“I’m so bored,” Haven moaned.
“At least you ate before we left,” Addy said. “I can feel my stomach eating itself as we stand here.”
“Eww! That’s so gross!” Haven said. “Hey, Mommy, can we get a pizza after Mr. Gabriel is done closing the other defension?”
Harper sighed. “It’s dimension, hon.”
“That’s what I said. Defension.”
Riddick shook his head. “Yes, we can get pizza.” He turned around and signed to Lane, asking if she was OK. She gave him the thumbs-up in response.
Harper pulled her phone out of her pocket and glanced at the time. “Gabriel, man, I hate to rush you, but when are we going to call this thing over? It’s not working.”
With a noise somewhere between a grunt and a growl of pure exhaustion and frustration, Gabriel dropped his hands and fell to his knees, sweating even more than Harper was, gasping for breath. The flames disappeared as if they’d never been there at all.
“It should have worked,” he muttered through clenched teeth. “We have plenty of power. Hell, I should’ve been able to generate fire hot enough to close a rift by channeling Lane’s power alone. I don’t understand.”
“Maybe it’s performance anxiety,” Benny said from his position with Mischa in the far corner of the barn. “I mean, everyone’s watching and all. Not all dudes can perform under pressure like that.”
Gabriel turned to him with a stunned expression, ignoring the chuckles that came from Riddick and Lucas. “I don’t have performance anxiety.”
Benny held up his hands in supplication. “No judgement here, man. It happens to all dudes at some point or another.”
“Speak for yourself,” Riddick muttered.
“Point is,” Benny went on, “there’s nothing to be ashamed of. That’s all I’m sayin’.”
Gabriel’s color heightened. “I’m not ashamed, because I’m not having performance issues. I’m telling you, the fire should have been hot enough to close the rift.”
“I think ‘the lady doth protest too much’,” Lucas quipped to Hunter in a ridiculously loud stage whisper.
Flames leapt into Gabriel’s eyes once more as he glared at Lucas, one hand raised. “Go ahead,” he said in a deathly quiet voice. “Call me a lady again, mongrel.”
Lucas growled and took a step forward before Hunter smacked him on the back of his head. “Stop it. We don’t have time for a pissing contest. We have to figure out another plan.”
“Um…I might have an idea,” Addy mumbled before biting down on her thumbnail nervously.
Gabriel gave her a palms-up gesture. “At this point, I’m totally open to suggestions, angel.”
Her face turned the color of a stewed tomato at his endearment, but she managed to pull herself together and say, “I saw this Godzilla movie once. And Godzilla couldn’t be killed because he had indestructible skin and was fireproof. So the soldiers had to wait until he opened his mouth to fire a grenade into it.”
Harper nodded. “I saw that one. The grenade went off inside his stomach and blew him apart. His outside was fireproof, but his insides weren’t.”
“That was a terrible movie,” Benny muttered, looking disgusted. “We’re all gonna watch the old Godzilla movies when we get out of here, OK? I’m not taking no for an answer. You kids need to culture yourselves.”
Gabriel looked at Benny a moment like he was considering maiming him, then glanced back at Addy. “So, you’re saying that maybe if we hit the rift with hellfire when it’s opening, we might be able to seal it from the inside out?”
She suddenly became very interested in her shoes. “Yeah. Maybe. Whatever.”
“That’s genius, Addy,” Riddick said, giving her a warm smile.
She gave him a shy smile in return and Hunter added, “It could work. We have nothing to lose at this point.”
Harper frowned. “That’s all fine and good, but how do we get the thing to open up enough to shoot fire into it?”
“Holy shit!”
Everyone turned to Marina, who was now standing inside the doorway, wide-eyed and pale. “My water just broke.”
Harper’s mind reeled. All the dates dhampyres had been born. All the times the rift had allowed a demon into the world.
“Well,” she said, fighting back a crazy, nervous giggle. “I guess that answers that.”
And that’s when everything went a little…sideways.
