by Zara Zenia
“I’m just glad you’re here. I’m happy you’re safe,” he says and my heart squeezes painfully in my chest. The longing in his voice echoes how I feel about him, but now I’ve been with Brandt and Morgan and I don’t know how to tell him, but I know I have to.
“Eva, there’s something about you… I can’t stop thinking about you. I feel that we have a connection that binds us deeper than just the prophecy. I never wanted to believe a thing like this was possible, but I can’t deny it when you’re right here in front of me.”
His words make my blood turn solid, moving like thick sludge in my veins, my heart pounding hard trying to force it to move.
“I feel it too,” I whisper, his chin lifting to meet my gaze. Now our lips are so close to touching I can feel his warmth radiating into me. But I don’t close the distance. I can’t until I’m honest with him.
“All right, the reserves have been deployed along the border walls and we’ve evacuated everyone that’s not necessary,” Brandt’s voice comes from the other side of the door as he’s walking in. He stops, freezing in place when he sees Trylor and me curled up together.
“My apologies,” he says quickly, though from where I’m sitting, it looks like his jaw tightens.
“Trylor… I do feel a connection to you, but I can’t lie to you or hide it from you, I feel a connection to your brother and Morgan and Lucas too. I can’t explain it, but the same pull I feel toward one of you I feel toward all of you. And I understand if that’s crazy and changes things, but—”
“It doesn’t,” he says, his voice low and growly. My eyes snap up to meet his, wide and confused.
Brandt chuckles and moves further into the room. “I told you, Eva, we share women on our planet. But more than that, you’re special. The prophecy has told us that this would happen. We’ve all been expecting it.”
“What?” I look to Trylor for him to deny what his brother is saying, but he doesn’t.
Instead he nods. “We’re still deciphering the texts, but it seems that you are a chosen guardian. One who’s destined to save the three races — vampire, dragon, and human—”
“I know, I know, by creating a weapon. But I don’t know how to—”
“Not just any weapon,” Trylor says, brushing the hair from my neck, kissing the same spot his brother had marked me, though the purple spot is mostly faded by now. “You’re going to bear a child, Eva. A child that saves us all.”
My mouth falls open and I just stare between Brandt and Trylor, eyes darting back and forth waiting for someone to crack a smile and tell me this is all a joke. But they don’t. And before I have a chance to challenge them, the doors are opening again, this time with Morgan and Lucas sauntering in.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lucas
“The dragons are right,” I say, watching Eva’s wide eyes go wider.
We could hear what they were saying in the other room — one of the perks of superhuman senses — and hearing Eva say that she feels a connection to me is the most powerful aphrodisiac I’ve ever experienced. I want to cross the room right now, scoop her into my arms, and make love to her endlessly until I can’t anymore.
But the look in those hazel eyes is what stops me. Eva looks confused, lost, searching for something to cling to. Only the only thing near is the damn dragon king, his arms already around her.
“What?” she says, her face still a mask of confusion. “A baby?”
I nod. “We’ve been trying to decipher what exactly the prophecy expects of you, and that’s what we’ve come up with. The advisers agree that it’s the only logical answer. You are the one, Eva. The one who has the power to bear the child that will destroy all evil.”
Her eyes are shimmering, but her body is shaking and Eva’s hands wrap around herself, pulling away from Trylor.
“But that’s… That can’t be—”
“Eva,” Morgan says, stepping forward to kneel next to the chair. He takes her hand in his and I feel a spike of jealousy run through me. He got to her first. Not that it’s surprising at all. Not that I even blame him. If I’d had the chance, I know I would have already had her too. But we’d been busy and I didn’t want to startle her or frighten her away.
Though, looking at her now, it seems that’s exactly what’s happened.
“Eva,” he whispers again, pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. “I promised you I would find answers and this is it. The prophecy talks about us, the four of us, finding you and…” He stops, glancing around the room.
“It’s said that you will mate with all of us,” Brandt says, jumping in to save Morgan the trouble of finding those crass words.
“To bear one of our children,” I say, my voice soft and soothing as I take a step forward.
But Eva’s got the look of a panicked rabbit now, her eyes darting from one corner of the room to another, her whole body trembling in fear as she pushes away from Trylor’s grasp, standing on shaky feet.
“That’s crazy. How is a baby going to help anything? And if you didn’t notice, they kind of take a while. You have to be reading it wrong.”
I shake my head, wishing I could help her understand, wishing there was something I could do to ease this burden for her. But there’s nothing. There’s nothing any of us can do for her. Eva is the one and that comes with responsibility, with a heavy weight of duty that none of us can shoulder for her.
We all watch her for a long moment, pity shining out of every pair of eyes. We all knew it was something like this. We knew it when we met her. We may not have known all the details exactly, but we knew enough to not ambush her with this. I curse under my breath and Morgan glances back at me, fire in his eyes too. We should have handled this differently. Eased her into the idea of being a guardian. Because now she’s not letting any of us close and she’s just hugging herself like her arms are the shield she needs to keep us away.
I step back, lifting my hands in a non-threatening way.
