Chaos…
The day before they were due to pick Bella up from the airport, Charlie heard from his cousin, Quil IV, that they'd be back later the same day as Bella's arrival. They'd spent a good portion of the summer visiting with Quil's wife's family, so Rhea hadn't really gotten the opportunity to get to know them yet.
Charlie, Billy, and Harry all spent time with Quil, especially as little Quil, his son, was close with Jacob, but they weren't as close to him as they were to each other. He was a little stiff and humorless in comparison to them.
Rhea told Charlie he should invite Quil, his wife, Joy, and little Quil for dinner after they got Bella since Sue, Sarah, Billy, Harry, and all their munchkins were coming over already. A few extra people would be no bother.
Saturday, Charlie went straight from his shift to the airport to pick Bella up, figuring that even if he had to wait an hour or so, it was better than driving all the way home only to turn around and head back.
It was nearly seven when Charlie sent Rhea a message saying that he'd gotten Bella off the plane with no trouble, and they were on their way back. Wanting to make a good impression on the girl, Rhea made sure that all the girls and Embry were up and dressed, though most of them had already done so before she'd gotten to them.
All the kids were really excited to meet Bella. They all loved Charlie, and since she was his daughter, they already loved her by extension. Rhea had more than enough offers to help in the kitchen as she began putting together breakfast for everyone.
"Alright, kids, please go make sure the activity room is in order, because if you want to play with Bella in there later, you don't want her to think you're all a bunch of little piggies, do you?" Rhea prompted them to get them out from underfoot, despite her being proud of the many offers of help she'd gotten. She made a note that she'd have to have a day where all the kids could cook with her soon.
She had timed it perfectly. She had just finished cooking when she heard Charlie's car pull into the drive. She called calmly for the kids and made a final sweep around the kitchen to set the table.
"Woah." Rhea wasn't sure which girl spoke, but many of them were looking intently back and forth between Bella and Cassandra as soon as Charlie shuffled her ahead of him through the door. Rhea had seen photos of Bella, but in person the resemblance between the two girls was remarkable. Not identical, but she definitely could've been another sister. Easily.
"Morning, girls. Embry. This is my daughter, Bella. Bells, I'd like you to meet Rhea, Cass, Phoebe, Selene, Iris, Diana, Kara, Chloe, Aurora, Eris, and Irene. The only other guy here with me is Embry, over there." Charlie pointed at each person as he said their name, and since Rhea waved her hand with a wide smile, the rest followed her example.
"We're glad you're here, Bella. Would you like something to eat? I've got plenty of breakfast on the table and we were just about to sit down." Rhea greeted her warmly and made little shooing motions at the kids, so they would go and sit down themselves. Bella's smile was shy and adorable with her missing front tooth.
"Yes, please." Charlie smiled, pleased with Bella's politeness, then followed her to the table, kissing Rhea sweetly on the cheek as he passed. Once they'd all sat down, Charlie looked over to Rhea who seemed to be vibrating with excitement – or maybe anxiety.
"So, Ree, what are you and the kids going to be doing while I grab a couple hours of shut-eye?" Charlie inquired. They'd already talked about him needing some sleep, even if it wasn't a full eight hours so he wasn't dead on his feet, but could still spend a bit more quality time with Bella her first day there. He hoped she wasn't worrying about it.
"Oh, not much. I thought I'd take them out to play for a while, let them enjoy the outside before it starts raining again. I'll call Tiff to make sure she knows not to knock or ring whenever she comes to get Embry. If it gets too wet, or when they're tired, I'll let them loose in the activity room." Well, she definitely didn't seem bothered by that.
"Okay, kiddos! Can you show Bella to the bathroom so you can all get washed up and then we can head outside to play?" Rhea corralled the kids with such ease, and as soon as they rushed off to the half bath down the hall, chattering away, Rhea turned to Charlie.
"You look so happy now that she's here. I'm glad we'll all get to spend some time with her." Rhea pulled him down for a chaste, gentle kiss before looking him in the eyes. "So, I'm not sure there's a way to word this so it doesn't sound bad even though it's not bad. When the kids are in the activity room later, after you get up, I was hoping we could maybe talk outside for a few minutes.
