Lady Taevyn: Yes, yay for Erik learning to drive and the babies liking each other.
Lethia: You asked about our new unknown young man and called him a punk. Well, the questions may not be answered for quite a while.
Shariena: Only I (and two other people, my beta reader and my sister) know who 'he' is.
MJ MOD: A very interesting idea, that Thomas is hiding Sonata from view in utero because she has their father's deformity…
Artzee: Still waiting for those pictures you drew…And, yes, yay for Drache Dame!! Go check her out (she's listed as one of my fav authors), she wrote a Christmas parody for this story. Erik's Christmas Misadventure.
Adusiriel: I'm glad you find Ember awesome. The sister Ember has been based upon is pleased as well. She has a fan.
Black Hole Phoenix: Photo-copy machine in Erik's head, lol! And yes, kill the new managers if they screw things up at the Opera House.
Sabriel: Yes, new character. He will remain a mystery…until the time is right to reveal his secrets.
Jadesy: It's so flattering that you feel like you did something worthwhile with your time when you read one of my chapters. (blushes)
Der Drache Dame: Our new weird character is not Satan. Good try, but no, not the Prince of Darkness. He wouldn't work in the shadows like that, he'd be a bit more direct when messing with the Opera House.
Nobody of Importance: Wow, I'm glad you find my story to be so good and that it held your attention so long. And I think it's absolutely wonderful that you scared some people laughing at the comic relief I've put in.
I'm sure you all know the spiel by now, I don't own Phantom, fic takes place about twenty years into the present, blah blah blah, REVIEW…
Lenore paced around her room worriedly. It was around eight o'clock in the evening on October 22nd, and the twins would be full term in five days. Erik had gone out to the Opera House, to see the show and harass the junior managers for a bit after the performance. A storm had come up, and rain lashed the glass in the window panes. Wind howled around the house like a vicious monster, and thunder rumbled ominously. It made the twins restless.
Very restless.
Too restless.
"Maybe you should sit down," Tulia suggested timidly.
"I don't think it's going to help," Lenore responded. She checked her watch and muttered angrily. These weren't Braxton Hicks, they were real contractions. And they'd been hurting quite a bit for an hour or so now. "Shit."
"What's wrong? Did I do something to upset you?" Tulia asked worriedly.
"No, I'm having contractions. It's time," Lenore informed the mouse.
"Oh!" the girl squeaked. "We'll need the bag." Tulia hurried over to the wardrobe and pulled out the small bag that Lenore had packed for her hospital stay. "Okay, bag to the car…wait, the car's not here! Master Erik took it to work! What'll we do? The horses! Yes, we'll ride to the hospital…no, you can't ride in your condition. Agh! What do I do?" Tulia promptly dropped the bag and ran out of the room, screaming for help.
Moments later, Veleno appeared in the doorway, dragging a whimpering, trembling Tulia behind him. "Calm yourself, mouse," he instructed. "There is no need for panic. Help your lady into bed. I'll have Gordon contact Madam Johannson and have her inform the Master to return immediately."
Veleno went off to give Gordon his instructions while Tulia squeaked about frightening spiders large enough to eat a poor little mouse and helping Lenore to lie down in bed in a comfortable position. Or as comfortable as Lenore could get anyway.
"Gordon is calling the Opera House as we speak," Veleno assured Lenore from the doorway when he returned. "Is there anything I can get you?"
"No, I think Tulia's managing," Lenore replied. Though that wasn't exactly true. Tulia kept scurrying back and forth, pausing every now and then to look around frantically before resuming her worried scampering.
Veleno muttered something under his voice about mice before taking a step into the room. "Mouse! Pull yourself together or I'll string you up for a midnight snack," he threatened.
Tulia froze in her tracks, a squeak escaping her throat as she stared at him in pure terror. Veleno merely spun a small web sturdy enough to support his weight and perched there, making certain that Tulia would be fully aware that he was present to fulfill his threat should she start to break down into a panic again.
They waited for a few brief moments in silence before Gordon came running into the room. "The phones aren't working, my Lady," Gordon wailed, looking absolutely distraught. "The storm…"
Tulia squeaked, twitching in her desire to begin her frantic scurrying once again, but too intimidated by Veleno to actually do so.
