by Julia Laque
The doctor nodded. “Get on the bed and slide in behind her. Let her lean back against you, then you can reach around her and hold her legs up. Quickly, here comes another contraction.”
Adam had detected the contraction coming too. Their supernatural keen senses warned it was coming. He slid in behind her and reached under her knees and pulled back as she tensed up against his chest, her nails digging into his thighs. His lips were at her brow and he whispered a silent prayer.
“There’s the head! Come on, Eva! Five…four…push…here it comes!”
Adam watched in total wonderment as their baby’s head came rising up in front of them, then shoulders, belly. “It’s a boy, babe! A boy!” Adam didn’t recognize his own voice as he shouted those glorious words.
“Come here!” the doctor yelled at Jason, who had turned to look out the window. He knew his friend wanted to give them privacy, but he wasn’t about to leave his leader and his woman with only one doctor, albeit a quick and capable doctor, but a vampire nonetheless. It was as if Jason had been waiting to help. He rushed over, keeping his face on the doctor. “You’re going to be our nurse today.” He handed the baby off to Jason as soon as the baby began to wail. “As soon as we cut, place him down on the other side of the bed where I’ve put those sheets.” He reached for a tool beside him and gave it to a stunned Adam. “Cut the cord quickly, the other one is ready to go.” Dr. Moros reached down. “Don’t worry, Eva, I’ll put your second born right on you. You’ll be holding them both in a minute.”
Adam cut the unbiblical cord quickly and then reached for Evangeline’s knees again, counting down in her ear. “Nine… You’re amazing you know... Eight… That’s it, baby… Seven… I love you… Six… I love you… I love you… I love you.”
****
“How fruity is this? We look like a bunch of girls right now,” Ramo said as he held Adam’s son in the rocking chair in the baby’s room.
Jason, Nick, Alex, Ramo, and Adam were all crammed in the baby’s room. Adam was at the changing table, doing the swaddling thing Evangeline had shown him. Jason stood in the doorway while Nick and Alex both leaned on a crib.
“You’re the one rocking, fool,” Alex said.
“Screw you, he likes it.” He nodded at the baby.
After holding the first baby, Jason was traumatized. He’d been scared shitless he was going to hurt the baby and therefore could not bring himself to hold Adam’s other son. Ramo was the only Fighter who insisted on holding both the boys. Nick and Alex watched from the sidelines, too nervous their close proximity might harm the babies.
“How’s Evangeline?” Nick asked.
Adam nestled his son in the crook of his arms. “She’s okay. As soon as she held them both, she knocked out.”
“You try popping out two babies and see how you feel,” Ramo said indignantly, rocking back and forth.
Evangeline slept for five hours. Adam finally woke her to feed the babies. He’d tried to feed them simultaneously, but he couldn’t manage.
“I’m sorry, babe, but I need help feeding them.” Adam told her.
“It’s fine, honey. You shouldn’t have let me sleep so long. They need to eat every two hours, the poor babies.”
“Don’t worry, Ramo and I fed them two hours ago.”
Evangeline looked relieved. “Thank goodness.”
They lay in bed together, feeding their sons who took the bottles without hesitation.
“Would you object to a full time nanny?” Adam asked as he gently patted the baby’s back.
“Absolutely not,” she replied.
They laughed together.
Adam’s smile faded and he watched her carefully. “I don’t think I can survive that again. How are you feeling?”
She smiled weakly. Her face was pale, and she had dark circles under her eyes. As she smoothed her hair back from her face he noticed tiny red spots where her blood vessels had popped from all the pushing. “I’ll be fine, babe. But, we need to discuss something important.”
He tensed. “What?”
“If we don’t hurry up and name these boys, your cousin is going to name them Ramo and Ramon.”
****
In the King’s Coven, a disheveled Cyrus stood looking out his bedroom window with a drink in hand, having just settled down from the fervent anxiety he’d felt all day.
A knock sounded on the door.
