Chapter 67

CHAPTER 67

“ T his is a really bad idea,” the small woman who was completely fucking oblivious of her surroundings said as she paused halfway down the stairs so that she could place her hand against the wall and rub the large swell of her belly while the teenage boy that she’d somehow managed to convince that this was a good idea continued to glare down at her.

When Marc didn’t say anything, mostly because he was still glaring at her, Ashley cleared her throat, pasted a warm smile on her face and absently gestured to the stairs that she was currently trying to waddle down and murmured, “Why don’t we sit down and enjoy this lovely evening?”

That was followed by visibly struggling not to wince when Marc narrowed his eyes on her, clearing her throat, nodding, and mumbling, “Right,” to herself before she slowly inhaled, placed her hand back on the large swell of her belly as she pushed away from the wall and grabbed hold of the banister as she carefully lowered herself down onto the step behind her.

Once she was there, Ashley went through the minute-long process of sitting down, which was immediately followed by sighing with relief while Ephraim stood in the doorway of the pitch-black living room, glaring at her before his gaze flickered to the large Ion leaning against the wall across from him in the dimly lit foyer. He watched the muscle in Christofer’s jaw clench and knew without a doubt that the Ion was imagining throttling his little sister, which was understandable since she was seven months pregnant and was supposed to be on bed rest.

Folding his large arms over his chest, Christofer’s silver eyes briefly met his before Ephraim glanced to his right to find Noah sighing heavily as he pinched the bridge of his nose. They probably should have said something when they caught her sneaking out of her room after they came back from patrol, but…

He wanted to see how this played out.

“This is fun,” Ashley said with a satisfied sigh even as she closed her eyes and slowly exhaled. “Isn’t this fun?” she asked the teenage boy that moved closer so that he could glare down at her.

“You’re supposed to be in bed,” Marc bit out, forcing her to once again bite back another wince.

Clearing her throat, Ashley said, “I do remember that being mentioned at some point.”

“Then, we should go back upstairs,” Marc said, gesturing for her to get on with it.

“That’s not really an option at the moment,” Ashley murmured absently, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she sent a wistful look to her right.

Frowning, Ephraim followed her gaze and-

“Tell me that you really didn’t sneak out of your room in the middle of the night to raid the kitchen,” Marc said, shaking his head in wonder as he followed her gaze.

“I had a craving,” Ashley muttered defensively as she moved to get more comfortable on the step only to decide against it when the move proved to be too much for her at the moment and settled for releasing a heartfelt sigh as she went back to staring wistfully towards the kitchen.

“You could have just called Kale and asked him to pick up something for you on his way home,” Marc pointed out, biting back a sigh as he sat down next to her.

“I could have…” Ashley said, letting her words trail off as Ephraim narrowed his eyes on the little pain in the ass.

“You didn’t want to wait, did you?” Marc asked, chuckling as he got comfortable while Ephraim found himself wondering what was taking Chris and Kale so long tonight.

“I really didn’t,” Ashley admitted with a heartfelt sigh.

Deciding that he’d heard enough, Ephraim reached over and flipped on the foyer light and noted the exact moment when she realized that he was there. She went still as her gaze slowly, ever-so-fucking slowly, moved towards him, which was followed by her unable to bite back a wince this time, swallowing hard, and mumbling, “I’ll just be going then,” as she struggled to stand back up.

“I honestly don’t know what’s worse, the fact that she had no idea that we were following her this entire time or the fact she’s unable to run away,” Noah said, running his hands roughly down his face.

That was followed by Ashley clearing her throat and saying, “I’d like to discuss the terms of my surrender now.”

“And I’d like to discuss why you were sneaking out of your room at one in the morning,” Christofer bit out, drawing his sister’s attention and-

“I’m just gonna go ahead and waddle away now,” Ashley said with a firm nod, making Ephraim’s lips twitch as he watched the small hybrid grab hold of the banister and pulled herself up only to come to a stop again and lean against the wall a moment later.

“They’ve been watching us since you left your room,” Marc said, shrugging it off with a sigh as he stood up.

“Traitor,” Ashley mumbled sadly against the wall.

“You’re a Pyte and a shifter,” Marc said, shaking his head in wonder. “You should have known that they were there before you even left your room.”

