by Juniper Hart
The tiredness won out, and her lids dropped together, despite the fact that she fought against her overtaking slumber. Her sleep was dreamless, and when she woke again, Audrey was flopped out in an armchair, flipping through a magazine.
Even in her beaten state, Brooklyn could tell that she was not really reading it, her blue eyes vacant and distracted.
“Hey,” Brooklyn croaked, realizing her throat was absolutely parched.
Audrey snapped to attention, dropping the magazine to the floor.
“Hey,” she replied, hurrying to get her a cup of water. “How are you feeling?”
“Fuzzy,” Brooklyn admitted as she accepted the water. She gulped it back, slightly wrinkling her nose at the lukewarm temperature of the liquid, but it didn’t stop her from drinking it all.
“Take it easy,” Audrey warned. “The doctor said you might throw up if you drink too fast.”
“Tell me what happened!” Brooklyn demanded, pushing herself up. “Why do I have to keep asking the same thing over and over? Audrey, tell me! Please!”
A wave of uneasiness flooded through her, followed by nausea. She quickly shut her eyes to ward it off. After a moment, it passed, and she reopened her eyes to study Audrey’s concerned face.
“Should I call for a nurse?” she asked, and Brooklyn shook her head.
“I don’t want one more damned person in this room until I get answers!” she snapped. “Is the baby really all right?”
Audrey nodded firmly, and Brooklyn sighed with relief, her shoulders sagging slightly. She knew that Audrey wouldn’t lie to her, not about something like that.
Another thought occurred to her, and she stared at her friend with concern.
“Does Ryan know how far along I am?” she whispered.
Audrey avoided her eyes.
“No,” she sighed. “He wasn’t here when Dr. Cameron came to talk to me. Brooklyn, who is the baby’s father?”
Brooklyn wasn’t ready to tell her the truth. “Ryan. We had a fling after we broke up.”
“You’re lying,” Audrey said flatly, and Brooklyn felt her cheeks grow pink.
“What difference does it make?” she snapped. “As far as Ryan knows, the baby is his. You’re not going to tell him, are you?”
“Is that why you took him back?” Audrey asked urgently. “Because you didn’t want to raise the baby alone?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Not now at least,” Brooklyn growled. “What happened to me?”
“I don’t care what you want to talk about!” Audrey yelled back. “You scared the shit out of me! You uprooted your whole life, reconciled with that jackass—who, by the way, couldn’t even stay here to make sure you’re okay—and now you’re telling me you’re pregnant! It’s like I don’t even know you anymore, Brook!”
Brooklyn read the anguish in Audrey’s eyes, and guilt flooded her.
“You’re right,” she murmured, contrition lining her words. “I’m sorry.” Audrey stared at her, and they locked gazes for a long moment.
“Tell me what happened,” Audrey said, the anger gone from her voice as she slid onto the bed beside her. Brooklyn relished the warmth of her friend’s contact, and she exhaled slowly.
Maybe it was time to tell someone her strange secret, and who better than Audrey? Then again, would telling her endanger her, even if Audrey didn’t believe her? Brooklyn supposed that it didn’t matter—not anymore. The stress was too much, and she needed to unburden herself.
Audrey embraced her tightly.
“You can trust me,” she assured her, and Brooklyn laughed mirthlessly.
“I know that,” she sighed. “It’s not trust I’m worried about.”
Audrey slightly pulled her body back to stare at her. “Then what are you worried about? Because let me tell you, nothing you say can make me more concerned than I already am.”
Brooklyn nodded, knowing that Audrey was likely right.
“You have to promise not to call the psych ward after I tell you this, though,” she told Audrey, and her friend snorted.
“Honey, you have seen me pull off so much shit, I think it’s safe to say your secrets are safe with me.”
Brooklyn cleared her throat and exhaled. “The night we went out, the night we ran into Ryan?”
