And, I mean, it was a crazy idea anyway.
Like, if I suddenly had Lily’s superpower, then that could only mean one thing – I’d copied it while I was in her body, trying to save her life, and then somehow brought it back to my own body. And the implications of such an ability were massive.
But I was getting ahead of myself, since that didn’t appear to be the case.
Still, if only I could see my evaluation from the creepy-eyed woman who assessed my superpower – the one who pissed her pants when she ‘saw’ me with her bizarre galaxy-like eyes. I’d been told that all my demands were negotiable, but that my single request to see my evaluation was absolutely off-limits – that under no circumstances would they show me, even if I walked away from their offer because of it.
But that only made me wonder more.
No, I had to know. Somehow I had to find out what I was capable of, because I felt like it was almost dangerous not knowing. Such as with Lily’s superpower – what if she lived her entire life completely calm, having no idea she’d burst into flames if she got upset. That kind of ignorance could prove to be lethal when she unexpectedly exploded in a ball of fire for the first time around those she cared about.
Or even if she’d just been in a car accident.
Thankfully, Lily’s body exceeded normal temperatures at an early age, and when she did start producing flames, it was just her hair the first few times. But what if that hadn’t been the case? What if she just woke up one day from a nightmare to find her house burnt down? Her family dead.
After all, the guy named James Willard, who killed an entire city of people ‘on accident’ was likely the kind of person who would have benefited from knowing how destructive his superpower could be if he got upset enough. He wouldn’t have had to die, and the James Willard Act, which could result in a super getting the death penalty ‘for the greater good’ might never have come into existence.
Or at the very least, it might not have ended up so harsh. Nothing like killing over nine million people in ‘one go’ to make the government take their ‘kid gloves’ off and legalize the biggest violation of human rights in history.
I knew I was only upset about it because it had affected me personally, when Lily almost got in trouble with the law for the warehouse incident. However, the point was that I might be a ticking time bomb too. And I felt like not knowing what I was capable of might be much more dangerous than knowing.
Obviously, the reason they probably didn’t want me to know was because they didn’t trust me with that knowledge. But I wasn’t a bad guy. I wasn’t going to do something crazy like take over the world. I just wanted to live in peace with my family.
Unexpectedly, I focused fully on Freya as she stirred, groaning and twisting her shoulders to look up at me. Her swollen chest didn’t follow, pretty much remaining on the bed. Yeah, it was that bad. A normal human woman’s body probably wouldn’t have adapted to essentially having ten kids at once.
But hers? For better or worse, she was able to adapt to just about anything.
“Sam, can I have some ice cream?” she whispered, sounding a little pleading.
Of course, Freya didn’t usually eat normal food, but ever since she became pregnant, she’d been eating practically everything in sight, enjoying all the foods that tasted less appetizing than dirt previously.
I smirked at her. “Are you actually awake right now?” I asked in a playful tone.
“I really want some ice cream,” she reemphasized. “Please Sam? Please ?”
I tried not to laugh, because she sounded like a little kid. “I don’t think we have any, but I can run by the store if you really want some.”
“Yeah,” she nodded in agreement, her crimson eyes closed now. She then rolled back over. “That sounds great. Thanks baby.”
I stifled a chuckle. Oh well. Whether she was asleep or not, she probably really would want ice cream when she woke up. Given that Freya was nursing, the doctor agreed that it was likely she would continue to have a ‘normal’ diet until our infant was fully independent, in the sense that the baby girl wasn’t getting her nutritional needs met from her mother anymore.
Granted, Freya was still needing my blood every couple of days for her own dietary requirements, but this opportunity was my baby-momma’s only chance to enjoy all the foods she would otherwise find disgusting. So yeah, I was fine getting her whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.
And maybe I’d stop to check out some maternity bras too, seeing if they had something standard that could be heavily modified to fit Freya’s needs.
Leaning down to give her a peck on the cheek, I then got up to exit the room, only to backpedal and instead grab a towel when I realized, from a last glance with my second-sight, that Freya was starting to leak a little, beads of milk beginning to drip.
Shit, I supposed we should get her a pump too. Her body was ready to feed Eden again, but her mind was way past its limit to stay awake. The doctor’s office actually offered her the opportunity to get one of the models that would be covered by her insurance, but she never imagined having too much milk would be a problem – we were all much more worried about her not being able to keep up with our daughter’s needs, hence we bought a ton of formula.
Honestly, we probably didn’t need to buy the baby formula at all, and should have instead just gotten the pump.
Oh well. Despite the fact that I once had an infant before, this entire situation was all new to me due to Eden’s accelerated growth rate and Freya’s unique capacity to keep up with it.
After carefully getting a towel underneath her chest while she remained oblivious to the world, I readjusted her red silk robe and then pulled the purple latex sheets up around her shoulders, finally making my way back into the hall toward the kitchen.
Lily and Rose both looked up at me with cheerful expressions, an empty bottle in Lily’s hand as she relaxed in the recliner. I assumed Eden must be asleep again.
“How’s it going?” I wondered, cheered up by the sight.
“Great,” Lily said with a warm smile, her citrine eyes glowing softly as the orange colors slowly shifted in brightness. “She’s fast asleep again.”