"It's just some things I want to tell you about. I guess it's possible you might think it's bad, but I don't think it's bad, and I'm really hoping you don't think it's bad, but I won't really know what you think until it's out there and I'm not sure how you're going to-" Charlie cut off her rambling with a deeper kiss.
"Honey, I already told you, it would take an act of God to pull me away from you, and even then I'd go down fighting, kicking, and screaming the whole way. I'm not worried about whatever it is you have to tell me so long as it isn't you asking me to leave you or these kids, because I will fight to keep you, okay? Anything else, we can handle it together.
"I'm going to go grab a few hours now, and you're going to go have fun with those adorable monsters of ours and don't stress yourself out. When I get up, we'll talk and you'll see you have nothing to worry about." He was pretty confident that she didn't want him gone, which only left whatever she'd been keeping from him, and he was determined to show her that nothing she could tell him would drive him away.
Rhea took a few deep breaths after she watched Charlie head up the stairs before she was steady enough to put a smile on and go out to have fun with the kids. They were all cleaned up and waiting patiently for her by the back door when she got there. She laughed happily.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get the fun started!" She ushered them out the door and let all the kids drag Bella back and forth across the yard, showing her their favorite things, or the coolest plants. Rhea made a quick call to Tiffany to let her know just to come straight back when she got there. She had come to get Embry around ten, and Rhea was sad to see him go, as always.
Rhea typically watched all the kids from a slight distance, so she could see them all at once, but would laugh and play with them when they were all playing together. She always had to keep an eye out, because Cass was extremely accident-prone. It wasn't exactly that she was clumsy, because she was plenty coordinated. It was simply that she tended to drift off into her own mind and not pay attention to the world around her sometimes.
"Don't wanna!" A shout from Eris drew her attention, and Rhea rushed to settle whatever small dispute Eris and Irene were in before the earth started to shake or the pipes burst in the house. It only took a few minutes to soothe the young girls, but it was just enough time.
Rhea turned back just in time to see the accident coming, but not nearly enough time to stop it. It seemed to be going in slow-motion as she watched. Cass was humming and dancing across the yard, but Rhea could see the vacant look in her eyes from thirty feet away. She was already inside Phoebe's personal space and it took maybe half a second before her hip hit wrong and Phoebe went flying forward.
Diana was standing talking to Phoebe, and was thrown backwards as Phoebe crashed into her. The two went down in a tangle of limbs, Diana's head being thrown to the side much too close to the rocks in the garden. Rhea couldn't tell if she'd hit any of them. Phoebe had put her hands out to catch herself, but one hand had caught Diana in the side, and the other seemed to skid across the ground as they landed.
Then, it got worse. Cass had been trying to stay upright and not fall herself after the collision, but Rhea and Diana saw at the same time when her balance gave out and she began to fall – directly towards the two girls. Diana pushed Phoebe and rolled with her out of the way as Cass fell, saving both girls from getting squashed, and allowing Cass to catch herself with her elbows on the grass.
"Oh, Di, you scratched your face." Rhea heard Phoebe say as she rushed over, the littler girl's hand coming up to touch the cut. There was a gasp and Phoebe crying as she said "I'm sorry, Di. I'm sorry. I got more blood on you." It took Rhea all of three seconds to realize what had happened.
Phoebe, in her concern for her friend, hadn't realized that she'd lifted her hand that had hit the ground to touch Diana's cut, and she'd had a cut of her own that had smeared some extra blood on the older girl's face.
"Hey, kids, time to go inside. I'm going to get these three cleaned up, and the rest of you can take Bella to the activity room and show her all the cool stuff you've got. Don't worry, everything's perfectly okay." She helped the three girls up and they all walked ahead of her into the house, most of them heading off to the activity room, but Cass, Phoebe, and Diana coming with her to the bathroom.
"Let's see the damage." She inspected Cass first, because if she wasn't hurt, she could just pop out with the other kids. Rhea determined that she had a few grass stains on her arms, but had somehow managed to escape without damage that time, so she sent her out.
