Bad Choices (Hypernaturals 8)

Trigger Phrase

Morgan and I looked at each other, wide-eyed.

"I am sorry, Andrea. What is Astral, and did you say your father wants to marry your daughter?"

Under the Juice it is not good to ask a multi-part question. Andrea got all mentally stove up. I said "Answer one question at a time, Andrea. Did you say your father: Your literal, biological dad, wants to marry Nakoma?"

"Yes." Andrea agreed.

"A little girl." I added.

"Yes."

"A related to him little girl..." I continued.

"Yes."

"And you agreed to him doing that?" I asked with no small amount of outrage creeping into my voice.

"Yes. That is why I had to have her." Andrea said.

Morgan understood the problem with complex questions. "Why did you agree to do that?"

"That is why I married Angel." Andrea said, as if that were obvious.

What the entire fuck.

"You married Angel to have a child, so your father could marry her?" Morgan asked

"Yes." Andrea seemed relieved to have an easy question from her.

"What if you had a son?" I asked

"That would have been bad." Andrea said as if he were agreeing.

"How did you know Angel had a girl?" I asked.

"Dad checked... Somehow." Andrea did not know how his dad came to know the gender of his own child. Birth announcement maybe? Still not important.

"Would you have tried to get Angel to take you back if she did have a son?" I asked.

"Yes. Dad needs a girl."

"A little girl." I stated.

"Yes"

"Why?" Morgan asked. One word, but wide open to answer.

"So they could have mixed blood Astral children together." Andrea said as if they explained something.

"How would you have convinced Nakoma to go with you?" Morgan asked.

"She would have no choice." Andrea looked down when he said that.

"Angel would not have agreed to this. Nakoma would not have agreed to this. Why would she have no choice?" Morgan asked. It was complex but open-ended.

"I can handle Angel." Andrea explained.

Morgan crossed her arms. "How?"

"I could hold her down. Tie her up. Keep her from stopping me." Andrea said.

"And Nakoma?" I asked. "How would you handle her?"

"Dad gave a drug to give her." Andrea explained. Then felt the need to go on. "They use it on all the little girls."

I felt my fury turning stone cold. I could see Morgan arrive at the same place.

"What is this drug?" Morgan asked.

"I don't know." Andrea shrugged, still looking down.

"Where is this drug?" Morgan pursued.

"In my back pocket." 

"Hand it to me." Morgan held out a hand, Andrea leaned forward, extracted a small syringe from his back pocket, and handed it to her. It had a blue plastic sheath over the needle and was loaded with a clear or maybe light blue fluid of some kind.