Firstborn [malexmale]

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

I didn't understand.

What went wrong? What happened? How could this have happened?

Hades was right there. He was by my side the entire time. He had complete control over the situation. Even Rowan and Geara were at his side. Geara was old as time itself. Rowan too, and he had special training in the medical field.

And Thorn was holding my hand, I had felt his fingers brush through my hair, felt Blaine squeezing my other hand, kissing my temple, telling me it was going to be okay. I had felt so calm and so relaxed. Everything was going so smoothly. In a matter of minutes, I was going to be eased off the anesthesia and I'd be able to hold my son in my arms as Thorn and I finally settled on a name.

I was totally ready to show my son the world and everything in it. I was so ready to share him with his family. I wanted him to meet all of his uncles, all of his aunts, his grandparents, his huge dysfunctional family. I couldn't wait to rock him to sleep in his nursery, a room I'd been working on for months to perfect just for him.

So why?

Why was I standing across the room, watching Rowan pull a sheet over my body?

It didn't make any sense. Nothing had hurt. There had been no pain whatsoever. I'd been so calm. Everything had been going perfectly. I hadn't heard any sort of panic or screaming or anything. But then, I slowly began to realize the anesthesia had numbed all of it. I didn't feel Hades cut me open, pull out my baby. I didn't feel all the blood pouring out of me, didn't hear the machines screaming. I didn't hear Blaine sobbing, didn't feel him tugging at my arm, patting at my cheek. I didn't feel Thorn's tears on my face, didn't hear him whispering at me to come back.

I hadn't felt any of it.

I hadn't felt myself die.

And yet, here I was. Standing in the corner of the room, watching as Rowan clicked the lever on the bed so he could wheel it out of the room. Of course, he didn't get far, because Theo was right there to put his foot on the bed, shooting a murderous glare at him.

"You're not taking him anywhere," Theo said through clenched teeth. Rowan frowned.

"We can't leave him here."

"We have to wait," Theo insisted, "Joxeia will help. He's done it before, I've seen him do it before--"

"There's a time limit," Rowan said with the kind patience of a doctor delivering bad news, "Joxeia's power cannot work on a corpse that's begun rigor mortis. He'll be bringing a soul back into a rotten body. And I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of condemning him to life as a zombie." Theo's jaw locked, ticcing he was clenching his teeth so hard. He tightened his grip on the bed, clearly refusing, despite Rowan's logic. Rowan sighed and released the bed, stepping back and putting his hands up. Theo glared at him and Rowan lowered his arms.

"He can't stay in here long," he said after a moment, "I'm going to check on the baby." He started past him, and instinctively I started to follow him.

"Good luck," Theo muttered, making both Rowan and I turn to look at him, "Thorn won't put the thing down." I flinched at the way he referred to my son, and the fact that Thorn was obviously hurting. I turned back to Rowan, who didn't see me. He studied Theo for a long moment, looking right through me as I wasn't there, then he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. I followed him out to the hallway where Geara and Viviana were waiting, both of whom were pale and exhausted.

"How is he?" Viviana asked. Rowan looked at her.

"He just lost his little brother. As well as he can be."