Silence: Part Two of Echoes & Silence (32 page)

“Don’t you dare!” I ordered, but David and his fingers taught me then that my words really have no power at all.

***

With the growing weight of another body inside of me, every time I sat down or stood up it felt like someone had placed a melon in the cup of my pelvic bones. I found myself walking kind of funny sometimes if I wasn’t putting any thought to it, which I knew was called a waddle, but it bothered me because I was probably only
just
twenty-five weeks. Without knowing exactly what date I fell pregnant and because the scan placed the baby’s size at only fifteen weeks—and her development at roughly twenty—it was hard to tell how far along I was. Which meant I had no idea, really, when to expect this baby. Judging from what I’d read in the Mommy Tummy forums before I fled the manor, my belly was about twenty-weeks big. So, not very big. But big enough on my small frame that I
felt
thirty-weeks big.

The bonus was that I could now feel just about everything she did in there: every flip, every stretch and even the little spontaneous jumps that I knew were hiccups. Above all of that, though, my favourite part about having this little belly was that David had developed a new kind of fascination with the living creature inside it. Away from responsibility and away from other people, he finally had a chance to think about the fact that he would one day, very soon, be a dad. It had become a ritual, I suppose, to lay by the fire after dinner—my head in his lap; his hands on my belly—and talk about our hopes and dreams for this little bump. And in all that wonder and hope, some of the fear had faded away for what might become of her, or Jason, if I couldn’t get to Loslilian and get that apple from Lilith in time. I accepted the fact that nothing in this world would stop me from saving her, even if that meant Jason was gone for good.

“What if she comes home one day with a vampire for a boyfriend?” I asked David. “Because if she’s more Lilithian than vampire, she
will
attract vampires, and she will be drawn to them.”

“Well, I suppose if she does come home with a vampire,” he said, winding his fingers through mine, “I’ll just have to rip his head off and—”

“David!” I slapped his knee. “Be nice. I was being serious.”

“And you thought I wasn’t?”

“You wouldn’t really do that,” I stated. “Not if she loved him.”

He groaned so softly I only heard it through his belly, where my head rested. “I think the real problem will come from
who
she brings home; not what.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re the King and Queen of the supernatural world. If there’s a new vampire made, we’ll know about it, because we will most likely have either made him or approved his immortality. And if she ends up with an old one…” He left it hanging, and I knew his mind went down the same road as mine; who would it be? And would we approve? What if it was someone we knew had done awful things?

“What if she comes home with something worse than you?”

“Not possible,” he said simply. “But we can read minds, Ara, so if he’s a cretin, we’ll know.”

“That’s a positive, I guess. But what if he sleeps with her before she’s been made immortal—and then she’s Bound to him?”

David placed his hand firmly on the bare skin under my yellow sweater, tracing a line from my belly button to my jeans. “Right now, all she thinks about in the world is stretching and rolling and kicking. I can’t let my mind go to all the things she’ll think about when she’s older, because it’s just not ready for that, and I know my opinions today will differ greatly when she’s a grown teenager and starts thinking about boys.”

I scoffed, snorting out a little laugh. “We think about boys
long
before we’re teenagers, David.”

“Blocking my ears!” he said, blocking his ears.

I sat up and went to pull his hands down, when a beam of light reflected off the mirror above us, catching our attention. David was at the door, peering through the curtains, before I even realised he was gone.

“It’s okay.” He unlocked the door, visibly relaxing. “It’s your dad.”

My feet tangled in the blankets under me as I leaped up, stumbling a little on my way to the door. “Finally. I wonder what the hell took him so long.”

“Sam locked me away so I couldn’t run off again,” Dad said with a laugh, closing the car door behind him. He looked different in a casual plaid shirt and jeans—dressed as a man, not the vampire.

“Oh. That explains it.” I stepped out onto the porch. “How’s he doing?”

“Not good.” Dad reached the top step quickly and put his arms out to me. “We need to discuss his future.”

I hugged him tight, trying not to make it obvious that I missed him so much and was so worried that I didn’t want to let go. “What do you mean by his future?”

Dad pulled back and gave David a quick, manly hug, before speaking. “I’m worried about him.”

“Well, come inside,” David offered. “I’ve kept the kettle warm on the stove. We can talk over a hot cup of tea.”

Dad’s eyes moved around the room as he walked through the door, darting from the new stove to the dining table and off to the freshly painted sitting area, complete with a new two-seater sofa beside the old dusty chair.

“Amazing what a pair of immortals can do in a week,” he said.

“You can attribute the perfection to my wife,” David said, opening the kitchen cabinet. “I didn’t agree with the olive green at first, but she certainly has an eye for colour.”

“We painted it two tone,” I offered, “Olive green and cream, but I hated it—”

“It looked good,” David said.

“I hated it,” I repeated, “so we went for the wallpaper.”

“The same colours, but now in stripes. I don’t see the difference,” David said.

“That’s because you’re looking at it with man eyes.”

Dad laughed. “It takes the place back to the twenties, I think.” He ran a hand over the wallpaper as he passed the kitchen, and took a seat at our new round, and very sturdy, dining table. “Cosy enough to spend the winter in, I hope?”

“We need to replace the floorboards and the tiles on the roof,” I said, sitting down beside Dad, “but it won’t take long.”

“And the baby?” he asked. “Where will you put a crib?”

David and I exchanged glances. How had neither of us thought of that?

“We’ll get to that once we’re sure we’re staying,” David said, laying three cups and a bowl of sugar on the table. “I have a feeling we’ll be back at the manor by then.”

