by J. E. Taylor
“No,” she said and her light laugh filled the bathroom.
The music of her laugh set me in motion and I caught her by the waist, pulling her close.
“You don’t want to catch this,” she said, arching away from me.
“I don’t really care.” I kept my grip on her waist, holding her against me and letting my hands wander to the edge of the baby-doll nightgown. She wiggled in my grasp and all I could do was smile at the color filling her cheeks.
“Come on,” she whispered, but this time she was less resistant and trying to suppress a smile.
I dipped my mouth to the side of her neck, nibbling my way from her ear to her shoulder. “Are you sure I can’t interest you in a nice long hot shower?” I asked and worked my way back up the same line to her earlobe. She didn’t object and her sigh of concurrence brought a grin to my lips. I knew I probably should let her go back to bed and rest but my appetite for her had grown since my transition from immortal to human and I couldn’t seem to get enough.
What little clothing we had fell onto the floor and I navigated her into the shower. The water seemed to rejuvenate Naomi and she was the one to push me against the wall, covering my mouth with the kind of kiss that made me want to sink to my knees in worship.
She knew how to make me forget everything with a touch—forgetting millenniums and all that came before her. She erased it all and I could only fathom the moment. Making love to her was a slice of heaven, a dance of rhythms and movement in such unity that I swear this is what fate had planned for me all along.
Music blasted in the living room and I chuckled against Naomi’s neck.
“I think we disrupted Valerie’s studies again,” I whispered and kissed her exposed throat.
Naomi purred in that erotic way that made my skin tingle and I pulled away, studying her flushed features and the dripping mane of hair, running my hands through the silky strands before covering her mouth in an all-consuming kiss.
Chapter Two – Damian
Naomi stepped into my office holding something plastic in her hand. The way she bit her lip as she stared at the thing pulled my full attention. I hated that worried look; it plagued my mind and brought up unpleasant memories of life on the run.
“What?”
She turned the front of what she held towards me and I stared at the little plus in the middle of the plastic, before bringing my gaze to hers. I had seen enough commercials over the years to have an idea of what I was looking at, but I wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of emotion that little plus sign sent parading through my bloodstream.
“Is that what I think it is?”
She nodded and joy burst from the center of my being. I had no memory of crossing the distance, but when I came back to reality, I had her in my arms, twirling in a circle and my smile actually made my cheeks ache.
“Are you sure?” I asked, setting her down.
“Yes. Valerie made me do the test twice.”
Naomi was more subdued than I would have expected and I put my enthusiasm in check, lifting her chin so she met my gaze.
“Aren’t you excited?”
She bit her lip again and I dialed it in completely as a new worry bit under my skin. We’d never talked about children. Ever.
Even after we were both cured of the shadow virus, so maybe my assumptions that she wanted the same thing I did was flawed.
“Did you... want children?” I asked. I tried to keep the strained hesitation out of my voice but I didn’t do a very good job.
The tension in her body loosened. “Yes, I want to have children with you, it’s just...” she trailed off and the conflict danced over her features, twitching her eyelids as she tried to articulate all that was going on under the surface.
“You’re afraid,” I finished, understanding her fears. Hell, I had them too, but mine were more about what sort of child we would produce as opposed to what Lucifer would do when he found out.
Her nod confirmed my statement. “If he ever got his hands on my child...” Naomi couldn’t finish and she pulled me into a fierce hug. “I don’t know what I’d do.”
I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her temple. “I have a feeling that’ll be the least of our worries.”
She glanced up. The seriousness in her steady gaze told me she didn’t quite understand my point.
“I’m not sure what’s involved in raising a trinity,” I said. “Especially if our child has some of the same... gifts that you have.” For a moment, I envisioned being cornered by an angry tiger cub and couldn’t help grinning.
“What’s with that look?”
“What if the baby can change forms at will?” I opted to ask the question as opposed to sharing my little imagery.
Naomi sighed. “What if she can’t?”
“She?”
Her lips pressed together and I refocused on what she asked.
“Well, then she would be normal.”
Her eyes rolled and she laughed for the first time since she gave me the news. “You really think we’re capable of having a normal child?”
I answered with an almost imperceptible lift of my shoulders along with a grin. “As long as the child is healthy, who the hell cares if she’s normal or not.”
Her cheeks dimpled and laugh lines appeared at the corner of her eyes. Any worry that had been there a few minutes ago seemed to evaporate in her budding glow.
“Have I told you I loved you, lately?”
She beamed and nodded, pulling me into another hug. “I love you, too,” she said and unwrapped her arms. Naomi literally bounced out of the room and I imagined she continued that flighty step all the way to the family room upstairs.
I stared after her and my smile slowly faded. She had every right to be afraid and so did I. If Lucifer got wind of this, regardless of whatever condition he was in, he’d crawl out of hell to try to stop it. God only knows what would happen then.
I closed my eyes and my chin dropped to my chest. I’ve never been a praying man, but, right now, we needed all the protection the angels in heaven could provide.