"Send a stable hand out on the fastest horse now," Veleno commanded, taking charge of the situation. "If he rides hard, he can reach the Opera House in an hour and a half. Mouse, we'll need two towels." He paused as the two hurried to do his bidding. "May I approach you?" he asked Lenore, knowing she preferred him to keep his distance.
"I suppose," she granted.
Veleno walked to the bedside and gave her a worried look. "How long have you been having these contractions?"
"I'm not quite sure," Lenore replied, grimacing as a particularly painful one came along. When it passed, she told everything that she thought might be helpful. "I had a back ache this morning that hurt rather badly around three this afternoon, but"-
"Three o'clock? You've been in labor for five hours already, butterfly. And your husband was home at that time, we could've had you to a hospital," Veleno muttered.
"Nonsense," Lenore argued. "Back aches are symptoms that it's coming."
"But you felt contractions shortly after the back ache was at its most painful, did you not?"
"I thought they were Braxton Hicks," Lenore defended herself.
"And we let Erik go off to the Opera House while you're having contractions."
"I didn't want him to worry and rush me to the hospital for Braxton Hicks," Lenore explained. "Not to mention the amount of his fussy overprotectiveness I would have had to deal with. I honestly didn't realize this was the real thing, okay?"
"As you say," Veleno replied, shaking his head. "I'm going to touch you." Without an explanation, Veleno quickly rid her of her pants and underwear, then glanced between her legs. "Almost eight already. Bit unusual, but I've heard exercising during the first trimester can speed this process up."
"Why are"- She cut off as a contraction more painful than the last seized her. When it ended about a minute later, she tried again. "Why are you using a worried tone?"
"Because in two hours, you'll be pushing out the first one. And fifteen minutes after you start pushing, Erik will return. Which means you're having the babies here, the natural way. No pain relievers," Veleno explained sympathetically.
"And keep your hood up," the stable master instructed Leveret. Leveret nodded, his bunny ears flapping. He yanked his hood up to cover his ears and mounted the horse the other stable hands had saddled. The stable master gave the horse a good smack on the rear at the same moment Leveret dug his heels into the horse's sides, and Leveret shot out into the dark, stormy night.
Rain stung his face as he rode, urging the horse to go faster than it was actually capable of. Lightning lit up the earth for a brief moment, showing the twisting trees lining the road and the carpet of dead leaves that were slick with rain. Hopefully the horse didn't slip and break a leg, or Leveret would have to run the rest of the way, and he couldn't run as fast as the horse.
Every moment sped by, and dragged on at the same time. He knew every moment was precious; the faster he got to his Master, the sooner the Lady would be able to receive help. Though he knew he was getting closer to his destination with each passing moment, he felt as if he would never reach the Opera House.
Another flash of lightning revealed the scenery to Leveret's eyes once again, and he barely had time to see the fallen branch before the horse leapt over it. When the horse landed, continuing at it's deadly pace, Leveret slipped, falling off the horse.
A firm grip on the reins was the only thing that spared him from losing the horse, which dragged him a good thirty feet through mud and dead leaves before it slowed, then stopped. Leveret didn't waste time getting to his feet; he sprang onto the horse's back from his horizontal position on the road. There were certain advantages to being a rabbit, after all.
He jerked the hood of his cloak up with one hand while the other kept its death grip on the reins. His heels dug into the horse's flanks and the breakneck ride resumed. Gobs of mud slid around his neck and down his back, having been caught in the hood when he was dragged and now released as his hood was pulled back into its proper place.
When Leveret entered the city of Paris, people shouted curses at him as they dove off the sidewalks to make way for the galloping horse. Police officers began chasing him, demanding that he stop immediately and explain himself, but Leveret urged the horse on faster. He received quite a fright when the horse bolted across the street at a red light; the light was green at that particular moment, and a horde of cars slammed on their breaks, tires squealing as they swerved to avoid a collision.
Finally, the steps of the Paris Opera House were in sight. He began tugging on the reins to slow the horse, but he knew it would not stop until it had passed the stairs. So as the stairs were flying by, Leveret leapt off the horse, landing on the marble stairs with a painful thud.
