Seventeen

 

The last time I had been at the Sisterhood, I had been hooded and unhappy. Returning, I was at least not wearing my hood. Milo squeezed my hand and patted my belly. Ever since the baby had started to show, they’d all been touching the area regularly. I’d thought I would have to cut back on what I did because of the pregnancy. By contrast, I’d never been as powerful as I was now.

I blinked, forcing my power at Milo’s eyes. His blue shade returned, and he grinned at me. I always put their eyes back, and they were forever turning them white. This time I wasn’t being funny. “I don’t want them to know when we walk up. The others won’t understand, and that’s fine, but I suspect Katrina will. I’d rather she had no clue how connected we all are.” I turned to my other four. “You guys as well, please.”

They grumbled but complied. The white showed we were a unit, and for their part, they felt they could connect better to me through our co-joined links when they had the physical manifestation. I could still feel them fine.

“Should you change back, Annie?” Garrett yawned. “Your eyes?”

“Let them see how powerful she is.” Bryce stared out the window. “Let them know. She’s as white-eyed as their most powerful. They should know.”

Daniella, Teagan, and Daniella’s family had stayed behind in the Deadlands. This was my journey, the last time I would visit the place where I grew up. The other Sisters would either want to believe me or they wouldn’t. They had to be given the chance to know.

My last conversation with Teagan haunted me, and I pushed closer to Milo for his warmth. Unlike when I was possessed, I could get warm again. My guys helped.

“When you get back, I won’t remember you.”

I’d turned to stare at Teagan, my thoughts fleeing from the nausea I felt every morning upon waking. “What?”

“When you come back, I won’t remember you. I’ve already spoken to Daniella. She is going to erase my memory. I won’t know I was a Sister. I won’t know I’ve lost the only people I’ll ever love … who I should have protected like you do your guys. Every day … is dark. I can’t go on like this. I’m not brave like you are.”

I took her in my arms. “Teagan, you are plenty brave. Five years you were locked up.”

“The thing about that is that I was so focused on how miserable I was, I didn’t have to think about what happened to them. I could force myself to not imagine their ends.” She wiped tears from her eyes. “It’s all I can focus on now. Or the idea that they never looked for me, went on with their lives. My chosen five. I can’t … I can’t do this. I’m not asking your permission. I know I should. You’re Sister Superior.” I winced at the phrase. “You are, whether you like it or not. Daniella can wipe my memory. You probably could, too. You’d have to figure out how. She can already. When you get back, it’ll already be done. Others will come. You’ll have plenty of Sisters.”

I squeezed her tight. “None of them will be you.”

I’d known she was sad; I hadn’t realized how bad things had gotten for her. I hoped I’d done the right thing. Daniella had been given instructions to follow. She could do as Teagan asked with no objection from me as long as she also gave Teagan an out. Someday, if she so chose, Teagan could bring back her memories and powers. Not a total erasure … just a pause.

Milo ran his finger over my belly. “Don’t think about it.”

They always knew.

 

With my red hair halfway down my back, I stood in the center of the courtyard. Bryant was on my right, Mason on my left, and the other three standing behind me. They were amazingly calm. When it came to battle—and I had no doubt that was what this was—they never flinched, never worried.

Katrina came down the stairs of the Sisterhood. I wasn’t going to give her the chance to interfere with this. I looked for Beth and found her. She’d been forced to live a life that wasn’t for her.

“Listen to me very carefully. You’ve all been lied to. Katrina will continue to lie to you. You’re not going to ever be able to throw off your restraints as long as you stay here and let them tell you falsehoods. I don’t know why this happened. It seems to have to do with money. But we can put a stop to it. There is truth in the world. I can help you. Come to me in the Deadlands. Come to me if you’ve always felt something was wrong.”

Katrina fisted her hands, quite a movement for someone who made so few normally. “None of you are to believe her. This is a woman who’s touched the unclean, who was possessed. She has nothing but disdain for our life and ways. I want her dead.”

Bryant stepped forward. “That’s not going to be happening. Anyone takes a step toward her, and they’ll know the other end of my sword.”

