My head turned slowly towards the window just as a blur of black fabric and red streaks whizzed by the edge of the bed and attacked the shadow demon keeping Gabriel from his doctoring duties. I listened closely for anything familiar as I watched the blur grab the shadow demon by the throat and throw it violently into the far wall.
My mouth was open, aghast at what I saw before me—it was Camela, the demon witch from hell...and she was helping me. What the...? I was in absolute shock watching Camela tower over the crumbled mass of pure evil. Am I in an alternate universe or something? Camela had actually come to my rescue. MINE.
Camela stood ceremoniously over the unconscious shadow demon as she flicked her long, witch-black hair over her shoulder. Raising a hand of deathly sharp nails to her view, she eyed her nails like they were perfectly manicured and not frightening talons of razor sharp danger. Looking down at the shadow demon, she huffed, reached down in a flash, and ripped its head off of its shoulders with a quick twist and tug. With a disinterested girly grunt, she threw the head down at the body and turned on the rest of us in the room, finally noticing that we were all gaping at her like her hair had just caught on fire.
"What?" Her accent was especially accentuated as she sneered at me. "I heard the commotion and thought that I could be of service." Wow, that had to hurt to even say the words out loud.
"Camela?" I couldn't believe that I was actually looking at her in wonder, reaching up to rub my eyes because there was absolutely no way that this could honestly be happening. Camela was...incredible. She had been absolutely amazing—a one-woman demolition team. Who knew that she could be so...primal? "What..."
Camela shrugged as she strutted over to the doorway, pulling it aside as she sashayed into the hallway, looking first left and then right. She walked back into my room like she owned the place, eyeing the furnishings as if she was taking inventory to ensure I hadn't moved anything without her permission.
"I am protecting the baby. It is just that simple." She clicked in her metal-spiked heels over to the middle of the room. She eyed Gabriel as he brushed himself off, revealing a deep gash across his chest—a lingering reminder of the shadow demon that wanted to take his life. She snorted as she turned to Tisha with a flash of red in her eyes. "What is the progress? When will the child be free of the womb?"
I cringed at the way that Camela had just referred to me as 'the womb.' She was so cold and hostile, all in one little package and yet, it was so very Camela.
"What do you care about the baby?" I snarked at her as I pushed up in the bed, still reeling from the last contraction that had seemed to fade away as I watched Camela decapitate the figure now cast against the far wall. "It's not like you have ever cared about the baby before. Why now?"
"The baby," Camela turned on me, "is part Leonzio. Although it is also part you and three other imbeciles, I feel strongly that the baby must exist because it does, in fact, belong to Leonzio." She shrugged as if the conversation was boring to her. What a witch. She just called me an imbecile.
I adjusted my shoulders and leaned back in my pillow again. This was not a good situation to be in—the castle under siege and my body wracked with pain. I was sweaty, hot, stressed out beyond belief, exhausted and frightened. What good was having Camela around going to do? Well, she could definitely kick shadow demon ass...
"Thank you for your help, Camela. Are you planning on leaving now?" Please say yes, please say yes.
Camela turned towards the window and yanked the curtain away slightly as she peered outside.
"No, I plan on staying until the child is born into this world." She was not giving us a choice—she was here for the long haul.
I glowered at her as she turned to give me the evil eye. Crap in a basket, I hate that woman and now she plans to make herself at home here in my own private little hell. She is probably just loving having a front row seat for my pain and suffering. Grrrr.
I suddenly felt the need to grow my own claws, but just then another mind-numbing contraction drew my attention away.
"AHHHH!" I clenched the sheets on the bed like they were going to help my pain seep away. I shook my head as I began to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth, in through my nose and out through my mouth. My breath released in a big SHHHHH noise as I tried to focus on the feel of the sheets in my balled fists.
When I finally opened my eyes, I saw Gabriel pulling the paper from the diagnostic machine, eyeing it like it was a ticker-tape from an old stock market machine. I instantly had visions of Gomez Addams rattling off stock projections as the stocks skyrocketed and then plummeted down to rock bottom. The image was quite unsettling, really. More so than I would have expected. I sighed as I tried to keep my mind off of the horrible shaking sensation that was rocking my bed. Just get past this contraction and everything will be okay.