Diana had smeared blood on her face, both from her own cut on her cheekbone, with Phoebe's blood from her hand mixed in. She checked both girls thoroughly, and it seemed those were the only injuries they had, which she was grateful for. She cleaned up the blood with a washcloth before turning to Diana.
"Hey, Di, remember when I said I understood being a little different?" The girl clearly sensed something big was happening. Her eyes got wide as she nodded. "I'm gonna do my magic mommy kisses for you guys, but you can't tell anyone. Can you promise?"
"I promise." Diana said solemnly. Rhea wanted to show Diana before she did it to her, so she reached for Phoebe's hand and kissed her cut away, showing Diana that it wasn't there anymore before slowly reaching her head down to Diana's face.
When Diana didn't look afraid or nervous, Rhea quickly kissed her better, too. Thankfully, the kids were mostly not cognizant enough to question missing cuts and things yet, but eventually she'd have to explain it to all of them. Breathing a sigh of relief that it hadn't been worse, she followed them to the activity room to see how the rest of them were getting on.
It was just after noon when Charlie came down. Rhea frowned a little, because there was no way he had gotten enough sleep, but she supposed he could catch up on more a little later. The kids had just finished their lunch.
"Do you want something to eat? I could make you up a plate real quick." Rhea asked Charlie.
"Nah. Not just yet. I'll grab myself something after your talk." He was a bit eager to show her that she had nothing to worry about when it came to him. He helped clean up the kids while Rhea managed the dishes, so it was only a few minutes before they were able to wander outside. They were still within hearing distance if the kids yelled, but not so close that little ears might overhear something they shouldn't.
Rhea sat down on one of the wooden benches, so Charlie followed suit, grabbing her hands as they fiddled nervously with the bottom of her shirt. She looked up to him, fear clear in her eyes, but also a fire that had drawn him to her in the first place.
"Okay." She took a deep breath in. "So, the easy part first. Things have been going really well with us. I mean, it's fast, but I just feel like I've known you forever. I know we talked about what you're doing with your job, and I don't know if it will make things more complicated for you, but I really like having you here, and you're here all the time anyways, and I was just thinking-"
"I'd love to move in here, if that's what you're asking, Ree." Charlie cut off her rambling again, pretty confident he knew where she was headed. "Some people might think it's fast, but it feels right to us, and that's all that matters. As far as work, I don't mind the extra few minutes driving if it means I get to go to bed with you and wake up to you in the morning – well on my normal shift anyways." He chuckled.
"What else have you got for me?" He challenged her playfully, knowing that might make it easier for her to talk. She tried to breathe through the anxiety again, and she'd opened her mouth to start, but before she could, a shrill scream came from inside the house.
"NO! REE! CHARLIE!" It was Cass's voice, and they both shot to their feet, but before they could move, five small bodies flew out the door. Rhea had enough time to process that it was Selene, Diana, Phoebe, Eris, and Irene that had come running outside before Phoebe let out her own shriek. From the corner of her eye, Rhea saw a pale blur and heard a thud and a grunt. Charlie was gone.
"Charlie!" Rhea tried to grab Diana as she raced out into the yard but missed her by a hair. Her eyes followed as she willed her legs to run – walk, move, anything – after her. She could now see Charlie lying on the ground, not moving. She nearly fell to her knees.
The pale thing standing above him looked human except for the glowing, crimson eyes and the unnatural white hue of its skin. Her brain provided its name for her. Vampire. It laughed at Diana as she ran towards Charlie's body.
"Foolish girl. You'll be an excellent appetizer." Before it could take a step, yet another voice came from behind Rhea. It was still full of fear, but stronger than the others.
"No!" Phoebe was ignored by the creature as it blurred forwards towards Diana, only to crash into something that couldn't be seen with a sound like cannon fire. Rhea flashed wide eyes back at her sister. How was it possible? She'd never done it for anyone outside the family before.
"What is this witchery?!" The vampire was becoming agitated as it hit and scratched at the invisible wall between him and his prey. Suddenly, he stopped moving altogether, as though he was frozen. Rhea was looking around, desperately trying to figure out what was going on.
Selene was now glaring at the creature, and her hair was beginning to look like she'd been shocked. Her eyes were glowing a little. Beside her Eris and Irene grasped each other's hands and they wailed. It was the kind of wailing that terrified Rhea with those two. The earth shook beneath their feet and the sky got dark as the clouds thickened above them.
