“Just catch it.” Estoria’s voice was breathless, her face contorted in pain.
“I’ll catch it,” Darina assured. “You push.”
“I’m so… tired.” Estoria let out a wail, but pushed as well.
The baby’s head became visible and Darina prepared to receive the child. With one final push, the tiny human plopped into Darina’s waiting hands.
It didn’t move.
It didn’t breathe.
It was purple.
Estoria flopped back onto the ground, her arms covering her face. “It’s dead, isn’t it?”
After checking for a pulse and finding none, Darina said, “I’m afraid so.” Her throat was tight, her hands shaking. She saw a great deal of death in her work, in the city, in the world they lived in, but to hold a dead baby? Well, that was something she never wanted to do again.
“Just once,” Estoria sobbed. “Just once, why can’t one of them survive? Why do I have to be this way?” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Was it a girl or a boy?”
“Girl.” Darina struggled with whether or not to put the baby down to comfort Estoria.
“That makes ten girls, ten boys.”
“You’ve given birth to twenty children?” That made Darina’s vagina hurt.
“Yes. It started when I was fifteen. I’m thirty-five now.”
“Foster mentioned he tried to help you with this condition.”
“First we tried terminating the pregnancy. I reconceived immediately after. Next we tried a full hysterectomy. All the parts grew back within a month. Not only can I fertilize myself, I can apparently regenerate organs. That should be a good thing, but it’s not. It’s so not.” She sat up and held her hands out. “Give her to me.” When Darina hesitated, she said, “I’ve held every one of them.”
Nodding, Darina handed over the tiny body. She had to look away when Estoria pressed a gentle kiss to the baby’s forehead.
“Thank you for coming to my aid.” Estoria looked at Darina. “I wasn’t nice upon your arrival, but you helped me anyway.”
“I understand Foster bringing us here was a bit of a shock.”
“He’s only ever brought GECs here, and he hasn’t done that in ages because there aren’t any new ones being made. We value the privacy he’s given us here.” She rocked the baby as if it were alive in her arms. “If his enemies get hold of him, however, we’d be pretty pissed about that.”
So would I.
“I’ll do my best,” Darina said.
“I know you will.” Estoria got to her feet, swaying a little. Darina reached for her, but she held out a single hand. “I’m okay. I’m going to bury this sweet girl with the others.”
“Do you want some help? Do you want me to get Foster?”
“No. I’m fine. There’s nothing he can do anyway. Smart as he is, he can’t fix my heart which breaks every time I give birth. Nine months of loving the new life inside me only to see it dead.” She squeezed her eyes shut, tears collecting on her lashes.
“I’m so sorry, Estoria.” Darina wished she could do something for this woman whose shoulders hunched as she walked away with her lifeless child tucked against her bosom.
“Mom?” Zeke’s voice cut through the anguish.
Darina turned to see Ghared and Zeke approaching, with Homer galloping alongside them. She didn’t wait for them to arrive. Instead, she jogged up to Zeke and threw her arms around him.
“Whoa.” He stumbled back but put his arms around her in a return embrace. “What’s this for?” He released her enough to hold her at arm’s length. “Is that blood on your shirt? Are you hurt?” He looked her over with worried eyes.
Ghared was immediately at her side, nudging Zeke back. “Who did this to you? Where are you bleeding?” He lifted her tank top, but she slapped his hands away.
“It’s not my blood.” Both males exhaled loudly in relief as Homer came up and sniffed at her shirt then licked her arms. Rubbing the dorse until its eyes squeezed shut, she said, “I came upon Estoria over there and she gave birth. The baby was dead just as Foster said it would be.”
“Poor girl,” Ghared said.
Zeke pulled her into another hug. Bless him. “That had to be tough to witness.”
She nodded against his shoulder then craned her head back to look him in the eye. “I know I didn’t give birth to you, but you know you’re mine, right? I love you as if you’re mine.”
