[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
pregnancy.
The shock of being someone's father still hadn't worn off.
Each time Ondrea offered to bring Alex out to him, Alejandro
declined. He clearly wasn't safe to be around. His judgment
was skewed. He'd done the unthinkable. He'd turned against
Deryn when he swore he never would.
Alejandro glanced at the picture of Deryn. She had on a
pair of jeans that were under the tiny swell of belly she had.
Issac touched it. "She hardly looks pregnant at all."
"Yeah, it was hard for Deryn to gain weight. The serum
curbs her appetite and she was left no choice but to unmask
her presence. She couldn't keep taking it and without it, in
mortal form, she would die. That's how we ended up here, far
from others. She can roam around and just be herself."
She reached out and patted Alejandro's leg. "The day after
this picture was taken, Deryn came to me and confessed she
313
Warriors of the Darkness
by Mandy M. Roth
could no longer feel a link with you. She assumed you had
died." Tipping her head back, she did her best to keep from
crying. "She wouldn't eat or drink. She wouldn't come out of
her room. She wanted to die. Nothing I said or did changed
that. It wasn't until Alex started to kick, making his presence
really known to Deryn for the first time in the pregnancy that
she realized she had to get up and keep going for him."
"Who delivered him?" Issac asked.
"Becca, me, Nava, Amador and a couple of the other girls."
Kane rubbed his temples. "Let me get this straight. We've
been gone a year, according to your time, and in that time,
Deryn's become a mom, you now train original slayers, Becca
Wilcox came on board and you've been collecting some of the
lost Avatarian women along the way?"
"That and we went and got Alejandro's grandpa. Deryn
thinks we rescued him from a life of loneliness. Umm, I saw
his harem. The man was hardly lonely."
Alejandro expected Fulk to make a comment about having
a harem. When he didn't, he looked around the room for him.
"Rodriquez?"
"He watches over the child now," a deep voice said from
the doorway.
Glancing up, Alejandro found Amador leaning against the
doorframe, one leg crossed over the other. His gaze was hard
and locked on Alejandro. The man didn't need to tell him how
much he'd fucked up. He knew and he hated himself for it.
Amador let out a slight laugh, sounding less than amused.
"Hating yourself and entertaining leaving your wife and son
for 'their own safety' is not the answer and it is not what my
314
Warriors of the Darkness
by Mandy M. Roth
grandson would do in a situation like this. If I didn't have an
uncanny ability to weed out impostors, I would have assumed
one slipped past. You are letting human emotions cloud your
judgment, Alejandro." He put his hand up to stop the protest
he must have sensed coming. "Before you say it, you are not
human. You were simply raised among them. Do not make
their mistakes. Do not do as I once did give it all up because
you believe it is best for all involved if you just disappear."
Ondrea snorted. "Yeah, having eternity with a harem
looked like hard work."
Amador cast an almost sad look at Ondrea. "One would
think that lifestyle is fit for a god, a king even but...."
Issac shook his head. "It's fine the first few years. You're
almost numb to it all. When you start to feel, you fuck it
away." He looked at the floor. "Only every time you're in one
of them you can't help but think about how much they aren't
the one you love. How they never will be. You think about
your daughter and how she'll never know her father. Never
know how much you loved her and her mother. You think
about how you're still alive and how you should have been
the one to die. That it should have been you home that day.
The sword was meant for you, not her. You think about how
one error in judgment, one bad decision changed it all put
her and your daughter at risk, leaving them dead and you to
forever have to find a way to live with the pain. Soon, the
harem girls no longer help numb the pain. Nothing does. It
never really goes away. You just find a new way to deal with
the pain. A new cause to put your life on the line for."
315
Warriors of the Darkness
by Mandy M. Roth
The room fell silent. Issac's words sunk in and for the first
time in the years he'd known Issac, Alejandro realized that
other than knowing Issac was born a Fae prince, he knew
little about his past. He knew the man was over a hundred
and that he never went home to see his father. He had no
idea he'd been married.
"You mean son," Ondrea said softly. "Alejandro has a son."
"Yes." Issac locked gazes with him. "He does. He was lucky
enough to find them alive, to have his child born healthy and
able to exist outside of his mother. He was lucky enough to
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]