{Victoria}

I couldn't believe my ears when Jenny told me that I had a nephew that she walked out on because she didn't want to be a mother anymore. If I didn't know any better I'd say she's following in Delilah's footsteps. The only reason Delilah kept me was because Jenny and Jaxon were already smitten with me and she didn't have the heart to give me away.

"Wow you're following in Delilah's footsteps alright," I said.

We were sitting in my office and Jenny was sitting on the couch while I was sitting on a chair across from her. She narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean think about it," I said. "What was the reason Delilah didn't give me up for adoption when she didn't want me?"

"Because Jaxon and I were smitten with you and she didn't have the heart to give you away," Jenny said.

"And what did you do when you had your son?" I asked.

"I left because I didn't want to be a mother anymore. And I wanted the child because I wanted someone to need me," Jenny said. Her eyes went wide in realization of what she did. "Holy shit! I am turning into Delilah! That's not good! What do I do now?"

"Well it didn't work out with David but you could at least make an effort to be in your child's life. He's how old now?" I said.

"He's only six months old," Jenny said.

I gasped, "What! You had your son for that long and didn't tell me? If you needed extra help in taking care of your son you could've told me and I would've sent you help. I have the resources for that now."

Jenny sighed, "Yeah I know. But my child is my responsibility. So I didn't want to ask for help for that reason. Although David did encourage me to ask for help."

"You're an idiot," I said.

She nodded. "Yeah I know that now."

"Well you'll work on fixing this right?" I asked.

"Yes, I will," Jenny said. "On another note, I think we should have a welcome home party for you. Considering you brought some new family members with you."

"Yeah about that. There's something that I need to explain to you. Ross is also my boyfriend and Riley is my girlfriend. Rose is also Walter's girlfriend," I said.

Jenny paused. "Interesting. So it's a polyamorous relationship type deal?"

I nodded. "Pretty much."

"I see," Jenny said. "Alright then, I'll respect what is yours and stay away from him. But what if he wants to be with me?"

I shrugged. "That's up to him. There is another I should probably explain to you. It's about the idea of mates. The term mates are often used to describe someone's partner so to speak. It's complicated and a long story."

"Alright then, can I plan your welcome home party? Please? I'll make sure it'll be so much fun! I think you need to have some fun with all that traveling you've had to do these past couple of weeks. I'm sure being the leader of the Royals can be a rather tiring job. Oh and I heard you stopped taking your medicine for your mental health. I've been meaning to ask you about that, why'd you stop taking it? You know that's important to you right?" Jenny asked.

I sighed, "It's complicated. But let's just say I found another way to treat my illness without that stuff, okay?"

She gave me a look of concern. "You sure about that? Is that why you don't have Cody around you as much anymore? He gets to live the life of a normal house dog now?"

"He's still around but he gets to come and go as he pleases and he's still in tune with what I need from him. He still likes to sleep on the bed with me and he alerts people when there's problems," I answered.

The look on her face told me she wasn't buying that I didn't need my medicine anymore for the mental illness that I was diagnosed with. At that moment I wished that I could tell her the truth. That I was a demon and not human. That I wasn't just any demon, I was the Princess of Hell, Satan's daughter. But I'm pretty sure that if I told her the truth now, she would say that that was a sign that I needed my medicine more than ever.

After a brief awkward silence that consisted of us just staring at each other Jenny broke it by sighing. "Alright then. I'll just have to take your word for it."

I nodded. "Well I think that's all we have to talk about for now. Let's go meet up with the others."

Jenny nodded in agreement. I stood up and started to walk out the door when I suddenly fell over and the room started spinning on me.

"Victoria!" I heard Jenny call out as she rushed to my side. "Victoria!"

I tried to stay awake and reach out to her but I couldn't move. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Walter picking me up and carrying me to my bedroom.

***

{Walter}

As soon as I saw Jenny run to me for help I was concerned. Jenny panicked and said Victoria suddenly passed out. I quickly followed Jenny to Victoria's office and saw her lying to the floor trembling and clenching her jaw.

"This is a side effect from her not taking her medicine right?" Jenny growled as I picked Victoria up and brought her to her bed.

I shook my head because I knew exactly what was going on. Even before Victoria and I knew that we were demons I saw her having the same symptoms. When I asked Alastor about it he said that it was something called a power surge. It's because her powers just recently awakened so to speak and her body's having a hard time adapting to it. But I suspect that it might have something to do with the fact that Victoria's not really alive at this moment; she's just using her original body that Alastor managed to keep alive when she's on Earth.

Once she and I finally kill off our original bodies we'll learn how to shift into our human form instead of just leaving our wings out all the time. From what I heard, first time shifting from your demon form to your human form is painful and I'm not looking forward to that.

Ross frowned when he heard what Jenny said, "Medicine? What medicine is she talking about? I didn't realize Victoria was sick."