I stepped toward Katrina. “How much money do you make off the backs of the poor? How many people continue to suffer?”

“How many do we save?” She shouted back. “It takes money to save others. Those whom we help come from moneyed homes.”

I shook my head. “It puts you at the mercy of the nobility. You and they, all in bed together, killing the poor. They don’t need our help doing that; the demons are doing that in the Deadlands all by themselves. This is the end of days, and we were put here to help. There is hope. There is a future where it doesn’t all go to hell. One person at a time. One soul to save. Every time we do it, the future continues. Every time we help,” I cried out. I wouldn’t let Katrina’s anger stop me. “You must remember. You were chosen for this, and so were your guards. You know it. They know it. Deep inside. Find who you are. Come to me. You’ll have a place.”

Mason grabbed my arm. “Time to go.”

I wasn’t afraid. Mason had ripped a metal mask off his face because he loved me so much. He’d rip through every person here if he had to. When it came to me, he was as powerful as anyone on the planet. Yet most of the time he stayed gentle. That was one of the million reasons I loved him.

If he was taking me away, he was protecting them as much as anything else.

I let him lead me away. Maybe someone would listen.

Maybe they wouldn’t. I’d done what I could.

“You will live to regret that you’ve done this,” Katrina called after me. I never would. Whatever happened, this had been the right thing to do.

 

* * *

 

Six months later…

 

I woke in our bedroom, my head against Bryant and my legs over Garrett’s. One of them snored lightly. Nine months pregnant I was never comfortable. Next to me, Mason rolled over. Eyeing to my left, I saw Kieran slept on a cot on the other side of the room. I had four of them with me every night. I don’t know why they thought they would miss the birth if they weren’t right on top of me, but I wouldn’t complain. I loved having them here. When they stayed with me, I woke up with energy and the world felt … right.

Milo was on patrol outside with one of Daniella’s husbands. I’d started to think of my guys more in that fashion than as my guards. They were my family. End of story.

Bryant’s eyes flew open. He touched my forehead. “Labor?”

“No.” I kissed him. “Just awake.”

“Need to move?” He was so considerate.

“There was a time when I thought you hated me. I thought you all hated me. I’d come outside, and there you would be. I’d think, wow, they hold me in disdain.”

Bryant blinked rapidly. “So then you don’t need to move?”

I laughed. “Avoidance?”

“I hate thinking there was ever a time when you didn’t know how we loved you. You can feel it now. I can feel your love. But there was this time when I was hurting you several times a week and I had no idea, so, yeah, I’m avoiding it. I’ll take my pain as physical blows instead.”

I kissed him. “I wasn’t saying it to cause discomfort. It was more like an unbelievable feeling that we were once there and now we’re here.”

“Are you two fighting?” Garrett mumbled without opening his eyes. “Fight in the morning.”

Bryant shook his head, the slightest smile on his lips. “I would never fight with Sister Superior.”

I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, Bry.”

“Anytime.”

 

I waddled through the hallways listening to the sounds of work taking place. Teagan walked up to me smiling. “Good morning, Sister.”

“Good morning, Teagan.” She had no idea how we really knew each other, and sometimes that panged my heart. Still, the essential Teagan was still the same. She ran things, believing herself to be the impoverished daughter of nobility who now lived within our walls for safety. She was the reason anything got fixed, built, arranged, or managed. “There’s nobility at our gates.”

I sighed. “I’d rather have heard there were more Sisters at our gates.” So far none had come. Daniella was endlessly optimistic, but I was not so much so. “Okay, I’ll go see them.”

“I’ll find one of yours to take you.”

Once I would have argued I could get to the gate myself. Nine months pregnant, I probably needed the escort, so instead of arguing I waited, leaning against a pillar, trying to appreciate what was from what had been. A pain vibrated through my back, and I rubbed it. That had been happening on and off.

Garrett appeared at my side. “Annie, I hear we have to go talk to the nobility.”

“I hear that, too.”

He linked our hands and walked at my pace toward the front gate. The sun beat down at us, and I reveled in the feeling. There was no such thing as too warm for me. Garrett touched my arm. “I was thinking we might be able to grow things here. I think if we worked at it, this soil wouldn’t be dead.”

