by Rhys Ford
“Don’t move,” Ryder ordered. He wet my back, and I caught a whiff of the antibiotic liquid from the first aid kit. He patted my skin dry with a towel, careful not to drag the scratchy pile over my wounds. “You should be healing faster. It must be something from the circle. I’m going to take you outside the salt ring.”
“No.” I swallowed my weakness, pulling back the rubbery feeling in my stomach. “I’ve got iron dust… under my skin. Can’t get it out. Healing… takes longer for me.”
“Iron dust? Are you suicidal?” He lifted me up, ignoring my growling protests and my hand pushing on his chest. “Stop fighting me.”
“I didn’t put it there. And leave off,” I snarled, pushing to get to my feet. My throat hurt, and my voice sounded broken. Coughing, I spit up a wad of saliva mingled with bright blood. I’d not been this dizzy since lying at the Sebac’s feet. The spell Ryder had used to activate his warding circle had taken me down hard, and my knees felt tenderized.
“Then who did? Who did this?” He didn’t reach for me, letting me stand, however shakily, against the Mustang. Shannon hovered nearby, a hand on her belly. “Talk to me, Kai. Why would you have this on you?”
“Not important.” I shook my head and set the resting woodpeckers off to resume their hammering. The rawness in my throat was easing, and the aches in my muscles were fading. I straightened my back and nodded at our passenger. “Don’t worry about me. I’m okay. I need to walk this off. Besides, Shannon’s gray. Really gray.”
She’d gone pale, clutching at her stomach. Her mouth moved, breathless low-pitched gasps edging on a scream. Ryder got to her before I could take a step, catching her before she fell. Panting, the hissing began anew. Grabbing his shoulder for support, she waddled over to the car, sweeping her feet from side to side.
“Oh, it’s time,” Shannon said with a grimace. The expression on her face wasn’t one of joy, more resignation than anything else, and she struggled to stay upright, her knees buckling with every step.
“Kai, are you going to be okay?” he said, easing Shannon into the passenger seat and giving me a worried look. “She’s going back into labor.”
“I’m fine.” I waved off his concern. The truth was I wanted to crawl into Oketsu and drive off. It might not have been very hero-like, but it was what I wanted to do. Sucking it up was what would really happen. Besides, if the binding circle hurt me by being activated, I didn’t want to imagine how I’d feel crossing over the salt ring. “Probably should give you back your money. Bad Stalker.”
“No, and don’t argue. We’ve got other things to worry about.” He jerked his head for me to come closer. “Come over here. I need to keep an eye on both of you.”
“Nuh-uh,” I said. I tested my legs, carefully balancing on my feet. My equilibrium was almost back to normal, and the pounding of my heart was slowing. “Not watching that.”
I wasn’t a coward, but I’d heard from some of my male friends about how women went crazy while giving birth. Before he shaved his head down, the back of Jonas’s head was missing a patch of hair after his last kid. His third wife, Najiri, grabbed his head and held on while she pushed and screamed. When the boy finally dropped, Jonas was scalped on one side, and Najiri swore he’d never touch her again. I’d suggested naming the kid Razor, but the wives overruled me.
Unfortunately, the name stuck, and in about twenty years, I was probably going to spend my time looking over my shoulder for Razor Wyatt when he came to kill me.
“This is a two-person job. I’m going to need help if you can give it.” I could barely hear Ryder above Shannon’s shrieking pants. “Grab one of your knives. Not the one I used.”
“Not stupid.” Muttering didn’t help. He’d gone back to squatting between her knees. “You’re just saying that to keep me close.”
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But right now, I’m worried more about you falling over than I am about Shannon giving birth, so get over here if you can.”
Fetching a different Bowie, I then limped around the car, avoiding stepping on the salty ring. The line was black around the edges, leaving a thin white streak running down the middle, a skunk ouroboros meandering around to bite itself in the tail. I tried handing Ryder the knife, but he refused to take it.
“You’re going to have to do the cutting,” he said. “I’ll have to hold the baby so you can cut it loose. Grab the knife, Kai. You’re going to be an uncle.”
BABY MAKING was fun. I liked it and was thankfully reassured that by having human partners, I’d never have to go through what Jonas did on a regular basis. I didn’t even want to think about what Shannon was going through.
