Burning. Burning in her arms, legs, chest. It was a fire in her lungs, pressure in her head, deep thrumming of a heartbeat in her ears. There was also a great and terrible roaring and gnashing that she couldn’t ignore in her head. An assault of hate, unabated rage, visions of violence… visions directed at her. Her body ripped to pieces, of the Cambion reveling in the ichor and viscera of her torn and broken body. How far had she run? Blocks? Miles? Minutes? Hours? She didn’t know and it didn’t matter, all that mattered is that he was always there. 

She had no breath to scream, no mind to beg or yell out, she wasn’t even aware of her wide and bloodshot eyes streaming tears down her face as she ran. ‘Bitch child,’ the voice rang out in her head, stopping everything in the world around her and inside of her. Everything was silence, unmoving. She turned to face the Cambion who pursued her, his eyes locked onto her. ‘You die at my hands.’

His words felt like a current in a powerful river, pressing into her. Her whole body rocked backwards… did she trip? No, there was a force behind it. It was almost peaceful, the way she just seemed go, like she would float away-

Searing pain, discord, the whole world spinning impossibly fast. It took several seconds for the world to come into focus, the loud and blaring sounds of horns and screaming. Was she screaming? No, no she wasn’t. She tried exhaling and all that came out was a groan and a mouthful of blood. All she could manage was a wheeze and to push herself onto her back. There was a car inches from her face, the inhabitants were still inside. She couldn’t quite hear what it was they were yelling, but she knew they were panicked.

She lifted her head, her eyes staring blearily at a mass she barely recognized. There was a malevolent glow to his eyes, a smugness as he reached down for her. Danny was able to let out a soft whimper as the Cambion roughly pulled her from the pavement. The Cambion gutturally chuckled as he held her face close to his. 

“At last, Aeshma’s vengeance is at hand.” The Cambion smiled viciously into Danny’s eyes, slamming her violently into the road beneath her. She was only truly aware of the first time the back of her head connected with the road, the burst of lights and smells almost blocked out the pain. Then it happened a third, and a fourth time. She wasn’t entirely sure, but she could swear that in between the periods of the world washing out and returning, that the Cambion was also tossing other people aside. 

All became a blur as she began to truly lose consciousness, and then a sound like tearing metal and scraping glass ripped its way into her mind. She saw herself from above, through the Cambion’s eyes. She barely understood what was happening anymore, only weakly batting at him as she watched him tear her hoodie open and expose her pale breasts to the open air. Her hands came up, feebly trying to cover herself, but the Cambion merely chuckled as he easily knocked her hands aside. He traced his hands over the swell of her breast, clicking his tongue.

“It’s a shame,” he started, “If I’d found you a little later, you might’ve been something beautiful.” 

**
Skylar was no stranger to seeing random acts of violence, even this far inside the city. Skylar always prided herself on her ability to be in the right place at the right time. Granted, she wasn’t some big name in Demon-Hunter society, but those that knew her referred to her as ‘Lucky’. If you followed her for the day, it was usually a very good day. Today, though, she’d been hoping to find some light activity. Maybe an easy Imp to dispatch, or some random possessed squirrel or something… she really wasn’t in the mood to fight, it was a nice day out.

Although as she accidentally ran into the car in front of her she knew that it was about to be a bad day. The vehicle had stopped suddenly, causing her to rear-end the car in front of her. Luckily it wasn’t some big impact, her car’s front bumper probably had a dent in it, but otherwise it was still serviceable. She had been bent over looking through her glove compartment for her Insurance card, thinking it best to just swap numbers. The screaming caught her attention.

She poked her head up to see several people running a few cars down in front of her, only to be flung away and then flee. “Shit… just my luck. Well, hopefully this Monster’s a decent bag to pay for the insurance.” She unsheathed the kukri she’d used to replace the gear shift of her Nissan Skyline and turned her car off. She almost hit a few fleeing citizens as she opened her door, which only drove up her curiosity. 

She saw a hunched figure as she got closer, “You might’ve been something beautiful,” came a man’s voice. As she rounded the vehicle she saw an older man hunched over a very battered young woman. Her top was ripped open and he was fondling her while his other hand was seized on her neck.

Revulsion did not cover how she felt. Of all the things to come upon, this wasn’t what Skylar had in mind.

 “Get your fucking hand off of her or I’ll cut it off.” 

Skylar kept a decent distance between them; she didn’t want this man to be able to just grab her too. 

The man chuckled as he removed one hand from the girl’s breasts, but kept the other on her neck. “Do you know what this thing is? It’s a monster, in the guise of a girl.” He looked up at Skylar, a strangely disarming smile on his face. “She’s host to a very rare and very dangerous Demon. If I don’t kill her before she completely mutates, we could soon have dozens more.” 

