We Will Bleed

by Nicole Thorn

  Juniper pulled out another packet and set it down. This one showed three men, looking about the same age as us. They all looked exactly alike. “These are the Donald boys,” Juniper said.

  I took the packet and opened it up. One of them worked at a fast food place, another at a grocery store, and the last worked as a mechanic. They didn’t seem interested in doing more than that, either. Jasmine wouldn’t have to worry about derailing their lives. However . . . “They’re too old,” I said. “Can you imagine if we had been in our twenties, and started seeing visions? We’d think we’d gone insane, and probably would’ve ended up in a mental institution for telling doctors about the things we saw.”

  I set the folder in a pile, sighing.

  “I have two more, then,” Juniper said. “I had been hoping to avoid them, but you both have made excellent points.” She pulled out both packets and set them down. The one on the right showed a picture of two-year-old children. Two girls and one boy. Blond, with bright eyes, and big smiles. They looked so innocent and happy. Would that disappear if we gave them these visions? They, much like us, wouldn’t have any memories of when they didn’t have visions. Of course, my sisters and I had been born with them.

  The other image depicted a pregnant woman. She looked huge and sat on a bench at a park. Her hands rested on her belly, and she looked content. Her black hair had been pinned to the top of her head, and she smiled happily for the camera.

  “These,” Juniper said, putting her finger on the babies. “Are the Hugh triplets. They are barely two and are just full of potential. And this is Mary Allen.” She pointed to the second picture. “She’s pregnant with three babies. Two boys and a girl, according to the doctors, though they could be wrong about that. She’s due in about a month, which might mean less time, and it might mean more. We don’t know.”

  Jasmine’s eyes looked haunted. “Which do you want?” she asked.

  Juniper sighed and looked down at the pictures. “Honestly?”

  “Yeah,” Jasmine said.

  “I’d give this curse to Mary Allen’s children,” Juniper said. “It’s selfish of me, but I’d do that because it’s anonymous. We wouldn’t have to look into her children’s eyes and shift this power over to her. They’d be born that way, so the children would never know anything else.”

  “That makes sense to me,” I said, rubbing my hands down my face.

  Jasmine twisted her mouth to the side and looked at the triplets in the other photo. She lifted it up, and said, “Is that a good enough reason? Not having to look someone in the eyes while you curse them?”

  “I don’t know what else to do,” Juniper said. “We’re stuck.”

  Jasmine set the picture down and looked at Mary Allen. “I suppose you’re right. Let’s curse the Allen family, I guess.”

  “She has a doctor’s appointment in about an hour,” someone said from behind us.

  We all whipped around, startled. Hera stood behind us, offering a small smile. She brushed her light brown hair over her shoulder, and said, “Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you. Anyway, Mary has a doctor’s appointment in an hour. You can meet her there. You just have to hold her hand and think about it to pass your abilities onto her children. I can take you, if you wish.”

  “What about . . . ”

  “Your demigods will understand why you didn’t go with them, if that’s what you’re concerned about. This is not their burden.”

  We looked at each other, and I finally said, “Let’s get ready to go, I guess.”

  Hera nodded once. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll rummage through your kitchen. Hephaestus just goes on and on about Zander’s cooking, and I must admit to being curious.” She turned away from us and went straight for the fridge. I suspected that the leftovers from last night’s dinner would disappear into the goddess’s stomach.

  When I returned to my bedroom, I found Kezia had moved over to the warm spot I’d left behind, and wrapped herself up in the blanket, making herself into a little demigoddess rollup.

  I walked over to the bed and sat down next to her. Kezia stretched, rolling right into my side. She grumbled. “You’re mean.”

  “What did I do?” I asked.

  “You got out of bed. You’re supposed to keep me warm and be my mattress until I tell you that it’s okay to do otherwise.” She opened one mostly green eye and peered at me accusingly.

  “I’m very sorry,” I said, putting my hand against my chest. “I should probably be shot for doing something so cruel.”

