Trembling With the Strings

Bringing Hope To The Hopeless

I gripped Darius’ hand tightly as we waited anxiously for one of them—at least one of them—to wake up. Kai turned in his sleep, his small ear hearing every quick beat of my heart. His had stopped beating, but I wasn’t sure if it was really safe to stop holding my breath. I had learned that getting your hopes up didn’t always work out as you wanted. Darius gently pulled his hand out of mine and wrapped his arm around me, kissing my cheek chastely.

“It’ll be okay, baby. No matter what happens, it’ll be okay,” Dray whispered, his voice giving out at the end.

“I’m scared,” I choked out, leaning on him as I sobbed. “What if they don’t wake up? What then?”

He opened his mouth, but he didn’t utter a word for a few moments. “I don’t know,” he finally choked. “But it’ll be okay. Somehow it’ll be okay.”

“How can you even say that? It won’t be okay! What makes you think it’ll be okay?” I asked, directing my misery into anger and throwing that anger at him. I pushed myself away from him and stood up, but he caught my hand and pulled me back to him. I fell onto his lap and cried into his chest, only able to picture my three boys suffering as my embrace tightened on Kai.

“I wouldn’t lie to you, Gracie,” he murmured, kissing my forehead. “I didn’t use to, but now I believe in miracles. I mean, I have you back in my arms, don’t I? That’s a whole lot more than I deserve. Who’s to say that we can’t have one more miracle?”

I was speechless then, and all I could do was stare at him, not sure I was speaking to the same faithless Darius I had grown to love.

He nodded, smiling gently. “It worked, are you happy? Maybe that monotheism junk isn’t all the shit I thought it was. If it can save our boys, I’m willing to believe in anything.”

He kissed me quickly as a doctor walked in, and I carefully wrapped one arm around his shoulder as I tried to get comfortable without disturbing my sleeping baby. Darius and I turned to look at the same doctor who had condemned our child.

“I see that your son is no longer a hybrid and your other children are now under my care. I would like to know what happened, if it’s not any trouble.”

I hugged Darius closer, not able to put into words what had happened. I hadn’t exactly seen the fiasco, but I knew exactly what had gone down—the three boys had bitten Kai simultaneously, thinking that they would be alright as long as they were not infected with the disease in its entirety. I didn’t know if their logic had worked or not, and that was killing me. Darius finally returned the squeeze and kissed my forehead gently.

“It’s my fault. I left them alone with Kai, so I could have some time with Gracie.” Dray’s voice was so soft. “I told them about his illness, and they, naturally, asked why I couldn’t just turn him. I told them what you had told me, but they warped my words apparently. I guess they thought that, if they all bit him, the disease would be diluted and wouldn’t affect them so much.” He paused briefly. “Please tell me they were right.”

The doctor let out a deep breath. “Childish innocence, I suppose, is the most pure form of naivety there is.” Darius and I watched him carefully, trying to read into what he was saying. His expression was purely neutral, and his words did not condemn—nor did they save—the unconscious children in the hospital beds. “They have not yet mastered the thinking process, and, as such, their logic can not be shadowed by any doubts. They live in the moment, they think in the moment, and they act in the moment. I suppose that is what saved Kai.”

I couldn’t help but smile out of relief. Kai yawned softly, turning and nestling in my arms as if to tell me that the doctor was not lying to me. I muttered a thank you, but the man did not even attempt to smile.

“Shall we move into the next room? I would like to address any concerns about the other three, as I assume you have plenty.”

Darius gave me a gentle push, and I quickly released him from my half-embrace as I hurried to get on my feet. He carefully took Kai out of my arms and balanced him with one arm as his free hand caught mine quickly. I followed his quick footsteps as we left the anxiety-filled waiting room and entered the even worse hospital room. My three boys were shivering in torment, and I couldn’t tell if their pallor was normal or not.

“How are they?” I asked without another thought, taking my hand out of Darius’ and wrapping my arms around his waist, my body telling me that the room was very cold. Or maybe that was just the nerves telling me that I would soon need comfort; I did not know.

The doctor grabbed the clipboards from the beds and scanned through them quickly. “It’s not good.” My heart fell. “But it could be worse.” I bit back a groan as my hopes skyrocketed. “They don’t seem to have the septicemia that your infant originally had, but they do have pneumonia. I’m almost positive that their vampiric blood will destroy the infection without any medical help, but they will surely experience minor discomfort until the hybrid blood is out of their systems.

“They are in a half-conscious state right now; they can hear everything around them, but they cannot respond. They will not regain body functions until their antibodies have killed the infection, so give them a day or two at most. If they don’t regain consciousness after that, you may consider bringing them back. Since you have the option, I would suggest asking Drakken to watch over them. He knows a lot about vampire children, more than I could ever know.”

Darius was the one to thank him this time, so I carefully removed myself from him and walked over to Marty’s bedside. His eyes were open, but they were absolutely blank. No life sparkled in them whatsoever, but I was forced to trust the doctor’s words.

“Demetrius, I know that the split hurt you the most, and I don’t blame you. It hurt me, too. I’m going to let you in on a big secret, okay?” He didn’t respond, so I simply smiled and showed him my left hand. “See? Everything’s all better now. And Kai’s okay, too. Your stunt scared me so much, Marty. I was so worried. But guess what else? We’re not all we’ve got anymore. We have Darius and Kai, too. And they’re angels, so I know we have nothing to worry about.” I kissed his forehead softly. “We’re going to stay at your grandfather’s house for a bit, until you and your brothers are feeling better. And then we can go home and start our family life again, right where we left off.”

A faint blush returned to his cheeks, and I smiled as I looked over to Darius. He was surely whispering the same things to Jonathan and Marcus, only he was using our poor baby to illustrate us walking home with giant grins on our faces. I couldn’t help but laugh when he used Kai as a puppet, forcing him to do a dance as he shrieked certain disapproval. Darius was laughing like a maniac as Kai tried to bite him, and I didn’t blame him one bit.

“Dray?” I called softly, walking over to him. “Our child is not a toy for you to play with.”

“Oh.” His face fell, but he smiled. “Then are you for me to play with?”

“They can still hear you!” I hissed under my breath, smacking his chest.

He brought his hand to his heart, looking rather shocked. “You struck me!”

“I want to go home,” I murmured softly, leaning against him. “Can we go?”

“We’re going to my father’s, right?”

I nodded. “That sounds like the smart thing to do, puppet master.”

He made Kai perform another dance, and I snatched him into my arms. “Good Lord.”

“Oh, you love me,” he teased, kissing me quickly.

“Yeah,” I smiled. “I do.”
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I am really sorry for how long this took to get out! I am making it my priority to update at least once a week, if not more, from now on. Time simply slipped away! But hopefully this is the last dramatic chapter. I originally planned on Marty dying and Kai dying, but it should make you all happy that you changed my mind, and I simply could not go through with it. Thanks for reading :)