by J. S. Wilder
“Is he from another hospital?” Megan leaned against the counter.
“He’s from all over. Goes around doing humanitarian work.”
“I don’t understand then. Why did he come here just to do my dad’s surgery?”
“Ask your friend that.” The nurse handed her a pen.
“What friend?” Alice had been here with her a few times to see her dad but she didn’t know any fancy doctors or she would’ve told her, wouldn’t she have?
“That handsome guy…Levx…I think was his name. He and Dr. Vomdrilx are old friends and he called in the favor for your dad.”
Heat flushed Megan’s face. Levx? He had done this? But why hadn’t her dad just told her that? An ice-cold feeling hit the pit of her stomach. She ran back to her father’s room and he jumped when he saw her.
“Where did your kidney come from?” she asked.
He paled. “I-I told you it was anonymous.”
“Don’t lie to me, Dad. I know Levx asked the doctor to come and I also know you’re hiding something from me.” Tears welled in her eyes.
“You weren’t supposed to know for another few days.”
Her legs gave out and she plopped onto the visitor’s chair. “What do you know about him? Everything?”
“I know he’s not from here,” he lowered his voice. “He showed me and gave me a chance at a normal life. Wanted me around to see after you, protect you. I’ve been sick for so long and he offered me a cure. All I had to do was not tell you the whole truth and watch out for you.”
Her heart hammered so hard in her chest she pressed a hand there to ease the pain. “H-He gave you his kidney, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” his whisper was barely audible.
“How could you do that?” She glared up at him. “Take some alien’s body part. What if it had killed you?”
“I was already dying, sweetheart.” He straightened. “And a gamble I was willing to take. Gave me some of his bone marrow too and said it would speed the healing and I won’t ever get sick again…not even a cold.”
Her entire body trembled. What had Levx done? Given so much of himself for her father when she’d hated him and yelled at him. “Wait. Have you seen Levx since the surgery?”
“Just the morning after. He said he had to help look for three missing kids—dragons of theirs.”
The triplets. They hadn’t found them yet—so where was Levx then? She needed to see him. Talk to him. Thank him for saving her father and then, then she didn’t know if she wanted to jump into his arms or choke him.
Chapter 27
Megan
Chapter Twenty-seven
Megan said goodbye to her father and took a taxi back to Levx’s apartment complex so she could talk to him about what he’d done for her father. About what Levx meant to her now that she knew more of the truth of why he’d done what he did. When she entered the lobby, it was eerily quiet. The receptionist wasn’t around and no one milled about or lounged in the comfy couches and chairs spread around the place.
Where is everyone?
She had to get to Levx. Her sneakers squeaked across the marble floor as she hurried to the elevator bank. Slowly the elevator took her up to his floor. Please be there, please be there.
Though she had no idea what she would say when she saw him. The feeling of having to know he was okay, hear his voice, touch him swelled up inside her chest. She wasn’t ready to forgive him just yet but at least she was ready to talk to him. And she needed to at least thank him for saving her father…saving her too.
Outside his apartment, she knocked, then wrapped her arms around herself. Why had he given his kidney to her father? Did they have more than two so it was no big deal? He couldn’t tell her what he really was but had told her dad? Was that because he figured he wasn’t going to come back from this demon hunt? Or had he assumed I wouldn’t accept his true form?
That thought made her ache all over. What if he’d gone into battle and had died? Tears pricked the back of her eyes. What was the last thing she had said to him? She couldn’t remember except that she was mad and yelling.
She never got to thank him for what he’d done. Or tell him goodbye.
“Levx?” her voice cracked as she knocked harder on the door.
No answer. Her insides twisted. Where could he have gone? To their company building? No, he wouldn’t go into work if his three nephews were still missing.
“Megan?” a female voice asked.
She spun and found Dena dressed in scrubs covered with blue goo or blood and a confused look on her face.
“I thought you left, what are you doing back here?”
“Have you seen Levx?” Megan rushed forward. “What happened to you?”
“Some of the warriors returned from trying to locate the others and I’ve been patching them up.” Dena straightened, her expression granite. “You should go.”
Her heart thumped hard against her breastbone. “What about Levx? Is he here…is he hurt?”
“No. I’ve not seen him or Desmonda and a few others since early this morning when he ordered your IV taken out so you’d wake.”
So he knew something bad was going to happen today and he’d prepared ahead of time by ensuring her dad was okay and then asking for her to be released from whatever he’d used to knock her out. Her legs wobbled underneath her but she remained upright. Her voice wavering. “Was he here, this morning then?”
If she figured out which way they’d gone maybe she could help find them. Where would demons hang out especially with three dragon-kids?
“No, sorry. I misspoke.” Dena shook her head. “He sent a text this morning that’s all. Before that he’d been missing for over twelve hours.”
That didn’t sound good and fear sliced through her.
“What’s going on out here? Alice is trying to sleep.” Levx’s dad bustled out of a room. His white hair was rumpled and gave him a mad scientist look.
“Megan was looking for Levx but I told her he hasn’t been here and that she should leave.”
