Child of the Outcast
Page 14
My natural response to the doctor bending over my baby’s head was to pull her closer to my body and move away from him. I cast a worried glance at Balthazar. All of my fears came bubbling up. My bipire baby wasn’t normal.
Would they take her away from me? Would she be destroyed out of fear?
“We need to examine her, Lisbeth,” the doctor soothed, holding his hands out for my baby.
That’s when my daughter bit into my chest.
CHAPTER 34
MY INITIAL CRY OF PAIN didn’t register in the doctor’s plan to take her from me, until the blanket slipped and he saw her fang deep in my breast. From his reaction, you’d think I was holding a nuclear bomb instead of a baby.
“She’s… she’s drinking vampire blood,” the nurse exclaimed in horror.
“What is she?” The doctor was staying a safe distance away, in case the newborn baby decided to attack him.
Balthazar stepped in front of us. “She’s my daughter, and I promise you if you harm her, you will not enjoy what I will do to you.”
“You had a child with an Incubus?” the doctor asked in disbelief. “We thought she was Othello’s.” I rolled my eyes.
My baby finished drinking and pulled away. I caught the drop of blood on her lip and wiped it on the blanket, then hoisted her to my shoulder for a burp, which she provided obligingly.
“So, bipires drink vampire blood. It doesn’t mean she’ll attack us. She’s a baby,” Arthur pointed out. I almost laughed that he’d also come up with the word bipire. His word didn’t comfort the doctor and nurse, but they stopped trying to stay on the other side of the room from my baby.
I looked down at her again and found her studying me. She had a little stubby nose and chubby cheeks. Her eyes were open as wide as they could go with the swollen skin around them. They were blue on the outside and purple on the inside, a perfect mix of her parents’ eye colors.
She was perfect.
“Madam Lisbeth,” Marie’s voice burst into the doorway.
I stopped myself from yelling at her so I wouldn’t startle the baby. “Yes?” I hissed.
“The summit is starting.” She looked at the baby in my arms. “Congratulations, by the way.”
“She’s not Othello’s,” I told her.
Marie smiled at me. “I know.”
I thanked the doctor and nurse, and Balthazar gave them warning looks with a protective hand on my back. “Down, boy,” I warned him when we left the clinic wing.
“They’re all going to react that way. You might need him to threaten everyone’s lives again,” Arthur pointed out.
“I won’t let them hurt her,” Balthazar promised. I held her closer to me and felt her tiny warm breath on my chest.
“You’re mistaken,” I said. “If anyone hurts her, they won’t have to worry about you at all. I’ll kill them before their next breath leaves their lungs.” I adjusted my baby in my arms and squared my shoulders. “Let’s form the Lycan alliance, gentlemen.”
They followed me down the hallway until we reached the turn off to the bigger drawing room. I stopped suddenly. Something was invading my nose, and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but my body certainly knew it was worth alerting me. I shook it off and kept walking. The closer I got to the bigger drawing room, the more alarms were going off in my head. Balthazar took the baby from my hands when we got to the doors, and Arthur opened them for me.
The hunter green room was filled to the brim with vampires and Lycans. The scents of both cancelled themselves out in my senses so that I barely smelled anyone in the room, but I still felt that something was off. It was clear that I was late when everyone turned to me and stopped talking.
I saw James, Sara, and Drake in the corner of my eye, and Sara waved to me, then pointed to somewhere in the crowd. She was gesturing to the group of Alphas standing in the area surrounding the half circle desk. I recognized Alexander, and even Jesse from their ranks.
Castilla came up to me and kissed me on both cheeks, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the group of Alphas. “Felicitaciones,” Castilla said. “Congratulations on your little niña. I’m so sorry we had to pull you away from her so soon.”
“It’s fine,” I said in auto-response. Jesse waved to me and motioned behind him. Someone came from deep in the group of Alphas, and they all parted to let him pass.
My heart stopped when I saw a face emerge among them that I thought was lost to me forever, and the reality of the moment came crashing down on me like an atomic bomb.
Knight was alive.