Normally, she would comfort them and try to calm them, but in this situation she was lost. She had no words of comfort, no plan, no solution but to pray. So she did. She prayed to the spirits that they all made it out of this safely. Irene let out a rough sob and pointed at the still frozen vampire.
"Bad!" Lightning lit up the yard as it struck the creature, setting fire to the dead leaves all around him. Its clothes were charred, and it's skin looked burnt and cracked, but it was still standing, it's mouth open mid-yell. As the earth quaked harder, Diana ran – back to the porch.
"Irene, honey, can you put fire on my arrow?" Diana's voice was both commanding and soft as she stood in front of the other girls with her bow drawn. Irene, for the first time ever, intentionally moved fire from the ground to Diana's arrow. The second it was lit, Diana let it fly – directly into the monster's open mouth, igniting it's venomous saliva and whatever liquid was leaking from the cracks in its face, sending it up in flames as quickly as a dry pile of tinder.
Rhea ran to Charlie, who was still unmoving on the ground, as the shrieking creature crumbled to ash. There was blood pooling from a bite on his throat. It was a lot of blood, but he was still breathing. Rhea cried as she bent to put her mouth to his wound. She could feel the tingling, but it wasn't closing. It had to be the venom.
She sucked as hard as she could, nearly gagging at the taste of rotten fruit, but she pulled a second and a third time, until the taste was not so bad and kissed it again. That time, she could feel it working, could feel the life and vitality coming back to him, could feel the skin knitting closed beneath her lips. She sobbed, but kept her lips pressed to him, held on even as the edges of her vision began to go black, as the strength went out of her arms and legs and she was laying on him because she couldn't hold herself up anymore. She kept contact until the whole world faded away and was gone.
Voices. There were so many voices whispering. It was so quiet and she wished that she could hear what they were saying. Why couldn't she hear them? She tried to open her eyes, but they were too heavy. So heavy. She tried to open her mouth, to tell them to speak up, but that wouldn't work, either.
She couldn't move anything. She couldn't really feel anything, either. It was like being under a dark, heavy blanket, pressed in on all sides. Was she still alive? Had she died? She was too tired to think, too tired for anything. The whispers faded away with the rest of the world again.
When she was aware again, she could feel something new. Pressure. On her hand. Oh! Someone was holding her hand. There was whispering again, but this time it was closer. She could hear a little.
"Wake… please." She tried again to open her eyes, to speak, to squeeze the hand holding hers, but all for nothing. She listened to the whispers a little while longer and was gone once more.
"Ungh." The tiniest noise came from the woman on the bed. It wouldn't have been heard if he hadn't been so close, been paying such close attention. It was the most wonderful sound Charlie had ever heard in his life.
"Ree, honey? Are you awake? Open your eyes for me, honey. Please." He had been begging for days, for just one sign that she was going to be okay, that she was going to wake up. The doctors had said her brain function was fine, but she just wouldn't wake up. They had no idea what was wrong or how to fix it.
"Please come back to me, honey. I need you. The kids need you. Please." His voice was thick with tears, and he gasped when he saw a single tear roll out of Rhea's closed eye down the side of her face. Her finger twitched in his hand. It wasn't much, but he'd never been so excited.
"Nurse! I think she's waking up!" He yelled out. He needed a medical professional in there immediately to make sure she woke all the way up, and stayed that way. A nurse rushed in and checked her eyes, checked her response to stimuli. Charlie watched as her eyes moved, her limbs twitched. The nurse beamed at him.
"I'll get the doctor. I don't want to make you any promises, but it seems like she's out of the woods. She just needs to find the strength to open her eyes. Keep talking to her." The woman rushed out.
"Ree, honey, can you hear me? You've been out for a long time, and we need you to come back to us now. You just have to open your eyes. We have a talk to finish, although I should probably tell you that the kids were saying some crazy things when I woke up, and Sarah has filled me in a lot, so I might know everything you wanted to tell me.
