The bright glare of fluorescents hurt my eyes. At first, I couldn't tell what was around me, and didn't much care. Sleep for a pregnant woman is a precious commodity, and all I cared about was rest uninterrupted.

Each step Rafe took bumped my body against his chest.

"What are you doing?" He chose not to answer me. "Put me down."

Clomp, clomp. His heavy boots echoed off the concrete ceiling.

"At least tell me what we're doing here. How can you carry me, anyway? I must weight a ton!" I half-heartedly wiggled my way to freedom, but his grip locked me back in.

"Ipotane's possess great strength, even in human form." The voice rang in multiple tones.

Rafe never sounded like that, ever. Something was wrong.

"Ipotane?" The same word that the shaman had used. "You're an Ipotane?"

He focused on me, eyes crimson red. "Rafe is an Ipotane. I am Uzita."

At that point in the conversation, I expected to wake up from yet another one of my infamously strange dreams. Moments clomped by, and the Uzita merely continued the descent into the abandoned lot.

When it became apparent that my dream was not a dream, I asked, "How are you Uzita? You're Rafe."

"This body is his, but the spirit inside is mine."

The multi-tone voice chilled me, and I struggled out of his grasp again, only to be held harder.

"How?" I repeated myself.

"Humans are far more susceptible to supernatural influence, even half-breeds like Ipotanes. However, this is all your fault."

My fault. Yes, I saw that now. In my quest to keep my husband safe, ignorance left him a target. I should've told him everything, to prepare him. Instead, he had been invaded by a goddamn thing.

Silence stretched on, but I shut my mouth, wanting an explanation.

"While in their true form, Ipotanes are immune to spiritual possessions. Thanks to the Shaman's warnings, Rafe knew this and tried to maintain his Ipotane visage during his vigil to protect you. Yet, as you slept, you looked so sweet and inviting. He could not resist reverting back into human form to cradle you in his arms. Once he was asleep, I saw my opportunity, especially since you are so ripe with child." The Uzita chuckled, "I must admit, seeing an Ipotane struggle to lay his human half on a bed while keeping his beastly half out behind him was quite amusing. The fact that you had no idea was even more amusing."

That was why it had been dark in Rafe's bedroom. He wanted to keep me from seeing his other half. That is also what he wanted to talk to me about come morning. Plenty of explaining would have been needed had I woken up in the morning to see a...whatever it was an Ipotane looked like.  I now wondered where the Uzita demon intended to take me, and what his plans for me were once we got there.

"Here we are," was what it said next.

Here was the bottom level of the parking garage. Nothing special about it except for a large blanket laid out in one of the parking spaces, with piles of silken robes stacked nearby.

"We're going to sleep here?"

"Oh my dear," it smiled again, "we won't be getting much sleep."

Sparked by the lascivious tone, I kicked and swung about.

"Now you're scared!" it marveled.

I agreed with a full-blown scream which momentarily stopped the monster. In the next beat, it burst out laughing.

"Yes! Scream! That will only serve to excite me further!" Abruptly, I ceased, and it grinned. "Oh, you are delightful. It is a pity I have to defile you thus. Ah, but the things one will do to please the gods."

Once at the blankets, it set me on my feet.

I spun around, searching for an escape route in what I hoped was a discreet manner. I calculated a ballpark distance to the nearest door or street, lamenting my belly and how much it would slow me down. Then, if the Uzita caught me, perhaps my attempt would anger him.

While I decided to risk running or dying, I asked, "Who are your gods?"

"Why ask when you know? Like you know what you carry inside you is no mere mortal."

My time for escape was slipping away, but I needed answers. "I'm going to give birth to a Uzita god?" 

Roughly, it drew me against Rafe's body. "Yes, but that is not even the best part. The birthing process will kill you, leaving your human shell ready to be inhabited by her."

"What are you talking about?" I was so terrified that tears rolled down my face.

I cursed my stupidity for not running when I had the chance.

"No more words. I must induce the birth. When I tried this with your sister, I did not use a human host, and her body could not sustain the intrusion. I learned from my mistakes and will not fail a second time."

I recalled Rosalind's death: her shower had been an everyday task, barring the unexpected miscarriage. After the demon's confession, and more to the point, his emphasis on the word intrusion, the details of how she might have died dawned on me, and likewise how this thing intended to induce the birth of my own little hell-spawn. Why had random development of DNA chosen to endow me with foresight as opposed to the more useful power of preternatural strength?

Something told me all the struggling in the world would prove fruitless against an Ipotane (whatever that was) imbued with a Uzita spirit. The appreciative murmurs and movements it emitted behind me quelled all thought, leaving me blank with panic. Before I could voice empty threats, it turned me 'round again.

"I'm not going to let this just happen, you know," I said, squaring my jaw, swallowing my tears.

A sickly grin and then it said, "Oh, I know. Good thing for me you don't have to be conscious for this part. Sleep." It's Rafe-like finger tapped my forehead.

A long sigh escaped my lips as I fell to the blanket, completely asleep.