Pushing himself to his feet, he dashed up the stairs, noting some policemen were still in pursuit. He checked to make sure his hood was still up just before he pushed open the doors, stumbling into the entrance hall and dripping mud and leaves on the white marble. The show had just ended, and people were flooding the area, gasping and exclaiming in surprise when they caught sight of him.
Leveret was only eleven human years old, and covered in mud and dead leaves, so naturally he drew everyone's attention. Staring at the sea of faces, Leveret suddenly realized with terrible fear that he didn't know what this Madam Johannson looked like. How was he to find her in this crowd?
Just then, the door opened behind him and a police officer clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"Let me go!" Leveret screamed, one hand immediately flying up to hold his hood securely in place while he squirmed about. "I have to speak with Madam Johannson!"
A woman in her forties pushed through the crowd, looking over the mud-spattered rabbit with curious eyes. "You heard him; he wants to talk to me," she said to the police officer. "Let go of him."
"But ma'am, this hooligan"- the officer began.
"Did he cause any damages?"
"Well, no, but we almost had an accident at the intersection of"-
"Look, I'll take responsibility for any inconveniences he may have caused, now let the boy go," Madam Johannson snapped. "Clearly this is an urgent matter."
Leveret wrenched his shoulder from the officer's grip, hurrying over to the woman. She instructed the two gentlemen closest to her to handle the crowd as Leveret turned back to the officer and stuck his tongue out at the man. Served the brute right for trying to stop Leveret from delivering his message.
Madam Johannson pushed him towards a hallway and they hurried into a side room. "Who are you and what in the world is this all about?" she inquired when the door was locked behind her.
"I've got a message for Master Erik," Leveret panted, thoroughly exhausted by his ride and glad that his errand was over. He yanked his hood down; it was too hot with it on. "Madam Lenore is having her babies."
"What?" his Master's voice hissed as the man stepped out of the wall. "Why didn't she merely call the Opera House? She should know better than to"-
"The phones were down," Leveret explained, hoping he wouldn't get in trouble for interrupting his Master. "They put me on Westwind and told me to ride as fast as I could." Leveret sneezed, and his ears flapped about wildly.
"Poor bunny," Madam Johannson murmured. "Erik, get going. Pull your hood back up, boy. Don't keep Erik waiting."
"I have to ride Westwind back," Leveret protested. He couldn't leave one of the horses out there in the city.
"You're in no condition to ride. Not in this weather. You'd catch your death," Madam Johannson argued. "But if you insist on riding…We'll find the horse, put it in the stables here, and you'll spend the night at my place before riding back in the morning."
"Leave it, Gordon!" Erik snarled. The dog was chasing him up the stairs, trying to take his cloak and hat. "I'll be going out again in a few minutes."
"But sir," Gordon protested, still struggling to wrench the cloak away from Erik.
Erik merely dragged the House Manager along; he didn't have time to waste arguing with Gordon, who was just doing what he believed his duty was.
The sight in the master bedroom was something to behold. Tulia and Veleno were at the end of the bed, where Lenore lay covered in sweat, her face pale and drawn. Two towels had been tied to the rungs of the headboard and she gripped them with white knuckles.
"Push, woman!" Veleno shouted at her.
"I'm. Trying," Lenore said through gritted teeth.
Tulia squeaked worriedly, more towels in hand. Another mouse was waiting next to a table where a basin of warm water was sitting.
Erik was thoroughly puzzled. Lenore couldn't possibly be that far along yet. Even calculating the amount of time it took Leveret to reach the Opera House and Erik to drive home, they should still have enough time to get to the hospital before things got serious. The first thing Erik managed to say was probably the worst thing a man ever said in a room where a woman was giving birth.
"What do you think you're doing; you can't have the babies until we get to the hospital!"
"The babies aren't going to wait," Veleno responded testily. "She's been in labor since around three o'clock."
"Three? Why didn't you tell me, Lenore? You sent me off to work while you're having my children!" he shouted, storming over to glare at her.
"She thought they were Braxton Hicks," Tulia explained, her voice soft and shy.
"Keep your temper, father," Veleno instructed. "Mommy and the babies need support and encouragement right now. I know you're worried that something's going to go terribly wrong now, but all you can do is leave it to Fate and give your wife encouragement."
Erik realized the blasted demon was entirely right. Losing his temper and panicking that this would be detrimental to his family was not exactly the best way to handle things right now. It didn't matter that they weren't following the plan and sitting in the hospital right now.
