Eclipsed by Midnight (23 page)

“Did you just snort laugh?” I jab, only because she never misses an opportunity to poke fun at me. True friends keep it real with one another.

“Never.” She does it again, and we bust up laughing.

“Sash, you never did finish telling me how things went over the phone with Stephan yesterday.”

The other day I finally stopped avoiding his messages and grew a pair to call him. The boys had broken the news to him that they would not be coming out for his wedding. Stephan didn’t take that too well, especially since they wouldn’t tell him quite why. Hence, my phone and email blowing up to the point where Etienne had threatened to off him if I didn’t handle it. Amazing how after all of this time, Etienne still has some insecurities around that whole business.

“It went as expected. He blew his top and yelled at me for twenty minutes, blaming me for all the past bullshit, and then spiraling into apologizing again for how it ended. You’d think he’d be over it now that he’s marrying someone else. Just goes to show what I know.” My shoulders shrug as I recall our conversation.

“What did you end up telling him?”

“Well, I can’t really tell him much. I refuse to tell him that the boys are transitioning because then he’d jump on a plane. And then Etienne would probably finally drain his ass. Just told him that the boys were overwhelmed with practice and school and after talking to his advisor, we agreed starting their break a little early would be for the best. I swore I was helping them get packed up to leave this week to fly to China for the holiday, but they came down with the flu really bad and were quarantined to bed. He tried to convince me to put them on the plane anyway. I told him to go fuck himself if he thought I’d ever put their well-being ahead of his selfish needs. Thankfully, the boys never divulged my marriage to him and kept the last six months of crap silent. I was getting the impression that they didn’t want to go anyway.”

“Yeah, they told me they didn’t but were just trying to keep the peace.”

“Stephan messed that up all on his own. I can’t make the boys feel connected to him, especially with the limited effort he put in.”

“It’s sad. Thank goodness Christian didn’t mess up with the girls like that.” Her melancholy tune has me digging deep for something to make her laugh.

“I agree. Hey, back to crazy memories, remember the time you wanted to feel sexy again, when the girls were like three? Anyway, you called me crying after you tried to give yourself a Brazilian?”

Ang’s face turns beet red before she busts out in another fit. “Oh, shit! I glued my cheeks shut with the damn wax!” Tears of laughter stream down our faces as we remember that night. I had to rush over and try to help her as she panicked. This was all happening two hours before her schedule date night with Christian. You know your friendship hits a new level when you get called to help in that sort of capacity. Ang was so freaked she thought taking a bath would help… and proceeded to get stuck to the bathtub.

“Nurse Sasha to the rescue.” I wipe my eyes. Glad we can laugh about it now.

“God, you dumped so much baby oil on me that I slipped around in my heels all night!”

“Better than having your ass stuck to the bathtub.” We snort laugh in unison.

As our fits simmer out, my phone vibrates. Erik works fast. Glancing over the message, I quietly slip the phone into my purse and give Ang all of my attention. We spend the next hour recalling crazy memories that keep us laughing in hysterics over the next hour up until the closing of this quaint little place. The humor does a good job of taking a few years off the both of us. As the staff begins to close up shop, I walk Ang to her car and see her off before attacking the lurker in the parking lot. I approach him so fast, he doesn’t see me coming.

“Care to explain yourself, Roman?” I vehemently spit as I appear like a ghost from hell in front of his face out of nowhere.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” He jumps back and clutches his chest. “When the hell did you learn to do that?” He coughs, trying to get a handle on himself.

“Doesn’t matter. Why are you sneaking into my best friend’s house in the middle of the night and standing over her like a crazy stalker?” I jam an accusatory finger into his chest.

His face falls like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “I’ve just been worried about her, so at night, I call my element to stand guard over her so she can sleep peacefully,” he admits with reserve.

“She says she can still feel Christian’s kiss on her lips at night. Care to enlighten me?” Lord help me, it he has been laying a finger on her in her sleep…

His face turns sheet white and his heart rate becomes erratic. “No, I swear, Sasha, nothing like that.” It is easy to see that he is telling the truth, the colors vibrating around his being won’t allow him to lie. Erik didn’t detect anything else on the property so that can only mean she really is just recalling memories.

“I believe you. But I swear to Goddess, I will beat your ass down if you lay an uninvited finger on a single hair on her head. We clear?” My tone morphs into that deep and prophetic one that tends to scare people. I don’t even know how I manage it or stop it for that matter. His rapid swallowing and shaking body tell me the message has been received loud and clear. “Good. Listen, Roman, I know you are in love with her. Shit, even a blind person could see that. I am not getting involved with any of that, but I have her back, always. You may be like a brother, but she comes first. Okay?” I smooth out his shirt where I had been furiously poking him.

