I woke to the sound of beeping. Slowly my eyes opened, struggling through the hazy view that was far too bright. When I moved, something else did as well. Soon I was crushed by a body that was desperately trying to hug me. Through the sniffs and sobs of sadness, I heard my mother saying that she was sorry.

"You didn't try to suffocate me." I rasped.

She sat up and wiped her tears. My mother looked like she'd been to hell and back. She was always a refined woman, well dressed and looking like she'd spent hours in front of the mirror to prepare the image. I knew it wasn't the case, she was a whizz when it came to things like this and could be ready in ten minutes.

So, to see her like this, it meant a lot of things. She would have spent a long time by my bed, waiting for me to wake. All thoughts of how she looked or what she was wearing were gone, replaced with a woman that didn't care what the world thought of her. The only thing she cared about was me waking up.

"No, but I assumed the wrong things."

"What happened?"

"I went searching for you then came back to the bags when I saw your father at the door. He said that he could hear something in the room so he broke it open and that's when we found Farren trying to strangle you."

"Why?"

I struggled to sit up, everything hurt but I needed water and I couldn't drink that lying down.

"Well, turns out that she was a spy. A human that volunteered to pretend that she was a vampire, infiltrated our ranks and made her way to a position that gave her inside information."

A cup of water was offered, it was cool and probably the best water I've ever tasted. I guess any kind of water was great when a severe thirst was involved.

"The humans have been watching how fast your uncle has consumed the provinces along the ridge, they feared that he was going after the remaining few which would mean that he would have a complete circle around their main settlement. Their government feared the worst about Alaric and wanted to know what the plans for the future were. We discussed this in the days after it happened, Alaric recalled how Farren had initially applied to a few positions in his house but she didn't meet any of the parts for the job criteria so, she was offered to us as a maid. Then when he suggested that you come here for the mission, we thought that Farren would be ideal as she'd already been a part of your life for a few weeks. There was a familiarity that I thought you would find comforting while you were away from home."

She sighed heavily, it was full of regret and probably wishful thinking.

"Crystal balls haven't been invented yet."

"Wouldn't it be so much easier if they were?"

I agreed but realistically, it would be better that we didn't know the future. For a moment, I thought about Merrick. If I'd know the future, would I have walked the path with him or would I have turned away and kept it completely about the mission? I had no answers to the questions that rattled through my mind.

"When Farren realized that we were leaving and that her source of information would dry up because we wouldn't be at the base anymore, she decided that you had to die. Her plan was to get a job that was closer to Alaric so that she could get more information."

"What happened to her?"

"Do you really want to know what your uncle would do to someone that tried to kill you?"

I bit my lip and then nodded. Uncertainty but curious, it was not an ideal combination in this situation. My mother moved to the window, hiding behind the curtain as she slowly dragged it aside. It was daylight and she would be exposed if she wasn't careful. Me, however, I was not affected by the sun nor was the body hanging in the courtyard.

Farren's body was far enough away that I couldn't see much but close enough that I knew it was her and I now knew that she was not a vampire. Her body would be a pile of ashes below the rope if she were.

The material was slowly dragged over the curtain, returning us to the brightness of the fluorescent light overhead.

"You've been here for a while, Otanawa."

"How long?"

"Two weeks. We were beginning to think that you'd never wake."

She opened the door and called for a nurse to call my father. I'm sure he'll assume the worst and rush here, expecting me to be on death's door.

"It's been hard to keep him away." She said as the door closed again. "Ever since your mother put you into his care, he's been like this. He takes your mother's request very seriously. Protect my love."

"Did Gus tell you the meaning of my name?"

A warm smile crossed her face as she nodded, sitting down on the bed next to me, notably on the other side. It was a wise move because when my father appeared, he rushed to the bed. Had she been in the way, it would have been an issue.

I was crushed against his chest; my groans of protest were muffled. When I looked at my mother, she merely smiled with the kind of smile that said that I should accept it and embrace it.

When he finally relented, dad sat on the other side of the bed.

"Her plan was to expose you to danger on the other side of the gorge. When Captain Harper refused to let her go, she had to find another way. The bags were an attempt to delay the trip so that she could formulate a new plan, that failed too apparently."

I nodded, suddenly grateful for Merrick's stubbornness when it came to Farren.

"She planned to poison you, we feared that she might have started a while ago so the doctor ran some tests. You weren't poisoned,"

My parents looked at each other, a soft smile crossed my mother's face as she turned back to me.

"But you are pregnant."