To be exposed in such a way to strangers. What more would this creature have to endure?
“Geri.” She managed a smile, even as her voice cracked. “Thank you for coming.” Then, moving her gaze and tilting her chin the slightest, Alex spoke to Anya and Petunia. “Can we have a moment?”
Anya let go of Alex’s hand. “Of course.” Petunia pushed a palm to Alex’s cheek, telling her she was a brave woman, a mother of the future light. Despite this passing in English, I suspected at least one of the nurses wondered what the two were getting on about, as she stopped in the laying out of instruments for a fraction of a second.
As a hood and as a woman, I knew that’s where the truth often revealed itself: in the slivers of time between understanding and obfuscation.
I assumed the tall stool at Alex’s side, still warm from its previous occupant, and took her hand. “It’s almost done now. Pretty soon, you’re going to be holding your baby.”
She grinned. “I have been holding her for eight long months.”
“Yeah, but now you’ll be able to put her down, too.”
“Miss Denver.” The doctor leaned in over the top of the tenting, looking the slayer in the face. His English proved good, even if heavily accented. “We will make the first incision in just a moment. If you want your guest to stay, it is okay, but if you want either Miss Anya or Petunia back, we should ask them in now.”
“I’d like Anya,” Alex returned, “but if you would, just a moment?”
The doctor nodded, then went back to his position down the bed. “But quickly. We do not want to cause you or the baby anymore stress than is necessary.”
And I’d add myself to that list. “I don’t want to rush you,” I said, “but it seems you have something to say to me. Best just to say it then.”
The jerk of her chin was so minute, I’d have missed it if I didn’t look for it. “I want you to know that I didn’t hide the truth because I was ashamed. I hid it because I didn’t know who I could trust. Now I know, I can trust you.”
Where was she going with this? “Of course, you can.”
“My baby, Geri...” Her eyes drifted down to the regions of her body now embargoed. “The life she would have known if you had not helped us—”
Thank god she was cognizant to mind her words with an audience. “When you liberated us from Dracula’s harem” might have changed the temperature of the room.
“The opportunity she will have now, possibilities that would have been impossible before... What I’m trying to say is, will you do us both the honor of being Mina’s godmother?”
The skin on my nose crinkled. “Who’s Mina?”
“Why... The baby, of course.”
“Oh? Oh! Oh, goodness.” So much for that naming ceremony then. Either Alex wasn’t aware of the tradition, or the absence of a father had encouraged her to make do without.
I didn’t really understand where this was coming from. I mean, yeah, the gratitude made sense, even if it landed on me with a wallop as a reminder that, in exchange for the slayers’ freedom, Tobias had lost his. But did she mean would I be some sort of protector? A godmother? An executor of a vast slayer estate Alex had heretofore failed to mention should something happen to the mother and until little Mina turned twenty-one?
Part of me hesitated, and I recognized that part, at last, for it was: the selfish me who Cody had so accurately pointed a finger at (not that I’d ever admit that to him). Remembering what Petunia had said, that a pregnant mother gets whatever she wants as long as there’s no harm in it, however...
My hands wrapped around Alex’s. “Of course, Alex. I’d be honored.”
The slayer didn’t need to conjure a solarium to shine. “Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me. Now, I hate to push you along, but I have to see to this one little thing.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “If you insist. I’ll send Anya back in on my way out.”
Which should have been the joyous end of a long and arduous day, but my true nightmare was only just about to begin.
The hall was empty as I hit the linoleum floor, smelling vaguely of antiseptic and lemon. I’d managed to break my fall, but couldn’t move. All four limbs worked to keep me right, even as my frame shook from tip to toe. As the first cries of a new soul who claimed the air as birthright and her life as her own filled my ears, the ground beneath my palms tilted. She’s mine. The voice in my head chanted it, declared it, repeated it like a mantra as old as earth itself.
She’s mine.
I am yours.
She is ours.
Three voices, all of them singing in perfect harmony.