I shook my head again. "That's not what this is." I sighed and looked at Jenny. "Jenny, you stay here and look after Victoria for now. I need to have a word with everyone else in the office now."

Once we got to Victoria's office I closed the door.

"Before I tell you what I'm about to say, not a word of this leaves this room, okay?" I said.

Ross, Riley and Rose nodded.

"Okay, before Victoria and I found out that we were demons we lived as regular humans. But because Victoria could see and hear things that humans couldn't she was deemed as a crazy person. The hospital that she was in would not let her leave without a caretaker. I was working as a caretaker at that very hospital at the time. That's where I met her.

"Then she got into painting and she became a popular artist and that led her to meet the human that she called mother again. Things didn't go so well and the woman assaulted her and that's when we realized she needed a service slash guard dog and that's where Cody came in. What Jenny's talking about is the medicine that humans had Victoria take for her mental health issues.

"Turns out that this whole entire time she wasn't crazy. She is a demon who can sense other supernatural beings around her. As a matter of fact, this house wasn't as big as it is now a few months ago before we found out who Victoria's real parents were. Victoria didn't want to expand the house at all even though she was making good money with her art and Delilah's ex-husband Frank gave her his family name even though Victoria prefers to still keep her last name as Lee," I explained.

"Lee… Lee… Where have I heard that last name before? Other than Victoria having it?" Ross asked. Then he perked up. "Was Victoria's adopted father named Issac Lee by chance?"

I nodded. "Yes, why?"

He scowled. "That bastard! He was involved in a cult called: The Fifth! They're known for kidnapping children of supernatural beings! As a matter of fact they tried to kidnap Rose and I!"

Rose nodded. "Yeah, but Ross and I were lucky enough to escape from them before it was too late. I'm so sorry you guys had to live as something you were not." She hugged me. "But you're fine now. Once you get used to being a demon things will get better, right?"

I sighed, "I hope so."

Rose kissed me and I saw Ross gage when she did. I smiled and kissed her again just to get on his nerves.

"Would you two get a room already!" Riley snapped.

"What? I couldn't help myself," Rose said defensively.

"So what's going on with Victoria now?" Ross asked.

"I talked to Alastor about this before because it's happened before already. I just didn't know what it was because I didn't know that Victoria was a demon at that time. But Alastor said that what she's dealing with now is a power surge," I answered.

Ross and Rose flinched when I said that. Riley on the other hand, looked confused. "What? What's going on?"

"A power surge is what happens when your body is trying to adapt to your powers. I don't think werewolves don't get them because their wolves help their humans adapt to their powers by shifting," Ross explained.

"Oh," Riley said. She shuddered. "That looks painful. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that. How long will Victoria's power surges last?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea." I looked at Ross. "When do power surges stop?"

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"Victoria's twenty-nine now and her powers have awakened. So who knows at this point. Normally, a supernatural being has their powers awaken around about the age of sixteen or eighteen. Anything later than that and they're considered a latecomer. How old was she when she was kidnapped?" Ross said.

"She was two years old," I said.

Ross clenched his jaw. "Those bastards! I bet they sealed her powers away too!"

I blinked. "How did you-"

Ross took a deep breath and let it out. "Because that's what the Fifth does! They claim they're waging some sort of war against supernatural beings. That is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. From what I know of they started with werewolves, then moved on to witches, then they moved on to vampires, they even somehow managed to kidnap angels! And when their little 'war' didn't pan out, they moved on to kidnapping demons.

"They've kidnapped just about every single supernatural being known to man. They claim that they're trying to get rid of every immoral being on Earth. Well the jokes on them because it just speeds up their inevitable death and they go to the one place that they claim to wage war on… Hell."

I smirked. "And that's where my Dad, Alastor gets to torture them. He believes that torture is an art."

Rose shuddered. "Yeah he's creepy."

I snorted. "That's just how he is. You know you're going to have to meet him sooner or later since you're my mate right? But he's not that bad. When you die I will welcome you in Hell personally. The same thing goes for you Ross and Riley you'll both have to meet Victoria's father who is Satan sooner or later."

"Anyway," said Riley, "How do we take care of Victoria while she's dealing with her power surges?"

"When they happen, just treat it like she has a case of the flu, I guess. For vampires drinking the blood of their parents seems to help ease the pain. I have no idea what-" Ross said.

He was interrupted by Satan himself, "It's kind of the same thing. Along with the blood of her first mate. If she drinks that it should help ease the pain. Other than that, just let her ride it out as if she has the flu." He looked at me. "And that's the cover story we will give Jenny. She doesn't know about our world and she won't until she dies and I'm pretty sure Victoria will agree with me on that."

As soon as Ross, Rose Riley saw Satan they gasped, "Your Majesty!"

They bowed and Satan nodded. "You may rise."

