"This" Trick hands me this book of about a hundred pages "is all you need to know about cold ones vampires, well the general idea. You can find more in both the light and dark archives"

"Thank you" placing my hand on my belly, even though my belly isn't too big and is just barely showing I can feel my son moving around inside of me.

Feeling eyes on me, turning my head slightly noticing Bo stare at me while Dyson is beside her. So I listen in closely "What's her deal?"

"Who?" Dyson asks

"Her" she points to me with her beer bottle "Mallory"

Dyson shakes his head "She's had a hard life...she's experienced the prejudice many of us fae have from humans, something you haven't experienced Bo and be grateful you didn't. Even though she's eighteen"

"She's eighteen?!" Bo's voice filled with disbelief "I thought she was older and just looked young"

"Just know Bo" Dyson says "Mal has many walls up, it took me months to just go through one layer of her barriers. Her being bitchy to everyone around her, there's a reason for it. If you want to be in her life, give it time"

"So that's the unaligned succubus" Trick briefly looked to Bo as he was cleaning some glasses "she's very judgmental for a succubus"

"She was raised by humans" Trick reminds me offering me a smile "you know Mal, you might want to give her a chance?"

"Why?" I ask "give me one good reason"

He stops to look me in the eyes "Because like you she's new to this world and likes breaking some of the laws that have been placed for thousands of years, a bit like you"

"I bend the rules" using my abilities to have the straw in my mango smoothie swirl around "I don't break them, there's a difference. If I break the rules then I have to have a good reason to, I don't just break rules without thinking things through"

"Will you tell the father?" Trick asks

"Will I tell him?" Stopping the straw to sip on the mango smoothie, I can't get enough of the mango smoothie "That's something I've been debating. I barely knew him. Just fucked. Wanted to make people jealous. Nothing more. I don't even know his last name or where he lives, I know it's in a coven because he doesn't seem like the kind to be a nomad...well the kind of nomads that I've seen, met or read about. I could track him but the only thing I have of him is my son. I'm not—I don't know. Can we talk about something else?"

"How's your cousin doing?" He asks "the one that was committed?"

A few months back Bella was committed into the psychiatric ward, Brian had her committed against Charlie's wishes. Renee even tried to get Bella out but after I called the Morrigan since Bella was committed in her domain, Evony used her authority to keep Bella there. She even had this gorgon fae to take care of Bella.

Waving to him "the fae the Morrigan recommended was amazing, Bella now believes she made everything up about the Cullens. She thinks she bit herself, that the Cullens left since she was crazy. A few people even went into the Swan House and destroyed all evidence of the Cullens being vampires"

"And the demon?" Trick asks

"Still there" I was going to take care of it a few weeks ago, but I found out about the baby and I wasn't going to risk the baby's life "Dyson and Hale checked the entire basement, killed the under fae that was down there but there was nothing they could find on the demon. I think what I'm looking for is somewhere in the forest since the journals I found with Dyson and Hale mentioned another journal, I'm going to figure out where that journal is then destroy the demon"

"Will you be doing that right now?" He motions to my belly "especially with how your...carrying an innocent. Demons tend to try to take control over innocents, such as unborn children"

"I won't go after the demon until after I've had my baby" rubbing my belly since the mere thought of putting him in danger makes me nauseous "Bella is back home and is taking medication"

"What about the wolf shifters?" He asks

A groan escapes me as I lay my head down on the cool counter  "They saw me doing magic when I saved Nathan, Cooper and Rachel" one of the wolves was nearby and saw me use my powers, the wolves haven't stopped trying to talk to me. Even tried to corner me, but I used my magic "actually...I need to talk to Dyson about that" walking over to Dyson and Bo who look my way "Dyson? Can we talk?"

"Hey" Lauren arrived smiling "strangers"

"Hi" I smile

"Am I late or early?" She looks around the place then to me "Please tell me Mal, you aren't drinking"

"Oh" I just realized now when she mentions drinking "before when I didn't know, I was drinking so did it hurt my baby or"

"I ran tests" placing her hand on my upper arm "Mal, your baby is perfectly healthy"

"Baby?" Bo asks "you're pregnant? Congratulations" looking to Dyson "Lauren and I had plans"

"Oh yeah" Dyson sounds jealous "doctor patient stuff?"

"Just being social" Lauren says "were you leaving?"

"What?" He leans back relaxing "and miss this?"

"Great" Bo smiles

"Dyson?" I motion to leaving "can we speak in private? Shifter business" he got up after a moment and we walked away from them.