Lenore's grip tightened on the towels and her face contorted with pain as she gave another push. Gordon had finally managed to catch up with Erik and was already rushing away with the cloak and hat as Erik stood by the bed and pried Lenore's left hand off the towel she was holding. Her fingers automatically clenched around his hand. Her grip was so tight that her wedding ring cut into his flesh, drawing blood. He would remove the ring when the pain lessened long enough for her to loosen her grasp.
After a few moments, her hand relaxed in his and he quickly slid the ring off her finger. He deposited the ring on the bedside table, then used his free hand to stroke her forehead. "Is there anything I can do?" he inquired of his wife.
"Other than be here two hours ago?" she teased lightly. "Sing to us. I think the first thing the kids should hear is music."
Veleno was quite glad he was used to taking charge in emergencies. (Oh, the countless number of times Raghnall had left something on the burner in his laboratory and Veleno had found the place on fire with the demons Raghnall had been studying in a panic!) He was also pleased that he'd assisted Raghnall when that cow demon had given birth. Granted, it wasn't quite the same with a human, but it was somewhat similar.
And of course, having six hands made this all the easier. With one more push, Lenore's body expelled the first child. Two of his six hands caught the child while a third cut the cord.
"There's your Sonata," Veleno commented as he passed the girl to Tulia to be cleaned off and wrapped up. "One of you mice write down the time."
He immediately turned his attentions back to the woman in labor. Erik's presence seemed to make a difference in how much pain she was experiencing. Which meant she had stopped screaming at Veleno that this hurt too much and she couldn't do it, so just find a knife and cut her open already.
When Lenore had a moment to breathe, she wasted her breath on talking. "Why isn't she crying? Is something wrong with her?" Lenore gasped.
"She's not the one you have to worry about now," Veleno informed her. "Thomas needs your full attention at this moment."
"But"- She cut off as her body decided she needed to start pushing again.
Veleno knew the child was alive when it was in his hands; if it had died in the few moments since, there was nothing to be done about it. The boy still inside her was the most important. Especially since his sister had come out head first; he was going to be feet first. It had to do with the space inside and other such things that Raghnall had seemed entirely fascinated by, and Veleno had ignored the lecture. (He'd been busy trying to keep Raghnall from knocking over that beaker full of acid.)
Veleno saw Erik's eyes keep flitting between his wife and his daughter. He wanted to go check on his daughter, make sure she was alive and well, but he knew he couldn't desert Lenore at this moment.
Twenty minutes later, Lenore was gripping the towel and Erik's hand as if her life depended on it while pushing with every ounce of strength in her body. All that was left was to get Thomas's head out. Releasing an ear-piercing shriek, Lenore accomplished her goal. Veleno deftly snipped the cord with the scissors and passed the boy to Tulia (the other mouse was holding Sonata).
"Why hasn't she cried yet?" Lenore asked, her body relaxing with the exception of her grip on Erik's hand. "And why isn't Thomas crying? What's wrong?"
"I don't know," the mouse holding Sonata replied. "She's awake; she won't stop staring at me."
"Oh God, I thought this was over," Lenore moaned as she felt another contraction.
"Don't worry, this is normal," Veleno informed her as he made a mental note that Thomas had been born on October 23rd, at four minutes after twelve in the morning.
"No, I wanna be done," she whined.
"Just another half hour, butterfly," Veleno responded. It could take that long, but it was very unlikely that it would. Best to prepare her for the worst though.
Erik fidgeted nervously beside her. He wanted to go look at the babies, make sure neither of them had his deformity. He hadn't trusted those ultrasounds; there was a chance that the deformity wouldn't show up on those scans at all. But Lenore wouldn't let go of his hand, so he had to wait until she did.
"Chérie, surely you don't need me now," Erik ventured tentatively. The babies were out and even though Veleno said there was more to do, it couldn't possibly be painful compared to what she'd just been through.
"If I'm not done, you're not done," she responded. "Look, twelve minutes out of thirty have passed. We're almost halfway done. Just be patient. You're not doing any of the work anyway, so I don't know why you're complaining."
Five minutes later, Lenore let out a deep breath. "I think I'm done," she sighed.
