Chapter 6 Overwhelmed

Tali

I am utterly shocked and confused and about a hundred other things all at once. I want to try and dismiss their claims, but I saw the wings and the fangs.

Right after I turned 18, my healing started to speed up significantly. It had driven Anthony absolutely crazy. He kept trying to see what I could heal from. Those were weeks spent in utter hell.

Then my father, or my sperm donor, as I have referred to him. I wonder if he knows what he did to her. Then what she did was to me as punishment for what he did to her. I have despised him in my head.

Now, once again, I'm a prisoner. They freed me from one only to shove me in another. I could run, but where would I go?

Right now, I have nothing and no one. I am very capable of changing the 'I have nothing' part if I can get my hands on the right tools or equipment.

I don't know if I have enough time. Is this council going to try to force me to do what they want? What will they do to me if I refuse?

Then, a question that has haunted me since just after my 18th birthday. If I tried to take myself out, could I manage to injure myself severely enough to actually die before my healing kicked in? The things Anthony did to me led me to think not.

So now I have to figure all these new things out and rearrange the world in my mind. Things I thought were facts are indeed not. So there's that whole cluster fuck.

I sit here in this window seat, gazing outside, trying to wrap my head around the impossible and insane. Perhaps I have truly lost my mind, and this isn't real. Damn, my brain is going to literally break.

I hear a knock on my door, say, "Come in," and in walks Simion and Michael. I turn to look back outside.

"I came to see if you had any specific questions you'd like to ask me." I look at Michael, since he's the one who spoke.

"Why her?" That was what I asked.

He sighed and sat on the end of the bed, "When the barrier was first torn, one of the first of us here was Lilith; she was a very powerful protector. She fell in love with a human, and it was a huge shock when she became pregnant, as it was thought impossible."

He pauses, watching me like he's judging my reaction, "Lilith's son was very famous for his abilities. His name was Jesus. Both Lilith and her son were murdered. There were rumors, however, that her son had a child, but the rumor was never proven, and it was dismissed."

He gets up from the bed and paces around. "The scientist in question managed to find a descendant of Lilith, and that was your mother. It was decided that I would court her and then breed her in the hope of a girl. Our kind can know if a baby is our child, but also the gender very early on in a pregnancy, so I knew you were a girl, and you were mine."

"So what,

You thought you'd drop in, get in her pants, put a bun in the oven, then take off?" I asked him

He flinches at my crude description, "No, I didn't intend for it to go that way. I planned to return, but the council kept me occupied, then you were gone, and I didn't know where, and I couldn't locate you till you turned 18."

"She never got over you. She pined for you till the day she died. She blamed me for your leaving. Thought you didn't want to be tied down with a kid. She said she tried to abort me, but it didn't work, obviously. She made me pay for every day without you."

Michael looked down and shook his head at that, then ran his hands over his face.

"All I can say is I'm sorry, and I wish I'd been there for you. I hope you let me be a part of your life now, but we can take it slow."

All I could do was nod and then refocus on the outside. They realized I wasn't going to say anything more, so they both quietly left.

Simion

I watch Michael as we leave her room. His shoulders drooped in defeat at what she had revealed about her mother.

"I never dreamed in a million years that her mother would blame her for my absence, or even mourn my leaving to that degree," He lamented.

"It's the allure we all have to learn to dampen. If you were around her for any length of time, it would have affected her, no matter how well you controlled it."

He knows this, and I wonder how well the council thought that out, or even cared. This whole situation is a massive fucking mess of their creation. They pulled Michael away on purpose, so they never intended for him to raise her.

We return to the living room and take a seat on the couch. I think about what we need to decide, then jump in.

"We have to decide what we do if the council tries to force her, or use her as some breeder, Michael. This could get ugly fast, and you know as well as I do, the council has lost its direction."

He leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees, and let his head drop into his hands.

He shook his head, then looked up at me, "Under no circumstances will I allow her to be turned into some breeder. I hope they will be reasonable, but I'm afraid you are right, and we can't depend on them doing the right thing."

He looked at me steadily, "If it comes down to her needing a mate or mates, to prevent the council from doing worse, I would request you and your team take her as your mate."

I sat utterly stunned into silence. I hadn't expected him to ask that of us. This would not be anything I could contemplate without my team.

"Michael, do you understand what you are asking?"

"Yes, I know with you she would never be hurt. Your team's reputation would help keep her safe. You are good and honorable men, who I would trust with her."

"This would be a conversation we most definitely need to have with my whole team."

He nods, but before he can say anything, Meliyan storms into the room. The moment he sees us, he comes to us, his face is a mask of anger.

"The council has learned she is here, and they are demanding she be handed over to them. I told them to send no more than 3 members here to speak with her. They agreed and will be here in 2 hours."

Well, fuck, this just got even more fucked up.