The first voice, mine.
The second, and how I did not know but knew it was utterly true, was Mina’s.
And the third...
The third was Tobias’s.
My eyes shot up, as though he might be standing there, with his worn-out jeans, scratching the five o’clock shadow that showed up at 9 AM each morning, while offering me a bowl of dumplings. The hall remained empty, but my head remained full.
“Tobias?” I asked.
Aloud? Or was it just in my mind? I didn’t know.
“She’s ours, Geri,” he answered. Or did he? Could he? “The pup is pack.”
He had to be talking about Mina, but that was impossible. Mina was a slayer. How could she be—
Alex never talked about the father.
Vlad had treated her like a goddess.
The pregnancy had only lasted eight months.
A werewolf, free of his mating bond, could love again...
Finally, the realization took me to my feet. “Tobias?”
I blinked, and suddenly, what I was seeing wasn’t the hospital my logical brain knew I was in, but a small, square room built of ancient rose-colored brick, smocked over at intervals by beige stucco. I was on the floor, my hands bound behind me, while Vlad and another male vampire sat on cushioned, baroque-styled chairs.
“Once I have its lover, then the plan will all be in place, Massimo. It will give us the tools we need to be both masters of life and death.”
Massimo, the archetype of a Byronic beauty with his prominent jaw, ebony locks, and olive skin, clutched the top of a silver-crested cane anchored before him. “You assume, Vlad, that we all want such things.”
Vlad blinked. “Are you saying you want to die?”
“I am saying that I have very little left for which to live.” The man shook his head, then passed me—Tobias?—us?—a sympathetic gaze before turning back. “Why live forever without purpose, when you can die happy with pride and with love?”
The man rose, and Vlad followed.
“You and yours may take shelter in my clutch, as requested, but I suggest you depart for Spain as soon as you’ve made arrangements. In the meantime, you will observe to my edicts while in Venice. We adhere to modernity, Vlad. No drinking to excess, and erase the memories of those from whom you do imbibe. Tourists work well, especially those who themselves have had a little too much to drink.”
The fingers on Vlad’s hand flexed. “You presume to lecture me on remaining discreet?”
Massimo’s eyes shifted to where we were huddled on the ground once more. “You travel with both your sire bound by oak and an asenaic in bondage, Dracule. Such acts in our world draw attention. I bid you good evening.”
And with a tip of his fingers off his forehead, Massimo (and his walking stick) became smoke and flew away.
Vlad, chest heaving, anger in his eyes, turned on us. “You’ll pay for your words, wolf. You were told to remain silent.”
When I spoke, it wasn’t with my voice, but Tobias’s. “Even if I were rendered mute, my heart will cry out for her so loudly, the deaf would hear.”
“Is it torture or love that’s made a poet of you?” Vlad stomped the four paces it took to cross the room. “And I do detest both the love and poetry of amateurs.”
Without warning, the vampire’s fangs latched onto our neck, the
pain rippling through my body. Our screams rang out, walled in by brick and bitterness. The vampire pulled what he desired from us, then retracted, then... was just gone.
Our breath heaved. Our wounds bled. Our hopes withered. The brick sent a chill through our body.
“I will find you. I will save you.”
Did I say that to Tobias? Did he say it to me? I didn’t know. A moment later, bitter, toxic fumes filled my nose. I blinked, and suddenly, the brick wall was gone. The pain was gone. I was still here.
In the hospital, with a very concerned doctor muttering something in German to me that didn’t register.
“I’m fine,” I said in English before remedying with, “Mir geht's gut.”
She seemed doubtful as she explained that she’d just come up the hall to find me on the ground. “Not unconscious,” she said. “Just staring blankly. Miss, do you need medical attention?”
I shook my head as she helped me to sit up. “I just need food. I haven’t eaten anything in... two days?” I said.
We both turned as the doors of the OR behind us opened and a beaming Anya, draped in the requisite cleanroom attire, peaked out. “Tell everyone, Geri! It’s a girl! A healthy, beautiful, baby girl!”