"I want you to know that none of it makes any difference to me. I still love you. I still want to be with you, to move in and raise our entire hoard of kids with you. I can't do it without you. I always did say you were magic, didn't I? Just didn't know it was quite so literal when I said it." Slowly, her lashes fluttered, her lids cracked, then a little more until her eyes were wide and looking right at him. He'd never seen anything more beautiful in his life. He let out a little sob and hugged her as gently as he was able.
"Charlie? What happened?" Her voice was raspy and dry from disuse.
"There's time for that later, honey. I just want to make sure you're okay before anything else. You've been out for nearly three weeks." Panic set in.
"Three weeks! What about the kids? Bella? School?" Rhea was becoming hysterical. How could she have failed so badly?
"Shh, honey. It's covered. Bella had so much fun with your girls, she barely missed her old man, but I made some time to see her even though I had to tear myself away from your bedside for a few hours. Sarah came to sit with you while I was gone, and she's basically moved her kids in until you're better so she can keep an eye on ours, too. Sue has been by helping out when she can.
"Harry and Billy are by all the time, too. There've been others dropping food by to take some of the stress of Sarah. All the parents that brought their kids by for activity days seem to want to help. Even Allison Uley has been pitching in."
Charlie didn't want to tell her that Allison was probably just trying to distract herself from the fact that her flake of a husband had been off drinking every night again. Charlie honestly thought it was probably the best thing for both of them if he just disappeared for good.
"I'm going to step out for just a sec to grab the nurse and let them know you're awake. Someone can come in and check you out. The doctor said there wasn't anything physically wrong with you, so once you were awake, if everything was clear, you'd be able to go home." Rhea let out a sigh of relief. She couldn't imagine being away from the girls any longer. She was sure that Sarah and everyone were taking great care of them, but she didn't ever want them to think that she had abandoned them.
Charlie came back in, and it wasn't long before the nurse popped in, carting fun machines and followed closely by a man that introduced himself as Doctor Thomas. The nurse notated her vitals while Doctor Thomas went through a list of situational awareness questions to make sure that Rhea didn't have any memory problems or brain trauma. They also checked her strength, reflexes, and such to see that there wasn't any previously unnoticed nerve damage.
"Well, Ms. Daniels, it seems as though everything is in order. I'd like to say I want to keep you overnight while you're conscious just to be sure, but I'm sure that your family has been missing you long enough, and Officer Swan here has assured me that he will be keeping a particularly close eye on you for the next few days. If anything feels abnormal, or you experience any pain, dizziness, or nausea that lasts more than a few minutes, I'd like you to come back in. Deal?" He smiled charmingly at them.
"I think I can agree to that." She let out a small chuckle.
"Great. I'll just have someone bring in the paperwork for you to sign, and you'll be good to go. I hope I don't have to see you in here for quite some time, Ms. Daniels." Rhea sighed when she and Charlie were once again alone.
"Charlie-" He quickly interrupted her.
"Honey, I know you're going to want to talk, but it can wait. I'm not going anywhere except home with you. It's already late, so by the time we get back it'll be about time to tuck in all our little angels and reassure them that you're okay, and then we'll have all the time we need for you to fill in the blanks.
"I mean it when I say I don't want you to stress about it, though. I know enough to be able to tell you that unless you changed your mind about me, nothing you can say will send me running, okay?" She teared up a bit at the surety of his tone, but nodded. He smiled broadly at her before leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.
"Alright! I've got all your discharge papers here. All we need is your John Hancock and we can get you on your way!" The cheery nurse from before startled them as she bounced in. Rhea wasted no time at all signing everything she was handed and before she knew it, she was being wheeled out of the hospital to Charlie's waiting car. She had protested the wheelchair, but they had told her it was hospital policy.
"Finally home." Charlie squeezed Rhea's hand that he'd been holding the whole ride home, jolting her out of the daze she'd been in. She was still having trouble believing that she'd been out for so long. It was surreal, and she just wanted to hop right back in where she'd left off, but she knew at least some of the girls were going to need reassurance after her absence.
Charlie ran around the car to help her stand on her slightly wobbly legs. Apparently, three weeks of lying in a bed had made her just a bit unsteady on her feet, but she felt her strength returning with each step. The door flung open before they had even reached it, and Sarah threw both arms out and dragged Rhea to her in a back-breaking, emotional hug.
