“Santiago…” Gabriella breathed, tilting her head towards him with tired, pain-filled eyes.
“Yes, my love,” he replied, lifting his face from her hair so as to look at her…pain and all. “I am right here for you.”
“Santiago…this child…I may not survive…” She tumbled over her words, her throat choking at the thought.
“No. Don’t say it, Gabriella,” Santiago cut her off with a stern voice and look. “That will not happen, I swear it.”
“Santiago…” She trailed off as another spike in pain struck her, though she drew in a breath and continued, “I love you. I love Rafael and Ignacio and Mateo…tell them.”
“Hush. They know,” he said, pressing his lips against her forehead. “I love you, Gabriella. You will have this child and be just fine.”
Another sharp bout of pain shot through Gabriella and she clenched her teeth through the scream. She did her best to continue breathing, to keep herself from giving up and giving in to the pain. She felt Santiago grip her hand once more and slip his other around behind her shoulders. He held her as best he could, his hand strong in her own even as his thumb gently rubbed across the back of hers.
His words hung in her mind. She would have this child. She took a deep breath, set herself to it and tried to take control over this pregnancy. Finally, after nearly ten hours of body- and mind-shattering pain, Gabriella succeeded in giving birth to their fourth child just after the stroke of midnight. A beautiful, healthy and whole baby girl. Their first and only daughter.
Lucia cleaned and bundled the child up as Santiago helped Gabriella into a more comfortable position to rest as well as to hold their newborn child when Lucia approached with the little thing all wrapped in white. Gabriella held her daughter to her chest, her brow still drenched in sweat as she looked down in awe and adoration at the little girl that had so recently threatened to kill her.
The babe was so small, smaller than all three of her elder brothers had been, and she seemed so fragile in her mother’s arms. Without hesitation, Gabriella moved her new daughter so that she could latch and feed if she could and wanted. She felt Santiago settle down on the bed beside her and turned to look at her husband. The look of awe on his face got a soft laugh from her, as her body wouldn’t allow much more than that.
“Are you alright, dear?” she asked, a bit teasingly.
“She is so small…” he marveled, still simply staring at her.
“Very small…but so perfect,” Gabriella said, returning her eyes to their daughter. “What should we name her?”
“I…I don’t know,” he admitted, looking to Gabriella finally. “I honestly thought it would be another boy…I had thought Javier.”
“Well, that won’t do,” Gabriella said with a smile at her daughter. “How about Isidora…after my mother?”
“If we are to honor your mother, you should be honored as well,” Santiago added. “Isidora Gabrielle DeLeon.”
Gabriella only smiled and nodded, leaning down just enough to press her lips softly against her daughter’s head. It was a good name, a beautiful name, that suited her perfectly in her mother’s opinion. At her mother’s touch, the brand new bundle of joy cooed and opened her eyes. Dark, beautiful eyes…just like her mother’s.
Lucia quietly cleaned up and left the three of them to bond together alone. As she stepped from the room, she paused, thinking back over the last dozen hours or so and all that had happened. That child was precious…that much she knew for certain.
*
For the first month after Isidora was born, all was well and both mother and child were kept quiet and comfortable, giving them the opportunity to bond and calm themselves after the trial of little Isidora’s birth.
Just a few weeks before Gabriella had gone into labor, all three of the boys had been packed up and sent off to spend the summer with their maternal grandmother, leaving the house empty and silent for mother and baby to recuperate from such a trying birth. The stillness of the house was more than welcomed, although both Gabriella and Santiago missed their sons terribly from the moment they had left.
As the house settled after the chaos of birth and everyone found themselves back into a comfortable routine, Gabriella and Santiago began to discuss the plan to surprise their three older children with the news of their new baby sister. The boys would not be returning home until the very end of August, if not the beginning of September just before Rafael’s birthday, so they had plenty of time to plan a special welcome-home/surprise party for their return. The question they tossed about was what sort of way to go about it. A sister was a very special thing and they wanted their sons to understand that by the way they were introduced to her.
Whatever plans they may have had, however, were swiftly derailed by the very person they were meant to celebrate. Little Isidora, the delicate newborn so often found in Gabriella’s arms, quickly proved to be far more than anyone could have ever planned for. Let alone her parents.
Chapter Five
The first moment when Gabriella realized her daughter was not simply her daughter was roughly four and a half weeks after Isidora had been born. The little girl had been rather fussy and upset most of the day, crying often and simply unable to find herself comfortable no matter what her mother did. As Gabriella was preparing to feed her, her daughter did something that would end up being the most shocking thing Gabriella would see her entire life.
Her little girl, her precious and only daughter, began to transform into a Dragon right in her very arms. She stood, transfixed with awe and fear, as her newborn daughter writhed and whined in her arms, her gentle baby cries turning to the clicks and squawks of a baby Dragon. Her little limbs lengthened and changed form, her beautiful little face lengthening into the snout of a Dragon. All Gabriella could do was watch as the precious pink baby in her arms shifted into a Dragon like her father before her. Almost as if someone struck a switch, a wash of scales blossomed out across her daughters changing body, causing Gabriella to yelp in surprise and sit down suddenly on the bed behind her.
