《Hire an Incubus》28.

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'I can't thank you enough for this Lisa.' Adam said quietly from the back of the car.

'Hm.' was all Lisa said in return.

She could feel in herself that she had changed. Somewhere between meeting Achilles and the present, she had lost some part of herself that could see the goodness in people. She supposed that it was probably quite sad but for some reason she couldn't feel bad about it because her outlook on life really wasn't what was important right now.

Alison was seated in the passenger seat and Achilles was sitting behind Lisa in the back. Every now and then they would lock eyes in the rear view mirror and he would just look at her as if to say 'Don't worry.'

She took a longer look at him. He looked different from when she had first met him. Then he'd been a different type of attractive, he had had longer hair and less stubble, and there had been a definite coldness about him. Something about him had unsettled her. Now he looked a lot more intimidating from the outside. His hair had been cropped shorter and bore more resemblance to Aster's, he had the beginnings of a short beard and there was a hard look of determination in his eye. However, the unsettling coldness had gone, Lisa felt closer to him than ever.

She probably looked different herself. She imagined there was probably more of a iciness to her now. She probably looked tired too.

They drove mostly in silence apart from an occasional remark from Alison. Achilles directed Lisa in the way of driving to his house. When they pulled up outside the house, Lisa spoke before they had all disembarked from the car.

'Adam. Wait. I need a minute.'

'Sure. Anything.'

Achilles gave her a pointed look in the mirror before opening the door.

'I'll just be inside if you need anything, okay?'

'Sure, thanks.' Lisa nodded after him and gripped the steering wheel as she watched him walk into the house with Alison.

'What was it you wanted?' Adam said quietly from the back seat.

'It's been a long time since we've seen each other and I need to tell you a few things.'

'Okay, go ahead.'

'I wasn't asking permission.' She replied, turning to look at him. 'First of all, I thought you should know, I'm pregnant.'

'I thought you might be. I'm assuming it's his?'

'Bingo.'

'What was the other things?'

'I'm in love with him. He's in love with me.'

'Naturally.'

'We trust each other. Completely.'

'I'm happy for you.' Lisa noticed he looked down as he said it, sounding sad yet also genuine.

'So when I ask you this, I hope you know it's not under any pretense that I'm going to use it against him or betray him, okay?'

'Got it, what do you want to know?' He replied earnestly.

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'I want you to tell me exactly why he got dismissed and everything that ensued after and why everyone at Hire an Incubus is so scared of him.'

'Well, okay. The real reason he got dismissed was because he got that human girl pregnant. We were told it was because he enthralled her, with the intention of completely controlling her. I didn't know that they actually were just in a relationship and she got pregnant. Then Damian freaked out, I still don't know why, and demanded that Achilles be brought to him right away. Then Achilles ended up in Hercules, escaped and then came for Damian, to try and find out what happened to the girl - but it was too late. Damian then tried to exorcise Achilles and ended up sending him to Hell. Then we didn't hear from him for a long time. Then our agents started showing up dead, so we figured he must've come back, so the message got sent out to you, and he came back.'

'Why is everyone so scared of him?'

'Lisa, he's terrifying to us. He can kill us so easily, he's a lot stronger than any incubus I know, even Damian wasn't a match for him.

'He was actually. I killed Damian.' Lisa murmured.

'Oh.' Adam said quietly. 'I don't know Lisa. I guess he's just threatening. He's been through all this hardship and he's still alive. I have to admit, that first time I met him, when we were in your apartment, I was scared. Me, an incubus, was scared that he was going to harm me. I kept thinking that entire time when you were under protective custody that he was going to find me and kill me.'

'Well, he didn't.' Lisa snapped. 'Lucky you.'

'No, he didn't. I know I'm not exactly the person you're going to want to talk to about this, but are you sure he's not dangerous at all?'

'Not that it is any of your business Adam, but yes, I'm sure he isn't dangerous. To me.' She said sharply, and got out of the car. Adam trailed behind after her.

'I'm sorry if that was out of line.'

'Mmm.' Lisa said quietly, knocking on the door.

Aster opened the door and embraced her.

'It's good to see you Lisa.' His eyes shifted to Adam. 'You must be Adam, the Hire an Incubus employee?'

'Former, actually.' He said sheepishly. 'And you are?'

'Aster, I'm Achilles's brother.'

'I can see the resemblance.'

Aster gave him a curt smile. 'Come in.'

It was nice to see Achilles's parents again, and they seemed pleased to see the two of them again.

'I'm sorry that I'm bringing all of these extra people into your home.' Lisa said to them.

'Nonsense.' said Achilles's mother. 'We've been accustomed to things not being out of the ordinary for a very long time.' Her eyes flicked to her youngest son.

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'So what's the grand plan this time?' Aster asked.

'I don't know just yet.' Achilles said thoughtfully. 'We need a few days to rest and gather our thoughts. We've had a......tough journey.' He looked at Lisa.