Chapter Nineteen
Marina’s labor was going faster than any Harper had ever seen. They had her settled on a bed of blankets and clothes they’d pulled from Quinn’s truck and hay in the barn, and they’d called the ambulance, but her contractions were only minutes apart. There was no way the ambulance was going to arrive in time to deliver this baby.
Harper dropped down to one knee at Marina’s side and clutched her sweaty hand. “How are you doing, sis? Hanging in?”
Marina frowned at her and blew a hank of damp hair off her forehead with a quick puff of air out the corner of her mouth. “Jesus, why would anyone want to do this more than once? It’s fucking miserable.”
“Just be glad Mom’s back at the base,” she told her. “She hovered over me for the entire time I was in labor with Haven. And she told the doctor she’d eat his spleen if he didn’t move faster with my epidural.”
Riddick nodded. “I’m pretty sure the doctor pissed himself.”
Marina’s laugh ended in a pained moan. “Oh, God, another contraction.”
The contraction passed with a lot of cussing (from both Marina and Quinn) and a lot of panting (again, from Marina and Quinn). When it was over, Marina’s head dropped back to her rolled-up-sweatshirt pillow.
Harper glared up at Quinn. “Would you please quit pacing? You’re making everyone nervous.”
Sparing her only one fierce glare, Quinn knelt at his wife’s side, taking her other hand in his own. Harper shook her head. Men—dhampyres especially—were all alike. Ask them to battle to the death and they did it with zeal. Bring them face to face with a pregnant woman? Even the mighty fell.
He brushed his wife’s hair back with his giant hand—seriously, he was huge. Harper was a little scared for her sister as she tried to deliver this monster’s baby—and gave her a tense smile. “I sent Benny up to the road to wait for the ambulance and show them where we are. It’s all going to be fine.”
Benny burst through the door, skidding to a stop in front of them, looking harried like Kramer on Seinfeld. “We have a problem,” he said, gasping for breath.
“Fuck, man,” Lucas muttered. “Not what anyone wanted to hear right now.”
Benny glared at him. “Not my fault. It looks like there was an accident on the highway. I’m not sure the ambulance is going to be able to get through.”
Marina wailed as another contraction hit. They were now less than a minute apart.
“Harper,” Nikolai called from the roof. “We’ve got company. Lots of them. Coming in hot on all sides. We’re surrounded.”
Harper was about to let loose a few expletives of her own when Gabriel said, “Um…we have another problem.”
She followed his wide-eyed gaze to the rift, which looked to be…widening.
Well, fuck. That couldn’t be good.
“We’re not going to have much time once the baby’s born to seal the rift,” Hunter said. “It’s going to happen fast.”
“Shit,” Mischa hissed. “And your dad is sending his men in to stop the delivery. I can’t hear everything they’re saying, but I heard someone say, ‘by any means necessary’.”
“I’ll fucking kill anyone who comes near either of them,” Quinn growled.
“You’re goddamned right we will,” Riddick said.
“How long do we have before all hell breaks loose?” Harper asked Mischa.
“Maybe five minutes.”
Harper’s mind raced. They had to keep her father’s men out, protect Marina and the baby, possibly even deliver the baby, and they had to help Gabriel c
lose the rift. And they couldn’t get the kids out, because they were surrounded. Besides, when they were under attack and Riddick and Seven were defending them, the kids were the only ones left who could help Gabriel. Jesus, this was bad.
She allowed herself a tiny, internal, two-second freakout before she mentally slapped herself across the face and pulled her shit together. “OK, here’s what’s gonna happen. Nikolai,” she barked, “shoot anyone who gets within range of this building. Take them down, but try not to kill anyone. And if you see us getting overwhelmed down here, come down and fight.”
“Copy,” he said.
“Riddick and Seven, grab all our weapons and the bag I stole from the armory from Quinn’s truck, then guard that door. Incapacitate anyone who tries to get through, however you see fit.”
Riddick nodded, and Seven cracked her knuckles and said, “Excellent.”
“Lucas,” she said, “shift and see how many you can stop from making it to the door.” He didn’t even bother acknowledging her order. He started stripping off clothes as he ran out the door, shifting on the fly.
