Looking Back

Chapter 50

Victor

I held her hand as we rode to the hospital. "Mr. Morgan, can I get a bit of information from you, please?" I nodded as she continued, "Can you tell me if your girlfriend has been sexually active?"

My head shot up, "Y...yes. Was she..." I couldn't even finish my question. Oh gods, did we get there too late?

She patted my hand, "We won't know until we run a rape kit, but knowing how recently she had consensual sex will help give us a better picture."

I paused, "We might need to check with the others. We're in a poly relationship. I know she and I had sex five days ago, but I'm not sure if she had sex with the others."

"Okay, is she on birth control?"

"No, we...we've been trying to get pregnant," I stammered. Would she ever want kids after this? I know she wasn't there long, but I can't even imagine what damage this might have done...why the hell did we agree to this? I felt her hand flinch in mine and she whimpered.

"Ms. Dorman, can you hear me?" The paramedic checked her vitals as Avery stirred. "Ms. Dorman, you're in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. You're safe."

Avery shook her head and groaned, then her eyes flew open. They were unfocused and almost golden looking as she spoke, "Bris an mallacht, saor a n-anamacha." The words had no sooner left her lips than she went slack.

"What's happening?" I demanded as I was pushed aside. They placed a bag over her face and began giving her oxygen as they checked her responses. No alarms were sounding, and her heart rate seemed steady, but she wasn't responding. We pulled into the emergency entrance and they quickly wheeled her in.

"Please wait out here, sir," a nurse said as they closed the doors. A few moments later, the others arrived.

"Where is she?" Gabe demanded.

I pointed to the doors, "In there. Something happened in the ambulance and when we got here, they wouldn't let me in."

"What do you mean something happened?" Owen asked. "Is she going to be okay?"

"I...I don't know." I stared at the door as I spoke, "They want to know the last time each of us had sex with her... they're going to run a rape kit."

"Unless they did something before I got in there, I didn't see anything like that," Axel said. "When I got there the guy was using the feeding tube on her."

"Her chart wasn't filled out for...for that," Kota stammered. "All the others had dates and times of what they called insemination."

"Come on," Marc said, "You aren't doing her any good staring at the door. We just have to wait and have a little faith in your wildfire."

"Kota, how good is your Irish?" I asked.

"So-so, why?"

"Just before she collapsed, she seemed to wake up. She spoke in Irish, but I don't know what it meant, then everyone panicked. She said, 'Bris an mallacht, saor a n-anamacha.' What does it mean?"

His eyes widened, "Break the curse, free their souls." He looked at Gabe, "How long did you say they'd been doing this?"

Gabe and Marc exchanged looks, "Damn near a century. If I had to guess, I'd say the body Ax stumbled on was just one of hundreds. There were hundreds of birth records."

An ear-shattering scream came from the hallway making all of us bolt upright. We ran toward the door where they'd taken Avery but couldn't see anything, instead, we heard female voices speaking the names of women. They all spoke in unison as if reading a list. All around us patients and visitors froze. I noticed one elderly woman bowing her head and muttering.

"Ma'am," I said gently, "What is happening?"

She looked at me and gave a mournful smile, "They're giving them peace. The Goddess is taking their souls to the Summerlands to find rest now. So many souls, so much pain."

"I don't understand, who are they? Who is doing this?" The others had come closer, listening to the old woman now.

"The Banshee, she cries for their pain and begs the Morrigan to take them, to release them from their tortures. All is as it should be now," the woman said and patted my hand lightly as the voices began to fade. Looking around the room, I saw dozens of people openly weeping and realized I was crying as well as the others. 

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