He gave her one of his full blown smiles—the ones that were like sunshine in the gray city. “I know. You’re mine too, Mom. Always.”
Ghared threw his arms around both of them. “This is so beautiful.” He made his voice all weepy, and the three of them ended up laughing as Homer nudged his way into their circle.
With an elbow to Ghared’s stomach, Darina broke up their little huddle. “Okay, back to the business at hand.”
“Protecting Doctor Cure the World?” Ghared made a face Darina wasn’t sure how to interpret.
“Protecting Foster, yes. Pike told me there are others here who want to join the team and they have weapons.”
“Excellent. The more eyes and guns we have here, the better.”
Darina wondered if more eyes meant fewer opportunities for kissing the good doctor. It probably did. It definitely should.
But it wasn’t what she wanted.
Chapter Seven
Foster surveyed his worktable covered in various bottles, beakers, and strewn about ingredients. He tapped a finger on the edge of the table while he waited for his latest cure attempt to mix in the centrifuge. He already had a Petri dish ready with some of the powder sample he’d taken from an infected body in the city. He’d tried four other formulas this evening, but none of them affected the sample the way he wanted them to.
None of them were The Cure.
The centrifuge stopped spinning and he carefully removed the vial. Taking a medicine dropper, he sucked up the solution and squirted a few drops onto the sample. He slid the Petri dish under his high-powered microscope and peeked through the eyepiece.
Some bubbling occurred.
The red powder turned pink.
The pink gelled, solidified.
Foster held his breath. Please work. Please.
The gelled sample fizzled then turned to black ash.
“Fuck.” He slammed his hand down on the table, making all the bottles and beakers rattle like glass chimes in the wind.
Picking up his tablet, he hit the microphone app and said, “Test #4773, solution successfully reversed red powder to pink gel consistent with normal human organs. After regeneration, however, sample was reduced to black ash.” He sniffed and wrinkled his nose. “And there’s a sharp, unpleasant odor.”
He tossed his tablet to the table and stared at all the ingredients he had already tried. The combinations were endless. He’d need a thousand lifetimes to test them all.
No. Just be smart about the test combinations.
Some things could be eliminated. He could narrow the parameters.
He could do this, dammit. He could keep innocents from dying.
He had to.
But not tonight. His eyesight had gone blurry with concentration, and his back and neck hurt from being hunched over the worktable for so long. He didn’t even know what time it was.
Had Darina finished outlining her security strategy? He’d had to push her out of his mind while he worked. Not an easy task by any means. Especially not after kissing her as he had. He was surprised she’d let him kiss her. Darina didn’t strike him as a woman who let anyone do anything to her.
So she must have wanted that kiss. My kiss.
That thought filled him with satisfaction despite his failed cure attempts tonight. What else might she want from him?
Deciding he’d like an answer to that question, he powered down his equipment and capped any opened bottles. He’d come back to the lab early tomorrow and work nonstop until he found that damn cure.
After making sure his tablet was in his
pocket and his lab was locked, he climbed the stairs and wandered into an empty kitchen. Darkness hung outside like a black curtain over the main house, but he heard voices. Following the sound, he found Darina and Ghared talking to a group outside on the deck under the floodlights. Homer was lounging on the deck by Ghared’s feet. Foster listened for a few moments from the shadows of the great room.
“So is everyone set with what quadrant they are covering when?” Ghared asked, sounding like a military general.
A few confirmations filtered through the group.
“I think the schedule we’ve agreed upon will offer continual coverage without taxing any of us. We’ll always have someone fresh on guard, especially around this main house,” Darina said. The official tone to her voice made Foster instantly hard. He’d had no idea that a woman in charge would be such a turn on for him.
A shrill chiming sounded and Ghared pulled a tablet out of his pocket. The man stepped off the deck and roamed away a few steps. Homer got to his feet, stretched his hind legs, and followed the man.
Darina’s gaze followed Ghared then focused back on the group. “Okay, let’s get the first watch set up on the perimeter. Second and third watches go get some sleep.”
