Dani's POV:
I stood in front of mine and Connor's bedroom mirror, studying the dark circles and crinkles under my eyes. Being three months pregnant and 37 years of age wasn't exactly the most comfortable combination, especially with my complicated history of childbirth. That fact alone did nothing but increase my worries of fading beauty and the recent premonition I had about something that was coming for me.
What a stupid thought! I was basically turning crazy, but I couldn't ignore the nagging voice in my head that insisted I was now out of my prime. Hell, I was now around the same age my own mother was when she was killed…
What if my days here with my family on Earth were numbered? I had been able to evade death multiple times in the past whenever it came for me.
The emotional hormone-driven tears began to sting my eyes as I longed to break down into despair. My hands came up to allow my face to hide in them, safe within my palms.
Then, I felt the warm arms of the man I loved encircle around my waist in a safe embrace. My face flushed and my cheeks heated up as the tears flowed down my face.
"Danielle, what's wrong? Is it the baby? Are ya in pain?" His soft, gruff brogue gently questioned me and I finally turned to see his expression of deep worry, the blue of his eyes alight with scrutiny of my condition.
"Connor…I…I'm not sure that I'll be alive to see this baby. Actually, I don't even know if I have that much longer to live, period." The dark confession spilled out of my mouth as sobs threatened to overwhelm with words. The Irishman's eyes burned with the angriest glare I had ever seen directed at me. My heart began thumping loudly at the sight, sweat beading my forehead.
"Danielle, what the hell are ya talkin' about? Who told ya somethin' like that?" His voice was angry in a quiet way, but there was no mistake that he was going into alpha mode at the thought of me being in harm's way. "Is somebody threatenin' ya?"
"No, no. It's not like that." I did my best to assure him as he led me to sit down on our bed. "I just had a strange dream that God was talking to me. He said that my extended time on Earth was almost expired. I was supposed to die that night when the Roman's men attacked me and kidnapped Izzy and Dee."
"Hey, hey now." Connor's voice was rushed as he tried to keep calm, but failed. The growl in his tone sent a cold shiver down my spine. "Dani, yer one o' the strongest women I've ever known in me life. Anyone can see that. Nothin' is gonna take ya away from me. I swear, I'll do anything to make sure yer never hurt again."
One of his hands stroked my cheek in a gentle and comforting gesture despite the painful determination in his eyes, alternating in between colors of solid ice and blue-hot flames. Without another word, he took me into his arms, protecting me from the inevitable future awaiting me. His legs were spread out so that I was lying between them, his enclosing arms shielding me from the world. I closed my eyes, praying I would wake up in the morning. My face buried itself into my husband's chest, letting me listen to his heartbeat as he kissed the top of my head, inhaling the scent of my brown hair.
"I love ye, Danielle. Ya know that?" He softly asked me, his voice a sound of devoted compassion towards me, as if there was no doubt of how he felt in his heart.
"Yes, I know that, Connor. I love you, too." Opening my eyes again, I reached up to his face, my fingertips feeling the bristly beard growing on his cheeks. My Saint and savior… "More than anything in the world."
"Everythin's gonna be alright. I promise. I'll call fer a doctor first thing tomorrow." The vibration of his voice rumbling in his chest soothed me in a strange way, but I knew the ticking clock of my heart was approaching its end.
"I…I just need to sleep now, Connor." My breathing began to hitch as my eyelids grew heavy again. "Tell Murph and the girls I said good night. The pain will go away once I'm asleep."
My whispers began to fade as I lost the strength to keep my eyes open. Connor's arms held me tighter to him, just enough to not hurt me as I heard him utter a desperate prayer in Latin.
His voice was the last thing I heard before my body completely relaxed and my mind sank down into the depths of blackness, with no chance of resurfacing.
.
.
.
Alternate POV:
The next morning, it was as if the world stood still. There was no sound in the cottage except for those of shouting, cursing, crying and furniture breaking.
Her husband and brother-in-law argued violently over if she could have been saved or not. The brunette brother even dared to blame his twin for killing her by impregnating her again. The fight between them was enough for the girls to stay in the horse stable for the remainder of the day.
The body of Mrs. Danielle Kristina MacManus was diagnosed by autopsy as dying of natural causes as her system was slowly destroying itself after all the suffering she endured throughout the years.
