Dani and the Bull Ch. 14

His father smiled. "And you are as beautiful a woman as I would have wished for my son. Oh little Hurricane, such things you bring to my family, but so welcome are you at the same time. Now you must sit and listen to what we speak of and pay close attention. For now you are free of these two men who you fear, but they will come back. You both must be strong, you must protect the child in you. To do that you must call on all the heavens and hells to help you. You must stand together; never must you be more than a distance to hear the other call out. Your demons must be alert as possible. There is safety here, but should you desire each other outside of this glade, be cautious of how lost you become in each other. In New Orleans, stay to the purple room to share each other."

Lily smiled at Dani, "it was once my room, so I am strong there and able to shield you better. If you must go to somewhere else, don't leave the property; and especially avoid the gazebo until this is over."

Bull sighed. "So are we to be some kind of prisoners until this is over?"

Her grandfather shook his head. "No Bull, we would never make you suffer what you already have. We are all aware of the confinement you have known, and would never ask you to repeat such a thing; we simply suggest that when you go off the property, it is not for anything that might detract you from being vigilant."

Pierre looked at his son, "why did you never call us, let us help you some way through your ordeal Beau? We would have moved heaven and earth to help you somehow..."

It was Dani who answered. "Then you should never have let it happen to your son in the first place. If you are all so all seeing, so all powerful, why did any of you ever let this happen?" She was angry, and Bull looked at her glow as it grew from her feelings of love for him. "He was lied to, told one thing and it wasn't true. The only evil in Bull is what came from the lies, and it isn't fair. Maybe he wasn't meant to be a fisherman, maybe he wasn't meant to be a priest, and maybe we would have met no matter what."

"Dani, you don't understand..." Lily tried to explain something, but Dani shook her head.

"No, I don't understand. And I don't want to, for the first time in my life I am happy, really and truly happy and now to know that my happiness is at the expense of all he could have been if only he had been told the truth from the start...well, I'm sorry, but I would have rather it been earned another way..." She buried her face in Bull's and he felt her tears against his skin. "Can we go now; I don't want to be here anymore."

Bull nodded and looked at the ghosts. "You know, until right now I thought for sure she was wrong, that somehow she misread my demon. Now, I'm not so sure. But don't worry, our son will be born and he will live his life as he chooses. We'll take care of Nick and Jessie and we'll go on with our lives. But when this is over, I don't know if it will be here in the swamp or in Oregon or neither one."

As they dressed and walked off, the three spirits exchanged looks. They knew without question that this had all gone wrong and that now both Dani and Bull would do things their way, and no longer listen to anyone but themselves.

It was clear to everyone when Bull and Dani returned to the house that something had happened. Jack and Helen saw it before anyone and when Bull looked at his family, he swallowed hard. "The reason why I didn't come back sooner was because I was in prison in Georgia, five years for something that I may or may not have done. Dani knows my crime, and she accepts me despite it, but it was a crime I should never have even considered if I hadn't been lied to and told my demon was one thing when in reality it was simply being set up for what some believe is some greater purpose. Momma, granny Maylene, I have always respected your beliefs and your ways. But to deny me what I could have been, it wasn't right, and you know it. Dani and I will stay for a while, she needs to get strong and face the storm that is coming. For that she will need your help though I am reluctant to allow you near her Granny, considering what I learned to day. We also want you to perform the Blood Ritual for us at the next full moon." When he said that, he heard her gasp. "It's time love, time we were as one and while a traditional wedding will be legal in the eyes of the law, the Blood Ritual will bind us in the eyes of Nature, and we will need it's help to defeat Nick, and Jessie both." He looked at Jack. "Jack, Helen, I ask you now for the hand of Dani to be my wife, to be my partner in all the good times and the bad and forever..."

Jack swallowed hard and Helen looked at him with tears in his eyes. "As if we could refuse you big man, and when the times come we'll be with you." He clasped hands with Bull then hugged his daughter. "Treat him good Dani, you'll never find another one like him."

His mother looked at him and stepped forward. "Beau, what do you mean you were lied to, I have never..."

Dani looked at her then at Granny Maylene. "Philippe told me today. You were lied to Massie when Maylene read Bull's demon she didn't see what you were told. Instead she saw a future involving our son and a battle between good and evil. I understand why you did it Maylene, but I hope you will understand why I will never forgive you for it."

The old woman walked up to her and met her eye to eye. "I don't expect you to child, anymore than I expect Beau to forgive me, but I did what I thought was right, and even now I stand by that choice I made. From the day you and Beau first met I saw it in my mind and I knew I could take no chances on him staying here and doing something foolish like never going out to find you."

Bull shook his head, hurt that the woman he had loved and trusted all his life, would lie to him and cause so much pain in his life. "I would have found her Granny, from the moment I had my first dream of her, I knew she was the one I wanted but what if it wasn't me who was intended to father the child. Look into that vision you saw and tell me, was it me or was it Andre who you saw." He had such a gut feeling suddenly as a conversation with Dani came back, how she had talked of planning to come to New Orleans later this summer to visit her grandmother and Aunt Jessie.

Both Maylene and his mother took a step back. Massie looked at her mother, hurt and shocked how she had let her son walk away based on a vision. "Momma...?"

Andre moved up to stand by his brother and Dani, the woman he had loved as a child and had openly declared his intention of marrying. "Granny what does Beau mean about the child?" Had that baby in Dani's belly actually been intended to be his? His mind swirled around with what that meant. Could he have known Dani before Beau; that he might have had perhaps one more chance with her to make her his instead of Beau's? Had he been lied to as his brother had been lied to? Had their grandmother not only twisted what his brother could have been but denied him a future with the woman he had secretly dreamed of for damn long?

The room fell silent as the old woman closed her eyes, and in her mind she summoned the vision that had caused it all. Had she read it wrong, had it been Andre who was intended to father the child they all expected to change the world. She saw the child of three watching the baby, while his older brother looked at her in a kind of awe. She heard Andre's babyish declaration of marrying her and her own voice telling him she was intended for someone else. Intended for his older brother, but now she knew that she had been wrong, it was true she had been intended for Bull, but not in the way that she had expected. A summer fling, two young people who had shared a soft night in the grove. It had been Bull who was intended to be her husband, and his brother was the intended father of the baby Dani now carried. Trying to find some sense in it all she dove deeper into the vision. The baby, she had to know the baby's true purpose in life...what she saw sent her dropping to her knees and knew that her nephew had been right, she had had no business interfering in the natural order of nature.

She began to cry, cry as she had never cried and outside the heavens cried with her. The thunder crashed and the lightning began to flash outside the house. What had she done, oh lord, what had she done...?