“You seem to be a little further along than I expected,” the doctor states.
“What does that mean?” Finley questions. I’m glad she does, because I don’t think I can form words or a coherent thought.
“Hellhounds give birth after five months. Humans give birth after nine, correct?” Finley nods. “You will carry the pup longer than five months, but shorter than nine.”
“How far along am I?”
“Based off the size and development, I’d say two and a half months. I would say you’ll give birth somewhere between six and a half to seven months. You might experience some growing pains with the pup developing faster than a normal human child would. If that happens just rest and take it easy.”
“Well, shit,” Finley whispers. Exactly.
“Pup looks strong and healthy.” He pushes a few buttons on the wand and the sound of a heartbeat fills the room.
Our pup, my hellhound says.
Yes.
My hellhound preens, pleased with himself. I can’t blame him. The joy and love I feel seeing the image is unlike anything I’ve felt before. I love Finley, she’s my mate, but the love I feel for my child is different.
We must protect, my hellhound says.
Always, I reply.
“Everything seems to be in order. You’re not having any ill effects from the pregnancy. You and the pup are in excellent health.”
I’m staring at the image unable to look away, when it disappears.
“Wait!” Obsidian, Verkor, and I all shout at the same time. I want to watch the image some more. The doctor rummages through his black, leather bag pulls out a small round device, and waves his wand over it.
“Here,” he hands the object to Finley. “All you have to do is press this button.” He demonstrates by doing it. The image and a recording of our pup’s heartbeat appears. “Press the button again when you’re done.” He does, the image disappears.
“Thank you, for everything,” Finley says, pulling her shirt back down, and sits up straight.
The doctor nods. I look down at Finley who is cradling the round device in her hands. I hold out my wrist, letting the doctor deduct the credits for the visit. He quietly closes the door behind him when he leaves.
There’s a soft clicking sound, followed by the steady rhythm of a heartbeat and a holographic picture. I squeeze Finley’s hand that I’m still holding.
“Our baby.” Finley’s voice is soft as she tentatively lifts her fingers out toward the picture.
Obsidian walks around the stand and kneels in front of her. He gathers her in his arms, holding her tight. She keeps ahold of my hand the entire time. Verkor reaches over placing a hand on her shoulder. We all just stay quiet, listening to the life that’s growing inside Finley. It’s the best sound I’ve heard.
After a few minutes, Finley pulls back from Obsidian. “Are you guys alright?”
“Love, we’re more than alright.” I smile. “I can’t speak for Verkor or Obsidian, but I’m on cloud fucking nine right now.”
Finley’s stomach cuts in by growling loudly. We all chuckle.
“How about we go and eat dinner?” Verkor says, pulling his hand back.
Obsidian stands with Finley still in his arms. He places her on her feet making sure she is steady before letting go. He moves to stand next to me.
“That sounds like a great idea,” she says laughing. We all look at the picture one more time before Finley pushes the button and the image along with the sound of the heartbeat disappear.
“Though, I think I’d like a shower first,” Finley states.
I nod. I could use one too. I wonder if Finley will let me take one with her, to conserve water and all. I lift Finley into my arms, carrying her down the hall to the bathroom. She giggles.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re taking a shower.” I smirk at her, setting her down on the counter.
“Oh,” she quirks an eyebrow, while trying to fight from smiling. “And you think we should do this together?”
“Yup,” I say, popping my ‘p’ like she did earlier.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” she grins, before whipping her shirt off. I don’t waste another second. I pounce, making sure she gets even dirtier before getting clean.
Chapter 17
Finley
“Oh, that was good,” I say, patting my belly. All the guys chuckle.
“Well, now that everyone is clean and fed, how about we finish that conversation we were having earlier?” Bael states.
“Where was I?” I ask.
“You had just finished telling me about your trip into Faerie,” Bael responds.
“Oh yeah. Okay, so, we made it out of Faerie in one piece. Once we got back to the Magic Realm, we went straight to mine and my best friend Izzy’s place. I handed her the pieces of the map that had fused together, and she had a vision of the next part of the poem.”
“And that led you here,” Bael finishes.
“Yup.”
“You’re on a mission to find and steal the next part of the map.” I nod, as he restates the obvious. Bael runs his hands through his hair. “You know who has it, don’t you?” I nod again.
“We assume since the first piece was in the White House with the President, and the second piece was with the King of the Winter Court, that the third piece has to be with Lucifer,” Stolas replies.
“Brother, you have to see that this is a suicide mission. You can’t steal from the King of Hell. How could you put your mate and pup in danger?”
“I’m not asking for you to tag along and help. All I need to know is if you heard anything about where the map could be hiding, and how to get close to Lucifer. As for my mate,” Stolas growls, “she would have gone on this mission with or without our help, at least with me and the others here, we can protect her.”
Bael glances my way and I shrug my shoulders. “He’s not wrong. I even told them that’s what I was going to do.”
“All of you are out of your mind.” Bael flops back in his chair.
“I’m not going to argue with you there,” Stolas relies.
