Chapter 40

Unwilling to allow Helen to ruin his well laid out plan, Ni accompanied her down into hell. He then covertly sent a message to Mokuba and Serenity to alert them to the situation before they arrived.

'It shouldn't be this quiet down here,' Helen glanced nervously around as they made their way towards the little house the Veronsen-Vii inhabited. 'I mean, where are all the demons?'

'How should I know,' Ni shrugged, hoping her suspicions wouldn't be raised any further. 'Maybe someone cleared them all out before installing the children and their parents down here.'

'I guess that makes sense,' Helen pressed her lips together, 'but then you have a huge chunk of hell left empty. Isn't that kinda suspicious?'

'That depends on who's looking I guess.'

'Hmm…'

She was about to say more, but the house they were heading towards was now in sight. Steering her straight towards the front door, Ni gave two loud taps and hoped Mokuba and Serenity had done something about disguising themselves. After a few moments the door opened. Ni instantly spotted the colour contacts and blonde wig the face staring out at them was wearing and was pleased the pair of them at least had half a brain between them.

'Are you the one sent to protect our children,' Serenity's voice dripped with fake innocence.

'That's right,' Helen nodded, 'is it alright if I come in?'

'Of course,' she smiled, opening the door wide enough for Ni and Helen to enter, 'we've been hoping you'd arrive soon; I just don't know what I'll do if they get their hands on my children. Please say you've come prepared.'

'I have,' she nodded.

'Good,' Serenity invited them both to sit at the table. 'My children are asleep right now, but I'm sure you'll meet them first thing in the morning. As for my husband, he's… gone to get some food.'

'That's alright.'

For a few moments there was an awkward silence. Then Serenity gave a strange kind of laugh and raised a hand to the wig she was wearing.

'I hope you don't think it's weird for me to be wearing this thing despite knowing you're not here to harm us; I've grown used to living in disguise you see.'

'That's alright. I think it suits you,' Helen shot her a polite smile, before allowing her eyes to carefully explore the room they were in. 'You been here long?'

'Probably for a lot less time than it feels,' her voice remained level, 'certainly long enough for this place to start feeling like home.'

'Don't worry, we'll have you back on Earth in no time.'

'I'm sure you will. Will you be staying here tonight?'

'No,' Ni didn't allow Helen the chance to answer, 'we need to stake out the area a little, don't we H H?'

'That's right,' Helen nodded, 'then I plan to set myself up somewhere nearby. It'll be safer for you if I'm not staying here, I think; that way I can get these people before they have a chance to reach you.'

'Oh, that will be nice,' Serenity smile almost began to edge with cruelty.

Realising she'd blow her cover if he didn't get Helen out of there sharpish, Ni quickly got to his feet.

'Well there's no time like the present to do a little scouting, is there H H?'

'I guess not,' Helen pulled herself up from her chair. 'It was nice meeting you.'

'And you,' Serenity nodded back in her direction. 'Both of you,' her eyes flicked towards Ni, 'I do hope you have every success in stopping them.'

'Don't worry, you're children are more than safe in our hands,' Ni almost couldn't help himself, 'especially with H H here on the job. You couldn't hope for anyone better.'

'Good,' Serenity's expression clouded strangely for a moment, before another fake smile forced its way across her lips. 'Well goodbye for now,' she led them back towards the door, 'and good luck.'

CiCi glared at her father from across the room, as he jealously guarded the door. She had no idea why he'd suddenly decided to enter their room like that, but she had a feeling it probably had something to do with the voices she could here murmuring from the room beyond. From her position near the beds, the voices were too soft for her to make out a word of them, but if she had to guess she'd say they were up to no good. After all, how could anyone associating with her parents be anything but pure evil?

That was probably why she'd kept her mouth shut until she'd heard the voices leave; she didn't want to bring hell into the room with her. Especially not if her parents had some sick notion about making her feed off of whatever demon was visiting. She was just glad that her brother had managed to sleep through it all. A few minutes after the voices left, there was a gentle tap on the door. Instantly her father opened it, allowing her mother to enter. She was wearing a bad blonde wig and had off coloured brown contacts in her eyes. There was also a smile plastered across her face which appeared to be silently mocking CiCi.

'Ni's being good to his word,' her mother's voice was soft and level, 'he's even managed to recruit a complete innocent to help him.'

'Will that be enough though?' Her father frowned deeply.

'It's all we need, isn't it? Because they won't attack an innocent.'

'No, they won't, will they?'

'But that doesn't mean we can't.'

'Oh?'

'Well we will be, after all this is over, now won't we?'

'What's that supposed to mean?' CiCi sat up, making them both start.

'It means we'll be working for Ni,' her mother's gaze flicked towards her, 'that we will accept being demons and stop feeding off of them.'

'Do you think this innocent will make a good first meal for them,' her father's eyes narrowing in on her.

'I hadn't thought of that,' her mother tilted her head curiously, 'but I'm sure Ni will have no problems with letting them make a meal of her.'

'You can't…' CiCi stared at them in horror, 'I won't… never!'

'Oh come on, you'll have to get used to it sometime and it's not as if your brother isn't already feeding off of things.'

'That's not the same.'

'Isn't it?'

'No, it's not,' she held firm. 'For a start he doesn't realise what he's doing. And for a second he's only feeding off of insects, not people.'

'So, it's just one step up, isn't it?'

'No!'

'CiCi…' Damon murmured in his sleep.

Not too sure if he was waking up or not, she quickly scrambled towards him and placed herself protectively in front of him. Her parents' faces filled with an unimpressed look as they shook their heads and left the room, locking it behind them.

'CiCi…' Damon murmured again.

'Shh, it's okay,' she turned towards him, gently cradled him in her arms as she lay herself down beside him. 'It's all okay. I'm here. I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you, I promise. I promise.'