by Larissa Ione
“You’re sick.”
“Just woozy from the shift.”
Con got that, was still suffering the effects himself. But he sensed more was at play here, and the sharp tang of illness was in the air. He gestured for her to go first, and he followed.
When he emerged, Luc was sitting with his back braced against the wall, an IV attached to his arm, and Lore, Shade, and Wraith had gone. Con must have had a questioning look on his face, because Sin said, “They’re dumping the slayers in the nearest town. Wraith is going to scramble their memories so they don’t remember what happened.”
Eidolon looked up from mopping blood off Luc’s chest. “You’ll need to contact the Warg Council to have them collect the dead. We can’t leave them here for humans to find. Not in these numbers.”
Wargs were one of the few paranormal species that didn’t disintegrate when they died in the human realm, which usually wasn’t a problem because autopsies revealed nothing strange. But an investigation into a battle of this size wouldn’t be good no matter how much damage control The Aegis applied.
Luc shifted his worried gaze to the female, whose sunken eyes and flushed skin were even more noticeable in the daylight. For as long as Con had known Luc, the warg had been a loner, and with the exception of one pricolici female, he’d never latched onto his bedmates. They were lays, and that was it.
But the way he was watching Kar, with hunger, a trace of affection, and a glint of shame, definitely made her more than a bedmate.
She moved to Luc, and though it was obvious that she wanted to touch him, she didn’t. “Are you okay?” She swiveled around to Eidolon. “Is he?”
“He’ll be fine,” Eidolon said. “Sore, and we should get him to UG sooner than later, but yeah.”
Luc dropped his head back against the wall as though exhausted, but Con sensed coiled tension in him. “Doc. You have to do something for Kar. She’s sick.”
“Sick?” Eidolon shoved to his feet. “With what?”
“I think it’s the virus.”
All heads swiveled toward Kar, and Con’s gut twisted. “Must be early stages.”
“Which means there’s hope.” Eidolon’s voice gentled, but never lost the no-nonsense doctor edge. “Kar, do you mind if I take a look at you?”
She studied him warily. “You’re a demon.”
“I’ll try to keep my forked tongue and cloven hooves out of sight,” Eidolon said.
“Kar.” Luc’s voice was as soft and gentle as Con had ever heard it. “He’s a doctor. The best person in the universe to handle anything you’ve got.”
Doubt and suspicion warred in her expression, and then she gave a slow nod at Eidolon. “You should know that I’m pregnant.”
Gods, it just kept getting worse. Sin closed her eyes, her shoulders sagging, and Con had the oddest urge to draw her into his arms. Though maybe it wasn’t so odd anymore. He was much, much more deeply involved with her than he should be.
Eidolon guided Kar to the couch, retrieved a stethoscope and thermometer from the medical bag Lore brought, and began an exam. When he lifted her shirt and saw the faintest shadow of a bruise around her navel, he frowned. “This must be very early. When would you have been in contact with an infected warg?”
“Two weeks ago. My partner and I chased a demon into a sewer and were attacked by a sick warg. He clawed me, but when I didn’t have any symptoms later, I figured he didn’t have the disease.”
Eidolon shook his head. “The timing isn’t right. This acts fast. You’d be dead by now if he was the one who infected you.”
Kar shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t go on any Aegis hunts after that, and then I’ve been locked up with Luc, so unless he has it, there’s no way I got it from anyone else.”
“Maybe the fact that you’re a Feast warg is making the difference.” He gestured to Sin. “Can you get inside and take a look?”
She nodded, sank to her knees beside Kar. “This shouldn’t hurt.” Gently, she gripped Kar’s wrist, and her dermoire lit up. She closed her eyes, and for a good two minutes, she did nothing but scowl and shake her head. Then, suddenly, her eyes flew open and she sucked in a startled breath. “Oh, oh, man. E, Kar doesn’t have the virus. The baby does.”
* * *
“What?” Luc tried to absorb was Sin was saying, but he’d been in the medical field long enough to know that an unborn baby contracting a virus while the mother didn’t was nearly impossible. “How?”
