Free Redemption by Kaye Draper Page A

going again,
when something caught her eye.  Dropping her berries, Rebecca stooped and scooped
up the baby girl.  A feeling of warmth and contentment stole over her the
moment she cradled the baby to her chest.  Cloe’s chubby little hand grasped
the front of Rebecca’s t-shirt and she cooed happily.
    Rebecca sank
down sit cross-legged on the ground, cradling her little miracle.  She smiled
down into those pretty, baby blue eyes and rocked gently, humming snatches of
an old lullaby.
    Gradually, all
thoughts of her quest faded from her mind.  There was nothing more important
that Cloe.  Nothing existed for Rebecca except this feeling of utter
connection.  This little darling needed her; needed her love and protection,
depended on her for life.  There was no other obligation that mattered.
    She dimly heard
Isaac’s deep voice calling for her somewhere in the distance, but it didn’t
matter.  He could go on without her.  She would just stay here.  Something
stirred in the back of her mind.  But this was different from the Incubi’s
tricks.  This was her child.  Her reason for living.
    Rebecca gently
smoothed the baby’s soft golden fuzz of hair as the child snuggled into her
breast.  It was comfortable here, the soft sunshine touching the pair of them
in a warm caress.  Rebecca found herself getting drowsy.  She scooted back to
lean against the trunk of a large oak tree, watching the dappled sun dance over
her little treasure.  Her eyes were beginning to drift closed in sleepy
contentment when Isaac came crashing into the meadow.  
    Rebecca blinked
up at him, gifting him with a soft smile of utter contentment.  His fair face
was lightly flushed and he was a bit out of breath.  His piercing blue eyes landed
on her and he froze.
    “Becca…”  His
voice was laden with fear.  Rebecca gazed up at him, perplexed by his
reaction.  Maybe he had realized that she wouldn’t want to go with him anymore,
now that she’d found Cloe.
    Isaac inched
forward cautiously, stopping a few feet away.  “It’s…it’s okay Rebecca, I’m
here.”
    He acted as if
she should be scared.  Rebecca glanced around the clearing, looking for a
monster.  There was nothing, just the gently waving grasses and the soft rustle
of the oak tree whispering overhead.  The baby fussed and Rebecca jiggled her round
little body and made soft shushing sounds.
    Isaac stared
down at Rebecca with a look of abject horror on his handsome face.  “What are
you doing?!”
    She shook her
head, her gaze still on her sweet Cloe.  “Shh… did he scare you sweetheart?”
    Isaac snorted. 
“ Sweetheart?   Rebecca, look at that thing!”  His voice gentled, and
there was a bit of anguish there.  “What is…what is it doing to you?”  He sank
to his knees, still keeping that careful distance between them.
    Rebecca finally spared
him more than just a casual glance.  She was starting to get mad.  “This thing is my daughter.  What in the world is wrong with you?”
    He made a choked
noise.  How could he describe it?  It was fairly obvious that Rebecca wasn’t
seeing the same thing he was.  She smoothed a hand over the thing’s head, then
jiggled it a bit more, murmuring snatches of an old kid’s song.  The beast
fisted its tiny hands in her shirt and wriggled down closer in her arms. 
    Isaac shuddered
as his eyes ranged from the thing’s human torso to its long, green serpentine
tail.  The tail was coiled around Rebecca’s right side, under her arm and up
over her shoulder, where a pair of barbs, like those of a giant scorpion, were
embedded in her flesh.  She didn’t seem to care, didn’t even notice that the
thing was stinging her, pumping her full of poison.
    Isaac didn’t
know what to do.  He was afraid that getting her to snap out of it would make
the thing angry and make the situation worse.  But he couldn’t just let this go
on.  He saw the look of tenderness on Rebecca’s face as she gazed down at