Chapter 227

Randy’s POV

I stepped outside into a sunny, late winter day, and my breath came out in a puffing cloud. Thank goodness, from just down the street, I could see the little white car which had been parked in Emily’s driveway the other day coming towards me. At least I wouldn’t have to wait outside in the freezing cold for very long.

She waved as she pulled up in front of the mansion to pick me up. I opened the door on the passenger side and flopped into the seat, shutting it behind me.

“Hi, Emily.”

“Hi,” she said. “Looks like you heard.”

I nodded. “As far as doctor-patient confidentiality goes, you don’t have to hide anything from me, at least not about the fact that one of the twins is actually a part demon. How could that happen?”

I tipped my head back, closing my eyes.

“Just bad luck,” she said. “Instances of twins with two different fathers aren’t very common.”

I turned my head sideways, without lifting it, and opened my eyes. “What does the witch you hired to help you say?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“It’s just . . . how much bad luck can two people have?” I groaned the words out then I pulled my tone back so that it didn’t sound like I was whining. “I mean, geez, if these two had anything else go wrong in their relationship together or their lives as individuals, I don’t think even Greek tragedy could keep up with the pessimism. Their goes way beyond the usual twisted family crap. I mean, with demons involved, it’s almost like they’re the bad plot of some horror movie.”

Emily burst out laughing. “I know laughing is not polite of me, seeing as how Helen is my patient and all, but I had kind of been thinking similar thoughts myself. They have had an awful lot of bad luck, and unfortunately, this is nothing more than luck.”

I made a face of disbelief.

“There was absolutely nothing given the spell that she was under that Helen could have done to have controlled this at all,” Emily asserted. “Because even though the chances of such a pregnancy are incredibly small, the only way that this can completely be avoided is by only having one sexual partner. And we all know, in Helen’s case, that that wasn’t possible.”

Her expression went sour. “So from there, everything else is just . . .” she sighed and slumped in her own seat, “bad luck. At least they’re both healthy, the twins, I mean.”

“I know. Justin told me,” I said. “Is it wicked that I kind of hope that something goes wrong with the pregnancy and Helen loses it? Does that make me a bad person?”

Emily shook her head. “I’m not here to judge, and I can’t discuss these sorts of the ins and outs. I mean that. It feels unethical.” She gritted her teeth through that whole statement.

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” I said, backing down. “I just had to get those thoughts off my chest. I can’t say such things to Justin. He’s brokenhearted. If I were a beta and only his beta, and this was . . .”

“I know,” she murmured in agreement. “You would suggest terminating the pregnancy, and I wouldn’t stop them if they chose that path. But it’s not just the one child. On the other hand, if we allow her to have a half-demon child, what are we unleashing? Not just upon the True Mates pack, but the whole world?”

“What are we supposed to tell Lisa and Russo?” I moaned. “They’re both going to be devastated.”

I rubbed my stomach and my face at the same time, feeling sick again.

Emily huffed out a long sigh. “I don’t know what to tell you,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had such an uncomplicated yet difficult case. Honestly, I don’t know what the ethics are because it goes far beyond just advising on a pregnancy. This has global implications, as you said. There is one other possibility that I haven’t had a chance to discuss with them.”

“Can you discuss it with me?” I asked. “Or does that fall into that no-talking stuff?”

“This idea is okay to talk over with you,” she said. “In fact, maybe you can sit down and have this discussion. Well, no, this one needs to come from a medical advisor. But perhaps you can be there when I have this discussion with Helen and Justin.”

She drew in a deep, steadying breath. “I’m not even sure aborting the fetus would work.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it,” she said. “What did you have to do to get rid of the Huntsman?”

I sucked air in through my teeth in a hiss of horror. “We had to exercise the demon. Helen said the Huntsman’s demise was horrific.”

Emily nodded. “I can’t be sure that just a regular abortion would work on a part demon. It might be just as futile as trying to kill the Huntsman would have been without actually doing an exorcism or a banishment for whatever part of him is immortal evil.”

“What would be the risks of performing such a rite on Helen if it were performed during a pregnancy?” I asked.

“Well, that’s just the thing. If . . .” Emily ground her teeth together, muscles in her jaw working as she looked for the words. “If we tried this on Helen pre-birth, there’s a chance that it might selectively abort just one child by banishing the one that has demon blood and leaving the other alone. But because Helen absorbed some of the Huntsman’s power because of the attributes of a multi-color coated werewolf legacy, it’s possible that whatever is residing in her could end up hurting her.”

I gasped. I hadn’t thought of that.

Emily’s whole body drooped. “Obviously, if we hurt Helen, then in turn, we could end up hurting the lycan fetus. I just don’t know the right solution. There’s no precedent for this. If she were just a regular werewolf, I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest a banishing ritual. But I can’t say what the outcome would be, even to Helen.”

“And if we wait until after the babies are born,” I added, “then Helen and Justin have to live with the idea that they were forced to perform that horrible banishing ceremony on a helpless little baby.”

She nodded slowly. “Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this ever since my colleague mentioned the situation with the twins, and I think there’s only one decent way to handle this.”

“Which is?” I asked. “Because I’d love to hear a real solution.”

“I think my advice will be after I give Helen and Justin all of the options would be to have everything needed to perform the banishing right assembled and gathered and make sure that Lisa’s not the only one who knows how to do it. They should prep her and at least one backup.”

“Once everything is arranged, Helen and Justin should see what happens after the child is born. They should give the little thing a chance to grow up and be decent. If that’s not what happens, then they’ll be ready to send the beast back to hell. But at least it won’t be a helpless baby at that point, so hopefully, they won’t feel guilty.”

“That’s a hell of a choice,” I said.

She snorted. “That was a horrible joke.”

I picked my head up off of the seat, shaking it. “If I can’t make some sort of joke about this, how am I supposed to survive it? It’s horrific.”

“I fully agree. I figured you’d need somebody to talk to. That’s why I asked if you wanted to meet for dinner. Justin left in such an angry rush. Is he all right?”

I shrugged. “He’s as all right as he’s going to be. It’s just going to take him some time to get over the shock and the implications, I think. But he’s not the only one who will have to learn to cope. As I said, I’m having a hard time swallowing the news. And Lisa and Russo and the Pixies and everybody else that was affected by the Huntsman in the first place is going to have a lot to come to terms with.”

“Truth,” she murmured, letting silence take over the car.