Fire, Blood, and Beauty: A Reverse Harem Romance

by Zara Zenia

  I nod, remembering the strange feeling of teleporting and how uncomfortable it had been, but this time I know what to expect and I’m ready for it.

  “Remember, don’t stay longer than a day. I mean it,” he says, and I nod again.

  “I won’t, I promise,” I answer, throwing my arms around his neck. He still looks so conflicted about giving me the device. I know this is a risk and I know he’s putting a lot on the line to give me this and I’m so grateful.

  “Thank you, Brandt,” I say, hugging him tight before I kiss him with everything I’ve got.

  He kisses me back just as fiercely, taking my breath away, leaving me dizzy and floating with bruised lips.

  “Just come back to me,” he whispers, the sound of his heart breaking all too clear in every word.

  “I will.” I nod again, forcing back tears as I step out of his arms and he places the phone on the floor. “I’ll be back before you know it,” I say, stepping into the swirling blue light.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Eva

  Since I know what to expect, I’m able to stay conscious through the whole teleportation, but it’s not easy. The colors and lights are dizzying, and I feel like I can’t catch my breath. I can’t say anything or feel anything or even tell which way is up or down. I guess if I’m in space, there isn’t an up or down.

  Just as the blackness starts to crowd in around my vision, it all goes away like a bubble popping. And then I’m in another place, my feet firmly on concrete, the sounds and smells of a city surrounding me. I look up and see a familiar starry sky and I know I’m back on Earth. Home.

  Only that word rings hollow in my mind now. My guys aren’t here, so how could it be home? But my family is here somewhere. At least the family I had before I left for Desergan, I think with a hand on my beach ball belly.

  I’m in an alley, which is weird, because Brandt told me that the teleporter would take me right to my mom, so I look around, but don’t see anyone or anything of interest besides a pile of stinky trash down the way.

  Instead of going toward that, I turn the other way, going to the street. One side of the alley belongs to a restaurant, a fancy-looking bistro with twinkling lights and lots of greenery at the entrance. I start to walk past, but I hear familiar laughter through the open door and I freeze.

  That had to be my mom. There’s no one else that sounds like her, not to me. So I stop and look for her in the restaurant without going in. It would be super weird to just pop in on her without any notice like this. I’m not even sure what city I’m in right now, so how could I explain that?

  When I find her, I also find that she’s not alone at the table. Katie’s there, and there’s a man I don’t recognize, too, his body language very familiar with my mother. And then I spot the sparkle on her left hand and a chill washes through me.

  How could she have gotten over my dad so fast? I know he’s been dead for a year or so, but I’ve only been gone for a month, six weeks tops. But that can’t be right. Katie looks different — older than the last time I saw her. Mom too. She’s started to go gray around her hairline and I’m surprised she’s not rushing to get those roots covered up right away.

  But none of it adds up.

  Then, I see the daily menu posted outside the bistro’s wall and it’s dated. For five years after I left.

  I nearly fall to the ground. Is it possible I was gone for five years? It doesn’t seem possible, but I know that time moves differently across space. I just didn’t think it could be this different.

  Now I know I can’t say hi to my family. Five years have passed, but I don’t look older at all, other than the big pregnant belly — which suddenly I’m not so keen to try to explain.

  So instead of walking into the restaurant to reconnect with my mother and sister, I hover outside, crouched in the bushes, eavesdropping on their conversation.

  “I can’t believe the wedding is next week already!” Katie gushes, grinning from ear to ear. Mom smiles too, leaning in to give her new man a kiss on the cheek.

  “I’m so happy,” she says.

  Katie pokes at her salad a bit, then looks up with a frown. “Mom, don’t you think we should at least tell Eva? I know you don’t think she’ll want to leave the woods for the wedding, but she’d probably like to know she’s got a new step-dad.”

