85. Twin-Sense

[Mercy]

"Oh, shit," was the only thing I could say as I heard what Ciaran had just said, surprised, as so far, the twins seemed to have every intention of keeping themselves a secret from the rest of us. Until now, that is.

"I'm glad and very eager to hear what you have to tell us, but first we should take care of these things," Damien said, motioning to the burned corpses of the little wolves, shaking his head softly as he motioned for Azeneth and Ciaran to leave the room.

"Don't, I will do it," Rafferty said, shaking his head as he stepped in Damien's path, holding his hand out to stop him. "You are a father. It would be best if you did not have to do such a thing. You are soon to be fathers, and so the same goes for you." He added when he saw that Sinclair and Kerr were moving forward, pursing his lips as his eyes flashed a bright purple, warning the three men not to test his resolve.

"If you so insist," Sinclair said, holding his hand out to Maeve, motioning with his head towards the doorway where I was standing. "Thank you, Rafferty." He murmured faintly over his shoulder as he led Maeve out of the room, his golden eyes teeming with bitterness and heartache that he tried very hard to hide.

"Aye," Maeve uttered softly as she picked up the sleeping toddler and carried him past me and down the stairs before going into the kitchen.

"Mercy, are you alright?" Alaric asked, putting a hand on the small of my back, leading me out of the bedroom and to the kitchen, his gray eyes like liquid metal as he watched me.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I said with a nod, smiling up at him before sitting down at the table, looking around curiously. *'How can our lives be continually overrun by death and destruction? I'm so glad we're going to be gaining some form of normalcy soon. I wonder, even though the paperwork isn't complete yet, can we still take cases like the one we did earlier today? Well, minus taking home two murderous little children. God, I can't believe that this is the world we live in-'* I thought, my train of thought derailed by a sudden sight playing out before my eyes.

I couldn't tell what it was, as after not seeing in so long, it felt like the vision had just knocked the wind out of my lungs. So it was a bit difficult to concentrate on anything other than regaining my footing as the sudden vision had quite literally knocked me on my ass, making me glad that I was already sitting down.

"Mercy, hey, what's wrong?" Alaric gasped, taking my face between his hands as he searched my face; his eyes widened with worry as he watched me.

"I- Uh- I don't know," I said as I tried to blink away the remnants of the vision I'd had, rubbing my eyes to try and clear my head before looking up at Maeve and Sinclair. "You're leaving, aren't you?"

"How- After what just happened, I was considering suggesting to Maeve that we take our leave, yes," Sinclair responded, furrowing his brows in confusion as he watched me, curious as to how I knew what he was thinking.

"Because I just had a vision. Since Maeve can't be affected by our power, and she's a part of my everyday life, I haven't had a vision in a while. So, having a vision means that Maeve is not in my immediate future, which means you're leaving."

"Is that so, Sinclair?" Damien asked him, his electric blue eyes filled with what appeared to be genuine sadness as he watched him. *'And to think, he had him trapped in the basement for decades, and now he's sad, knowing that he's going to be leaving.'*

"I haven't spoken to Maeve, yet, as I just considered it seconds before Mercy said it."

"That just means that she'll say yes. The second you thought it, it created a possible future. Since it's a future where Maeve will not be here to block my visions, it was basically like opening the door."

"The second Sinclair thought it, cemented it in time?" Maeve asked, looking from me, to Sinclair, then to Damien.

"Well, no, that's not entirely how that works. Because Sinclair thought it, that made a possible future come into existence, but because I could have a vision, that just means that when he talks to you about it, you will say yes. That's the only way to explain how I got a vision right after he thought it." I said with a shake of my head, clearing my throat as I stood to pour myself a cup of tea.

"Wait, are you saying you haven't had a single vision since we met Maeve?" Bast asked after a few moments of thought, then stood to help me with serving the tea.

"The only time I had visions is when Damien and I were setting up traps for Edward's army. Not a single one since then, though. Damn, if you guys are leaving, I'm going to get visions again."

"Mercy, does that not worry or confuse you? You haven't had a vision in weeks, and you have said nothing about it before now!" Alaric exclaimed with an exacerbated growl.

