"Because of what your baby's father is" Lauren explains as she gives me an ultrasound "it's why its heart rate is slower. Female fae vampires typically have pregnancies where the heart rate is extremely slow in the womb but a tad bit slower than a human's when born"

Lauren is a human doctor for the fae. She started working for the fae so that she could find a cure for her human girlfriend who is currently in a coma. She's nice. Loyal to the ash but only because he's done much for her concerning finding a cure for her girlfriend. Nadia.

"And you aren't showing" she wipes away the gel from my belly that has begun to bloat a bit "that much because of your exercising recently and your height. You have nothing to worry about regarding your baby, the baby is very healthy"

"I heard there's a succubus" sitting up from the exam table "who was raised amongst humans and doesn't like feeding off of humans, that she's unaligned"

"Bo" she says "maybe you can talk to her? Convince her to choose sides, like the Light? That being in the Light isn't that bad"

"That wouldn't be fair for the Dark" seeing her pack up hastily after getting a phone call "where are you headed?"

"I'm going to visit an Aswang" she says as I put on my shoes "if you want to come with you can"

"An Aswang eat corpses right?" I ask

She nods her head "They are one of the older fae orders" following her to her car, Lauren tells me about the Aswang named Helima. Apparently Helima has been around for over ten thousand years. She's the matriarch of her family since she's the oldest.

Placing a hand on my belly we head to Helima's apartment, once we get there I see two women here. One who looks to be about my age with a red wig on, blue eyes and light colored skin. Then you've got a beautiful woman with the perfect hourglass body, bigger breasts than mine and shapely legs. She has long dark brown hair, brown eyes and light colored skin.

"Mal" Lauren introduced us "this is Bo and her human Kenzie, this is Mallory"

"Hi" giving a brief nod as the two offer a brief smile, when the door opens Lauren shows the man her necklace that shows that she works with the Ash.

"Where's Helima?" Lauren demands "the Ash sent me"

He motions for us to come in and points to where Lauren needs to go, we go in but Kenzie is the only one who doesn't come in right away "Are you coming?" Bo asks

"Uh" shaking her head no as she warily comes inside "I'll take a pass. Fae cooties, I'm not big on sick peeps"

"Fine" Lauren looks to me "Make sure you don't touch or get too close to Helima, we don't want you catching whatever she has"

"Right" crossing my arms "since I'm more vulnerable to sicknesses" though I'm pretty sure I'll be fine.

Lauren looks to Kenzie as the door closes "Just wait here and just try not to break anything"

"Just try" hearing Kenzie mimic Lauren "not to break anything"

When Lauren goes into a bedroom where two women leave, we look to Helima who looks to be in her late fifties with red permed curly hair and blue eyes that are blood shot and bleeding with warm ivory skin.

"Oh" Helima smiles to us "thank you for coming, I hate to cause such a fuss"

"Don't be silly" Lauren opens her medical bag "you know we take care of our own. The Ash sends his best. Actually, you're my first Aswang patient"

Helima smiles "I wouldn't be that surprised" Lauren checks her breathing and heart "we rarely need to see a doctor"

"I'm sorry?" Bo asks "Aswang?"

"Sorry" Lauren motions to us "my assistant, she's new to all of this"

"And you" she looks at me

"Curious" I say "hi, I'm Mallory"

"Mallory?" Her eyes widen "As in Mallory Mikaelson"

A brief laugh escapes me "The very same, it's a pleasure to meet you Helima"

"Oh, this is a pleasure indeed" she looks between us "I never thought I'd ever meet you. The few stories we've heard about you undersell your beauty"

I smile at her compliment "Thank you..." looking to Bo who is confused and curious "Aswang are an older fae order who feed off of corpses"

"What?" She looks around

Helima laughs covering her mouth as she coughed up a bit of blood "Oh, she is definitely new to this"

"Humans may not know it" Lauren checks Helima's eyes "but humans enjoy their very symbiotic relationship with them. Aswang help keep contagions out of the human population"

"They don't take lives" I tell her "they just eat the diseased dead, benefits both sides"

"It's bad" Helima gulps "isn't it?"