“Why exactly do you need me to do?” Bael asking, leaning forward, placing his folded arms on the table. Verkor stands, gathering the dirty dishes from the table.
“Two things really,” I say. Bael looks at me waiting for me to continue. “Information for one, and I need to meet the devil.” Bael’s eyes widen.
“The information I can probably do, but meeting the devil,” he shakes his head. “That I don’t know if I can do.”
“Well, let’s start with the information,” I say. “Have you heard anything about a piece a map being kept anywhere in the depths of hell? If our theory is right about the ruler or strongest being in that realm being the guardian of the map…”
“Then Lucifer is going to be one the guarding the map that is here,” Bael finishes.
“Yup.”
Bael sighs. “If it’s going to be anywhere, it’ll be in his castle. There have been rumors or myths that circulate about a treasure map being down here, but no one has ever found it.”
“I imagine that if you steal from the King of Hell, you don’t live to tell about it,” I state.
“Correct. Which is why I think that you’re crazy for doing this.”
“I know, but we’re in too deep to stop now.” I run my fingers through my hair. “I want to see this through, and now we’re on a tighter schedule.” I rub belly. “I really don’t want to be doing this later in the pregnancy.” Bael nods.
“Have you heard anything about where the map might be hidden in the castle?” Verkor asks, while he loads the dishwasher. “It’ll be close to him or kept somewhere that’ll be guarded.”
“The only places I think they could be is either in his throne room or his office. Those are the only two places that Lucifer spends the majority of his time,” Bael answers.
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it’s in the throne room. I don’t want to
have to break into his office,” I say.
“Good luck with that,” Bael utters.
“Why?” Obsidian questions.
“Lucifer’s office is heavily guarded, especially when he’s not there.”
“Fuck,” I voice. “You know that’s exactly where that map is hidden.”
“Like this was going to be easy,” Obsidian says while crossing his arms over his chest.
“That is part of the reason why we are doing this. We need to come up with some sort of plan,” Stolas says.
“We should just start from the beginning,” Verkor replies. He reclaims his seat at the table. “Finley recite this part of the poem and we’ll pick it apart.”
“For the next piece that you seek, you will go down, down, far beneath the trees. Fire and brimstone are what you’ll find but be wary of deceit and webs of lies. A date with the devil is what you’ll get, but you’ll have to be quick. For your gift will only get you so far and you’ll have to rely more on your wit.”
“We figured out the part that we had to go to hell. The fire and brimstone gave that away,” Stolas says, rubbing a hand across his neatly trimmed beard. “The deceit and the webs of lies I feel like is still up in the air.”
“What about that white robed figure you and Verkor ran into?” I ask.
“What white robed figure?” Bael interjects.
“In the treachery level we all got separated. Verkor and I found each other because we both believed that we were following Finley through the crowd. Turned out we were wrong.” Stolas’ brows furrow. “We were led and locked in a room. This white robed figure came from the shadows.” Stolas’ leg start to bounce. “He said how special Finley was and that she could change everything. He said that people are aware that we are hunting and assembling pieces of the map, and more danger comes our way.” Stolas looks over at me before focusing back on his brother. “He claims to know who and what Finley is but wouldn’t tell me. He said she’s safer not knowing.”
“What do you mean?” A look of confusion falls over Bael’s face. “She’s human. What else could she be?”
“I’m only part human. I don’t know my birth parents. I was abandoned as a child and raised in the Magic Realm by a witch. We don’t know exactly what I am.”
My gaze goes to Obsidian. He meets my eyes and shrugs his shoulders. He’s telling me, in his nonverbal way, that’s up to me on how much I want to tell him.
“What?” Bael asks, his eyes flicking back and forth between me and Obsidian. I sigh, turning my attention back to Bael.
“This is only speculation, but they think that I’m a distant descendant of the Supreme Ruler. Since we don’t know what they were, we don’t know what I am. We do know that at least one of my parents had to be human.” I wave a hand over me.
I never thought that I would see someone's eyes almost bug out of their head, but Bael’s practically does that. He looks like a fish with the way his mouth keeps opening and closing, but no words are coming out.
“I think we broke him,” Stolas jokes.
“Look, we have no proof of that. We’re going on the fact that all the parts of the poem have come true, and we’ve been finding the pieces of the map. We were going to worry about that when we found all the pieces and the treasure. For now, we need to focus on this piece and making a plan,” I state.
“Which we haven’t done much of because we keep getting distracted,” Obsidian interjects.
“Okay,” Bael says. “Pushing everything else to the side, because I honestly don’t know how to process that bit of information yet, let’s go back to the poem.” All of us nod.
Bael isn’t the only one who still has to process that particular piece of information. I feel like everything in my life is moving at hyper speed. I have no control over it, and I’m just along for the ride. I mean a few months ago it was me and Izzy and this crazy plan to track down this map that landed in our laps. Who knew that a few short months later I’d have three mates, be pregnant, find out that I’m more than human, and possibly be days away from having the third piece of the treasure map.
