Burning Hearts

Chapter Forty

Casen

“Sh*t we can’t stay.” Robyn said low. I understood what she meant. Tana was sniffing the air and her nose was turning towards where we were. She could smell me. I would bet money on it. I didn’t get a chance to prove it though, as I was pulled back into reality. I listened to a chorus of gasps coming from all of us.

I can feel everyone now in our bed. Everyone quickly, but quietly ran from our bed. I heard faint coughing as I wanted to cough too. I feel like I can still smell the vile stench of Ornias. Tana was still sound asleep. I choked down my cough as I carefully moved out from under her. I made sure I tucked the covers around her body.

I tiptoed out of the room and softly closed the door behind me. “Our room.” Adrian had stayed behind to tell me as he was fighting coughing. I followed him quickly. I couldn’t control my coughing once outside the room though. I felt like there was sludge in my lungs.

“He’s not a dark celestial, at least not really. He’s a fallen angel. He turned into a demon when he fell from the light. I think he may have celestial blood still though, but yeah…” Robyn rushed out. We stared at her.

“He was afraid of her though. Tell me you didn’t see the fear in his eyes,” Brayon said. “I saw it.” I said. “Me too.” Adrian said, and we all nodded. It took us a couple of minutes to control our coughing. Robyn had brought Chase into the bedroom and returned without him. She probably laid him back down. Adrian passed water to us that he poured. I was glad for it.

I plopped on the floor near the fireplace. “So, he plans to kill Juno and kill us in the process. Then make Tana and our daughters his prisoners.” I said through gritted teeth. “It wasn’t only that. I think he intends to impregnate your daughters as well. I heard them whispering that they were scared when he tired of making mommy have his babies. There was real fear in their eyes,” Orien said.

My eyes turned and shot to Orien’s face. “I want to be sick,” I said. My brothers grumbled their anger as well. “How do we stop that from happening? How do we get to the future with those beautiful cliffs and waterfall?” I asked. “Oh, that was our home at Black Moon.” Robyn said a little proudly. “It’s beautiful,” I commented.

“I know one thing for sure is,” Robyn paused to look at us. “I need to step back. Clearly, I am not going to be powerful enough to lead,” Robyn stated. “But you are the strongest of us.” I said. “No, I’m not. Not anymore. Tana is stronger than me. He feared her. It has to be her to defeat him with our help. I just hope that the idea I have can be brought to fruition to help all of us,” Robyn said.

“What?” We all said at once.

“I dare not say right now. I will tell you all soon, but all this must be kept secret from Tana. We need him to believe we are still just dealing with Valac and his form. Above all, we need to take care of Tana. She is unstable at the moment due to her hormones. I don’t think I had it this bad, but then again, I wasn’t carrying triplets either. At least one of you needs to remain at her side at all times. She seems to only calm when you are around her.”

“Yes, we must protect those beautiful angels,” Adrian said.

We didn’t want to stay too much longer. We were all tired and I wanted to get back to Tana before she realized I was gone. I was able to slip back into bed and Tana was still where I left her. No sooner had I settled down, and she shot off of the bed and ran to the bathroom. I got back out of bed, and she was throwing up and crying.