"Yes, you are. I know, I know, I said thirty minutes. It usually lasts somewhere between ten and twenty minutes, but it's possible to last for thirty, so I thought I'd best prepare you for thirty, just in case," Veleno said as he headed for the bathroom to clean himself off.
Lenore finally let go of his hand, and just as Erik was about to jump up and rush to his children, Tulia and the other girl were suddenly right beside him, laying Thomas on Lenore's stomach and putting Sonata in his arms. To his relief, both children had perfect faces. If this was the last blessing he ever received throughout eternity, it would be enough.
The twins had inherited his dark hair, judging by the few tiny strands they had on their heads. As Erik tried to compare both of them, seeing if he could figure out whose ears they had and that sort of thing, he noticed an odd little peculiarity. They both stared at him with golden eyes. Stared at him with a consciousness that newborns should not possess. It was as if they knew who he was already, and were trying to memorize his face.
"Where did you two get your eyes?" he asked them softly. At hearing his voice, they both smiled. And then he understood. They had been trying to figure out who he was, but seeing him had not helped them. But he had sung to them (and Lenore) many nights for the last few months whenever Lenore couldn't seem to fall asleep. They now recognized him, and knew to associate his face with his voice.
"What color are the eyes?" Veleno inquired from the bathroom, having heard Erik's comment.
"A sort of golden hue," Erik replied.
"Oh, that's just Satan's mark, kind of his way of showing that he had a hand in it," Veleno informed Erik.
"My babies?" Lenore murmured worriedly, already half asleep. But hearing the name 'Satan' used in a sentence that had to do with her children clearly (and appropriately) concerned her.
"They're fine, chérie," Erik assured her.
"Oh, good. Think I'll get some sleep then," she yawned.
Bishop jumped up onto the bed, Fishy in his mouth. He set his friend down next to Lenore, peering at the little bundle on her stomach. Erik was holding the other kitten, it seemed. Bishop wanted a closer look, so he poked his nose into the small opening on the fur wrapped around the one kitten.
The kitten smelled…different. Not what Bishop had expected it to smell like, anyway. He decided he might scare it if he kept poking around and didn't say anything, so he greeted it with a soft hello.
Both kittens wriggled around until they managed to catch sight of him with golden eyes. It was nice to see that, even if they didn't look like proper kittens (no tails or fur or whiskers), they had proper eye color. He hoped that now they were out, they would start talking back to him. He'd been talking to them for months, but they never responded from inside Lenore.
But it seemed they were not ready to respond yet, for they merely stared at him for a few moments before turning their gazes elsewhere. Perhaps it was too early for them to speak yet. But they'd taken so long to be born, he was sure they'd be able to talk right away.
No matter. Picking up Fishy, he crawled up onto Lenore's stomach and settled next to the male kitten, determined to watch over these new friends who seemed almost as helpless as Fishy was.
"What is it?" Lenore mumbled, dragging herself back from dreams. There was this noise. She couldn't quite figure out what it was, she was so exhausted. All she knew was it sounded like some music she hadn't heard before and it was waking her up.
"I think the twins are hungry," Erik's voice informed her.
Opening her eyes, Lenore found Erik sitting in the bed next to her, cradling both infants in his arms. The babies weren't crying in the actual sense of the word, they were merely making that strange musical noise she had heard. Her breasts began to ache with a desire to hold them close.
Lenore discarded her shirt and took the children, handling them awkwardly for a few moments as she figure out how to feed both of them at once. As they fed, she explained that odd ache that their cry had inflicted upon her.
"They've inherited my ability to manipulate with the voice," Erik guessed. "In some ways, it'll be very helpful; we'll always know exactly what they want."
"So you could kinda tell from their cry that they were hungry?" Lenore asked.
"Just a vague sense of it. It didn't really affect me, because it's not intended to. They know I'm incapable of feeding them, so they focused their manipulation on you, only giving me a vague sense of what they wanted in case you weren't close enough to hear them," Erik explained.
"Oh great, my kids are creepily smart," Lenore muttered.
Ten minutes into the feeding, Sonata pulled away and looked up at Lenore, staring at her with golden eyes.
"Say something to her," Erik suggested.
Lenore looked at the little girl. What do I say to my oddly intelligent newborn daughter? She ended up saying the first thing that came to mind. "You woke me up just for ten minutes? Your brother's still going at it, are you sure you don't want more?"