I returned the smile. “Don’t forget to burp her,” I commented randomly.
Lily suddenly looked embarrassed. “Oh, of course. Sorry.”
I shook my head, about to tell her I didn’t mean anything bad by it – after all, this was her first time really having to deal with a baby herself – but Rose interrupted me.
“Wait,” she quickly whispered. “She’s okay right now. Really happy.”
I looked at my oldest daughter in surprise, since she wasn’t touching Eden or anything, and she hadn’t fed recently – not even from Heidi, as far as I was aware. Was her superpower getting stronger?
“How do you know?”
“Dunno,” she shrugged, tucking some of her black hair behind her small ear before resting her face in her palms again. “Just do.”
“Well, honey, even if she’s okay right now, she should still be burped. Otherwise, any air she swallowed will end up in her gut and then she might have really bad gas pains later on. A lot of times when a baby cries and can’t be comforted, that’s the reason why. They have gas pain and can’t communicate they are in pain, except to cry. And by then, burping might not help very much.”
Rose’s crimson eyes were wide, as if she was absorbing all that information like a sponge. She then looked up at Lily with a serious expression. “Okay, maybe we should burp her.”
I tried not to laugh at how serious she was, because it didn’t match her age at all. I mean, kids could certainly be serious, but Rose was taking this ‘big sister’ thing to a whole new level. I continued when Lily began readjusting the baby.
“Rose, honey, why don’t you grab a dish towel in case she spits up.”
The little girl nodded, jumping up to do so.
“How’s Freya?” Lily asked as she paused what she was doing while waiting
on Rose.
I took a deep breath, noticing movement in my second-sight as Heidi appeared at the top of the stairs. “Sound asleep now, although she said she wants ice cream, so I’ll probably run to the store to pick some up.”
“Good,” Lily said with a smile. “I’m glad she’s finally getting some rest. We’ll take good care of Eden while you’re gone.” She then glanced at Heidi when she appeared just at the entrance to the kitchen, her phone in hand. “Hey Heidi, what’s up? Everything alright?”
The youngest Stockton sister nodded, her blonde ponytail bouncing slightly as her lavender eyes focused on me. “Yeah, my sister just messaged me. Sam, she said she tried calling but just got your voicemail.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed, pulling it out of my pocket. “I turned it on silent while I was helping Freya get to sleep.”
Heidi nodded. “She just said she needs you to call her back right away.”
I returned the gesture, nodding as I walked over to Lily to kiss her on the forehead, before grabbing my keys off the small entry table by the door, where we stashed that kind of stuff. “I’ll call her on the way. Do you want anything Lily? I might go ahead and do a little underwear shopping while I’m at it, so Freya can be more comfortable.”
Lily shook her head. “No, I’m good. But if you’re going to do that, then get as big as you can. I don’t even know if you’ll be able to find her current size in a regular store.”
“Hey,” Heidi said hesitantly. “Mind if I come along? I might be able to help.”
I shrugged, prompting us both to look at Lily.
She nodded simply. “Yeah, that’s fine. Just keep me updated on where you’re at.”
“Of course,” I agreed, since it was something I did anyway. We all pretty much let everyone else know where we were nowadays, even Lexi and Heidi. “Love you both,” I added, giving Rose a smile too.
“Love you,” the two of them said in sync, both now focused on Eden again.
I couldn’t have been happier.
I gave Heidi a warm smile before turning to head out the door, since my green Mustang was parked in front instead of in the garage, with her hot on my heels. However, the moment I opened it, she realized it was a little chillier than she was expecting, so she decided to grab her leather jacket. The temperature wasn’t too bad in my opinion, but the weather had been a little unpleasant for much of April thus far. However, it seemed as if this weekend was supposed to be nice, so maybe it would continue to warm up and truly begin to feel like spring.
Either way, we’d been kind of lucky to have such a nice day when we were taking pictures, given the weather up until that point.
Once Heidi was ready, dressed in pale skinny jeans, a thin tan sweater over her camisole shirt, along with a black leather jacket, we climbed into my green Mustang and pulled out of our now gated driveway. She also had her snake-bite diamond studs and nose ring in, though she’d taken her earrings out, there being no sign that her ears had ever been pierced – from what I’d seen thus far, she mixed it up a lot, with some days just going without her piercings altogether.
The gate in front felt a little silly at this point, since half of the fencing was left undone on the right side of the house, in preparation for Lexi to have a house built for her and her younger sister right next door – a project that had been put off for a while now, considering everything that happened recently.
I mean, basically ever since the attack at the mall, where Lily almost died trying to protect Lexi, the two sisters had been living with us full-time. And after three weeks now, it was sort of beginning to feel like that wasn’t going to change anytime soon. At the very least, Freya and Lily seemed perfectly content now to have the two women in the house at all hours of the day.
The first thing I did once I got on the road was put my car in autopilot and input a destination – something I could have done from the beginning if it weren’t for habits dying so hard – before giving Lexi a call back.
The conversation was really short.
There were apparently a lot of high-level people who wanted to be involved in the negotiation, in person, and the opportunity to have such a meeting was very limited. It almost seemed urgent.
