Miracle (boyxboy)

Chapter Eleven

"We're breeders, Maddy!"

She blinked at me, long and slow. "Connor, I think that rattlesnake spit addled your brain."

"Ugh, don't ever mention snakes to me again." My skin had already started crawling. I shivered, and had to run a hand up and down my arm to rid it of the prickly sensation.

"Okay, okay, sorry." Maddy plucked a cherry lollipop from her mouth and re-situated herself in the hospital room's guest chair. I angled myself toward her urgently, then hissed as the movement sent piercing pain through my chest.

"Hey, take it easy. You're beat to hell, have you even seen yourself in a mirror yet?" She reached over and adjusted the ice pack on my chest.

But I had more important things to think about than vanity. "I'm telling you, I know what they're doing. That place Ezra works for. They're making breeders for themselves."

"It doesn't make any more sense the second time you said it."

"Elioud Biogenesis. Elioud are the children of Nephilim. Biogenesis means life coming from existing life. The Nephilim are doing something to human babies before they're born, so that they'll grow up to be compatible mates. And when the kid becomes fertile, and 'ripens'—like when a girl gets her period—they come take them away and marry them so they can make their Elioud babies."

"Still doesn't make sense. First off, why wouldn't Nephilim be compatible with humans to begin with? I mean, if they're really half angel, half human, then their parents had to get it on somehow, right?"

Crap. She had a point.

"And second, if they're that into having kids, why don't they just make them with their own kind? You know, nice Nephilim boy finds a nice Nephilim girl and they knock boots till she's preggers? Been working for humans for a few thousand years."

Maybe Maddy was right, and the snake venom had messed me up. Normally I would have thought of that long before she did.

"Aw, bubba, don't look so down. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

"You didn't," I said, though probably not very convincingly. I was so sure I'd figured it out. My reasoning instincts clearly weren't working like I was used to. And I was especially not used to Maddy being the one to out-think me. She was the mettle, I was the brains. That was always how it went.

"Gotta tell you, though, a girl could get used to this pheromone thing. Every guy in town wanted to drive me to Amarillo today. I got free breakfast from Carl at the Donut Stop and first thing this morning, guess who was in our driveway with an armful of flowers and a stuffed bear the size of Mom's Honda?"

I waited.

"Justin," she announced dramatically. "Can you believe him? He came to give me my phone back. I told him I hoped he liked snuggling with that bear 'cause he was never ever ever gonna lay hands on me again. He cried. It was poetic."

"I don't know, Maddy, I mean... don't you feel kind of bad for him? If we're really giving off chemicals that make people crazy, then it wasn't really his fault."

"Fuck that," she said firmly. "It was absolutely, totally, entirely his fault. I don't care if the two of us smell like fucking ambrosia, that doesn't excuse what he did. There are plenty of people in the world who don't turn into rapey creepy cowardly mofos when they're attracted to somebody. For that to happen, they had to already be a jerk on the inside."

There was a light knock on the hospital room door, and then it opened. "Excuse me. Um. Connor?"

"Pete," I exclaimed, casting a shocked glance over at Maddy. Had she known he was coming? She shook her head.