“Do you mind if we join you?” Mercy’s dad asks. “I would like to see what my daughter can do.”

“Joy, Mercy on parade,” Mercy mutters as she stands up from War’s lap, stretching her arms. “Let’s get this ass kicking over with.”

“Who’ll be doing the ass kicking?” War asks, a smile on his lips as he looks between Mercy and her uncle.

“Depends on the day, depends on who kicks whose ass,” she says distractedly.

“She’s managed to kick my ass a few times,” Roderick admits, though he doesn’t look at all happy about it, there’s still pride on his face.

Hunter chuckles. "I must admit, I'm curious about seeing you two go at it, Roderick."

"Then let’s invite Mr. Damn, Mrs. Damn, and the whole Damn family to watch." Mercy laughs and leads the way to the basement with everyone in the room following behind her.

Roderick removes his jacket and tosses it to the side, while Mercy stands in the middle of the room, waiting for him to join her.

The rest of us take up posts against the wall to watch as Roderick moves toward her.

"You're too tense, Mercy," Roderick barks at her.

Mercy narrows her eyes at him. "I'm not tense. You're seeing shit, old man."

He chuckles then in the blink of an eye he moves. Roderick attacks Mercy with standard punches and kicks, and she manages to block most of them, but he doesn't give her a chance to go on the offensive.

Mercy grunts as her uncle gets a kick into her midsection, and she stumbles back slightly. Bracing herself, she thrusts herself at her uncle and punches him square in the jaw, the impact slinging his head to the side. Roderick doesn't take a minute to steady himself, instead he goes low, sweeping his legs out and knocks Mercy off her feet. As her feet are swept out from under her she takes advantage of the move and does a backflip away from her uncle.

"You're getting sloppy, Mercy," Roderick scolds.

"Yeah, well that fight from last night still has me beat, so fucking bite me," she snaps.

Roderick scowls at her and goes to the wall with the weapons and tosses her a dagger before grabbing one for himself. "Focus, Mercy."

Mercy closes her eyes, and breathes deeply, centering herself before opening her eyes and nodding at her uncle.

Roderick launches himself back at Mercy with the same force as before, not giving her even a little bit of leeway.

I flinch as Roderick's dagger slices into Mercy's side, turning that area of her white top red with her blood.

They continue going at it, both of them sporting deep slashes all over their bodies. I can see bruises forming on Mercy's pale skin from when they were only using fists and feet. It's another several minutes before Mercy manages to get the advantage and, as she holds her uncle’s wrist that's gripping his dagger away from her, she brings her dagger up to press against his neck.

Roderick nods, and Mercy lets him go, stepping away from him.

"Are we done?" Mercy asks, breathing heavily.

Roderick snickers. "We need to work on your powers still."

"Seriously?" Mercy pouts, and my mouth kicks up in a smile.

"Seriously. You haven't been working on shifting have you?" he asks.

I frown and look at Mercy's dad who's beside me. "Shifting?"

"I'm a kadorika demon. We have our true form, and we also have the ability to shift at will into whatever we want," he explains. "It doesn't give us the power of whatever species' we shift into, but it does give us the advantage if we need to hide in plain sight."

"Mercy's only ever been able to partially shift," her mom explains.

"I didn't know half-demons could shift at all," War says from the other side of me.

"Most can't. As I'm sure you've all figured out, Mercy's different. Special," her dad says. "It's why we did our best to keep her hidden."

Mercy sighs and glares at us. "You know, I'm right here, you could just ask me. I've been able to fully shift once. Haven't been able to do it again."

"When was that?" Parker asks.

"It was when I was with Payne when I was a kid."

"How'd it happen?" I ask.

Her expression darkens. "They brought someone there to force my change. I don't remember much of how or why they did it because it was shortly after I was taken. I just know that I didn't initiate the change willingly."

"Which is why she needs to work on it," Roderick says, giving her a pointed look that she completely ignores. "Answer me this, Mercy. Why haven't you been working on it while I've been gone?"

She stares at him for minute, almost as if she’s debating on what to say. Finally, letting out a sigh, she explains, "It doesn't hurt you or dad to shift because you're meant to shift. When they had me fully shift it was another form of torture. I preferred the other ways they tortured me than shifting."

Mercy's dad frowns. "What do you mean?"

"Half-demons aren't meant to shift, but I have the ability to shift. It feels like I'm being torn apart from the inside out when I shift. Even partially shifting feels like my whole body's being torn to shreds. I'm not exactly eager to repeat the experience."

"Why didn't you ever tell me that?" Roderick asks.

"I'm not weak, and I don't like having a weakness. The fact that I can shift but don't for the simple reason that it feels like I'm dying, is a weakness."

"You never showed any pain, so I didn't think it hurt you either," Roderick swears, cursing under his breath.

Mercy shrugs. "I didn't want anyone to know. Even mom didn't know I was struggling that badly with it." Everyone falls quiet at that for several minutes. She claps her hands and pastes a fake smile on her face. "Alright, can we please stop talking about this shit and go do something else? I need a shower to get all this sweat and blood off me."

Roderick nods, and Mercy leaves the room.

"Why wouldn't she tell you guys she was struggling with it?" I ask, confused.

"Like she said. She doesn't like having a weakness," her dad says. "For a demon, half or full, it doesn't matter what they are, they don't like to parade their shortcomings. From what I know of the Mercy she is now, she's strong and doesn't have many weaknesses. The fact that she has any is probably infuriating when she's had to fight for her life since her uncle and I got her out of Payne's dungeon."

"She doesn't trust that it'll stay secret," Roderick explains, rubbing at the bruise Mercy left on his jaw. "Even when we were alone, she was always paranoid that someone was listening in because it always seemed like someone showed up daily."

"Daily?" Parker asks, his voice portraying a shock that I feel.

"There were times when she got to heal and recover, but they weren't often," her mom says quietly. "She kept trying to tell me it was best if I just left her to handle it on her own, because she didn't want me to get hurt. She even asked Roderick to take me somewhere to hide me. I wouldn't go. I wasn't going to be pushed away from my daughter like that just because these people wanted her for themselves."

Which was admirable in a human who has no hope against the kind of people that we figure were sent after Mercy. The only way a human would have a chance in hell of defeating one of them is if they were a trained hunter, or trained in general.

"In any case, be flattered that she admitted that with all of you in this room," Roderick says, eyeing every one of us. "It means that she trusts you."