Page 15 of Monsters in My Bed
“BecauseI'mthe secret weapon. I’m the Pharos, the light to end his rule.”
“Alexis—we don’t know the prophecy in its entirety, and prophecies do not necessarily mean they are true. If we lost you, it would kill us. Do you understand that? I feel it inside me. Without you, I would wither away.”
“That's not true. You’re part human.”
“Broken Heart Syndrome is a real thing. Even if I'm not one hundred percent Vasura, it would end me to know that you died fruitlessly at the hands of that beast for nothing.” I bare my teeth and extend my bloody claws. “Do you see these?Theseare weapons.Iam a weapon, nigh indestructible. I know you want to help, but you have to think about everyone else who's depending on you—me, your trium of mates, your baby. We all need you… and you don't have to prove anything. You don't have to fulfill this prophecy just because it was foretold by who knows who.”
Tears fill Alexis's eyes and spill down her cheeks as her body trembles with the intensity of her emotions. My tongue flicks out against my will, tasting the delicious darkness emanating from my mate. Anger, worry, fear, and the ugliest—but the tastiest of them all—unworthiness.
“I meant what I said,” I whisper, hating how good such awful emotion tastes. “You don't have to proveanything.”
Alexis sniffles and turns away from me. “Don't I? I let down everyone in my life. My parents, my best friend,you.”
I grab her upper arm and gently swing her back to face me. “Alexis, look at me. You didn't let me down. There was so much more at play that none of us knew—that you were fighting alone. It's not fair to take your childhood nightmares and turn them into your shortcomings. Do you understand me?”
She nods but doesn't say anything, and I know it will take a while for her to even be ready to heal from the trauma of her past, so I grab her hand and tug her into motion.
“Come on. Let's go back. Apparently, there’s a baby…”
“Babies,” she corrects, and I remember she pluralized the word before, it just didn’t sink in then.
“Babies?You had twins?”
“Yes, a boy and a girl—there's never been a girl Vasura before.”
The scholar in me instantly perks up. “Interesting. Do you know who the father is?”
I ask my question lightly, hoping she knows that it's not important to me. I’m more curious than anything.
“I do.” Alexis grins mischievously at me, and my stomach clenches.
“Who?”
She tips up on her toes and brushes a kiss across my monstrous cheek. “You.”
I stumbled back in shock. “What?”
“Youare the father. It must have happened back when we were on Earth.”
A stunned chuckle tumbles through my lips. Over the last few days, I've learned some pretty outlandish things about myself, but nothing could have prepared me to learn that I'm adad. Suddenly the fact that I didn't kill mine seems worse than I first thought, and I promise myself that next time, I won’t fail.
There’s too much at stake.
seven
ALEXIS
IleadMarkintoThe Palasseum, going from room to room like Vizruk and Osz did, just in case The Fallacious comes back—and I have no doubt he will. I don't ask Mark, but it's obvious that the False King fled because he wasn't winning the battle. Staring at the behemoth monster next to me, it's obvious as to why.
Blood and chunks of flesh stick to Mark’s long nails. This side of him is the antithesis to Mark's sweet gentleness when he's in human form, but then I remember his words of how he was born from hatred. That rage always swirled inside of him with no outlet, and I know his pain. Having to tamp down everything you feel on the side. That stuff eats you alive from the inside out, and I would never want that for anyone.
Least of all Mark.
I sense the gears turning in Mark's brain, always thirsting for knowledge, seeking out answers. “A girl?” He mutters more to himself than talking to me.
“A girl,” I confirm.
“Hmm, perhaps because she's three-fourths human, she had more of a chance of having a double X chromosome.” I shrug in response to his theory, just as clueless as to why the first girl Vasura was born. “What emotions were they born from?”