"I thought everyone knew that, sorry," I said, holding my hands up in a show of defeat before sitting down next to Alaric, and started to take a sip of my tea, but stopped when I saw the way he was watching me. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm waiting for you to realize that losing your ability entirely for weeks now is not normal and is something you should be concerned about."

"Actually, that was us, sorry," Azeneth whispered almost inaudibly, holding up her index finger to gather our attention. "Ciaran and I, we kind of turned it off so that you couldn't see anything that had to do with us."

"I'm sorry, please repeat that? I must be hearing things because I swear you just said you stole your aunt's ability!" Damien gasped, shaking his head in disappointment when Azeneth and Ciaran looked down at their laps, refusing to meet his gaze.

"Well, we didn't steal it, we just... we kind of turned it off?" Ciaran hesitantly offered, then apologized when he saw the anger in Damien's eyes.

"When we heard that Maeve couldn't be affected by abilities, we used the opportunity to switch it off. We assumed that Mercy would think it was because of Maeve, and it turns out we were right. We're sorry, aunt Mercy."

"What else have you done?" Bast asked, putting a hand on Damien's shoulder, shaking her head softly as he was beginning to speak.

"Um, we also kind of helped the witch's potion with Mercy and Sinclair," Ciaran mumbled, visibly flinching once the words had left his mouth. "We were a lot younger and dumber when we did it. We didn't know about Maeve, and we didn't think Mercy should be with a regular vampire. So, as soon as the DNA test came back positive, we kind of put a desire where there wasn't one."

"You are the reason I felt that way towards Mercy? You were toying with my emotions?" Sinclair growled from behind gritted teeth, balling his hand into a fist, groaning as he forced it back down to his side, rather than bringing it down on the table as it was painfully clear he'd wanted to do.

"We're sorry, Sinclair." The twins said in unison, trading glances with each other before looking down at their folded hands in their laps, waiting for the explosion they thought would surely be coming.

"Okay, what else have you done?" I asked them after giving everyone the time to take a few calming breaths, monitoring Sinclair, as he didn't seem to be calming down in the slightest, but rather the opposite.

"That's all we did, we swear! We turned off your visions and messed with Sinclair's head a little, and that time we made mommy turn herself in to the police." Ciaran said without looking up from his lap, sinking slowly into his chair as he spoke.

"Well, we also- Nevermind." Azeneth started to say but cut herself off before finishing her sentence.

"Azeneth Karin Edge, you tell us what you were about to say, right now, young lady," Damien said in a tone so deep and calm, it sent shivers down my spine when I heard it.

"We- Um- We need blood, just like you guys do," Ciaran responded, taking Azeneth's hand in his own, squeezing it tightly as they waited for a response, but for a long few minutes, there was none, as we were all shocked into silence, yet again.

"You- What? Why wouldn't you tell us something of this magnitude? We are your parents, Azeneth and Ciaran. I don't care what you think of us. Nothing will ever change that fact!" Damien responded, scoffing in an offense as he looked back and forth between the twins for a moment, narrowing his eyes in thought. "How long? If you've needed blood, how have you been getting it?"

"A while now, and small animals that no one would notice," Ciaran said with a long and drawn-out sigh, taking a drink of his tea before saying anything more. "We thought you would treat us differently if you knew that we needed blood."

"Ciaran, no, baby." Bast cried out softly, walking around the table to kneel between their chairs, wrapping an arm around the twins' waists, pulling them close. "I don't care if you need to eat human hearts to survive. You are my babies, no matter how big you get."

"As your mother has said. We love you both more than anything else. Don't you ever forget that." Damien said, then leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. "I need blood, as do most of the people in this room. Why on earth would you think we'd think less of you for needing the same?"

"I don't know. I honestly don't. I know we look and act all grown up, but sometimes things that we thought made perfect sense an hour ago, doesn't anymore."

"I hope I am not interrupting," Rafferty said as he walked into the kitchen, nodding hello before pulling up a chair to sit behind Maeve and Sinclair. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Sinclair's fuming rage but seemed to think better of questioning it and remained silent as the rest of us were.

"You alright, love?" Maeve whispered over her shoulder, forcing out a smile when Rafferty nodded his agreement. "Thank you for doing that."

