As Enoch's eyes met Leon's, a sizzle seemed to pass through the air. It was clearly evident that they were related. They could have been brothers. They had the same colouring, the same features, the same build.
"Who are you?" Marc asked from beside his brother.
"My name is Enoch. I am the King of the Werewolves," he said, looking intently at the boys. "I have been since I took over from my father ninety years ago."
"You look an awful lot like my brother and I," Marc said scratching his head.
"More than an awful lot," Leon said, his eyes narrowed. He looked at Victoria, who was studying them as well.
"My sister was pregnant at the time of her death--"
"That was a hundred years ago," Enoch interrupted her.
"With twins. They disappeared at the time of her death. We never found them," Victoria continued as though Enoch hadn't spoken.
"There is a way to find out," Rainey said. "A quick blood test ought to do it. Otis, please show our guests to the lab. It seems like we are all curious to know whether or not King Enoch here is indeed the father of these two young men."
Marc and Leon turned to look at Tempest, as though seeking her approval. Enoch frowned heavily and Tempest ignored him, nodding as she turned to follow Otis out the room. Leon and Marc came next and after a pause Enoch followed.
Galan, Aida, Samual, Tristan, Rainey, Adria, Liam and Victoria remained in the office. A thoughtful silence hung heavy in the air as they pondered what had just happened.
"Why would she have come back?" Adria asked.
"She left this world in one of the most brutal ways a person could leave," Victoria said softly.
"Our world is, by its nature, brutal," Tristan pointed out.
"Then maybe she had some unfinished business," Aida said. "And we need to find out what it is."
*
Tempest kept her eyes on Enoch as she waited for Leon and Marc to finish their bloodwork. Enoch was done and was pacing up and down in the sterile waiting room. It was a private room and they would not be disturbed until she was done with him.
"Did you kill her?" she asked him.
He froze and turned to glare at her, a ferocious scowl on his face. Then he sat down suddenly, as though his legs didn't want to support him anymore.
"I didn't. She was dead when I found her, " he finally said with a sigh. "Natasha and I met almost fifteen years after I lost my mate. She fascinated me right from the start. I knew it was wrong to want her but I couldn't get her out of my mind. She resisted at first but I was persistent. I wooed her and I didn't stop until she finally gave in. It was wrong. Both of us were in the wrong but I didn't care.
"We created opportunities. For five years our illicit relationship continued. We snuck around like love sick teenagers and we saw each other at every opening that presented itself."
Enoch stopped and sighed, his head hung low, his hands hanging between his legs.
"When she told me she was pregnant, I was ecstatic. She was sure it was mine and I was over the moon. I wanted her to leave Naoh and come with me but she refused. She said she needed time to think about what she wanted to do."
Enoch stood up and started pacing again. Tempest watched him without saying a word. She wanted for him to continue his narration, wanted to hear more. To possibly understand the history of her brothers. The more she listened, the more sure she became that a critical truth would be revealed soon.
"She wouldn't leave him. Even as she carried my child, she decided to stay with him," Enoch continued. He turned to glance at Tempest quickly, the guilt in his eyes not easy to miss. "She hid the pregnancy from him. She cast a spell to hide her swelling belly from him because the timing of it coincided with a time when they had not been together for a few months. What she hadn't figured out was what she would tell Noah and how."
Enoch ran his hand through his brown hair, making it stand up at even crazier angles on his head. He took another deep breath and sat down again, glaring at the floor as though willing it to change colours.
"She finally told him and he was ecstatic. I was furious with her and we got into a huge row about it when she told me that she had told Noah it was his. I had gone to see her, to ask her one more time to leave Noah and come with me. She refused. I guess the argument upset her so much that she went into labour early," he said. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, leaning back in his seat. "Something must have happened to her because she created a portal to take me to her. It didn't take long, it shouldn't have, but when I got there, she was dead."
Enoch's mouth worked soundlessly as he struggled to get words out.
"I never knew what happened to my baby," he said, the raw pain in his voice making it sound as though it was being pushed through a grinder.
Tempest's voice was soft as she asked, "What powers did Natasha have?"
Enoch looked at her as though he wasn't seeing her, as though he was caught in another time with another woman.
"Portals. Natasha was a powerful witch but her main strength was that she could open portals anywhere in the world."
As he finished speaking, Marc and Leon pushed the door open and walked into the room. Again, Tempest was struck by their resemblance to Enoch, the man who had just confirmed his infidelity with the wife of the man who had started a war against all supernaturals.
Marc and Leon came and stood next to her just as the doctor came through the door. He raised his eyebrow as he saw the three men standing next to each other. "I will have the results for you within the hour," he told them before he nodded and walked out.
Leon looked intently at Enoch as he stood before him and frowned. He looked like he wanted to say something but he held his tongue. Marc had the same expression on his face.
Tempest sighed and stood up. She gently urged the boys to sit down and knelt in front of them.
"I know I asked you before if you wanted me to look and you told me the past was in the past. Do you still feel that way?"
She watched the boys keenly, her eyes flitting between the two. She observed the conflict in their eyes, the questions that were slowly surfacing and the new hunger to know.
She held out her hands to her brothers and waited. Marc and Leon turned to each other at the same time, their identical faces serious. Then, as one they placed their large hands in each of Tempest's. With a small smile, she looked at both of them. When they nodded slowly, she said, "Close your eyes and relax."
*
Tempest eased into the boys' minds. It was like she was looking through both their eyes, which was different for her. It gave her the Impression that she was watching a 3-D movie. She took note of what was happening and followed their story gently, picking at different memories in their minds.
The boys were swimming in a lake. They looked like they were about five years old. A short, portly man with a happy look on his face was with them. They looked like they were having fun.
The excited expressions on the boys' faces, the carefree laughter, the light mood all spoke of a happier time.
She pushed further and visited another memory.
The boys were being fed, the same man who had been swimming with them held one of the boys, carefully putting porridge into his mouth. A woman held the second boy and she was doing the same. More food landed on the boys' and the couples' clothes as they tried hard to feed the roughly two year old boys who looked like they would rather have a food fight.
Another push, another memory.
Marc and Leon were a few months old, screaming like banshees in a storm. The couple each held a child, trying to soothe them.
"We have to give them names, you know," the woman said. "We can't call them baby one and baby two for much longer. It has been months now."
"I know love," the man said. "It's just that... I have this weird feeling that if we name them then someone will come and take them from us."
"It has been four months. Noone has asked about missing twin boys. We have looked as well and not found their parents. I think it's time we named them."
The man finally allowed himself to smile and, despite the still screaming child, he looked absolutely content. "Marc. I want to call him Marc."
Almost as though a switch had been turned off, the baby stopped screaming. His brother did the same.
"You like that, huh?" the man said as he made faces at the now quiet baby.
The woman chuckled. She looked at the baby in her arms and laughed as she watched him. It was almost as though he was waiting to hear what his name would be. "Leon. You, my little butterball, are Leon."
Tempest pushed again. And gasped out loud.
Two babies ready for birth.
A slashing knife.
A woman's screams.
The roar of a furious man.
A final torrent of words that faded as their speaker slowly lost her life.
"Protect my babies in limbo till the day they are found.
"By caring hearts and love profound.
"A hundred years of sleep shall abound.
"And only then will this spell disbound."
With a small groan Tempest let Marc and Leon's hands go and she slid to the ground. Marc caught her before she fell.
It was at that point that the doctor came back into the room with a clipboard in his hands.
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24 December 2020
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