  “You’d just heal,” she said, and smiled.

  I returned the expression, and then brushed some hair off her forehead. It hung around her face in adorable tangles, and I wanted to push my hand through it. Instead of distracting myself with that, I said, “Jasmine, Juniper, and I have to go and pass this curse onto someone else.”

  All the sleep vanished from Kezia’s eyes, and she sat up. In doing so, she trapped herself in the blanket even more, and ended up flopping around until I stilled her. “Give me a second,” Kezia said. “I’ll be dressed in no time.”

  “No,” I said.

  Kezia stopped, narrowing her eyes at me. “No?”

  “Hera’s downstairs, and she’s hinted that we’re supposed to do this on our own. She said that this wasn’t your burden,” I told my fiancée. I brushed my fingers down her cheek. “I think we should tread lightly around the gods right now, until all of them have come to terms with what they’ve done to save us.”

  “I don’t want you to go alone,” Kezia argued.

  “I’ll have my sisters with me,” I said.

  She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “You know what I mean.”

  “I do,” I agreed. “I also don’t want you to see us do this. I know it’s stupid, and that maybe we shouldn’t be taking this so hard, but it feels evil. What we’re about to do, it feels like ruining someone’s life without a good reason. I don’t want you to see me do that, but I do want to come home to you, so that you’ll make me feel better. Even wanting that feels evil.”

  Kezia grabbed my face and turned me so that I had to look at her. “Listen up, buddy,” she said. “You aren’t doing anything wrong. You wouldn’t do this if not for the gods. If anyone is evil, it’s them, not you. And I wouldn’t even call them evil. Just . . . incredibly selfish. With you three as gods, the only reason they’d want human seers, is so that they have someone else who has to do what they want and who can’t say no, because they’re just humans.”

  “I know,” I said.

  Kezia sighed, dropping my face. “All right, I’ll stay here, but I’m not happy about it.” She leaned in to kiss my cheek. “And I’ll knock some sense into your head when you decide that you did something bad.”

  “Thank you,” I said, and stood up from the bed.

  Kezia watched me finish getting dressed and leave the room. When I got downstairs, I found my sisters. Juniper had her arms crossed tightly over her chest and had changed into a white shirt and tan pants. Seeing that felt like getting stabbed in the chest. I assured myself that this would just be a small setback, and that Verin could get her back on track.

  Jasmine looked twitchy as all hell, too. Her eyes kept darting around the kitchen, and she had nearly gnawed a hole through her lip.

  Hera stood at the counter, eating leftover pasta. “All ready?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I said.

  She nodded and stuffed the last of the pasta into her mouth. She casually tossed the container into the sink, not noticing how Juniper’s eyes looked pained when she did. Or, perhaps, Hera didn’t care. She came over to us and reached out. Before her hands even touched us, the world went white.

  A second later, we found ourselves standing inside a doctor’s office. Everything about it looked normal, down to the ugly carpet that decorated the floor, and the prints that hung on the wall. The bland forest paintings blended in with the décor so well that I barely noticed them. I wondered if that had been the goal, or
if they actually wanted this place to feel homey.

  I looked around, and spotted Mary almost instantly. She sat alone, in a large chair. She kept running her hands over her stomach and looking around the office. I glanced aside at my sisters.

  Jasmine squared her shoulders and marched right over to the woman. Juniper and I glanced at each other before following. Mary didn’t look up as we sat down across from her. She didn’t seem to notice us until Jasmine cleared her throat and leaned forward. “Um, hello. Have you been going to this doctor your entire pregnancy?”

  Mary smiled at Jasmine. “First time?”

  My sister nodded, laughing sheepishly. “I’m so nervous. I feel like I’ve already done something wrong. I had to bring my brother and sister for moral support.” She gestured at the two of us, and Mary’s eyes brightened.

  “Don’t worry about a thing,” Mary said. “Doctor Connelly is the best. She’s been nothing but kind to me the entire pregnancy, and she prepares you for anything that could go wrong.”