FIFTEEN
The redhead’s delicate eyelashes fluttered open.
Alex’s movements were slow, but the doctors had warned they would be. She’d gone through nearly twenty-seven hours of labor from start to finish, then endured a c-section. The staff said she’d be healed enough for release in three to five days. The staff didn’t know supes healed in half the time of a huey.
Ignoring the vampire hovering over her bed, Alex’s gaze searched the room and found me sitting in a nearby chair, rocking a sleeping Mina.
“Is she okay?”
She was better than okay. Holding Mina felt like I was holding home in my arms, and she wasn’t even mine. I gave the slayer a smile. “She’s perfect. Absolutely perfect.”
Inga pushed an index finger into Alex’s chin, directing her attention back. “You have some explaining to do, sparky. Who else knew the father was lupine?”
Alex tried to sit up, but one painful shift of her frame told her why that wasn’t a good idea, and she surrendered back to the bed. “Vlad knew. Timur, too. Other than that, I don’t know.”
“And what about the wolf?” Inga asked. “Do you know who he was? What pack he was from?”
“What pack he was from? The wolves that the Ravens held.... Ahhh... Ahh!”
Yan flew to the bed, putting a hand on Inga’s when the latter’s fingernail drew blood. “Perhaps you can remember, Miss Rosethorn, that Alex is not our enemy. She has committed us no wrong, and she is recovering from major surgery.”
Violet eyes flashed anger. Then, with glacial coolness, Inga’s features eased. Her hand dropped back to her side as she feigned clearing her throat, waiting for Alex’s answer.
The slayer shook her head. “I speak English, Ukrainian, Turkish, and the Raven’s form of Romanian. The wolf spoke none of those.”
Something about that answer set Inga at ease, and I itched to know what. Regardless, now wasn’t the time.
The recovery room door opened, and a short man with a pot belly and brown-rimmed glasses bustled in, carrying a clipboard. “Miss Inga, madame?”
“Yes, Doctor Altz?”
Earlier in the morning, Inga had marched into the hospital like Patton arriving to the front, despite the sun lingering overhead. A quick arrival was worth the sunburn she’d endured, it seemed. Within five minutes, all the doctors and nurses that Yan had already corralled and began to process were under her sway, taking each of their breaths from her sighs.
Yan had looked simultaneously impressed and ill.
Dr. Altz flipped open that charts. “As you predicted, the patient’s blood pressure and pulse are slightly elevated, but steady. The baby, however, seems to have the opposite result. We’re concerned that her temperature is low.”
Inga turned an expectant gaze to me.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” I said. “A wolf’s temperature runs slightly cooler than a huey’s.”
Speaking up only brought Inga’s attention back to me, the last place I wanted it to be. The vampire had been shooting me daggers since she’d shown up.
“What happened, Geri? Igor raved all about your amazing ability to sense wolves at a distance none of your kind ever had. How did you not sense the baby?”
I’d been pondering that myself. “The only thing I can think of is that Alex’s body—a slayer’s body—created some kind of barrier that interferes with whatever it is that lets me do that. As soon as Mina was out, I could sense her.”
“Any of you had any other insights?” she drove on. “No inklings? No nudging suspicions? Any visions?”
At the word vision I almost spilled about what had happened to me in the minutes after Mina had been born, but instinct told me to hold back. Besides, it probably had been a hallucination. Wolves weren’t telepaths in the traditional sense; neither were hoods. There were no precedents for any supe saying they’d actually inhabited the mind of another and seen with their eyes.
“None,” I said instead. “I assumed – we all assumed – that the baby was wholly slayer.”
Before the vampire could follow up her line of questioning, I launched into one of my own. “Alex, it sounds like you met the wolf, but if you couldn’t speak, how did you two... you know, come to an understanding about what was to be done?”
The woman in the bed blushed. “The act of procreation does not require words, as you know.”