Sonata merely smiled before snuggling into Lenore's arm and closing her eyes.
"She wanted to connect a face to your voice. But they need to hear you speak while looking at you so that they know they've got the right face with the right voice," Erik said.
"Do newborns usually smile?" Lenore inquired.
"I don't know," Erik shrugged. "We'll have to ask when we take them in for their first appointment."
Erik took Sonata back after a few minutes so that Lenore could shift Thomas into a more comfortable position. That was when Lenore noticed the cradles sitting close to the bed.
"What's the point in a nursery if they're going to sleep in here?" she said, more to herself than to Erik.
"I thought they should be close. Just until they've had their first check up and we know that they're both alright. What if one of them has some sort of disease or something? It's easier to monitor them if they're right here," Erik replied.
"Whatever you say, Erik," Lenore responded. She knew if he wanted them in the room, the babies would be in that room no matter what she said.
Bishop had been sitting at the end of the bed, watching her feed the twins. Now that Sonata was back in her father's arms, though, Bishop walked up to her and rubbed against the side of her that was not occupied by a feeding infant. Purring contentedly, he plopped down between Lenore and Erik, flicking his tail placidly and occasionally glancing at the twins as if to be sure they were alright.
When Erik rose a few moments later to place Sonata in her cradle, Bishop sprung up and followed him, mewing frantically as if he didn't trust Erik not to drop the baby. Erik ignored the cat, gently placing his daughter in her bed and covering her with the adorable blankets Lenore had selected. (The blankets in Sonata's crib were white with pink bunnies and Thomas's were white with blue dinosaurs.) Bishop immediately jumped into the cradle with her, as if he didn't want her to be left alone unsupervised.
"Your cat is obsessed with our children," Erik informed Lenore. "He keeps as close to them as possible. While you were sleeping, I put them in the cradles and he napped with Thomas after leaving his fish with Sonata."
"Erik, you can't let Bishop sleep in the cradle with her, he might accidentally smother her!" Lenore gasped in panic.
"Please, chérie. He's too intelligent for that. And if he wasn't, all it would take would be a simple little rearrangement of a bit of his brain," Erik responded casually.
"Oh…I guess it's okay then," Lenore said, hoping Erik was right.
Thomas finished eating about an hour after he'd started, then gave his mother the same look his sister had. After Lenore commented on how long he'd been eating compared to his sister, he too smiled and settled down for a nap. Erik took him and put him in his cradle.
Bishop's head popped up out of Sonata's cradle, looking at the end of the bed where his fish was sitting. He jumped out long enough to pick up his fish and drop it into Thomas's cradle before returning to Sonata.
"So, is it your turn now?" Lenore teased Erik.
He quirked an eyebrow at her.
"What? Some husbands like the taste of breast milk," Lenore said with a shrug. "Just thought I'd offer. But if you're not interested, I'll just go back to sleep." Erik said nothing, so Lenore snuggled into the mattress and closed her eyes, blissfully returning to sleep.
"You're curious about her," Satan's voice chuckled from the shadows.
Erik glared suspiciously in Satan's direction. It was true; he was curious about Sonata. Dr. Durand had said the girl would be born with a disease called Turner's Syndrome. The woman had explained what a baby born with Turner's would look like, but Sonata seemed perfect. Which defied logic, due to her missing X chromosome.
"I want things to go well for you," Satan said, approaching the cradle and looking in at the girl. "It took a bit of work, but I managed to ensure she'd be born completely healthy. After all, this is the first time an immortal's had children. We wanted them both to be perfect. As perfect as children conceived in sin can be anyway."
"So what you're saying is that my daughter doesn't have Turner's syndrome as she's supposed to?" Erik inquired, standing on the side of Sonata's cradle opposite of Lucifer.
"Naturally," Satan shrugged casually.
"How?" It was all Erik could think of to say. Altering her genetics by adding an X chromosome would change things. She would no longer be Thomas' identical twin if that were the case. Not by medical definition anyway.
"Similar to the way I packaged Lenore for you. Just alter a few things. Although instead of creating imperfections, in Sonata's case I corrected imperfections," Belial informed Erik, reaching into the cradle and stroking the top of Sonata's head affectionately. "She's sweet. But make sure you keep a close eye on her; she'll get her hands into everything."