“Yes, of course.”

“Thank you for keeping watch over her.” I take a step back, the space inspiring his broad shoulders to slightly relax.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” he breathes, his eyes looking distant for a moment.

“Alright, go.” I excuse him, waving him off in a hurry before sauntering over to the waiting car at the end of the parking lot.

Opening the door, I lean in with my best sexy pout. “Hey stud, can I get a lift?”

Etienne shakes his head, but the tiniest hint of smile appears and that is good enough for me. The asshole is loosening up a bit. Coming to rest in the seat after buckling myself up, my guilty conscious gets the better of me. As his hand reaches for the ignition, I stop it and bring it to my still-flat belly, but we know the secret there. His smile grows as he reaches out with his own magic, connecting with the baby through their own strange vibe. She seems to respond better to him than me as her heartbeat flutters excitedly.

“So, interesting night when Solana came down the other day…”

“More like over a week ago,” he corrects, his jaw tightening as he anticipates me fessing up to some untold secret.

“She has this neat connection with nature and knew about the baby right away.” His tight face clamps down further, making me worry. “Easy, Lil! Our secret is safe. She also told me what we are having.” My eyes glimmer as his electric-blue gaze widens and comes round to my face.

“And?”

“The hummingbird is a girl.” I grin, elated to finally tell him.

His face becomes unreadable, his emotions frozen in time, spurring my protective stance over the little miracle.

“Is that a good or bad thing in your book?” I dig, trying to get answers before I fly off the handle.

“It’s…” He becomes lost in thought again as he battles internally with something.

“Just say it, Lil, you are scaring me.” I huff and dig my fingers into the leather seat of the car, bracing for the worst.

“It’s good,” he finally settles on.

“Good? That’s all ya got?”

“As long as it’s healthy, that is all that matters,” he robotically spouts.

“Really?”

“Fine, it scares the piss out of me. Males, I get. Females… I struggle on a daily basis just to keep things manageable with her mother.” He blows out a hard breath.

“Well, that wasn’t very warm and fuzzy, but at least it is honest.” I grunt and rest my hand over his, all too used to his mood swings and happy that is all it is.

“I am trying, Anu.” His head hangs before lifting again.

“You are doing a good job. Now, can we go home? I’m hungry.”

“Color me surprised,” he replies before firing up the ignition. I burst out laughing, his attempt at slang with his ancient accent never failing to do me in.

Chapter 15

“God promises to make something good out of the storms that bring devastation to your life.” ~Romans 8:28

Sasha

In the dead of sleep, I sit straight up, my body feeling like it is suspended in zero gravity as it tries to catch up with what alerted my mind.

“Etienne, wake up!” I shout and jump from the bed, grabbing whatever clothes I can manage in the whirlwind.

“What is it?” he grumbles like a sleepyhead, throwing back the covers while trying to take in the sight of me running around like a madwoman, throwing shit everywhere.

“It’s time,” I holler over my shoulder as I bound up the stairs toward the boys’ room. By the time I make it to the top, Mr. Speedy is already in sweats and a T-shirt on my heels.

I can feel the boys’ restlessness through the closed door to their shared room, and it makes me want to jump out of my own skin in the wake of transition memories. Abruptly turning the knob and letting ourselves in, Etienne and I take a kid and begin looking them over. Goddess help them, they are way deep in. This doesn’t seem right. How’d they fall this far into the change this fast?

“Damn, they are in the throes of it for sure,” Erik sounds from the door, his snarky tune a welcome distraction to take the edge off.

“You picked up on it too?” I ask while my fingers find Ethan’s wrist, checking his rapid pulse. Old habits die hard. I could just listen with my acute hearing.

“Nah, you set the sensors off coming upstairs. Once I woke up from the alarms, I felt it.”

“Get Inessa and her nieces. Also, have Molly begin preparing what we need,” Etienne barks at Erik as he worriedly stands over Aiden. His concern for my sons touches me. He may pitch a fit and come across as inconvenienced, but he truly has a love for my boys.

The boys groan in unison as the throbbing in their heads begins to shift into that gut-splitting, mind-melding pain that defies logic and is completely inescapable. My entire body winces as the ethereal sensations from my own transition creep through my body in sympathy. They’ve already managed to shred their shirts off, their bodies literally growing and changing in front of my eyes. Damien taught me about this, how males tend to bulk out in muscle maturity on top of all the other physical changes.

“Don’t we need to call Dominic?” I worriedly run a hand over Ethan’s forehead, his temperature rising while his body shivers violently.

