Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“What? No sisterly hug?” she taunts while I try to bear the pain. Coughing and sputtering, my blood spatters on the floor. I clutch the bangle from my wrist before tossing it in the fire with the last bit of strength I have left before collapsing. I stare up at her, a devilish grin on her face.
“Now why would you do that? I was hoping to enjoy myself but now I have to make things quick.”
“What do you mean?” I choke out, coughing on more of my blood. I try to turn my head and let the blood drain out of my mouth.
“Well, since you are dying, I figured the baby will need a mother, and since that can’t be you, why not Aunt Bianca? Though Mom, I feel, has a better ring to it,” she says, her manicured finger tapping her chin in thought.
My blood runs cold at her words. She wants my baby. And I know there is nothing I could do to stop her. I can’t even stand, let alone fight her.
“You’re not taking my baby,” I snap back at her, trying to crawl to my feet.
“See, that’s where you’re wrong. You’re dying, Imogen. I can do what I want,” she says, shoving me back onto my back with her foot. My body rolls onto the cold floor.
“Why are you doing this? Help me, please,” I beg, trying to reach any part of her humanity. She can’t be this evil. Something human must remain surely.
“Help you? Your mother killed mine when she found out she was up the duff with you. My father left mine in the wind completely forgetting the family he started and deciding to start a new one. I’m the last person who is going to help you, Imogen.
You destroyed my family, forcing my mother to kill herself.
You have the hide asking for my help. Don’t you think so? ”
I shake my head, hoping she will understand I have nothing to do with her mother’s death.
How could I? I never even met her mother so why put the blame on me?
But she just kept rambling, and I let her, hoping it will distract her from what she is here to do, hoping it will distract her enough for them to get to me in time.
Please get here in time, I wish with everything in me.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to kill yourself when your Immortal? She tried everything only to keep coming back or for me to stop her just in time. Only to do it all over again. The whole staking thing is bullshit. You not only have to stake yourself, but you also have to remove the head.” She giggles at her own rambling.
She is out of her mind. Sounds like the ramblings of a madwoman. Pain has me scream as I feel my insides being torn, like my organs being cut to pieces as I feel the baby shift within me, my belly feeling like is was doing backflips as it move.
“So, in the end. I couldn’t say no, I couldn’t keep watching her try anymore so I ended her suffering.
Then, I hunted down our father ending him too, your mother didn’t like that, became a pathetic alcoholic assuming he left her.
Yet it didn’t kill her the way it killed my mother.
She lived for you and that pissed me off knowing I wasn’t enough for my own to stick around.
” I try not to move hoping she will forget me laying at her feet.
I cough up more blood and I can feel myself fading into the darkness.
She kneels beside me, brushing my hair from my face, before grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at her evil eyes.
“Such a shame to think if we were born from the same mother, I may have actually liked you. Well until you stole them from me, too,” she whispers more to herself then to me. She lifts my shirt up, and I try to swat her hands away. She clicks her tongue, annoyed.
“Now, sis, be a good girl and hold still. Don’t want to cut your precious bundle, now do we?”
“This is going to hurt,” she snickers. Then I feel her hands rip me open. I vaguely hear the sound of crying and her voice.
“Aw, he is perfect, Imogen. A little boy.” I can feel myself fading.
Then I lose myself to the darkness. I feel like I’m floating and falling at the same time.
I feel weightless and surrounded by darkness.
Her voice echoes around me on repeat. A little boy, a little boy.
I have a little boy. Tears run out of my eyes.
I just want to see him, just once, see his little face.
What I would have done to see him, to hold him.
Then I feel nothing at all but the agonizing pain of my death.
I slip from this earth into nothingness. Dead and cold.
My father never should have done what he did, yet I know why he did it and I know he doesn’t regret it.
He would do anything for my mother, just like I would do anything for Imogen or Theo.
We are driving to the council knowing we can’t do much else.
My father is to be punished for killing Alaric.
Alaric taunted the wrong man, promising information when he had none.
