by Amira Rain
‘Well, you still participated in an attack against our community,’ my father basically said. ‘So, while we may let you live, you still have to pay some sort of a price.’”
“And what was it?”
“Well, first thing, because my father never wanted to have to worry about her again in the future, she had to promise to never use her magic again, no matter what, on pain of death if she did. Your mom readily agreed to this, saying that she was even glad to, because she’d never even wanted her magical powers. She’d just wanted to be a ‘normal’ woman, but she’d gotten caught up with the magical cult, and since then, her life had pretty much gone off the rails.
She actually wanted to give up her magic. She wanted to return to normalcy. Some people in our vampire community at the time even theorized that maybe she’d joined in the failed takeover attack because she wanted someone to stop her from doing magic. Anyway, if that was her wish, she got it. My father wasn’t done extracting ‘payment’ for her part in the attack, though. He had an idea, and he still had one more demand.”
“Which was what?”
“He demanded that if your mom ever had a baby girl, that girl would be magically impregnated when she came of age, around age eighteen. To do this, he would use the skills of a vampire sorceress that was a MacGregor third cousin or something like that, even though she was part of a coven in Virginia. My father demanded that your mom agree to this in order to be ‘let off the hook’ for her role in the attack. If she didn’t agree, my father said he would kill her.”
“I don’t get it, though. How would it benefit your father to have my mom’s first daughter magically impregnated?”
“It benefitted my father because his family line was of crucial importance to him. He wanted to guarantee that his direct family line would endure through me, by having me be the co-parent in your magical pregnancy. Also, being that your mom could perform magic, he thought that perhaps you’d have some magical abilities, too, or at least might somehow lend your genes to the creation of a supernaturally strong child that would someday be turned into a very supernaturally-gifted vampire.”
I snorted. “Well, I don’t have any ‘magical abilities.’”
“That you know of, and maybe you really don’t. Because of your mother, though, you could have some kind of supernaturally gifted genetics that might be passed down to your offspring. My father thought it was a possibility, anyway. Enough of a possibility that he made this deal with your mother that she ultimately agreed to in order to save her life.”
I said that I still didn’t understand how it all “worked,” and Hayden said that he really didn’t, either.
“And most of the people involved in the deal are now dead, so we can’t ask them.”
“But…how did the MacGregor sorceress do it? How did she make it so that I became pregnant around my eighteenth birthday?”
With his muscular arms still folded loosely across his chest, Hayden lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “All I know was that this MacGregor cousin, who was a sorceress named Lila, took a lock of your hair when you were just a baby. She also took a lock of my hair, and then performed some sort of a spell. When she was finished, she came to my father and told him that it was all set.
When you were around eighteen, you’d become pregnant by magic, and you’d be carrying my child. My father asked if there was anything else she had to do to make this happen, like if she’d have to perform another spell to ‘activate’ the initial one or anything, and she said no.
She said that the spell she’d done would still work sometime around your eighteenth birthday, even if she died, which she soon did, killed by another vampire in her coven. From that point, my father assumed that nothing could be done to stop the spell she’d done from manifesting in reality, and that turned out to be correct.
When my father first told me about the spell, saying that he’d done it for the good of our family, I was horrified, and I begged him to try to undo the spell somehow, or do something. That’s when he told me that it couldn’t be undone, and that’s when I started to see him as he really was, which is to say as the villain of our family, and the man that’s caused more destruction to our family than even our enemies.”
“Well, do you see my pregnancy as ‘destruction?’ Do you see it as wrecking your life as it is right now?”
Turning his gaze from my face, frowning, Hayden raked a hand through his hair. “Sydney, I think we both need more time to let the news about your pregnancy sink in. I think it’s safe to say that we’re both dealing with some shock right now.”
“But you already knew that I was going to become pregnant, because your dad told you.”
“Yes…I did. But there was still a little part of me that always believed that your pregnancy would never really come to pass. Maybe it was optimism, or maybe it was just simple wishful thinking. At any rate, when my family’s spies reported that you’d made a visit to a women’s clinic popular with teenage girls because of their free pregnancy tests…I just couldn’t believe it. I still can’t. Like I said, I think we’re both somewhat still in shock.”
“Well…okay. Maybe we are. I know that I’m definitely still in shock about nearly being run off the road and killed by Christopher Warren last week…and I still don’t understand why he tried to do it, or why the other Warren was sent to kill me, too.”
Hayden told me that years earlier, they’d heard about my mom’s deal with his dad. And, thinking that Hayden’s dad was probably right in thinking that my offspring would be supernaturally gifted, they’d decided to try to kill me and my baby, so that Hayden wouldn’t have a possibly-supernaturally-gifted heir.
“Basically, they want to end me, and end my family line, because without the MacGregor Watchers in the Midwest, it would become like the Anarchist Warrens’ own personal playground. So, they’re thinking of the long game. They want to kill me, Sam, and Trevor, so that the MacGregor line dies out. They also want to kill us before we have any heirs.”