"Oh, thank the Gods you're okay! We've all been out of our minds with worry. All the kids have been doing so well and being so strong for each other and that just made me want to cry all the time even more. Don't you ever scare me like that again, Rhea Lee Daniels!" Sarah dry sobbed and let her go, Charlie's hands on her waist still keeping her steady.
"I'm sorry I scared you, Sarah. I promise, that was not my intention at all. I guess we know the answer to what happens if the injury is bad now. I can't promise I won't do it again, but let's hope I never need to, okay?" They hugged one more time, Rhea more able to participate this time, before Sarah moved inside, practically dragging Rhea and Charlie in behind her.
"The kids are all upstairs. I figured them all rushing you at once would be a bit much, and they were all really understanding. They've had dinner and been washed up, and they were all in your room, hoping that you'd be up to reading them a story. I don't think they'll be too upset if Charlie has to do the reading, so long as you're actually there with them. I sent mine home with Billy earlier, so I'm going to be headed out, but you let me know if you need anything Ree, alright?"
"Thank you for everything, Sarah. I don't know what we'd have done without you. I promise I'll let you know if I need any help." Rhea wrapped her arms tightly around her friend and teared up again at how lucky she was to have people like Sarah and Charlie, Sofie, Billy, and Harry in her life.
Sarah ran out before they could get too emotional, and Rhea appreciated it. Her kids were waiting for her. She met Charlie's eyes, and he smiled, holding onto her as she basically ran up the stairs to their room. Her hand flew to her mouth at the beautiful sight before her. All of the kids, including Embry, were cuddling together around her and Charlie's giant bed, with enough space for the two of them in the middle. Cass was sitting beside where Rhea normally sat, holding a book with a hopeful expression on her face.
"We're so glad you're home, Ree. We all missed you so much. Sarah is great, really, but it wasn't the same without you here." Rhea climbed into the bed and was tackled by a pile of smiling, crying, happy, emotional children. She cried and laughed with them, hugging as many as she could fit in her arms at a time before grabbing onto more of them.
"Alright, kids, let's give Ree a little breathing room. She can't read if she can't see the book, right?" Charlie, the voice of reason, had climbed into the bed beside her and pulled little Kara and Diana into his lap.
Rhea was moved to tears once again as she read a story about a child whose father had gone on a long journey. The child desperately missed her father, but her mother told her every night to look out at the stars over the ocean, because the girl's father might be far away, but he would be looking at those same stars to find his way home, and just like the moon and stars moved towards them over the water each night, so would her father be coming closer to home.
The mother told the girl this night after night until the night that her father snuck up behind her to finish the telling, surprising the little girl with his return. It was so similar to how her kids must have been feeling while she was gone, that her voice was tight with the tears she held in as she read. When the story was over, few of them were left awake. Rhea ran her hand over Kara's hair.
"Love you, Mama." The little girl whispered sleepily, and Rhea couldn't hold the tears in anymore. They ran silently down her face as she kissed the small girl on the forehead and pulled Diana in for her own.
"I'm going to put all the kids to bed tonight. I know your legs aren't quite steady yet. Get all your kisses in here." Charlie whispered to her, keeping Kara in his arms as he stood, and holding tightly to Diana's hand as he shuffled them to their rooms.
Rhea did as he'd suggested, kissing and cuddling each sleeping or sleepy child, wishing she had arms large enough to simply hold them all at once. She had never imagined that any of the girls would want to call her mom. She had already decided that she would never discourage it, though, if it was what they wanted. She was honored.
One or two at a time, the kids disappeared from her bed as Charlie made trip after trip, never complaining, never tiring. Rhea once again marveled at the luck her life was made of. Eventually, there were no more trips to make and he stripped off everything but his shorts before climbing into bed and wrapping himself around her.
"Just let me hold you for a minute. Three weeks I've spent not sure if I'd ever get to hold you again." Rhea melted into him until they were nearly as close as two people could be without defying the laws of physics. "Okay, honey. I'm ready to listen, but I'm just gonna stay like this while we talk." Charlie announced after a while.
