Sometimes my body felt like it was possessed.
Speaking of possessed, somethingpushedagainstmy stomach. I held my breath.I’d been feeling the flutters of movement for a few weeks now, but this one felt different. Stronger.
Ace, was that you?
I could hear Ace’s happiness. No. Wait for it.
Another push. No, a kick.
“Ace or morning sickness?” Valery asked.
“Morning sickness. She hasn’t thrown up yet today,” Ri weighed in.
“No. It's Ace,” Lux said. He didn’t elaborate. He just knew.
I grinned at them. “Come here, come here, come here,” I said giddily. I grabbed Lux's hand and placed it on my belly, and Oz did too. I moved their hands to where the baby kicked. Seconds went by, and there it was again. A huge grin spread across Lux’s face. It was so rare, especially these days, that I was temporarily blinded by his happiness.
“She kicked.”
“He kicked,” Oz corrected, laughing happily. He moved back so the other two could try.
We waited and waited, and I could see Tolliver’s face fall with disappointment.
“Maybe it likes those two better?” Sam teased, but I could sense real disappointment.
As if the baby could too, it kicked again. Such a kind little heart already.
Sam laughed. “It has been so long since I have felt such a beautiful thing.”
Tolliver just rubbed circles on my belly, his eyes a little wet.
They stepped back and Eli came over, stethoscope in hand. He blew warm air over the end and placed it on my stomach where the baby was kicking.
“Nice strong heartbeat,” he smiled, offering the stethoscope to Valery, who listened with a wide smile, and the Ri, who I could see counting the beats under his breath.
“Should it be that fast?” His brow knitted in concern.
Eli nodded. “It's perfect. The ultrasound tomorrow should confirm that.”
I wish I could use the ultrasound to narrow down who the father was, who was redeemed. They'd all become so invested, and I worried that they were going to be upset if it wasn't them.
Sam must have seen the worry on my face.
“Don’t stress. We won’t care if we aren’t the father. The baby is yours and we are yours and we will love it. Even if it is called Englebert. Or Wrinkles.”
Then I cried. Because apparently being pregnant makes you a mess of hormones that means you cry every time a toilet paper ad with a kid or a puppy comes on.
Used to my tears by now, Lux just rubbed my back and handed me a tissue. The guys all carried purse packs of tissues around.
“I think it is time for Arcadia to go to bed. Start the tournament,” Eli ordered
The tournament of Scissors, Paper, Rock happened every night to determine who got to sleep next to me. I suggested drawing up a roster, but it disadvantaged the guys who were on call and weren’t always here at night. This way it was down to skill and a little bit of luck. It was always fun to watch, anyway.
Oz and Ri were up first.
“Scissor, Paper, R-”
“Hello, Arcadia.”
We all whipped around to see Azriel standing by my front door.
“I apologize for letting myself in.” His tone was completely unapologetic.
Lux was up and between us in seconds. A knife appearing from somewhere on his body. Where had he been hiding that all this time?
“What do you want, Azriel?” I asked, as the guys huddled around me protectively. It was probably pretty useless actually. He was the Angel of Death. He didn’t really need to be anywhere near me to kill me, right?
“It is an interesting solution that Acerezeal has concocted. I did not believe she had such selflessness left in her, since her fall to hell. I wonder what Lucifer Morningstar would say about it, hmm? I do not believe he would be quite so supportive of this newfound sacrificial side.”
What do you want? You are not welcome here, Ace growled
Azriel laughed. “I am an angel. I am welcome everywhere. I have come to offer Arcadia a choice once more. Despite your little solution, the cancer is eating its way through her body, and soon it might be too late for her to ever recover, irrespective of your salvation, or theirs.” He indicated the men standing in the room. My men.
“The answer is still no. Ace stays and you go.”
He was in front of me in flash, disappearing and reappearing inches from my face.
“Father has ordered me not to take Acerezeal from you by force, even though it would be a simple thing and it would cure you. But you will not talk to me with such disrespect. I am an angel. People beg me to save them every day, and I comply. What are you saving?”