Once she initially emptied her belly, I was able to clean her up and carry her back to bed. She was crying, but also drifting back off to sleep in my arms. I let her get comfortable on me which she laid on top of me and I wrapped my arms around her to make her feel safe and protected. I felt her tears hit my chest for about a minute before her breathing evened out into her snoring.

~~~

I wanted to spend as much of the day snuggling Tana to help her, but plans were thrown out the window immediately. I woke to Tana throwing up, which was normal except she began freaking out and I realized quickly why. She had blood in her vomit. I dressed her quickly and as I was going to go get Orien to drive us to the hospital, Callum was coming towards our door.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, concerned. “Tana has blood in her vomit. I need to get her to the hospital fast.” “Go get her. I’ll drive you.” He ordered me as he turned to run for the garage. I raced back into the room and dressed fast. I wrapped her in the blanket from the couch. She was shivering. I lifted her and ran to the garage.

I almost ran Michael over. He didn’t stop to ask questions. He followed us. Callum had the back door open to his suv and I jumped in with her. Michael ran around and climbed into the passenger seat. Callum peeled out of the garage and sped down the long driveway. Tana let out small moans of distress.

“What the f*ck is happening?” Michael confronted me. “I woke up to her getting sick. There was blood in her vomit, and she’s been shivering for the past few minutes. We’re taking her to the hospital.” Michael reached over the seat and dug her wrist out. The car was silent except for our breathing and noises from the car.

I didn’t like the look on Michael’s face the longer he held her wrist taking her pulse. He started running his hands all over her. He removed the blanket from her chest and watched her breathe. It felt like it took forever, but it was only a minute or two.

“She has a fever. Her heart rate is a little fast. She may have caught a virus, or it could be an infection. I won’t know. The doctors will have to run tests.” I cringed to hear his assessment.

The anxious tension in the car could be cut with a knife. It was almost a whirlwind as we got her checked into the hospital. They had to take her to the maternity ward first because Michael stressed immediately that she is pregnant. She wailed with a weak voice when they took her away from my arms. I could hear her calling for me over and over. It took a couple of minutes before one of the nurses came back out of the room, they took her into.

“Are one of you Casen?” I nodded. “I am.” “Who are you to Ms. McCoy?” “I’m her fiancé and the father of the babies.” “We need you to come in and see if you can calm her. We can’t assess anything because she won’t remain still and keeps calling for you.” “I can do that.”

She led me back into the room and Tana was thrashing so much it was all the nurses could do to keep her from falling onto the floor. I raced to the bed and lifted her. She stopped wailing my name and thrashing about. “Lie down with her.” The nurse who got me demanded. I climbed on the bed with some of their help because it was higher up and I laid down with Tana lying against me. She moaned as they prodded her.

They began undressing her and quickly had her in a hospital gown. I was asked questions and I answered them as quickly as best as I could. Apparently, they didn’t like the readouts from her vital signs. They had oxygen flowing into her nose immediately. The nurses were efficient and had Tana ready for the doctor fast.

They took blood and even somehow extracted urine from her. The doctor had her in stirrups as he examined her pelvic area. He took swabs and such from her. He even pressed around on her stomach. He didn’t miss examining one part of her. Tana started to make the noise like she was going to be sick, and a plastic tub was immediately brought under her as she threw up again.

The doctor didn’t like what he was seeing. I could see it in his face. He looked at me. “I need to do an upper endoscopy.” “Do what you need to please help her.” He handed the nurse the plastic tub and retrieved a clean one. “I will be back in a few moments. Just try to keep her rested.” “Okay.”

They left us alone in the room. I couldn’t help it and tears ran down my face. I’m so scared for her and our babies. I sniffled and quickly wiped my eyes when I heard the door opening. Michael and Callum came in.

“What’s happening?” Michael asked. “I don’t know. The doctor wants to do an upper endoscopy. Something is wrong though.” You could see the anguish on their faces. They didn’t stay long and kissed her head before they left. They were going to get comfortable and wait for us no matter how long it took.

It seemed like everything took forever, but it was just because I wanted answers. I had to remind myself that they were looking for them. They gave her a sedative to allow them to perform the endoscopy. I had to step out of the room while they did it. Callum had me in his arms and I was crying. Michael rubbed my back to comfort me.

The doctor and nurses came out of her room. “Has she been throwing up violently lately?” I felt the color drain from my face. All I could do was nod. “I found tears in her esophagus. They are bleeding and infected. That accounts for the blood and her fever. We’re going to settle her in a room and keep her for observation for a couple of days as we help her to battle the infection.”

“Okay. Thank you doctor.” I said a little clipped in my words. I was trying to fight sobbing. I want to kill that f*cker. He did this to her when he possessed her. I felt like Ornias was laughing at me in the spirit world. He wanted to weaken Tana and he did.

~~~

It took several days before the doctors felt Tana could be released from the hospital. The initial antibiotics they gave her she had an allergic reaction to. It was not a pretty sight. Her whole body turned puffy and red. The poor nurses kept pushing for her to eat her vegetables too, though all she would eat was the meat if she ate much at all.

The only reason we’re able to bring her home now is because Robyn finally got at her and healed the tears in her esophagus. The second antibiotic was able to clear up the infection quickly with the tears healed. She has still been emotional, and I was assured it was the hormones. They did what they could to help with that, but there wasn’t too much they could do. I heard one of the nurses comment quietly she wouldn’t be surprised if Tana was pregnant with twins at least. I had to chuckle internally.

She was pulled out of my arms immediately when Callum parked the car. Michael whisked her away into the house. I didn’t bother to chase him. I could feel how much my brothers have wanted to be close to her and hold her close to them and they haven’t been able to.

I found them in the dining room. Michael had Tana sitting on his lap. Orien was to his right and Brayon was to his left. They were trying to feed her. She seemed to want to eat Robyn’s food more than what she did in the hospital. She ate painstakingly slow, but they were patient with her. I could feel everyone’s elation the more food she ate. She lost a lot of weight over almost the week in the hospital.

Adrian made me sit and placed a plate full of food in front of me. “Eat.” He ordered me. I did. I was hungry too, but I had a hard time eating from stressing over Tana. I had to cancel driving lessons for those days and our professor was understanding as to why we were both missing class.