"It is the least I can do. Please, continue with your conversation." Rafferty responded, motioning to Ciaran and Damien.

"Is that all you've done and all you've been hiding from us?" Bast asked as she pulled away from their hug, then picked Azeneth up, sitting down with Azeneth on her lap, taking Ciaran's hand with a reassuring smile.

"Very well. What can you do?" Damien asked after the twins verbalized their understanding.

"We can use any of your abilities, except for Maeve and Rafferty. The only time we could use Maeve's is when she gave us some of it. We can push our thoughts into someone's head, and duplicate, mess with or take their abilities, and we can almost always see the outcome of any situation." Ciaran said, his eyes far off in the distance as he ticked off his fingers, glancing over at Azeneth to see if there's anything he'd missed.

"We can sense any spell, so far, and we can also use our elemental abilities, as you saw upstairs. We can summon our memories to be played back, like when we showed you what Maeve asked us to do, and we can travel through dreams." Azeneth said with an affirmative nod to Ciaran, then looked back at Bast, waiting for her reaction.

"I have been refraining myself from speaking, as they are your children, and I do not wish to be out of line, so I apologize if I am crossing that line," Alaric said, looking from Bast to Damien as he spoke, taking a moment before saying anything more. "What do you mean when you say that you can duplicate, mess with, or take an ability?"

"Well, like when we said we pushed the effects of the potion to make Sinclair go after Mercy. We used his recreant ability to do it. Since he can feel what someone else feels, we kind of made him constantly feel attraction, longing, and desire, anytime he looked at Mercy."

"Maeve can do more than erase a spell cast on someone. She can also destroy anything we did. When she thought she'd just removed Sinclair's spell, she also removed what we placed there. And the reason Mercy just got a vision is that we removed the block we'd placed on her power." Azeneth added softly, her voice getting lower with every word she spoke.

"I must ask, as I cannot remain silent any longer. How could you do something so underhanded and cruel? Do I mean so little to you that you could do something so preposterous to me?" Sinclair growled, his golden eyes overflowing with anguish and insult as he spoke, then scoffed as he shook his head and walked out of the kitchen, closing the front door without another word.

"Samantha, would you mind?" Maeve said as she stood, motioning with her head towards the toddler in her arms, smiling thankfully to Samantha as she stood to take him.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, of course." Samantha gasped as she stood, trying to blink away her surprise as she took the baby and sat back down, smiling as the little bundle wriggled in her arms.

"Should we-" Azeneth started to ask but cut herself off as Damien held up his hand to silence her, shaking his head no.

"You have done quite enough. It is best if you leave well enough alone," Damien said with a curt shake of his head, motioning with his hand for the kids to stay in their seats.

"Aye, it's probably best if you don't," Maeve responded before walking out of the kitchen, following Sinclair, who'd already made it to the end of the driveway, and didn't seem as if he had any intentions of stopping.

"Wait, I can hear Sinclair at the end of the driveway!" I gasped, my eyes going wide in shock as I turned to look at Alaric, then groaned as I turned my attention to the twins. "You took my recreant hearing, too?"

"It was an unforeseen side effect of taking your recreant ability. In taking your recreant ability, we also took your recreant senses."

"So clearly, you cannot see the outcome of any situation, as you said you could." Alaric snorted, running his tongue along the sharp end of his fang, glaring down at the table for a long and painfully silent few seconds. "I am not your family, but my wife is. You took one look at me and decided I wasn't good enough, then forced that poor man.-"

"Alaric-" I said, cutting him off, but stopped myself when I realized that I had no way of responding or arguing with what he was saying, as there was no argument that could be made from me, seeing as how they'd toyed with me just as much as Sinclair, and maybe even more. "Let's go check on Nancy and Edward. Take a breath."

Alaric didn't respond but gave me a curt nod before standing much too quickly, causing his chair to hit the wall across the kitchen with a loud bang. "Please forgive my unintended aggression," Alaric said as he looked back at the chair, then bowed to Damien before walking out of the kitchen, refusing to look at the twins as he did so.

"Okay, I changed my mind. You don't need to be anywhere near those two right now, babe. Come on, let's go outside." I said, taking his hand before pulling him out of the front door. I looked down the driveway to where Sinclair and Maeve were engaged in what looked to be like a heated argument and thought better of interrupting them, so instead, I pulled Alaric towards the guest house.