With that, he vanished completely from the room.
Fucking uptight asshole. If I still had my body I would show him “respect” at the end of my sword.
My knees buckled and Eli caught me, scooping me up and walking me out of Oz's apartment but he didn't hit my floor number in the lift, instead going down to Lux’s floor.
“Why are we going to Lux's apartment?”
“His has the most weapons, and he's the best equipped to protect you if Azriel comes back.”
I looked over Eli’s shoulder and saw that Lux was there. He nodded once.
“Lux can't stab an angel, Eli. I'm pretty sure they can't die, plus I'm trying to redeem him, remember? Getting stabby on an angel has the opposite effect.”
“Your life is more important than my redemption,” Lux growled.
“You guys are being purposefully dense. His redemption is my life. I need Lux to be the opposite of wrathful so we can all survive.” I wiggled in Eli’s arms and he just held me tighter. Eli wasn't as big or as buff as Lux or Oz, but he held my weight effortlessly against his strong body.
“Be still.” He used a tone that I hadn't heard from him before. Not caring doctor, or educated man of science, or even his normal, relaxed demeanor.
It was authoritative, dominant and sexy as hell. I found myself complying without conscious thought.
“You will stay with Lux, and Lux will protect you if you need it, and you will be saved, right along with us even if I have to try every single procedure known to modern medicine to achieve it.”
There was no doubt in his voice, no hesitation. He would save me. He was determined.
Pride thy name is Elias.
I didn't know what to do about his redemption. Pride was integral to his very existence. He’d gone into the too hard basket, but I didn’t have the time left to procrastinate. It wasn't as easy as Tolliver and Sam. I couldn't just ask him to quit his job. Literally hundreds of people would die without access to his neurosurgical abilities.
It wasn’t like Valery, who was kind of redeeming himself, though I didn't think he knew it. More and more often, he was cooking basic meals for me, things that my stomach could handle. But he wasn't cooking extravagant things, he wasn't partying or sleeping around or doing the other things that the guys said he used to do to excess before I came onto the scene. I found those stories hard to believe. I’d never met that version of Valery. My Valery was hardly eating, because he was too busy ensuring I ate.
No, Eli was the quandary.
We got to Lux’s floor, and the front door buzzed. I looked at my health tracker, which handily came with a watch feature. Who would be here at eleven at night? All the big bads could just poof themselves into the room, so I wasn’t worried about it being Azriel again. Did Oz order more pizza?
Eli pushed the intercom by Lux’s door. “Can I help you?”
“You bloody well can help me,” a slight Irish accent came through the speaker, the quality crackling and distorted. The voice sounded familiar, and my heart lifted.
“Who’s this?”
“This is Clary Mulligan and I want to know what the hell you’ve done with my best friend.”
Ace gave a little squeal of delight. Yay, Clary’s home. Oh, this is going to be fun to watch. Get your popcorn and
put on your big girl panties, because shit is going to go down.
Chapter Five
Clary was quintessentially Irish. She had the small round face, the mouse brown hair that glinted auburn in the sun, a small snub nose that turned red when she drank too much, and big apple cheeks that made the corners of her eyes crinkle when she laughed. She was also so pale that you’d lose her during a snowstorm. Why she’d chosen to go to Africa, I had no idea.
No that was a lie. She went because she was needed, and if there was anything the youngest child in a family of ten children wanted in life, it was to be needed.
I hugged her close, admiring her almost tan.
“It's so good to see you, Clary. I’ve missed you so much.” She hugged me back, and then jumped away like a scalded cat.
“Arcadia Jones, you are pregnant under that sweatshirt!”
I nodded slowly. This is where things were going to get sketchy.
“Which one of you good for nothings knocked up my sweet, innocent Arcadia? I’m going to chop off your balls and wear them as earrings!” She stood toe to toe with Lux, even though he towered over her average five and a half feet height..