Gabriel had a strained look around the edges of his eyes as he turned to look at Tisha. With that, Tisha walked over to Gabriel and eyed the readout suspiciously as well, possibly trying to discern what he had. When she looked up at Gabriel, her expression was pensive and then they both looked at me with concern.
"Celeste," Tisha's voice was steady but held warning in the tone, "are you still experiencing a contraction?"
I thought about it as I eyed them. The room wasn't shaking violently like it had before, but there was now an eerie silence.
"No, I don't think I am." I ran my hands over my stomach. "What's wrong? What are you not telling me? Is Cora okay?" I couldn't keep the fear from my voice.
Camela walked over to the other two and eyed them as if they were dangerous. "What?" Camela said again. It seemed to be her favorite word of the day. "What is wrong?"
Gabriel yanked the paper through his hands again, eyeing the lines and peaks as well as valleys drawn on the paper by the monitoring machine. "It appears... Well, it appears..."
"Come out with it, man!" Camela's anxiety was evident as her hands began to twitch at her sides. Her long, red manicured nails had replaced her threatening talons, but she was still quite frightening. "What is wrong with the child?!" It was like she felt she was responsible for what happened to Cora. Now that is absolutely NOT the reaction I would have expected from the hellhound of the Baskervilles.
Tisha pushed between Camela and Gabriel as she laid a soothing hand on the demon's shoulder. Tisha looked at me instead of Camela when she did it, and it made me feel hollow. It was like I was listening to everyone from the bottom of a well—all of the voices muffled and echoing down at me.
"Celeste is experiencing a placental abruption." Tisha's eyes were steady, but the words didn't soothe me in any way.
"And what exactly does that mean?" I heard my voice and it sounded like a little girl asking what time Daddy was going to get home.
"It means," Gabriel walked over to the bed, leaning over to grasp my hand, "that we must operate...immediately. The baby's placental lining has pulled away from the uterine wall and she is in danger of dying from the complication."
I blinked at Gabriel slowly in shock. I was immediately frightened by the thought of losing Cora. She was my daughter, my baby. I wasn't going to lose her...not to shadow demons and definitely not to this. I simply nodded at him as Tisha ran out of the room, barking orders down the hallway. I couldn't hear anyone else, but I distinctly heard her voice as she ordered around the numerous demons within earshot.
"Get the operating room prepped! STAT!"
I instantly wanted to faint but, for the first time in my life, it was just beyond me.
26
It wasn't something that I would have thought to be comfortable for me. I was being wheeled into an impromptu surgery room that had obviously been set up near my bedroom just in case anything unforeseeable had happened like...I don't know...death? I remember being impressed with all of the state-of-the-art equipment and shiny surfaces all over the room. I was lifted off of the gurney and laid down on the table before I had time to think.
"Wait! You aren't going to cut me open w
ithout giving me an epidural, are you?! Are you crazy?!" My eyes darted around the room, searching for anyone within screaming distance that I could berate.
Tisha appeared next to me in adorable scrubs with Tinkerbelle all over them and a cloth mask over her face that covered her nose and mouth. That didn't matter, though, because all I needed to see were her enormous emerald green eyes screaming at me that she was in panic mode.
Tisha hated being out of control of any situation. She would turn into a raging mass of anger whenever she felt that she could have done something that would have changed any outcome for the better. Yeah, I know, not very fairy-like, but that was why I loved her so much—she was passionate. And a passionate fairy could be two very specific things: dangerous or powerful. Tisha was powerful. I'm talking 'holy cow did you just see that?!' powerful, and she was absolutely amazing because of it.
I felt safe just having Tisha there, and she brought me so much comfort that I felt like I could breathe again. We sat there staring at each other for a while, applying salve to the mental wounds that we both had experienced. We were sisters in so many different ways, but it was easy to see why fate had wrapped our lives around each other—we needed each other so very much.