"I know they are children, Mercy. You do not need to remind me. I guarantee, if I forgot for a single second who and what they were, I would have done something very ill-mannered." Alaric said, pulling his hand out of mine with a growl, his eyes blood-red as he glared off into the tree line to our left.

"I wasn't going to say anything like that, babe. I know why you're upset. I'm upset too! They knew that Sinclair had a spell on him before any of us did, but instead of telling us, they used it to play games. Not to mention, they took my abilities!" I responded, then scoffed as it finally hit me what the twins had done. *'They didn't just steal my abilities, but they've been toying with me, nearly the entire time I'd known them! Holy shit! The twins have been toying with all of us as if we were nothing but pawns, in some twisted game.'*

"I agree with Sinclair. Do we mean so little to them that they could do such vicious and brutal things to us? You are their own flesh and blood, Mercy. Look at what they've done to you. I can only imagine the things they've done to others over these last few months."

"Oh my god, they became exactly what Damien thought they would!" I gasped, horrified, shaking my head in disbelief. "Bast told me that one of the reasons Damien wanted Sinclair to stick around was so that the kids could see a man with a lot of power that doesn't use it to be a tyrant. Instead of learning the lesson they were supposed to learn, they turned one of the most powerful men we know into a toy!"

"I want to disagree with you, Mercy, I truly wish I could for the sake of your niece and nephew, but those twins are satan incarnate. Ha! A demon, calling someone else demonic." Alaric snickered sarcastically, taking a long and shaky breath before pulling me into his arms, gazing down into my eyes silently. "I love you more than life itself, Mercy."

"I love you more times infinity," I responded, grinning when he chuckled softly. "I know that the kids did some fucked up stuff. Believe me, I'm painfully aware, but we shouldn't be so quick to judge, you know?"

"I know, very well, kitten. I tried my damndest not to react, but that proved to be much easier said than done, as you see." He responded, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath, then let it out slowly before opening his eyes to look back down at me. "The part that hurts me the most is that they thought they were doing the right thing. They truly believed that I am not deserving of you because I am a mere vampire."

"What do you mean? Wait, you aren't a mere vampire anymore. You're stronger and faster than a recreant, but I know you were talking about before, right?" I asked him curiously, furrowing my brows in confusion as I waited for him to explain.

"Everything they did, they thought it was for the best, at the time being. It's clear that the twins regret their actions and are genuinely sorry for what they did, but they thought they were doing the right thing. You could see it in their eyes."

"As you said, Alaric, they regret it, and they know better now. It's in the past, and there's nothing we can do to stop it or change it."

"I do not believe Sinclair will be so quick to forgive them, no matter how boundless the love he has for them. Azeneth and Ciaran may very well have severed the bond between them, with what they've done to him." Alaric said, taking a few steps to the side to look down the driveway, giving a knowing smile when he saw that Sinclair and Maeve were no longer there.

"Rafferty is still in the house, so at least we know they're coming back?" I offered with a shrug, then turned my attention towards the house, trying to listen to what was said inside, but could hear nothing but silence.

"I am still trying to wrap my head around what Ciaran did. You did notice that Azeneth said something to him, just before he did it?" Alaric asked, waiting for my nod before saying anything more. "She thanked him afterward, so it wasn't just a response out of anger. Azeneth asked him to do it."

"To think. A child asked another child to kill two children. This is the world we live in." I said, throwing my hands up into the sky, cursing the unknown forces around me with a growl.

"Careful, you might accidentally have an angel sent to smite you." Alaric laughed out, wrapping his arms around my waist as he lifted me, pushing my back against a tree before kissing me softly.

"Do you think that could actually happen? I mean, I know that Rafferty is proof and all, but look at everything that's happened in the world. Can angels really still exist, but let all of these things happen?"

"I believe it could be that they have thrown the towel in, so to speak. Our world has been getting progressively worse, and it is only a matter of time before the humans wipe each other out. Once the humans are dead, we will have nothing to feed on, and we'll become nothing more than mindless drones wandering this godforsaken rock."