“What about it?” She gnawed on her lower lip, contemplating for the last time if she should say it aloud.
If I speak the words, it will make it true, she warned herself, but she knew Audrey would not let her off the hook now that she had come this far.
“I met a guy that night,” Brooklyn continued.
“What? Oh!” Audrey groaned. “They said you disappeared early and didn’t wait for the limo. I should have known you were getting laid! Ugh, I knew there had to be something else! If I had been there—”
“You wouldn’t have been able to stop me,” Brooklyn said. “He was… I don’t know. He seemed to have this kind of spell on me. Even without talking, we had this… bond or something.” Saying it aloud made Brooklyn feel stupid, but she had no other words to adequately describe what she had felt about Cass.
“You mean, you were upset about seeing Ryan and you wanted to get back at him,” Audrey corrected.
Brooklyn tensed. Then she went on, her voice soft as she spoke. “It felt deeper than that at the time. Maybe it was a rebound after all, but it didn’t feel like that when I was with him.”
She didn’t add that she still felt drawn to him, despite what she had seen.
“It was incredible,” Brooklyn explained. “He knew every part of my body like we had been together a million times before. And I swear, Audrey, when I looked at him, I felt like we had met before, even though I was sure we hadn’t. I mean, he was so handsome. It’s not a face you easily forget.”
“What was his name?” Audrey sighed, shaking her head.
“Cass,” she replied, and Audrey’s face scrunched into a perplexed expression.
“That’s an odd name.”
“I didn’t really think about it,” Brooklyn admitted with a shrug. “I was focused on other things.”
“I bet,” Audrey snorted. “Go on. What happened?”
“It was… incredible,” Brooklyn said, her mind shifting back to that night. The hairs on her arms rose in excitement, and she could almost smell Cass’s aftershave in the hospital room. “I have never had sex like that, even though it was more than just sex. We were… inside one another, you know, like we had melded into one person. It’s hard to put it into words, but… he was what I had always envisioned as a prince coming to sweep me off my feet.”
“And then what happened to him?” Audrey demanded. “He just went home, and you have no idea where to find him?”
Brooklyn turned her head toward the window, even though the shades were pulled, worried that her displeasure would show through.
“Yes,” she answered. “And then I learned I was pregnant.” Audrey sighed dramatically.
“Well,” she said. “That is hardly a reason to get back together with Ryan.”
The way she said his name made Brooklyn shiver. There was pure venom in her tone.
“I will help you find this bastard, and he will pay what he owes,” Audrey continued. “You can come home with me, and—”
“I’m not going back to Burlingame,” Brooklyn told her. “And Ryan can never know. He’s sorry. I can tell he’s changed.”
Audrey snorted, untangling her arms from Brooklyn’s shoulders. “A leopard never changes its spots, Brook. You’re deluding yourself if you think he won’t do it again. Men like him can’t help themselves.”
“Audrey, I don’t want to hear about it,” she snapped.
“Listen,” Audrey went on, “if you shared such an intense connection with this booty call, maybe he’ll be thrilled to hear the news. Did that ever occur to you?”
Brooklyn swallowed the lump in her throat.
“I am not looking for him,” she said with finality. “Ryan is the child’s father. Tha
t’s the end of the conversation.”
“You’ll see I’m right about Ryan Shilling,” Audrey muttered, rolling her eyes. “You should save us both a lot of time and find the real father.”
“If nothing happened to the baby, why am I here?” Brooklyn asked, determined to change the subject.
Audrey’s body seemed to tense. “You died. Your heart stopped for three minutes.”
“Why?” Brooklyn asked, her face growing pale. A fleeting memory of being on a dock fluttered through her mind. Had that been heaven? Had Cass died, too? The thought that he might not be alive made her want to scream.
“They have no idea,” Audrey responded. “Your toxicology screen showed nothing, and your heart is healthy. It was some freak medical mystery to which no one has an answer.”