“Michael, she’s pregnant,” I whispered, knowing damn well he couldn’t hear me from within our sanctuary. Just saying it aloud sent a jolt of excitement along with a profound stab of fear through my body, tingling through my cells and producing a rash of goose flesh.
I shivered and saved my work, shutting down my computer before putting on an appropriate smile and heading upstairs into the loud music and laughter.
* * * *
After dinner, Naomi begged off early, looking every bit as tired as she said she was. I gave her a good night peck and settled into the couch with the remote. I must have clicked through the channels twice before Valerie cleared her throat. I glanced in her direction.
“Feel like a game of chess?” Valerie asked, closing her medical books.
“Sure.” I hadn’t played a game with her since we came back from Colorado and now that both Naomi and I were back in what Valerie dubbed healthy-land, I figured I could go without a night of aimless television and I turned it off.
She retrieved the beautiful carved chess set I had given her for her birthday and sat down on the couch next to me. I took the black marble pieces and set them up opposite her light set. I caught her glancing toward the hallway and cocked my head, sending her a silent question. She shook her head and tapped her watch.
“What’s up?”
“Not yet,” she whispered and picked up the remote for the stereo, turning it on low.
“Okay,” I said and nodded toward the board. “It’s your move.”
She smirked and dropped her gaze to the board. For the first time since we got back, I took a moment to study her. The resemblance to Michael came through in the thick, wavy hair and the perfectly proportioned facial features, both qualities that also resonated in my wife, but unlike Naomi, Valerie didn’t have a hint of Native American in her complexion or raven-black hair.
She made her first move and leaned bac
k into the cushions, meeting my gaze.
“Are you checking me out?”
I chuckled and glanced at the chessboard. “I never noticed just how much you look like Naomi,” I said and countered her move without much thought.
A dimple appeared in her cheek and she pressed her lips into a tight smile.
I crossed my arms and leaned back, challenging her to say what was behind that look. When she said nothing, I smiled. “Wasn’t it a couple of months ago that you were checking me out?”
“So you were checking me out.” Her arms tightened across her chest, closing me off with non-verbal cues.
“No, I was studying you a little closer, noticing similarities and differences between you and Naomi. At least I was looking at your face and not your ass.” I had to add that last point, especially after her not so subtle check of my backside when we first came here.
A rose hue bloomed in each of her cheeks and she looked away. Instead of dignifying me with an answer, she concentrated on the chessboard. After a few moments, a knight moved and she glanced at me expectantly.
“What did you want to talk to me about,” I said, lowering my voice to barely a whisper before focusing on the game in front of me. I sat staring at the chessboard, contemplating my next move when Valerie cleared her throat. Reaching out, I moved one of my rooks and then focused back on her.
“I ran a couple of tests,” she said, shifting on the seat like she suddenly couldn’t find a comfortable position.
“Naomi said you made her do a couple of pregnancy tests.”
When she met my gaze and tilted her head in that puppy dog way, it made my blood freeze in my veins. Valerie wasn’t talking about the pregnancy tests.
“What?” I hissed.
“Besides coming back as undoubtedly pregnant, the results showed a very high level of glucose.”
I shrugged. I had no idea what that meant, but based on the concern written in the crease between her eyes, I knew it couldn’t be good.
“I need her to get tested for diabetes.”
The answer didn’t strike the kinds of alarms it would have if the word had been cancer or something equally as deadly.
“Okay,” I said, stretching the word out.
“Damian, diabetes could kill both her and the child if left unchecked.”
She now had my full attention and a cold dread blanketed me. I tried to swallow, but my mouth had gone dry. Instead of speaking, I nodded for her to go on.
“Whether it’s gestational diabetes, or regular diabetes, there could be complications with the pregnancy. Serious complications.”
I blinked. “You are telling me Naomi could die?”
“Yes, if she does have diabetes, there is a much higher chance of... issues.”
“Issues?”
“Short term, long term, there’s a wide range of problems that can occur for both her and the baby,” she said.
The lack of full disclosure started to grate on my nerves. “Tell me the range,” I demanded, leaning my elbows on my knees and just staring at the floor as she went from the least severe consequences of having to watch her diet for the rest of her life, to the most catastrophic, which made my eyelids draw closed and my head dip against the pressure.
I swallowed and tried to ask the question twice before my voice would pass over the sudden block in my throat. “Are you telling me we might have to make a choice between her and the baby?”
She remained quiet, meeting my gaze with neither a nod nor a shake of her head. “I don’t know. Let’s get her properly tested first before you start turning over the different doomsday scenarios in your head. It could also just be a side effect of her DNA makeup. The ability to still change into a tiger could be screwing with the tests.”
Irritation snaked into my blood and I stood, crossing to the sliders, choosing to stare out at the back yard instead of snapping at Valerie. She was just trying to keep me informed, but I would have much preferred being in the dark on this one.
I knew without a doubt Naomi would choose the baby and I glanced at the stars spattering the early spring sky wondering just how many times we could face death before it claimed us.
“It’s your turn,” Valerie said after a few minutes.