“We understand it’s a lot to take in,” I say, trying to force calming energy into my voice, but Eva’s so worked up it doesn’t affect her.
“Oh, you understand, do you? You understand what it’s like to be minding your own business when four crazy people come and tell you that you need to go to another planet and sleep with them all to make a baby you didn’t ask for? You understand!” she’s shrieking the words at me, but I don’t flinch.
I just take it. Because I deserve it. She’s earned the right to be angry. She’s earned the bitterness.
But she doesn’t save it just for me. She whirls on the dragons, shaking a finger at them. “Did you know? All this time?”
“Not exactly,” Trylor says, his eyes cast down.
“But we had an idea,” Brandt says, his eyes apologetic, pleading for forgiveness. “Eva, it’s not just us,” he adds quickly. “It’s not just the dragons, and it’s not just the vampires. It’s humanity too. It’s everyone. Everywhere. Races we don’t even know yet are being threatened by the same evil we are. And you’re the one that can stop it. The only one.”
A broken cry rips from her throat and Eva buries her head in her hands, shaking uncontrollably. We all start to move toward her, but stop, each one of us realizing on our own that there’s no comfort we can give her. Not when we’re the cause of this pain and anguish.
I didn’t think anything could hurt more than seeing my loved ones ripped apart in front of me, but watching Eva crumble because of something I did, something I could have prevented, it the most unbearable pain I’ve experienced in my long, long life.
“I’m sorry, Eva,” I say, my throat raw with emotion. “If there was another way… any other way…” I feel like we’ve let her down. Like we’ve misled her and taken advantage of her innocence. But I tried. I’d tried to find another meaning, another interpretation. As much as I wanted her and dreamed of her, I tried to find an explanation that didn’t force us together. One that could let us come together on our own without the heavy hand of fate.
/> But there was nothing. And even as Morgan and I realized the explanation was the only one there was, I’d felt pleased about the outcome. I felt a sense of satisfaction, knowing I’d get to have Eva soon enough.
Now that satisfaction turned sour, making me feel like the monster I’ve always denied being. How could I be so excited to sleep with her when her whole world was crumbling around her?
“I think maybe we should give Eva some time,” Morgan says, his voice as rough as mine. Does he feel the same guilt since he’s already had her? Does he fear she regrets being with him? I know I would fear that were our roles reversed.
“Good idea,” says Brandt, neither him nor Morgan offering any barbed comments to one another. If that isn’t evidence of Eva’s amazing power, I don’t know what is.
Trylor stands too, towering over the rest of us, but looking the most uncertain. He looks at Eva, his eyes shimmering with regret, like he wants to say something to her, like there’s something on the tip of his tongue. But nothing ever comes. He presses his lips together and shakes his head sadly, his eyes sad and hurt like someone just killed his childhood pet.
The dragons both leave with Eva’s shoulders shaking, her chest trembling with barely-contained sobs. I want so badly to reach out and hold her. To soothe her and comfort her and make the pain go away. I remember all too clearly the fear and pain she felt watching her father with the wolves and I know that pain is still buried in her, still hurting her and leaving her conflicted. Would she even consider this if she hadn’t experienced that tragedy?
Morgan hovers near her, finally wrapping an arm around her shoulder, drawing her near. Eva stiffens at his touch and Morgan curses.
“I screwed up, Eva, I know. I should have told you everything I knew when you asked, but I didn’t want to worry you before we knew for sure… And I was selfish.”
She looks up at him, blinking tears from her eyes and he presses his thumb to one, whisking it away.
“You’re so beautiful, so irresistible… So perfect. I couldn’t resist my chance and I’m the world’s most colossal jerk.”
She sniffs and then shakes her head, pulling away from Morgan’s touch.
“I can’t do this, I’m sorry,” she whispers, fleeing the room before either of us can stop her.
Morgan and I both curse at the same time, glaring at that door like we can make it explode and bring her back.
“Well, that could have gone better,” Morgan says, hanging his head.
“It could have,” I agree, my chest clenched painfully remembering the way Eva had looked at us. Like we’d all lied to her and betrayed her. In a way, I suppose we did.
“She’ll come around, won’t she?” he asks, sinking to the couch in the king’s sitting room. It’s strange that the dragons left us alone in here, but I suppose they had other things on their mind than mistrusting vampires.
“I hope so,” I say. There’s no use in offering him meaningless platitudes if I don’t believe them. “You know her better than I do. Do you think she’ll come around?”
Morgan pauses, considering the question, then buries his head in his hands. “I don’t know. After everything we’ve done, she shouldn’t, but she has to. It’s our only hope.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Eva
After I leave Trylor’s room, I run straight to mine, not looking back, not making any side turns. I just want to be alone. I still can’t believe what they were saying. A guardian. What does that even mean? I know what they said it means: that I’m going to have a baby.
A freaking baby! Are they all insane? Things were crazy enough when they just wanted me to come to their planet and save everyone. Yeah, that sounds nuts and I was pretty sure I couldn’t do it, but I was willing to try. With everything that’s been happening, with everything that’s at stake, yeah, I was willing to try to help them defeat the evil. I mean, that’s the stuff that supposedly came after my dad. The evil that ripped him away from me and left me alone.
