First Demonic Dragon

Chapter 1041: Abaddon Finds Out

Apophis noticed Thea lingering beside the cooler and staring at the can of soda in her hand.

He took a moment to slip away from Tiamat and Claire to stand beside his sister.

“You look sad for a woman who was saved from being kidnapped.”

Thea blinked after staring into her can for longer than she’d realized. “Is it that obvious?” Her voice was deceptively upbeat.

“No one in this house is drunk enough for you to be able to fool them. At least, not yet.” He looked over to his mother, Valerie, who was pouring beer down their father’s chest and catching it with a glass pressed against his navel.

He shivered at the sight.

He chose to remember that he was better off having his parents around to gross him out than not having them at all.

“Bash is still upset with me… he’s never avoided me for this long before. I don’t know how to get him to talk to me.”

Apophis let out a disgruntled breath. “You coddle him too much. He’s not a baby.”

“He’s our baby brother.”

“So are Belloc and Straga, and they respected your decision. Even if they understand it.”

“Those two aren’t as troubled as Bash is.”

“Bash isn’t troubled, he’s just a cynical little edgelord who doesn’t care about anything or anyone outside of this house.”

“And why do you think that is, Apophis? He is armageddon. Being cynical is the only way he knows how to protect himself.”

“Belloc and Straga don’t have rosy divinities either, and they turned out fine.”

“Bell gets to take little old ladies and men who’ve lived full lives, and Straga sees what creation follows as a result of his destruction. Bash doesn’t have something like that.”

Apophis sighed. He and Thea wandered towards the edge of the pool and sat with their legs in the water.

“You’ve always been too soft on him for your own good…”

“Someone needs to be.” Thea elbowed him. “When’s the last time that you hung out with our brother? Told him that you loved him or even made him one of your concerning meals?”

“What’s concerning about the meals I make??”

“If our mother is calling you a culinary genius, then you’re already too far gone.”

Apophis didn’t look sufficiently convinced. He placed his palm over the back of his head and turned away.

“I guess it’s… been a while.”

Thea didn’t even bother to ask how long a while was. She figured she probably didn’t want to know the answer.

“I’ll bet.” Thea snorted.

“Alright, I said it’s been a while, don’t rub it in.”

“Start being nice to our brother, and I won’t have to, scrub.”

“Don’t call me scrub, skank.”

“Don’t call me skank, punk!”

Neither was sure which of them struck first, but A small scuffle broke out poolside as the siblings began trying to drown each other in the pool.

They had forgotten that neither of them necessarily breathed as it was…

“Jesus, kids. Where’s the fire?”

The water at the kids’ feet stirred and Tatiana formed from it’s depths. She pried her kids apart with a comical lack of effort.

Sometimes, she had to remind herself that only her children’s forms had changed, and they could still be very childish when influenced by each other.

“Why’re you two fighting when we’re supposed to be celebrating? Your parents have virtually come back from the dead, you know?”

Thea regrew the locks of hair that her brother had pulled out and smiled bashfully.

“You’re right, ma, we’re sorry.”

Tatiana gave her daughter her cheek to kiss, then waited for her son to do the same.

“…Sorry.” Apophis leaned in.

Tatiana caught him by the face and smooshed it.

“With feeling.” She emphasized.

*Muffled* “I’m sorry.”

“That’s my baby.” Tatiana kissed her son on the cheek.

Thea snorted.

“Something funny, twerp?”

“Of course not, baby brother.”

“Yeah, well, I hope your babies never let you sleep peacefully ever again.”

“You bastard, you take that back!” Thea reached for her brother’s neck again.

“Behave…” Tatiana rubbed her brow in exhaustion.

The children pulled apart from each other again.

At that moment, another of her children came stumbling over.

Yemaya, who had clearly had too much to drink, fell face-first into the pool while letting out a happy squeal.

She turned a mass of water into a bed-sized inflatable for her to lie on comfortably.

Once she was settled, she grinned at her mother drunkenly. “Hello, mommy.”

Tatiana was struck full force by the smell of alcohol wafting past her daughter’s lips. It nearly burnt off her eyelashes.

“Okay, someone’s clearly been celebrating a little too hard. The stress of the crown getting to you, little one?”

Yemaya laughed drunkenly as she slipped her arms around her mother’s neck. “No, no, I’m just *burp* happy! I got my parents back, I’ve got my big sister back, I couldn’t be happier.”