“Well, why didn’t they try to kill me even long before I got pregnant, then?”
Hayden said that they’d tried, or they’d at least wanted to. “They didn’t even know who you were, though…at least not until about a year or so ago. That was when they were able to get your mother’s name from a vampire in another Midwestern coven that had learned it from I don’t even know who. Once the Warrens had your mother’s name, though, it was all over. They were ready to go with that info, ready to kill her so that she could never use her supernatural powers to protect you. They knew that my father had forbidden her from using her powers, on pain of death, but they also knew that my father was no longer around to enforce that, and they also knew that your mom would probably be more than willing to renege on any promise that she’d made in order to save her child.”
“So, that’s the only reason why they killed her, then? Just because they thought that she might get in the way of them killing me?”
Hayden said yes. “Unfortunately, to the Warrens, a human life doesn’t mean much. They’ve killed humans in the past for reasons even more trivial than that. But to them, it wasn’t trivial at all. Killing your mother freed them up to kill you without having to worry about interference from a sorceress, even one who hadn’t used her powers in decades.”
“Well, so, then, why didn’t they? Why didn’t they kill me after they killed my mom?”
Hayden said that they were prevented from doing so by the fact that I was surrounded by a twenty-four-hour watcher security detail within days of my mom being killed. “See, you didn’t know it at the time, but you had Watchers constantly watching you, constantly surveilling your school, your house, everything.
We’d heard about your mom’s death from an old friend of hers who was involved in the supernatural community, and from that point on, we knew we had to protect you, especially when you were seen at the clinic.
Two of my vampires who were watching you that day called to tell me about it, and that’s when I start
ed racing toward the area Southeast of Moxon, thinking that the Warrens would try to shake off my security detail and get you out in the country, alone, so that they could take a stab at killing you in the same way that they killed your mom.”
“Well, I appreciate that you saved my life that day, but I wish my mom had a security detail as well. If she had, she might still be alive today.”
Hayden said that he wished she’d had a security detail, too. “She wouldn’t let us, though. See, once you were born, she became convinced that we MacGregor vampires were not going to honor our part of the deal. She became convinced that somehow, we were going to hurt you. She told us that she’d been having dreams that she thought were prophetic…dreams about someone from within the Watchers betraying you and hurting you.
My father and Mark tried to convince her that no one from our coven wanted to hurt her child, but she couldn’t be convinced. She said that if you really became magically impregnated around your eighteenth birthday, then maybe she’d reevaluate her thinking, because obviously, it wouldn’t make much sense then for us to want to hurt the girl carrying a possibly-supernaturally-gifted MacGregor heir…but until then, your mom wanted us to stay away from you, and her.
In truth, I think that maybe her prophetic dreams were the result of her pent-up magic affecting her mind in a negative way or something. I really don’t know, but that’s my thought…that her pent-up magic was making her paranoid. Because, Sydney, trust me on this, there is no one on this farm who wants to hurt you. I promise you that.”
Hayden’s beautiful blue eyes radiated complete sincerity and truth, or they at least appeared to. At any rate, they were enough to convince me that Hayden wasn’t lying to me, and I said all right, that I believed him that no one on the farm wanted to hurt me.
“So, now I have the full story, but where does that leave us? Now I’m pregnant with your baby, and I now know generally how it happened, but I still don’t know if you even want to be a part of our baby’s life.”
As he had a tendency to do when confronted with uncomfortable subjects, Hayden shifted his gaze from my face, raking a hand through his hair. “Like I said, I think we both need a little time to process things, Sydney.”
“Well, maybe you do…but I’m starting to warm to the idea of having a baby. I mean…I know I didn’t become pregnant under ideal circumstances, and I know my whole life is going to change, and maybe it’ll become harder in some ways…but I’ve always liked kids, and I’ve always seen babies as gifts.
I guess I’ve always thought this way just because my mom always told me that I was one, even though she didn’t quite feel ready when she became pregnant with me. So…I guess I’m just starting to think the same way about my own baby. Maybe it’ll turn out to be the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life…and maybe it could be the best thing that’s ever happened to you in your life, if you can just—”
“Just give me some time, Sydney.” Hayden had suddenly risen from his bar stool, and he now stood looking at me, wearing a deep frown. “Please.”
Knowing that his request wasn’t unreasonable, I said all right. “Take some time. But just promise me that we’ll talk again sometime reasonably soon.”
He promised that we would. “In fact, I promise that I’ll be home from my hunting trip by Friday, so that I can go with you to your welcoming party. Okay?”
Suddenly quite happy for some reason, I said okay, smiling. “That sounds good to me.”
Making him look almost impossibly handsome, Hayden smiled in return. “Good. Now, I’ve got to get going. I told the others going on the hunting trip that I wouldn’t be long.”
Getting up from my bar stool and going around the island to stand by Hayden, I said I understood. “But you haven’t told me what happened to your father. After what happened to Michelle, was he driven out of the community or something?”
