“Yeah... Five.”
She gasps, and then silence.
“Mum?”
“I’m still here.” She tells Vincent what I’ve just told her, and then he mutters a ‘Jesus’ which earns him a scolding. “How could you be pregnant five times in a year? Did you have quintuplets?”
I laugh with the brothers, but immediately feel bad for it. “No, I had five full-term pregnancies that resulted in my fifteen beautiful children.” I smile over at them. “We have eight girls and seven boys.”
“I have fifteen grandchildren?” she whispers, but I hear her disbelief clear as day.
“Yes. My pregnancies were only five weeks long. I had triplets each time.”
“And they’re the brothers’?”
I frown. “Of course they are. We’re still engaged, Mum.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just…are they okay?”
I know what she’s really asking. “They’re perfectly healthy. They look like us.”
“Thank the Lord,” she mutters. “And how old are they now?” she asks, and I know her mind is back to being as quick as ever.
“Eighteen.”
She gasps again but it ends with a shriek.
“Could you sit down somewhere?”
“I just have. Eighteen? You’re telling me I’ve missed out on all that time? Do they even know about me?”
My chest tightens. “Of course they do. They know about you and Vincent, and Dad. I have pictures of you all around the house.”
She suddenly sniffs. “You knew how much I wanted to come home. I would’ve come back to help.” She’s hurt, and I feel awful.
“I know, and I would’ve loved it if you had, but please understand, we had to keep them secret until they could protect themselves. This has nothing to do with me trying to shut you out in any way.”
She doesn’t say anything, and I sigh.
“If Gia or Vanze knew they existed, they would’ve tried a lot harder to find us, Mum. And God knows what they would’ve done if they had.”
More silence.
“Mum—”
“I get it. I'm just… I didn’t think you were capable of shocking me any more than you already had.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I did want to tell you, but it wasn't sa—”
“Safe,” she finishes. “I know. And I’d never want to put my grandchildren in harm’s way.”
Her comment makes me feel so good. I forget what an amazing mum she is. “Thanks for understanding.”
“How can they be so old already, though? And how were your pregnancies so short?”
“They grew eight times faster than normal. Now they’re adults.”
“My God, okay…and....you had them all naturally?”
I laugh. “Yes, Mum.” I take another look at them all. “I pushed out every single one. Dagger’s a doctor, remember?” I torment the kids with the memories of their births, which causes a myriad of expressions to mar their faces.
The brothers laugh.
“Oh, yes, I forgot. Will I get to meet them?” she asks hopefully.
I frown. “I certainly hope so.”
“I didn't even get to hold them.” She sounds upset again.
“I know... I'm sorry.”
“No, no, it's fine. I just... You know how much I've longed for grandchildren.”
“I do, but hopefully once all this is over, you could come back to England.” And maybe, she’ll have great grandchildren one day.
“Oh, I'd love to.”
I don't know if I'll be able to change her into one of us, but if not, I want her to spend as much time with us as possible. “Good. I won’t send pictures, but we can video call, okay? I have some things I need to take care of today, but we’ll talk soon.”
“All right, Darling. Tell them all Bibi said hello, and that I can’t wait to meet them.”
“Hello, Bibi,” the kids shout from the island.
“Oh, gosh, I’m going to cry.”
I smile. “We love you.”
“I love you all, too.”
I finally get off the phone and return to the kitchen. “Well, that went well.”
“It did,” Blade says. “Better than we could’ve hoped.”
I nod and Theo holds my hand. “We’ll make it up to her.”
I lift his hand to kiss it. “Thank you, Baby.”
Twelve
Mikka
“Yo, these masks are bad as—” Royal gushes, only just remembering not to say the last word out loud. “I’m getting some serious superhero vibes right now.”
“All I need now, is a sword.”
I give Violet a quick glance. “You watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon too much.” She’s obsessed with that film.
She smiles. “I know.”
“You can hold a machete.” I can just imagine the types of videos they’d put on TikTok if we let them post them.
The kids let me through to the mirrored wardrobe in Hope’s bedroom so I can see myself. I’m by far the shortest of the group—all the kids have their fathers’ heights—but as my dad always used to say, all good things come in small packages.
‘Except your tits and ass,’ Blade comments.
I smile and shift to get the full effect of the mask. My eyes burn back at me and my skin mottles to a purple hue. The masks are black, but there are amber teeth sewn into the fabric in 3D, so it looks like we’re about to take a huge chunk out of something, or someone. “They are bad ass,” I agree.
We’re all loving them, and we thank the kids for getting them together.
“So, are we ready?” Thorn asks, and we all nod. “Remember, no talking out loud. We reach as many as we can, put them to rest, and it’s a wrap.”
Zaire turns to his dads. “I can’t wait to see how everyone reacts to waking up and seeing dead zombies lining the streets in the morning.”
“Same,” Treasure says, smoothing her mask over her nose and mouth. She hasn’t shifted, but her eyes are still lit up with her excitement. She’s a good mix of me and her dad, and has one green eye and one blue, like jewels—that’s why Dagger named her Treasure. “They’re gonna lose it.”