“And this didn’t affect the baby?” Brooklyn asked, her eyes wide and dubious.
“Not that they can determine.” Audrey seemed to want to say something else, but she trailed off and looked away. Brooklyn stared at her, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“But?” Audrey grasped her hands and stared into her eyes deeply.
“I don’t want you to freak out, but…” She seemed unable to finish her thought.
“Spit it out, Aud!” Brooklyn demanded. “What is it?”
“The baby… isn’t a baby.”
Brooklyn gaped at her, her jaw dropping. “What the hell does that mean?”
Audrey rose from the bed and began to pace the room.
“You should wait for the doctor,” she said nervously.
“No!” Brooklyn squealed, feeling panic rising in her veins. “What does that mean? What do you mean it’s not a baby?”
Audrey walked toward the nightstand without responding and opened the drawer, pulling out two ultrasound pictures that she silently placed in Brooklyn’s hands.
Brooklyn snatched the pictures up, peering into the black and white images.
Then she began to scream.
12
“I can’t deal with this right now, Alfonso,” Cassius snapped, his face twisting into a grimace. “This is what I pay you for.”
“Cass,” Alfonso pleaded. “You need to come into headquarters this week! The deal in Dubai is going south, and the developers in—”
“Did you not hear what I said?” Cassius growled. “I don’t have time! Something much more pressing has come to my attention. You are the president of the company, Al. Do what you must. You have my blessing.” He disconnected the Skype call before Alfonso could retort and reached toward his tumbler glass, just out of view of the screen.
None of us may have any time, he thought coldly, chewing on the insides of his cheeks. It was his third brandy in an hour, but it still did doing nothing to alleviate his taut nerves. This is really happening, Cassius told himself as he began to walk along the length of the office, his eyes fixated on the distant sea through the glass wall.
Below his feet, he could see the ninety-foot drop to the jungle. In fact, he’d had the entire estate built around the same breathtaking features that his office and bedroom shared: a view from all angles. The staff avoided the rooms at all cost, the height and wildness disturbing to the most seasoned of employees.
Cassius paused, his mind racing with all that had happened over the past few months. He and his brothers had congregated in Misty Woods three months earlier, and like him, they had been steadfastly against the king’s dark plan.
“Father,” Titus groaned. “We cannot simply take over the planet. Some of us have lives to lead.”
“Are you suggesting that I don’t have a life?” Rui hissed, his eyes narrowing dangerously. “You speak too freely, son.”
Titus paled.
“Father, I meant no disrespect,” he assured the old king, desperately looking to his siblings for help.
Estrella floated through the grand hall, her long skirts swirling about her ankles as she poured ale and wine from earthenware urns into goblets of gold. Cassius could not recall the last time he had heard a word from the mouth of his father’s newest wife.
He remains in the fourteenth century, he thought, staring at his brothers, waiting for someone else to defy the king.
“You sound incredibly disrespectful,” Rui snapped. “I am your father, the ruler of this kingdom—”
“Father,” Marcus interjected. “There is no longer a kingdom. You are no longer a king. You must accept this as fact.”
Cassius cringed, his heart racing slightly as he recognized the fire in the patriarch’s eyes.
“I am a king,” Rui snarled, rising to his feet. Despite his age, he was a formidable man, almost as tall as Cassius, with just as large a torso and the same jarring blue eyes.
“You’re not,” Marcus repeated, unmoved by Rui’s anger.
The men held each other’s gazes while the room waited with baited breath for the inevitable explosion, but to everyone’s surprise, their father smiled.
“Does it not bother you?” he asked Marcus.
“What? That we have not been royalty in three hundred years?” Marcus laughed, sitting back against his high-backed chair. “I have learned to deal with those losses in other ways. We all have, Father.”
“You are weak,” the king spat. “All of you.” The brothers collectively bristled.
“We are not stuck in the past, old man,” Marcus snarled.
