Everything she normally did was considered irresponsible, and while pregnant it was doubly so. She remembered her first pregnancy being physically strenuous, but emotionally far more daunting. Now, both were worse. She had expected that she would have built some kind of defenses to deal with the despair of being abandoned a second time, but she had been completely unready. It seemed that in so many centuries, she had learned so little, and knowing that her predicament was entirely her own fault made her even more upset.
Turning over onto her side uncomfortably, Visola groaned. Due to a severe distaste for hospital beds, she had demanded that she be allowed to rest at home. Unfortunately, she had been unable to escape having needles stuck into her arms semi-permanently to deliver medication. She had spent some time in the healing hot springs under the Aleutian Islands, but when her seizures had become more intense, Sionna had requested she be moved to the house in Diomede City. Visola sometimes heard muffled screams filtering up from the basement and was quite sure that her sister was either torturing someone, or had developed some strange new habits. At any rate, she had been too weak and generally disinterested in anything to be curious enough to check it out. Normally, she would have been eager to join the fun.
A creak sounded on the floorboards outside her bedroom door, and Visola squinted. The gait sounded heavier and somehow different than her sister’s stride. She stretched her free arm up behind her head, running her fingers beneath her pillow for the warm handles of various weapons. Her throwing knives, or her guns? Deciding that she was too weak to sit up and find the strength and speed to throw knives at the moment, she slipped her hand around the grip of the gun. Sliding her index finger around the trigger, she realized that her hand was shaking. She had a strong inkling of who would step through the door, and she was not sure if she was ready to face him.
Glancing down quickly at her limp hair and her pallid, clammy skin, she knew that she did not look her best. She saw the telltale swell of her abdomen, and she felt hideous, frail, and altogether unprepared. She needed more time to recover from this before she could be ready to suffer again.
She needed another two hundred years or so to gather her wits.
When the brass knob turned and the door swung open, she saw a dark silhouette in the poorly-lit corridor. She blinked, wondering briefly if she was still asleep. When the figure stepped forward, her hand holding the gun lowered a few inches in amazement. He had not changed at all since she had last seen him.
“Viso,” Vachlan said quietly, “you’re unwell…”
“You bastard,” she responded in an even voice, correcting her aim so that the gun was pointing directly at his heart. “Don’t come near me.”
The monitor beside her bed began to indicate the increase in her heart rate, and Visola scowled. What was the point of trying to appear calm and collected when the computer was visually betraying her insides? Without moving the gun she had pointed at his chest, she lifted her other arm so that she could use her teeth to rip the IV out of the inside of her elbow, along with the little clamp on her finger that monitored her pulse. She placed her second hand underneath her wrist, cupping the bottom of the gun to support and strengthen her grip. Despite her illness, her hands were steady and sure as she aimed directly at his heart.
Vachlan seemed to be frozen for a moment as he observed the wounded-but-infuriated look on her face, and allowed his eyes to travel down to her abdomen. He swallowed back a lump of emotion; sentimental feelings congested inside his head with surprising force. He felt an overwhelming urge to go to Visola and just embrace her, but the .45 caliber revolver in her hand was presenting a considerable barrier between them.
“It was too dangerous to let you come with me,” Vachlan said, closing the door behind him. “You know that I only tried to act in the best interests of you and our unborn—”
“Fuck you,” she said calmly. “I swear to Sedna that if you take one more step, I’m putting a bullet in your body.”
“Please try to be reasonable, love.”
“No,” she answered. “You betrayed my trust—which I was a fool to give you in the first place. I’ve done this on my own before, Vachlan. So turn around, and walk out of my life for good. It’s what you seem to want anyway.”
“I can’t. My place is here with you,” he told her, taking a step forward. He did not even have time to blink before he saw her finger clenching down on the trigger, and felt the impact of the bullet ripping through his flesh and muscle. Uncomprehendingly, he lifted his hand to the bleeding bullet hole and felt the warm, moist black liquid in the darkness.
“You shot me,” he said, staring down at his chest in shock. He was immobile for a moment, his lips parting in surprise. “Visola. Why?”
“Because you hurt me,” she answered. “It was killing me. I want you to know what it feels like to be killed by someone you love.”
“I’m not leaving here,” he said with determination, clamping his hand against his chest to put pressure on the wound. “So put that gun down and let me come over there and kiss you.”
“Vachlan, you can’t come any closer to me,” Visola whispered. “You destroy everything you touch, and I won’t let you touch me ever again. Stay away from me and my babies.”
“Babies?” he asked with surprise.
“Get the hell away from here,” Visola hissed, steadying her aim. She felt tears threatening to climb out of her eyes, and an urgency to force Vachlan away before they fell. “I’ll just keep shooting you until you leave. Go.”
“Not until you hear me out, Visola.”
He took another step forward and she gritted her teeth together as she pulled the trigger. “Oh, Sedna,” she whispered, her green eyes opening wide in the dark.
“Wow,” Vachlan said, looking down again. The second bullet had pierced an inch above his hand, where he was putting pressure on the previous bullet hole. He cleared his throat, and wiped a bit of sweat away from his brow before shifting his hand so that he could place pressure on both wounds at the same time. “I must admit that I underestimated how upset you’d be.”