They stopped bowing and looked at him in fear. He rolled his eyes. "Listen I might be the ruthless ruler of Hell but that's because I have to be. Ross and Riley, you two are my daughters' mates. I know because Victoria told me about you. So call me Dad. Because I know Victoria will never consider rejecting you. And once you finish the marking ceremony at the end of this year, you'll officially become family."

"Y-Yes Your-" Ross started.

Satan narrowed his eyes. "It's Dad to you."

Ross paused. "Okay, um Dad."

Riley blinked. "Yeah, calling the King of Hell Dad is going to take some getting used to. So, Dad, how can we help Victoria through her power surges?"

"Just treat her as if she has the flu. The power surges might pop up out of the blue until her body has adapted. However, I think that she's using her original body, the power surges won't stop until her original body is dead," Satan answered.

Satan looked like he was going to say something else when we heard Victoria scream bloody murder. He frowned. "Ross, Rose and Riley can you guys go take care of her for a moment? I need to have a word with Walter in private."

Ross, Rose and Riley nodded and did as they were told.

Once they left Satan motioned for me to take a seat across from where he was sitting on the couch. He sighed, "You know what I said about drinking her parents blood and her first mate's blood was right. That means you'll have to mix some of your blood with mine and Cathy's."

"Question, how exactly are we going to get her to drink it?" I asked.

He smiled. "Don't worry about that. Just go to the private hospital we have here and get your blood drawn and I will take care of the rest."

I heard Victoria let out another scream and it was clear that she was in pain. I frowned. "I should probably go check on her."

Satan nodded. "That would be a good idea."

Without another word, I ran out of the room to Victoria's as fast as I could.

***

{Ross}

When I got to Victoria's room I stopped short when I saw Jenny holding Victoria as if she was a baby.

I don't know why but seeing Jenny hold my mate like that irked me.

"You can let go of my mate now. I can take care of her," I growled.

"And what makes you think that you can take care of her better than me?" Jenny snapped. "I've been taking care of her a lot longer than you have. I know her better than you do."

I rolled my eyes. "Uh-huh I'm sure you do. Do you know what her favorite food is?"

"Does that really matter right now?" Jenny said.

I nodded. "Yes, it does matter. You say you know her better than I do. If you answer correctly then I'll agree with you. But as it stands I am her mate and not you. I can take care of her just as much as you can."

"No-" Jenny started.

"Would you two shut the fuck up!" Victoria mumbled. "You're hurting my ears. And whoever's holding me can you please let go? I just want to sleep! It hurts!"

"What's happening to her?" Jenny panicked.

"She just has a bad case of the flu," I lied. I felt bad about lying but Satan was right. The supernatural world is so much more complicated than the human world. She'd never understand the way things truly are unless she saw it for herself. As long as she's alive she'll never see it.

It makes me wonder if Victoria's human mate Louis knows about this stuff. I'm going to assume that he probably does.

Victoria squirmed as if she was trying to get away from Jenny. "Let me go!"

"Shhh," Jenny said. "It's me Jenny. I'm just holding you, stop squirming, you don't want to fall off the bed now do you?"

"I don't care," Victoria whined, "Just stop holding me! It hurts!"

Jenny groaned, "Okay fine, I'll stop."

Jenny gently placed Victoria on the bed as she stood up. Victoria rolled over and curled into a tight ball underneath the covers.

"Alright guys I think we need to clear out for a moment," I heard Walter say. I looked over and I saw a man standing beside him.

He had to have been somewhere around Walter's age by the looks of it. He was wearing a business suit that was light gray and had a white shirt underneath his suit jacket. He wore a red tie to go with his suit. He had a look of concern on his face. "So this is what a power surge looks like."

Walter nudged him on the shoulder with his elbow and whispered into his ear. "Jenny doesn't know about our world and I don't want her to."

Louis paused. "Oh."

Jenny tilted her head. "Power surge? What's that?"

"Actually I misspoke," Louis said with a nervous laugh. "What I meant to say was that's what it looks like when she's sick. That's all."

I nodded. "Yeah she's sick with the flu."

Jenny frowned and narrowed her eyes. "Uh-huh, she's sick with the flu. No, this is a side effect of her not taking her medicine anymore!"

"She doesn't need the medicine!" Walter argued.

"Would everyone just shut up and get out of my room?" Victoria shouted. "Your noises hurt my ears."

She didn't say anything after that as the pain from the power surge seemed like it was getting worse because she started panting as if she were out of breath.

Somehow Walter managed to get Jenny to leave and Jenny wasn't too happy about leaving. When she left the room I turned to Louis. "So, you're Victoria's second mate, huh?"

He nodded. "Yeah I am. To be honest, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole supernatural being thing. But I did see a tattoo of a feather on her back before she found her real parents and from what Alastor told me it was one of her wings getting ready to grow out. But she's dead, but not really? It's hard to understand. But why is she panting like she's running a marathon in her sleep?"