'We killed Damian.' Lisa said abruptly.

Ezra snorted. 'Good riddance, he was always a nasty piece of work and a traitor to his own kind. Although, I undoubtedly suspect Alma Stack was breathing down his neck his whole career.'

'Well, it doesn't matter now anyway.' Lisa replied.

They chatted most of the evening, even Adam engaged with Achilles and his family and to Lisa, it felt weirdly like a normal group of people hanging out for the first time in ages. It was nice, but like most nice things in life, Lisa knew the evening was going to come to an end.

Just after everyone had gone to sleep, Lisa and Achilles were lying in bed upstairs. Lisa was faced towards the ceiling and she stared up into the dark. She knew Achilles was awake, but there was something nice and simple about them being able to comfortably enjoy eachother's silence. They both just lay there for quite some time, until Achilles's deep voice cut through the silence.

'Do you think our child is going to have issues because there was a brief period where its parents didn't sleep in the same bed?'

Lisa uncontrollably burst out laughing.

'That's a very tasteless divorce joke. If our kid is going to have issues it's going to be exclusively because it can teleport.'

'You can't teleport and you have plenty of issues Lisa.' Achilles said lightheartedly.

'You're one to talk, you crazy idiot.'

'I got tortured in a questionably run, possibly illegal facility for weeks on end, what's your excuse?'

'I got tortured by my insane parents for 18 years, so possibly worse I think.'

'You reckon?'

'Oh I do.'

'I'd say you're probably right, you win this round Farrow.'

'You're in an awfully jokey mood tonight, Starling.'

'Yes.' He said,turning on his side and smiling at her. 'I can make jokes sometimes. I'm not a perpetually broody six foot something all the time.'

Lisa laughed out loud again and turned to face him too. 'Oh can you?'

'Mmm. I can do other things too.' He pulled her closer to him and kissed her.

'Oh I know, hence the pregnancy.'

'Lisa stop talking when I'm trying to kiss you.'

She pulled away a little.

'Achilles, what are we going to do? What's our endgame here?'

'What? Right now?' He laughed. 'I don't know, possibly have some fun and then go to sleep, I don't know, are you not into this? I can stop if you aren't.'

'No, not that. I mean in general. Are we just going to keep killing people?'

He sighed. 'Hell, Lisa, this is a bit heavy don't you think?'

'Just answer me. I won't be able to sleep until we've talked about this.'

'I don't know Lisa. I just want us to be happy and safe. If that means we have to kill Alma Stack and a few others to get there, I'll do it.'

'I'm not meaning to sound hypocritical, but how can you just say that so flippantly?'

'Lisa, that is a little hypocritical, I literally watched you kill Damian. To answer you question Lisa, I guess the reason I can talk about that so flippantly is because you need to remember a few things, okay? One; I've experienced a lot of death, unfortunately, a side effect of my situation means I've - quite literally - had to fight for my life a few times. Two; Lisa, I'm a demon. Death just isn't the same to me as it is to you.'

'You're still half human though.'

His eyes looked sad. 'I'm half demon though.'

'I just don't want this to be our lives. Running all the time. What kind of family can we raise like that? How did you mother and father do it?'

'I guess nobody knew what we were Lisa. When we were growing up, we were very sheltered. We didn't really find out what we were until we were teenagers and even then, we knew to stay quiet about it. Then when I started working at Hire an Incubus, nobody knew who I was so it didn't matter what I was.'

'Did they know you were half human?'

'I suppose some of them probably did. The older ones. Damian did.'

'Why does it even matter?'

'I don't know Lisa, we're unpredictable I guess. Even I don't fully understand everything about myself. Humans and demons both have in common that they don't like not knowing what they're up against.'

'But surely half human, half demon offspring has happened before?'

'Oh of course, but that doesn't make us any less a threat I guess.'

'It's stupid.'

'It is.'

'Maybe we should get married. That might fix our problems.'

'I feel like our definitions of marriage might differ.' Achilles smiled.

'What do you mean?' Lisa was curiously.

'Human construction of marriage is a lot different to the demon construction of it. It's basically sort of like giving your soul to someone I guess.'

'Whoa. Big commitment.'

'Yeah. Still want to get married?'

'I never said I would say yes in the first place.'

'Well, you are knocked up, isn't that the right thing to do?'

'And I suppose you would have asked my father first?'

'Do you think he'd ha said yes?'

'I think he would have said Jesus, why are you marrying an incubus, are you tired of human men?'

'That is the Hire an Incubus tagline babe.' He winked.

'Don't call me babe.'

'Sweetheart.'

'That's better.'

He fell asleep shortly after and Lisa stayed awake. She had thought about their conversation and realised that he hadn't really given her an answer. She still didn't know what they were going to do. She didn't want to have to keep running from stuff. She wanted them to be happy. She just didn't know how they could be.

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