That was when I broke down in sobs. Because Teren did not return with her. He never even came back towards my direction. As Alanna shifted to me, he shifted away, off to madly chase after vampires with his human companion, who was probably picking him up at the very moment and driving him away from me.
Imogen lightly began to cry in her room too, as Teren got farther and farther away. As my head dropped to my hands and I felt each individual tear coolly splash onto my skin, I wondered if they'd still let me stay with them, if Teren got himself killed today because of me. That thought only made my sobs come out in a tortured wail.
Then Alanna's soothing arms were around me and she was picking me up. The woman was no bigger than me, and what with my pregnant girth, she was actually much smaller, size-wise, but she lifted me easily. She cradled me in her arms and I cried mercilessly on her shoulder.
My breath hitching through my words, I managed to get out, "You couldn't get him back?"
She swallowed, her eyes heavy with pink tears. Kissing my forehead, she muttered into my hair, "I needed to get out of the sun. I kept him from leaving, but I couldn't block him forever. He kept an arm's length from me and waited me out. He knew I only had so long to get him back." She rested her cheek on my hair and sighed brokenly. "The entire time we were talking, he kept telling me that he had to go, that he was running out of time. He just kept repeating it over and over again." She lifted her head and stared straight ahead, a pink tear dropping to her cheek. "I've never seen him look like that, Emma. He was almost...unhinged."
I clutched her as we walked through a covered breezeway, the difference in the air temperature blazingly apparent on my sensitive skin. Hiccupping as I sobbed, she walked me upstairs to Imogen's room. A second set of hands were on me then, and I was carefully laid out on Imogen's bed and tucked in like a child. With neither woman saying anything, they silently comforted me with tender arms strokes.
Eventually my grief ended enough that I was able to take in the young faces watching me. My enhanced eyes could more easily see the differences between them than my regular eyes did - Alanna's hair was a shade lighter, Imogen's eyes were a touch bluer. In the dark, candlelit room, all of our eyes glowed softly, and I noticed that even that phosphorescence was in slightly different shades. We were each our own persons, but we shared a common heartache - Teren.
I eyed his mother. She tried hard to keep serenity on her face, but her jaw was tight and her free hand clenched the edge of her jeans, twisting them in her tension. I shifted my gaze to her mother. She was turned away from me, staring through the walls of the home, towards the direction where I could feel Teren getting farther and farther away from us.
"Will he be okay?" I whispered.
Imogen looked back to me, her eyes red with unshed tears of almost pure blood, her cheeks stained with ones that had already fallen. She didn't say anything, only shrugged. A thick tear dropped to her cheek.
Alanna, on my other side, watched her mother and then started to cry. It only took a half-second for Imogen to switch positions, her body flashing to the other side of the bed as her arms went around her child comfortingly. I watched them, my tears resurfacing. I'd done this. This pain was all because of me. This was supposed to be the most joyous time of our lives, the impending birth of Teren's children, but instead, it had gotten twisted into something painful and dangerous and just plain...awful.
My sobs resurfacing, I managed to choke out, "I'm so sorry."
They both twisted back to me, shaking their heads and trying to convince me that it wasn't my fault. Looking desolate, Alanna muttered, "If anything, this is my fault. He's my child. I should have seen this coming." She looked back at me, tears dripping down her cheeks. "I just didn't realize the extent of what he and Ben have been up to. And lately, he's been asking mother and me to stay away, to help out here with researching all of the new leads, and with helping you. He asked to let him handle the meetings."
She shook her head, her long, black hair settling around her shoulders. Her face was a picture of frustration and regret. "I didn't think he was in a lot of danger. I mean, vampires aren't necessarily evil. Just like humans, they come with all kinds of personalities. He was only supposed to be politely asking them if they knew anything, and then leave if they didn't. That was our agreement when we started this."
Alanna sighed, looking back at her mother for a moment before twisting back to me. "I knew he was getting into some scuffles, but he always assured me that he was being careful, that the fights were nothing serious, just a couple of misinterpreted actions, he'd say. I had no idea he was starting to...go this far." She shrugged her shoulders, fresh tears falling to her cheeks. "I didn't think he'd ever start purposefully provoking them. And forcing information from them? Making them talk? I don't even know what that means." She hung her head and Imogen brought her hand to her shoulder.
Uselessly wiping my cheeks, I shook my head. "What about Halina? She'd never let him get away with this?"
Imogen sighed and looked down at the floor, to where I could feel Halina obliviously sleeping. "Mother told me that he's recently started conducting these meetings before full sunset, bursting in on still sluggish, quarantined-by-the-sun vampires. By the time she gets there, he's already...interviewing them, sometimes heatedly. She told me she broke up a pretty decent fight a couple of nights ago, one that left poor Ben black and blue. She assumed the vampires were angry at being intruded upon." She looked up at me, her eyes bloody. "I'm sure she didn't realize what he has really been up to."