"Because she's in pain, I don't know about you but I'm going to watch over her and at least make sure she doesn't fall out of the bed," I said.

I took my shoes off and got into bed next to Victoria. Right when I thought she was going to recoil at my touch she snuggled up to me.

She let out a sigh of relief, "That's better. It still hurts a little, it hurts so much it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling!"

I gave her a look of confusion. "What?"

Louis snorted. "Yup. She's in pain alright. I saw her get a gunshot wound and she said it tickled."

My jaw ticked at the very thought of Victoria being injured. I didn't like that thought at all even though she was a demon and it wouldn't kill her. I looked at Louis. "When did that happen?"

"It happened shortly before she was headed home from her trip. I couldn't go with her because I had to work. She got wind of an attack getting ready to happen on one of her people. I had no idea it was going to happen to me in my office. Apparently a rival mafia was trying to kidnap me in order to get to Victoria. That didn't work because I normally keep a gun under my desk where I can reach it in case of stuff like this.

"Of course I was able to defend myself as much as possible but then Victoria came in and killed the guys. But before she killed any of them one of them managed to shoot her in the leg. She laughed and said it tickled. That confused the enemy to no end and she shot them," Louis explained.

"Hmm, as much as I love being high at the sound of your voice Louis, why don't you shut up and lay in bed next to us? You know you want to," Victoria mumbled.

Louis shrugged and mouthed the words 'I told you so' to me. He took off his suit jacket and tie and that's when I noticed how fit he was. He had muscles like he went to the gym on a daily basis. I smiled because in my eyes Louis was definitely worthy of being Victoria's mate. I knew that he would do whatever it took to protect Victoria just like I would.

Louis chuckled, "Like something you see?"

I felt my face turn red. "Uh…"

"It's okay, I have slept with a guy before I am straight though. I don't just sleep with any guy though. I'll sleep with you if that's what you want because you're also Victoria's mate," Louis said as he climbed into bed next to Victoria.

"Let me guess, you slept with Walter didn't you?" I asked.

Louis nodded. Shortly after he laid down on the bed Walter came in with a tray that had a cup with some dark liquid in it and a couple of pills next to it.

Walter frowned. "We need to wake Victoria up."

"I'm awake, but I'm not opening my eyes," Victoria said.

"You need to open up your eyes just for a moment so you can take this medicine. It'll help with the pain," Walter said.

I helped Victoria sit up and grumbled as she opened her eyes and looked at the cup with the dark liquid in it and wrinkled her nose. "That looks gross. What is it?"

"It's medicine and you'll take the two pills along with it to help you sleep," Walter said. The way he said it reminded me of how my nanny would coax me into taking medicine when I was younger. That makes sense considering Walter worked at a hospital as a caregiver before he met Victoria.

Victoria begrudgingly took the cup and took a sip. She cringed at the taste. "Yup, it's about as gross as it looks."

"You'll have to drink the whole thing in order for it to work and take the pills while you're at it," Walter said in a commanding tone.

Victoria made a face and pouted, "Fine then, cheers."

She grabbed the pills and popped them into her while she drank the rest of the medicine in one go. She made a face and cringed from the taste. It seemed that Walter was prepared for this reaction as he handed her a can of soda. "Here you go, this should help for the taste."

She drank the soda and after she was done she handed the can back to Walter. After she handed the can back to Walter she snuggled beside me and instantly fell asleep.

Walter whistled, "Wow. Satan did tell me those pills would be enough to make her sleep but I didn't think they'd knock her out instantly! It's for the best, let's just hope whatever power surges she has in the future aren't that bad. I hope I don't have any. But I probably will, considering I'm not totally dead."

I nodded. "How long do you think she'll sleep for?"

He shook his head. "I have no idea." He took the tray and turned to leave when he said, "You guys take care of her for now, okay? I'll check on her tomorrow."

When he left there was a short silence. Louis broke it by saying, "So, what type of supernatural species are you?"

I snorted. "That's a nice way to break the ice. But yeah I'm a vampire."

"So you can't walk out in the sunlight can you?" Louis asked.

I nodded. "Yes I can. There are different types of vampires. The ones that can walk out into the sunlight like everyone else can, they're called Daywalkers. But we also hunt for food at night. And no we don't hunt humans like a lot of the media portrays us doing. We hunt animals and get our blood from there. Or at least that's what my family does and what I've seen many other families do. It's the weaker vampires that can't go out into the sunlight and they're unpredictable."

He tilted his head. "Unpredictable? In what way?"

"One moment they can talk to you and have a normal conversation and the next moment they could be attacking you," I said.

"I see," Louis said.

There was silence in the room after that. Shortly after that, I drifted off to sleep.