by Tisha Wilson
“There is something… gnawing at the inside of me, hungry.”
He thought about that. “I sometimes feel the creature in me clawing its way to the surface. Do you think it’s like that?”
“No,” she growled and her voice sounded strange in her throat. “This is not part of me.”
He took a deep breath. This was strange. She was not herself and the way she was looking at the grocery store… anybody between her and it would be in extreme danger. “Okay. Your hungry, you were nauseous this morning, what else?”
“Tired. Pale,” she threw in from between clenched teeth. She closed her eyes as the steal in the dash board began to bend. He still didn’t chance touching her. The truck could be replaced.
“Is there a human sickness like that? Could you have caught a human illness?”
“Not like this. The only thing I can think of like this is…” She turned frightened eyes on him. Her eyes went from deep purple to cobalt blue as horror erupted on her face.
“What? Is it bad?” he asked.
She shook her head as her mouth flopped open and shut. Then she blinked a few times. “There is a test in the store I can buy to be sure.”
“But what-”
She put a hand up in his face and opened the door to indicate she wanted her chair and end of conversation. Confused he moved to comply. At least she wasn’t eying the store like she would devour it anymore. Once they were inside she turned on him with anger and suspicion written all over her face.
“You get supplies, I’ll buy the test and you meet me back at the truck in twenty minutes.”
He watched her wheel away and debated on whether he should follow her or not. Sighing in frustration that she knew something he did not, he went to get a cart. He loaded the cart with as much nonperishable food as he could since the mini fridge in their room wasn’t that big and they would be on the move soon. The way she had eaten this morning and afternoon, he probably wouldn’t have to worry about that very long. The food wouldn’t be around long enough to perish.
He arrived to the truck to find her waiting arms crossed over a brown paper bag. There was accusation written all over her face but she didn’t say anything, not even as he lifted her and placed her in the truck. She reached past him and slammed the door nearly on his arm. She glared at him through the glass until he moved off to load the truck.
He got in the truck and started it up. She was clutching the bag to her chest again as she stared out the windshield. The truck was so quiet he started to get uncomfortable. From the moment he had met her she had talked at him a hundred miles an hour non-stop and now the silence was… disquieting. Was she angry with him? Why would she be?
“What happened to you back in the desert?” he asked trying to figure out what had happened between his leaving her with Saul and this most recent development. She cut a sharp look at him.
“They attacked the compound and I changed in response. I felt them coming. When the security lights kicked on at the compound I broke out of your suite and ran out into the desert. I got more than a few, but they were on their way to making a light snack out of me when Saul came out and saved me from them. That’s when the day walker came to us and offered Saul a deal.”
“What kind of a-”
“If you would let me finish you would know what kind. The guy who came to us, looked a little like a Polish mine worker sitting out on his stoop after work, he made Saul a sadistic offer. He said that if he would let him bite him that he would spare the compound. We thought it a bluff. I mean you know what kind of security they… anyhow I wouldn’t let him do it and the day walker shrugged and walked off. That’s when the compound exploded.”
Braden thought on that a moment. No wonder Saul had looked so dead in the eyes. If given a second chance to save his friends and the lives of all those other Assistant Mentors around the world, he probably would have done it in a heart beat. That was the thing about hind sight. It was always twenty twenty.
“There was no guarantee that the day walker wouldn’t have set off the explosion, even if Saul had allowed him to bite him, and then you would have had to kill Saul.”
She gave him a look that said duh as surely as if she’d said the words out loud. Her mood swing was starting to get on his nerves. “Okay, so you were bitten repeatedly by the creatures that night. Maybe their bite has a different affect on you because you are not a normal-”
Again she put a hand up in his face and then turned from him. “Don’t talk to me until we get home and I’ve had a chance to take the test.”
“Test! What test!”
She refused to answer him and he hit the accelerator. Maybe once she found out if she had this human illness or not, she would stop being so mad at him. They made it back to the motel in record time and she raced off towards the bathroom the moment he set her in her chair.
He was just unloading the last of the groceries when the door to the bathroom swung open and she stood there looking like she was capable of murder. He crossed his arms and stood firm. He’d had enough of her crazy mood swings. She stalked right up to him and held some kind of strange stick up to his face. It had a little pink plus sign on it.
“I take it that is bad. What does it mean?”
“This is what we humans call a home pregnancy test, and a plus sign means it is positive,” she said as she slammed the stick down on the countertop.
The breath left his body as the implications of what she was saying hit him in the gut. He staggered backwards until his legs hit the bed and he sat down. “But… How?” he said more to himself than her. Everything he had ever read and everything he had ever been told said that hunters could not have children. His sperm was as useless as a six dollar bill. He could make them but they would never pass muster.
“That’s what I would like to know. I thought you said that hunters are not able to have children?”
“We can’t. I mean…You didn’t… while you were away, did you-”
“What? Have sex with someone in the twenty four hours I was away from you! Sure. I hopped on every man who walked past.”
That stirred something in him. Of course she was lying about sleeping with someone else but he couldn’t help the twinge of anger that flared to life anyhow. “There is no precedence for anything like this happening.”
“Well here it is buddy, read them and weep. I’m pregnant,” she yelled as she held the stick up to his face again. He wanted to be angry with her, really he did, but she wasn’t even as tall as he was when he was sitting down. She was like Tinkerbelle shaking her fist in Peter Pan’s face.
Just as she was about to lay into him she stopped and clutched her mouth and stomach. She ran from him and straight for the bathroom. He followed her and attempted to hold her hair back again. She didn’t allow him to. She pushed him away and slammed the door shut as soon as she was able.