Baby birthing, however, seemed to take longer than any single sex session I’d had. And from what I’d heard from Shannon’s profane mouth, it didn’t seem worth it.
By the end of the hour, I’d gotten all the feeling back in my fingers in the hand she squeezed to juice, and my initial dizziness had subsided, leaving a small ringing sound behind I could faintly hear through the hissing and panting. I muttered some encouragement to Shannon, who huffed back at me with pressed lips.
Ryder helped Shannon get comfortable while I studiously ignored the squishy and grunting noises coming from my car. Turning around, I recoiled at Shannon’s very naked lower half facing me, her heels hooked into the doorsill and her knees spread apart. Some things a man just wasn’t meant to see. I patted my car and wished him luck in surviving what was going on in his seat.
“God, hurry up. Please.” She was sweating hard, her belly skintight. At some point, she’d unlaced the front of her peasant dress and reptilian scars mottled her stomach. Vivid purple on her pale skin, they looked painful to the touch. I would have asked if they were sore, but she didn’t seem to be in a talking mood. “Oh God, this hurts.”
“Don’t faint, Kai,” Ryder teased.
“Shut up or I won’t share the single-shot whiskey packets I found in the trunk.”
“Chi wo de shi. Save the whiskey,” she snarled at me. Grabbing at my shirt, she screamed, letting pour a wave of curses that would have made Dempsey proud. I tried to imagine my own mother working through my birth, but I failed. “I want some after this.”
“Shit.” I’d faced down a pack of black dogs, but the mellow woman we’d carried down from Elfhaine was gone. In her place was a frizzy-haired demon I wasn’t sure I wanted to come near. “I’m not going close to that. You’re on your own.”
“Oh no,” Ryder said, pulling me toward the car. “We are doing this together. I’m catching. You’re tying off. She’s doing all the hard work.”
Everything became a blur at that point. A bit of screaming, and then a gush of bloody water poured from between Shannon’s spread legs. The fluids spilled without warning, splashing over the metal doorsill and washing onto the hut’s rough floor. I winced, trying not to pay much notice to the wet soaking into the Mustang’s black carpet, reminding myself that my blood, sick, and sweat was all over the car’s interior and some of its exterior. Birth debris couldn’t be much worse.
How little I knew.
“Baby’s coming now,” Ryder crooned, rubbing at Shannon’s tight belly with his free hand. “Kai, be ready. We’re going to have to do this quickly.”
“Knife at the ready, your lordship,” I said, displaying the Sheffield.
There was a final scream, lingering and sharp, and a pop, leaving me speechless as I stared at what Ryder cradled in his hands.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“THAT’S AN egg,” I said.
“Get the knife, Kai,” Ryder ordered. “I’ll hold it. You’ll need to cut through the shell.”
“Are you fucking nuts?” I stared down at the watermelon-sized egg, slightly mesmerized by the soft ivory shell. It undulated in Ryder’s grasp, slithering wet in his fingers. “Suppose I cut through it? And what the hell is she doing giving birth to… this? Humans don’t give birth to eggs! Elfin! They give birth to eggs. What the hell?”
“Cut the shell.” He g
ritted his teeth, growling at me. “There’s another one coming.”
“Sure. Great. Two.” Swallowing, I took a deep breath and carefully placed the knife on the ovum. The metal tip slipped over the rubbery surface as the moist egg dipped and moved under the light pressure. Tightening my grip on the knife, I concentrated on sliding the hook end into the sac. It finally sliced through, splitting apart unevenly under the torrent of sticky white that gushed out.
The inside of the eggshell pulsed with tiny blood vessels, and a long cord connected the petite pale baby to one of the large pieces. Tying a piece of twine around the blood-rich stem, I looped the cord over and tied it off again, hoping the technique would hold up as well as it did for making sausage. Taking the sharp knife, I sliced the cord off the shell just as Shannon’s screaming hisses began anew.
“Take the baby.” Ryder handed it to me and turned around to press his shoulder against Shannon’s knees to prevent her from locking them. “Make sure its mouth is clear. Try to get it crying so we know its lungs are clear.”
