Tides Of Fate

Chapter Twenty Two

It was a long quiet ride home. My dad drove Ann’s car behind us, we hadn’t told him anything. I was still thinking of a way to tell Ash, imagining all his reactions to the news but one thing I knew for sure was he wouldn’t like it, not one bit.

I stood at the door, gathering as much courage as I possibly could to walk through it. Ann and Maria stood next to me quietly waiting for me to move. I was left with little option but to enter the house when my dad opened the big metal doors wide.

“Lee! I’ve been so worried!” Ash was frantic. I barely made it through the door before he picked me up. I quickly put my folded arms between us to keep my baby bump from touching him.

“You worry too much.” I was happy he wasn’t looking at me directly. I wouldn’t have been able to bear having his loving eyes on me.

“Are you okay?” He placed me down and stared at me. I dropped my eyes and looked at the floor. He put his fingers under my chin and forced my head up. I shut my eyes and refused to look at him.

“You’ve been crying, what’s wrong?” His voice was urgent. I shook my head. I didn’t trust myself to speak.

“I don’t like doing this so please tell me!” He was anxious, but I was too afraid to tell him. He pulled me to him and I quickly placed my folded arms between us again as he held me. “Mi amor, please.”

I bit down a sob. The guilt consumed me. I hid my face in his chest. “I’m fine.”

“Don’t lie to me. Dave what’s wrong with her, what did the doctor say?”

“I don’t know, I wasn’t with her. All I know is that she’s fine, physically. She’s been like that all the way home.”

“Girls, I know you know what’s wrong with her. Tell me.” I could tell Ash was losing his temper. His grip on me was tightening.

“She has to be the one to tell you,” Maria told him.

“Ash, does the venom affect her whole body?” Ann asked him straight her voice serious.

I shook my head at her. “Ann, don’t!” I couldn’t believe it. She knew it would only make Ash more determined to find out.

“What is it, what’s wrong?” His voice was strained and alarmed.

“Ash, please, not right now,” I begged.

“You don’t have to say anything, I’ll read your mind if I have to.”

“Ash, please just give me a minute.” I felt anxious and scared and completely not prepared for the roof to fall on my head.

“I’m not asking you to do anything. Do I have your permission to proceed?”

I pulled away from him. I panicked even more. I couldn’t let him find out, not like that, it would ruin everything.

“No!” I turned and ran to the AA room, closing the double doors behind me.

“Lee!” His booming voice came through the doors. “What is wrong with her?” His voice sounded lower, he had moved away from the door and was really pissed. No one answered him. I was sure Joe and Billy were protecting the girls from his rage.

“Lee, open the door or I’ll break it down!”

“Please don’t!” I begged between sobs.

“Fine, I’ll get the truth from your sisters.”

I felt the alarm rise, fear gripping every inch of me. He could, I couldn’t let him do it. I pulled the doors open and ran out. “Ash, don’t!”

I forcefully rotated him to look at me. His face was pale, his eyes unfocused. He already knew. I staggered to the couch and fell on it, too weak to even cry.

“How could I not see it, the signs were all there…” he whispered to himself. “We need to get it out, now!” Ash yelled. He was livid! The anger in his voice shook the room. The intensity of his words sent a chill right into my bones.

“Why?” My dad was in Ash’s face, annoyed by his reaction.

“It will kill her.” Billy walked to them, leaving Ann behind.

“Not necessarily.” Joe moved to the small circle, calmer than the other two.

I didn’t hear the word pregnant or baby mentioned. My dad didn’t even know and Ash just found out. They must have picked it out of Ash’s mind. I was too busy agonizing about my predicament to notice the silent exchange. My attention was brought back to the sore subject when I caught what they were saying out loud.

They were discussing an abortion as if any of them had a say in the matter. Maria and Ann sat next to me, confused and in disbelief of what was going on.

“What the hell do you mean not necessarily? It killed that woman didn’t it?” Ash’s anger was mounting.

“That was second hand information. None of us know for sure how this works.” Joe kept his cool.

“I don’t care!” Ash had a dangerous glare in his eyes, which made Joe take a step back.

“Besides, that woman was completely human. We are lucky Lee isn’t.”

“Are you telling me that my daughter will be killed by your offspring?”

Ash looked guiltily at Dave. It only made my dad madder.

“I know you weren’t born in this century, but haven’t you ever heard of a rubber tube called a c****m!” 

I felt my face flush hearing my dad lecture Ash on using protection in front of everyone!

“In all my years as this, none of my partners has ever gotten pregnant!”

For some reason, the confirmation of his millions of s*x partners stung my ego.

“So how is it, my daughter is the exception?” My dad’s eyes narrowed. “Unless you did it on purpose?”

“Ripping her throat out would be a more merciful death!” Ash matched my dad’s anger.

My hand shot to my throat at Ash’s words.

Their discussion made sense now; he’d only gotten half the story. But I still couldn’t understand why Ash was so angry and why he believed my being pregnant with his child was a death sentence.

“Will you two please stop. No one should be discussing my s*x life or my pregnancy apart from me and Ash.”

The conversation went on as if I hadn’t spoken.

“She has a chance of surviving it with Ash’s venom in her system.” Billy was a bit calmer now.

“Are you two telling me to risk her life to bring an abomination into the world?” Ash’s coldness was getting to me.

“We don’t know how much her body has change. We don’t even know if her body will allow a cut that deep!” Joe was trying to reason with Ash but it was leading nowhere. For once I was grateful for the changes inside me.

“What do you mean abomination?” I was pissed out of my mind. How dare he call my child an abomination!

“I mean, we don’t know what it could turn out to be!”

“I was hoping our child would be like his father in every way,” I whispered, the words choking me.

He took a step towards me. His face was red and his eyes were slowly changing from brown to silver. Ann and Maria cringed back, but I wasn’t going to back down. I was already used to his temper.

“What about the woman who gave birth to her baby?” I glared at Ash. “That’s the word humans use to refer to the tiny gifts they carry inside them for nine loving, protective months.”

“You won’t see it as gifts when it sucks you dry during its tenancy inside you!” His eyes were completely silver.

“That is also an unconfirmed story,” Joe interjected.

“It’s my body and my child, the decision is mine!” I barked back.

“The decision is ours, and I said no!”

“Is ‘no’ the only word you know?”

“Only when it comes to something insanely dangerous and extremely life threatening to you.”

I folded my arms over my chest and they rested over my bump. “You say no I say yes, the kid is the tie breaker and I’m sure it would want to be born so you’ve been out voted.”

“The two of you, calm down.” Joe pulled Ash back as he spoke to me. “The story is that the babies didn’t survive past their first month outside their mothers’ womb. And those that did Baku made sure to kill them.” He tried to be sensitive to my feelings on the subject.

“What the hell is that guy’s problem? If he is so anti-life why doesn’t he just kill himself?”

“He was afraid of what they could become, as we all are.”

“What do you mean suck her dry?” My dad asked in horror.

“I’m going to say this one more time, unconfirmed story, but it feeds off its mother’s blood. But Lee is different, with the venom inside her and as crazy as it may sound, she is eating right.”

“The venom has made her stronger, but won’t it do the same with that thing?” Billy asked Joe.

“Billy, watch yourself!” I hissed out. The anger was boiling inside me.