The Trouble with Hades

Chapter 17

"I met your mother when she was nineteen. At that stage, she did not have any siblings and always believed that she would be an only child. She was lonely in terms of her alter ego. There were a few friends, but none that knew the truth. All she had up until she met me were her parents, the occasional visit from her human grandparents, and the woman who she believed was her maternal grandmother but was told differently. They'd lived a nomadic lifestyle, never settling for too long in one area, always looking over their shoulders. She knew the truth because your mother was fiery and demanding. Nancy wanted the truth because she knew that something was wrong."

So the apple really didn't fall from the tree. Or, in this case, two trees apparently.

"Was she a vampire or shapeshifter?"

"I never saw her consume blood. She never mentioned which way she leaned, so I would assume that she'd taken the path of the shapeshifter."

I nodded, accepting the answer that seemed reasonable if it were the truth.

"I'd decided to live on Earth for a few years, and because I'd spent too long outside of this world and never really engaged in it, I was not accustomed to the technology that had grown in my absence. I decided to hire someone to do the jobs around my house and I would observe. Your mother was one of a few who rang but after meeting all of them, I decided on her. Not only was she knowledgeable about the other side of this world but she was a wonderful person. I didn't have to hide anything because your mother already knew about Eternals. She was happy to show me how to use the various pieces of equipment, and as the days became weeks and months, we formed a friendship."

It was clear that I had everything wrong. I guess that happened when there wasn't enough information.

"Your mother liked that she could tell me everything without fear. She could ask for advice and would often come to me for a discussion where she wanted my thoughts on a subject. Once, she said it was cathartic to let go and talk to me. Her mind was stressed out because of everything that was going on here in this town. I questioned the reasons she worried about a town that she had never been to, and your mother told me about the blood war. She could have ended it and she wanted to but her mother would not allow it. Nancy said that her mother refused to return to the place where her world fell apart. All that her mother wanted was to live with her parents, and that had been taken away from her. She wasn't prepared to lose her daughter to the same monster that ripped her father away from her. The years passed by, and one day, out of the blue, Nancy told me that she was about to become a sister. She said that it was quite a shock because they always believed that the Corbin line only ever had one female. I pointed out to your mother that her grandparents never truly had the time to create another child before Beatrice took Victoria away. It was then that your mother started talking about having a child."

"Wait, she wanted to have a child?"

Carsten nodded with a warm smile on his face.

"Very much so. I suppose that it might seem a little odd, but when your mother and I talked about her having a child, she always believed that her daughter would be the one that ended the war. She was determined to raise a strong young woman who would do everything that she was not allowed to. The years continued to slip past us, and every now and then, your mother would talk about her baby brother. I could see beyond the words, I could see that she was worried about his future, far more than her own. The life that she had been living, the one full of fear, was taking its toll. The bright spark that I met a decade earlier was fading. She smiled but there was nothing behind it. Then one day, completely out of the blue, your mother asked me for an important favor. She asked me to impregnate her."

Well, that just blew everything out of the water. It wasn't an accident. I was created by choice.

"I sat your mother down and told her that while I was honored and would love to give her a child, I could not because Eternals are not meant to breed with other species. Your mother replied that she knew the consequences of the deed, and she knew that it would end in her eventual death. Nancy said that she was a walking target anyway and no longer cared. What she wanted was to give the world a vampire killer. Her daughter would end the war."