“The drone’s ready to go,” Emerson says, taking it off charge. “We’ll get some epic shots with this.”
The world will have all the proof it needs in the morning, but we still want to make this shit thrilling for the viewers.
“Alright,” Pin says, “but before we head out, let’s take some snaps.”
I turn to face him. ‘Are you gonna let them have TikToks?’
‘They have masks now, and no matter what happens, the world is gonna know us one way or another. No one can trace them. I’ve encrypted all their devices.’
‘He’s right,’ Axe agrees. ‘We should let them be real kids for once. And with the followers they’ll get, they’ll be raking it in, too.’
That’s true.
They’ve asked for independence; maybe this is something else that will make them feel like they have it. It would also be nice for them to get the props they deserve for saving the world.
I look at Thorn, Dagger, and Blade. ‘What do you think?’
They nod. ‘Let them go for it,’ Dagger says. ‘Then they can start buying their own shit instead of manipulating us to.’
Thorn rolls his eyes. ‘Forget the money, just let them have their precious TikToks. There will be rules, though.’
I definitely agree with that. I’m not going to have the girls in underwear or the boys taking body shots to get likes. I’m not a prude; some skin will be allowed, but nothing over the top.
‘Definitely.’
I suddenly wonder if the kids have had something to do with their dads’ willingness to let them have active accounts now. Either way, I agree. If they want to reveal themselves to the world in this way, who are we to stop them?
I turn to face the kids and immediately know they’ve heard parts of that conversation. They probably most likely know that I hold the answer, too. “
Find names for your TikToks. When this video goes live tonight, so will your first posts.”
“We’ll link them in the comments,” Pin tells them. “Masks at all times.”
The kids erupt in screams and yells as they begin to hug us.
I think I underestimated just how much this would mean to them, but it’s made me feel happy as hell. “I can’t wait to see what you come up with.”
It takes us just over an hour to reach Swansea. We’re still in Wales, close to the sea, but Swansea is a city, not a town like Pembroke, so the bodies will definitely be seen. We noticed the zombies close to the house have followed us here, but even without them, we can all feel thousands of them close by.
The kids have been quiet during the drive. We’re in three cars, but I can still hear them all. They’re excited but also anxious, but I can’t blame them. This is the first time we’re testing our limits. The first time the kids are being able to let loose.
But it’s about time we all found out exactly what we’re capable of.
Together.
We all push the zombies out of the park while Pin gets the camera ready and Emerson sets up the drone. This park is massive and will hold thousands of the dead, and the closer we get to doing this, the more excited I feel.
“Right,” Pin says, returning to the rest of us with Emerson, “The cameras are ready to go. Remember, once I turn the camera on, no talking. Cutting the video will just make it look suspect.”
We all get it.
“Mum,” Raeni says, “do you just want us to pull in as many as we can, first?”
“Yeah. We’ll see how far we can reach, and then I guess we’ll see how we feel.” I’m pretty sure my kids know exactly what to do, so I won’t attempt to tell them. They taught me how to kill zombies at a few months old, so to think they’re anything less than incredible now, would be stupid.
“Alright.” She gives her brothers and sisters a quick look, but then I’m pulled back to Pin.
“Let’s do this.”
Emerson lifts the drone and sets it above us before slipping the control into his sweatpants, and then we all stand beside one another. Pin stands closest to the camera, followed by his brothers, me, and then the kids, with Raeni on my right. We’re all in black tracksuits and masked up—unrecognisable—and after Violet pulls her mask into place, we’re ready.
“Three, two…” ‘We’re on,’ Pin tells us.
I focus on sensing around us, and as usual, feel the brother’s minds doing the same. It’s not often we’ve all done this, we usually take turns in threes. I just wonder if what happened with me and the kids will end up happening this time, where I felt like their minds were physically inside mine.
The zombies we can reach begin to come closer, including the ones we were holding back. Their amber eyes are absent, and the moans and groans I used to listen to outside my bedroom window are, too. They’re so placid around us now, as if they know they’re coming to find peace. Relief. It’s not only them that feel it, though, so do we, a little more with each less zombie there is.
They stop a few metres away from us like usual, and then we’re suddenly reaching further because our three eldest have linked their minds with ours, and somehow, it’s like they’re using each zombie’s mind to hunt down the next closest ones.
Have they been holding that back all this time?
I almost turn my head to look at them, but I remember we’re on video.
Treasure, Africa, and Prince are next, and they do the same thing. I feel the brothers’ surprise at how far we can sense them now. I feel so proud that I haven't had to guide any of the kids yet, but I always knew their natural instincts would be enough.
‘Are we—are we hitting Inverness?’ Blade asks.
‘And parts of France and Belgium,’ Axe says.
‘I think so,’ Pin answers. ‘Ireland, too. And nine of the babies ain’t even joined the party yet.’
‘That’s all zombies for about four hundred miles in each direction,’ Thorn informs us, and the rest of us are equally as stunned.
Will we be able to release all these minds, though? We’ve never been able to gather more than a few hundred each, but we literally have control of over hundreds of thousands of zombies right now, and…
‘I can feel one that I bit,’ I tell them all. ‘Across the water, in France.’