“Quinn, you stay with Marina. Cover her body with yours if you have to. Don’t let anyone get to her.”
“No one will get to her,” he said through clenched teeth. “But I can’t promise I won’t kill anyone who tries.”
That was really better than she could have hoped for, given the circumstances. “Fair enough. Do your best. Mischa, consider yourself a free-range fighter. Go wherever you want. Wreak havoc. Hunter, stay with me and the kids.”
Hunter agreed solemnly, but Mischa seemed a little too happy with her assignment for Harper’s liking. There was something super-eerie about seeing a vampire that happy in a crisis.
She turned to Addy, Lane, and Haven. They were all watching her with wide eyes set in pale, nervous little faces. “OK, guys, this is going to get ugly, and it’s going to get loud. But I need you to stay calm. Don’t panic. I’m going to be right here, and Hunter’s going to be right here. Our only focus is going to be protecting you. I need your focus to be holding onto Gabriel and giving him all the power you’ve got so that he can close that rift. Do you understand?”
Three solemn little nods. Awesome. “Do you have any questions for me?”
“Can we get pizza and ice cream when we’re done here?” Haven asked.
Harper thought about it for a second. Seemed like a reasonable request from a kid who was about to help save the world. She nodded. “We can.”
Haven grinned triumphantly, then cracked her knuckles, looking eerily like Seven before saying, “I’m ready Mr. Gabriel.” She extended her hand to him like Cinderella letting her prince lead her to the dance floor.
Gabriel smiled down at her before taking her hand and tugging her close to him. “Why don’t the three of you huddle in here with me?” he asked, opening his arms to them. “When things get…loud, just focus on the rift, all right? Pay no attention to what’s going on behind and around us.”
As they cuddled into a giant group hug with Gabriel’s arms encircling them protectively, he turned to Harper and said over their heads, “I’ll shield them from whatever is going on around us, and I won’t take my eyes off that rift. But if anything comes through before I can get it closed…”
He didn’t finish his sentence and he didn’t have to. Harper knew what he was saying. Gabriel was willing to stand between the kids and any stray bullets that might start flying, but they were vulnerable to whatever might come through the rift if he couldn’t close it fast enough.
She gave him a terse nod. “I’ll watch your back. You focus on them and getting that thing closed as soon as you can.”
“Oh, God!” Marina moaned, one hand clutching the makeshift bedding beneath her, the other wrapped so tightly around Quinn’s hand his fingers were blue. “I can’t do this! I can’t have a baby in a barn while there’s some kind of supernatural fucking apocalypse going on!
Harper wished she could scream right along with her to relieve her own tension, but knew that if she cracked, Quinn might, too. She was about to tell her to breathe and try to calm down when Benny stepped in, doing just that.
“Take slow, steady breaths until the contraction ends,” he said, shoving his sleeves up as he knelt on the floor next to her. Then he pulled a travel-sized bottle of sanitizer out of his pocket and squirted it all over his hands. “Quinn, man, help her sit up. It’ll make pushing easier.”
Quinn looked skeptical, but did as he was told, wedging his arms between Marina’s back and the sweat-soaked clothing and blankets beneath her. “What the hell are you doing, man?”
In the most sincere, calm voice Harper had ever heard Benny use, he said, “I’m going to deliver your baby.”
Everyone in the barn turned and looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “Um, Benny,” Harper began, biting her lip, “I don’t know about that…”
Marina’s lower lip started to tremble a second before she threw her hands over her face and sobbed. “This is all your fault,” she wailed, smacking Quinn in the chest.
“Please don’t cry, beautiful,” Quinn said, tightening his hold on her shoulders. “Everything is going to be fine.”
Marina only sobbed louder.
Quinn shot Benny a terrified look.
Benny put his hand on her knee. “Listen to me. I’ve done this before, OK? I’ve done this a lot. I’ve been alive a really long time and I was delivering babies decades before you were even a twinkle in your daddy’s eye. I need you to trust me. I’ve got this.”
“Why the fuck would you have experience delivering babies, man?” Riddick asked.