Really? Sometimes Garrett shocked me with the things he dwelled on. He’d been thinking about farming? “I think it would be great if you headed that up, made that happen. It would benefit all of us.”

He smiled. “I love how you just … trust me.”

A man and a woman stood on the threshold of our gate. Ned, one of Daniella’s husbands, kept them from entering. He nodded at us and stood back.

“Hello,” the woman spoke. I stared at her; there was something familiar about her, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was.

Garrett looked between us. “Annie, do you remember her?”

So I wasn’t wrong. I should know this woman. “I’m afraid I can’t put my finger on it.”

She touched my arm, and her fingers were warm. “You saved me. On the train, you pulled a demon out of me. I would have died.” Her voice wavered. “You must do this all the time. We’ve never forgotten.”

“The first one you did, Annie. When you woke up and we all went to that room.”

“Oh.” I touched the baby, who pressed on my pelvis, hard. “With the young child. Hello.” I smiled at her. “How can I help you?”

“It’s how I can help you.” Her smile was huge. “I can help you.”

 

“They’re going to fund the whole thing?” Milo did sit ups, and I watched, admiring his abs. I hadn’t really been in the mood for more than cuddling, and no one had tried to do more than kiss and hug. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t admire Milo’s abdominal muscles. Or Kieran’s arms across the room from us as he stretched.

I had to focus. I’d been asked a question. “Um, that’s right. They’re very rich and have very rich friends. They all want to help. No questions asked. I don’t have to figure out how to fund this place, and they don’t want any overseeing rights. I’m not sure how we say no.”

“Don’t say no,” Mason said from the doorway. “There’s someone else to see you.”

They wanted me to walk to the front gate again? I groaned. My feet were swollen. I wanted to sit.

“Tell them she’s done for the day.” Kieran sat down next to me. “She’s pregnant and done. She can’t help anyone tonight.”

Mason shook his head. “She needs to see this woman.”

I rose slowly. If Mason thought I needed to see someone, then I really did. “Who is it?”

“Your mother.”

 

I’d never thought to know my mother. The story of being taken from her hadn’t haunted me. It was true for all Sisters. We left one family for another. I’d never doubted I was where I was supposed to be. Katrina had soured me on them early on. The story of my mother refusing to give me over had been something that embarrassed me.

I rubbed my stomach. What would I do if I had to give up this baby? I hadn’t wanted to be pregnant. When we’d discovered I was, there had been a lot of horror about it. What would we do with a baby? Nine months later, I felt quite differently.

The guys did too. It was possible they were more anxious for me to give birth than I was.

And here was this woman, sitting in the library holding a cup of tea with shaking hands. She wasn’t possessed, yet she didn’t look well. Her hair was grey; wrinkles covered her face. When she looked up at me, I saw my own eyes. This really was my mother.

“Hello.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “How are you tonight?”

She rose slowly. “You look exactly as I would have pictured you. They call you Anne. Your name was Celine, but you’re Sister Anne. The one who is going to change everything. Everyone says you’re kind.” She extended her hand. “And you’re having a baby.”

My water broke, streaming down my leg like warm bath water. I stared down, not sure exactly what was happening.

Kieran ran up next to me. “Apparently she’s having the baby right now.”

“I … I guess I am.”

 

Nine hours later, I held my son and stared up at the sky. The spirits danced around as our new son fed from my breast, latching on for the second time since his birth. I wasn’t even tired, but I was sure it would come. Samuel’s skin was darker than mine. If I had to guess, I’d have said Mason was his father. He looked like Mason to me. We weren’t going to worry about which one of my men was specifically his father.

They were all his father.

A shiver ran through me, and I stared out through the window. There was a darkness coming. A demon. I could feel it. But for now, I had Sam and five guys who would die protecting us. Not that I intended to let them.

As if on cue, they entered the room. Bryant, Mason, Garrett, Kieran, and Milo. We’d been brought together by Divinity, and while we were here, we’d do the best we could, always.

 

 

THE END

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