Tisha squeezed my hand as she headed for the other side of the huge sheet that had been erected to keep me from looking. That sheet alone was enough to drive me insane. Really, I couldn't even see who was on the other side of the sheet, but I could hear them, and that was enough to frustrate me.
Gabriel and Tisha talked back and forth about preparations, equipment and magic. It was like they had worked together for ages, but that was a thought I didn't want to contemplate. It was just too weird for words.
My heart stopped when the door to the operating room slammed open and the other three men, Cora's fathers, stormed inside. Tisha's voice rang out to everyone in the room as the three men eyed the setup and tried to process everything. "Get scrubbed up now or GET OUT! There are hospital scrubs by the door."
Oooh, Tisha was nearing her breaking point for anger and power. Coooool. There were going to be some fireworks if any of the men stepped out of line and I was going to have a front-row seat. What is wrong with me? I'm a nice person, really I am!
I watched as the men disappeared from view and then slowly returned one by one in their green and blue hospital scrubs. Part of me wanted to giggle at how ridiculous they all looked, that is until I laid eyes on Solomon. His spiky blond hair and bright blue-green eyes were in sharp relief against the blue of his mask. He was absolutely hunky and my heart skipped a couple of beats as it tried to tap dance its way through my chest. He looked like one of those soap opera doctors that every woman in America would give their last piece of chocolate cake to see in person.
I opened my mouth to try to speak but it came out as, "Uhhh, blah, blah, blah." What in the world is wrong with me?!
Tisha's head popped out from the other side of the curtain and smiled down innocently at me. "Celeste, I forgot to mention that I have placed a numbing spell on you. We need you conscious for the operation just in case anything happens...so the numbing spell will help. You will feel nothing, but you will be completely conscious and aware of everything. The numbing of your tongue is just one of the first signs that it is working properly. You will be able to speak clearly shortly." She nodded down at me with a twinkle in her eye and then popped back to the other side of the curtain.
My tongue felt like it had grown three times its normal size, and I was fighting to find room to allow my air to get past. Panic welled up inside me as I looked up at Solomon's concerned eyes. Realizing I could see him, he immediately cleared his expression and plastered a smile on his face, causing the mask to rise up gently on both sides, grazing his cheekbones. Paging Dr. Goodbody, Dr. Goodbody... My goodness he was delicious, even when all I could really see were his eyes. He was a remarkable man...
Voices began to rattle off like machine guns on the other side of the curtain as the walls of the surgery room began to groan and grind. A shower of dust fell down on us as the shaking continued, and Leo's voice sounded to the left of my head, drawing my attention back to his side of the room.
"It appears that the contractions are still directly related to the attacks on the castle." Leo looked over at Solomon's frustrated expression and then down at me. His eyes were so expressive that it made me wonder how I had missed that all along. It was like he could hold an entire conversation with just his eyes. If it was truly possible, it felt like the conversation was going like this:
Leo: After this you should run away with me and we will make love for days on a sunny beach covered in nothing but tanning lotion and our smiles.
Me: Dream on, demon boy.
Leo: You know you're dreaming of it too, my love.
Me: Whatever you want to believe. No, wait! You don't need to believe a crazy dream like that is ever going to happen.
Leo: Yes, yes, I believe! Grrrrroooooowwwwl! (making cat paw motion with his perfectly manicured hands.)
Me: Gross.
Leo: Keep telling yourself that, my dear. Whatever helps you convince yourself that you don't want me...that way. (Twinkle in his eye that was extremely hard to resist.)
Me: Grrrrrr.
Solomon cleared his throat and I flipped my head back in his direction to catch the clear look of hostility that he was flinging because of Leo's lecherous looks. My heart sped up as he looked back down at me with the sweetest expression one pair of eyes could share. I thought of everything that we had been through. I thought of everything that I wanted for our future. I thought of all of the naughty things that I wanted to do to him, and that was when I felt a warm flush spreading across my cheeks.
