Hunters of the Night

Chapter 18: Harley

We were almost to our final destination. Only another day at most. Honesty had had the children. Triplets. One girl and two boys. We named the girl Thisbe and the boys Icarus and Inigo. Sav and Ricky helped us take care of them, bonding with them nicely.

Honesty was tending to Icarus and Inigo, feeding both of them. Sav was rocking Thisbe lightly. I noticed that Honesty did not spend as much time with Thisbe as the two boys. I knew she loved her daughter, but she preferred taking care of her sons.

I made my way over to her, taking Inigo out of her arms. She smiled at me and I returned it. I began rocking the boy and soon he fell asleep. I stood up, bringing him to the bedroom and putting him in one of the makeshift cribs. We had enough money to only buy clothes and food for the children, so we made beds out of the extra blankets. Not the best idea, but the only thing we could do.

'How are you holding up?'

Over the past few days, we had to fight more of the hybrids. Honesty fought in all the fights after the triplets were born. She got banged up pretty bad, but she healed pretty well too.

'Fine. How about you?'

I knew by the circles under her eyes and her smudged makeup that she was not fine. She was not sleeping well. Between the fights, the triplets, and the anxiety about the secrets, she was not getting a good rest.

'Me too.'

I knew that was a lie. Like her, I got banged up pretty bad in fights and was losing sleep. The triplets never could all sleep at once. There was always at least one awake and crying. But I would not change anything to get rid of them.

'Well, that is good.'

She refused to confront me on my lie. We never confronted each other. We knew if we did, we would slack off on our duties as parents. We did not want to become neglectful parents. So we never said how we actually felt.

'Very.'

Honesty rocked Icarus in her arms. Soon, he fell asleep as well. She smiled down at him and pulled a blanket off from the back of the couch. She wrapped it around them both and I smiled as I watched. I leaned over and kissed her forehead before placing a kiss on top of my son's head.

'I love you,' I told her. 'I love you both. I love Inigo. I love Thisbe. I love my family. Our family.'

She smiled at me, resting her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around her and used my other one to take Icarus. Honesty closed her eyes and I held Icarus in one arm. The other held my soon-to-be wife close to my side. Her breathing shallowed out.

'I love you too. I love our family.'

Soon, her breathing completely stopped. I knew she was tired. She usually told me that she would take care of whatever triplet was awake. She almost never let me take care of them throughout the night. It was unfair to her. I got little sleep just from their crying. She took care of them all twenty-four hours a day.

I smiled as I moved her to lay on the couch. I took Icarus into the bedroom and put him on his makeshift bed. Sav came in a moment later with Thisbe and put her in her own. I sighed, falling onto the bed. Sav sat next to me.

'Having fun?'

She already knew the answer. Everyone knew. It was not fun, per say. But that does not mean that I am not happy with our situation. I am happy to be a parent.

'Yeah, fun.'

She muttered something under her breath. It sounded like something along the lines of that I would not even joke about that soon. What could she mean by that? Does it have anything to do with what is being kept a secret from us?