“What?” he called out, having no desire for company.
The door cracked and Jane poked her head in. “It’s me, Your Grace.”
“I know it’s you. What do you want, Jane?” He continued to stare out at the river below.
“Um…I know you’re…concerned for Evangeline. I wanted to know if I could check on her.”
“That’s not necessary. She’s fine now.”
“Are you sure?”
Cyrus turned his head to look at her and by the way Jane’s face paled, he must have been a sight. “Quite sure.”
She hesitated at the door. “Are you okay?”
“Goodnight, Jane.”
****
Sprawled in a chair, she watched with unseeing eyes, completely and utterly detached, as Leonardo brought up their new play things. Instead, she thought of the woman who had just given birth to werewolves and felt a seething hatred surge like poison through her, turning her eyes blood red.
Chapter Eighteen
Evangeline fell into the role of mother with ease. Daniel and David were her pride and joy, her reason why she’d been brought to this earth. Adam and Evangeline could not stop looking at them. The boy’s nanny was constantly shooing them away when the twins were asleep. To be sure, Lydia must have been sick to her stomach at how much they talked about the boys.
Adam had tracked down Lydia, who’d been a close friend of his mother’s years ago. Evangeline had been amazed to learn the woman was three hundred and twenty-one years old. She had once been his mother’s nanny and Adam’s too. She'd moved to Arizona in the early seventies and had been living alone all this time.
They were extremely grateful to have her. In fact, she was a godsend. The woman could change a diaper faster than Dr. Moros.
The day after the twins were born, Evangeline and Adam had their first visitors aside from the Fighters, of course. As Adam predicted, grandma and grandpa could not resist. Evangeline and her father hugged for several tearful minutes and the moment Rachelle and Geoffrey saw their two grandsons, the tears were relentless.
As she walked her father to the door after hours of eating and cooing at the twins, she asked if everything was okay. She watched his reaction carefully. Geoffrey’s face tightened for a moment, but then he said, “Everything is all right. I’m…I’m back on my feet.”
She eyed him warily. “What about the debt?”
Her father gave her an odd look. “There is no debt, honey. Stop worrying.” Then he kissed her on the forehead, promising to be back over the weekend.
She hardly had a chance to dwell on the subject. The days were filled with entertaining visitors, bathing and changing the twins, washing bottles, and rocking them to sleep.
They received packages in the mail from people she did not know. Adam told her they came from distant relatives or leaders of other packs. Several members of the Blacktail pack came to see their leader’s newborn sons. Even Katherine came down one Sunday to spend the afternoon with the boys.
“I think I’ve taken your healing abilities for granted,” Adam said one night.
After two weeks of no sex, Dr. Moros finally gave them the okay during her check-up. They both lay on their backs, breathing heavily with sated smiles. In an instant they were both out.
Evangeline dreamed of the jackal. She was in the woods near her parent’s home, searching for her sons. Somehow she knew the jackal had taken them. She had to find them.
Eva.
Evangeline’s eyes shot open. She waited quietly in the darkness. Someone was calling her name.
Eva.
She s
at up. She had to stop it. The jackal. The jackal took the twins. Her boys needed her.
Come, Eva.
Evangeline took the cover off and got out of bed. She reached for her velour white robe behind the door and put it over her naked body.
Please, Evangeline.
I’m coming. She had to move faster. Moving down the stairs quickly, she reached the entryway and grabbed Adam’s keys. Outside, she started the car and drove straight to her parent’s house. Parking a fair distance from the house, she got out and headed straight into the woods. The October night was cool and Evangeline did not realize she was barefoot and in a robe.
The jackal had her babies. She had to find them.
She moved deeper into the woods, totally unaware she’d begun to shiver.
“Hello, my dear.”
Evangeline gasped as if she’d been doused by a bucket of ice cold water. Every hair on her body stood instantly on end.