“I know.” I didn’t return to the game yet, contemplating moves between the chessboard and my life. With a sigh, I walked back and moved my king, giving Valerie a half-hearted shrug before leaving her with my sacrifice.
* * * *
The Aston-Martin still wasn’t running as smoothly as I wanted, especially after the joy ride Naomi took it on when she saved my ass from Lucifer; I always ended up in the garage when something was eating at me. It was better than tossing and turning in bed and disrupting Naomi’s sleep.
Valerie didn’t bother following me into the basement and I’m glad. I needed time to figure out exactly what options I had. The more I fiddled under the hood, the more I realized it was as much of a crapshoot as stepping off our property into the unprotected world.
The one thing mortality gave me was perspective.
My time was finite now and I wanted a long happy life with Naomi, and a hoard of children. The light flickered above me and I glanced up from the underside of the hood, catching the sway of the single bulb.
I leaned to the side, and caught her blank stare.
“What are you doing?” Naomi asked, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
“Tinkering.” I grabbed the hand cloth and wiped the grease off my fingers, stepping around the engine into full view.
“Why?”
“Couldn’t sleep,” I answered and tossed the rag onto the side of the engine block.
Worry bloomed in her eyes and I crossed the distance between us. I stopped and stared down into her upturned face, wondering how in the world I would survive without her. Instead of voicing my concerns, I leaned down, pressing my lips to hers in a soft kiss.
“What are you doing up at this hour?” I asked, changing the subject.
“I had a nightmare.” She wrapped her arms around her waist and shivered. “It seemed so real and when I woke up, you weren’t there.”
I knew what that was like. Our nightmares were a blend of the near death experiences and Lucifer’s promises. She sometimes woke screaming, trying to unwrap from the blanket like they were the beasts assaulting her. Those were the ones that made my blood boil. Even though Lucifer never made good on his promise to make her his whore, it still played havoc with both our minds. The rest of them involved seeing each other die in various excruciating ways. I didn’t know which flavor she had tonight and I really didn’t want to know. Not after the real-world news I’d been turning over in my head the last couple of hours.
“Sorry, babe,” I said and lead her back to the stairwell leading to the underground tunnel. I grabbed the flashlight before flipping the switch off on the overhead bulb. Drenched in darkness, I reached for her, finding her hand before flipping the flashlight on.
She didn’t speak as I led her back to the bedroom in the main house and I didn’t press her for details. We both still had nightmares and only the word was necessary.
“You died,” she said when we reached our room and I closed the door.
Naomi couldn’t shake that nightmare. She described it once, saying her blood left me like it had the other vampire and she crumbled, unable to fight Lucifer. It always ended with her scream of terror as he came for her.
I ran my palm over her cheek and pulled her to my chest. My nightmares didn’t end with her dying. In mine, I lived long enough for the sun to burn and Lucifer to ravage her before I turned to dust.
“It wasn’t the usual.”
Her tone surprised me and I searched the shadows of her gaze looking for insight but found none. I lifted my eyebrows waiting for her to enlighten me.
She shook her head. “Just go clean up and come to bed,” she said and who was I to argue.
After washing my hands and brushing my teeth, I stripped down to my boxers and climbed in
to the bed. Her back was to me and I curved around her, pulling her to my chest and planting a kiss on her shoulder.
“Are you all right?” I asked when silence blanketed the room.
I thought she had fallen asleep, but she shifted and sighed.
“I’m not sure.”
I waited, knowing if I pushed her, she’d just clam up until she was ready. Finally, when she didn’t continue, I propped myself up on my elbow and leaned over her, getting a glimpse of her face in the splintered moonlight. The glistening paths on her cheeks gave me a start.
“Are you crying?”
Naomi met my gaze and the gloss filling her eyes confirmed my question and tugged at my heart.
“Babe, it was only a nightmare.”
In a flash, her arms encircled my neck and she pulled me down into her grasp.
“I lost everything,” she whispered.
I held her tight, whispering, “shhh.” until the quakes rocking her form settled.
“Naomi,” I said when she stopped shaking. She peeled away and stared into my eyes. “I’m not planning on dying any time soon,” I added when I had her full attention.
“Sometimes planning and reality don’t meet,” she said and sniffled.
“Neither one of us is clairvoyant,” I pointed out.
She wiped her eyes and nodded. “I know, it’s just... it was disturbing.”
Her trembling lips propelled me forward and I covered them with mine, tasting the soft saltiness of tears mingling with her natural sweetness and I sighed, breaking the kiss. She palmed my cheek and attempted to smile. It didn’t work quite as well as she might have thought, but I let it go. I really didn’t want to hear about whatever nightmarish horror she could dream up.
Instead, I snuggled down into my pillow, pulled her back into the spoon position, and ran my fingers slowly through her hair. It wasn’t long before she dropped into dreamland and her chest started the soft rise and fall of sleep.
Chapter Three - Damian
I woke facing away from the window and my gaze landed on the sunlight painting the walls with the outline of the windowpanes standing out like giant Braille relief map. Instead of the usual freak out, I sighed and studied the patterns that so many take for granted.