“Yeah, I can do tomorrow morning. But why then, exactly? Why the rush?”
“I don’t know,” Lexi admitted. “It’s ridiculous, but they aren’t sharing much with me since I know you on a more personal level.” She scoffed. “They’re treating me like I’m compromised or something. Like they’re concerned I’ll tell you stuff I’m not supposed to.”
“Well, just get me an address and let them know I’ll be there.”
“Oh, well it’ll just be at the office where I work, but I’ll actually be picking you up, if that’s alright. If you guys come to an agreement, then my boss wants me to show you around the place.”
“Oh sure, of course. Although, then does that mean you’re not coming over tonight?” It would be strange if she wasn’t, since she basically lived with us now.
She paused, only to sigh heavily. “Wow, I’m really out of it. Yeah, I guess ‘picking you up’ isn’t the right sentiment. Anyway though, I have to go. I’ll see you guys when I get off work.”
“Sure,” I agreed, kind of feeling bad that she seemed so stressed out. It made me wonder if it was because of this situation, or something else going on she truly wasn’t allowed to share.
Once I hung up, I leaned back in my seat, deciding to just leave it in autopilot.
In my second-sight, I could see Heidi watching me, her expression slightly concerned. After a moment, she spoke up. “So…Everything cool?”
“Yeah,” I sighed, not looking at her with my physical eyes. “Just have to go to work with her tomorrow so I can do some negotiating stuff.”
Heidi nodded slowly, lowering her voice. “Worried about Freya?” she asked quietly.
I took another deep breath, knowing why Heidi’s mind would have gone there first. She was well aware that what Freya went through was…horrible. And it only turned out like that because of both the blessing and curse associated with her superpower. Between her absurd strength, different overall body structure that allowed her to turn into a literal monster, and her resistance to most drugs, especially ones that would otherwise affect her consciousness, it had turned out to be a bad combination for giving birth.
Really, really bad combination.
Thinking back to the reason all this started – to almost having sex with Heidi, only for Freya to get suspicious when the younger woman started her period a couple of weeks later, prompting Freya to stop taking birth control too and us to subsequently have baby-making sex a week later – I ended up blurting out what was on my mind, just after a heavy sigh.
“I almost wish it’d been you,” I whispered.
“W-What?” Heidi exclaimed, sounding flustered.
I looked at her in alarm as it truly sunk in what I’d just said – as if I wanted her to be the sacrificial lamb instead of Freya. “Sorry. That didn’t come out right. I just meant you could have delivered Eden normally, without all these extra problems. Everything would have been fine if it was you. Your body would have handled it just as well, except without the extra complications.”
“N-No, I got that part,” Heidi replied, her face bright red now.
“Oh…” That’s when it really hit me what I’d just said. “Shit.” I smacked myself in the face, realizing I had to explain now, because otherwise it sounded like I’d been intentionally considering having a kid with her. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just that, you know the time when you were putting your piercings in and we almost…” My voice trailed off.
Heidi gulped audibly.
I tried to continue. “Well, that was basically sort of like Eden trying to be born, and…” Shit, I wasn’t making this any better. However, upon trying to gauge her reaction with my second-sight, I realized she suddenly looked really depressed, her gaze downcast, as if I’d implied that it had only happen
ed because of some other outside force, not because there was any chemistry between us.
As if I was implying that it only happened because of the special circumstances.
I tried to recover, again before I really thought about what I was saying, looking at her fully. “Not that I wouldn’t have, if…” My voice trailed off. “I mean, not that I didn’t want to, but…shit ,” I hissed, slapping myself in the forehead again and leaning back in my seat.
There was no way to get around this without accidentally explaining the truth – that I thought she was hot and had screwed her in a premonition I’d experienced the previous night. Dammit, I was just going to tell her, as well as the ‘hard truth’ that I didn’t want to admit.
Probably a horrible decision, but I felt like this conversation needed to happen, especially since Heidi still seemed so dejected by my possible rejection.
“Look, I know Freya’s sort of told you a lot, including my true age. Did she ever mention that I can sometimes see the future?”
She finally looked up at me in surprise. “Seriously?” she said in disbelief.
“Sort of,” I admitted, glancing away for a moment. “I don’t know how to control it, and it seems to mostly only affect me when something really significant is about to happen.” I took a deep breath. “We were almost in a car accident a year ago, when we first met Rose, and the reason why we avoided it was because I was reacting to it before it happened – because I made the car pull over.”
“Damn,” she whispered simply.
I held her lavender gaze again. “And then, it happened a few other times as well, like when your sister and Lily got shot at the mall. I sort of ‘experienced’ Lily’s death, just before it happened.” Heidi grimaced, only to look more sympathetic as I continued. “It usually doesn’t warn me that far in advance,” I added. “Not enough to do anything about it.”
She nodded, her gaze dropping to her hands clasped tightly between her thighs now, almost as if she was trying to keep her hands to herself. As if she wanted to reach out and hold my hand to comfort me. “So why are you telling me about this now?” she asked quietly.
The Powerful Pride of an Immortal (Immortal Supers Book 4) Page 2