"Dare I ask why you're telling me this?" Erik sighed.
"Probably not," Satan grinned. "Just make sure you keep things out of her reach…" Moving over to the other cradle, the father of lies peered in on Thomas. "Of course, if you don't really care about Thomas, then you don't have to worry about putting things out of Sonata's reach. I'm not saying it would be intentional, it would be an accident, but…"
"If you have no intention of telling me precisely what you're on about, don't bother trying to give subtle hints," Erik snapped.
"Fine. I recommend you keep your rapier locked away. Otherwise, you'll come home from the Opera House about three years from now to find Sonata locked in her room and Lenore holding Thomas's dead body with your bloody rapier laying a few feet away. Sonata won't mean to kill him; they'll have been playing at being pirates," Satan explained.
Erik immediately walked over to the closet, located his sword, and set it aside to have Gordon lock it up tomorrow morning.
"You know, I fixed Thomas up too," Satan commented. "Since Sonata drops the extra X chromosome, which would have given her Turner's syndrome, Thomas would drop the extra Y, leaving him unable to mature sexually as well. I hope you appreciate all the trouble I'm going to just so you can have normal children."
"Normal?" Erik replied, quirking an eyebrow. "Do you have any idea how normal my children won't be? They'll be considered a medical marvel; I'll have thousands of doctors and scientists begging to study them. Reporters will be constantly requesting interviews and updates on their lives. That's far from normal for any child."
"But at least they'll mature properly," Satan tried to point out.
"Which is exactly the problem. Medically, they're supposed to be incapable of that," Erik snapped, making sure to keep his voice down so as not to wake Lenore. "Not to mention their abnormal eye color, another little 'blessing' you've provided."
"I just wanted to leave a bit of a mark, that's all. A little something from their grandfather," Satan pouted.
"You have no biological relation to these children whatsoever," Erik snarled.
"But if I hadn't stepped in, they wouldn't even exist," Satan responded darkly. "If you can't be properly appreciative of that, I'll take them with me and raise them myself."
"Take them and I will kill you," Erik threatened. It was a very powerful threat, as Erik had managed to remove an archangel's wing when Satan himself had never accomplished such a feat.
"If you won't let me call myself their grandfather, at least grant me uncle. Uncle Arron. After all, we can't use Lucifer. They'd confuse me with Lucas. You know all the immortals will be stopping by within the next few years to meet the kids," Satan said. "And I'm sure they'll all bring gifts. It could be interesting to see what Lucas brings. He was always such a unique individual."
"I would prefer if none of them dropped by," Erik muttered.
"And not see their niece and nephew?" Satan scoffed. "What kind of uncles would they be if they never even saw the twins?"
"The kind I prefer and Lenore loves," Erik replied.
"Well, regardless, they'll all want to meet these little darlings," Satan responded. "I'd best be going. So many mortals to tempt, so little time. I'll drop by again soon." With that, he disappeared.
"So, another chapter up, kids are born. Woo!!" Tammy crowed.
"I really wish you'd stop consuming so much caffeine and sugar," Hiroshi muttered, sitting next to the computer and rubbing his eyes tiredly. Tammy hardly seemed to sleep at all, she was so busy reading all those new Phantom books she'd received for Christmas. And he couldn't possibly sleep with the light on. And of course, he couldn't sleep during the day either, due to Tammy's command that he be awake whenever she was.
"This chapter woulda been up sooner, but my internet wasn't working yesterday," Tammy grumbled, ignoring Hiroshi's words entirely. "And Drache wrote that Christmas thing, which was priceless. I less than three it! I can't wait for Drache to get the prequel online!"
"Do leave reviews," Hiroshi reminded the readers. "More than likely, she'll get your review almost immediately, due to the fact that the woman never wants to sleep."
"I dunno what you're complaining about. It's not like lack of sleep can kill you, you're immortal," Tammy pointed out. "And these new books of mine have good stories in them! I almost cried during part of Deception. And I'm really liking Into the Light."
"Please cease babbling about your books, creampuff, I hear enough about them as it is without you speaking of them in the review reminder."
Tammy leaned over and promptly electrocuted Hiroshi with her shocky spork.