“How?” I was now certain I’d not be giving back one single cent of my fee.
“Stick your finger in the baby’s mouth and make sure the airway is clear.” Ryder winced, losing some of his shirt to Shannon’s clenched fist. “I need to get the other one out.”
The baby’s translucent skin beat with faint red lines, a ghostly hexagon pattern ridged over its body. The egg’s interior was raised in the same pattern, leaving its mark on the infant as it grew, pressed up against the malleable shell. I watched in horror as the baby struggled, twisting in my hands. Its lips were turning blue, and the strangled noises coming from its mouth bubbled thick clear fluid over its chin. The same gummy fluid clogged its nose, the membrane sucking back in as its tiny nostrils tried to breathe.
“Shit.” Another deep breath and I braced myself, promising my throat one of the whiskey shots if I did what I needed to do. Five, my mind argued, at least five.
Laying my lips tight over the baby’s face, I sucked at its membrane-clogged orifices. The albumin hit the roof of my mouth, and I gagged. I spit the mouthful then and sucked again, choking and heaving as my throat filled with the egg’s liquid. Steeling myself for another round, I bent over the baby I held in my hands and almost wept with relief as it cried with a beefy howl.
“Okay, Kai,” I encouraged myself, “It’s just like a puppy. Get it warm and hand it back to the mother.”
Dirtying my last clean shirt, I juggled the newborn against my chest. Scrubbing it clean with a ragged car towel, it pinked up nearly immediately, losing the sickly pallor to a healthy glow. I grabbed another cloth then wrapped the baby tightly, swaddling it carefully.
“What is it?” Shannon asked wearily.
Ryder was holding another bundle.
“A baby,” I answered, confused. “Oh, um….” I checked under the wrapped towel, tucking the end back into a fold. “It’s a girl.”
“So is this one. Two girls.” Ryder beamed. “They’re gorgeous, Shannon. Thank you.”
“Here, give me that one,” she murmured, touching the baby Ryder had cut free. Cradling the infant, she worked her dress down until one of her breasts swung loose. Stroking the baby’s cheek, she placed a nipple in her mouth, getting her to suckle. “Let me feed her first. Then I’ll take the other.”
Ryder laid a gentle kiss on Shannon’s forehead then wiped her brow off with a wet cloth. “Thank you, honey.”
“I’ll send you the bill,” she sighed, settling into the seat sideways.
“I’ll write in a big tip.” He came in close, wrapping his arms around my waist so the infant was cradled between us. “Thank you, Kai. Thank you very much.”
The girls looked alike, ice white blonde sprigs of hair tufting out at the peaks of their heads. The baby I’d helped sighed. Ryder slid the tip of his index finger into her mouth, pressing down on her tongue, and she took a few tentative suckles, quieting her fussing.
Her small hands ended with tiny white tips of fingernails. With the fluids cleaned off her face, her mouth bowed into a butterfly shape, and she blinked, wide deep green eyes flecked with silver and gold. Her ears were tipped, a slight tilt up where they pressed against her skull. I touched her face, stroking the soft down on her cheek, feeling the delicate bones around her wide, slanted eyes.
“She is beautiful. They both are… perfect,” Ryder whispered. “I can’t thank you enough. Morrígan, I can’t repay you for this.”
“Sure you can,” I said softly so as not to disturb the infant between us. “You can start by telling me how a human woman ended up carrying two sidhe babies. Then you can tell me why they have your eyes.”
I SACRIFICED one of the cargo crates from the trunk to serve as a bassinet. Lined with a thin survival blanket and the rest of my clothes, it provided some warmth and protection. We got Shannon settled into the backseat, helping her switch the second born into the makeshift crib. She cradled the first infant to her breast, easing it onto the nipple without a problem.
Leaving Ryder to tuck my last blanket around Shannon, I found the single-shot packets and tore one open. I was on my third by the time Ryder joined me at the back of the car. He lifted his eyebrows at the discarded shot sleeves but didn’t say anything, leaning against the open trunk. Rubbing his face, Ryder looked tired, his bright green eyes dulling in the shadowed recess.
“She’s a surrogate,” he said, bypassing the whiskey in favor of water. He cracked the top open, then guzzled down a mouthful. “The babies were implanted into her womb. They’re my sister’s children.”
