by E A Price
His beast mewled pathetically. Yeah, the beast should be sorry. It was his damn lack of control that put them in the doghouse… cathouse. Humph. He hated dogs. Probably something to do with that wolf shifter he dated who tried to castrate him after he dumped her. Jeez. Thank fuck he had a nice, quiet little vampire for a mate. Oh, Juliet. Now his beast was sad, and he was pissed off again.
He needed to speak to someone. But all the dubious acquaintances he had made in Los Lobos wouldn’t help, and Kalinda was fresh out of knowledge. But he did know where to find someone.
*
“Was it really necessary to knock out the teeth of my bouncer?” asked Arturo in a bored voice.
Ryder shrugged. “He pushed me too far.”
On approaching the club, the bouncer looked him up and down, gave him a sneer and in a taunting voice said, ‘no way, sweetheart’. His beast wasn’t in the mood to take prisoners. Besides, the guy was a shifter. His teeth might grow back. Ryder’s teeth always did. He even had the teeth he gave to Kalinda back. Course, he was a special kind of shifter.
On getting past the bouncer, half a dozen vampires decided he looked like an appetizing chew toy, but Arturo stopped them before it went too far.
They were in Arturo’s office. Ryder was mildly interested by the many pictures Arturo had on the wall. That kind of looked like Marilyn Monroe who had her arms around the diminutive male. Huh. Sweet. He wondered if Juliet ever met her.
“Ricky won’t be too pleased with you when he regains consciousness.”
Ryder gave him a blank look and Arturo sighed. “Ricky is the name of my bouncer.”
“I’ll add him to my list of enemies.” A mental list that numbered in the hundreds, including that woman he cut in front of in the line at the grocery store earlier. She was just taking so long maneuvering that baby buggy.
“What on earth are you doing here?” Arturo leaned forward, concern flashing in his eyes. “Has something happened to Juliet?”
“She’s fine,” he snapped, his beast not at all liking his concern. At least as far as he could tell she was fine without being allowed to actually talk to her or be anywhere near her when she wasn’t sleeping.
“You shouldn’t get too attached to Juliet,” warned Arturo.
“Yeah, yeah I heard the story. Vampires and shifters don’t mate, blah, blah, blah.” Heard it more times than he cared to mention.
Arturo looked amused. “You doubt the truth in it?”
Ryder scoffed. “C’mon, it’s ridiculous.”
Arturo eyed him keenly. “Not to my mate it wasn’t.”
Ryder said nothing.
“I was turned by a vampire who had personally been turned by one of the first vampires – Noah. It was about eight hundred years ago, back then I was young and still believed in love and happy endings. I met a female vampire, a descendant of Alexsander. We had been together for a few decades when it happened. I thought she was acting the fool at first. She started gagging and clutching at her neck. I actually laughed at her, thinking it amusing. But as I felt her pain through our bond, I knew it was no joke. I tried to help her as she writhed in my arms. As blood poured out of her eyes and mouth and ears, I tried to give her mine, tried to heal her, but it did no good. She died, her body shriveling in my arms until she was nothing but a husk.”
Arturo sipped at his glass of blood in moody silence. Ryder grunted uncomfortably.
“You know the story,” he continued. “It was not just my mate who died. Over a hundred did. All those descended from Alexsander, and all because Alexsander decided to take a wolf shifter as a mate. Bonding with a shifter is toxic to us.”
“You don’t know that for certain.”
Arturo snarled at him. “We do. Alexsander’s mother, Katherine, confirmed it. She told Alexsander not to dally with the she-wolf, and he ignored her. His actions condemned all the vampires he had turned and all those they turned.”
“Maybe it was just toxic for one of the first vampires, maybe not for those turned.”
Arturo looked at him in disbelief. “What does a beautiful creature like Juliet see in a mongrel like you?”
Ryder sneered. “She’s mine.”
“You fool, I should kill you now.”
His beast yowled, but Ryder was oddly calm over the threat. “Suppose if you did at least Juliet would investigate my murder.”
“Just get out, and don’t come back!”
“No worries.”
He left with a smile on his face, but truthfully, Arturo’s story had him more unsettled than he cared to admit. Even his beast wasn’t quite so sure about anything anymore. Meow?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sigh. Another night, another message from Ryder. Make that twelve messages so far that night. It had been more than a week since she kicked him out. She could tell he was still visiting her house – he didn’t even try to disguise his scent. Part of her liked knowing he was there.
She should talk to him. Tell him to leave her alone. But she was far too cowardly. If she saw him, she’d cave, fall into his arms, tell him it was okay.
Juliet pushed away the pile of work that was threatening to become towering. She was way behind, but also too distracted to do anything properly.
The other night she actually felt hungry and ate some of the food Ryder left behind – some leftover Chinese takeaway. She gorged, then felt sick and threw most of it up again. Since then, the state of her stomach had been increasingly topsy-turvy. She couldn’t remember even feeling this bad when she was alive.
Emily was disturbingly smug. She could tell something bad happened with Ryder, even though Juliet hadn’t said a word.
