Chapter 209

Helen’s POV

Lisa reached across from the chair she was sitting on to the couch where I sat and gripped my hand. “I didn’t say anything about the Huntsman to scare you. I can see it on your face that you’re terrified. But I don’t think that there’s anything he could do to actually turn you into a demon.”

Her expression remained serious. “But that doesn’t mean that you might not have gained some power that we don’t understand. I don’t think that this has ever been a thing before. I’ll have to do some research, and, now that it’s safe for them to come out of hiding, I will definitely consult with witches and wizards who are far better trained than I am.”

“I’m still fairly young, so there’s a lot that I haven’t run across before, even though I have plenty of raw talent, which I can go ahead and admit now. I’m sure the Huntsman would have been happy to get his hands on me and train me up the way he trained Martin.”

She shuddered. “Not that I ever would have worked for him. But I had to hide my abilities, at least to a certain extent, while he was still out there because the last thing I wanted to do was be forced to work against my own kind or anyone like you guys who I liked.”

“Anyway, there are still elders who know far more magic than I do. And I’ll see if any of them have heard of anything like the combining of you and the Huntsman before. Or, at the very least, what they think we ought to be watching for.”

“Is there anything you think I should do in the meantime?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not particularly. Just be careful with your werewolf if you switch and let her fight other werewolves or compete. She might take on some of those nasty demon traits like being hyperviolent. I’d hate to see you hurt someone because you weren’t paying attention to what your power truly is now. I have a feeling, if nothing else, you’re a lot stronger than you were before. And none of us have any idea what you’re capable of in a fight now.”

“Noted,” I said. “I’ll be careful until you have a chance to do the research.”

“This won’t affect us having a pup, will it?” Justin asked, still looking worried. “I didn’t even think about that when we had sex last night.”

Lisa shook her head even more. “No. I doubt that. It seems like everyone in her ancestral pack had to start from square one there. They were all born with a multicolored coat, and they all had to go seeking power in order to build themselves up.”

“Otherwise, we would have had a pack of hyper-powerful werewolves running around out there. Because if they had inherited the power that each of their parents managed to gain, their offspring would have been insanely powerful, and so on and so forth. In a few generations, they would have been like quasi-deities, and I don’t remember ever hearing about anything like that, do you?”

We all shook our heads.

“Right. So I think it’s fair to assume that whatever lycan offspring Helen has, even if they’re multicoated and still retain the ability to gain power from partners, they’re not going to start out having pulled any of the gained power from Helen in the first place.”

Justin and I both sighed and slumped back.

“Well, that’s good to know,” I muttered.

Lisa continued speculating. “I also don’t think that being a half-demon Is like a disease where the mother can hand it off to her child. Since she’s not actually a part demon, she can’t pass that on genetically to her offspring, even if she did have a whole lot of sex and gain a whole lot of power with the Huntsman.”

I rubbed my head, a headache throbbing at my temples. “Can we be done with this conversation?” I asked. “I just got myself calmed down from everything that had happened before, and this is only making it worse than it was to start with.”

“I sympathize. I really do,” Lisa said. “But the question needed to be asked. And you guys had to be made aware because if there are any lingering effects, you’ll want to know ahead of time so that you can deal with them properly. The last thing you want to do is get caught off guard.”

“Yes. You’re probably right about that,” I agreed. “At least this way, if I start feeling weird, we can catch it before I do something horrible.”

“I don’t think it’s like you’re going to turn wicked or anything,” Lisa soothed. “I could be wrong, and you’re right. It is better to be cautious. But don’t worry about it too much. If I thought it was of great concern, I wouldn’t have suggested that everybody meet back here.”

She gazed at me, sympathy in her eyes. “As I said, this idea has been rolling around in my head for several days now as we got more and more of those videos. And the idea wasn’t something that just occurred to me this morning.”

“If I thought your contamination was a legitimate concern that needed to be dealt with immediately, I would have said something. We wouldn’t have gone in to rescue you without being wary of what you would become if I thought you had become something that you need to be wary of. Does that make sense? I’m rambling. I’m sorry. I’m uncomfortable with this whole situation.”

I gave her the biggest smile I could muster. “I understand. It’s really very kind of you. You’ve only known us for a couple of weeks, and you’ve had to put up with a lot. Thank you for all that you’ve done for us.”

She returned the grin, but her eyes stayed locked on Russo. “It was definitely worth joining you,” she said. “And I very quickly felt like family with all of you.”

That night I lay in my bed, trying to get my mind off the idea that I had somehow been altered by demon sperm. That thought was pretty horrific, and I couldn’t let myself dwell on it. So instead, I thought about the plan to find Randy a mate.

Julianne and I had never actually gotten to go through the werewolf dating apps. She needed to spend some time repairing things between and Peter. But once they’d had enough time to patch things up between the two of them, then maybe we could sit down and try that again.

It took quite a while, but I finally drifted off. Unfortunately, my dreams haunted me again. Visions of sexual encounters with the Huntsman were so vivid I could almost feel him between my legs plagued me. My heart thundered, and my body ached.

I woke up trembling, covered in sweat. I’d let Justin stay the night at my house with me, and when I started up in bed, it woke him.

He rolled and put a hand on top of my leg. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said.

“Want to talk to me about it? I’ll listen.”

I shuddered. “Not really.”

“But it’s clearly upsetting you, whatever it is,” he pointed out. “Maybe you should trust me with it.”

“I barely trust myself with it,” I admitted.

“It has to do with the Huntsman, doesn’t it?” he asked.

I nodded. “I keep having nightmares in more than one way.”

He rubbed my leg with the hand that he’d set there, soothing me. “You don’t need to worry about him. You’re safe. He’s gone, and he can’t come back. I don’t think even a demon can come back after he’s been sent to hell with the sort of rite that Lisa and Russo did.”