“Why the fricking secrets?” I turned too fast, and the world spun. Grabbing at the Mustang, I stayed on my feet. “Why not just tell me?”
The irony of that question didn’t escape me. I was merely ignoring it.
“My sister had a healer harvest her ova and fertilize them outside her body.” Ryder shoved his hands into his pockets, rocking back on his heels. “She felt pressured to have children. Our House is known for its fertility, and she saw it as the only way.”
“Having children doesn’t make someone a woman,” I scoffed. “Sure, it’s got some weight to it, but that’s only biological. Some of the best women I know are still male.”
“It might not make a woman, but it does make a House. She… needed it.”
“So she got a human knocked up?”
“Not at first.” He looked away for a moment. “She tried getting pregnant herself, but she lost them. Ciarla and I might not be on the best of terms most of the time, but she’s still my sister. I couldn’t bear to see her go through that again. With every loss, Ciarla seemed to lose a part of herself as well.”
“And that’s where Shannon comes in?”
“Ciarla swore the healer to secrecy. I don’t want to know how much that cost her, both emotionally and financially,” Ryder admitted. “They gambled on a human being able to carry Ciarla’s children. No other sidhe would do it. No matter what was promised.”
“Why?”
“Any child conceived outside normal means… ordinary means… is considered a violation of nature. Arranging for Shannon, a human, to carry Ciarla’s fertilized eggs goes against the most basic tenets of the sidhe culture. Ciarla is risking her position in our House—hell, our Court—by doing this.” Ryder sighed. “Which you would know, Kai, if you were one of us.”
“One of you?” I snorted. “I’m one of me.”
“That’s fairly obvious,” Ryder said softly. “I thought you were someone young and disaffected by the wars. Your black hair was a rebellious act to separate you from your sidhe blood, but now I know better. The purple is striking. What’s your real eye color? Gold? Silver?”
“Does this matter now?” The rock in my stomach sank, hitting me unexpectedly. “What difference does it make what Court I was born to? And what does that have to do with the babies Shannon carried?”
“It doesn’t, not now. But I wouldn’t have cast the salt binding if I’d known you were Du
sk Court. I wouldn’t have hurt you. It tore you apart, Kai. It was set to protect us against anything from the unsidhe. I hoped it would keep back the ainmhí dubh. I didn’t think it would take down my Stalker.” The anguish in his voice was real, or Ryder was a better actor than I’d given him credit for. “At least you could have told me before we went into Elfhaine, Kai.”
“Not to sound like a nagging boyfriend, but don’t turn this around on me,” I said, shaking my head. I badly wanted another whiskey shot, because I could still taste the egg membrane in my throat, but instead I went for water. “I’m not anything more than I told you.”
“I could have protected you against my grandmother,” Ryder said. “I can imagine now what she did to you… in that room. I know what my ancestors built that room for… what’s been done in there. It kills me knowing it was done to you.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t too happy with it either.” I shrugged. “We’re talking about the babies. What or who I am is my business. Those kids in my backseat, that’s my job. So leave off me, your lordship, and talk.”
“That’s it, then? That’s where we leave it?”
“That’s where I’m leaving it.” I cocked my head back and sucked down more water. “Now why the hell did your grandmother want those kids dead? Because Shannon was carrying them or because it would have damaged your Clan’s rep?”
“She asked you to kill the babies?” There was shock in his eyes and a tightening of his shoulders. “I….”
“Yeah, sweet grandmother you got there. Reminds me of a gingerbread house witch.”
“I didn’t think she’d go to that extreme. Not against the children. Against me? Definitely. Maybe even Ciarla, but never the babies.”
“She didn’t seem all that bothered by it,” I said. “But then she didn’t seem that bothered by anything she did or said. Strikes me as very much an end justifies the means kind of girl.”
“She doesn’t see that our people are dying, Kai, or she refuses to,” he said softly. “They are dying slowly because we’re having fewer and fewer children while holing ourselves up behind high walls. Our traditions say conception should be natural with no outside assistance. Maybe that worked when we were on our own, but now, surrounded by a species more prolific than a parasite, we’ll be overrun in no time.”