  Mom just dismisses her with a wave and a laugh. “Oh, you know your sister, dear. She’s never stopped living in your dad’s shadow. All these years and she’s never tried to get in touch with us, I think she’d rather we kept it that way.”

  Katie sighs, but nods, and I can tell this is an argument that’s happened more than once.

  My own mother doesn’t want me to know she’s getting married. Doesn’t even care if I know or not. She doesn’t even care enough to reach out to me, to keep in touch at all. So there have been five years of birthdays and holidays that I haven’t been a part of that she just doesn’t care about.

  Suddenly, all the tears I held back earlier are pouring from me in earnest and I wrap my arms around myself as I walk away from the restaurant. I was right. This isn’t my family. My family’s back on Desergan. And right here with me, I think, sending a wave of love to my baby. I won’t abandon it like my mom did me. I won’t forget about it or dismiss it. I’m going to be a better mother if it kills me.

  But there’s nothing for me here. It’s all back on Desergan and I feel like a fool for coming here at all. I step back into the alley and set the phone on the ground after tapping the screen like Brandt showed me. Maybe if I’m lucky, only a few seconds will have passed and he won’t have had time to worry about me at all.

  The blue light fills the alley, but I don’t hesitate to step into it, welcoming the embrace of nothingness as sobs still wrack my body. How could I have been so foolish? How could I forget the nineteen years of my past that my mother didn’t care about me? It has to be something to do with the baby. Maybe being on the verge of motherhood myself made me want to reconcile with my own mom.

  But that was a huge mistake and I never should have left.

  As soon as I’m back in the swirling mess of colors, I can tell something’s different, something’s not really right. No matter how hard I fight it, I keep slipping in and out of consciousness, like there’s something pulling me under no matter how hard I claw for the surface.

  The moment my feet touch the floor, I start to fall, but then there are strong arms catching me and holding me tight.

  “Eva!” It’s Brandt and I can hear the panic in his voice, but I can’t say anything. I’m here, but my body isn’t responding. My brain is screaming at him, but I can’t make my mouth move, I can’t make my throat force out a sound, I can’t even will my eyes to open.

  There’s wind on my face then, and I realize by the heavy footfalls that Brandt must be running with me. I wish I could just wake up, tell him I’m fine, but I can’t seem to break the surface. As close as I get, it’s always just out of reach.

  “Doctor!” Brandt says, out of breath as he sets me down gently. There are voices swirling around me and I try to catch the words, but they’re like a million butterflies swarming and I can’t single one out.

  I don’t know how much time goes by before I’m able to pick out Trylor’s voice.

  “How could you?” he growls, his voice accusatory.

  “She wanted to see her family. I couldn’t deny her that.”

  “The stress of teleporting twice in such a short period of time is cause for some concern,” an unfamiliar voice says and I assume he must be the doctor.

  “Have you lost your mind?” Trylor roars now, warm fingertips brushing my forehead so softly. It doesn’t seem to go with the angry tone, but then again, he never uses that tone on me.

  “She was supposed to stay a day. That should have been enough time. But she came right back. Something must have gone wrong.”

  “Eva? Eva darling, please,” Trylor says.

  I fight so hard to make my eyes open, to m
ake a sound, but nothing’s coming. Nothing but exhaustion. Nothing but the darkness claiming me, pulling me further and further away from them.

  “We have to get her into the palace hospital for observation. There’s not much we can do at this point but try to save the baby.”

  The baby, I remember, feeling it move and kick inside of me. At least the jump didn’t hurt it. If my foolishness got me killed, that’s my own fault, but I can’t deal with the thought that I put my baby at risk without even realizing it.

  “She’ll be okay, won’t she, doc?” Brandt says, his voice plaintive, begging for reassurance.

  There’s a long pause and I think I might have faded out again, but then I hear the doctor let out a heavy sigh. “We won’t know for sure until after she’s given birth.”