Apophis and Thea felt their blood freeze.

Tatiana just continued conversing as if she hadn’t noticed a thing.

“Well, aren’t you sweet. But your sister isn’t missing or anything. You and Yemaja just have to pop out of your ocean for a bit if you want to spend more time with her.”

Yemaya held up two of her fingers that were stuck together.

“I’ll be stuck to her like this since she’s not kidnapped anymore.”

“Kidnapped!?”

It was scary just how adept Tatiana’s partners were at hearing her.

Even though they were scattered all around the roof and pool area, everyone heard Tatiana’s shrill cry.

They instantly forgot about what they were doing and moved over to her. All were curious except Eris.

“Who got kidnapped?” Abaddon tilted his head.

Apophis and Thea turned to Yemaja and gave her droll looks. She covered her mouth in embarrassment.

“Oh… did we not tell them yet…? My bad.”

–

Thea had dreaded telling her father about her kidnapping.

She knew what kind of parent Abaddon was. The kind who would literally scorch everything that existed for one of his children.

It ran in their family’s blood. She knew herself to be the very same way about her own children.

So when she had to tell her father that she had been kidnapped, the last thing she expected was for him to be as calm as he was.

“S-So that’s the gist of everything that happened… but I promise, it’s not really anything for you to lose sleep over and all of that was over a month ago, so… could you maybe put me down now?”

“No.”

Abaddon continued to hold Thea in his arms like she was an infant again.

Thea knew her father had never hit her before, but she had begun to think that he just might if she tried to get out of her arms again.

And he wasn’t the only one treating her like she was fragile.

“My poor baby…” Lailah wept in a way that only a mother could.

Golden tears ran down her face and spilled onto Thea’s cheeks as she cradled her face.

“I’m so sorry… if I had only been here, I could have-”

“The chips fell where they needed to, Mama. There’s no need to lament over the past when I stand before you right now unharmed.”

Thea’s extremely mature disposition, while admirable, only made Lailah feel worse as her mother.

She cried to the point that she could no longer stand.

Soon, Abaddon was holding a gaggle of women as all of Thea’s mothers tried to place their hands on her in some way or another.

She looked towards her wives and sons for help.

The twins were busy rubbing ice cream on each other’s faces and the girls just gave her a helpless look.

There was no chance of escape here.

Abaddon placed his lips on the very crown of his daughter’s head and closed his eyes.

His mind was seemingly trying to protect him from falling into a state of resentment.

His psyche cycled through the same three thoughts.

Thea’s safe, she’s unharmed, things are fine. Thea’s safe, she’s unharmed, things are fine. Thea’s safe…

He said the words to himself over and over again. If only because he feared what would happen if he didn’t force himself to believe them.

“Since we’ve already started the sharing…” Darius interjected, putting down his beer to convey a level of unsettling seriousness. “- might as well catch you all up on everything you’ve been missing.”

In hindsight, maybe it would have been better for Abaddon and his wives to not know everything that they had missed out on while they were gone.

It wasn’t like they could do anything about things that’d happened in the past… not much was accomplished other than them feeling guilty.

They were nearly eaten alive by the regret of not being able to protect their family.

“Stop all those sad faces now.” Hajun bellowed. “You all don’t have to be around to do everything and we’re not a bunch of children who need you to do everything for us.”

Kirina nodded her head in agreement. “That’s right. Everything was resolved even without you all holding our hands every step of the way. The demons were defeated, we have Shiva and Prometheus on the lookout for more flower fields, and the one who kidnapped Thea is awaiting trial with Asherah.”

The air suddenly shifted without warning.

“I’m sorry… do you mean to tell me that the human is still alive..?”

Kirina gulped and kicked herself internally. Lusamine and Karliah kicked her externally.

“I-It was my decision! I wouldn’t let them kill him because-”

Thea blinked and she suddenly had new surroundings.

Instead of being in the arms of her father, Thea was dumped into the arms of her mother, Seras.

And Abaddon was no longer anywhere to be seen.

“Dad, wait!”

Thea screamed at nothing and vanished after her father. A silence settled in around the pool area.

Gulban awkwardly shuffled over to Izanami and placed his hand on her shoulder.

*Ahem* “Sorry about this, but is this a bad time to tell you Amaterasu called and said your parents have been trying to contact you..?”

“WHAT?!”

“Ah, so it is. We can talk about it later then. Want a beer?”