"Careful, you might get smitten!" I mocked softly, grinning as he raised an eyebrow in challenge, then pressed his lips against mine, smiling as I wrapped my legs around his hips.

"Mercy, I-" Alaric started to say after pulling away, sighing softly as he set me back down on the ground. "I cannot stop thinking about what the kids may have done to make up for their past mistakes."

"You think that they did something to us, to make us get back together? Babe, you were trapped in Nia's head. Do you think they were able to get into Nia's head just to get to you? I get why you're worried. Really, I do, but Sinclair knew that there was something wrong, and I would too."

"That's assuming that they were not lying about that being all they've done, and not lying about doing it no longer." Alaric snorted softly, then furrowed his brows in confusion as he watched the woods to the left of us, making me realize that I could hear a faint heartbeat.

"It's so weird. I thought I became more like a vampire, while in reality, the twins stole my recreant senses." I whispered, looking up at Alaric as he pushed me behind his back, taking a few steps back to try and guard me against whatever was coming towards us.

I couldn't tell what it was, as it was still too far away, and I couldn't smell it because the wind was currently blowing in its favor. "Can you smell it?" I asked, intertwining my fingers with his, inhaling deeply in anticipation.

"No, not yet. It's coming very quickly, though." He growled softly, then let out a sigh as he turned around to look at the house. "Lucifer, you left the line open when we went upstairs!"

"What?" I asked him, looking into the woods to try and see what was coming, then back at the house where Damien was turning the corner and ran to stand next to us.

"She's going to be pissed," Damien chuckled softly, crossing his arms over his chest, waiting. "We were on the phone with Octavia, and when we realized that the kids were there to attack, we ran upstairs and didn't tell Octavia what happened."

"Oh, momma mimic is gonna tear you two to shreds." I snorted softly, then took a few steps to my right, making sure to put distance between the two men and myself, as I knew Octavia would be more than pissed.

"Anything she does is well deserved," Alaric agreed with a nod, then waved to the wolf as she came into view, chuckling when she snarled at him. "We are sorry, Octavia. We honestly forgot that you were on the phone, and we had some things to deal with."

"On the other hand, your timing is impeccable. The twins were just telling about themselves." Damien said as the wolf drew closer, then motioned for her to follow him into the house. "Kerr, incoming."

"I knew it. You're trying to get me killed, aren't you?" Kerr called back from the kitchen with a groan, then held the front door open for us, casting a coy grin at Octavia as she growled at him. "How did you get here so quickly? Oh, really? That's new."

"What is?" Samantha asked, peering around the kitchen wall to Octavia, waving a quick hello before turning her attention back to the fussing bundle in her arms.

"She had a recreant run her here, as it would have taken her well over an hour to get here on foot," Kerr responded before walking with Octavia up the stairs, no doubt so that she could change and return to her human form.

"Hello, it's nice to see you all again," Hanna said from the front steps, waving a hesitant hello as she looked around the foyer at the group.

"Hanna!" Samantha gasped as she ran to hug her, then seemingly recalled that she had a child in her arms and thought better of it. "It feels like it's been forever since I've seen you."

"After spending months together, yes, it can feel like that." Hanna agreed with a nod as she closed the distance between her and Samantha, peering down at the child curiously. "A mimic child? I thought there were three children here?"

"The older two of the three attacked Sinclair's pregnant girlfriend, so needless to say, they are no longer with us," Damien said with a nod as he glanced down the driveway, trying to see where Maeve and Sinclair had gone, but when he saw that they'd left, he sighed softly and closed the front door.

"Sinclair's pregnant girlfriend?" Hanna repeated with a gasp, her golden eyes widening in shock and happiness before darkening in worry and horror. "Her power, it protected the baby, right?"

"Yes, both Maeve and the child are safe," Rafferty said, clearing his throat as he came to stand in the foyer, nodding hello to Hanna. "I am Rafferty, and you are Hanna, I presume?"

"Yes, nice to meet you, Rafferty," Hanna said with a nod, offering her hand to Rafferty, furrowing her brows in confusion when Samantha pushed her hand away.

"You'll die if he touches you, and I'm sure Amber wouldn't be too happy about that."