Blinking back her tears, she sighed and rubbed her daughter's back. "I tried to talk to him about it, to convince him that running in uninvited on drowsy vampires was a dangerous game, and that he should always wait for mother." She shrugged. "But he said it was fine and the scuffles were blown out of proportion. When I told him I was coming next time, he sighed and said he'd wait for mother." She raised an eyebrow at me. "I should have taken that as a warning." She sighed and shook her head. "I knew he was getting desperate, but I never thought he'd do this..."
The room was silent for a moment as we all felt him drift even farther. "What did he say outside to you?" I asked Alanna weakly, still suffering from shock and sniffles.
She shook her head. "He was upset, angry, but he looked like he'd been crying too, after...your argument." I wanted to apologize again, but she spoke over my words. "He was rambling, Emma. I don't think he even knew what he was saying. He kept repeating that he didn't have a choice, that they were leaving, and he had to get to them before they did. Over and over he told me that they could be the ones, they could be the nest that knew about mixed vampires, and he couldn't risk them disappearing. The last thing he said to me, before I had to leave him, was that he wouldn't start a fight...but they would tell him what he wanted to know. As long as he got a name, nothing else mattered."
An ominous silence hung in the air after she said that. None of us really knew what that meant. None of us were sure how far a terrified-to-lose-me Teren would go, if he had to.
Alanna sighed drearily. "He's been getting so manic about this in the past week or so. We really should have gone with him anyway, to make sure he was okay." She looked back to me. "But...we had a reason to stay too..." She swallowed and looked over me in such a way that I knew she meant me. I suddenly understood the real reason why Alanna and Imogen rarely left my side. They were afraid I'd convert any day, any moment. And if I did, someone had to be here to help me when I woke up, assuming I did wake up. Conversions were the deadliest part of an undead vampire's life. I knew that from experience with Teren's. As Alanna's eyes drifted down to my stomach, I remembered asking Teren to take the twins from me. From the look in Alanna's eye, she was also sticking close by to honor that promise. If and when I keeled over, she was ready to take them, if Teren wasn't around to.
I felt horrid. In a way, I'd made them choose between their son and grandson, and me and the twins. But none of us could have anticipated just how far Teren would take this. But time was running out and Imogen was right, he was getting desperate. And knowing that his family would never approve of his methods, he'd found ways around them. Secretive and stubborn as always, if it meant protecting someone he loved. And ultimately, that is what he was trying to do...protect me, save me.
We all three stayed in that bed for most of the afternoon, alternating between bouts of crying and worrying. At times Imogen and Alanna both got up to run to him. Then one would convince the other that making the attempt in daylight was futile. It would be better to let Halina get him at nightfall. She was faster and stronger than both of them. Imogen accepted it more readily than Alanna, not having as much of a threshold from the pain as her diluted daughter. Alanna looked ready to charge out into the sun anyway, to bring her child back to the ranch. But she stayed, knowing that, just like before, she'd only make it so far before she'd have to find an enclosed place to hide.
And me? There was more than one occasion when they both had to hold me down from flying unimpeded by the sun to his side. But I'd already hurt him once today, and I was scared of what another showdown between us might bring. Especially if it happened in the middle of an agitated vampire nest. I was already scared that he was going to make a stupid, fatal mistake because of our argument. I didn't want to show up and have him be so thrown off by it, that someone got the drop on him. Especially with how distracting our bond would be to him. Especially if he was...unhinged.
Maybe sensing the heavy quiet in the house, Jack came in and found us all lying in bed. Alanna and Imogen solemnly told him what had happened. He closed his eyes and reopened them slowly to gaze at his wife. They shared a brief pain-filled hug, and then, discretely wiping his eyes, he walked back outside. I suppose, like us, Jack wanted to rush to him too, but it would do no good if he did. Teren was still moving, still on his way to the nest. By the time Jack drove to him, it would be too late; he'd be among the vampires. And if Alanna couldn't get her stressed son to stay, I didn't see how the comparatively weak Jack would, especially if Teren was in sight of what he wanted - possible answers.
We listened to the sounds of Jack puttering around outside, keeping his mind occupied with manual labor, probably so he didn't have to think about the possibility of losing his son. As my eyes were so dry I couldn't even blink them, my head throbbed in repeated patterns, and my stomach rumbled from lack of food, I thought maybe Jack's way of handling the stress was healthier, or at least, more productive. By early evening, when I figured Teren was just approaching the nest that he had traveled to, Halina woke up.
I heard her moving around downstairs, sighing and stirring, possibly dressing, and I looked at Alanna and Imogen. "When do we tell her?"
"Tell me what?" Halina automatically responded. I sighed, forgetting just how good their ears were.
I replayed the fight, and what I'd caught Teren doing, essentially packing for a battle. Imogen sighed and Alanna sniffled. Halina cursed and responded with what sounded like stone crashing through stone. I thought that she may have just punched a hole in the wall.