“Yes, it’s far too dangerous. We’re packing up those who can leave and fleeing the city.” He nodded, his voice darkening like he was annoyed. “You should leave.”
Most of her life she’d served others. When her mom got cancer, she took care of her. Then her dad and she got a job waiting on people and cleaning houses. She was used to being ordered around and Levx’s father’s booming voice left no room for argument. But she’d never felt like this before. Like she was missing some key piece and could help.
“What about Desmonda and Levx and the others? You’re just going to leave them?” She locked her arms at her sides refusing to let this go and just obey his demands.
“We’ve sent out multiple search parties and either has found nothing or have our troops come back dead or bleeding.” He raked a hand through his hair, his face turning red. “We’ve lost too many of our people already and I refuse to allow any more.”
“Sounds like the creatures are ambushing you. What if you lure the demons—Tryns to where you want them?”
“They would scent us before we even came close.” He turned back to the apartment he’d come out of. “Go home, human. This isn’t your fight and I have vowed to protect my people from extinction.”
He marched to the door and opened it.
“Send me.”
“Pardon?” Dena asked beside her.
“Back at the cafe with Alice, the Tryn had come because he smelled Levx on me. So use me as bait.” The dragons could hide downwind and she could distract the demon until they could rescue the triplets and the others. Her throat constricted at the thought of them and Levx and the others dead, but she refused to give into that terror that felt like her heart was being crushed.
“It won’t work.” He shook his head, his gaze softening. “Too much time has passed and you no longer have his scent on you.”
She lifted her trembling chin. “Then let me roll around in his things and get some of his sme
ll back on me.”
“That won’t be enough.” Dena touched her shoulder. “Plus they have Levx as far as we know, you’re nothing to them but a human now. Before they could’ve used you to get to him.”
Tears stung her eyes and she jerked away. No there had to be something she could do. She couldn’t just wait around for Levx to be okay and return. And all these dragons—people having to leave their home and hide against an enemy—it wasn’t fair.
“What else do they want then, besides Renjerians?” That was what his people called themselves, right?
“They want to destroy us,” he said. “First they attacked our world, then they did something to our water supply that made our women infertile. When we discovered we could shapeshift with Dena and two of my son’s help, we came here. Human women, if the right blend, can carry a half-blood child and thus ensure the survival of our race.”
“What tests? Do you do that to the women you approach for surrogacies?” They hadn’t done anything like that to her but then again, she still had a blank contract.
“Yes. If the results came back negative,” he said, “then we’d have given you a sum of money to thank you and moved on to the next.”
“So there’s no guarantee then if these women do pass these tests of pregnancy?” She hadn’t thought of that. But what if the test were wrong? What if someone could get pregnant?
“Our race is dying,” he said, his voice gruff but tears in his eyes. “We can’t take chances. And it’s not far to the Renjerians or the human women to put them through something that won’t work.”
“These demons—your enemy—wouldn’t want you all to succeed in lots of births would they?” Megan glanced from Levx’s dad to Dena.
“Correct.” Dena nodded.
“And if they have such a strong sense of smell, then they’d know if a woman was pregnant and if that embryo was Renjerian?”
“Yes.” Levx’s dad agreed.
“Then send out a pregnant female. You’ve been doing surrogacies for months.” Or at least seven as that’s how far along Cynthia had looked when she bumped into her at the grocery store.
“There are no pregnant females here,” Dena said.
“What about Cynthia? She couldn’t have had her baby already.”
“She had a placenta eruption and lost the baby. She and Tremel were devastated and fled north already once the Tryns were discovered and the king gave the order to evacuate the city.” Dena’s eyes teared up.
“Then there’s no one?” Megan asked. No wonder they were desperate to pay for human surrogates if the pregnancies didn’t always work out. Sorrow filled her heart at what her friend Cynthia and her mate must be going through.
“I’m afraid not. Best if you left, we’re all packing and will leave at nightfall.” Levx’s dad disappeared into the apartment at the end of the hall and Megan’s shoulders sagged. This wasn’t how the story was supposed to end. After all, Levx had gone through only to lose to demons. And what about the three boys? They’d come to help her and ended up getting captured. All because she and Levx had fooled around in her apartment and his enemy had known it.
A thought filtered through her sorrow. All they needed was one pregnant female. That they had to give those women extra protection because they drew the Tryns like crazy.
Hope budding in her chest, Megan grabbed Dena’s arm before she left the hallway. “Wait. Use me as bait.”
She shook her head. “We told you, that won’t work. You’re just hum—”
“No, artificially inseminate me.”
Chapter 28
Megan
“Are you sure?” Dena asked Megan. The vet obviously understanding her plan of having a half-alien/ half-human baby to draw out the Tryns. “We haven’t tested you to see if you’re compatible to carry a Renjerian child.”
“Yes, do you think it will work to lure the demons?” What would Levx say about her decision? Would he be okay with her carrying another child that wasn’t his? She pushed that thought away. This was for the triplets, Desmonda, Levx and whoever else was still alive.