“Is that so?” Dad said, one eye scrunching up into a cunning smile. “So you did see my vision—the battle at Loslilian?”

“I did.”

Dad nodded then, as if to confirm it to himself.

“Do we win?” I asked. “Can you see the outcome?”

“No.” He took the sugar bowl and scooped a spoonful into his cup as David came over with a hot pot of tea. “But I know that Drake’s men will fight alongside us.”

I grinned at David.

“And Mike will be there,” Dad added.

David nearly dropped the pot as he sat down. “What?”

“I’m not sure why.” Dad shook his head, taking the teapot from David and pouring us all a cup. “All I know is that he’s there.”

“And the boys—Max and Josh?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

That worried me—that something might happen to them and Mike would return. Maybe for vengeance.

“David.” Dad regarded him in a very businesslike manner, contradicting his casual attire with the overgrowth along his jaw and the unusually shaggy hair. “I’m not sure what has happened in the time that I’ve been away, but there is something we must discuss now, before anything else.”

“We know,” David said, sipping his tea casually. “And I’ve already addressed the hypotheticals we once discussed with Ara.”

Dad looked at me. “Then you know that David is not the man you were supposed to be with?”

“Actually, you’re wrong,” I said diplomatically, folding my fingers together on the tabletop. “David’s not the Knight that would bring Anandene into the world, but he is most
definitely
the man I’m supposed to be with.”

“I stand corrected,” Dad said with a soft smile.

David reached across and placed his hand over mine, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“At any rate, you will bear a soulless child, Amara. And we need to plan for that.” Dad’s eyes went to my chest. “Where is your crux?”

“At the manor—where it’s safe,” David said.

“It’s safe on her clavicle,” he demanded. “She needs to wear it at all times.”

“Why?” I snorted. “It’s not like I wore it growing up.”

“You didn’t need it then.”

“And I do now?”

He nodded once. “A Soul Bind lasts the span of roughly twenty years. Much like with the power of a crux, the synthetic connection of a soul to a body fades, weakens over time.”

“And mine’s a synthetic connection?”

“You were not born with that soul. It is linked to you by Nature’s Magic—which, for twenty years, binds with your blood, but after that, the soul must remain near the crux—until the crux magic fades some twenty or so years later.”

“Oh.” I touched my bare clavicle. “And what about after that?”

“After that you must regenerate your crux—bury it and use a Spell to link it to your soul again.”

“That’s possible?” My eyes widened. “Then why didn’t Eve tell me to do that with her crux, I—”

“Different set of rules when dealing with souls that have no body. And another set of rules entirely when bringing a soul from the other side to this—without going through the proper channels. But in your case, you can regenerate your crux. But you must wear it at all times, Amara—”

“Ara,” I reminded him.

“Sorry. Ara,” he corrected himself.

“Why?” I said, adding, “do I have to wear it? What’s the big deal if I don’t—aside from leaving my body when I sleep?”

“The Soul Takers,” he said in a low voice, and my mind instantly made the connection to all the scary stories he used to tell me when I was a child.

I slowly sat back a little and my spine straightened.

“What?” David asked, completely clueless.

“Dad told me stories when I was little—about these creatures that lived in the shadows. They stalked the night, hunting for souls that didn’t belong, and if they found one, they would force it out of its body and take it straight to a place of suffering—where it would be trapped for eternity. Never to be free.” I looked at Dad. “So those weren’t just stories?”

“No, honey. They were a warning—as are most fables.”

“So, the crux hides her from them—from the Soul Takers?” David asked.

“Its power mimics the aura an attached soul radiates,” Dad explained. “In most cases, they cannot recognise her as a detached soul.”

In most cases?
I laid both hands firmly over my belly. If those dark shadows found me here and forced me from my body—permanently—my baby would die. “How long do I have—to get my crux back and get it on?”

“I cannot say.” Dad sighed, the air coming from his nose like a bull. He placed his cup down. “But I would not advise you to wait.”

It was settled then: we needed to win back Loslilian, and we needed to do it quickly. But that meant teaming up with the enemy—Drake. I might trust him, but my people didn’t. How could I win back their trust if I consorted with the man that attacked us just weeks ago? And if I didn’t have their trust, we could win the battle but never the war, to be cliché, and then Walt would sit on the throne for all time. I’d be cast out, the Soul Takers would get me, and my baby would die!

A volcano of hurt and fear and over-tiredness erupted in my chest, coming out like a bullet toward my dad. “This entire mess is your fault, Dad!”

“Ara.” David touched my arm.

“It’s true—he’s the one that moved Lilith’s soul in the first place. Why would you do that, Dad? If you knew the dangers, knew how evil Anandene was, why would you have done it in the first place?”

“It was so long ago now, Ara,” he said calmly, “I sometimes don’t even know the answer to that myself.”

“It would have been for good reason, my love,” David offered gently, as if I was a rabid beast.

“I can tell you, Ara,” Dad said, “that, at first, I did this for the love of my son and of my daughter; this was what they wanted, and what could I do but help them?”

“So you just agreed.” I snapped my fingers. “Here, take my daughter’s soul and bring an evil witch to life with it.”

“It was not that simple, Amara, and do not be so callous.” His voice took on that commanding tone that usually scared me, but this time, it didn’t even give me a shiver. “It took some lengthy conversations and an awful lot of convincing, and there were rules set in place.”

“What rules?”

“For one, the new child, blessed with the soul of my daughter, was to be given a life—a human life, before and after she conceived the babe Anandene. I would not have a life brought into this world only to be taken away at sixteen.”