How many other little girls had their dads stolen from them? How many more would if I don’t help?
The pressure sits on my chest like an elephant until I can’t breathe. Helping fight was one thing, but having a child? It’s insane. I never asked for that. And all those times Dad told me I was meant for a great purpose, I didn’t think he was talking about having a baby with an alien or a vampire.
And how did that even work? I know I can have sex with both of them — clearly, since I’d been with Brandt and Morgan — but were we genetically compatible? Could a baby even come from us being together?
But that’s what it sounds like. Like this whole prophecy was just a trick to get me to sleep with all four of them. It makes me feel sick, like I’m going to puke at any moment.
I want to help, I want to end the suffering, but not like this. Not by being forced into this. Not by being told I have to sleep with four men just to save life as we know it.
Not to mention it’s not just sleeping with them. I’ve never even considered being a mother before — I’m only nineteen! And if we only need one baby, why do I have to sleep with all of them? Not that I really know who I’d want to exclude. I want them all, but does it even matter anymore with something like this hanging over our heads?
And did they really want me? Or were they just trying to fulfill some duty? Trying to save their people or whatever? Morgan said he couldn’t resist me, couldn’t pass up his chance with me, but he’d also told me I could believe him to be straight with me, that he would tell me whatever he knew about the prophecy, and look where that put us.
I collapse in my bed, hugging a pillow tightly, soaking it with my tears. I don’t want to let anyone down. I don’t want to fail anyone. But I don’t think I can do this. I don’t think I can just have a baby for it to grow up and kill all evil.
Besides, they made it seem like this is a pressing matter. Like the evil could wipe us all out any moment now. Didn’t they know how long it took babies to grow? It would be years before it could even walk or talk, let alone fight.
They had to be misreading the prophecy. They had to be misinterpreting something. That’s the only explanation. But thinking that doesn’t remove the weight from my shoulders, it doesn’t clear the knot in my chest or the waves of sobs that keep flowing out of me.
I never asked for any of this. I just wanted to stay in my woods and thwart poachers. I just wanted to be left alone, me and the trees and nothing of the outside world. I never asked to go to another planet or to meet these incredibly sexy men that had me falling for them every time I saw them, even though now it feels like they were all lying to me. I never asked to be consumed by this unquenchable need, or for them to make me feel things I never believed possible, making me pant and writhe and beg for more.
Even now, as upset as I am, as much as I want to run home and never look back, my body craves them. I’m regretting that I didn’t get to go further with Trylor before Brandt interrupted us. I’m regretting that I may never get a chance with Lucas.
But wanting them means something different now. It’s not just sex. It’s not just losing my virginity and exploring my own sexuality. It’s fulfilling a prophecy. It’s doing what’s been expected of me since before I was even born. How can I even be sure that what I want is really what I want and not just some mystical force making me think I want it?
I can’t, and that’s maybe what bothers me the most. I can’t even trust myself anymore. I thought I knew what I wanted, but was it really me that wanted it? The Eva I was before these men wouldn’t have just jumped at the chance of being with them all. But that’s exactly what I was doing. Even while I’m denying it and rebelling against the idea of being the dutiful little girl filling her end of the bargain, I’m also fantasizing about Trylor and Lucas, wondering how they’d be different than the others, than each other. I don’t even know what to expect with them and that’s thrilling in its own right.
Of course being thrilled about it only makes me feel worse. What
is wrong with me that I’m back to thinking of sex only minutes after lamenting my fate? How could I forget my concerns so quickly?
So, saying I’m conflicted would be an understatement. I want them more than I’ve ever wanted anything, but just as bad, I want to not have to be with them. I want it to be my choice. I want to have some say in what happens to me — and my baby if it comes to that. Even the thought of having a baby makes me shudder uncertainly, but then something in my mind changes and it’s not just a baby. Some infant without a face or name or home. It would be my baby. Maybe with Lucas’s dark hair, or Trylor’s golden eyes. Would he be able to shift? Or be born with a taste for blood?
For just a moment, I let myself imagine being a mother, holding my baby close to my chest, hearing its heartbeat next to mine, and surprisingly, I’m not terrified. I’m unsure, yeah. Even a little nervous. But I’m not shaking-in-my-boots terrified. Maybe there’s a chance I can do this. It seems like a long shot, it seems impossible, but so does a lot of what’s happened to me the last week or so. I can’t just discount it because it sounds crazy or I’m going to have to forget everything that’s happened since I let that fox out of the trap.
Suddenly, I don’t feel so alone in all of this. I have the guys, yeah, four strong, gorgeous, sexy guys that all seem crazy about me, but I have the hypothetical baby too. If there’s going to be a baby, part of that baby is inside of me. Part of the way to destroy evil is already in me, and that makes me feel stronger than before.
I hug the pillow tighter, tears still streaming down my face, the whole spot under my head completely soaked with them, but I don’t care.
“You and me, buddy. We’re in this together, I guess,” I whisper, trying to hide how scared I am from him. Moms have to be strong for their kids. They’ve gotta be the one to keep it together and protect the little ones.