Skylar looked down at the battered girl, who was barely putting up a fight at this point. The man’s grip did not entirely impede the girl’s breathing, but the floaty way she attempted to fight him off told Skylar that she was all but incapacitated. 

“Who are you?” Skylar asked. She could see the Priest collar the man wore, but somehow everything felt wrong. 

“A man of God,” he replied, his face still in the same smile. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

“I don’t remember Priests being told to execute possessed young women.” Skylar’s grip tightened on her kukri as she spoke, “But then again, I’m not a Priest.” 

The ‘Priest’ chuckled and shook his head, smiling up to the sun as if this was all some big joke.

“I’m going to let you know a very helpful fact for your future. If you have a future after today.” He stood from his kneeling position, picking the young woman up by her neck as he did. His body didn’t waver or quake under the weight of the girl or the generous thrashing she did, his stoic posture immutable. “It’s not always wise to stick your nose into other people’s business.” The ‘Priest’ tossed the girl’s body aside like a toy doll, sending her crashing through a pane of glass to a boutique shop.

There were no witty remarks, no further banter like they did in the movies, no smarmy mid-fight conversation. Just the gleam of sunlight on Silversteel, and then the crimson torrent. How many times had she danced like this? Narrowly weaving away from a critical blow of the ‘Priest’s’ massive fists, catching an elbow to her right eye, she drew blood as his strike went wide. Every moment was critical, every breath, every ounce of energy expended into what moves, follow-throughs and retreats. This was not a time to think. It was a time to act.

**

Danny’s world crashed back down on her as she coughed, laying splayed out among the shattered glass. She couldn’t entirely discern her surroundings. It was like looking through a kaleidoscope that was mixed with blood and pain. Speaking of pain, it was everywhere. It was strangely muted, but not lessened, just distant and almost disconnected. She could hear fighting not too far away, if she really listened, every now and then she could even see it. She managed to crawl a few inches through the glass as it crunched beneath her. 

It was enough to catch the ‘Priest’s’ attention as he turned to face her. Danny could see herself through his eyes, once again being caught in the malevolent gaze. All at once his vision was cut from her, and Danny heard the man roar out in pain. Even through her hazy vision Danny saw the ‘Priest’ cupping his left ear, dark-red blood pouring from beneath it. The person he’d been fighting, a mid-30s woman who looked like she’d just walked out of an 80s Punk magazine, had taken his moment of distraction and ran towards Danny. The woman placed her hands on either side of Danny’s face, looking down at her with a manic smile.

“Oh God, I’m so fucking lucky you’re not dead. This guy’s a real,” she grunted as she picked Danny up in a bridal-carry, “Pain in my fucking ass.”

Danny opened her eyes somewhat, trying to will herself to speak. “H… help… p-please…” The woman stared at her in shock for only a moment, having possibly noticed something about Danny, but she didn’t care. All she knew was that right now, she didn’t want to die. 

**

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Skylar booked it back to her car with the young… girl?.. in her arms. She set her in the passenger seat and climbed over her to start the car. Skylar looked behind her, making sure there was enough space to pull out, and upon returning her gaze forward she could see the ‘Priest’ walking towards her, sans an ear. She quickly replaced the kukri into the gear shift, started the car, and as she threw it into reverse, Skylar flipped him the bird and smirked. 

She wasted no time in throwing herself back into the living hell that was New York traffic, breaking almost every driving law along the way, both foreign and domestic. She wanted to take the girl to a hospital, but whoever, or whatever, that ‘priest’ was would probably find her and kill her. So it couldn’t be someplace public, and it had to be somewhere with a degree of supernatural awareness. From the girl’s eye, the ‘Priest’ was probably right, she was definitely not normal. 

“Fuck it,” Skylar said, reaching for her phone and punching in a phone number. It only rang a couple of times before a chipper sounding boy picked up.

“Thank you for calling Pizza Hut, what can I get for you today?” 

“I would like to get the Lucky Special, please,” She rolled her eyes. As much as she’d rather just tell it all straight and get to the point, clandestine operations rarely like to have their cover blown.

“Alrighty then! Is there anything specific you would like with or on it?” The boy’s chipper attitude grated on Skylar.

“I have a particular friend, not overly choosy but he’s a big guy. So an Extra-Large with extra pepperonis, and maybe some jalapenos?” Skylar could hear the sound of buttons being pressed, waited before continuing. “Also, I can’t really do a walk-in right now and a delivery would take too long, so I’ll be needing to come through the drive-thru.”

