Thaddeus
A month passes quickly; we are still on the move. Evelyn becomes more and more uncomfortable as each day passes. She only has a month left. Pulling up at our next destination, I stop the car.
Evelyn is asleep beside me with the chair laid back while Ryland and Orion are crammed in the back. Morning sickness wracked her petite body a couple of days after we found out she was pregnant; despite the size of her growing belly, she looks frail and sickly and continues to lose weight. Her eyes are hollow, and her breathing uneven. We were right; the baby is absorbing everything we feed her.
I finally managed to get a hold of Amara, and she says she can’t see Evelyn’s future, which worries me. My mother told me not to worry; that when she was pregnant with us, her future couldn’t be seen either, but still, with the way Evelyn is going, it has us all scared.
Our Evie is human, Bianca has been doing research for us and found out those carrying supernatural babies only live if they have vampire DNA. No human has survived before, not carrying a baby. Most survive carrying vampire children, but no human survived werewolf children, and Evelyn is carrying a tribrid – a strong one at that.
I can already sense the magic radiating out of her, yet it isn’t like my magic. I must have drawn the shit card when magic was handed out, hit with the bad stick, no scrap that I hit with the entire damn tree. The child Evie is carrying reminds me of Amara’s magic, pure and good.
We try to keep it from her, not wanting to add to her worry. The darkness around me has worsened, and being near her is becoming uncomfortable. Amara thinks it’s because I am picking up on Evelyn’s distress. Evie has become wary of me, and sometimes I catch her staring, lost in thought like she can truly see the monster I am, yet she tries her best to cover it, but it doesn’t go unnoticed by me.
“Babe, you need to wake up,” I tell her, shaking her shoulder.
She moves to get comfortable, and I give up, instead, hopping out of the car, going to her door, and opening it. Ryland is grabbing our bags from the trunk while Orion goes to get the keys for the room. Scooping her up, she barely moves, her eyes flutter open and close again. I follow Orion to the room, Ryland right behind us.
When I place her on the bed, she rolls on her side.
“We can’t keep doing this,” Ryland says, looking down at her, and I agree; it is too much on her.
Every day she grows weaker; even walking is a challenge sometimes, though she has moments where she is full of energy, mainly late at night. She even craves blood sometimes, which always makes her sex drive spike after she has consumed it; the kid is going to come out with a head like a golf ball if she doesn’t settle down. Her hormones are majorly out of whack.
One minute she is horny and has a burst of energy; the next tired and lethargic. Orion spends most of his time reading pregnancy books or surgical books, trying to find a way to help her.
“What do you want to do?”
“Maybe we should head home? It’s been a month, and we haven’t seen them for two weeks now,” Orion suggests. I nod, maybe, or at least long enough for her to have the baby.
“It’s up to you, Thaddeus,” Ryland says, looking down at her again and brushing her hair from her face.
“We will head home tomorrow. I think that might be best. I will have Amara and my mother meet us there to set up some wards with me.”
Ryland climbs on the bed beside her, rubbing his hand over her belly and kisses it.
Heading for the bathroom, I strip off and step into the shower. My mind is racing with what I should do, my thoughts consume me, and I feel the darkness creeping in. The whispers of my magic, calling me to use it, get louder. I try to tune them out and ignore them, but I know it is pointless; it will win as it always does. I shower quickly, shut the water off, and step out, wrapping the towel around my waist.
As I open my bag and take out jeans and a shirt, Orion raises his eyebrow at me. “Where are you going?”
“Out.” I need to get away before it worsens and I attack Ryland again. Luckily, Evelyn remained asleep, dead to the world, because what I did frightened me and I couldn’t stop until Orion pulled me off him.
“Thaddeus, don’t do this; you’re only feeding it when you give in to it,” Orion tries to reason.
I know he is right but better I leave than let it hurt them. Ignoring him, I walk out the door, heading for the main street of this shitty town. The winter chill does not affect me as I continue walking, until I finally hit a gas station. For some reason, I look through the glass windows. A woman walks in the glass sliding doors, holding a little girl’s hand.
It is late; for some reason, seeing the woman strikes me as odd. It is freezing out, and both of them have hardly anything on. I watch them when I see a shady-looking man walk in after her. I can tell by the way he walks that he is up to no good. Usually, I would continue on my way, but I find myself frozen, my eyes glued on the woman, unaware of the danger lurking in the gas station with her.
My thoughts go to Evie; what if that was her and our child? I am almost stuck in a trance until I hear the shrill voices of the woman screaming, and the girl’s cries as her mother tugs her behind a shelf near the entryway. The man I can see is holding a gun at the teller, and I can hear his voice from where I stand.