Dena pursed her lips, then nodded. “It just might. Wait here, I’ll be right back while I prep everything for the implant.”
Megan paced up and down the hallway while she waited for Dena to return. What was taking the woman so long? What if Levx needed help right now?
“Stay calm,” she breathed out. Nothing she could do right this moment anyway. She had to have faith that everything would be okay despite her anxiety shooting in her veins.
The apartment door at the end of the hall opened. Levx’s dad and Alice strolled out, his arm around her waist.
“Megan? You’re still here, is everything all right?” Alice asked.
“Huh…oh, yeah. Just waiting on Dena.”
“Xurleon is taking me home.” Alice grinned up at Levx’s father who flushed crimson on his cheeks.
“Oh…ah…that’s great.” If Alice got him to try her coffee and pie, he would be smitten for sure. “I’ll call you later, I’m going to stay here and help Levx’s family out for a few days.” Or however long it took to get pregnant and then get the demons to come. She shivered. God, she was going to bathe in holy water from now on if she got through this to remove the thought of wanting the vile creatures to come anywhere near her.
What if she didn’t survive carrying an alien baby? Or labor was really-really bad…would the baby be half-dragon and come out with scales and a tail? She pushed aside her worries. Getting everyone away from the demons was more important right now. Later, once Levx and all of his people were free, then she’d figure out the rest.
Two hours later, Megan gripped the edge of the metal table. Her fingers were hot and sweaty, leaving a steamy imprint on the cold metal. “How long before we know if this works?”
“Are you sure you want to go through this?” Dena asked for the third time as she held a syringe with a really long tube on the end of it. “This is the last time to back out. The hormones we gave you earlier are already preparing your body to ovulate and Renjerian sperm is very potent. We should know by tomorrow evening if it worked.”
“If this can help save the boys and everyone, then yes. I just wish it could’ve been with Levx and not some random dragon donor.”
Dena grinned and held up the giant shot. “Well that I can do, this is his sperm.”
“How—?”
“The king. He insisted all the males be tested to ensure it wasn’t just the females of their species having fertility issues. I had all fertile males give me three samples to work with. Since I was going in order of receipt, and Levx dragged his tail about getting me his, I’ve three vials full for you.”
Her heart skipped a beat with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. Not only was she going to be pregnant with an alien baby but it was going to be Levx’s. Hers and his.
Now all she had to do was wait.
Two days later, Megan didn’t feel any different, but Dena had confirmed that she was indeed expecting. How would Levx feel about that? Dena had said he was one of the last ones to come in and give his semen to be tested so did that mean he didn’t want a family but was forced into it?
She walked briskly down the city street, hoping to spread her condition far enough for any Tryns nearby to catch a whiff. According to a handful of Renjerians watching from the tops of buildings, the demons would come and take her, hopefully to where they had hidden the others. Then the rescue mission.
Please let them all be alive. Levx, and the boys and Desmonda. Everyone. Her hands shook, and she clenched them. This morning she’d helped check her dad out of the hospital. He was in a hotel because she was worried about leaving him at her apartment and the demons showing up there for some reason. She had enough people she cared about in the claws of these monsters and she didn’t want to add in her dad too. And Levx’s kidney had worked wonders. Now her father was talking about taking a ski trip during the winter and rock climbing in the summer.
When Mega
n dashed across the street to a coffee shop to grab a bagel, a faint odor of sulfur and burnt asphalt hit her nostrils and she gagged. They were here, nearby. Sniffing, she followed her nose past the coffee shop and down an alley.
Nothing but a dead end and a dumpster. Just in case, she inched forward to peer behind. Just empty boxes. False alarm. Disappointed, she turned back to the street when a cat burst out of the dumpster and she shrieked.
“Are you lost, little lamb?” a male voice asked from the shadows.
My feet froze to the ground. “Who’s there?”
“I can help you find your way.” Out of the shadows merged Levx. But everything about him was wrong. She could see that now where in the diner when she’d first encountered the Tryn, she’d no idea monsters like him existed and could shapeshift.
Best to play along. “Where have you been, Levx? I need to talk to you.”
The demon inhaled sharply, then closed its eyes like it smelled something sweet. “And pregnant as well? How is that possible when I’ve not been near you for days.”
“You tell me. Guess your sperm caps the average males of five to seven days.”
“This is a trick.” He glanced around. “Even though I smell the Levx on you.”
She had to stop him before he spotted the Renjerians on the rooftops. Had to get him to lower his guard and take her to their hideout. “Bastard! You get me pregnant and now you’re claiming you aren’t the father? Let’s go get a DNA test ’cause I don’t lie…this is your child.”
With a growl, he seized her wrist, then scrapped a black claw down her flesh. She winced, trying to pull away. His black tongue tasting her blood.
“Newly pregnant and indeed with a Renjerian.” He sneered, his face wearing the mask of Levx torquing. “Come with me. Now that we have you, we can get rid of your annoying lover and his entire family.”
Her heart froze. “What do you mean?”