Eidolon repositioned himself to insert the tympanic thermometer into Kar’s ear. “Sin, you’re sure the virus is present only in the fetus?”
“I’ll check again.” Sin concentrated, her dermoire glowing fiercely. Her glyphs might be faded replicas of her purebred brothers’, but they lit up just as brightly. “Yeah. Those little strands are running through the baby and floating around in the baby water.”
“Amniotic fluid,” Eidolon said. “How is the virus not moving through the placenta and umbilical cord?”
She shook her head, bit her lip, and the glyphs on her arm began to writhe. “What’s the placenta? A pancake-shaped thing?” At Eidolon’s nod, she frowned. “They’re… getting attacked. By… I’m not sure what the things are. They’re all in Kar’s bloodstream but not the baby’s.”
“Antibodies,” Eidolon breathed. “Holy shit, Kar is producing antibodies!”
Kar scowled. “I don’t understand. What’s happening?”
Eidolon’s voice went deep, but with an undercurrent of excitement that gave Luc hope. “Up until now, no one who has contracted the virus has produced antibodies to it. But you… you’re the exact opposite of a regular warg. It might be different if you had the virus, but since your baby does, your body is fighting it off. Is the father a warg?”
“It’s mine,” Luc said. Con’s surprise was tangible, a burst of static in the air, but wisely, the dhampire kept any smart-ass comments to himself.
“Since you both turn at different times of the month, I’m going to guess that conception didn’t take place during a breeding heat?” Eidolon asked. Kar blushed, turning her already fevered skin even redder, and she nodded. “Okay, then, this is starting to make sense. I know nothing about Feast wargs, but obviously, they can give birth to babies who are born wargs, even if the father is turned, and even out of heat. The virus must have entered your blood and passed to the baby, but in the meantime, your body produced antibodies, which killed the virus in you—”
“But not the baby,” she finished. “Can you cure it? Can you save the baby?”
Luc didn’t like the dismal expression on Eidolon’s face. “Doc?”
“I don’t know. Sin, how advanced does the disease seem?”
She shook her head. “Not very. It’s weird. The virus is reproducing, but it’s being killed, too.” She swallowed. “But it’s reproducing faster than it’s dying. Eventually, the baby is going to, ah… be in trouble.”
It was going to die.
Luc might as well have been stabbed in the gut. He’d only just learned about the baby, but although doubt sang through him about his abilities to be a good father, he had no doubts that he didn’t want it to die.
“Please,” Kar whispered. “Can you do something?”
Sin and Eidolon exchanged glances, and Luc’s stomach clenched. “What? What’s going on?”
“Sin has successfully cured one warg whose disease wasn’t advanced.”
“There’s a ‘but’ at the end of that sentence,” Luc growled, his worry adding a rough edge to his voice.
“But,” Sin said, “I’ve killed others I tried to cure. I could kill the baby, and maybe even Kar.”
Luc shook his head. “Then no. You’re not doing it.”
Kar shoved to her feet and moved away from Sin and Eidolon as though needing distance from the bad news. But when she spoke, her voice was steady as she faced off with Eidolon. “What other options are there?”
“We can wait for a cure.” Eidolon tucked the st
ethoscope and thermometer back inside the bag. “But it could come too late. We aren’t even close. We have a better shot at a vaccine, but that won’t help the baby. Sin really is your only hope.”
Luc tugged the IV catheter out of his hand and stood. “And if we don’t agree to this?”
“The baby will die. But Kar will probably be safe.”
Luc cursed. He looked over at Kar, whose expression was remote, not giving anything away, but she was rubbing her belly, probably not consciously, and he knew exactly what she was thinking. She wanted to go for it.
“Can we get a minute?” he asked, and everyone but Kar drifted to the other side of the room. He drew her toward the fireplace. “How are you doing?”
“I’m scared.” She looked down at her stockinged feet. She was wearing his wool socks, which were twice as big as her feet, and they looked adorable on her. Adorable? Shit, he hadn’t even known that word was in his vocabulary.
He took her hand, and though it felt awkward, it also felt… good. “You don’t have to do it, Kar.”
