Page 90 of Hupotasso
Marianna flicks a worried look at Adam.
“Angie, you’ve been having pains for hours. It’s not Braxton Hicks. The contractions are getting more frequent. I need to take a quick look, OK?”
“No, it can’t be. I’m not due for two weeks. It can’t be.”
As I say this I feel a warm gush between my legs, and I groan as a new wave of pain grips me. Without waiting for my response Marianna disappears under my skirt and deftly removes my panties.
“Adam, it might be time for you to call my sisters,” she saysquietly. “Angie, these babies are coming today.”
“Oh God! No, nononononono. Yin hasn’t had time. She needs more time.”
“Shhhhh,” Adam croons, placing a hand on my forehead and pushing me back. “Marianna’s delivered dozens of babies. You’re in great hands. Do you want me to call Mom? I know you said it would be too dangerous, but I could spirit her over here without anyone seeing. You know she’d do anything to see you and her grandbabies.”
“No,” I gasp. “Call Yin. Call Yin. She has to take my daughter from me the moment she’s born.”
Adam and Marianna look at one another in surprise.
“I know how it sounds,” I grit my teeth at the pain and pant out my words. “I haven’t had time to tell you everything I need to. But trust me, the vampires will kill her. Yin needs to take her. No one can know I had twins. Not Mom or Dad. No one.”
“OK, honey, OK,” Marianna croons. “You only need to worry about one thing right now, one thing.”
I nod, sweat beading my brow.
“I’m going to concentrate on keeping my babies inside for as long as I can.”
“No,” she shakes her head. “Angie, you could die, your babies could die. They want to come out, honey, and that’s just what’s going to happen. So you listen up and deliver those babies, OK? Stop tensing. Stop trying to keep them in there. You need to relax and let them go.”
I sob and shake my head.
This is not how I pictured giving birth. I’m pretty sure this is not howanyonepictures it, without their husband by their side and dreading the birth rather than welcoming it. If you’d offered me a glimpse into the future this time last year and shown me here in an Amish community about to give birth without anaesthetic to vampire twins, I would have laughed in your face.
But I’m not laughing now. Far from it.
“Adam,” I groan as I involuntarily begin to bear down, “get Yin back here. Please, get Yin back here.”
72
I watch the shock and sorrow cross their features as the body bags are laid at their feet on the tarmac of the abandoned airfield, and raise my chin to meet their glares.
When I said I’d return Isabel and her parents to The Free Men I hadn’t said in what condition.
“I didn’t kill them,” I reiterate, “but I did return them, as agreed. Where is my mother?”
“Who killed them?” Someone whispers.
“Count Spider Dartlore.”
My mention of his name doesn’t seem to surprise them, and I raise an eyebrow.
“We should shoot his mother,” one of The Free Men says from behind their lead negotiator. “We didn’t specify her condition either.”
“On the contrary,” I narrow my eyes at her, “you very much did specify. And if I don’t receive her back in three seconds, in full health, I’ll kill each and every one of you where you stand.”
“One against seven,” the lead negotiator scowls, “you wouldn’t come out unscathed, monster.”
“Look up.”
They all do, and I smirk as red lines appear in the sky and little red dots appear on each of their chests.
