Chapter 5.
She woke, whether it be mother's intuition or the sound of the bullets crashing through the window, she woke with a jolt. Watching in astonishment as the first bullet splinters through the cot, then another, and another, until the whole thing was lying on the floor in a pile. She sat up and screamed, "Blaise!" again and again, Eric stirred beside her, squinted at the crib, Rosemund and his mother running through the door of their room, one after the other, "Oh my god," Cynthia Ross gulped, tears running down her cheeks as she looked from the window to the crib to the window again, "Blaise…"
"It's okay, it's okay," Eric sat up and held his soulmate, Thea realised there was wetness on her cheeks, but took a little longer to comprehend that they were tears. She felt herself beating at Eric with her fists "it is not okay, our daughter was in that crib."
"No, no she wasn't," he soothed her softly, and she was about to shake him, yelling at him that he was in denial when she remembered, she turned to look over her shoulder at the baby who, surprisingly, wasn't screaming in fear over all the noise, but was looking up at Thea with such a cute expression it made her heart melt.
The night before, Thea had gone to bed early with flu, Blaise had been ill, coughing with her weak little body, and Thea had been worried she might have the same as what she had, so she moved her from the cot to the bed beside her. They had slept for a while until the baby started screaming and Thea had gotten up to look for her pacifier, knowing she must have left it in the cot. That was when Eric had come upstairs to bed.
Neither of them had moved Blaise back to the crib.
Now that she could remember this, Thea calmed a little, until she realised that even though whoever was gunning for her baby hadn't succeeded this time, they were after her baby! Why? It didn't make any sense…
"My god," Eric's mother repeated again, staring at the mess that had been the crib, and then looking back at the bed, staring hard at Blaise, "my god…someone was…why?"
"Who've you peed off lately, Thea? Eric?" Rosemund asked, less emotionally, her voice almost flat.
"We've got to get out of here," Thea hissed, not answering either question, she rolled out of Eric's embrace, still dressed only in her night dress, and picked Blaise from the bed, Rosemund and Mrs. Ross were standing in the doorway, but she ducked under their arms with the baby, running down the stairs. Someone – whoever had been sent to kill Blaise – would be still outside, waiting for them to see if they'd succeeded, Thea couldn't take a completely healthy baby outside; she took a detour to the kitchen. Scoured the cupboards for ketchup, but there was none.
"Oh screw it," she reached for the knife rack, pulled out a butcher's knife. She could hear footsteps thundering down the stairs, gulped, trying to get up the nerve to do what she was planning, then – before she could think about it, sliced the knife down her own biceps. The pain was agony, but nothing compared to the memory of the thought that Blaise was dead.
"What the hell are you doing?" a familiar voice cut in to her thoughts as she smeared her own blood over her baby. The kid screamed, but Thea tried to muffle it by pressing the baby to her chest, she turned. Eric was standing there, staring at her, he wasn't calm either, neither of them could be in this situation, and seeing his girlfriend cut herself to lather the blood over his kid probably scared him. He'd put a shirt on over the jeans he'd ended up wearing for bed, crashing into it exhausted and not bothered enough to change.
"They'll be outside, waiting for us to bring her out. Think about it, Eric – they see a baby with no blood and they're going to come after us, at least this way maybe we'll buy some time."
He nodded, not as though he entirely agreed with her, then nodded with more force, "I'll go get the jeep, we're going to have to take my family with us too."
Thea nodded, but at last second she said "no," she couldn't live with herself if someone outside shot Eric, if he died because she had sent him to get the car, Blaise was crying and Thea handed her to him, "you're better at comforting her, I'll get the jeep."
He was going to argue; she knew he was. The keys were on the kitchen cabinet, and she grabbed them, ducking out of the door before anyone could stop her, running barefoot across to the garage, the keys in hand, her hands shook so hard that the keys wouldn't stay in the hole, but eventually the garage door popped open and she could see the car in the darkness.
Smash! The bullet had been silent, but now the plant pot beside the garage erupted into shards, "damnit," she hissed, annoyed at the idea of having to try and open another door, not just that – but actually drive the thing to the front door. The keys shook, her hand shook, the car was getting there, but – just like the garage – it too opened. She drove it to the front door – leaving the engine running – and flung open it open. Eric was waiting there with Blaise in his arms, his mother and sister behind him, "come on!" she encouraged, she grabbed Rosemund's hand and pulled the girl through into the front seat beside her. Bullets came shooting through the air, but they dodged almost all of them.
Almost all: she saw a bullet puncture the arm of Eric's little sister, another go through Eric's leg. The little girl screamed, Eric just winced and continued to the car, throwing himself too into the backseat, Blaise screaming – giving whoever was after her a pretty good idea that she wasn't dead - Mrs. Ross got the hint and got in after her son. Thea didn't wait for the doors to shut; she tore out of the doorway.