"Uh, well…" Rhea was at a loss how to start. She didn't know how much he already knew, and there was some new things thrown into the conversation that she hadn't planned to talk about yet before the attack. She braced herself and just decided to say everything, and he could let her know if there was anything missing.
"Before everything happened, I wanted to tell you that the girls and me are – different. You've used the word magical before. I usually say gifted. The girls call my gift magic mommy kisses. Most moms pretend their kisses can make cuts and bumps all better. Mine actually can. I don't know why, but it's always been that way.
"Sarah and I had actually talked about what might happen if what I was healing was worse than a cut or bruise. I had really hoped to never need an answer to that question, but I have one now. I thought you were going to die, Charlie, and I didn't even think – I couldn't lose you." He squeezed her tighter as she cried and shook against him.
"Shh, honey. You're not going to lose me. I know you didn't know what would happen, but you can't risk yourself like that again. Not for me. I couldn't live with that."
"I can't promise that, Charlie. I could say I won't, but if you were dying in front of me, I can't promise I wouldn't do anything I could to save you. I love you." She whispered the last.
"I love you, too. So much, honey, and I don't ever want to leave you, but if it's a choice between you and me, I need you to choose you. Not just for me, but for the kids. They need you. Promise me at least that you'll think about them before you make any rash decisions, okay?" Her fingers dug into his back, her mind rebelling at his words even as she knew that he was right.
"I don't – I can't –" She sobbed. "Okay. I promise to think." The words were ripped unwillingly from her mouth.
"Thank you, honey. I know that was hard. Can you tell me what happened after that, uh, Sarah said it was a vampire, came into the yard?" Rhea cringed internally.
"Yeah, she was right. It was a vampire. Cass saw it, screamed, and collapsed. Some of the girls came running out to the yard. Selene, Diana, Phoebe, Eris, and Irene." She paused. "What do you remember about what happened?" Charlie sighed.
"Not much. I remember seeing what I thought was a person, and hearing Cass scream. I saw the girls, and then I felt like I'd been hit by a wrecking ball. Everything hurt, the world went dark, and I felt like all the air was being sucked out of me slowly, like a vacuum. It was like I could hear my heart slowing down, my lungs seizing up.
"That lasted forever, and then my neck felt warm, like being cuddled up with you in bed, and the feeling spread until I didn't hurt anymore. When I came to, you were laying on me, unconscious and all the kids were in the yard crying their eyes out. I'm not proud to say I panicked. I shook you pretty hard trying to wake you up before my senses came back and I called an ambulance. Then Sarah.
"The kids were inconsolable, and they kept saying things that sounded crazy, but not any crazier than what I thought I'd seen and felt. Thankfully, Sarah got there before the ambulance and had them all in the house, telling her what happened when they came to get you. I got bits and pieces of it after that. So the wrecking ball was the vampire? How? It was all the way across the yard."
"Vampires are strong. And fast. They can move so fast you can't even see them when they want to. They're more solid than us, too, like marble. Their bite is venomous, like a virus it spreads, infecting anyone left even a little alive after being bitten." Charlie gasped.
"Is that why it was so bad for you? That thing bit me, and I really was going to die, but not just die, was I? I was going to be one of those monsters." Her hands turned soothing, rubbing his back, trying to calm down the frightened shaking that her revelation had brought on.
"I would never have let that happen. Even without my gift, I had started to suck the venom out, like a snake bite. If I hadn't had the gift, though, you would have bled to death."
"How did any of us make it out of that? I know the girls said some things, but what they were saying didn't make much sense. Help me out, Ree. I don't understand."
"They're all gifted, Charlie. My sisters and I, and all the girls I took in. I took them in specifically because they needed someone who could understand what they were going through and help them. Those girls saved all of us." Charlie didn't let go of her, but he pulled back enough to look at her.
"You are remarkable. I don't think I'll ever say it enough." He kissed her softly. "Please tell me what happened after I got hit."
"Diana was going to run for you. She's a born leader, and she's damn fast. I tried to grab for her, but I missed. The vampire was amused, and was going to hurt her, but Phoebe threw up a wall and stopped it from getting to her." Charlie interrupted.