Muffled agreement sounded and the group dispersed. Some of them didn’t go far and Foster assumed they were the first watch. The others headed for their cabins. Something warm swelled in his chest at his people’s—his friends’—willingness to protect him.
Darina caught him standing at the door. “Hey.”
It was a simple greeting, but the way she said it, the way her eyes scanned over him, made it seem like the most intimate greeting in the universe.
His gaze traveled down to the blood on her tank top. Blood?
“What happened?” He stepped out onto the deck and pointed to her shirt.
She looked down. “Oh, that’s from Estoria. She gave birth earlier. I asked if she wanted me to get you, but she declined.”
Foster raked his hand through his hair and leaned against the railing beside her. “Was it another stillborn?”
Darina nodded. “A girl.”
Wanting to change the subject to keep from feeling frustrated he couldn’t help Estoria, he scanned the assembled people fanned out around the house. “Looks as if you’ve made a security team.”
“They volunteered to be one. I’d be foolish to refuse their help. They know the land, they know how to defend themselves, and you mean a great deal to each one of them.” She folded her arms across her chest. “I almost want Warres to show up.”
“Why hasn’t anyone gone after him?” Foster asked. “Wouldn’t it be easier?” If he were in police custody, maybe they could get the damn cure right from him.
“There are people assigned to trying to locate him, but as you’ve said, he’s brilliant. No one can find him. We can’t even get our hands on his minions.” She puffed out a frustrated breath. “Our best bet is neutralizing his plague. I think that will bring him out into the open if he knows we can reverse his handiwork.” She glanced up at Foster. “Any luck on that front?”
“Not today. Sorry.” His shoulders slumped.
She reached out a hesitant hand then gripped his forearm. “You’ll get it.”
“What if I don’t?”
“I’ll kick your ass.”
He laughed, tension leaching out of his body.
“Hey, that was supposed to be a threat. No laughing matter.”
But when he looked at her, she was smiling and thoughts of kissing her rushed into his mind again.
As if reading his thoughts, she warned, “We’re not alone out here.”
Not I don’t want you to kiss me. That encouraged him. “Then let’s go in there.” He pointed to the main house.
She opened her mouth to reply, but boots on the deck steps interrupted her, and she peered around Foster. “Ghared? Everything okay?”
“When is everything ever okay?” He ran his hands over Homer who had apparently nominated the man as his new best friend. “That was Mareea.” He looked at Foster. “My niece. Her mother, my dumbass sister, has been gone for five days.”
“That’s long even for her,” Darina said. “Mareea is worried?”
Ghared scrubbed a hand down his face and around his whiskered jaw. “Yeah. She’s convinced this is the big one.”
“Big one?” Foster asked.
“The time my sister doesn’t come back at all.” Ghared sighed. “I’ve got to go back, Darina.”
“Of course.” She waved a hand to the team surrounding the main house. “We’ve got things under control here.”
Ghared threw a look at Foster then turned his gaze back to Darina. “You’re sure you’ll be all right.”
“Are you doubting my skills, man?” She grinned and gave him a light punch in the shoulder.
“Never. I do, however, doubt his ability to keep his han—” His words got cut off by Darina’s hand over his mouth.
“Do not finish that sentence unless you want to fly home with a black eye,” she said.
“I’ll second that,” Foster said, though he rather enjoyed that Ghared could see something happening between him and Darina. It meant Foster wasn’t imagining that spark.
Ghared moved Darina’s hand and stepped around her to get toe-to-toe with Foster. The guy wasn’t taller, but he was wider and had a wild look in his eye. One that made that scar on his cheek even fiercer. Foster wasn’t sure what to expect next.
Homer growled and Foster was glad to see the dorse’s loyalty still resided with him.
“If you hurt her in any way, Ashby, any way at all,” Ghared warned, “a black eye will seem minor compared to what I’ll do to you.”