My father lost it, ripping him to pieces before being detained.
Theo is driving, and I’m trying to rid my mind of my toxic thoughts.
The phone brings me back to reality as it rings. My hands shake as I read the name that pops on the screen. Mom. I answer.
“Where is she?” Not even trying to hide the anger I feel toward my mother.
“She is alright. I’m trying to get to your father. What happened?” I growl before the phone is snatched from my hand by Theo. I growl again, ready to attack him when I hear my mother's voice come through the phone.
“They are both fine, but your father is not. Imogen is protected. Now tell me what happened.” I relax hearing she has a plan, and that Imogen is okay for now.
I relax in my chair as Theo tells her of the events that took place.
We have been driving for about two hours.
We would be there by now if Theo let us run.
But he thinks it best to drive instead of letting instinct take over, worried we might tear apart the entire council in a rage and we don’t need that.
In the third hour, I feel it. I feel the bond stir to life, only we are driving away from her.
Theo slams on the brakes as fear runs through both of us like a freight train, knocking the air from my lungs.
Something is wrong. I open the door only to be flooded with every emotion she feels, then searing pain, forcing me to double over.
Theo, too, is clutching the side of the car.
I peer over at him. He needs to go. He is faster. That kills me knowing he will get to her before me, but he has to try.
“Find her,” I growl in pain and he takes off.
I drop to the ground, giving into the warm feeling rushing over me, feeling my bones snap as I shift.
I let instinct take over as I take off toward her, using the bond to tell me what direction to run in.
Getting distracted by her emotions as they shift between fear and pain.
I howl agonized at what she is going through.
My paws hit the ground at extreme speeds, pushing me faster and faster to get to her.
When I felt it. My tether snapping, I feel my soul drop somewhere dark.
Somewhere cold and unrelenting. I howl before feeling Theo scream through the link.
His feelings rush over me, making the unbearable pain I felt worse.
It is hard to breathe. My lungs feel like they are constricting.
I follow Theo’s link until coming across a small cottage.
We have been past this place many times yet never noticed it, never even picked up her scent.
I shift back, enjoying the pain of my bones breaking in place, anything to stop the pain in my chest. But that all changes when I walk in the door.
No sounds come from the house, save the noises Theo makes. No heartbeat, no breathing, just dead silence.
My heart breaking, Theo’s agonized scream can not only be heard but felt, as he clutches her lifeless body against his chest. Her small frame completely limp in his arms drenched in her own blood.
Her hair spilling over Theo’s arm and onto the floor, as her head lolls in his arms. I drop to the floor at the sight, my legs losing function.
She’s dead, gone. We weren’t fast enough.
I feels like we cry and scream in agony for hours, our souls being ripped from both of us repeatedly every time we look at her.
“I can’t hear crying, can you?” I whisper, my voice breaking.
Theo stands, Imogen in his arms, Theo not willing to let her go.
I turn away from her, not being able to bear the sight of her dead.
My soul is being crushed into dust, my heart breaking beyond repair.
This is my fault. I let this happen by not supporting her.
We should have been here; this never would have happened if we were with her.
“Where’s our baby, Theo?” I say, shoving everything out of my mind. Forcing myself to focus on anything but her.
Theo places Imogen in my arms, forcing me to take her lifeless body.
I cradle her and breathe in her smell that is faint, nearly gone.
Her body is cold in my arms as her head lolls against me.
I brush her hair out of her face. Theo disappears inside somewhere, and I can’t tear my eyes away from her face.
I kiss her cold lips, tears running down my face onto her porcelain skin.
“There is no baby, Tobias, where is our baby?” he asks, panicked. He stares down at Imogen’s angelic face before collapsing beside me.
“I need her back, I want her back, please. I will do anything,” he whispers and begs. I don’t know who he is praying to, but hearing his broken voice breaks me even more.
“We need to find our child, if not for us, for her,” I whisper, gazing down at her face against my chest. We owe her that much.