  I hear a strangled cry, but I can’t tell if it’s from Brandt or Trylor. I just know I want to reach out and tell them it’s all going to be all right. But I can’t do that. I can’t do anything, because the darkness is winning. The weight is too much to keep struggling against, and then I’m gone, floating in the abyss.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Trylor

  “So, tell me again what your dumb ass brother did,” Morgan growls, looking down at Eva’s prone form in the hospital bed. Lucas is here too, his face a pained expression as he holds Eva’s hand and whispers things I can’t hear into her ear.

  “I didn’t realize it would be this bad,” Brandt snaps back.

  But I make no move to defend him. Not this time. This time, I agree with the vampires. What he did was reckless and foolish and put not only Eva, but the baby at risk too. I still don’t know what he was thinking. We both know the risks of teleporting too soon. Even the day he’d given her would be pushing it, and with her at this stage of the pregnancy… I really can’t fathom why he allowed it to happen.

  We’ve all been gathered around her since she was placed in this hospital bed. No one’s left her side and I don’t think any of us plans to. She’s hooked up to all these machines and monitors and though she’s taking soft, steady breaths, she still looks so fragile and weak. That’s not like our Eva. Our Eva is strong and tenacious and doesn’t take any crap from anyone. She shouldn’t be this broken doll, so pale and unresponsive. And it’s all Brandt’s fault.

  But I can’t even be angry at him with all the worry crowding it out. I just want Eva to be okay.

  The monitors all start beeping at once and I freeze, my eyes trying to decipher the nonsense on their screens as doctors and nurses rush in.

  “What’s happening?” Brandt asks. “Is she okay?”

  “Is the baby okay?” Morgan asks.

  But the doctors ignore us all, shooing us out of the way. “We can’t wait any longer. She needs to have the baby now,” the doctor says to me.

  I stare blankly at them, watching the monitors go crazy, the room filled with shrill beeping that makes it impossible to hear myself think.

  I thought she’d wake up before the baby needed to come out. She’s been in a coma for two days, but with the way this baby’s been growing, I guess that’s as long as we had.

  “Your Highness,” the doctor says again, shaking me out of my stupor.

  “What?”

  “We need to induce her, but we need your permission.”

  I swallow thickly, my heart a tight ball of worry in my chest.

  “What does that mean for Eva?”

  The doctor shakes his head. “I can’t say, sire. But this is our best hope for saving the baby.”

  I don’t like the way he says that. I don’t like the conciliatory look he gives me, like they’ve already accepted that Eva’s not going to make it. But I know Eva, and I know she’d want us to do whatever it takes to save the baby, so I nod.

  “Do what you have to,” I say, ignoring how the three other men in Eva’s life all bristle at the command.

  The doctor nods and a nurse shoves all four of us out of the room so they can work. I’m pacing back and forth in the hallway outside of her hospital room when Brandt shoves me into a wall without warning.

  “How could you do that?” he roars, his forearm under my chin, cutting off my air supply. I’m bigger, stronger, and more experienced than Brandt when it comes to fighting, so it’s not often he gets the element of surprise, but it’s the only way he’s ever been able to best me.

  But this time, I’m not fighting back. I know he’s lashing out because he feels that this is his fault. I think we all sort of feel like it’s his fault. But I can’t say that to the man now while he’s hurting like this.

  “I have to make the tough decisions. You’ve never understood that.”

  “But you just dismissed Eva! The doctor doesn’t even know if she’ll make it and you just say ‘do what you have to’? How could you?”

  Now I do shove him off. I can see the vampires off to the side, wondering if they should get involved, but I’m not even sure whose side they’d be on, so I pray they let us keep this between us. A sibling dispute.

  “I didn’t dismiss her. Have you forgotten why she’s here at all? It’s to have this baby. If I don’t do everything I can to save the baby, then it’s all for nothing and we’ll lose them both.” My voice breaks then and Brandt drops his arm, sagging against me for a hug. The last time my brother cried on my shoulder like this was after my father’s funeral. But I was there for him then, and I’ll be there for him now. That’s just what I do. What I’ve always done.