"No, she definitely would not." Hanna agreed, raising an eyebrow at Rafferty before looking around at the rest of us. "Can I ask why I would die if he touched me?"

"I am a fallen angel, and you are a demon-" Rafferty started to explain but was cut off by Sam, who held up his hand with a shake of his head.

"I think she can do without the explanation as to why she is not pure enough to make physical contact with an angel, Rafferty," Sam said, looking past Rafferty to Octavia, who had paused in her descent on the stairs to gawk at Rafferty after hearing his words.

"So, you're really a fallen angel? Like, honest to god, fallen angel? Wait, did I hear that Maeve was pregnant? Jesus, I don't know what to freak out about first!"

"Oh, just you wait. There is more we learned only minutes ago." I responded with a snort before looking around the corner and into the kitchen, where the twins hadn't moved from their seats and were still staring at their hands in their laps.

I couldn't help but feel a twinge in my heart when I saw how sad and defeated the twins were, no matter how upset I was previously. *'The two of you did some terrible things, but it seems like you did them out of necessity, well, except for stealing my power. I wonder, what is it that they didn't want me to see? Oh, and what they did to Sinclair was just horrible. No one can blame him for being pissed off about it.'*

"Speaking of, where are Sinclair and Maeve?" Octavia asked as she jogged down the stairs, grinning when she saw the twins. "Hey, you don't know how to say hello anymore? Oh, what's wrong?"

"The twins were just telling us what they've done and what they can do. That's why Sinclair and Maeve aren't here anymore." Bast responded with a sigh, then motioned with her head for everyone to gather in the kitchen. "Long story short, the twins are the reason that Sinclair felt so strongly about Mercy, as they placed feelings in his head whenever he looked at her. They are also the reason Mercy hasn't had visions since Maeve arrived."

"Wait, Woah, what? You did what to Sinclair? And you stole Mercy's power?" Octavia gasped, trying to blink away her surprise as she took Sinclair's chair at the table, shaking her head in disbelief.

"We didn't steal it, but we made it so that she couldn't use it anymore. What we did to Sinclair, we honestly didn't mean to offend him. It's just... when we knew that Mercy was our aunt, we thought she should be with a recreant like Sinclair and not a regular vampire, like Alaric. We swear, we realized that we were wrong, and we were planning on removing it, but then a lot of stuff happened, and Maeve ended up being the one to remove it." Azeneth responded, her beautiful green eyes filled with tears as she spoke, trembling softly as she lost the fight against her tears.

"We're sorry, aunt Mercy and Uncle Alaric. Honestly, we didn't mean to hurt you." Ciaran said as he began rubbing Azeneth's back, kissing her temple so softly, it was like he'd just twisted a knife in my heart. *'These twins are so close. I can only imagine what the two of them will be like when they're older. They'd make a hell of a team to run a continent.'*

"I will admit, yes, it hurts to know that you thought I wasn't good enough for Mercy, but I know that you know better now, don't you?" Alaric said with a sigh as he walked around the table and crouched between their chairs, looking back and forth between them. He softly chuckled as he tried to dry Azeneth's cheek with his thumb, then shook out his pocket square, offering it to her.

"We know you and aunt Mercy love each other, and you're happy together. We swear we haven't done anything else to anyone!" Azeneth gasped with a nod, thanking Alaric as she accepted the pocket square, using it to dry her tears.

"I forgive you both, on the premise that you swear you will never again toy with any of us. We are your family, okay? We may make mistakes, but it is not up to you two to fix those mistakes."

"Thank you," Ciaran said as he and Azeneth wrapped an arm around Alaric's shoulder, pulling him into a hug. "Sinclair is never going to forgive us, is he?"

"You know how much Sinclair loves you. He would lay down his very life to protect you two, but what you did to him? Forcing him into thinking he had those feelings for Mercy? It-... I honestly don't know if it is something he will be so quick to forgive."

"Maeve seems to have a powerful connection to the two of you, and after hearing what the two of you are capable of, I do somewhat understand why that is. I'm sure she will do everything she can to try and calm Sinclair, to the best of her abilities, in any way." Rafferty said as he moved his chair forward to sit at the table, giving the twins a soft smile and a reassuring nod.