Alfred smirked to himself, running his hand over his stomach. He counted four weeks now. Four of twenty. They weren't long. They weren't hard. Demon pregnancy was never hard, or harsh, unlike a human. They were made to be able to fight in a war while pregnant.
He sat in his room, the moon starting to rise, a dazed expression on his face. Ivan walked in and saw him, and smiled, rushing over to hold him in his arms.
"Hey," Alfred said, petting his hair, "what's with you?"
"You looked so happy," Ivan replied, kissing him on the lips. They both smiled, and Alfred reached his hands up to cup his cheeks, pecking him on the forehead.
"C'mon," he said, leaning their foreheads together, "isn't lunch soon?"
Ivan's lips pursed, and he shook his head, "soon, not soon enough."
"Mhm... are you sure?" Alfred asked, tilting his head. Ivan shrugged, before smiling.
"Yes, why?" Ivan replied, jumping as the alarm went off through the house, and Alfred started laughing, walking away, towards the door. Ivan followed him after a second, trailing just a little ways behind him. A few humans jumped up to speak to both of them, and occasionally a sibling or random demon.
Downstairs was becoming chaos.
It had snowed earlier in the day, so most people had stayed inside or moved to the larger house... and it was just becoming obvious.
And the people who were outside were now tracking snow and water and mud everywhere. Alfred wouldn't slip, he had padding on the bottom of his feet that prevented that, but Ivan had to hold onto the wall for just in case reasons.
Rulyn was in wolf form, he noticed as she went by, shivering like all hell with her fur spiked. Apparently she couldn't handle the cold too well.
There was hissing and snapping and a little bit of fighting. Nobody was getting along, but that was normal for winter. Demons were never good with the cold. It tended to make them brutish.
Ivan heard a hiss in his ear and spun around, seeing a fight start between one of the girls and... a sibling, he was pretty sure. It was hard to tell between the throngs of people.
Folami hissed, her lion ears pressing against her head. Her tail, much longer and stronger than a normal lion, swished behind her.
It was a sibling. It was Hesutu. One he knew well, one he'd seen fighting when they did a job Reno together.
Hesutu turned into a mass of wasps, surrounding the lion-girl, whose hissing turned to yowling until it became whimpering. When Hesutu was done, she was on the ground, unmoving, but breathing.
Folami's sister and brother walked over, Nombeko and Gowon checking their sister quickly before carrying her away.
Beside him, he saw Alfred purse his lips before he said something in an old language.
He only understood the curse words.
"C'mon," Alfred said, grabbing his arm, "don't want to get caught up in a fight."
Ivan nodded, looking at where Folami had been dragged off to silently, before looking towards where Alfred was going. People moved out of his way when he walked, bowing their heads.
They revered him, yet it didn't calm Ivan's nerves.
He went to stand at his side, watching everything. There was very little talking at the moment, until Cole walked by, whispering something to Alfred.
He nodded, and suddenly, there was warmth in the floor, in the walls.
"I didn't think I'd have to turn the heaters on this early," Alfred muttered, and Ivan turned to him.
"After January, I am not very surprised," Ivan replied, "your weather is becoming unnatural."
Alfred sighed, "Well, I am part of the cause of global warming, it was never a surprise the world wanted it's revenge. Karma, I guess."
"Please, do not say that," Ivan said, grabbing his shoulder, "you didn't do anything wrong, your country did."
Alfred smiled, "Don't try to separate me from my people. I am my people. Their sins are my sins. Their atrocities are my own. Their holocaust is at my fault."
Ivan pulled his hand away and put it back in his pocket, continuing to look at him. Alfred accepted too much. He no longer knew if it made him wise, or if it made him a fool. Maybe both.
He had always seemed to let things go. He didn't bother with the past, there needed to be changes, so there would be changes. Things needed to be pushed, brought back, destroyed and rebuilt and destroyed again. He'd much rather stay in the present, even though sometimes the loss of the past made him miserable.
Alfred hummed lowly, moving to get food, before looking back at where Ivan was standing. Had he been harsh?
He didn't know. Ivan had a tendency to take things to heart, even when they were for those close to him. He got him food too.
"Vanya?" he asked, walking up to him, "Are you okay?"
"Huh?"
"You okay?" Alfred repeated.
"Yes," Ivan said, looking down at his hands before grabbing the plate with less food, Alfred tilting his head.
"What were you thinking?"
"Nothing, dorogoy," Ivan replied, following the demon as he went to the table, sitting down. Ivan watched him for a few seconds before pecking him on the temple, going to eat without a care.
Alfred glanced at him, before smiling. He grabbed his hand under the table, running his thumb over his knuckles.
Cautiously, the demon waited, crawling around the rafters. A growl ran through him before he forced his silence. He looked carefully over to the Beta. She was too busy shivering to care. He did not know of another with good senses. He was given all the information he could of this place, but truthfully, not much was known to those of common origin.
It was secretive, so he had to be careful.
He crawled, his claws sinking delicately into the wood, and he stood over the Alpha's.
Something was off. One of them...
He sniffed.
His ears pressed against his head. His mouth open. It watered, it had been a long time since he'd eaten something like this. But, he knew he wouldn't get the meal. This was a culling, nothing more.