  Jasmine sighed in relief. “Oh, thank god. I spent like two hours online, trying to find a decent doctor. I want to do everything right.”

  “Of course,” Mary said, and smiled again, making crinkles appear in the corners of her eyes. “Um . . . If I might ask, are you three triplets?”

  Jasmine grinned. “Yes, we are.”

  “Is it that obvious?” Juniper asked, giving her own smile. She couldn’t act as well as Jasmine could, though, so hers looked a little sad.

  Mary didn’t seem to notice. She rubbed her stomach again, and said, “You do look a lot alike, but I’m more attuned to that kind of thing right now. I’m having three babies, and I’m scared to death. Not only about what’ll be like to have three infants, but there are so many more risks that come with a pregnancy like this.”

  Jasmine leaned forward and offered Mary her hand. The other woman took it without hesitation, and my sister smiled. “I’m sure that your babies are going to be so healthy when they are born, and they’ll love you more than anything.”

  Mary smiled, and her cheeks turned slightly pink. “God, I hope so.”

  “Mary?” a nurse called from the doorway, holding a clipboard, and looking up, curious. Juniper and I stood up as Mary looked over. I offered her a hand up, as did Juniper. Mary took our offering, and the second our skin touched, I could feel it. Something shifted from inside me, like having an object pulled from my chest, and it went into Mary.

  Juniper’s eyes widened when the same thing happened with her, but we got the woman to her feet. “Good luck,” Jasmine said.

  Mary smiled. “You too. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  My sister smiled as Mary waddled through the doorway. The second the door closed, Hera appeared again, standing next to us. “The rest of her pregnancy will be so smooth, it’ll shock everyone, actually. We’ll make sure of it. Now, I should return you home. Now that you’re free of all your mortal trappings, your real power will start to come in. That should happen back at the house, don’t you think?”

  In the next second, we stood in our kitchen, alone.

  Jasmine blinked. “What . . . the hell did that mean?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY:

  Unwelcome

  Kezia

  “THIS IS STUPID,” I said as Zander held out a tray of cupcakes to me. He’d decorated them all to look like different elaborate flowers, which I would have loved if this had been any other time.

  My brother grinned at me. “It’s not stupid, and I’m proving to you that my skills are far better than Jasmine’s. I am the most qualified to plan your wedding.”

  While Verin took a cupcake, I stared Zander down. “If you keep going like this, then I’m going to get married at a courthouse.”

  Zander gasped. “I’m insulted you would do that. I am a demigod of love, and it would be infinitely disrespectful if you did that to me.”

  “To you? This isn’t your wedding.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  Verin shamelessly chewed on his cupcake, shoving it into his mouth like no tomorrow. Then he swallowed so he could offer his unwelcomed two cents. “Obviously you need to have a real wedding. Though nothing either of you do will be as good and mine and Juniper’s. It will be glorious, and she’ll be in love with every second.”

  Zander snorted. “You won’t beat mine and Jasmine’s.”

  “Oh, we’ll beat everything.”

  Maybe it sounded awful, but I didn’t care too much about the wedding part of it. I wanted to be married to Jasper, and the wedding was just the way to get there. If someone could snap their fingers and I would be married, then I would go with that.

  “We don’t even know anyone,” I said. “My wedding will be empty.”

  “Not true,” Zander promised. He handed his tray to Verin, who started eating again. “We have all six of us, Medusa, your sister, Hades, Callie and her boyfriend . . . um . . . ”

  I lifted my eyebrows. “Yeah.”

  My brother cleared his throat. “Maybe some of the gods that made the seers immortal would want to be there. If Eros isn’t an ass, he can come.”

  Verin got a serious look on his face. “Your mothers would probably invite themselves.”

  “No,” I growled, not realizing until it was too late that I had done it. “They aren’t welcome.”

  “No, they’re not,” Zander agreed.

  I heard voices in the kitchen, coming out of nowhere. The three of us followed them until we found our people, and then everything got a little less stressful.