  I clap him on the back before leading him to one of the chairs in the waiting room. The vampires sit with us and for a while, the four of us share silence, all consumed with the same thoughts and worries.

  “Eva is strong,” Lucas says, finally breaking the silence. “I believe if anyone can pull through this, it will be her.”

  Brandt nods, wiping his tears on his sleeve. “You’re right. I’ve never met someone as resilient as her.”

  “She’s a remarkable woman,” Morgan agrees.

  I don’t say anything, just staring at the door that’s shielding her from our view, holding my breath waiting for the doctor to come back out.

  Luckily, it doesn’t take too long. It feels like an eternity, but I know it’s less than an hour before the door opens and the doctor comes out, blood staining his surgical scrubs. The whole room falls still and I’m pretty sure not a single one of us is moving or breathing or even blinking while we wait for what he has to say.

  “The baby is a healthy boy, and he’s a big one,” he says as the nurse brings out a bundle of blankets in her arms. I’m the first one on my feet and since I’m the king anyway, she doesn’t even hesitate to pass him over to me.

  “I know there’s some question to the paternity,” the doctor says gently, looking over the four of us cautiously. “And I thought we’d have answers once he was born, but I’m afraid he seems to have traits of all three species, so there’s no way to know for sure until he’s a bit older and exhibits the ability to shift, or develops a taste for blood, I suppose.”

  Before Eva’s disastrous trip through the teleporter, who the baby’s father was weighed heavily on my mind. But now it seems irrelevant. He’s here and he’s healthy. That’s what matters.

  “And Eva?” I say, the only one brave enough to voice our collective fears.

  Now the doctor’s face falls, turning grim. He shakes his head and I brace for the worse. “The pregnancy was more than the human body is designed to take, and the toll of the teleportation is still inhibiting her ability to recover, so I’m not sure. We’re hopeful, but it’s touch and go. I’d say she has a fifty-fifty chance, but with a will to make it, maybe that’s higher.”

  My heart breaks into a million pieces. Fifty-fifty is not good odds at all, even knowing what I do about Eva’s determination and will to survive.

  But I can’t dwell on that. The baby in my arms gurgles and his eyes open, taking my breath away.

  They’re hazel, like Eva’s at first, but then they morph into a bright golden, slow
ly shifting to brown, then bright green before fading into an icy blue. They’re ever shifting, ever changing, and he looks between the four of us and smiles.

  Through everything else that has happened, that tiny little smile is the one thing that gives me hope.

  Chapter Forty

  Brandt

  The child is bouncing on my knee gurgling happily up at me and my heart swells with love. It’s times like these that are the best. When he’s not crying or needing fed or needing sleep or attention or anything else. When he’s just happy.

  I yawn, and tickle him, delighting at his giggles. He’s only a few days old at this point, but he’s been growing faster than anyone could have predicted. Already, he’s eating solid foods and crawling around. The doctors as just as baffled by him as they are Eva.

  Because she still hasn’t woken. I force myself to shove back the wave of anger so to not upset the child. But I haven’t forgiven myself. I’m not sure I ever will. I wanted Eva to be able to clear her mind to have an easy, stress-free labor. But instead, I caused this.

  The baby crawls off of my lap to scoot across a blanket on the floor when Lucas strolls in.

  “Who’s ready for a story?” he says, holding up a thick tome. It doesn’t look like the kind of book I’d read to a child, but vampires seem to have different ideas about these things. He’s been telling the child about history, about science and the arts. I don’t know if any of it is getting through to the baby, but he seems to enjoy the time with Lucas nonetheless.

  In truth, he seems to enjoy his time with all of us. We’ve each been taking turns with him, so that he’s never alone or unprotected, but also so that he knows how cherished he is. With Eva out of commission, the four of us have taken on the roles of both parents, trying our damnedest not to let her down.