Abnormal Ames Sisters Book 3

4

"How did you two meet before?" I heard Aurora ask as I blinked my eyes open. I saw her by the door sitting on Dean's knee while Mark paced near Devin. I looked to where they were all looking and saw Valentino hunched over a microscope

"What do you mean?" He asked not taking his eyes off his work.

"The witch we learned from, she was able to give Ivory and I a little glimpse at our mate and she said that you and our sister had met before, as kids. And earlier you said her name sounded familiar." She explained, and Valentino finally pulled his face away from the microscope and swiveled to look at them.

"I don't know, where did you grow up?" He asked, and I rolled my eyes.

"New York. But since she was in medical school, I was just thinking like the medical camp she went to... did you go to one?"

"A couple actually." He nodded and looked towards me before smiling softly and standing up. "Hey there."

"Baton Rouge." I whispered to him and he seemed to think back before laughing lightly.

"This is the guy who you cried over leaving-"

Devin had thankfully elbowed A in her stomach and she whimpered and nudged her back. I just kept my eyes on them realizing that Valentino was Val. "You cried?"

"No." I lied and shivered before rubbing my hands together.

"Still cold?" He asked noticing my hands and dropping the subject about my crying.

"Always." I said, and he reached out and grabbed my hands and cupped them in his. "How long was I asleep?" I asked looking around.

"An hour. All you missed was more wedding planning, a puke fest, and a little interrogation." Aurora said, and I looked harder at her.

"Who threw up?"

"Guilty." Devin said and rubbed her belly.

"You shouldn't be throwing up this late in the pregnancy." I stated and moved to sit up with my hands in Valentino's still.

"It wasn't the baby. You know how I can't eat liquorish or even smell it? Well someone out there was eating it and I just got a whiff and I had to run to the bathroom as quick as possible." Devin said holding her hands up and then looking towards A. "And we said we weren't going to worry you." She said with a tight voice and A ducked her head.

"It slipped." She murmured, and I just laughed lightly and felt Valentino's hands move towards my wrists as my hands stayed warm.

"So, did you find anything?" I asked him, looking back up at him and he shook his head sadly.

"Nothing at all?" Devin asked sadly, and Valentino sighed and got up before considering the microscope one more time, making a few twinges to the dial before pulling away.

"This is what is happening all over her body. It's a swab from the inside of her old liver." He told them, and Devin went and looked first. "It's kind of disgusting, and all the cells are now dead, but looking closer into them you can see there is something that isn't even in the dead cells of any human, witch, or werewolf." He said as they all took turns looking into the scope and I really wanted to see what it looked like.

"It's the curse." I said without a doubt and looked at everyone.

"You haven't even seen it."

"What else would be killing me." I said looking towards Devin who looked so worried and so adamant about me living, but even while meeting Valentino again, and knowing he is my mate, won't save me. Only an actual plan will. This isn't Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty's fairy tale, a kiss won't just make it all better.

"Where did you even learn about this curse?" A asked me and I just shrugged and looked away. "How do you not know where?"

"I just knew it when were out there. It was like I had fallen asleep out there and the curse came to me, I didn't need to do a potion with it, the chant was simple, so I did it." I said quickly pulling away from Valentino's hands and then crossing my arms.

"What do you mean it just came to you?" Valentino asked me, and I sighed.

"A couple years ago, we went to this witch, and since our parents were wolves, and we were witches there is this stupid prophecy. There is the witch of Love, which is Devin, then the witch of Life which is Aurora, and then I am the witch of Wisdom. Every 50 years this happens, and each time one of them must die to save the world from whatever. With us it was the dead rising. And when it did, we were all chanting in a circle and I stopped when this page, it was like an open book just right in front of me, and the chant was simple, it was in Latin and you just insert a name, and I said mine. And then the dead all disappeared."

"What did the curse say exactly?" He asked standing up straight and crossing his arms before narrowing his eyes on me.

"It translates to: Thy who I curse will fade into nothing, be gone and not missed, so I curse you..." I said and looked at my nails and nibbled my lips.

"Be gone and not missed? What the hell is that suppo-"

"Stress for the baby Devin." Mark said, and I just kept looking down.

"Damn the stress. Did you hear her? I know for sure I heard her. And I don't -"

"Devin!" Aurora shouted stopping her and grabbing her into a hug and as much as I wanted to stand up and join in I felt the catheters move around painfully.

"You okay?" Valentino asked noticing my wince.

"When do I get the stupid catheters out?" I asked him without answering him.

"In about three days." He told me and smiled. "You're healing faster than Dr. Hall and the other one thought you would." He said and winked at me before squatting down.

"Why are you in here and not in a lab?" I asked looking at his stuff and he smiled and looked down at himself before making eye contact with me.

"Because you're in a hospital bed and I would still be in the same building." He told me, and I peeked over at my sisters who were watching us, and I swallowed hard.

"What else are you looking at under those?"

"Just some other stuff." He told me and shrugged, and I narrowed my eyes just a bit.

"You do know that I already graduated medical school, so I know what you would be talking about right?" I asked him, and he smiled and looked back and scratched the back of his head.

"What I look for, I was never taught in medical school." He said, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Tell me anyways." I demanded, and he sighed and nodded before walking over to his stuff.

"We're going to go up and get you lunch okay?" Devin said, and I noticed her smirk. I don't know what happened, it was most likely her hormones playing tricks on not only her, but all of us. I saw a confused face on Mark and a worried one on Dean as he made eye contact with Aurora.

"Okay." I said, and Valentino put the microscope on the table used for my food, focused it before wheeling it over to me. "Now, what am I looking at?" I asked and sat up wincing as I went.