"I'm not liking what I'm seeing" Lauren shakes her head "could it be due to someone you ate?" Like what? Aswang can pretty much eat anything, they have the constitution for just about anything.

"I don't know" Helima is confused "I don't see how this could be food related. I've eaten everything. Cancer. Black Death. Ebola"

"With no past side effects?" Lauren asks

Rubbing her chest "Just the occasional case of heartburn" looking to Lauren pleading "but I know my body and something is definitely wrong. I'm dying aren't I?" Her family have somber looks upon them.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves" I ask her "why don't you tell us who you've recently eaten in the last twenty four hours and we'll make sure it isn't food related and if it is Lauren will do everything she can to help you"

Helima smiles to me, crying a bit "I've eaten a foot, made some soup out of it"

"I'll get the foot" leaving the room going to the kitchen, Kenzie is eating soup and cooked.

She looks up at me as I feel a bit nauseous, I may be fine with one day drinking blood but eating corpses is where I draw the line. "What?" She asks, looking me up and down "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Lauren!" I call for Lauren "Bo! Your human ate the soup!" Hearing rapid footsteps, both Bo and Lauren appear and look at Kenzie who is confused "I think I'll be sick" running to the bathroom getting on my knees, opening the toilet I heave up my breakfast.

When I stand up after flushing the toilet, I rinse my mouth before walking back to get the foot. "WHAT?!" Kenzie exclaims, she sees me pull out the foot and I try not to gag as I put it in a container. Kenzie runs out to throw up next before rinsing her mouth "So not only does this Aswang have a very unfortunate name" Lauren takes the container from me and I wash my hands thoroughly "but it also eats dead people and nobody thought to mention this to me?! Hey Kenzie" walking over to us "watch out for random body parts or you know? By the way, foot soup!"

"Please" Lauren begs her "just try to keep it down"

"I want a second opinion" Kenzie demands "because that is the worst possible advice ever!"

"Kenzie" Bo orders "Just relax, everything will be fine. It is right?"

"We don't know if the soup made Helima sick" Lauren says "it could be something unrelated"

"Best case" I say "your friend became a temporary cannibal, worst case she's dying"

"Mal!" Lauren exclaims  Shrugging my shoulders while Bo is exasperated "Even if it was the soup we don't know if Kenzie will be affected, human physiology is completely different from fae"

"Anybody have mints?" Kenzie demands

"What do we do?" Bo asks 

Lauren looks to me "Here" she hands me some hand sanitizer when I'm done washing my hands "While I run tests on the foot and get the results in a few hours, Mal I want you to head to Pelway Funeral Homes and find out what you can on the foot. Bo...keep an eye on Kenzie"

"Anything else?" Bo looks between us "I'm not going to sit back and worry, I'm coming with"

"Fine" I wave my hand "come with me, we'll take my car" getting into my car, Kenzie is in the backseat livid while Bo is staring at me.

"What kind of fae are you?" Bo asks

"I'm not fae" that has Kenzie look my way "and I'm not human"

"Then what are you?" Kenzie asks

A brief laugh escapes me "What I am is someone no one, not even the fae wants to piss off. It's why the fae don't try to force me to join a side"

"Yet I have to" Bo states

"Your fae" I say "I'm not and also I never insulted anyone when asked to join a side"

Bo looks offended "I didn't offend anyone"

A laugh escapes me "Keep telling yourself that" when I park outside of the funeral home, we all get out and the funeral director meets us when I tell someone who I am and why I'm here.

"Poor Helima" The woman sighs "that's terrible. She's been a customer of ours for years"

"How exactly does that work?" Bo asks

We go through different coffins and you have such pretty coffins, I think that if coffins were needed it would be to dagger someone or to put someone into a coma then hide the body. "Well on the surface" the human explains "we operate as a typical funeral home and offer excellent service for our human clients"

"And on the side" Kenzie asks "you serve grandma to the fae?"