She didn’t know what was weirder; that she was outside in the woods with a robe on and had no idea how’d she gotten there or the fierce lady with the odd getup in front of her.
“My, you are even more beautiful up close,” the lady spoke again in her deep sing song voice.
Evangeline shook herself. “What…what am I doing here? Who are you?”
The woman stared back at her with an odd, assessing expression. The woman’s hair was pulled back in a severe bun and her hard green gaze sent shivers down Evangeline’s spine. She wore a long velvet dress of midnight black and a draping necklace with a medallion on the end. Evangeline couldn’t tell if she was thirty or fifty years old.
“I need to get home.” Evangeline made to move, but the woman’s next words made her freeze.
Leaning her dark head to one side, she said, “I’m sorry my dear, but you will not be going home tonight.”
Standing frozen as the woman’s words sunk in, she finally said, “I’ve had enough.” Apparently her sleep-deprived self had been sleepwalking and landed in the freaking woods. Evangeline turned to go, walking in the opposite direction when the creepy woman materialized in front of her.
“Jesus!” Evangeline screamed. “What the—? What do you want? Just leave me alone. I need to get home.” Before she could move, her body locked. Every part of her had become suddenly immobile. Suspended in a single position, Evangeline began to panic in earnest. She was no longer in a sleepy state of mind, but wide-awake in pure dread. “What’s happening? Why can’t I move?” she whispered.
“I had big plans for you, Evangeline,” the woman said conversationally, her hands folded in front of her.
“Who are you?” she demanded, struggling to move any body part with no luck.
“That is the question, isn’t it?” She laughed wickedly. “I’m the person trying to decide what to do with you since you’ve wasted your talent.”
What? Evangeline was furious now. She was a mother and she needed to get home to her sons. Whatever this lady tried to do, Evangeline was going to fight tooth and nail. “Stop playing games. Who the fuck are you and what do you want?” Evangeline snapped.
A slow smile crept up her pale face. “Now there's the great granddaughter I want to see.”
Evangeline flinched. “What?”
“You don’t see a resemblance?” she asked expectantly, raising a thin eyebrow. “Mmm, I’m afraid I’m past my prime.” She stepped closer to Evangeline. “I’m your great grandmother, dear, on your mother’s side of course. Goddess knows good looks only run on one side of your family.” She scoffed.
I’m losing it! Did she say great grandmother?
Staring hard at the woman in front of her, who freakishly looked like a peculiar imitation of herself, but with deliberate mistakes, Evangeline recoiled inside. This woman’s nose was a bit longer and her mouth was wider than her own, but there was no mistaking the similarities.
Evangeline’s mind was reeling. Her mother was adopted. Could this strange woman actually be related to her?
“Yes, Eva.”
If Evangeline could jump, she would have. Good Lord, had she heard what Evangeline was thinking? “Are…are…you…a witch?”
She smiled again. “Very good,” the woman said as if Evangeline were a child and just said two plus two is four. “My name is Cassandra.” She smiled. “And I believe you are now figuring out what you are.”
Evangeline was struggling to keep her mind clear. Evidently this witch could read her thoughts.
“Now don’t fight it, sweetie. In fact, your thoughts may just be the only thing to keep you alive.”
“You want to kill me?” Evangeline asked, real panic setting in with potency. She tried to recall what she knew about witches, but what she had read was from the werewolves’ perspective. Witches had existed for centuries before the werewolves were made. During medieval times, the werewolf spell was the witches’ curse of choice. It was completely irreversible. What the witches had not anticipated was the werewolves’ ability to procreate at a very high rate.
“You can’t blame me. The first healer in seven hundred years and she’s run off with a werewolf and given birth to two cubs.” The woman’s face turned hard now, veins poked out over her forehead and her eyes became red. “No descendant of mine should have ever allowed this to happen.”
Pure terror washed over her now as she watched this woman grow angrier by the second. She understood instantly the predicament she was in. If this actually were her great grandmother, and every fiber of her being told her it was, then would she harm her mother for “allowing” Evangeline to get involved with werewolves?