Dang it! Solomon's smile broadened behind his mask, lifting his ears slightly and stretching the mask against his fascinating face. Sighhhhh.
The rumbling ceased and I felt a shifting of my body.
"Okay, we are beginning now. We have to remove the baby as quickly as possible. Please do not be alarmed by any sounds that we make." Gabriel assured me from the other side of the curtain.
Yeah, sure, disembodied voice, I'm going to trust you since there is nothing else that I can do. I glared up at the curtain as I heard movements on the other side.
"The scalpel isn't working. It appears as if her uterine wall has been spelled." Gabriel's frustration was clear in his tense words.
"I will aide you with magic. I recognize this shield spell." Tisha spoke softly and then everything went quiet again. I held my breath to listen to their progress. Nothing happened for a long amount of time and then...
"Okay, that's good. Now, Celeste, you are going to feel some tugging and movement. Don't let it alarm you." Gabriel spoke again.
"Just do it already. Take care of Cora." My eyes went up to Solomon's white forehead and then over to Leo's pensive eyes.
Leo looked down at me and nodded firmly. He agreed with my desire to take care of Cora, but of course he would.
My body was pulled and shifted for a few seconds and then I heard Tisha's voice drifting down on me, "Her eyes are golden. I never expected..."
"It would be a surprise to me if they were any other hue. This child is special, unique. She is a child of legend—anything less than gold would be a complete disappointment." Gabriel's voice sounded stronger, confident and sure.
A wave of security swept over me as I smiled to myself listening to them fuss over Cora. She's fine. She's beautiful. She's my baby girl.
"I want to see her." I heard myself say the words, but it sounded like I was talking from the end of a tunnel instead of stretched out in the middle of all of the action.
"Give us just one moment, Celeste, while we check her over." Tisha's voice rang over the curtain near my chest and I sighed deeply with impatience. Geesh these people were pushy.
Leo drifted away towards the commotion over Cora while Solomon reached down and laid his cool palm on my sweaty forehead. He leaned down close, hovering over my face like an a
ngel of salvation, peering down at me with his eyes roiling with emotions beyond my comprehension.
I hiccupped unexpectedly. Where the heck did that come from? I'm hiccuping? Don't children hiccup when they're nervous? Sheesh!
Leo returned with a small pink bundle in his arms, beaming with pride.
"Cora Elena Ravenwood, welcome to the world. My name is Babbo." He cooed down at the bundle while my eyes fought to catch sight of the face of my child.
My heart beat frantically as Leo rocked from foot to foot instinctively. It seemed that even demons had the natural instincts for child-raising. Weird. His eyes were glistening with what I would imagine were tears, but I couldn't imagine that demons cried for any reason. He took a short step towards me and ducked down slowly, cradling the soft pink bundle at my eye level—my first glimpse of my baby.
My eyes welled with tears as I gasped at her perfect features. Her angel-fine hair was brushed to the side, gently framing her beautiful face. Her sweet little cheeks were as peach as the sunrise, and her nose was a cute tiny bulb, complementing her face as a jewel would complement a crown.
Her eyes searched for me silently and twinkled with the reflection of the lights beaming down upon us. She was absolutely angelic—a tiny little piece of heaven brought down to Earth for us to hold and love.
I caught my breath between the gasps that were escaping between my lips.
"Cora Elena Ravenwood." Solomon's voice shook as his hand reached out over me to brush the fabric away from her cherub cheek.
I was instantly jealous that he could touch her, hold her. I was still incapacitated by the spell, but it was a delightful moment to behold such perfection. I was instantly in deep, limitless, all-encompassing love. It felt like I had just fallen into a pool of emotions, surrounded by every thought I had ever had of Cora, dreaming of a future for her that didn't include the words weapon, killer, sword, or shadow demon. I sighed as I tried to twist on my side to see Cora better.
"Celeste, hold still, my dear." Tisha's voice came across the curtain as I listened to her and Gabriel exchange comments again. "We are trying to close the incision and we need you to remain still."
Ritual Magic Page 25