"A wall?"
"Phoebe can put up a sort of physical barrier between people and danger. It's not visible, but it's impossible to get past. Until that day, she'd only been able to do it for family. I have a theory about that, but it's not important just now. So the vampire couldn't get to Di, but it was still a threat.
"I hadn't known anything about Selene's talent, but if I had to guess now, I'd say she's telekinetic, and pretty powerful at that. Her eyes sort of glowed and her hair was nearly floating, and all of a sudden the vampire couldn't move, like it was glued in place.
"Eris and Irene have always been – volatile – when they're upset. When they're upset together, it's apparently cataclysmic. Eris has, and I'm using this word loosely here, control over water and air, Irene the same for earth and fire. Let's just say there's a reason I don't keep candles around the house, and there's more than splashing behind the bathwater messes in this home.
"The earth was shaking and it looked like a storm was building directly above us. The clouds went black and Irene just pointed at the vampire and screamed 'Bad!' before lightning struck it straight on. It was almost like a cartoon lightning strike. Its hair was burnt and standing on end, its skin was charred black and cracked open, its clothes had holes burned in them, and its mouth was frozen open in a soundless yell.
"I mentioned Diana was a born leader. Something clicked for her and she ran back to the porch. I had no idea what she was doing until she drew her bow and begged Irene to give her fire for her arrow. That brilliant, beautiful little girl shot straight into the monster's open mouth and lit its dead, dry, cracked body on fire. It went up like so much kindling and was a pile of ash in seconds.
"I think I started running for you before it had even finished crumbling to the ground, and did what I had to do to bring you back to us. I'm just so glad that we're all okay and it didn't hurt anyone before it was destroyed." Charlie cleared his throat.
"About that." Rhea pulled back and gasped, but Charlie rushed ahead before she could make any assumptions. "I'm not saying for sure that it was the vampire, but I think it's too big a coincidence to rule it out. You know how my cousin had just gotten back to town?"
"I remember. He was coming for dinner with his wife and son, right? He's Old Quil's son?" Rhea pulled up the memory.
"Quil Ateara IV. Old Quil is the Third, and Quil's little boy is the V. He went out on his boat that morning to go fishing. The boat came back later that night, but Quil never did. The authorities are still looking for his body and they're working on the assumption that there was some sort of accident and he drowned."
"You don't believe that, though, do you?" She asked softly.
"No. Quil has been on boats his whole life. He's a commercial fisherman, for God's sake. A little leisure fishing shouldn't have been the end of him. Not to mention he's a champion swimmer. He keeps his scuba credentials up to date and he dives pretty frequently. No way did he drown." Rhea couldn't help but agree with him.
"I'm so sorry about your cousin, Charlie. And you were stuck by my bedside while all this was going on. Is there anything I can do?" She fretted.
"No, honey. I'm sorry he's gone, but please don't feel guilty for me staying with you. I loved my cousin, but we weren't even as close as Harry, Billy, and I. He was always a little dull, but he was a good man. Little Quil only has his mom and grandpa now, though, so maybe we can offer to take the pressure off sometimes, let the little man come here and hang out with the kids. Give them a break every now and then."
"Of course we can do that. I'm sure he'll fit right in, and it might be nice for Embry, Jacob, and Sam to have another boy around some of the time. They must feel overrun by girls." Charlie laughed.
"Give them a few years, and I doubt they'll be complaining about it." Rhea laughed with him. When they stopped, she looked at him seriously.
"You know, you're taking all of this really well. I was hoping you wouldn't be running for the hills by now, but you barely even seem phased." Not that she was trying to complain, but Rhea was baffled.
"Like I said, honey. It would take an act of God to run me off. Sarah had already said some things, and the girls, though their stories were confusing and disjointed, let some other stuff slip. I can't bring myself to be upset that I've somehow won the lottery and fallen into a family full of awesome magical heroes, but I'm also terrified that I'm going to mess up somehow. You're going to have to show me how to support our girls. Help me help them, Ree, and you."
"I have no idea what I ever did to deserve you, but I am going to take advantage of every second that I get." Rhea threw herself into Charlie and they spent the next few hours showing each other how loved they truly were.