“There are more bullets in this gun,” she warned him in a shaky voice. “It’s a six-shooter.”
“Do you expect me to believe that you intend to shoot all six bullets into your beloved husband?” Vachlan asked with a puzzled smile. “I must call your bluff, dear wife. Stop playing macho games with me, and let’s have a mature conversation—like adults. Like intelligent individuals. Like soon-to-be parents.”
When he took another step forward, he was met with the explosive sound of another bullet. He sighed, trying to take slow, deep, calming breaths. He fought against the blinding pain, struggling to stand upright proudly. Finally, he glanced down at his body, which was already a mess of pain, and looked for the new damage. He was surprised to see its location.
“Did you just shoot me in the arm, Visola? After two strategically placed bullets which didn’t even manage to scrape any vital organs, it’s starting to look like you don’t really want to kill me.” After this confident declaration, he began moving forward again.
“You’re right of course,” she answered, turning the gun on herself. She placed it directly over her own heart, between breasts which were much fuller than normal. “I saved a bit of the apple pie for myself. If you come any closer, I will shoot. You doubted my sincerity once; do you care to challenge me again?”
“No,” Vachlan said quietly, taking a step back. “You win. I’m going. If that’s what you want, and if that’s healthier for you… I’ll go.” He stood helplessly, pressing against his wounds with one hand and looking at her remorsefully in the darkness. “I’m so sorry for everything, Viso. For this, and for before. I love you.”
He turned around to leave and she allowed the gun to fall limply from her hand. She felt the tears begin, and they blurred her vision so much that she did not anticipate Vachlan turning around and diving toward her to knock the gun away from her. Gasping, she reached behind her pillow for
one of her knives, but Vachlan expected this and grabbed her wrist, sweeping the knives away from her grasp.
“Don’t,” he told her softly, lowering his face to hers until their noses touched. “You really think I’m going anywhere?”
The darkness gave his grey eyes a predatory quality, and Visola stared through blurred vision for several seconds. Finally, she jerked her head forward and tried to smash her forehead into his nose. Vachlan anticipated this again, and pulled away to evade her strike. When her head fell back to the pillow, he followed, pressing her lips against hers and kissing her soundly.
Visola found herself instantly responding, and wrapping her arms around his neck. She felt the trickle of his blood dripping between her breasts, and felt slightly guilty for shooting him. Slightly. She did not even notice when she began to wrap her legs around him to lock him against her. Their tongues mingled and wrestled in the ferocity of their kiss, before Vachlan broke their contact so he could rain kisses down her jawbone and neck.
“I’m having twins,” she whispered through her tears, “and you left again.”
“We’re having twins,” he corrected as he nibbled her earlobe. “I realize it was really bad timing, darling, but there was just something I needed to do. The epidemic currently wiping out most of our enemy’s forces wasn’t going to start itself.”
“You didn’t involve me,” Visola said angrily. “I’m supposed to be your partner in crime, your accomplice, your cohort. You took Namaka!”
Vachlan grasped the back of Visola’s leg, pulling it up around his midsection. He growled softly. “I pawned her off to a pirate. She makes excellent collateral. Viso, I knew you were pregnant and I couldn’t risk exposing you to all the—”
She removed her hand from behind his neck and hit him in the face. “Screw you! You lied to me about Zuri. You’re not on my side. You betrayed me.”
“Dammit, woman! I had to. Is it too much to want my pregnant wife to not sneak behind enemy lines with me while I’m facilitating the spread of a lethal disease?”
“Yes. Especially when your pregnant wife is me.”
“I won’t apologize,” he said stubbornly, returning to kissing her neck.
She shoved her index finger into one of his bullet holes, twisting sharply to make him moan in pain. “Is it too much to ask that I am allowed to be a woman and to be myself at the same time?” she said in a forceful whisper.
“Viso,” he groaned out in pain. “Okay, love. You win—I won’t try to manipulate you again. I won’t try to protect you if it means being dishonest and keeping things from you. I was wrong.”
She placed a gentle kiss on his lips. “Thank you,” she murmured. “I hope you won’t do it again, or I will be required to put way more than six bullets in all the worst places, honey. Let me call Sio to fix you up.”
She was already reaching for her cell phone when Vachlan touched the palm of her hand, making her pause. “Wait a minute,” he told her, intertwining their fingers together. “I probably don’t have much more time before I lose consciousness, so we’re going to have to be fast.”
“What?”
“I want to make love to you first.”
“You’re mad,” Visola breathed as she watched him undo his pants. “You’re bleeding from everywhere. We need to get you to the—”
“I just came from a really long and stressful business trip overseas, and I was hoping to spend some quality time with my wife, and maybe say hello to the twins.” Vachlan smirked as he placed his large hand against Visola’s stomach, sending warmth through her abdomen.