"What the fuck is going on?" Mrs. Ross screamed, mirroring her daughter's screams, "Why aren't any of you surprised? Why the hell are you all this calm?"
Thea had never known Mrs. Ross swear, but then this was a pretty radical situation. She ignored the woman, reached out blindly with one hand to grab Rosemund's arm, "Listen, Roz," the girl was still screaming, swerving down the road with one hand on the wheel, Thea shook her, "ROZ, listen to me! I know it hurtsI know, but hang on…we'll get it out," she knew her soulmate had been shot too, but it was the ten year old she was worried about – Eric was old enough to know to remain calm. She wasn't.
"What is going on?" Mrs. Ross repeated.
Well, Thierry had said that maybe they should break cover to humans, Poppy already had to her family, it was Eric's family's turn now. Or just his mother actually, since his sister knew, Thea shouted as she pushed her foot down harder on the accelerator, not thinking anyone was following her, but not being sure. "Mrs. Ross, you're not going to believe a word of this. But remember that story I told Roz once? The first time we met? About witches and vampires? It wasn't just a story, not something Gran told me, or something I made up: it's history. Our history."
"What are you on about?" Mrs. Ross yelled, "our history?"
"No, not your history, my history. I'm not like you…I'm not human…I'm a witch, a hearth-woman, a daughter of Hellewise. A direct descendent, the Harman's are something like royalty."
"You are insane!" Mrs. Ross cursed, probably wondering how she could have tried to convince Eric to propose to this crazy girl. Thea smiled grimly.
"That's what we want people to think," she went on, "that witches and vampires are some loony's vision. That's not true, my grandmother was a witch, my dead cousin was a witch, my other dead cousin was a vampire…" she trailed off, "James is a vampire, Poppy's a vampire, I'm a witch. There's an organization for us all: The Night World."
"You are crazy!"
"She's not, mom," Eric put a hand on his mother's arm – she could see him through the mirror, he was wincing in pain, trying to keep Blaise on his knee while trying not to faint, he wasn't going to be much help persuading his mother, "hear her out."
"The night world," Thea went on, "hides us, which is why humans don't believe even if we wanted to tell them. There were two laws, don't tell a human about the night world and don't love a human – I broke both of those when I met Eric because of something called the soulmate principal. Everyone is soulmated to one person in the world, but most don't meet. Blaise, my cousin, was a witch version of a man-eater, but she didn't just love 'em and leave 'em, she loved them and drove them insane. I'd already met Eric and had healed him from a rattler bite, I had to touch him to do that, that's when I felt something, I didn't want to die – the laws were punishable by death – so I avoided him, but Blaise wanted him."
There was no need for all of this explanation, not really, but Thea explained anyway, because to be quiet would be to think about this, and she didn't want to do that. Mrs. Ross wasn't declaring her insane anymore, sitting – not calmly – and staring at her.
"I couldn't let that happen, and oh goddess, I'm sorry if I've gotten you all killed for it… I went after Eric instead of Blaise – I thought he'd be safer with me, if I just did a few low-key spells on him, not driving him insane like Blaise would – but the more time I spent with him, the more I fell in love with him. Blaise tried to kill him for a while, I was trying to save him, until the witch circles…well, it's a long story. They found out that we were in love. They would have killed us both, but decided to make us lose our memories instead. Blaise changed the liquid they'd have used to do that for iced tea and we didn't."
"I came home with Eric, that's why – not because Gran couldn't cope – we joined an organization which is anti-night world, pro-humans, they don't care that we're different species', that's why I got stabbed, I'm a healer, I was at a war zone when our friend, Keller: now the Queen of the shape shifters, was kidnapped. I was trying to save Holly. Blaise died then, Ash died then," she paused, gulping back tears, "and Blaise – baby Blaise, our daughter – she might be an old soul, she might be the reincarnation of my cousin. Now, you know just about everything. Why was Blaise targeted? I don't know, maybe because the night world thinks she's a freak. A friend of ours: Jez Redfern is half vampire and half human, they came after her parents and her because of it, but…that should have been impossible, this isn't, so I don't know – to be honest."
"You're insane," Mrs. Ross said, but not with much conviction.
"I wish," Thea said bitterly, "this could be all a dream."
"You said you could heal people – you were a healer, if you were, why are my son and daughter still in pain?"
"Because," Thea gritted her teeth, "I can't heal them until I have my herbs and supplies, and – on top of that – I'm driving."
"Are we going to Galen's or Thierry's?" Eric asked from the back of the jeep, his voice weak with pain.
"Thierry's. It's closer."
"It's also less protected."
"Well, that's a risk we're going to have to take. I know we got away from our house too easy…"
"Easy, you call that easy?" Rosemund interrupted her own crying for a while to stutter out those words.
"We should all be dead. maybe not you and your mom, but me and Eric and Blaise definitely. Compared to that, it was easy, and we're going to have to stay at Thierry's for a while. I need help you both before we go any further."