Juliet wasn’t feeling overly kind to the young woman so didn’t bother telling her where she was going when she left the office. She merely made her way down to the basement to talk to the SEA doctor.
Rick Powers was technically their medical examiner, but he regularly volunteered at a clinic, so he wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with live patients.
She found him packing his briefcase.
“Rick.”
He looked up and smiled, flicking his silky blonde hair. A couple of months ago he might have made her pause – he was an awfully pretty lion shifter, but now he just made her yearn for her own cat shifter.
“Juliet, what can I do for you?”
“I’m sorry, Rick, I was hoping I could consult with you. But I can see you’re on your way out; I’ll come back tomorrow.”
“Not at all,” he said with a wave of his hand. “Just give me a moment to call my mate and let her know.”
She moved into the examination room – the room the nurses used when giving physicals to SEA employees. He wasn’t going to examine her where he examined dead bodies. Though, technically, she was a dead body.
Gingerly, she hopped up on the table and waited, trying not to listen to the murmured conversation between Rick and his new witch mate, Ariadne. He broke a lot of hearts in the SEA the day he declared he found his mate.
Juliet tried to ignore the sounds, but when the endearments and the talk about sexy lingerie came to the fore, she couldn’t help herself. The low, throaty flirtations she heard just reminded her of Ryder, and that made her stomach even more unsettled.
Rick looked even happier when he appeared moments later. There was what she might call a spring in his step.
“My apologies,” he said, beaming.
“Not at all, if you need to go…”
“No, my mother’s mate is visiting and, well,” he chuckled, “a little of her goes a long way. She has been visiting quite regularly since we found out Ariadne is expecting.”
“She’s pregnant?” blurted Juliet in shock.
“Didn’t you hear? The news is all over the building.”
She really had been distracted if she missed that tidbit of gossip. It was wonderful, really it was. All the new couples, all of them having dozens of babies. How… wonderful.
“Congratulations,” she murmured, her
queasiness growing.
“Thank you. Now, what can I do for you?”
She told him of the irregularities in her constitution. About her heartbeat, breathing, resumed appetite and her sickness. Symptoms she hadn’t felt in over five hundred years, and certainly not since she became a vampire.
Rick ummed and ahhed. He tested her reflexes, and they were fine. There were only so many things he could test – she didn’t have a pulse or a heartbeat at that moment.
“Your reactions seem normal, and it’s likely the sickness was because you hadn’t eaten in years. Your stomach probably couldn’t handle it. It’s not unheard of for vampires to sporadically feel their heart beat again. I’ll take some blood and do a little reading. How about you come back tomorrow night, and I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you, Rick.”
Juliet dragged herself back up to her office, ignoring Emily’s overtures for conversation.
Her stomach rumbled, and she patted it, telling it to hush, but it refused to listen. She hadn’t eaten any blood since Ryder left. She didn’t feel the urge to do so. The thought of any blood but Ryder’s made her queasy. She was hungry, though, and she knew just what she wanted to try.
She enjoyed the surprised look on Emily’s face as she asked her to order a large pepperoni pizza.
*
Juliet was spread over her bed, sleeping. Her breasts were falling and rising rhythmically. Strange, she’d also started breathing. No matter, it was actually kind of hypnotic.
Ryder perched on the edge of her bed, lamenting that they were right back where they started. Juliet going out of her way to ignore him, and him acting like some kind of stalker. He was one step away from peeing outside her house to mark his territory. Actually, his beast was all for that.
Though she must know he was still visiting her, and she hadn’t taken any steps to change her locks.
His tiger grumbled. She never was very good about her own security.
He sniffed taking in her delicate fragrance. If only he could bottle that up and take it with him. No, it wouldn’t be the same, wouldn’t do her justice.
But there was something a little off. His tiger rumbled and took a deep inhale. Not wrong, just different. A sweetness to her scent that hadn’t been there before and one that he couldn’t put his finger on.
It was nearly sundown, and he should get moving lest Juliet wake and plant a small fist in his head. Or a perfectly formed foot in his groin. He let out a massive yawn. He ought to try and get a couple of hours rest.
Strange that his vampire mate slept more than him. He always thought vampires rarely slept, but Juliet just seemed to need more and more every day.
Juliet started stirring. After pressing a kiss to his fingers and then pressing it to her lips, Ryder wrenched himself away. His tiger whining a little more every step he took.
Hey, he won her over once, he was sure he could do it again.
*
Rick was giving her a strange look. So was Lucie, the SEA nurse.
“Something wrong?” Juliet asked.
Lucie’s button nose twitched, and she rubbed her extended stomach. Lucie was pregnant, but even that wasn’t bothering Juliet at that moment.
Rick cleared his throat. “We need to take more blood.”
“Oh?”
“I must have contaminated yours.” Rick looked almost angry with himself. “I don’t see how but I must have.”
“What makes you say that?”
“When I tested your blood, it gave some very strange results. I even got Lucie to retest it. The only thing I can think is that I messed up the sample.”
“Strange how?” Now she was starting to get a little worried.