“I was focused on the fudge brownies that Drew left on the counter,” Ashley admitted with a heartfelt sigh as she moved to turn around and make her way back up the stairs only to rethink that decision and carefully turned around and gestured for her brother to come get her.

“You really are a pain in my ass,” Christofer muttered as he pushed away from the wall and-

“If you could move faster that would be great,” Ashley mumbled weakly as her gaze shot to the front door. “A lot faster.”

Sighing heavily, Ephraim listened as the SUV that Chris and Kale took out on patrol tonight pulled into the long driveway seconds before he caught their scent along with a familiar scent that had his eyes turning red and his fangs ripping through his gums.

“Go upstairs, Marc,” Ephraim said, absently noting the scents of shifters as he zeroed in on the vampire that wasn’t leaving this fucking house alive.

“Dad, what’s going on?” Marc asked as Ephraim made his way to the front door.

He didn’t know why the leech was here and he didn’t care. The only thing that he cared about was making the bastard who marked his little girl pay and he’d be damned if he allowed anyone else to rip Logan’s heart out of his chest.

The leech was his .

He was so fucking close to losing control, Ephraim thought as he ripped open the front door, more than a little fucking tempted to give into the darkness and tear the leech apart, but he wanted to savor the moment. He wanted to make Logan pay for taking his little girl away from him. He wanted-

“Jill,” Ephraim said in a daze as he stood there, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

Her hair was darker, longer, curlier and looked like it was made from silk, the freckles that he used to find adorable were gone, and her once pale skin was now tan, but he knew the small woman in the leech’s arms was his baby girl. Slowly exhaling, Ephraim took in her scent, needing to make sure that it was really her only to find it gone, replaced by the leech’s scent.

He stared at her face for another moment before he ran his eyes over her only to feel his stomach drop when his gaze came to the blood covering her shirt and-

Oh, God…

“Dad?” Marc said, his voice cracking as he moved closer while Ephraim stood there, unable to take his eyes off the small woman as she was carried up the stairs as a thousand emotions tore through him, shock, disbelief, confusion, and relief that quickly turned to terror when he realized that she wasn’t breathing.

Black tendrils began taking over his eyesight, threatening to swallow him whole as he stared down at his little girl, knowing that he was too late and he fucking-

“Hold your grandson,” Chris said, making him frown as an adorable little boy was suddenly placed in his arms.

Not knowing what else to do, Ephraim wrapped his arms around the little boy and-

“Kissy!”

-found himself doing as he was told as the little boy laid his head against his chest with a sniffle. He kissed the little boy’s head as he watched Kale hand over an equally adorable little girl to Marc.

“Take care of your niece,” Kale said as he kept his gaze locked on Ashley. “We need your help, mo ghrá.”

“Which is why I’m here. Out of my room when I’m supposed to be on bed rest,” Ashley said, nodding solemnly as she gestured for her brother to help her the rest of the way.

“I want Mommy,” the little boy in his arms mumbled sadly as his little hands fisted Ephraim’s shirt.

“Please don’t hurt him,” came the pained plea that drew Ephraim’s attention to find a teenage boy with Chris’ jacket wrapped around his shoulders leaning against the SUV.

“He’s safe with me,” Ephraim promised in a daze, not knowing what else to say.

“He forced himself to shift back during his first shift,” Chris said as he quickly made his way back to the car.

“Couldn’t let her hurt my mother,” the young shifter managed to get out before releasing a pained groan when Chris carefully picked him up and threw him over his shoulder.

He watched Chris carefully adjust the teenage boy over his shoulder as he made his way back up the stairs. “He changed her,” Chris said, making him frown.

“How long ago?” Ephraim asked, absently kissing the top of the little boy’s head as he made his way back inside, praying that the leech was able to give her enough blood to see her through her transition. If not, then he’d give her some of his blood because there was no way that he was going to lose her.

Not again.

He-

“Right after she was killed ten months ago,” Chris said, making him swallow hard as he forced himself to walk back into the house and made his way into the infirmary that Noah set up to find Logan placing Jill on the bed like she was the most precious thing in the world to him and looking fucking destroyed.

“Kissy,” the adorable little boy mumbled sadly against his chest.

Absently kissing the top of his head, Ephraim watched as Kale carried Ashley into the room and set her down on the bed to his left while Noah made his way to Jill. “What is she?” Noah asked as he carefully inspected the deep gash in Jill’s chest.