“Okay.” Darina got between them. “That’s enough. We’re all on the same side here. Remember?”
So she’s joined my team. Foster remembered her saying she was her own team this morning.
She backed Ghared up several steps, and Foster smiled over the fact that she wasn’t backing him up anywhere.
Ghared picked up on that too and gave Foster another warning. This one was silent and in the form of a dagger-sharp glare.
Message received. He wasn’t guaranteeing he’d listen to it, though.
“You want me to take Zeke back with me?” Ghared asked, turning his icy blue gaze back to Darina.
She faced Foster, and he readied to give her the bottle of seizure medicine still in his pocket. “If it’s all right with you, Foster, I’d like Zeke to stay. He’s enjoying being with other GECs. It’s good for him.”
“Completely fine with me. He’s welcome here.” Having her son stay felt like a big win for some reason. Foster liked the kid and wanted the chance to talk to him more.
“You have a way we can reach each other?” Ghared asked. “If I hear something in the city about Warres or if you need me?”
“I can give you the number for my tablet, but you have to memorize it,” Foster said. “I’m not writing it down, and I don’t want it stored in your tablet.”
He rattled off the number and Ghared repeated it several times, committing it to memory.
With a hug and some whispered secret in Darina’s ear, Ghared disappeared into the darkness.
“He won’t fly directly home from here, will he?” Foster asked.
“Give him some credit, Foster,” Darina said. “He’s smarter than that.”
Foster nodded, a muscle spasming in his sore neck as he did so. He brought his hand up to massage the ache, but the twitching continued.
“Your neck hurt?” Darina asked.
“It’s from leaning over my worktable for so long.” He turned his head one way then the other, looked down, looked up, but the ache persisted.
A low rumble sounded a short distance away and after a few gaspy revs of the engine—and a few loud dorse neigh-barks, Ghared’s hovercopter ascended. He hadn’t put any lights on, and Foster knew he’d been foolish to worry the man would be detected. Ghared Timms might not give a shit ab
out Foster’s safety, but he wouldn’t want to lead the enemy to Darina.
When the engine noise died away and Homer came loping back to the deck, Foster felt Darina’s hand on his. “Maybe I could help you with that neck pain. You know, in there.” She motioned to the darkened main house.
He didn’t need to hear that suggestion twice to know it was a fantastic idea. “Homer, let’s get you put to bed, buddy.”
“I’ll take care of it,” a voice said from below the deck. A whistle sounded and the dorse took off.
Taking her hand in his, Foster turned toward the house and led her inside to the great room.
Darina cast a glance to the wall of windows. “Do you have a more private location?”
Without a word, he tugged her down the hallway to his library. He wanted to scoop her up and take her to his bedroom but knew she’d find that too forward. That was what a rich bastard would do. Take command without regard for the other person’s wishes. He was determined not to play that role.
“This room okay?” he asked.
She took in the floor to ceiling bookshelves, crammed with various genres of literature. He liked the look of old-fashioned books, though most of his reading—which he didn’t have time for anymore—took place on his tablet. An oversized couch upholstered in soft suede took up the center of the room while a walnut desk stood in front of a large window. Two smaller suede chairs flanked a reading table sporting a lamp in the corner.
“This room is perfect.” She pushed him to sitting on the edge of the couch then climbed behind him.
Just having her that close aroused him. When her hands kneaded the muscles at the base of his neck, he slipped into an alternate world.
One he didn’t want to leave.
****
Foster’s shoulders were broad, and as her hands kneaded them, Darina could think of only one thing—removing his shirt so she could touch his bare skin. The desire to feel him against her own skin overwhelmed her. Never had she wanted fabric to disintegrate so badly.
A low moan escaped from Foster as she worked on a particularly hard knot at the base of his neck. His fingers gripped the edge of the cushion he sat on, and Darina wondered if he wanted to get naked as much as she did.
Safe (The Shielded Series Book 1) Page 10