“It's not that straight forward, Clary. How about we go into my apartment and talk?”
The doors to the lift opened and the other five guys strode out, in various states of late night dishevelment.
“What the hell is this place? Did you start a cult for hot hipsters while I was gone?”
Ace chortled in my head. Ace liked very few humans. Me, and now the baby, and the old guy who made subs at the deli on the corner near my old apartment, who flirts outrageously with every woman, or man for that matter, who came in for a sandwich. But she loved Clary. They were kindred spirits, even if Clary didn’t know that Ace existed.
“Umm, no. These are my, well boyfriends I guess you could say? Soulmates is probably a better term.” I rattled them off. “Orion, Oz, Valery, Tolliver and Sam. You’ve already threatened to castrate Lux and Eli behind you. Guys, this is the best human on the planet, Clary Mulligan, formerly of the Boston Mulligans, holder of the record for most Irish whiskeys consumed at the NYCU student bar. Clary, these are my guys.”
“Your guys? As in plural?” I nodded. “We need to make some tea and you need to tell me everything. Starting with this,” she pointed to the roundness of my abdomen. “Which one is the father?”
“Umm, we’ve narrowed it down to Oz, Sam, Tolliver,” I pointed as I said their names, “or Lux.”
Clary slow blinked. And then once more. “I’m going to need a big set of surgical scissor and a tourniquet.”
I winced and Eli chuckled, the only one to get her mass castration joke. I grabbed her by the arm. I’d heard stories. I wasn’t going to put it past her.
“Let’s go have that tea, hey?”
Hours later, I’d laid it all out for her at my breakfast bar. She leaned on her elbows, sipping Valery’s fancy Bordeaux wine, and hadn’t said a word in comment, even when I got to the part about Ace and Lucifer. She gave me the face I imagine you would give to a man who was bleeding to death. Not overly concerned, just warm nonchalance.
“You know, in Somalia, I saw some terrible things. Girls coming in pregnant at thirteen because they’d been raped, whole villages decimated, babies starving at their mothers breasts. Some of it will haunt me for the rest of my life. But you are telling me now, that there is a God and he was sitting around playing chess with the Devil while people were literally hacked to death with machetes? Bargaining for the souls of murderers? That these ‘divine’ beings really exist, and therefore must just turn a blind eye to all the suffering in the world? And the only person who is trying to alleviate the eternal damnation, is the Devil? That's some seriously fucked up shit, Arcadia.”
“It does sound pretty preposterous, I know. But it's real. It takes a little getting used to, is all.”
“You think?” She downed the rest of her wine. “Let's get back to ‘your guys’. They are zombies masquerading as the Seven Deadly Sins and it’s your job to save them, and in doing so you get what exactly? To not die? Sounds like a lot of hard work and a pretty shitty prize to me.”
You should tell her about the mind blowing orgasms, Ace suggested. Err, maybe not just yet. “Plus the reconsidering of the eternal damnation of souls for sleeping with your neighbor's wife.”
“Mmphf. Maybe. Now tell me what you left out.”
Damn Clary. She knew me too well. “I’m really sick. The leukemia is back, my myocardiopathy is at a critical level, and I might not make it to the full term.”
Clary's eyes got wide. Huge, shining hazel orbs. “What?”
I continued. “And I need you to promise me something if that happens. If everything goes pear shaped, and let's face it when you are playing in a game of angels and devils that has a high likelihood of happening, I want you to take the baby and raise it. There is no one I trust more than you and yours. I need to know that the baby will have a good future, in a big family with lots of love, no matter what happens. I know that’s a lot to ask, I’m essentially asking you to give up your life. But you are the only person I know who would love the baby like it was her own, no matter what.”
Clary was still blinking, stunned. “You know I will. You don’t have to ask. How could you not tell me you were sick again? I would have come back in an instant. I could have been here for you for the last three months.”