“My daughter,” Ephraim said hollowly as Chris carried the teenage boy past him and placed him on the last stretcher. For a moment, he debated waking Madison up, but…

He didn’t want her to go through this again.

“Jill?” Noah asked, going still as he sent him a questioning look.

“Save her,” Chris said, pulling a blanket over the teenage boy before he quickly made his way to Jill’s side.

“Vampire,” Logan said hollowly, leaning down and pressed his lips against Jill’s forehead as he closed his eyes. “I can’t do this without you, Angel.”

The human frowned as he carefully shifted her torn shirt aside so that he could inspect the deep gash in her chest. “She was stabbed in the heart,” Noah said, his frown deepening as he took in the blood soaking her shirt and coating her skin while Ephraim released a shaky breath, knowing that she should have been reduced to ash in a matter of seconds. “What else is she?”

“My mate,” Logan said, pressing his forehead against Jill’s as he reached over and placed his hand over her belly.

“Vampires don’t have mates,” Ephraim said, absently kissing the little boy’s head that was helping him stay calm.

“This one does,” Logan said, gently caressing her belly through her shirt.

“Walk me through what that means,” Noah said as he grabbed his stethoscope and began examining Jill.

“I unknowingly claimed her in that cell two years ago. I still have no idea how I did it, but I know that I wanted her. More than anything. I tried to forget about her, but I couldn’t. I needed to see her one last time,” Logan said, pausing to kiss her forehead before he stood up almost as though he couldn’t quite help himself. “After she was shot, I gave her blood, but it didn’t work. It took three attempts before the bleeding stopped.”

“Her transition was like nothing that I’ve ever seen before. Instead of her heart stopping, Jill slipped into a coma while she healed. She changed during her transition. Her hair, eyes, skin tone, and scent changed to match mine. Her heart continued beating, her breaths remained even and I had no idea what was happening. When she was ready to finish her transition, she woke up only to finally die in my arms,” Logan said, his voice breaking with the last few words while Ephraim kissed the top of the little boy’s head, needing the comforting move to stay calm.

“I want Mommy,” the little boy in his arms mumbled sadly.

“Me, too,” Ephraim murmured, unable to take his eyes off his little girl.

“We can feel each other’s pain, certain physical touches, and emotions. Our connection is through our blood. We feed from each other, which allows us to heal,” Logan explained, making Ephraim frown as he looked at Chris to find his son looking just as confused since the last time he checked, vampires couldn’t drink from each other.

“Were there any other changes?” Noah asked, sending Logan a questioning look.

“Her hymen grew back,” Logan murmured quietly as Ephraim stood there, doing his best not to think about how the leech found that out as he forced himself to focus on the fact that her body restored itself during her transition. During their transition, vampires repaired the damage from whatever caused their death, but everything else remained frozen.

“Chris, check her right hand,” Ephraim said, watching as Chris released her left hand so that he could reach over and carefully raise her other hand and-

“It’s gone,” Chris said, gently running his thumb over where the scar that Jill got from carving pumpkins with Marc a few years ago should have been.

“What else?” Noah asked, checking Jill’s eyes.

“She’s pregnant,” Logan said with a sad smile as Ephraim slowly exhaled and-

“Kissy!”

-kissed the little boy’s head before he slowly inhaled and tried to sort through the scents filling the room, but he couldn’t find it.

“It’s a Pyte. Only a few hours from what I can tell,” Christofer said, confirming that nothing about Jill’s transition was normal. She shouldn’t have changed, her body shouldn’t have restored itself, and there was no way in hell that she should be pregnant, but somehow, she’d broken all the rules.

“Did you give her your blood when this happened?” Noah asked as he shifted his attention back to the stab wound.

“As soon as it happened, but she wasn’t able to consume it,” Logan said as he watched the human work.

“We injected Ashley’s blood into her heart a few minutes after it happened and managed to get a few drops in her mouth,” Chris said as they watched Noah’s brows furrow in confusion.

“How much blood did she lose when you removed the knife?” Noah asked, gently prodding the wound.

“None,” Kale said as he grabbed an extra pillow to stuff behind Ashley’s back so that she could sit up.

“Did the knife puncture her heart?” Noah asked, gently pushing his fingertips against the wound.

“Yes,” Logan said while Ephraim stood there, slowly exhaling and-

“She’s healing.”