I wanted to take a small break after getting this piece of the map like we did with the last one, but that’s not going to happen. I wasn’t joking when I said I don’t want to be five months or more pregnant trying to find the treasure. We still need to figure out permanent living arrangements. Don’t think I forgot about the fact that Stolas would want me to give birth to our baby here in hell. He still hasn’t mentioned it to me. I don’t know if I should say anything or wait. I sigh internally. Waiting is probably the best, at least until we get home from this mission.
“Finley,” Stolas says, bringing me from my thoughts.
“Sorry, what?” I didn’t realize they were talking around me.
“You didn’t hear anything we said, did you, love?”
There is laughter in Stolas’ voice. I sheepishly look at him and he loses it. His laughter is contagious and soon all of us are laughing with him.
“Okay, okay,” I say, when I calm down. “What were you guys saying? I promise to stay focused and listen this time.” The guys chuckle.
“Bael said, he wonders if the deceit and webs of lies was already fulfilled in the treachery level,” Stolas says, recapping what I missed, which I’m sure was a lot more than that, but it’s nice to have the abridged version.
“How so?” I direct my question to Bael.
“Both Verkor and Stolas followed a female with pink hair. They assumed it was you, and they were wrong. That could be deceit. They were ‘tricked’ into thinking it was you. Why?”
This time it’s me that has wide eyes. I sit a little straighter in my chair. “Because they we purposely lured to that building and then to that room. If that didn’t fulfill the requirement, could the guy that lured me away do it?” I ask.
“How so?” Bale questions.
“Well, he was trying to convince me that someone from my past was here, and that if I followed him, I could make amends,” I reply. “What if he was lying? What if he was just trying to separate me from the guys?”
“It’s possible,” Bael states. “Even if there was more behind the reason he lured you away, he did at least accomplish that.”
“In turn putting everything else into motion,” Verkor interjects.
“Yes,” Bael states, nodding his head. “Exactly. Now, why would they want to get some of you alone?”
“To plant the idea that Finley is in more danger than she probably is,” Verkor says excitedly. “Most people think that the map and the treasure are a myth, and those who have tried to look had nothing to go on. How could anyone know that we are looking and successfully finding pieces of the map?”
“You think everything that happened was a way to get to us, to make us think more is going on then there is?” I ask. Bael and Verkor nod. “Okay, but how would that white robed figure know what we were doing here?”
“What building did you enter?” Bael inquiries.
“There wasn’t a name or any distinguishing features to it. When we went inside it was completely dark,” Verkor responds. “I followed Stolas through the building until we heard moaning sounds and saw a soft glow coming from beneath the door.” Bael nods like he knows what’s going on.
“You entered the House of Fears. It takes your fears and projects them.”
“Are you sure, because he looked real,” Stolas voices.
“Yup, that’s the purpose,” Bael responds.
“So, everything we saw was just our subconscious playing out?” Verkor asks. Bael nods. “How does that work? How does that building know what our fears are to play on them? Are you telling me that Stolas and I fear the same thing?”
“I would bet money that all three of you,” Bael points to Verkor, Stolas, and Obsidian, “all have the same fear about her being in danger. You also fear the fact you don’t know what Finley is but that someone out there might.”
You could hear a pin drop from the complete silence tha
t followed that statement. Judging by the looks on all the guys faces; I would say he hit the nail on the proverbial head.
Verkor
Bael is absolutely correct. All of us are worried about Finley and where this road might lead. I know that all of us would rather be at home preparing for our baby, but that’s not going to happen. I don’t regret that this map brought me my mate, I’m just wish it was under different circumstances.
“That doesn’t explain how the building works,” Finley says, restarting the conversation.
“It’s how most things work down here, it’s powered by the souls of the damned,” Bael responds. Of course, it is.
“So, are we going to assume that this fills the deceit and webs of lies portion of the poem?” Finley asks.
“Unless something else happens,” I respond. Everyone groans.
“Okay, the next part is a date with the devil,” Stolas says. He looks at his brother. “That’s where we’ll need your help.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” Bael asks.
“I just need to get close enough to garner his attention. I’ll do the rest,” Finley says smirking. All of us rub a hand down our faces after Finley’s comment.
“The only way I know you could get his attention would be to perform at The Inferno. It’s a seedy establishment dressed up in fancy decor.” Finley leans forward with a smile on her face. “Don’t tell me you have some hidden talent.”
“That I do, Bael; that I do. How soon could I get a spot there? It has to be on a night that you know Lucifer will be there.”
I hate the idea of her getting close to Lucifer. I don’t know what I hate more, the fact that Finley had to dance with my now dead, ex-king of a cousin, or go on a date with the devil himself. My wings feel restless under my skin. They’re fighting to emerge, and I’m barely holding them back. I clench my fists and grind my teeth until I calm down enough to know my wings won’t suddenly spring from my back. I know if we have any chance of obtaining this part of the map, we need to check mark everything off in this section of the poem. We have to stay close. We have to protect Finley.
Stolen Fire Page 21