Her eyes remained frozen on her daughter, watching as those skin-tone scales seemed to fade and be leached of all their color. From flesh color to the stark blankness of snow, her daughter turned pure white in her arms. Before she fully realized what had happened, she held in her arms a precious, snow-white baby girl Dragon that had once been her human daughter.
Isidora writhed and cried in her Dragon-like way, complaining and begging for food. Her mother simply held her…shocked and unable to do much else but stare at her daughter. This simply could not be. The moment Lucia had announced Isidora to be a girl, Gabriella had sighed an internal sigh of relief that she would have at least once child that would not be saddled with such a heavy secret. Santiago had always told her that there had never been a female Dragon born to any shifter. It simply did not happen. She shook her head a few times, closed her eyes and then looked once more at her child, hoping to shake away the vision. Isidora had not returned to her human baby state, however, and was still nestled in her mother’s arms wrapped in her own tiny, white, leathery wings.
“Santiago!” Gabriella called, a hint of urgency in her voice.
A few moments later and her husband came through the bedroom door with a mild look of concern on his face. His glasses sat atop is head, the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up to his elbows. The ink smears along the side of his left hand told her he had been working.
“What’s wr—” He halted abruptly and stopped cold where he stood, his amber eyes transfixed on the small Dragon in his wife’s arms. “Gabriella…”
“I don’t know, Santiago!” she cried, looking desperately at her husband. “I was about to feed her, she started to fuss and before I knew it…she was…like this!”
Santiago came and sat beside his wife on the bed and gently took their daughter from her. He held her before him in her little purple blanket, looking over her pure, stark-white scales and the delicate w
ings she had wrapped about herself. The little Dragon Isidora squirmed in her father’s hands, lifting her long and slender head a bit before she opened her eyes. Those dark, beautiful brown eyes she had shown at birth, the eyes of her mother, were gone now, replaced instead by a brilliant silvery blue. Both of her parents drew in a sudden breath at the sight of it before looking to one another.
“I don’t understand, Santiago,” Gabriella whispered, her voice half-caught in her throat. “I thought you had said…”
“This should not be possible, Gabriella,” he said, a look of worry and confusion in his eyes. “As far as I know…there are no female Dragons.”
“What do we do?” Gabriella asked, unsure of what was going on.
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
“Well, there has to be something we can do…someone we can ask?” Gabriella said as she stood up and began to pace with worry.
The two of them fell into silence for a moment. Gabriella paced, each step growing more and more concerned and confused, while her husband sat and stared dumbfounded at the beautiful white baby Dragon in his arms. Finally, when one of them broke, it was Gabriella.
“Santiago. This is not good,” she said, her voice strained as she stopped pacing finally. “I don’t know how or why…but I feel it in my soul that no good will come of this.”
“You’re right,” he agreed in a soft voice.
That stopped Gabriella in her tracks. She had been hoping for her husband to dispel her worries and tell her that nothing bad would come of their daughter being a Dragon. She wanted to hear that this was a blessing and that their daughter was a special and precious gift given to them. She wanted to hear that it was no big deal at all and that the fear in her soul was unfounded. Instead, he had agreed with her and sent her heart plummeting to the pit of her stomach.
“Don’t say that,” she begged him in a soft voice before moving to take their Dragon daughter from him. She began to rock and sooth Isidora, gently stroking under her daughter’s soft yet scaly chin.
“Gabriella…” he said softly as he handed over their daughter, looking up at his wife with pain and worry in his eyes. “I am not sure how…but I know for certain that the moment word of Isidora’s existence spreads amongst our kind…”
He trailed off, not because he was afraid of what he would have said next…but because he didn’t even know what to say next. He had no idea what would come of it, should the rest of Dragonkind learn of their daughter, but he knew it wouldn’t be good.
A heavy sigh slipped from him as he watched his wife rock their daughter in her arms. As he watched, little Isidora began to fall asleep in her mother’s arms…and with that, her Dragon form began to slip away. It happened quickly, as infants’ bodies were still learning what they were, and soon Isidora was the tiny pink babe she had been before. Gabriella nearly cried in relief as she came to settle on the bed beside her husband once more.
“Then what do we do, Santiago?” she asked, turning her eyes to him as she wiped away a tear. “We can’t simply sit and wait to see what happens…we need to protect her.”
“I don’t know how we could do that,” he said, his voice weak from the realization. “To keep her secret, hidden and safe…we would have to keep her locked away for her entire life.”
He looked to his daughter as she slept in her mother’s arms. The thought of keeping her under lock and key just to keep her safe tore his heart from his chest. He could never do that to his child…even if it were to keep her safe. He wanted her to live her life, not be a caged animal.
“We can’t do that do her,” they said in near unison before laughing a small and strained laugh together.
“What are our options, then?” Gabriella asked. “Is there somewhere safe we could take her?”