“You haven’t fed on a pregnant woman recently have you?” His tone was almost accusing.
Juliet gave him a baffled look. He might as well have asked her whether she had fed on a velociraptor given her surprise.
“My most recent donor was male, but I cannot speak for my blood before him – I bought a batch wholesale, and all I know is that is was from a healthy donor. I suppose they technically could have been pregnant.”
Lucie started writing something, taking notes. Alarm bells were distinctly ringing.
“How recently did you have that unknown donor blood?” he asked.
“More than two weeks ago now, closer to three.”
“I would have expected that blood to already be out of your system. What about your most recent donor - when did you last feed on him?”
Juliet looked away from him; afraid her expression might give away her feelings over Ryder. “It was over a week ago. Plus, he was definitely not a pregnant female.” He was all male. Perhaps too male.
Rick frowned. “Most vampires need to feed every other night. Some can go for longer, but more than a week is a little much. Do you often leave it so long between feedings?”
“Actually no, but I… I haven’t been craving blood the same way I usually do. The last male I fed on was a shifter. I don’t know if that makes any difference.” Did to her.
“It shouldn’t. So rather than craving blood, you have been craving food?”
“Yes. It’s probably just a phase, right?” Surely not getting sick was a benefit of being a vampire.
“I better take another blood sample.”
Juliet rolled up her sleeve and Lucie watched Rick like a hawk as he took a vial of her blood. Juliet’s small wound quickly healed, and she covered her arm.
The looks they were throwing her hadn’t dimmed any in their strangeness.
“You are really starting to worry me. What on earth could you have found in your tests that has both of you so concerned?”
They shot one another wary looks.
Rick cleared his throat. “It must be a mistake, but according to your blood, you’re pregnant.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hurry snarled his tiger. Ryder flew through Juliet’s house, knocking over two lamps and a couch. He’d apologize later; right now she needed him.
She called, asking to see him, so he came running.
He scented her in her bedroom and crashed through the door to find her sitting cross-legged on her bed, a pensive look on her face.
“Twenty-eight seconds since I called; that has to be a record.”
“I was just outside,” he admitted shamelessly.
“I figured. I debated whether I should save the battery on my phone and merely open the window and yell.”
“What’s wrong? What happened?” he demanded, searching the room for dangers.
Juliet took on a helpless look before chuckling nervously. “Maybe I just wanted to see you.”
“You’re trying to change the subject.”
Juliet stared at her hands folded in her lap. “Is there anything weird in your family history?”
Of all the things he was expecting her to say, that wasn’t it. “Weird?”
“Yes, weird.”
“One of my brothers had six toes on one foot, and one of my grandfathers was convinced he was abducted by aliens once. But he also liked to eat pennies, so there’s a possibility he was hallucinating from metal poisoning.”
“Not that kind of weird.”
Ryder dropped to the ground and kneeled in front of the bed, trying to capture her downturned gaze. She was far too evasive for that.
“You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“I don’t know, just… anomalies.”
“All my family member are tigers and as far as I know, pretty average, except for the toe thing. But, I am a throwback to prehistoric times – that’s pretty weird.”
“Yes,” she murmured unemotionally.
His beast mewled in worry. “Seriously, you’re starting to scare me. What’s happening?”
Juliet shook her head. Ryder reached out and pulled her down onto his lap. She struggled but not nearly as much as he would have expected considering they were in the middle of a fight.
“I went to a doct
or because these last few days I’ve been feeling… odd.”
Ryder stroked her back and snuggled her against his chest. Oh, it felt good to be back. His tiger was certainly enjoying it, though he felt momentarily peeved that she didn’t tell him about her odd feeling sooner.
“Odd how?”
“Other than my heart beating and starting to breathe again, I’ve been craving food, and worse yet, not craving blood. I haven’t fed since the last time we…”
Juliet stiffened, and Ryder kissed the top of her head. Best to move on from that topic.
“What did the doctor say?” he asked gently.
“He took some blood for testing and it, I don’t know, gave out some false readings. Rick, the doctor, thought he might have contaminated the sample, but he doesn’t believe that and nor do I to be honest. He suggested I talk to you to see if anything in your familial history could explain it.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, honey. You’re okay, right? I mean, you’re not sick, are you? Vampires can’t get sick.”
“They can’t get pregnant either, but according to my blood I am.”
“What?!”
Juliet looked up, just as bewildered as him. “It has to be an error. A really cruel error. I just,” she growled in exasperation, “I just didn’t want to talk to anyone about it but you. I mean, it has to be a mistake, right? I’m being ridiculous and getting myself worked up over nothing. Aren’t I?”
Ryder felt despair. She wanted it to be true so badly, wanted him to say it could really be happening. He had to say no, but how could he tie weights to her when she was already drowning?
“What did the doctor say?”
“He took another sample of blood. He’s going to test it again, and I’ll get the results tomorrow night.”
“I’ll come with you.”
She opened her mouth to object, and he hushed her.
“No arguments. I’ll be there.”
She really must be low. She just nodded and accepted it.
