Page 3 of Interlude

“IVF is a process that allows the doctors to directly fertilize the egg in couples who are having trouble conceiving on their own,” I explain to him, stroking my hand over his body.

“It shouldn’t have, but it did. My wife was thrilled, but I was completely horrified,” Brannock admits, not meeting my eyes. “It’s not that I didn’t want kids,” he continues quickly, “but I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to continue to hide what I was from my wife. I also had no idea what our baby was going to be—human, Aaz’axian, or a crossbreed.”

“How were you going to explain you weren’t aging?” John asks quietly. “You must have had a plan for that.”

Again, Brannock sighs heavily. “I was going to fake my own death.”

I gasp, horrified for his poor wife. “That’s awful,” I scold him, and he nods in agreement.

“I know, but I was going to make her a very wealthy woman. I’d been living on Earth since we escaped the war, and you tend to build up a lot of wealth in that period of time. I thought it would make up for what she was missing out on, and I was going to suggest adoption when the IVF failed.”

“But it didn’t fail,” Cas says gently, and I know he’s rolling all the information around in his brain.

“No,” Brannock says tearfully, “it didn’t.”

“How did your wife die?” Link asks, and I see Brannock shudder.

“Aaz’axian pregnancies are very much like Vilaxian ones,” he explains.

“The babies take nutrients from the mother?” Link asks, and Brannock nods.

“Yes. It’s the only time we drink blood like a Vilaxian—or the mother does at least. It helps nourish our babies inside their wombs.”

“But your wife wasn’t Aaz’axian and wasn’t drinking your blood,” Max surmises, and Brannock confirms with a jerky nod and a sob that escapes unbidden.

“I begged her to terminate. She was already getting sick within weeks of conception. The doctors told her she had some rare blood cancer, which was the only thing they could attribute her symptoms to, and she refused.”

“How did no one notice on the scans? I’m sure an Aaz’axian baby looks different during an ultrasound,” I ask, still trying to wrap my head around everything he told us.

“When she refused to terminate, arguing she wanted me to have someone when she passed, I begged Madam Aura to let her Celestian mate care for my wife. I mesmerized her into thinking she was having scans and seeing doctors. In the end, there was nothing Savannah could do. My wife wasn’t actually sick, so she couldn’t heal her. All she could do was transfuse blood until the babe was formed enough to be born. My wife slipped away as our daughter was born. She never even got to hold her.” Tears stream down the male’s face, and the wave of agony and sorrow I feel resonating from him is enough to have me hunching in on myself. I shouldn’t be able to feel it in my normal body, but it’s like these feelings are so strong, my warlock nature takes over and draws them into me.

“Let him down please,” I beg Xavier, unable to stop the sob from escaping my mouth. I can see Xavier is just as affected as I am by this creature’s emotions. Tears sparkle in his eyes as he lowers Brannock to the ground and removes the bands. The two of us get to our feet and embrace the man as he shudders, crying as he sags into our embrace.

Lila

Brannock shudders as the two of us drain his sorrow and grief, freeing him from the horrible burden. We don’t remove it completely, but enough for him to be able to continue his story.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Eric says, and when I look around the room, I notice that all the others are affected, except for the two who are still frozen.

“What happened to your child?” William asks gently. “Did it survive?”

Xavier and I release Brannock, and he shakes himself but doesn’t sit down as Xavier and I return to our seats.

“Yes, she did, and she was born looking perfectly human, if not a little small.” He smiles with a parent’s love that is blinding.

“So that’s why Aura and Xane didn’t know you were Aaz’axian. I did wonder about that. They acted like they had never seen you before,” Xavier says, crossing his legs and leaning back in his chair.

“That’s because they hadn’t. I always appeared in my Vilaxian glamour. They questioned how I could handle the Las Vegas heat and where I got my blood from, but I told them I mostly stayed inside and had a couple of other aliens that I knew who regularly donated.”

“This didn’t make them suspicious?” I ask skeptically, and it’s John who answers.

“Probably not. At any given time, there are hundreds of aliens living normal lives in the United States. Smith made it seem like they were always deporting people, but they really weren’t. Before they were killed, Marcus and Alina facilitated a blood service for any aliens who needed it. There were many willing volunteers happy to help out. Someone else took that on when they passed.”

Brannock nods. “John’s right. If you know where to look, you can find anything. Earth is set up to cater to the needs of extraterrestrials, because then there is less chance of them getting caught.”

“So your daughter is human?” Link asks, leaning forward. He’s dying for knowledge.

“She was perfectly human for the first three years, but then, one day, not long after her third birthday, she was frightened, and it triggered her Aaz’axian genes and she changed forms. I’m assuming her human form was just a glamour she had been born with. It was hard to explain to a curious little girl about what she actually was and that no one could know about it. Up until then, I hadn’t shown her my real form either. If she was going to be completely human, I wasn’t going to bother, and I couldn’t have Savannah do any tests because then they would know I wasn’t from Vilax like I claimed.”

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