Eighteen year old twins Isabella and Delilah did their best to keep strong for their dear sister, twelve year old Mary-Kate. They all agree that they had never seen their father or uncle so inconsolable. They had lost a mother, wife, sister and a new baby all at once.
Connor and Murphy MacManus had done everything in their power to protect her since they first met her, but they were no match for Fate. For she is a cruel enemy of love…
It was like what Connor had said before: "Why did she always have to pay the price for what we do?"
In the time they had known her, she was the innocent virgin blooming into the sacrificial martyr…
And now she was gone, with no chance of heavenly resurrection.
She was buried in the MacManus plot, with a quiet funeral. Her casket was filled with flowers, wild ones of the Irish origin similar to those from her wedding bouquet.
Before her coffin was to seal her precious body forever, her husband knelt by its side and whispered his final words to his bride. "Thank ye fer everythin', Danielle. Me heart will always be yers. Goodbye, me angel. With me entire soul, I love ya." With that conclusion, he pressed his lips to hers in one last parting kiss, trying to forget for one second that she was dead, cold and lifeless. Never opening her lovely green eyes nor smiling at him ever again…
A sob escaped from his throat as he clutched onto Murphy for physical support. His daughters formed a protective circle around the men as they all cried into a shoulder or chest, any part of their father or uncle they could reach.
The epitaph upon her grave was inscribed with words only too common with women who were gone too soon, with one quote standing out among the ordinary.
Danielle Kristina MacManus
Beloved Wife, Mother and Sister
Born February 10th, 1980
Died May 15th, 2017
"Death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath.
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty."
It was Connor's idea to have the quotation from Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet" carved on his wife's headstone. It was only a symbol of words representing how much he loved and adored her.
In all honesty, where a man's motives were concerned, it always came down to the love of a beautiful and amazing woman, one who was worth the trouble of protecting and killing for.
And if anything, the girls were determined to keep their family together. They stayed with their father for the rest of the evening after Danielle's funeral as the heartbroken Irishman knelt by her graveside, suppressed sobs emerging from his throat as he proceeded to punch the dirt in momentary rage, pissed off at the world. Taking away the woman he loved and their unborn baby was the ultimate middle finger from God directed at all of them…
From the quiet cottage, they could hear Murphy destroy another piece of household items, along with the shattering of a glass bottle thrown in a fit of blind fury and a cry of grief for the sister he lost. The younger brother was coping with Danielle's death in his own way as Mary-Kate went to make sure he didn't hurt himself...
My hand started to hurt from all the writing as the lamp beside me began to flicker. It had now been a whole year since our mother's death.
And it was just me, Delilah and Mary-Kate, fresh from Ireland back to our birth-town of Boston, MA. In the very same flat where Da and Uncle Murphy first met Ma after they found her. Now, it was our turn to make our stamp in the world as the MacManus trio of women. Sure, we would be underestimated since we were merely young women on our own, but I knew we could manage.
Something inside me and my sisters just snapped after Ma's death. We knew continuing the vigilante profession in our family wouldn't bring her back, but Da trusted us enough to allow us to leave behind the reminders of her presence.
I set the pen and journal on my bedside table and clicked off the lamp, submerging my vision in silent darkness. It was hot enough that we resigned to sleeping in only our bras and sleeping shorts. The ink along my back felt slightly itchy as it scratched against the sheets, my body trying to get comfortable.
As soon as we arrived in Boston, we had gotten ourselves discreetly tattooed in homage to our family lineage, each of us painted with our exclusive symbol of protection.
Me, with the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus…
Delilah, a cross set aflame with the rage of God… and our mother's name inked upon the flesh above her heart.
And Mary-Kate, with a glorious pair of angel wings, showing that she was the purest one out of the three of us.
The last letter I had received from Da was somewhat positive. He was doing his best to quit drinking so much since he had almost succumbed to sickness after Ma died. My heart ached knowing he would never really heal from the loss. None of us would…
But, right before I went to sleep, listening to the nearby snores of my sisters, I kept in mind the photograph I always kept in my pocket. It was one of our parents' wedding, of Ma and Da smiling and holding one another like they were each other's everything.
I knew there was no escaping death and it would come for us, but we would do our best to keep God's work alive, for our family and for the innocent people hunted down by the corrupt and irredeemable.
THE END