“Yes, I do.” She inhaled deeply, blew the breath out for a long time, as though gathering the courage to speak. “I hadn’t planned to tell you about the baby. At least, that’s what I told myself. But I didn’t have a choice. Not really.” She paused, let a few heartbeats pass, enough that Luc got antsy before she swallowed audibly and continued. “I was faced with a pregnancy I didn’t know how to deal with, because of what I am. I’m out of a job, The Aegis is hunting me, and if my father knew… he might see the baby as a monster. I could have gone to my mother, but she doesn’t know what I am, and I don’t know what she’d do if she found out. And how could I take care of the baby on the nights I shift? I know regular werewolf mothers don’t shift for a few years after giving birth, but I’m a different breed. God, I’m babbling. I know I am.” She tried to back away from him, but he gripped her hand tighter, forcing her to stay.
“Finish,” he said quietly.
She sighed. “It’s just… I knew I couldn’t do it alone. My only choice was to find you… or let The Aegis find me. Better for them to kill me before I give birth than to kill me and do God knows what with the baby.”
The very idea chilled him to the bone. That she’d been so desperate as to even think of allowing those demon-slaying scumbags to kill her… Jesus. “I won’t let them touch you,” he swore. “I will keep you safe no matter what.”
“I know. Maybe it’s hormones, maybe it’s some sort of warg connection… but whatever it is, I know that about you. And I don’t want to lose our baby.”
He traced a finger over the lush curves of her lips. “I’m glad you told me.” Holy hell, he couldn’t believe he’d just said that. “I can’t promise you a white picket fence and flowers and poetry,” he said gruffly. “All I have to offer you is…” He made an encompassing gesture around the cabin. “This. Some weapons and rabbit furs and me. But nothing will get past me to you or our kid.” Nothing. For the first time since becoming a werewolf, he’d lay down his life for someone else.
Gently, he tugged Kar into his arms, suddenly liking how she felt there. “And if anything ever happens to me, you still won’t be alone. Those people standing over there listening to every word we’re saying? They will make sure you’re safe and cared for. I promise.” Damn, he was shocked to discover that he meant what he’d just said. At some point, even as he watched his humanity fade away, he’d learned to trust the people who ran Underworld General.
“Thank you.”
“God, Kar, I should be thanking you. It’s been a long time since I had something to live for. So you’d better make it through this.”
“I will.”
Before he broke down and looked like an idiot Con would make fun of for the rest of his life, Luc stepped away and gestured to the group of eavesdroppers. “Let’s do it.”
Twenty
Luc and Kar’s conversation sat in Sin’s gut like a hot coal. She knew little about Luc, except that he’d always been gruff and unfriendly. But the way he’d spoken to the female—yeah, Sin had eavesdropped, BFD—had been a shock. Not just the words themselves, but the affection threaded through the gruffness. He wasn’t used to caring about someone, and Sin could totally relate to that. It was foreign territory, and it made sense to tread carefully in situations where land mines made every step hazardous.
One wrong move could result in suffering and utter destruction.
Con didn’t seem to be unmoved either. He kept looking between Luc and Kar, his face expressionless, but raw pain and understanding flickered in the silver of his eyes.
“We’re doing it,” Kar repeated. “Cure my baby.”
Sin guided Kar back to the couch and sat beside her. Luc took her other side, and Sin got a lump in her throat when he took Kar’s dainty hand in his big one. Eidolon came around front and kneeled before her.
“I’m going to get a blood sample before Sin starts, okay?”
Kar nodded, but the fear in her face was obvious. Eidolon took a deep breath, and when he spoke, he still sounded like a doctor, but a nice doctor. One who wasn’t being all superior, like he usually was.
“Kar, I know this is hard. You’re a Guardian. We’re demons. Natural enemies. But you’re also a werewolf. You’ve obviously accepted that, so you’re going to need to accept your place in our world.”