Harper shot him a hard look. Not helping, dude. Not helping.
“I was a field medic in the war,” Benny said defensively. “Before that, I worked with my mother. She was a midwife.”
“Which war?” Quinn asked.
Benny swallowed hard. “Civil.”
Quinn turned the whitest shade of pale Harper had ever seen and Riddick muttered, “Jesus.”
“Hey,” Harper snapped. “It’s not like having babies has changed a lot since 1863. And besides, we’re out of options. If Benny says he can do this, I believe him.”
A wolf’s howl rent the night in the woods outside the barn. It was a warning, Harper realized. Lucas was telling them they were out of time.
Marina let out a harsh breath as her contraction ended and snapped, “Oh, for fuck’s sake. I don’t care anymore. I’m having this baby and Benny’s the most qualified to deliver it. Y’all just keep us alive long enough for him to get the job done, OK?”
Well, that’d be the trick, now wouldn’t it?
Chapter Twenty
It felt like her father had sent every soldier in the country after them. No one could say he’d underestimated their strength, she supposed. But this…this was ridiculous.
Shouts erupted all around, quickly followed by howls of pain as the dhampyres cut through the soldiers, knocking them unconscious and breaking bones—whatever it took to keep them down without actually killing them. Outside, every now and then, Harper heard a wolf howl and knew Lucas was still out there, slowing the troops down as they piled out of whatever infinite clown car her father had for instances like this.
At the doors, Riddick and Seven were disarming and dropping soldiers with frightening efficiency. They fought exactly the same—quick, dirty, and brutal. No fancy moves, no extra energy expended. Whatever was the most effective the fastest, that’s what they did. Seeing them fight side by side was like watching a ballet performance. A gory, gruesome ballet set to the soundtrack of pained groans and breaking bones, but ballet nonetheless.
Mischa moved in and out of the barn so fast that she was nothing but a blur to the naked eye. Everywhere she went, chaos, panic, and unconscious bodies followed.
Harper had no idea where Nikolai was. He could still be on the roof picking off soldiers at a distance, or he could be in the thick of the fight for all she knew. She wasn’t worried about him,
though. He was one of the toughest bastards Harper had ever seen, and he fought dirty. There wasn’t a human among this crowd that could best him. Of that she was certain.
Every now and then, above the sounds of the fighting Harper could pick out Benny’s voice, urging Marina to push. Marina’s answering wail was much easier to hear. Quinn stood over both of them in a fighting stance, twin knives in his hands, ready to gut anyone who came near his wife.
Hunter was channeling all his power into an invisible shield around Gabriel and the kids. Anytime a soldier managed to get a shot off in their direction (which wasn’t often because everyone was doing a pretty fabulous job of disarming these asshats before they made it inside the bran), it’d bounce harmlessly off the shield to the ground. But the power it required to keep the shield up even in that small of an area meant he wasn’t able to help in the fight—so Harper had moved in front of him and had been fending off the handful of men who’d been able to get past Lucas, Nikolai, Riddick, and Seven.
She had a bag of tranq darts she’d stolen from her dad’s armory, her trusty switchblade, and a whole lot of pent up anger—and she wasn’t afraid to unleash it on anyone who got too close to her kids.
Even though Hunter was clearly occupied and couldn’t fight, the soldiers still didn’t see him as the weakest target in the barn. She was like chum in the water for these sexist fuckers, it would seem, because the second any of them breached the doors, they made a beeline for Harper.
One would think the ten unconscious soldiers at her feet would’ve warned them that maybe she wasn’t the easy target they assumed she was. Dumbasses.
“You good, babe?” Riddick yelled as he tossed the limp body of a soldier like a bowling ball at three others who started charging toward Seven.
“Just fucking great,” she yelled back through clenched teeth as she dodged a soldier who made a grab for her and jammed a tranq dart into his neck.
Suddenly Mischa popped up beside her out of nowhere and bent over at the waist, looking exhausted. “It’s slowing down,” she said after a brief pause. “Lucas and Nikolai have it under control out there. No one else seems to be coming, either. I can’t hear any activity at all at the base.”
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