Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



The screams were not dying down. If anything, they seemed like they were getting louder. I could feel the Healer's hand shaking, fear that she was desperately trying not to show getting the best of her.

"It's okay," I said softly. Now, it was my time to comfort her. "My husbands are just celebrating the good news," I continued, the smile on my face growing bigger and bigger with every passing minute.

"Husbands?" she asked, the shock of my statement pulling her out of wherever she was.

"Husbands," I nodded in agreement. "Four of them, to be exact."

I opened my mouth to keep going, but suddenly, a shadow fell over the two of us.

"Where is the cat?" it asked, the disgruntled sound in its voice letting me know exactly who it was.

"Rip!" breathed the healer, dropping my hand and holding it out instead to the monster in front of us. "You are safe."

"They won't hurt me," he assured her, coming to sit down in front of her cage. She maneuvered her body so she could be closer to him and gripped the back of his shirt like it was some type of safety blanket. "Where is the cat?" he asked again, and it took me a minute to think about who he was talking about.

Hades! How the Hell could I forget about Hades?!? That thing was going to kill me now; there was no doubt in my mind. Flashing into my space, I frantically called for the little demon. It really was my fault for forgetting about him all the time, but still. He chose me, not the other way around.

But if I couldn't remember a fucking cat, let alone properly take care of one, how the Hell was I going to make out being a mother?!?

The thought sent me into an absolute panic as I continued to call for Hades. I was going to completely fuck up being a mom. There was no way I could do this. And in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?!? Who was so irresponsible to do such a thing?

I collapsed to my knees, all the ways that I was going to screw up flashing through my head as it started to sink in that I was actually pregnant. With twins.

I gasped for breath, trying to calm myself down. I had at least ten months before they came into the world; I could do a lot in ten months to make it safer for my kids.

A meow startled me out of my thoughts as I stared at the black cat in front of me. However, there was no way that could be Hades. The thing was the size of a large dog as he weaved around me, flicking his tail under my nose. Deep down, I knew that it was the cat, but his size was something else. I gripped him around the waist, almost staggering with his weight, and flashed back into the Reaver encampment.

Unfortunately for me, I was not really thinking things through, and I landed back inside my teeny tiny cage with a 50-pound cat on top of me. I gasped for air, the two of us stuck inside the cage with no way out.

Rip let out a bark of laughter as the screams continued around us. Standing up, he walked over to the cage and ripped the opening off of its hinges, breaking the lock at the same time. Reaching in, he grabbed Hades with one hand and brought him out. Completely ignoring me, he went back to his position outside of the Healer's cage.

"Nice to see you too, Rip," I grunted, crawling out of the cage. There was no point in making myself uncomfortable anymore. Not if the guys were out there, playing.

"Um," said the Healer, looking between the two of us. "You two know each other?"

"She's the one that sent me here to look after you," admitted Rip.

"She is the one you talked about?"

"Yup," he grunted, sounding a lot different from the last time I had talked to him. That was when it dawned on me.

"You're better," I said in shock.

"Yup," he replied like it wasn't the most important thing in the world. Then again, I guess to him, it wasn't. "She healed me."

And that was the crux of the matter. The Healer healed Rip, and now he was… human again?

I held out my arms to take Hades back, assuming that if he were back to normal, he wouldn't have a childish fascination with cats, but he hit the top of my hand with a sharp slap. "Mine," he grunted, his eyes fixated on Hades. I opened my mouth, only to be cut off by a bunch of humans running into this end of the compound.

"You might want to move," I advised Rip, getting more comfortable on top of my cage. No matter what happened, I knew I would be safe.

"Nope," he replied, his eyes never leaving Hades as he continued to stroke him. The demon of a cat started to purr, making the Reaver smile.

"Okay," I responded with a sigh. I looked up at the men rushing in; most of their faces melted away, and only the bones of their skulls were visible. It looked like one of those fake skeleton things or a Ghost Rider. I scoffed at that idea and threw out a few flames.

My blue and purple flames completely engulfed the skeletons, causing them to burn to ashes before too long. The last thing that I needed was to deal with over a hundred women traumatized, not only from the abuse they suffered but also from the nightmarish scene in front of them.

'How are they getting in here?' I asked Wang Chao as I continued to burn the bodies. There was no way they could still be alive after having their face reduced to bones, and yet here they were. Running around like it was Halloween.

'Some fucker left the gate open,' growled Wang Chao, and all of a sudden, the skeletons stopped dead, turned around, and walked back the way they had come. One of them even kindly closed the gate behind him, ensuring that it was locked. 'Sorry about that,' he grunted before turning his attention back to whatever he and the others were doing.

"Someone left the gate open," I explained, looking at the Healer. "The guys are sorry."

"Oh no," she replied, a quick shake of her head. "That's fine."

I smiled and pulled out a few chocolate bars that I had saved, especially for her. "Here, I think you like these."

"How did you know?" she asked, twisting her head enough to look at me. Rip pulled his attention away from Hades long enough to grab the chocolates from my hand and give it to the woman behind him.

"We were friends in a past life," I answered with a smile. "In more than a few past lives, if I am to be honest."

"She said the same thing to me when we first met. It's confusing as fuck," growled Rip as Hades batted playfully at his hand. He wiggled his fingers over top of the cat's stomach and let out a small chuckle when they were grabbed and attacked.

The Healer smiled at his response and opened the bar. I had expected her to ask me to open her cage, but she did nothing of the kind. Instead, she just lay inside of it, calm and peaceful as always.

"Don't you want out?" I asked, cocking my head to the side and studying the Healer. Was there something wrong with her? Was she injured in some way that I couldn't see?

"Nope," she answered, licking her fingers clean from the caramel and chocolate. "If it were safe to let me out, Rip would have let me out. If he wants me in here until the screams stop, then that is what I am going to do."

I blinked rapidly at her response, trying to figure out what she was saying. Rip was a scary ass mother fucker that was more than twice the size of her. She should be terrified of him, and yet… she wasn't.

"My reason for living, remember?" she said as if understanding my confusion. I looked at Rip, really looked at him for the first time in two lifetimes.

Despite his size, there was nothing really intimidating about the mountain of a man who was fixated on the cat in his lap. In fact, if I hadn't known him in a previous life, I might not have ever been scared of him. Well, probably.

I mean, he did rip both legs off of a man right before I met him in this life, too, so… I might not be terrified, but I would definitely be wary.

The Healer, however, was treating him like her own stuffed teddy bear. It was the cutest thing in the world, and honestly, I couldn't be happier for either one of them.

But I wonder how Bai Long Qiang would handle the competition…