  “It’s done,” Juniper said as Verin offered her a cupcake. “We’ve officially cursed three innocent babies with what will be a lifelong inconvenience.”

  “Yes,” Jasmine agreed. “But if we didn’t get that inconvenience, then we never would have met our demigods. And I never would have gotten the chance to prove to Zander that I’m better than him. What the fuck are those?” she asked, no transition as she pointed to the goodies.

  Zander smiled. “Those are the cupcakes Kizzy wants me to make for the wedding.”

  “I never said that,” I pointed out, putting my arms around Jasper.

  Jasmine gasped. “You dick! You’re trying to steal this wedding out from under me while I’m gone.”

  “Not your wedding,” Jasper said.

  He went ignored, and Zander said, “Yes I am, because this is my calling.”

  “Your calling is to bite me, you wedding stealer.”

  Verin and Juniper started backing up and out of the kitchen, and it looked like a good idea. We all went unnoticed as we abandoned the fighting couple. Telling them about the wedding proved to be the worst idea we’d ever come up with.

  Once safe in the living room, the rest of us sat on the couch and tried not to listen to the insanity from the kitchen. I had half a mind to call down Hera and have her marry us right then, mostly to avoid more fighting.

  Juniper patted Verin’s leg. “Don’t let them do this with us.”

  “Never,” he promised. “I will let you do all of the organizing you want, with many, many insights from me. Our wedding will be the event of the century, and we’ll have one every hundred years so that we don’t lose the title.”

  Juniper smiled. “I can get fancy notebooks for all the organizing.”

  “Anything you want. Hell, we can get engaged now if you’d like. Just give me some time to set up the proposal.”

  Her smile turned nervous. “How about we have one engagement in the house at a time? What do you think would happen if Zander and Jasmine were the only couple not engaged?”

  All four of us made a sound that I couldn’t describe, but it came off as horrified. I would rather my engagement not turn into a competition, because Jasper and I wouldn’t play.

  The doorbell rang, and we stared at it for a good couple seconds. There were a lot of options as to who could have been there, but I always assumed the worst. Callie had been a nice surprise, but I didn’t hold out hope that we would be
getting another friendly meeting. Though it would have been nice if Medusa decided to come by.

  Zander and Jasmine walked out of the kitchen as we rose from our seats. We all prepared for what was behind the door when my brother opened it. Erebus stood on the other side, and he removed a sucker from his mouth.

  “Afternoon,” he said. “And how have you been?”

  Zander crossed his arms. “We’ve been better, but we’re waiting for a crazy killer to show himself so that we could murder him.”

  “Understandable,” the man said as he walked into the house. Zander closed the door behind him, since asking him to leave wasn’t an option.

  “You have something to tell us, I take it?” Jasper asked.

  Erebus sighed. “You’re no fun. What, you don’t want to chat with me for a little while? Am I not good enough company? I find myself to be rather pleasant, but I suppose you don’t have to agree with me. You can just be wrong.”

  I would have been more patient normally, but Argus murdered my family, as well as Verin’s mother. Every second we didn’t kill him, I worried that Verin would get closer to that place where he would want to go out on his own and get revenge. He’d almost died last time he tried, and I doubted the gods would give us mercy a second time, even if they needed us.

  Erebus moved farther into our home, and we all kept our distance from him. I didn’t think he would attack but being too close made me feel weird. The man made of darkness, carried it with him. I felt like it wrapped around me, and I didn’t want even more darkness to get in. After everything, we deserved some light.

  “Did you find him?” Verin asked.

  Erebus took another taste of his sucker before answering. “As a matter of fact, I did. I didn’t speak with him, but I saw the man trying to gather up some things taken from that camp.”

  “What things?” Jasper asked.

  “Weapons. The police have them all marked as evidence, but there were too many to keep at the station. They have them in a warehouse downtown. Argus intends on taking them back.”

  Zander shrugged. “No problem. We’ll go there and kill him before he does.”