“Unfortunately, my granddaughter is a fool. However, she did produce a healer so I won’t be harming her any time soon.”
Evangeline stared intently. “I’m a witch?”
The woman’s arched eyebrows shot up again. “Yes, and one with extraordinary potential.”
She didn’t know how to process this information. Deep down she’d known she was…something different.
Her great grandmother took a deep breath. “Witches can do many things, sweetie, but heal. You, however, possess a rare gift.”
“Why would you kill me then?”
She shook her head at her. “Evangeline, there has not been a healer for centuries. You have been blessed with the gift and your insipid mother was to keep you from harm’s way. I was confident you’d be safe in this dull town, but now look at you.”
Evangeline was confused.
“You mated with a werewolf and delivered his offspring. Having children weakens your powers and by extension, weakens you. You’re virtually useless to me now.”
Evangeline filed this away for later. Right now, she had to get the hell away from this witch and back home. She forced herself to not think. There was no way she was going to trust this nut.
Her so-called great grandmother inspected her up and down. “Let me see.”
In a flash, Evangeline’s robe was evaporated from her body. She was completely naked in the cold woods and couldn’t move. “Ah!” she shrieked.
“Mmm…” Her great grandmother murmured. “The resemblance is uncanny.” She circled Evangeline, staring carefully as though she could see beyond skin. “I’m amazed you have regained your figure, although your breasts seem to be a bit swollen. Nevertheless, your powers can be the only reason you’ve managed this.” She came around to peer into her eyes. “You are a fighter, my dear, but I’m afraid your time is up. The damage has been done.”
Please, God. She couldn’t die. She couldn’t leave Adam and their babies alone. They needed her.
Evangeline was about to plead for her life when a roar echoed in the night and a dark, huge figure leaped in front of her, knocking her great grandmother off her feet, and smashing her onto the ground.
The witch let out a deep wail, fighting futilely at the werewolf who pinned her onto the ground. It wasn’t Adam. This wolf’s mane was black, streaked with gray. It was Jason.
Evangeline suddenly noticed she could move her
limbs. Jason’s attack must have lifted the woman’s enchantment.
Evangeline ran to the nearest tree for cover, not knowing what to expect. She was shivering now, her teeth chattering in the cool night. She fought to see in the darkness what was happening and to her horror, heard a dramatic, snake-like voice, casting a spell in a strange language. “NO!”
Running closer to see what was happening, she saw Jason’s large form suddenly lift off from the ground. He was twitching and contorting oddly, screaming in agony as his body gained more height.
“Stop!”
The witch stood and Evangeline could see her eyes were red and there were three dark, crimson slash marks across her chest. Cassandra continued her chanting, her arm outstretched, torturing Jason suspended in mid-air. The minute she was done, her arm cut through the air and she slammed Jason hard into the bark of a tree. He fell a good twenty feet and lay lifeless in the dirt.
Shivering uncontrollably, Evangeline stared wide-eyed at Jason as his body transformed back to man.
He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead.
Her grandmother spoke with fury, clutching the gashes at her chest. “You pathetic fool! You’re all pathetic!” She looked at Jason on the ground. “Mutts running around like they’re the center of the universe, vampires creating realms.” She turned back to Evangeline. “They are puppets, my useless descendent, puppets.”
Evangeline was shaking uncontrollably.
“I shouldn’t have sent my jackal after your dog. I should have sent it for you.” Evangeline was horror-struck. The woman paused dramatically, her voice ringing in Evangeline’s ears. “You’re not worth my time.” She arched her shoulders back and her chin jutted out. “You’ll die a horrible death, my little idiot.”
Evangeline could not look at her. The witch had murdered Adam’s best friend right before her eyes and it was all her fault. He had come here to save her and now he was dead.
“Go, then. Live the rest of your days as a whore to a dog.”