"I think it is just the magic in all of our blood. Because when you see human blood you don't see a slight, I don't want to call it a sparkle, but that's what it looks like. In witches, it's very visible. I've taken blood from the three stages of being in a wolf and when we are wolves our blood looks like that of a witch. But when we are human for more than a week-" I had to sort of stop listening and watch him explain. I wanted to giggle at how excited he was over this, but I realized I was spacing out. "And with Vampires they had dead blood unless they had just fed, and then that blood that they take, human, witch, or werewolf, have the same sparkle of that of a witch." He said and gave me a huge smile and I smiled back.

"And what does my blood look like?" I asked and turned my head to look right into the scopes and focused it for my eyes before blinking a couple times. There were black spots, red spots, and then what I guess was the sparkles in the blood he was talking about.

"It's abnormal, but as soon as I find out what the black spots are, what they can be cured with, the won't be in your blood any longer." He said when I pulled back to look up at him. I will admit that I didn't know what to even do as a procedure to finding out what there were, or how to get rid of them.

"How long will that take?" I asked, and he took a breath.

"I don't know. But I do know, that you won't die, and you won't get anywhere close to it. You might have to get a couple more transplants but that will be it." He said, and I just nodded.

"I have to be better by the time Devin gets married and has the baby because she really wants-"

"What she really wants, over anything, is to make sure you are going to live long enough to have your own baby." He told me, and I looked towards the microscope and gulped.

"But just because I did this to myself, doesn't mean she can't have what she has wanted since she was little." I said and felt my emotions rise. He moved the table away and put the side of the bed down before sitting down next to me and pulling my hands to his chest. Before wrapping his other arms around my back and pulling me to lay on his chest.

"You'll be well enough to make it to her wedding, and if anything goes wrong, I will be your date so don't worry too much." He told me, and I smiled and shook my head slightly.

"You just assume you'll be my date huh?" I asked, and he growled.

"You better have not had another male in mind." He told me, and I smirked.

"Just my friend, he and Devin got close and he doesn't have a boyfriend of his own, so we were going to go together." I said and wiped my nose thinking about Jesse.

"Oh really? Is he human?" He asked, and I shook my head.

"No, he's a vampire. But he is cool with an entire pack." I said wondering if he wouldn't like it because I knew that most packs hated covens and I gulped slightly waiting for his reaction.

"Are you talking about Jesse?" He asked me with a confused expression and I nodded.

"You know Jesse? Do you know Aaron Titan too?" I asked, and he laughed.

"Aaron is my older half-sister." He told me, and I just blinked.

"But you're both wolves. And when we were younger you told me how much you wanted a sibling, you didn't have one so how is she your older-"

"I didn't know about her until she and her mate came down to New Orleans, it's where I used to live, and she was turning into a hybrid and that was about a year ago, now." He told me, and I just nodded. About the same time, Devin and Mark found each other... sort of. Minus a couple months. "How do you know them?"

"Do you know that Aurora can see and talk to the dead?" I asked, and he shook his head. "Do you know that Mark's baby sister died?"

"Yeah. I wasn't able to attend the funeral." He said, and I nodded sadly.

"Well when they went to recover her body Aurora went with them... and there were many other bodies there. So, while they were there, we stayed with Aaron and her mate. We met a lot of the people in the pack, and of course Jesse. Devin and him really clicked." I said and shrugged and looked away, but he laughed lightly.

"I don't know a person alive that Jesse doesn't just click with. He's a good guy." He said, and I nodded along and looked towards him again. "Aaron didn't mention me at all?"

"She mentioned her little brother Tino, but not your full name, or last name for that matter. She's really proud of you though." I said, and he smiled and looked down at his feet.

"What about you? You went to medical school same as me, what do you think about me?" He asked sounding almost scared of the answer.

"Do you want me to be completely honest?" I asked, and I saw his breath hitch before sighing and nodding. "I look up to you. I didn't know you were a wolf, and I don't really care about that. You are who you are, I learned that much from Mark and Devin's relationship. But what you have done, how many lives you have saved, it's amazing." I said, and he sighed out and squatted back down and took a deep breath.

"You scared me."

"Why?" I asked not getting why he would even think that I wouldn't look up to him.

"Because what I do, it's not easy, it's hard. And no offense, but I didn't think you would understand." He told me, and I just felt confused.

"Wouldn't understand what?" I asked, and he gave me a confused look in return.

"That I can't be in a committed relationship right now. I'm not saying that I would go and be with other women, no that's not what I mean. I mean that I can't just quit now, I can't stay in one place. My job is too big for that. I don't want to be married or have kids-"

"You do realize I might not even get to hit my next birthday, right?" I stopped him a little angry he is talking about this. He had told me I was his, but it was sounding as if he had some huge business meeting and I was in the hospital with a common f*****g cold.

"You will." He stated like I had just yelled that at him.

"If you have to be somewhere Valentino, leave, I won't keep you from your fabulous life of helping others." I said, and he sighed. "Go ahead, I am sure someone else will be able to fix me." I said turning away still not getting why he would just come out and say that.

"I didn't mean I would leave right now, but I have prior engagements I have to fulfill. And some of them you might not like-"

"Why are you even here if you had stuff to do? Just go and do what you have to do. Maybe when you have enough time to explain to me how this mating is going to go, come back. Maybe I'll still be here." I said, and he gulped before standing up and pacing. "I am going to go back to sleep, please leave or be very quiet." I told him after a minute and then turned over as best as I could, so he saw my back.

I closed my eyes and slept on, reading as well as I could. Trying to forget about what Valentino had just told me.