the aura testing, where a gold-plated glass sheet had been put on a necklace and I’d worn it for two days to inundate it for testing, they’d confirmed that my omega pater had been no omega at all, but rather a being of the deic plane.
In essence, the letter that lay before me, said that I, one Greginald Hawthorne, was likely a demigod.
“Well. Ausmius?” I glanced at the wall and my shadow, limp and listless, nodded in agreement. “Still poorly?”
Ausmius, or part of him. I still wasn’t certain, nodded at me and I hummed.
“Well… I’m a demigod, it looks like.” I clutched the letters in hand and my phone rang—Draevus.
I answered as I stood. My shift ending soon. “Hello.”
“Gre, please tell me you’re at your office?” His panicked voice hissed on the other end.
“I am. What’s wrong?” My blood ran cold. “Is Esmeray alright?”
“No. He’s fine. Baby’s fine. But he’s just been arrested.” My stomach clenched and Ausmius prickled, little spines shooting from my shadow as it sank into my usual form and something left me with a draining sensation—no doubt him going to check.
“What for?” I gathered my things and jogged up the stairs, sweat beading on my temples as I glanced around the stairwell and made my way to booking.
“Malarthe has some cockamamie claims that Esmeray assaulted him, and the child is his. And you know how alpha paternity rights go with extraplanars. They’re going to hold him so he can’t skip plane with the child!” Draevus bit back a growl, and I prayed he refrained from demonic swearing, because I didnotwant to replace my phone in all this.
I made it to the booking area and looked around with no sign of him, just the usual rabble. “I’m here. I’ll call you back once I know something.”
I ran to the booking staff and caught a stare from the man working the desk. A lot of the staff here didn’t quite respect me as a mage, but then again, at least it wasn’t for being a hybrid. “I just got word. Is Esmeray Faust being brought in?”
He checked the log on his computer and nodded. “On his way now. Oh, shit, this is your mate, isn’t it?”
“Ballard, he’s pregnant. Please.” I gave him my most pleading look, and he nodded once in sympathy.
“Sexual assault— Who the fuck willingly sleeps with that slimeball?” Officer Ballard’s face made a decidedly appropriateexpression of disgust and he scrolled through. “Ugh, Judge Fuckwit put the order through.”
“Fuckwit?” I blinked as Ballard waved his hand. “Family court guy. Falkwitz. Guy has it in for demons big-time and is part ofThe Church.”
“Not a fan, I take it?”
He shook his head. “My mother-in-law is a member. Every time I have to spend five minutes around her, she’s yacking my ear off about the divinity of Homo sapiens. Like I should give her son a divorce because I’m part elf!”
“I didn’t know you had an omega mate.” I perked up and earned a shake of his head. “Beta. Both beta.”
“Apologies for the assumption.” I held up a hand, and he shook his head. “Nah. He’s FTM. That’s a whole other problem for her.”
I shook my head in commiseration. “I lucked out on fathers-in-law. He’s absolutely fine with me being a hybrid.”
“Well damn. That’s nice, at least. Let’s see what I can do here,” he said, typing in. “Because he’s extraplanar I can’t do shit or make any calls. I’m not that well connected, and if Draevus Faust can’t get his son out of it, we peons can’t do shit, either.”
“That’s what I figured. And there’szerochance that child is Malarthe’s.” I grumbled as Ballard clicked through some things. He glanced over at me pointedly. “I’ll give you a few moments alone with him when he gets here. Best I can do. Have him pointedly tell whoever books him thathe feels like he might be suicidal.”