“Marcus!” Maximus cried warningly, sensing the danger lurking behind Rui’s eyes.
“Let him speak,” the old king ordered. “I do not need cowards in my army.”
“What army?” Cassius exploded, having heard enough of his father’s ramblings. He could plainly see that the others were equally uncomfortable at the idea of starting a war.
“You are ungrateful!” the king snapped. “The lot of you.”
“With all due respect, Father, it is you who seems so,” Anders muttered. Cassius knew it took a lot for him to speak. It went against his brother’s gentle nature to voice his opinion so openly, but like the others, Anders knew just how insane his father’s scheme was.
“Me?” Rui declared, his bushy white brows jutting upward in shock. “I am trying to reclaim what is ours!”
“Father,” Cassius tried again, trying desperately to maintain his temper despite the fact that his patience was wearing thin. “You would fight for nothing. You have land, livestock, a wife!”
Estrella nodded in agreement, and Cassius wondered how she felt about being married to such a tyrant.
“We are owed more than that!” Rui roared, slamming his fists into the rectangular table so that the dinner plates rattled. “We are dragon blooded! We can own it all! Where are the warriors I raised? You have all grown soft over time!”
There was a slight murmuring amongst the brothers, and Cassius suddenly saw a spark of interest in the others’ eyes. Were they entertaining the idea? If they were, then they were as crazy as their father.
“Father,” he said, forcing his voice to sound calmer than he felt. “Think of what the repercussions will be.”
“That is just it, Cassius. There are no repercussions. We will rule the world as we were meant to do!”
“Father, you don’t know that consequences won’t exist!” he insisted.
“Like what?” Marcus asked suddenly, and Cassius felt a cold chill slither down his back.
“We have never ventured to take on this many people at once,” Cassius replied slowly. “Opal told us that we can be killed—”
“And yet we have never even been injured so badly that we don’t heal in minutes,” Marcus interrupted.
Father is getting to him, Cassius realized, worriedly glancing at his brothers. To all of them.
“We do not know if nuclear war will kill us!” he exclaimed, the same way he had told Anders and Maximus in New York. “Uranium is something none of us have encountered!”
“There will not be a nuclear war!” Rui yelled, but Cassius could hear the uncertainty in his voice.
“Father
, this madness has gone on long enough,” Titus sighed, rising. “I must get back to my life.”
“Make no mistake!” Rui called out to him. “If you do not fight with me, you will be fighting alone. What do you believe will happen when the mortals realize they are at war?”
Titus turned to stare at his father, a questioning look in his eyes. Cassius, though, could already understand what the king was saying. Mortals would turn on themselves, looting and plundering for their own families. Cassius and his brothers would have no choice but to expose themselves to protect their own. No matter what happened, their father would get his way.
“Father,” Cassius said quickly, hoping to alleviate the situation diplomatically. “We need some time to think about this and discuss it amongst ourselves. You cannot expect us to make such a grand decision in minutes! We have businesses to consider and loved ones to worry about. You can at least grant us that. After all, time is always on our side.”
Rui’s cold eyes could’ve burned holes in Cassius’ face, but Cassius could see that his father was carefully considering his words.
“We will reconvene in one month,” he finally told them. “In that time, I expect you to come here prepared for battle.”
“Father,” Maximus offered almost timidly. “Should we decide to go this route, shouldn’t we warn the enemy that we are coming?”
The king snorted. “And ruin the element of surprise? You act as if you have never been to war before, Maximus. This will be good for every single one of you.”
“In one month, we will discuss this again,” Cassius announced, rising before any more talk of battle strategy could be brought to the table. He and his brothers disassembled from the dining room.
When they had met in the grand hall on the following full moon, Cassius was more apprehensive than ever. His brothers suddenly seemed keen on the idea, and Cassius wished he had spent more time communicating with them. But he had a business to run—he couldn’t babysit his father and deal with his own personal matters at the same time.