“O-kay, anything else I’d be able to get for you?”

“Yeah, my other friend who’s with me in the car would like some stuffed breadsticks and some extra sauce.”

“Okay, stuffed with what?”

Skylar looked Danny over, listening to her raspy breaths. She couldn’t help but feel concerned. For the girl’s wellbeing? Or for her own? At this point, it didn’t matter. “Surprise us.” The boy on the other end seemed to pause at this.

“Alright, your order will be ready in 20 minutes.”

“I’m sorry, which store is this again?”

“South-side of Central Park.”

“Thank you so much.”

It took her the better part of 30 minutes to get to the safehouse mentioned. The girl had been in and out the entire time, mumbling something between pleas and the name ‘Ariana’ repeatedly. By the time she pulled into the driveway of the house, she’d stopped speaking entirely, which if she was going to be honest, frightened her a bit. The garage closed behind her and what appeared to be a medical team spilled out from the entryway to the home, trying to get into both sides of the car.

“No, get the girl, the fucking girl! I’m fine, get out of my way.” Skylar demanded, kicking her door open. She watched as they slowly looked the girl over, getting her onto a gurney as safely as they could.

“What happened?” a familiar voice asked behind her. She jumped, but only a bit, turning to face Richard. “Damn, you look like you had a rough party.”

“It wasn’t much of a party, but the fucker was weird. He messed with the wrong chick, I’ll tell you what. He kept trying to hit me with some kind of psychic attack, get in my head and all. I didn’t fucking care, in one ear out the other. He was big too, and strong as hell. Had his nasty hands all over that girl as he was choking the life out of her.” She walked into the house, avoiding the people as they scrambled around. “Tell me we have some fucking White Claw or some shit, my head’s killing me.”

“Is there anything else about the man that you can remember? Did he give you his name?”

Skylar scoffed, rolling her eyes. “No, shithead called himself a ‘Man of God’, after I caught him feeling her up. I swear, that Priest could not have been more stereotypical.” Richard chuckled, watching as they took the young woman from the garage and into one of the bedrooms.

“What about her? What’s special about her?” Richard asked.

“Don’t have a clue. The Priest said she had something inside of her, something dangerous. But from where I was standing? Naw, no fucking way. I’ve seen kids with scary shit in them, but all I saw was some poor kid getting groped and strangled in the street. She definitely has something, though, no idea what. But it wasn’t exactly jumping to her defense.”

Skylar and Richard stood by, waiting to hear more. Doctors were working in the room for several hours before the head trauma surgeon walked out.

“What’s the news?” asked Richard, barely getting a momentary look from the doctor as he stripped in another room. “Is she going to make it?”

“First off she’s a he, and yes he will.” He threw his gloves in their biohazard bag. “His name is Darren Michaelson, he’s a student at Sara Lawrence. We found his student ID in his pants pocket in his wallet, along with a couple pictures and hopefully an emergency contact. His phone was destroyed, I had to pull pieces of it out from his thigh.”

“Don’t be a dick, Doc,” Skylar said, her eyebrows rising, “A penis does not a man make. If there’s a penis and tits, my money’s on closeted Transfemme.”

“Noted, Skylar, calm down. The point is we have a name, a home address, and a way to contact next of kin. I want you to find where she lives, and find out anything you can about her.” Richard assumed authority, and he was right to. Though he wasn’t officially a Demon Hunter, unofficially this man had un-alived enough Demons to fill at least one mass grave. He knew what he was doing.

“You have to be shitting me. My car’s burned from all the fucking traffic lights I had to run, my head’s buzzing, and I haven’t had my fucking White Claw yet,” Skylar complained. Richard just smiled and shook his head.

“I believe in you. You’ll figure it out.”

KrakenRiderEmma

Parturient is a written by The Wolf Among the Woods and presented by KrakenRiderEmma as part of the Nexus NYC shared universe. She's currently planning on writing about three per week. The Wolf Among the Woods is a growing author, so please be sure to encourage her with a "TFTC," a favorite or a comment! She's interested in your thoughts and feedback.

If you’re looking for some more bizarre, supernatural gender-bender stories, check out our other series set in the same universe, written by the KrakenRiderEmma collaboration:

• Succubated! — a parish priest possessed by a succubus who wants his body... transformed into hers!
• Redraw Me — a trans girl discovers a magical means of transition, but it's not without complications...
• SYNCHRONY::OVERRIDE — a private investigator gets abducted to a pocket dimension and a strange new body.
• Samira's Curse — a smutty little romp about two friends who run afoul of a misfiring family curse.