Chapter 77-The Final Insult

When I woke up I had a splitting headache and my body felt like it was on fire.  Once my eyes were able to focus I saw that I was home in my bed.  It was dark outside and I heard soft breathing coming from the direction of the chair.  I squinted in the darkness to make out a figure.  Why was I so hot?  I tumbled out of bed wanting, needing to take a nice cold shower. 

My neck hurt, as I reached up to cover the throbbing pain my fingers came in contact with a bandage.  I stumbled a bit knocking into the side table.  The sleeping figure jumped up.

“Amari?  Are you ok?”

“Jonas?”

“Yeah.  Carter was here but was called to the hospital.”

“What time is it?”

“It’s about 7 or so.  You’ve been sleep since yesterday evening.”

“I need to shower.  I’m hot so very hot.”  I started stripping free of my clothes with him standing there.  Jonas quickly turned his back.

“Um, I’ll go get one of the girls.  They are downstairs.”  Jonas put his hand up to block his view as he exited the room.  I was stripped and sitting on my shower floor when Bynni and Cece came into the room.

“Mom?”

“In here.”

“Mom you ok?”

“No, I’m running a fever I think.  Ceula you should stay back in case I’m contagious.”  Bynni shut off the water and got me a towel. 

“You’re not contagious mom.  You’re changing.”  Bynni stated helping me up off the floor. 

“Changing?  Changing into what?”  She gave me a sympathetic look. 

“The shower won’t help and it will get worse before it gets better.  Here let me check your bandage.”  Slowly she peeled it away.  “Looks better.” She commented as she removed it completely.

 “Where’s Aric?”

“He’s downstairs and very pissed off.”  Ceula chimed in.  “He’s mad at himself for not being able to help you and he’s mad at Mulo for what he’s done.  We all are.”  Both girls looked tired and scared.  They were holding something back.  I went to my dresser to pull on some clothes then headed downstairs.  Fred and Wilma were cowering in the corner Nina seemed to be trying to calm him but I could tell he was a bomb ready to blow.

“Where are the boys and the triplets?’ 

“My house.”  Ceula chimed in.  “We still have the nursery set up and toys so they took them there when Aric brought you here.”  I looked at them both, they were definitely hiding something.

“Well out with it!  What aren’t you saying?”

Aric looked up from outside then was instantly by my side.

“Mom I’m sorry.  Things got out of hand and I tried to control my temper but I couldn’t.”

 “Son it’s ok.  None of this is your fault and you can’t be held responsible for your father’s actions.”

“True but I am responsible for my own.”

“Baby it’s not your fault.”  Nina said

I was still clearly missing something in this exchange.  My head and neck were throbbing and I felt like my insides were on fire.  I grimaced against the pain willing it to hopefully go away.

“Aric sweetie, whatever you did isn’t your fault.”  The memory of them fighting popped back into my head.  I remembered Mulo standing holding me back from him but not much after that.  I was suddenly worried that he had done something to his father that he was now feeling guilty over.

“If he had been there when I found you I just might have.”  He said answering my thoughts.  “He was gone and you were bleeding a lot.  I should have taken you to the hospital but there would have been too many questions about that bite marks on your neck.”

“It’s fine, I’ll be…”  I doubled over as a pain shot through my stomach.  Aric carried me over to the couch.

“I’m sorry mom.”

“Quit saying that.  You have nothing to be sorry for.”  He dropped down on the couch beside me and the rest of them also sat. 

“I’ve been like this” He said pointing to his face “since I brought you here.  Carter, Jonas, they know what happened.  I wasn’t in the right mind frame to use a compulsion and plus I’ve been too upset to go back to looking normal.”  Oh it all was making sense now why they all looked so solemn.  Aric’s fangs were still fully extended and his eyes glowed.  He was a scary sight.

“Thanks mom.”

“Sorry honey.”

“It’s ok.  I know I am.  In fact my brothers thought I had done it to you.  They can be quite a team when they put some effort into it.”  There was a hint of amusement in his voice.

“I’ll deal with Carter and Jonas later.  I assume your brothers are ok now.”  Another wave of pain washed over me.  This was worse than labor and at least then I got drugs.

“I’ll get the morphine.”  Nina said.  They all seemed to be in my head.  It was more than a little unnerving. 

“Carter and Jonas took things surprisingly well or they are in a state of shock.  It was hard to really tell.”  Bynni stated.  “One thing was clear, they both were overly concerned with you and asked very little questions.” 

That sounded like them.  Once I was better I would sit down and explain it all.  He always managed to mess up my normal. Things were getting to a good place for the boys and now they have to deal with yet another disaster involving their mom.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they moved out the moment they turned 18 sooner if they thought they could.

“So how long will this process take?”  Since both Nina and Bynni had gone through this they would be the perfect people to help me through this.  There was another uncomfortable silence as everyone seemed to know something I didn’t.  Aric let lose a string of curses that shocked me.  He was always so calm and reserved yet he was emitting so much anger.

“Well…um we don’t think you are completely changing.”  Nina whispered.  Now I was more confused than ever.  Either I was going to be like them or not I didn’t think there was an in between.