“Yeah, he and Solana will project a protection spell, but it is not safe for Solana to be here,” Etienne reminds me as he pulls out his phone from his low-slung sweatpants. Tearing my eyes from the glimpse of his V that just attempted to render me stupid at the worst time possible, I run to the bathroom and begin to soak washcloths in cool water. My hands shake under the cold water as adrenaline pumps through my veins. Wringing the clothes out, giving myself a stern look in the mirror, and mouthing get it together, Sasha, I hurry back to tenderly place them on their foreheads. Anxiously looking back and forth between their double beds, I don’t know where to start or begin.

“Don’t worry, mon amour. Once Lesya and Manya arrive, the rest will be up to them,” Etienne assures me from across the room as he ends the call from Dominic.

“I’m not leaving them.” I put my foot down as my eyes bulge out of my head.

“You really want to be there with them as they get pulled under into the blood-lust portion?”

My skin crawls and my stomach flops. No, I don’t want to see that. I seriously don’t know how Etienne managed to keep from ravaging me at that time; I know I didn’t make it easy. Thinking back, I sure as hell wanted him to take full advantage. Perhaps his self-control had to do with the lengthy bout of celibacy.

“Can’t I stay with them until that part?” I knew most young vamps didn’t make it out of the change virgins, but a mother could hope.

“Sasha, you can keep watch all you want, but you are too close to them to make good decisions. When you are emotionally invested, it hits you harder seeing them go through that much torture. That is why parents don’t usually take part and my team or a family friend steps in.”

“You did it with me,” I remind him, recollections of my naked skin brushing against his heats my cheeks. A vampire’s memory is too good, things that would normally dull over time remaining quite crisp.

“That was entirely different and I have many years of experience on my side.” He grunts, the discomfort of restraint during that time not lost on him.

“You two can argue all you want, but do it out in the hall,” Molly warns, her motherly British tone leaving no room for quarrel as she bounds into the room.

“Here, let me help.” I try to take the basin she is carrying, but she stops me with a single look.

“I suggest you listen to your mate, dear.” She arches a brow my way.

“I have to do something!” I juvenilely stomp a foot into the carpet.

“Then hold space for them, sit, pray, and let us do the rest.” She turns on a dime in her perfectly pressed white blouse and khaki skirt and begins tending to them as if this was an everyday occurrence.

“She’s right. Dominic just said the same thing,” Etienne says as he puts his phone away. “He wants you to link to them to intensify the projected spell.”

“I don’t even know the first thing about how to do that!” I cry in frustration, overwhelmed as I begin to feed off my sons’ shared agony. The longer I sit here watching them battle a beast I cannot fight for them, the harder it is getting to be to stay in my own flesh.

Scratching at my arms in a feverish embrace, I start pacing up and down the hall, just outside of their door.

“Sasha, do us all a favor and sit the fuck down,” Erik demand as he walks up with Inessa, Vlad, Lesya, and Manya.

“Fuck off, Erik.” I flip him the bird and keep up my pace, mumbling to myself.

Inessa’s nieces are strikingly beautiful with their black hair, blue eyes, pale skin stretching out over taut, lean, and downright lethal bodies. For goddess sake, I do not want to hear my kids in the throes of blood-drunk passion with these young women. Etienne discussed it last week with Inessa and Vlad. They considered it an honor to assist, and the girls all but jumped at the opportunity. Of course they did. I mean, I am grateful and all, but someone pray for my soul.

“My lady, if you would please allow us to pass, we can take over.” Lesya, I believe, respectfully asks my permission instead of trying to throw me out of the way. Thank goodness that some still have manners.

“Is it really necessary right this minute? Don’t they have another day or so before they need you?” When I pause to think on that, the vibrations they boys are now sending out scream that I am quite wrong. They are progressing very fast.

“No, they are close.” Manya approaches, confirming it.

Magical pulsations begin to pull at my tattoo, signaling the invitation to link to Dominic. Tormenting pain rips through my chest, edging under my skin like a knife. “Fine, go,” I groan as I drop down to the ground to sit. The girls take off into the room, leaving the door wide open.

“Molly, the door please,” I squeak as I suck for air against the onslaught. I sure as hell don’t want to see what is about to go down in there. Molly and Inessa offer me tight smiles as they shut themselves in with the two sets of twins. The comfort of knowing they are there helps. Closing my eyes, I open the channel to Dominic and am blasted with Solana’s glowing light.

The protection spell she is sending through is like nothing I have ever seen. It is bathed in pure love and light. Its completeness is confounding. Its radiance eases the burn, and the sting of the changes now shifting through the house, affecting all who live here, especially my babies. As I welcome the light, little hummingbird takes that moment to add her own sweet energy to the mix, jubilantly enthralled with the protection spell being cast. She is a little breath of winged hope on gossamer heels reminding me that I need to hold on tight to what my mission in this life is.