Santiago thought on that for a moment. He realized his family in Romania might be able to help them in some way with this. After all, they had provided midwives for the birth of their first three children…so it stood to reason they would have more general Dragon knowledge that might help.
“Perhaps my Uncle Luca, from Romania, will have the answer to that question,” he said, rubbing a hand through his beard as he considered it. “Though he and my father never reconciled, he has always shown us kindness when it comes to our children. He is sure to help us now.”
“To have him send a midwife is one thing, Santiago,” Gabriella began to protest, “but to entrust him with our newborn and only daughter...we hardly know the man!”
“I understand,” Santiago said in an attempt to calm her. “I have never met my uncle and only know what my father used to tell me of him and our Romanian family. But they are our only connection to the rest of the Dragon world, Gabriella. My father ensured that he severed any old-world ties before leaving it behind…without my uncle and his kin…”
He wasn’t sure how to finish his thought. His uncle and the rest of his extended family could provide them with much needed information, not to mention help, in trying to decide the next move regarding their daughter. He understood Gabriella’s apprehension, but their need to keep their daughter safe somewhat overrode her worry.
“Why did your father leave Romania in the first place?” she asked, a curious but still concerned look on her face. “If he and your uncle never reconciled their differences, then why are you so certain Luca will be willing to help us?”
“Father never told me much about why he left,” Santiago explained. “You already know, Father was just 18 when he moved here and he always said Romania just did not offer the life he wanted for himself. Though from what I was able to gather…my Uncle Luca is actually the younger of the two of them.
“Even though he and Father never were able to settle their differences, Father always stressed how important family was to our kind,” he continued, his eyes shifting to keep watching his daughter sleep away in her mother’s arms. “If Father told the truth, then I’m sure Luca will give us what we need if we ask it of him.”
Gabriella was silent. She took in all that he had told her and weighed it against her fears and worries. In the end, she gave a sigh and nodded in agreement with her husband. He was right…and even if he wasn’t, they really had little choice in the matter.
“Contact your uncle, then,” she said, lifting little Isidora just enough to plant a light kiss to her forehead. “Nothing matters more than keeping her safe right now.”
Santiago agreed but he remained silent. Instead, he slipped an arm around his wife, holding both her and their daughter close to him for a moment. His mind whirled with the impact of what had just happened to them, to their daughter. The first female Dragon to be born that Santiago had ever heard of...it had to mean far more than he could possibly hope to understand. But that lack of understanding left him nearly paralyzed with fear.
Little Isidora would not understand the effect of her very existence until she was much older…yet her parents were all too painfully aware. They held one another for a long time, finding comfort in the safety they had always felt in one another’s arms.
When Santiago finally rose from the bed he gave a kiss to his daughter’s forehead, and then one to his wife’s lips. He lingered there for a moment, trying to lose himself in the love of her touch for that brief second and forget about the chaos that was sure to come soon enough.
He finally left their bedroom, leaving Gabriella to tend to Isidora while he drafted a careful letter to his family in Romania. They had never quite caught up to the modern world, their most efficient means of communication being couriers and the like.
The letter asked of his uncle to tell him all he knew of female Dragons, should there have been any, and what it would mean for such a thing to happen. He wrote as if asking for a school lesson, making no mention of a child actually having been born in any way. He felt that the subtle stresses he put into his letter would clue Uncle Luca in to what was really going on with their situation and thus they would get the information they r
eally needed. He hoped, at least.
Dropping it to a courier as soon as possible, Santiago and Gabriella began the arduous wait to hear back. Two long and painfully anxious weeks passed before they received the response they had been waiting for, though it was not the response they had expected. Santiago brought the response to his wife, translating for her as he read it aloud.
“Dearest Nephew,” he started, planning to simply read the entire thing to his wife. “I am quite pleased to hear of your interest in such a compelling topic as that of Female Dragons! I am surprised your father has not told you more about your heritage and the history of our culture, and thus the lore and history surrounding Female Dragons. Nevertheless, I will be happy to share all I know about the subject with you here.”
Santiago paused, glancing to his wife, who had settled on the plush chaise lounge in the corner of their bedroom, Isidora in a little brown bassinet beside her. He smiled at the sight of them, though the look on Gabriella’s face was one etched with worry, and such a sight brought an ache to his heart. He was loath to see the love of his life twisted with such worry as she was now. He tore his eyes away from her and went back to the letter.
“For a Female Dragon to be born is a rare thing indeed for our kind,” he continued reading. “To the best of my knowledge, one has not been born in nearly 500 years…the last one residing far to the East. A Dragoness known by the name of Tama Ryouma, whose birth and life resulted in the Taungoo-Ava War from 1538 to 1545.”
“500 years?!” exclaimed Gabriella, sitting upright where she was. “So, a child like our daughter has not existed for nearly half a millennium? And the last one to be about caused a nearly 10-year war?!”
The Forbidden Dragon Baby: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (Dragon In My Heart Series Book 3) Page 4