Alfred felt something wet on his shoulder, and he looked like he was watching two of his children fight, but instead he looked to his shoulder.
Slobber. Werewolf. Not one he knew, but related to someone he definitely knew.
He yawned, looking up and pretending to close his eyes. Only one.
He hicked his leg up, pressing the arch of his foot against the table. Ivan looked at him lazily, almost confused, but not quite, before going back to eating.
Alfred could feel his eyes against his head.
Time seemed to slow as he dropped, claws out and mouth open, from the ceilings.
Alfred pushed his leg, shooting himself back.
He flipped, holding himself onto his hands before dropping out of the handstand. He crouched down, getting onto his toes.
The werewolf pulled himself up much too late. Rulyn was on the table, crouched down with a claw digging into his throat. Alfred realized in that moment that Rulyn was not in control. Vuk had caught the scent, and the immortal tracker would never lose it.
"Surrender," Vuk growled, leaning forward so that he was in the werewolf's vision.
"Never-"
Sami smiled, twirling the blowgun in her fingers. The werewolf's eyes dilated and rolled up, and Vuk removed his claws as the body fell forward.
It let out a shuddering breath, and the room's collective gasp seemed to relax.
Ivan picked the wolf up by his scruff, which made all the other werewolves and werecats in the room cringe. It was demeaning to do that, though they guessed now would be a good time.
Alfred smiled and picked himself up, brushing his shoulder off.
"Thank you," he said to the two, the demons nodding. Vuk didn't look like he was going to eat, not even bothering to take another whiff of the werewolf. He ran off to go see if he could collect more scents.
"Ivan?" Alfred asked, motioning for him to follow. Ivan nodded, glaring down at the body. A few ran forward to stomp his tail, and others spit. Someone threw a throwing knife into his thigh, and the blood dripped down to the floor.
Down to the basement, into the old computer room that had never been used again. The stool and fold-up table still sat there, but the computer had been taken off the wall with everything else.
Ivan put him on the stool, grabbing the heavy chains that Alfred handed him and tying one side while Alfred tied the other.
As soon as he was secured, Ivan went around the stool, wrapping his arms around Alfred. He was on the brink of tears. Alfred just looked dull, watching the werewolf with tired eyes.
"Assassin," he muttered, "it wouldn't have worked."
"You need to care more about the present and future," Ivan said, suddenly, "you could have gotten hurt. And..."
He didn't say more, just running his hand down his stomach.
"I... no. No. It's my goddamn defense mechanism. I'm not going to give it up. If I worry too much about the future, if I don't continue to think about the good times, I wouldn't still be alive."
Alfred was crying now, trying to get out of his arms. He felt like he was being smothered.
"No!" he yelled, Ivan pulling away. Dust was starting to collect at his feet, twirling around in a lazy manner.
"Don't you understand you don't deserve to die?" Ivan said, "Just because of your sins- your sins are meaningless! You are immortal! You will never reach the end of your fate, your power is too great for that!"
The dust was getting to his hips now, and it was getting stronger. You could hear the faintest whooshing as it went around.
"It is foolish to think anything could last forever. Immortality is a lie. Life does not care about power. Sin is a standard of moral, and it seems my morals are much too high to deal with my nation."
"How can you say that life does not care about power?" Ivan asked, tilting his head, "Look around you."
"Vanya, dearest, was Stalin powerful?"
"Yes, why?"
"And life turned him in, did it not?"
"Um... yes."
"To prove my point," Alfred smiled, raising his arms as the dust rose higher, becoming a tornado around him, "Life does not give handouts. You will always get your due."
Ivan paled, taking a few steps away from the tornado as it spun, drawing out the dust and blood soaked through the ground, watching as it shot into a portal.
Alfred landed lightly, his feet barely making a sound even though he'd been a few feet in the air.
"I long since known I will get my due," Alfred smiled, a single tear running down his cheek. Ivan took a few steps forward, wiping it away.
"But for now..." Alfred said, as the werewolf groaned, "What's your name."
"I'll never tell you!" the werewolf roared, pulling his chains before looking down at them, his eyes wide.
They seemed to be alive, wrapping him up more as he struggled.
"Fancy, aren't they?" Alfred said, putting his hands on his knees in front of him as they climbed up to his neck.
"Now, what's your name," Alfred said, looking him up and down. White fur with red accents, "I already know you're Whiteblood, so don't lie about that, either."
"I'll tell you, but you'll have to call the chains back after," the werewolf said, gasping as the cold metal slipped through his fur.
"Okay," Alfred replied.
"Creighton," he said, and Alfred waved a hand. The chains went back to their original position.
"Now, don't move," Alfred smiled, before his face, voice, and mannerisms went slack, "Crieghton, tell me everything I want to know."
"Yes, Chief Dyami," the wolf replied, suddenly going straight and tall, his head facing forward and his eyes dull.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Someone asked for a Rulyn reference, but you can have Vuk's too because... they in the same body?? Kinda?
Also, I'm thinking about instead of ending the book at 25 (24+epilogue)chapters, I do thirty, with the last five are the backstories of five chosen characters. They can be background, main, secondary, don't care. Only comment one character, and the first five comments will be the ones I do. (Please note, if you want Rulyn or Sami's backstory, you're getting their demons backstories too.)