“But—”
He gripped her shoulder, gently but firmly. “I know. We’re demons. I get that. You probably saw my mate, Tayla, when you were in Egypt. And I’m sure you’ve heard she’s half demon as well as a Guardian. But she didn’t know she was a demon when we met.” A wry smile turned up one corner of his mouth. “Trust me, we didn’t exactly have an easy path. But eventually, she accepted it. We’re not the monsters you think we are.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Sin had met a lot of monsters in her life, and most of the time she felt like one herself. But no, for the most part, Eidolon and his brothers, his staff, were no worse than a lot of humans, and in many cases, a lot, lot better.
Kar turned away like she wasn’t sure how to respond, her gaze lighting on Luc. And then she turned back to Eidolon, resolve burning in her eyes. “I’ll have to take you at your word for now, but what it comes down to is that I would make a deal with the devil to save my child, so do what you have to do, Doctor.”
Good for her. Sin waited until Eidolon finished taking blood before engaging her gift. Man, it was weird threading her power through Kar to the tiny fetus. The virus floated around inside the womb and inside the baby, and for a moment, Sin didn’t do anything. Yes, she’d cured the warg in Montana, but she’d killed two others. This was a baby, one the parents were desperate to save, and if Sin made one little mistake, used too much power, not enough…
“Sin,” Con whispered into her ear. “You can do this.”
God, how had he known what she was thinking, what she needed? Grateful for his encouragement, she sent a controlled burst of power into a mass of virus strands. They ruptured, coming apart in pieces as others rushed in, almost as if they were trying to help. Fucking demon virus was freaky.
She was about to hit another cluster when Kar stiffened, her back arching so violently Sin heard the crack of spine.
“She’s seizing,” Luc barked, and suddenly, Kar was falling backward, her body flopping. Her skin turned red, hot, and her eyes rolled up into her head.
Con gripped Kar’s wrists and pinned them to the couch while Eidolon gripped her legs. “Hurry up, Sin!” Eidolon grunted as Kar thrashed. “We need to finish—”
He broke off as Kar roared, exploding out of her seizure. Eidolon flew into the air, coming down awkwardly against the stone fireplace, and Con rocked backward into the wall. Kar, a mass of teeth and rage, lunged at Sin, her hands wrapping around her throat.
“My baby!” she snarled. “You’re hurting it!”
“Kar, no!” Luc wrapped his arms around her, but he couldn’t break Kar’s stranglehold on Sin.
Eidol
on spoke sharply. “Fever delirium. Luc, pin her!”
Sin’s lungs burned. Panic frayed the edges of her consciousness, which was starting to fade. Her gift flared, her instinct to kill Kar, but instead, with the last bits of concentration she had, she struck out at the virus strands in the baby, exploding them like little bombs.
Somehow, Eidolon managed to pry Kar’s fingers away from her throat, and Sin took several grateful gulps of fresh air. Luc bore Kar to the couch cushions and even as Sin sucked deep breaths, she gripped Kar’s ankle and started work again.
It seemed to take forever, and by the time the last virus strand was a crumpled, shrunken little string, she was shaking and her power was nearly drained.
“It’s… done,” she breathed. The world spun, and as she keeled over, Con was there, tucking her against him, stroking her hair, and wow… to have someone catch her like that… it made her world spin again.
Kar groaned as Eidolon dug through his medical duffel. “The baby,” she rasped. “How is the baby?”
“It’s fine.” Sin cleared her throat, which was still tender. “I think it’ll be fine.”
Then Con, smiling broadly enough to flash those sexy fangs, shook his head. “Who would have seen this coming? Luc the family man.”
Luc snorted. “Trust me. I would not have bet on those cards.” He inclined his head at Sin. “Thanks.” The word was barely more than a grunt, and a stranger on the outside might have doubted his sincerity. But his hands trembled with the emotion that wasn’t in his voice, and his throat worked on audible swallows that spoke volumes as he twined his fingers with Kar’s.
Just a few days ago, Sin would have been rolling her eyes at the intimate, tender gesture. Now, she just remembered how she’d awakened after being hit by the exomangler, and Con had been at her side, holding her hand the same way.
“Just lie still,” Eidolon was saying to Kar. “I’m going to take some blood from you. And then we need to get you to the hospital for more tests. The fact that you were producing antibodies to this virus is major.”
“Won’t it take some time to make a vaccine?” Sin asked.
