Bound By Blood

Chapter 5: Powers

Eris’s POV:

Silence follows Rosa’s words. And not because we didn’t hear her, that wasn’t possible given the supernatural level of hearing amongst all of us present, but rather because we had no idea how to respond to her question. Well, should I say statement since she seemed pretty set on the idea of getting rid of Ebony and Azrael - and that wasn’t a bad idea per se I just had no idea how she thought we’d manage it.

“Ok,” I break the silence first - seeing how my friend looks at me for confirmation that I agreed with her - not sure how to continue other than to say what was on my mind. Which is exactly what I do. “Ok, that’s a great idea theoretically Rose but have you given any thought to the practicality of what you’re asking? Do you even know what you’re asking? If it can be done?” I raise a brow in challenge and see her take a breath, wondering what her next words would be. Argument or appeasement and thought?

But instead, she says neither. “I know what you mean Eri and trust me I understand the magnitude of what I’m asking but other choices do we have?” Her mysterious eyes seem alight with conviction so I argue against my ingrained instinct to shut her up now before things get out of hand. Wanting to hear what she has to say. “I know what you’re meaning but with the number of families seeking shelter who may or may not be involved in this, I can’t risk either of them getting out. And I want them dead before my daughter’s born so neither can be a risk to her. Or Edana.”

Leila shrugs and looks away from Rosa and Hunter, up at Ash who just resumes his playing with her hair, a bored yet attentive expression in his eyes. Sighing I feel torn since part of me knows that Rosa’s using her maternal instincts to make the palace safe for her children since I don’t think the rest of us would stay here for an extended amount of time once the kids were born, at least not like we are now - but I don’t know if she’s thought it through properly. The way it would have to be done. The people it would mean risking involving. The way it may stay with whoever did it since she couldn’t - at least not on her own. Had she thought it through? Or was it just something she’d come up with as an easily reachable solution to our problem?

I look over to Leila and Ash since those two are the only other people with a say in this dilemma since it’s their family it involves. Ash returns my inquisitive look with a similar expression of his own but Leila shrugs and looks over at Rosa, “I know this may be controversial but I agree with Rosa on this one. They need to go.” Ash frowns at her, but she shrugs, putting her hands in his where they’d moved from her hair. “I know she’s your mother and all but if our kids want to be able to have the normal life we want for them then I’m sorry but your parents aren’t the people to have around them.”

“Parent singular,” I hear Ash mumble in a slightly sour tone that betrays to me how afraid he is of what she’s saying. Something that’s compounded by the fearful look I can see in his eyes when he addresses her. “Beloved, are you sure you’ve thought this through?” He sounds like he’s confused as to whether or not she’s been able to rationalize fully what she’s asking. “Are you sure you know what you’re asking?” Hearing him echo my earlier question to Rosa has me wondering if the two of us were more alike than we thought. “Are you sure you two know what you’re asking? Who you’d be risking involving?”

Now Leila and Rosa both sigh, but it’s Rosa who answers me. “It’s not just our children who would be in danger, Ash. Their future mates would be as well– that links to another two names. And what about the rest of those who are seeking shelter here? The Lilias’, the Damaris’. Your daughter Eri. not to mention the Cassidy’s,” She looks to Jackson and Mae who are sitting in each other’s arms with smiles that look somehow strained yet contented at the same time. Like Rosa and Leila have along with the other two. “And what about the people they would be linked to? And the people they mean? I mean alongside those of us I knew well I am fully aware that we’re sheltering the Lazlos’ the Davens and the Nights’. All people I think would be linked to our daughters and the kids they will be friends with in the future. All the people who would be dragged into that round of the game.”

“Assuming we let them play that is,” Hunter speaks up for the first time since we’d broached the question - well his partner - had about getting rid of his and Ash’s mother. As well as the man she married after she did awful things to Rosa’s mother before killing her. “Love, there may still be a way for us to keep them out of the horror and bloodshed we suffered. But allowing them to finish what we couldn’t because like our parents we ran out of time. Passing it onto them without meaning to.”

He gives her and Leila both an earnest look but she just shrugs. Rosa shrugs and says nothing else but Leila's response is different. She shrugs and settles back against him with a conflicted look rooted in her eyes that seem to cycle through moonstone and sky blue once before she closes them and I see her grip Ash's hands tighter than before. Ash’s eyes are drawn to hers automatically and she seems to shiver with something stronger than herself. As if the power finding its way out of her blood and into their daughter was causing a reaction before it left her for good. Assuming it would be completely gone from the four and not lingering…

“You said something about wanting the kids kept out of this as long as possible right,” I don’t realize I’ve spoken aloud until at least four pairs of eyes flash to mine where Leila had opened hers, observing that she’d managed to get it under control. “You said you wanted to keep them out of it? To continue to fight the battles until you’re sure they’re strong enough to fight to control the power and dispose of Amber, Laurel, and the others safely and without having to put the two of them at risk. Not to mention whoever else they would have become friends with - or their partners for that matter - who would have also become included in the game by default. Just as Leila and Rosa were.”

