Prologue
“Are you all right?” he ran his finger against her bare arm. Her blue silk sleeve hung at her wrist now, and she turned her face away from his as he nearly planted another kiss on her lips.
“I…I should go.”
“Please don’t leave,” he whispered, kissing her neck.
“I have to, they’ll be wondering where I am.”
“Olivia…”
She winced at the alias and stood up, turning to face him, sprawled out on the couch. “Don’t call me Olivia.”
“But, that’s your name. Isn’t it?” His face slowly changed from one of happiness to questioning. “Have you been lying to me?”
She looked at her barefeet and let out a sigh. “I’m not who you think I am.”
“Of course you are. You’re the woman of my dreams. I love you.”
A tear slipped from “Olivia’s” sea blue eyes. “There’s something I should have told you the first time I met you, Richard. But I couldn’t bare to, if she ever found out…”
“What are you talking about?” he said, standing up and taking her hands in his. “You can tell me anything. You can trust me.”
“Remember…that day we first met?” she asked.
“How could I forget?”
“Remember how I had that scar….?”
He slowly nodded. “Then it began to rain and, when we got into the house, somehow it had…dissapeared.”
“Richard, I don’t know how to explain it…but the rain heals me. Water heals me.”
“What are you talking about? You mean like, magic?”
She nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about.”
*^*^*^*^
“What was it like?” Verdo’s green eyes shone as she asked her older sister Ozean about the mortal.
“It was like…nothing I had ever imagined before. It was wonderful. But Verdo, it lead to something terrible.” Tears formed in Ozean’s blue eyes, and she held her arm clad in blue silk close to her.
“What do you mean?”
“Verdo, I’m pregnant, with a half mortal.”
“How…?”
“I don’t know, it just…happened.”
“Are you going to tell Cisne?”
“I have to, there is no other choice. But what if she finds out about the baby? Oh Verdo, what if Oscuro wants to kill him?” Ozean wept, an image of a woman draped in black coming into her mind.
“She won’t find out about him. After you tell Cisne and the baby is born, you must take him to his father. He’ll be safe in the mortal world.”
“Thank you Verdo,” Ozean flung her arms around her sister. Verdo’s brown curls absorbing her sister’s tears.
“Its going to be okay,” her sister soothed over and over again. “Its going to be okay.”
*^*^*^*^
“We have gathered her today because the fate of one must be decided.” A woman dressed in silver was standing in the center of a clearing. Trees surrounded the clearing and a distant ocean could be heard.
“Ozean, will you please step forward?” the woman in silver said, fiddling with one of her long blond braids.
Ozean’s long blond hair flowed freely down her back, and her blue eyes were filled with tears.
“What is going on?” a woman with short firey red hair dressed in scarlett questioned. Her eyes filled with puzzlement flickered like blue flames.
“I’m sorry my sisters, I made a mistake. I don’t know how you could ever forgive me. But I am prepared to face the consequences,” Ozean whispered, bowing her head.
“What happened?” the last woman asked, walking to her sister and wrapping her arms around her. Her almost white hair blew out behind her, sending an icy chill through the air.
“I’m…I’m pregnant. My son is a half mortal.”
The women all gasped, all except for Verdo and the leader.
“Cisne, we must let him go to his father,” Ozean begged. “It’s the only way to let him live without Oscuro finding out.”
The leader, Cisne, let out a small chuckle. “She already has.” Everyone became silent and stared at Cisne. But there was something different about their leader and mother. Her beautiful shimmering rainbow eyes were black, like chunks of coal burning.
Her hair slowly was undone from the braids and became tangly ebony hair, and long black nails sprouted from her pale fingers like a cat unseathing its claws. “I’ll kill that baby before it can even breathe sweet oxygeon.”
Ozean stiffened, her eyes become slits. “You won’t touch my son, Oscuro. I won’t let you.”
“Ha! I’d like to see you try and stop me,” the woman named Oscuro laughed. She walked towards the expectant mother, but the other three women were able to reach Ozean before her.
“You’ll have to go through us before you touch our sister or her baby.”
Oscuro let out a growl.
“Let us be Oscuro, please,” Verdo whispered. It was the first time she had spoken since the gathering had begun.
Oscuro sneered. “You really think I would just give up?” she let out a cackle. “Nice try Verdo, but your ‘innocence’ trick doesn’t work on me.”
Tears fled down the women’s cheeks. “Please Oscuro. You’re our aunt, please. Do this for us, just this once.”
“So you admit you do not have any power?”
Vulkun, the firey woman’s eyes flamed. “We didn’t say that!” she hissed. “Just because we don’t spill blood every time we get the chance doesn’t mean we have no power!”
Oscuro’s eyebrows twitched. “I’ll give you fifteen years. Then, I will be back, and I hope there will be more descendents waiting.” Oscuro smiled cruelly, and suddenly, was gone.
“Fifteen years…only fifteen years.”
“Our pure immortal children will be born by then, won’t they?”
“Yes, and we will have to raise them ourselves,” Tempono, the woman with almost white hair replied.
“No, there won’t be time.” A voice from the bushes distracted the women. A woman who looked exactly like Cisne did stepped from the undergrowth.
“Cisne?”
She nodded. “I’m surprised Oscuro let me go. She said fifteen years until she would come back again.”
“Yes, what will we do with our daughters when they are born?”
“They will be taken to mortal families and raised as mortals. Oscuro won’t be able to find them there.”
The women nodded.
“Ozean, you will have your son for two years, until your sister’s have had their children, along with your second child, your daughter.”
Ozean closed her eyes, nodded with pain in her heart. “If it’s the only way to protect them,” she whispered. “We have to protect them.”
*^*^*^*^
“Richard, this is Josh.” The boy with shaggy brown hair clutched to his mother’s hand, his chubby finger in between his teeth. “Josh, this is your father.”
Richard looked down at his son is awe, his eyes filling with tears. “Why did you keep him from me for so long?” he asked.
“I had to. I have one more, Verdo?” Her sister walked into the small apartment, a girl with blond curls wrapped in a blue blanket in her arms. “This is Brooke. I hope they aren’t too much for you.”
“You’ll…you’ll raise them with me, won’t you?”
Ozean looked down in shame. “I cannot, though I wish I could. I love them with all my heart.”
“Who is the father of Brooke?”
“There is no father. She…she is like me. Immortal.”
Richard looked down as well. “Oh. I…I see. So, this is goodbye, isn’t it?”
She nodded, turning her gaze back to him. “I love you,” she whispered. She let go of Josh’s hand and kissed her mate. She knelt down and began talking to Josh as Verdo handed Brooke to her new father.
“Now you be good, I may not see you for a long time. Just know that I love you.”
“Where you goin?” Josh asked.
“I’m going to be away for a while. But your daddy is going to take care of you and Brooke okay? You be good for him.”
“I will mama, you can count on me!” Josh raised his hand in a salute and she slowly smiled.
“My sister’s have already given their children to other mortals near here, they were your friends, I believe. I remember them from a party you took me to, after we met.”
He nodded. “I’ll make sure that all your children become best friends.”
“Thank you Richard, for everything.” She whispered the last two words and slowly turned and walked out the door, dissapearing from her lover’s view.
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