As I revel in the connections now streaming through me and into the house, the air turns more pungent and dire, signaling the boys need for blood. It is then that the baby’s heartbeat becomes my entire focus to drown out the screams of pain now erupting in the next room. Screeches and howls now melding with other sounds I’d rather not hear. Thrum, thrum goes a hummingbird’s wings, happy to simply just be, and the same goes for the steady lub-dub stemming from my belly. Reaching further into my magic, I deepen the hold of the spell to urge it to wrap around all in this house and keep us safe.

Lost in a peaceful trance for quite some time, I barely notice the sour taste of despair trickling into the environment. It is only after I run the taste over my tongue a few times that my alarm bells take flight.

No, no, no, no… I internally panic. Holding on close to the spell, I jump up and fly into the bedroom, teeth barred, ready to fight till death. I ignore the half-naked bodies on each of the beds engaged in things I’d rather not describe, but the scent of blood pervades my nose along with that sour, disgusting taste. Something has breached and it is after my sons.

“Sash, speak please. We can’t read you mind,” Erik rambles on behind me in unease.

“Something’s wrong. Something’s not right.” Sifting through all the different universal wavelengths that I can now see through my powers, I search for it.

“Nintuah, it looks like it’s going as expected.” Erik brushes me off and smirks, dismissing this as a mother’s anxiety. Neither pair of bodies on the beds seems to give a flying fuck what’s going on either. They are all too engrossed in their assigned partner, powering on in their respective carnal needs as the mingled scents of their blood hits the thick, desire-filled air. The groans deepen and striking of skin on skin amplifies as I avert my eyes and focus on the window, my senses taking me there.

The taste hits me again. I call my power to me while holding on as tightly as I possibly can to the protection spell that is semi-working. Whatever is breaking through is doing it slowly, purposefully, and quite carefully. Where is the damn loophole that it found?

“Sasha, please come sit down. This is all very normal. Nothing is wrong.” Molly steps in and tries to ease me away with a gentle hand.

Ignoring her and shaking her off, I let the elements rush into the room, begging them to sweep away whatever evil is after my kids. The elements gently comply, taking care not to rile the scene up anymore, a far cry from when we first began to play together.

“Molly, I feel it too.” Etienne says, assuring her I am not just being an overzealous mom.

Time morphs into a thick fog as the nasty odor seeps further into the room. I throw my powers out full force to attack it. An evil laugh that makes my skin crawl and gives me the urge to run my head into the wall echoes in the distance, making all the adults in the room snarl as the two sets of twins remain locked in their powerful trance of hormone-induced rage.

As we tensely ready for something big to make an appearance, our bodies gliding into warrior stances, muscles flexed and senses on high alert, the smell, taste and sound suddenly disappear. Did my powers work? Did I blast it away? I blink rapidly and looking about the room, but my premature relief is soon replaced with the very thing no mother should ever have to experience. An all-consuming, heart-wrenching, indescribable sense of loss that should never, ever be allowed to exist as my attuned hearing picks up on a single failing heartbeat.

“Nooooooooooo!” The howl of devastation rips through me as I run to my son’s bed, rip the girl that is riding him off, and throw her to the ground. “For the love of God, fuck!” I scream as I throw myself over his body and slam my power into him, attempting to strengthen his heart and search every possible nook and cranny for injury to heal him. Sobs rip through my chest as determination takes over. I am the Goddess incarnate—I have been gifted with the impossible. I will save him!

The beating of his heart stops on a dime the minute my essence hits him, but I ignore it and continue to pummel his body with my endless ravine of magic, praying as I go, hysterically searching for a way. There has to be away! Snot and tears drip from my face on their own accord at a pace I care not to keep up with as I work. Time has no meaning—life has no meaning—unless this is successful. Fanatically continuing on at a blinding speed, I begin to rip into the veil, pulling hard on any and every possible thing I can to bring him back. He is not dead! I scream internally.

Etienne’s hands suddenly come to encompass my shoulders and pull me away from the cooling body, and I snap at him like a wild beast, spit flying from my mouth in a feral snarl. “Don’t fucking touch me. I am not done!”

“Sasha! Get yourself under control; there is nothing more you can do.”

“The fuck there’s not!” I scream and begin to call upon the well of power again.

“Sasha, stop! Listen to your belly; you are hurting her by doing this!” His deep voice thunders through the madness, shocking my freezing heart.

When I pause to verify the validity in his statement, the world stops in an instant and I immediately release all that I am pulling on from every dimension. Gasps and subtle curses from Inessa, Erik and even Molly as they catch on to what we’ve been hiding dim into the background as I zero in on my connection. He is right. My failed attempts to draw insurmountable amounts of power is hurting the baby. And right then and there, my body collapses on top of my dead son. The pain and agony is too much too bear. It’s too much for any one person to ever have to experience.