Hayden quietly scoffed. “No. He would have never suffered that. If we’d have tried to banish him, he probably would have tried to kill us all for our ‘betrayal.’”
“Well, then, what happened?”
“He had to be killed. So, someone killed him.”
“Who?”
Hayden hesitated for just a second before responding. “Me.”
I didn’t exactly know what to say, so I said nothing, and Hayden continued, leaning against the island.
“At the time of Michelle’s death, I wasn’t even a vampire yet. I was twenty-two years old, living four hundred miles away, training to become an army ranger, not sure that I even wanted to become a vampire.
I thought that instead, maybe I just wanted a normal life, free from any unnatural state of being, free from the drawbacks of eternity, and there are some, and free from the weight of the responsibility of being a Watcher and becoming all that my father wanted me to be. But, obviously, things didn’t work out that way.
Mark called me and told me what had happened to Michelle, saying that everyone in the community had agreed that my father needed to be taken out, but that nobody wanted to do it. Enraged about what had happened to Michelle, I told Mark, ‘I’m coming home; you’re going to turn me into a vampire; and I’m going to kill my father.’ And that’s what I did.”
Looking into my eyes, Hayden paused for a long moment. “See, when you accused me of being a monster, that wasn’t a completely baseless accusation. I killed my own father in cold blood. I actually ambushed him. He never even saw it coming.”
“But you did it to keep him from hurting anyone else.”
“Yes. But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t take any pleasure in killing my father. I did.”
Once again, I didn’t know what to say; however, I was spared having to think of something by the sound of a knock at the front door.
Hayden said that it was probably his friend Kellan, and that he had to go. “I’ll see you Friday, though….” Surprising me, he took my hand and gave it a light squeeze. “And I’ll be looking forward to it.”
I didn’t say anything in return, primarily because the feel of his hand taking mine had instantly jumbled my thoughts so badly that I could barely form a coherent thought.
He then strode across the kitchen and went out the front door, leaving me to wonder if I was developing romantic feelings for him, and if so, if I was developing romantic feelings toward a monster.
CHAPTER 16
It was Wednesday before I realized that I’d missed two of my final exams since arriving at the farm, and that this might prevent me from getting my diploma. Frantic, I called my high school and spoke to the secretary, who said she’d have my principal give me a call. Not ten minutes later, I was speaking to my principal, extremely relieved when she told me that I’d be able to take my final two exams online, through the same portal that kids who were suspended from school used to submit classwork.
Normally, this wasn’t allowed for final exams, but since both of these exams had been “open notes” at school, cheating wasn’t much of a concern, and my principal said it would be no problem for my teachers to upload the exams to the portal.
Later that day, I took both exams and submitted them; and the following morning, I already had an email from my principal, saying that I’d received passing scores on both my exams, and that my diploma would be mailed to me. Unless you want to come back to town to walk at graduation along with everyone else, my principal wrote at the end of the email. There’s no reason why you can’t.
No reason except that I’ve always found enduring public humiliation to be difficult, I thought, having no desire to go back to school to walk at graduation while everyone whispered about how I was pregnant. I could almost hear Kayley’s voice in my head right then.
“She told me she doesn’t even know who the father is,” she’d whisper to someone, probably just loudly enough for me to hear. “I mean, I know she’s got to have an idea, but it seems like it might be one of a few different people if you get what I’m trying to say.”
She hadn’t te
xted or called me, or contacted me on any social media platform, since I’d left town. I hadn’t heard a peep from her, as if she’d just completely cut me out of her life, which was honestly more than fine with me. I was pretty okay with having completely cut her out of my life.
I had, however, been receiving several daily texts from other so-called friends, most of them not offering words of support or encouragement, or asking how I was doing, but more like just wanting to know the “details” of my pregnancy. Who was my baby’s father? How far along was I? Where had I moved? Was I on welfare already? These were the things that my so-called friends wanted to know. I hadn’t been answering anyone back, and had blocked the numbers of repeat texters, and the daily barrage of texts was finally beginning to decrease.
On Thursday, I worked with Carla and Mel at the Ice Creamery for most of the day, serving ice cream and ringing people up at the cash register. Carla and Mel spent most of their time actually making the ice cream, a task that kept them almost continually occupied because our line of customers never seemed to end.
In fact, having refilled the walk-in freezer nearly floor-to-ceiling with homemade ice cream days earlier, Carla and Mel hadn’t even anticipated having to make any fresh-churned; however, having the freezer cleaned out by noon made this a necessity. The freezer being cleaned out was because in addition to ordering ice cream in cones and dishes, many customers also purchased pints and half-gallons to take home.
This, I completely understood. I’d had a chance to sample every flavor of ice cream that was sold at the creamery, and had decided that it was the best ice cream in the world. It was certainly head and shoulders above that soft-serve that was served at the Dairy Freeze back in Ford. That was made from a powdered mix, rumored to need only water to reconstitute before freezing.