“What are you talking about?  Bynni said I was changing.  Mulo bit me right?”

“Yes he did but he left a note.”

“Where is it?  Let me see.”

“I sorta ripped it to shreds.”  I doubled over once more and Nina ran to go get the morphine.  She came back ready to inject me.

“Wait will that make me sleep?”

“Yes.”

“Then no, not until after I hear the whole story.”  I said through clenched teeth.  “Aric what did the note say?”

He looked at me and I could tell he felt defeated.  The anger started to subside and his eyes started to glow a little less.  He sat back down next to me.

“When we change a person we have to give more blood than we take in order for the change to be effective.”  He said explaining how the process was supposed to work.  Aric let out a heavy sigh.  “He didn’t do that.”

“So what does that mean?”

“It means that you are somewhere in between.  Your body still has enough of your blood going through it to make the change even more painful as it tries to fight it.  When it’s over you won’t be completely human yet you won’t be a vamp really either.”  Bynni stated.

“This isn’t making sense.”  I said starting to panic.  “Why would he do that?”

“To keep you tied to him.”  Aric said.

“What?  I don’t understand!”  Now I was really panicking. 

“Well,” Bynni started “I had to ask Marisol about all of this when Aric called and told us what happened.  She said as long as you are like this, in between you two are connected.  He can tap into your mind and you can tap into his.  Also no other vamp, meaning us, can complete the change.  He started it, he has to finish it.  Mixing of the bloods could mean death.  Your death.”

“Well shit.  Isn’t that just great?  Where is he, call him over to finish me off please.  I want to be free of him and move on.”

“He’s gone.”  Aric said.  The pain was getting worse causing me to tremble slightly.

“I’ll take the morphine now.”  Nina injected me and I started feeling sleepy.  “Where’s Jonas?”  I asked remembering he was there when I woke up.

“He went to my house to help Trey and the boys with the triplets.”

“Oh that’s so nice of him.”  I mumbled as I drifted off to sleep.

It took three days for the pain to lessen to the point I no longer needed the help of the morphine.  I tried to fight through it as much as possible since I didn’t want to spend my time drugged up and useless.  I found however I was only in pain and still useless for the most part.  Shirley had given her notice, but stayed through the two weeks it took me to be better.  They told her I had a serious stomach flu.  I don’t think she bought it, but with the generous severance package she received, she didn’t voice any opposition.  As the pain started to fade I became aware of subtle changes. 

My first attempts to eat were met with me emptying my stomach contents shortly afterwards.  Bynni suggested I try the plasma fruit on my second day of not being able to keep things down.  It had a weird taste but I was able to keep it down.  No one was sure what that meant but I was getting nourishment on some level that didn’t require Carter hooking me up to an IV so I didn’t complain.  I didn’t experience any physical change in my looks but I did have some improvements.  My hearing was a little sharper and I found when I woke up in the morning things weren’t fuzzy.  I could see without the use of my glasses. 

On the downside to things I felt that connection they said I would have with him.  At first I wasn’t sure what I was feeling.  It was like having someone there but when you turned around they were gone.  It made me nervous and jumpy until I figured out what or who it was.  He hadn’t made actual contact and I had made no attempts to contact him.  Once my body was through fighting itself I only wanted to try to get back to the place I was before he scrambled everything up again.

 Aric took on the responsibility of explaining everything to the boys.  He didn’t want to lie to them, but he did omit the details we both agreed they didn’t need to hear.  They were told I had a history with Mulo prior to meeting Marcus and that moving on was something he wasn’t ready to do.  Naturally they were upset especially seeing the pain I was in although we tried to keep them out of my room when it was at its worst.   They were kept on track with school.  I made sure that they weren’t allowed to skip, well at least not too many days.  They did stay home the first two days because they were too upset and would have been unable to concentrate anyway. 

Once I was better the house starting finding its rhythm again.  I asked the boys if they had any questions or wanted to talk about what happened but neither did.  They were both happy to know I was not going to die and Aric saved me.  Dunham continued his tutoring and his secretive dates with the girlfriend.  He had stayed home more those days I was sick just in case I didn’t pull through.  They did admit to being scared I was going to die.  I would never forgive Mulo for putting them through that.  Dax did pass his drivers test and wanted a car.  He felt driving his dad’s Prius wasn’t the cool thing to do.  Dunham had also passed his drivers test and didn’t mind driving his dad’s car.  I think he liked the idea of having it.  Aric and Nina were the ones to take Dax car shopping.  They were given strict guidelines on what they were allowed to buy him.  They also convinced me to trade out the shuffleboard table for a much cooler pool table.  The triplets were all walking, talking, and using the potty.  My talk with Carter and Jonas went well.  They have to be the most understanding men on the planet.  They did say it helped to see it for their own eyes otherwise they probably would have believed me to be a crazy woman.

On the surface things were going well.  Each day I got better but that connection also got a little stronger or he was using it more.  Still no actual contact but I was sensing things, him and it made me angry.  I wanted to dull it as much as possible.

**thanks Karima for her photo editing of the opening shots. :)**