I rubbed her arm. “I've been in good hands, and I wanted to keep you out of this if I could. I got Tolliver's lawyers to make you the baby’s next of kin in case of emergencies, as well as my own. I hope that's okay. The guys, well, they have all the best intentions, and I know that they will love the baby, all of them. They will be the best Dads any baby could ask for, and they will do a great job if they can. But if they can’t, for whatever reason, I need you. I’m asking for too much, I know, it's just that you are the only one removed from this situation.”
Clary nodded. “Of course.” I leaned across and hugged her, my stomach brushing on the edge of the bench, and the baby kicked in response. I laughed and held her hand to my stomach. “Isn’t she wonderful?”
“She? It's a girl?”
I shrugged. “I don't know, but I have a feeling.”
Clary nodded. “And just to clarify, you’ve slept with all of them?”
I laughed and shook my head. “No, only four of them. But I would have, if I hadn’t gotten sick and then the whole baby thing. Eli went into super doctor mode and banned anyone from having sex and causing my body ‘undue stress’.”
“So they are all just hanging around, being faithful to you, hand feeding you peeled grapes? Bitch, I don’t know what Kool-Aid you fed them, but give me some. I want me a harem filled with sexy dead guys.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
I laughed and laughed until tears streamed down my face. God, I’d missed her.
I moved Clary into my apartment. I hardly used it anymore anyway, I was always in Eli’s apartment. I kind of presented Clary moving in to the guys as a fait accompli, but I needed her, and the guys knew it, so no one protested. Besides, she took some of the nursing burden from Eli, so he could actually sleep at night.
I ran a hand over my stomach.
How is she today?
Ace’s reply was immediate, though her voice was weakening. The baby is getting stronger every day. He learned how to suck his thumb today. He will be strong and healthy at thirty weeks. Mark my words. The warmth and love in Ace’s voice made me tear up. Actually, everything made me tear up, but this was pretty special.
Thanks Ace.
Ugh, hormones. You don’t have to thank me every day. I put you in this position. It’s me who should be thanking you, really.
I opened my laptop and went to Google. This is what it had come to, googling for solutions. Unfortunately when I googled ‘how do you redeem seven guys who are the embodiment of the seven deadly sins before you die of a heart attack or cancer?’ There were zero results.
Hold on. Ace’s tone was calm. Too calm. Oh. Don’t panic, but you need to call Eli right now.
“Call Eli!” I shouted to Clary and Valery, my voice edged with hysteria. Clary bolted around the counter towards me and Valery, who’d been making me juice in the kitchen, bolted out the door, his phone already to his ear.
“What's wrong?” Clary’s tone was calm and in control.
But I wasn't. “Ace said there's something wrong with the baby.”
I said no such thing. What I did say was not to panic. Breathe.
“I’ll fucking breathe when you tell me what's wrong,” I said, out loud. Clary's eyes went wide. “Not you,” I said to her. “Ace.”
Clary had her fingers on my wrist. “Well, Ace is right. Your heart rate is erratic. You need to calm down and breathe.”
Eli burst through the door, and Valery came in behind him holding his medical bag.
You need to tell him its twins.
I blinked. My breathing stopped. What?
Eli was there, his stethoscope out listening to my heart. “What is wrong?”
“Ace says it’s twins.”
He jerked back as if I punched him. “What?”
You’ve been monitoringthe baby for months, how could you not know I was having twins?
I don't know! She's small, smaller than her sister. Her sister’s life force is so strong, it encompasses them both. Their heartbeats are in sync. If I hadn't felt her interest in her sister’s thumb sucking, I would never have known she was there.
“Grab the fetal monitor,” Eli ordered, and when Ri went sprinting out of the room, that's when I realized they were all there. Staring. Gaping really.
But Eli look devastated.
“What does this mean?”
“Complications. Your heart is already taxed when pregnant. This increase significantly with twins. Given the condition of your heart, I'm worried it will fail before you reach thirty weeks.”
Ri returned with the fetal monitor, and clary helped Eli put it around my stomach.
The Redeemable Part Three Page 3