Hupotasso (Vampire Bachelor Games #2)

67

67

“Twins?” I groan.

Christ, no wonder I’m so huge. I should have suspected. After all, I’m a twin. It runs in the family.

The doctor in the small town we’re visiting, disguises intact, turns from the ultrasound and smiles at me.

“Would you like to know the sex? Or would you two prefer a surprise?”

“I hate surprises,” I mutter as I squeeze Yin’s hand where she stands beside me and send a silent prayer that I’m having boys. I already love the little souls inside me; love them more than I could ever have imagined. Hiding them from the vampires will be difficult, but I’m determined. I’ll risk everything and anything to protect them. But my job will certainly be easier if I don’t also have to worry about them being whisked off as templates. Holding my breath, I nod to the doctor.

“Congratulations, you’re expecting a boy and a girl.”

My tears start instantly.

“Happy tears, I hope,” the doctor frowns. “I’m sure the IVF clinic would have told you that multiple births were a high possibility?”

“Yes,” Yin smiles at the doctor. “We’re just so excited. Might we have a moment?”

“Of course. I’ll print one of these off for you,” the doctor smiles, pointing to the ultrasound image before leaving the room.

The moment she’s gone I give in to my horror.

“Oh, fuck, Yin. Oh, fuck. It’s my worst nightmare. A girl, a fucking girl.”

“Don’t,” she says firmly. “Don’t, Angie. Everything will be fine.”

“How?” I wail, “Best case scenario, Viper dies, and I’m on the run with these kids for the rest of my life, always moving, always hiding. They won’t have a normal childhood, but they will have each other. Still, we’ll always live in fear because Falcon will hunt his heir to the ends of the earth. Worst case, Viper’s still going to control me the moment I give birth. He’s going to demand my return with the babies. He’s going to face-fuck me, my son will become Falcon and my daughter is going to be taken from me and essentially murdered.”

“No,” Yin shakes her head. “Firstly, there will be no more face-fucking. Secondly, think it through. Viper will know you were pregnant because he’s lost his link to you. But he wouldn’t suspect twins. Am I right?”

“Yes, yes, that’s true,” I nod, my eyes still wide. “But if he commanded me to tell him everything about my time on the run, then that would come out. If he commanded me to get her, I would. Yin, you have to save her. You have to keep her, Yin. She can’t be a template. Train her to be a ninja. Hide her, love her…” I trail off as more tears come.

The idea of leaving behind my baby to be raised by someone else while I return to the castle, potentially to my doom, makes me want to shriek.

“That won’t happen, Angie,” Yin says quietly, “I promise. The Free Men haven’t acted in time, so I’ll take out Viper myself. But the worst-case scenario, and I mean very worst,” she adds hastily, “is that I die trying and you need to return for a short time with your son until Viper is destroyed by The Free Men. Afterwards, you reclaim your little girl. I’ll have put her somewhere safe, I assure you.”

I shake my head.

“Viper needs to die before I give birth, Yin. He has to.I can’t bear the thought of losing my daughter, but I know that one way or the other I’ll never see her again if that vampire’s still able to control me.”

She squeezes my hand and looks up as the doctor enters the room with a small black-and-white image of my babies. They’re curled together like two little peanuts in a shell and I instantly think of my brother and the bond we’d shared when we were little, before all the drugs and the outside influences tore us apart.

The idea that I’ll be the one to break the bond my babies share tears me in two.

I wordlessly hand the image to Yin and she grits her teeth and nods as she looks up from studying them and meets my tear-filled eyes.

“Time I paid their uncle a visit,” she murmurs.