A mountain looms over the city of Hobart, Tasmania. Its peak is often snowcapped and its sides breed blustery winds that bend the trees almost double when they’re feeling frisky. At the foot of the mountain in a sweet little chalet, Lilly sat at a glass outdoor table in a comfortable chair and sipped her iced tea. Down in the garden, Cain splashed in a small blow-up pool with a giggling six-month-old girl on his lap.
“Do you love the water?” Cain laughed as she splashed. “Enjoy it while it lasts cuz it’s fuckin’ freezing here most of the time!”
“Language!” Lilly chided from the table.
Cain waved her off negligently and splashed the baby.
Open on the glass table was a pile of books and a half dozen notepads covered in Tom’s sloppy handwriting. The demon himself sat beside Lilly with a curly straw in his mouth, the other end of which was stuck in a bottle of beer. He let the straw slip from his mouth with a wet pop.
“Okay, no one ever wants to talk about this shit, let alone write it down, but I think I’ve got it figured out.” He announced. “Nephilim are forbidden, we know this. Power and free will and blah blah blah. Personally, I think the big man just enjoys forbidding fucking.” Lilly shot him a dark glare at the expletive which he ignored. “BUT, turns out there may actually be a reasonable reason this time. There’s no provision in the grand scheme of things for hybrid babies so uh, they’re unplanned.”
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Lilly’s brow furrowed, “anyone can have unplanned babies,”
“No, no,” he shook his head. “I mean they're completely unplanned. There’s no soul available for the body.”
“You’re saying Hope has no soul?” John choked as he walked out of the chalet with a tray of drinks and a bucket of ice.
Tom shook his head, “I think she was born without one, and we,” he gestured to all of them and then looked at Lilly, “and by ‘we’ I mean ‘you’ got played.” She raised an eyebrow and he continued. “See, you my self-sacrificing lover, offered up your life for Hope. That’s some big juju. She got your soul, and you were meant to die a martyr.”
“Wait, you’re saying I don’t have a soul?” Lilly demanded.
He shook his head again. “Oh no, you’re souled, we brought you back with all the bits. If there were no soul you’d be a zombie. No, my best guess is you and Hope are going halvsies.”
“Is that dangerous for them?” John asked.
“I have no fucking clue, mate.” Tom leaned back in his chair and looked at his brother playing with the baby. “As far as I can tell, this shit has never happened before.”