"What's going on?" He asks

"You know the wolf shifters in La Push?" He briefly nodded his head "they know I use magic, they don't know what I am but they won't stop harassing me. Especially this one wolf shifter Paul, he is...so hot and cold with me. He stalks me and when we talk he talks about how he can't fuck anyone or how he wishes I never existed. Do you think you could talk or...make it clear to leave me alone?"

"Yeah" he nods his head "I'll get Hale to help, last thing you need is for unwarranted stress"

"Thank you" I say

❤️‍🩹

"So basically this underfae" I ask "does what? Cause mass genocide? Is that what it does?"

"Seems so" Trick confirms "it feeds off both human and fae" looking my way "it's a good thing you didn't go to Bo's and Kenzie's, if it began feeding off of you"

"It would have found a permanent meal" How lovely, how do underfae even become underfae? I have got to ask about that, I mean from what I've gathered underfae are basically a bunch of monsters. Monster fae.

"What is she doing here?" Dyson comes in here snarling as he sees Lauren here going through books with us trying to find out more about this Djieien. A Djieien is basically a nasty spider that feeds off of the rage and death of those around it "Why the hell did you call in the Ash's hit squad?"

"Eighteen seventy two" Lauren shows him what she found out about the Djieien "a Djieien infects a mining community leading to the mass murder of six hundred souls"

"Another single Djieien" I show him what I found "is thought to be responsible for the bulk of the Sudanese genocide"

"Didn't even give Bo a chance" Dyson snarls

"Dyson" Trick gives him a look "you know she did the right thing"

"Bullshit!" Dyson yells hitting the counter "look, I just bought us two more hours until they burn the place down. So one of you tell me how to beat this thing?"

"We haven't figured it out yet" I say "did you figure out how the creature even got here? Did it just walk here on its own? It would have left a trail"

"Bo put together a list" he pulls out a list looking at the names "of dark fae before she got infected"

"Guys" I hold up my hand "before we get into that, I am reading a bit about the creature and it seems the spider is currently invincible"

"What do you mean?" Lauren asks

I show Trick since he reads Gaelic, he began teaching me Gaelic over a year ago "The creature is so crafty that it buries it's heart" grabbing another book but this one is in Latin "so until you find the heart and destroy it"

"The spider itself" Lauren closes her eyes feeling defeated "it's virtually invincible"

"Wonderful" Dyson growls "fucking lovely. These are the people Bo found. Peter Byrd. Gordon Hurley. Thomas Holley"

"Wait!" Trick stops him "did you say Gordon Hurley?"

"Yeah" Dyson asks "do you know him?"

"Deals with" Trick explains "exotic animals and underfae. Imports a lot of nasty stuff from the black market for sport, food, whatever. He hasn't been in the bar for about three months"

"That's" Dyson looks at us "when the murder suicides began"

"Do you have any info on him?" I ask

He pulls out a ledger "He's in my books" he hands Dyson a paper "this is his office, you'll find him there"

"I'm coming too" Lauren stands up

"No" I get between them "time for a pissing match Dyson, be angry later.  Right now save Hale, Bo and Kenzie. Now!"

"Keep up" Lauren orders

Going back to the book, furrowing my brows "What did you find?" Trick asks

"My Gaelic was off" I say "the Djieien doesn't bury the heart, it implants it into someone. A living creature, it needs blood from the host to keep its heart beating"

"Great" Trick sighs "so where did it bury it?"

"Most likely with the person who brought it" we look over seeing Dyson and Lauren bring in some guy with a glass tank filled with what one would need for a pet spider.

"Sweet girl" This guy complains "she just gets moody"

"Yeah" Lauren sarcastically agrees "like Jeffrey Dahmer"

"I better get home" he begs "before she comes home"

I open the guy's shirt and listen closely "He has two hearts"

"Our translation was off" Trick explains as I try to locate the small heart in the guy "the Djieien doesn't bury the heart, it implants it. We think it's in him"

Lauren comes over and listens "They're right, I need surgical supplies"

"Or we kill him" I say "kill him, the Djieien dies...win win"

"No" Lauren shakes her head no "what if it doesn't work like that, there will still be blood. The host may be dead but not the spider" she stabs the guy and pulls out the heart seeing it beat.

I take the heart and crush it tightly causing blood to drip down, when I let go the heart lands with a thud onto the floor "This is why I hate spiders" shaking my head "doesn't matter what anyone says, I don't like spiders"