Embarrassment became a flame in my cheeks, but luckily Alex wasn’t in a position to see.
“Vlad had offered me the option of having—what is it called?” Alex’s eyes drifted through the air, searing words. “An injection?”
Artificial insemination seemed too course a term to say while holding an infant. “I understand. But you didn’t choose that. Why?”
The slayer’s fatigue pulled at the corner of her eyes. “I did not survive in the House of Tepeş by being ignorant. I learned when to listen, when to be deaf, and when to ask questions. I’ve spent years making Vlad feel he was my living god. He trusted me. Once, when he thought I was asleep in his bed, I overheard a phone call he took.”
I tried to ignore the implication, even as my mind raced to judgement. But how was that fair? Alex had been worse than a prisoner, she’d been a slave. Whatever advantage she made of her limited choices wasn’t for me to berate; I knew from experience that knowledge was power. She’d have done it not only for herself, but also to keep the other slayers as safe as she was able. Martyrdom didn’t always mean death of the body. Sometimes it means the death of the soul.
I placed Mina in the clear plastic bassinet the hospital had provided and made sure she was tucked in tight. “Do you know who he was talking to?”
Alex shook her head as I took a chair at her bedside. “A vampire, for certain. Vlad said something about how he wished he could destroy his father, but he’d need a miracle to do it and survive. You know that about them, right? That vampires who kills a member of their own bloodline kill themselves in the process?”
I nodded. “Yes, Igor told me.”
A faint smile ghosted her face, then flitted away. “Right. Then, whomever he was talking to told him something that made him happy, exceedingly happy. To delight Vlad when he is in such a mood is to sift diamonds from mud. I pretended that I just woke up and asked what the good news was. When he explained he’d learned a way to kill Igor and explained how, I asked for the honor of being the vessel. Vlad agreed, saying if any of the slayers could seduce a wolf to lie with them, it was me.”
“That sounds like my brethren,” Inga hissed. “I’m sorry that happened to you, Alex, but I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
“Of course, you don’t,” Alex said. “Like all vampires, you don’t want context, you only want what you feel is critical. But you never understand that hu
manity is where the context lies.”
Inga choked on the retort, taking none too kindly to being lambasted.
Perhaps because she was so tired or just tired of acquiescing to vampires, Alex continued unabated. “My people have clung to our stories. Maybe you would call them legends, and maybe that’s all they are. They’ve been handed down for so many generations, it’s impossible to know what’s true and what’s made up. One talks about a lupine who took two wives: one slayer and one hood. Both bore him children. One night, a vampire descended on them, eating first the lupine, and then his wives, and then he came to the children. First, he consumed the blood of the babe born to the hood, and it gave the vampire incredible strength, fueling him with power. Then, the vampire ate the child of the slayer, whose blood made him weak, and eventually, killed him.”
Inga mused a space before saying, “If this is true, it would change things radically.”
Alex’s head angled as she took me into view. “At first, I carried the child, hoping that the story was true. I would sacrifice a child born to such circumstances to save my people. Then I was rescued, given a chance at a life, a real life, with my child. Now, the last thing I want is to lose her to them. Please, Geri, swear you will protect her.”
I moved to the edge of the slayer’s bed, pulling her hands to mine. “Of course, Alex.”
Behind us, Inga paced. “If that story is true, it means Mina would be... Would be a way to kill the Ravens. The child must be harvested at once.”
I shot up from the bed and spun on the vampiress. “What?”
Inga blazed with hope. “Just think about it, Geri: the Ravens arranged for this baby’s conception with the intent of drinking it. All we have to do is let them.”
I was in front of the bassinet before I realized I’d even moved. “No one touches the baby.”
The temperature of the room had shifted, and suddenly, we were no longer three women with fates bound by a common enemy. I was pack, a status extended by virtue of blood to Alex, and Inga... Inga was a jaguar, stalking the young I protected.
Rebellious Hood Page 12