"Ignore her" waving my hand to Kenzie "she woke up on the wrong side of the bed"

"Please continue" Bo asks

"We have very tight regulations" the woman says "for our food appropriation stream. Only suitable candidates are selected"

"Define suitable?" Bo crossed her arms

"There's an extensive checklist" shaking my head at Bo who looks at me confused "no immediate checklist and factors such as death, age, ethnicity" looking behind me to Kenzie who gargles mouth wash "all helps assign the body to the appropriate place"

"That's so recyclie of you" Kenzie sarcastically says "I mean why let something go to waste if someone else needs it, right?"

"Precisely" the woman agrees

"Can you excuse us?" I ask

Grabbing Kenzie's arm yanking her outside "Hey! Let go!"

"Let go!" Bo gets between us

"Keep her in line!" I order Bo pointing to Kenzie "the last thing any of us needs is for your human to go pissing off the wrong person because you didn't feed her this morning" pointing to the both of them "you both stay out here, now"

Going back into the room where the woman looks my way "Everything alright?"

"Yes" placing my hand before me to use the hand sanitizer on her desk "can you give me everything about your last shipment to Helima?"

"Of course" she goes to her filed and hands me a card "James Sibley, forty three. He was the victim of a hit and run. But I didn't like the look of him"

"Why?" I ask

Shaking her head "There was" pursing her lips "just something about him that wasn't right. Marked Aswang only"

"Thank you" I smile

❤️‍🩹

"Ad Somnum" using magic to knock the security guard unconscious after Bo fed off of him and didn't kill him, she has been struggling not to kill after feeding.

"How did you do that?" Bo points

I use the key card and voice activation before heading into the restricted area "We need to hurry, your friend's life hangs in the balance" Kenzie is sick too, Helima's and Kenzie's life are hanging on by a thread. I put them in a magical coma, their bodies are frozen in time temporarily.

We see a large clear tank with this murky green liquid "What is in that?"

Tapping the fish tank "Here fishy fishy" Bo jumps back when this scaly long serpent like creature slithers through the water.

"What is that?" Bo asks

"I think that's a basilisk" I say "it's a type of underfae, think of Harry Potter but not as big or deadly eyes. Their skin and blood is toxic, everything about them is. I wonder how many people died getting this thing in here" looking over to Bo who stares at me flabbergasted "you know Bo, your no different from the humans who attacked my last school and almost killed a bunch of children"

"Excuse me?" She demands as I grab a syringe

"You don't accept what you are" looking at her "I get wanting to live a human life, that you grew up having that but I'm not going to sugar coat this. You insult people every day just by how you act. From the choosing ceremony to now. For instance fae eating corpses? They can't change who they are! You and every human who thinks that us supernaturals need to change who we are for you because you weren't born like us, you need to stop! We can't change who we were born as! Why can't you just judge us for who we are as people rather than what we are?!" Some light bulbs burst as the ground was shaking. 

Bo just stares at me as I quickly wipe away my tears, god pregnancy hormones suck at times. Opening the top of the tank, I lift the snake out of the water and it hisses and tries to attack but I keep it still.

Using the syringe I draw blood, once I put the blood in the box that Lauren handed me I lower the snake back into the water before closing the top as he tried to strike at me. I go over to the computer and wipe away everything that is on this creature.

"What happens now?" Bo asks

Holding my hand out, the water creates into steam and the snake slithers around. When there's no more water, I make my hand into a fist causing the thing to explode having blood cover the entire fish tank.

"Oh" Bo covers her mouth

"Come on" we leave the building then and go to Lauren, I can feel Bo briefly look my way every now and then. When Lauren looks at us "It was a basilisk"

"A basilisk?" The Ash is here looking at me "Are you certain?"

"Yes" giving Lauren the blood "I got the blood from it, I destroyed it and all the evidence they had on the creature"

"Good" The Ash briefly smiles at me "thank you for helping Mal, it's always good to know your on our side"

"I'm just like you guys" shaking my head "secrecy is how we survive"

"That's right" he looks to Bo "it's something you do well to remember succubus"

Bo looks at Lauren "the cure?"

"I'll be able to make one" Lauren smiles "I'll give it to Helima then to Kenzie"