‘Can you hold him with the rest?’ Thorn asks.
‘Yeah, I can.’ We’re all excited by that, because that means we’ll be able to find Gia and that prick.
Dris, Emerson, and Amber are next to link with us, and my heart begins to race out of control. We can reach so—
None of us can contain our gasps when the six youngest link in and we’re all forced to shift. Pin’s going to have to edit that out, but there’s nothing we could’ve done to silence that.
He’s lucky I didn’t scream from how it hurt my head.
It’s obvious our human minds can’t handle what’s happening to us. Being in this form has lessened the intensity of it all, but still, the power I feel is indescribable, and I know everyone else feels it, too.
My mind is open in new places, and our reach is scarily far. We’ve now got millions of zombies under control, and I literally want to laugh with shock. As strong as we feel, though, the fact remains, will we be able to kill this many in one go, or will we still need to do it in batches?
‘What do we do now?’ Axe asks.
No one answers. I have no idea…
‘You haven’t forgotten what we did, have you, Mum?’ Theo asks.
I keep my eyes ahead, but desperately want to look beside me. Maybe we should’ve practiced this before now. ‘No, not for a moment, but we can all kill them now, not just me.’
‘But you didn’t just link our minds,’ Raeni says, ‘you merged them. And you can do it even better now.’
So their minds did merge with mine… ‘But how do I merge us all? Four minds are not twenty-one.’
‘You made us all this way,’ Theo explains. ‘We’re all connected through you, even our dads are.’
‘But…’
‘You know how,’ Jaden continues to explain this time. ‘Use your mind, Mum. It’s stronger than all of ours, and the only one that can handle it. That's why you're different to us.’
‘Different?’ They’ve never once said I’m different to them, and they choose now to? ‘Are you referring to my blood?’
‘Yes.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘We just do. We’ve always known we were the same, but you felt different. Then we picked up on you talking about your antigen when we were old enough to understand. We figured it was that. It’s another reason why we wanted you to bite our dads, because we knew only you could. We would’ve done it otherwise.’
‘You’re the boss, Mum,’ Zaire suddenly says. ‘Sorry, Dads.’
The brothers don’t comment on that. I think they’re more shocked than me. Not about my mind being the strongest—we’ve always known that, because over the years, my connection to them and my kings have remained so—but more about there being another reason why my SARA antigen never left my blood.
‘We need to release these minds,’ Hope says. ‘Not to rush you or anything, Mum, but we’ll have to start releasing them on our own if you don’t hurry.’
I get the same feeling I did from her brothers and sister when we first did this. Urgency. ‘Okay.’ I focus and take myself back two years, but then Raeni discretely slips her hand into mine, and it happens.
Twenty other minds merge with mine.
No word is needed, no ‘die’, nothing. The zombies begin to fall, disconnecting from us as they do, and the thuds go on for miles and miles and miles, sending a trembling through the ground under their weight.
Until finally, after only a few minutes, none remain.
Anywhere. At least not where we can find; I can feel the kids trying to find any we may have missed.
It’s eerily silent when it en
ds; no breeze, no sounds from any zombies or wildlife, it’s as if the entire world has stopped to relish a moment of calm after all the chaos.
It’s almost creepy.
And then, as if content, everything around us slowly comes back to life.
Pin runs over to the camera to stop it, and then I feel them all pull their minds from mine as we look at each other.
Pin blinks at me. “That was…”
“Epic,” Prince finishes. “The world is going to lose their shit in the morning.”
We let his use of shit go, because we all agree.
“I’m losing my shit now,” Axe says, “and I was a part of it.”
“Well done, Mum,” Raeni says, releasing my hand to hold my arm. “I’ve been waiting so long to see that again, and I wasn’t disappointed.”
“For real,” Jaden agrees. “I always think about that first time.”
“I wish I could’ve seen it,” Dris says. “You’re a real bad—”
“Language,” Dagger quips, anticipating his son’s last word. “But yeah, your mother always has been the most powerful piece on the board.”
I send a soft kiss to his head. “We are seriously bad ass,” I finish for my son. “And I couldn’t be any prouder of you all.”
“Us either,” Thorn says, and I feel it. “But now we have work to do, so let’s get out of here.”
Thirteen
Mikka
For the next few hours after we return home, we’re all on a high. The kids split into groups of boys and girls to make their TikToks to upload, having deciding on posting the same two videos on their respective groups’ accounts. They’ve named their crews the Zombie Princes and Princesses, encouraged by Axe and Pin.
Pin also uploaded a picture of the six of us, with the brothers standing behind me. I have to admit, it made me feel pretty powerful, which we know is a serious turn-on for me…
Anyway, he uploaded it as the picture for his channel and then changed the name from Zombie Hunter O-One, to Zombie Royalty.
He’s linked all the kids’ TikTok accounts in the description and, this time, added hashtags to deny our connection to all day-walker attacks, except Cambridge.
The World For My Zombie Kings: A Reverse Harem Romance (Zombies Rule The World Book 3) Page 8