Rosa frowns and sits up slightly in Hunter’s arms, seeing that she’s not willing to stay out of this. She looks to him and then to Ash and Leila, the three showing the same confusion as she did. However I can’t tell what she isn’t getting since, to me, the logic is so flawlessly simple that I feel stupid for not guessing it. But I can see the others haven’t managed to figure it out when Rosa speaks after a few seconds of silent contemplation and shared looks between the three people still Bound to her, no matter where the power was. Which generation it resided in.

“What do you mean Eri? What did you mean about the power and where it was?” She fixes me with strangely bright eyes that seem to look like stars to me. “What happened to it? What did you figure out?” She looks at me and I can see the analytical stare that’s overshadowing the concern. The bemusement. As if she’s aiming to look so deep into my brain that she’d be able to either compel or pull the truth forcefully from my mind. “What did you find out Eri?” She softens her tone and gives me an imploring look, one that replaces the inquisitive stare she’d been using before. “Please, we said no more secrets. And that’s worth more now than ever.”

I sigh, hating how right she is. I know what we promised and I know about the vow we made but was it worth it? Was it worth pinning their hopes on something that may not even be true? Be possible in the realms of what it would mean for them? Or what the guilt, shame and all other feelings would do if we were to say something out loud, to form a plan, to let them hope only to have that hope ripped away if it was wrong? Was it worth the russian roulette we’d be playing? With not only their lives - sorry our lives - but also our children’s, their partners, their friends and their friend’s partners? Was it fair to disadvantage and drag into early this next round of players when they don’t even know what they’re being dragged into? The horrors they’d have to face?

“I…” I keep trying to think about how to say it but there seems to be no logical nor fair explanation for this. For the hope, I may be unwillingly instilling in the four of them with what my next words were. But I also can’t shut out the pleading looks I can see happening from my four best friends and newly concerned parents who though their children had yet to be born were already working to safeguard their lives as much as possible. I sigh, my eyes are drawn to the four in front of me, sighing when it becomes impossible to lie. To hide it even if the truth comes around to bite me in the ass later. “I may have found a way to keep them out of the game for as long as possible.”

“H-how?” I hear the breathlessness in both Leila and Rosa’s tones. In their voices the same as I can see it in Hunter’s and Ash’s eyes when I unwillingly look towards them. Seeing the raw hope in their eyes has me wishing I could be more certain about what I said but with an ominous prophecy hidden in the depths of my mind and the idea that my mind had found may not be right I can never be sure. Something that I hate to know my four friends knew, but my connection to them never closed thanks to our motto of no secrets I can’t hide. “Eri please,” Rosa’s tone is soft and I can hear under the raw desperation a deeper fear, one she refuses to vocalise given how much it makes her shake when my eyes are drawn to hers. “Eri please.”

“I don’t know if all the power leaves the four of you at once when the kids are born. I think some of it may remain inside the four of you. Like a trace being left behind.” I can tell I’ve got the four’s attention when they all stop their silent bickering with one another about whatever problem they’d been unable to resolve. I sigh. “I think that even though most of it would transfer into the two children Leila and Rosa are carrying, some may remain inside the four of you. Traces left behind if you will.”

Rosa spares me a look that I can’t quite decipher but says nothing. Instead, she tips her head and looks up at Hunter who frowns at her with a somewhat dubious expression that seems to look similar to the way he looks at her when she proposes something stupidly suicidal or crazy. Leila gives Ash a similar look and I can see that the two of them share looks over the two’s heads. Like they’re trapped in something they can’t get out of. Something they don’t understand. And I can’t work out if I'm supposed to be questioning why they aren’t speaking or just thankful that with the whole pile of crappy issues we have to deal with they won’t add another one onto it.

Until Rosa looks at me. “You said you think some of the power would continue to live on in the four of us? How would that work? Assuming that’s true.” She gives me a dubious frown but I just shake my head at her, not sure what to say or how to explain it. After all, how could I explain a hunch that had possibly just made my friends hold onto a fragile hope that may or may not crush them if it ends up being false? Something that if my old and half-forgotten dream happens to come true would do just that. Destroy them. But Rose seemed to notice my silence and figured out something I was hiding from her. “Eri?”