She smiled at the unexpected tranquility of the touch; she was suddenly filled with the realization that everything was going to be fine. “Okay, but don’t overexert yourself,” Visola told him softly. She took his belt as he discarded it, and reached up to wrap it around his shoulder to quench the bleeding in his arm. When he helped her to remove her underwear, she reached into the back of his pants where she knew he kept a knife, and quickly fashioned the garment into a makeshift bandage for his arm. Finally, she pressed both of her palms firmly against his chest wounds to maintain the pressure against them. “Quickly,” she told him.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Always for you.”
He tried to shift his focus away from the excruciating pain in his chest so that he could successfully do what he wanted to do so badly. As he positioned his hips between her thighs, he frowned nervously. “Am I going to crush them?” he asked with worry.
Visola giggled. “You’re bleeding from three different bullet holes and you’re concerned about—”
“I’ve never done this before,” Vachlan admitted as he looked at her sheepishly.
“Boned a pregnant woman?” she asked with a smile. “I haven’t done that either.”
“At least there’s still something new we can do together,” he said, as he plunged himself inside of her.
Visola closed her eyes and allowed her head to roll back against the pillow. “Oh, Sedna,” she moaned, rocking her hips upward. “Jesus Christ on a stick!”
“That good?” he asked gruffly.
“I am glad I shot you,” she mumbled as she continued to put pressure on his bullet wounds. “For one thing, you deprived me from this for four months. Are you insane?”
“I think so,” he responded hoarsely. “God, I don’t know how I ever lived without you, Viso.”
“Well, if you leave again, you’ll get shot a whole lot more,” she said between gasps of pleasure. “So think about that next time, and just fucking take me with you.”
“I can’t believe I made you pregnant,” Vachlan said, resting his hand against her stomach again in wonder. He continued to move inside her as he curiously caressed her stomach. “This feels so amazing. It feels so right.”
“Mhm,” Visola said, enjoying the sensations.
“Viso,” he said, suddenly earnest. “I promise you that I will love these babies with all the love I should have given to Alcie, and a hundred times more than that. I don’t want to miss their whole lives again. I’ll protect them, and I’ll protect you.”
She squinted one eye open inquisitively. “That’s sweet—except you’re not going to disappear to protect me anymore, right?”
“I promise that I won’t. But you know, if these twins are anything like you and Sio—I think we’re going to have our hands too full with parenting issues to try and kill each other all the time. It was fun, but we’re going to have to start acting like grown-ups.”
“I can be a grown-up,” Visola said, “but we’re going to fight in this war together, whether I’m pregnant or not, right?”
“Dammit, woman! Fine.” He sighed deeply as he leaned down to kiss her chin. “But there will be no apple pie.”
“I think the loss of blood is making you a bit woozy,” Visola said gently. “How are you even able to stay hard?”
“Adrenaline. Plus, I really want to stay alive for these next couple seconds, so I doubt I’ll die. I usually get what I want,” he said with a grin. “Also, I really, really want to see those bloody, sticky little babies once you pop them out.”
“Ew,” Visola said with a grimace as she continued to press on his chest. Her breaths were coming in short, quick gasps as her head swam with bliss. “Isn’t the pain distracting you from the pleasure?”
“It’s all a state of mind. I’m trying really hard to concentrate on the pleasure, so if you would just be silent for a moment, or perhaps whisper a few filthy words, that would help.”
Visola paused. “I intended to kill you just then.”
“I know.”
“I changed my mind at the last millisecond and adjusted my aim.”
“I noticed that,” Vachlan said, grunting, “but you do realize that I just stood there and let you shoot me? I could have avoided being shot.”
“I know,” Visola echoed.
“I trust you, Visola. I trust you to put a chunk of metal an inch away from my heart. I didn’t m
ove a muscle or even flinch or I would have been killed.” He moved inside of her as forcefully as he could manage in his current state. “Do you see how deeply we know each other? We are two edges of the same blade. I have shown that I trust you, and now you need to trust me as well. I will never forsake you.”
Feeling more blood drip onto her chest she realized that he was bleeding quite heavily, and she began to wonder whether her aim had been as true as she had initially thought. She tried to increase the pressure on his chest, suddenly panicked at the thought of losing him. “I will try to be more trusting,” she promised.
“Good,” he said, kissing her on the lips. As Vachlan finished, his body convulsed slightly. He moved to Visola’s side and collapsed with a groan. She felt a bit surprised that he had not stayed close to her for a few more seconds, but she realized that he had been scared of crushing the babies as he lost consciousness.
“Isn’t that just like a man to roll over and fall asleep!” she joked to no one in particular. Poking her husband in the arm to check if he was conscious, she moved her lips quickly to his ear. “I love you,” she whispered, and wondered if it was the first time she had ever said these words. She did have a reputation to upkeep. Grabbing Vachlan’s phone to call her sister—she saw that he had received several recent text messages from Namaka. She considered reading them, but she believed it was slightly more important to save his life at the moment.
Before the first ring was complete, the door to the bedroom had burst open and Sionna was rushing in with a stretcher and a few other doctors. In shock, Visola began to pull the blankets over herself in a feeble attempt at modesty. She stared in disbelief as her sister quickly went to work, barking orders.
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