He sat down on the bed again and looked at the door where she was retching on the other side. The awful noises didn’t detract from what he was feeling. He was going to be a father. After one thousand years he had helped in the creation of a life. It was unbelievable. It was a miracle. It was his very own miracle. Just when he’d been ready to give up on life, here came this woman to give him new faith.
Chapter Twelve
Miranda laid her face against the cool tile floor as the nausea finally subsided. She was pregnant. She didn’t know a lot about it but she knew enough to know that something was extremely wrong with this pregnancy. First things first she should not have morning sickness this soon.
The cravings hit her with a suddenness that felt like insanity. She clutched her stomach as it growled in hunger. She could not go on like this. She had a thought. She picked herself up off the floor and made her way out of the bathroom. Braden was there with a worried look and looked ready to do whatever she asked. She may have teased him about it if she didn’t feel so awful. How could this have happened?
“Do you have any more… blood?”
He went to the refrigerator, pulled down a big glass and turned his back to her. She was glad that he tried not to let her see the bag. It was too horrific to think about what it really was, but not so bad if she tried to think of it as tomato juice in a glass. He brought the glass to her and she downed it easily.
The hunger began to subside some and she felt it the instant the baby settled in her stomach. Her legs began to give way and Braden was there to catch her. He pulled her to a chair and helped her to sit down. “I need food now.”
“I’ll make you a few sandwiches.”
He pulled an entire package of sandwich meat and a loaf of bread and when he was on the third sandwich she stopped him.
“That should be enough. I don’t feel as hungry now,” she said as her stomach gurgled. He brought the sandwiches to her and then sat down across from her. She ate them at a much more normal pace.
“You don’t look well,” he said. The grim tone of his voice made her look at him. He looked so worried.
“I don’t feel well,” she responded still feeling angry over the whole situation.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this happening before, I swear to you. We are not supposed to able to reproduce. I’m supposed to be sterile. I’m a thousand years old Miranda.” He shook his head in disbelief. “There is no one that I can call right now that will know anything about how this happened. If I had known I would have used protection. I swear it.”
She listened to his words, but there was something else in his face that she hadn’t seen there before. He was almost… glowing. “You’re happy about this?” she asked in astonishment.
He looked stricken for a moment and she saw the denial rush to his lips. He clamped down on it however. “I won’t deny it. I never thought that I would be able to… I mean for me it’s a miracle.”
Seeing his happiness blossoming on his face touched something inside of her. He was happy. Most men would be supremely unhappy about this, especially when they thought the chances of them having a baby were none at all. But Braden wasn’t like most men. She felt the baby move inside her and looked down at her stomach. It was caressing her insides as if to snuggle up to her as if it too was happy that its father wanted it.
This whole thing was crazy and impossible. Braden was a thousand year old werewolf hunter whom she wasn’t even sure wanted a relationship with her. How could he possibly be happy about this? “Braden. What about the danger? How am I supposed to raise a baby when werewolves and any other thing that goes bump in the night will be coming after me to get to it?”
“I will protect you,” he said. The steal in his voice made her believe him very much.
“So we will just roam around with a baby strapped in the middle seat of your monster truck and fight wolves as a family?” A smile blossomed on his face as he looked at her. His eyes almost began to shine with mischief. “What!”
“You said family… I have a family.”
She sighed and shook her head, still trying to fight these feelings she was having for him. One moment she was unsure if he even liked her and the next he was looking at her the way he was looking right now. With that look she could almost convince herself that… “I’ve only known you a month Braden. This is all happening too fast,” she said as she looked away.
“Fast or not, it is happening. I won’t force you to stay with me if you don’t want to Miranda. You are free to do as you choose, but no matter where you go, I will never be far away. I will always be there when you need me from now on.” He clasped her hand from across the table. His hands were so strong. Was he about to say it?
“I would marry you if you would have me.”
Her head snapped up as she heard his softly spoken words. A soft smile still played at his lips and he was looking at her with so much softness that it was melting the last of her anger. It hadn’t been the declaration of love she’d been looking for but he wanted to marry her. That had to count for something. His light blue eyes cut straight through to her soul and she knew in that moment that she would love him forever. The question was, did he love her or was he just being noble again.
Was he asking her to marry him only because of this new development? Her heart sank a little and the flame of hope dimmed at that thought. Of course he was. Someone like him could never really fall for someone like her. He was gorgeous and larger than life and she was just plain and tiny. She felt like he could swallow her whole and she would be lost forever.
She looked deep into his eyes and tears welled up. She groped for an excuse she could hide behind. “It’s just so fast. How can I know you won’t wake up a few months from now and ask yourself how you got stuck with this moody little cripple?”
He came around the table and lifted her up into his arms. He sat on the bed, situating her legs on his lap before pulling her close to his chest. He looked down into her face and for the first time she saw emotion written clearly on his features. He stroked the side of her face with one hand before he rested his palm against her cheek. Instinctively she covered that big masculine hand with her own smaller one. He was so big and so strong. If he was being honest, he would protect her forever and it made her feel good to know.
“Before I met you… I had considered giving myself over to the wolves.”
She gasped and shook her head. “Why would you do that?”
“I had forgotten what I was fighting for. I was tired of living. The mantra in my head, telling me to protect the innocents at all costs, was driving me insane. For one thousand years I’ve fought against the creatures, until there was no more me. I was stuck in a series of days that I could not escape from and I wanted release.”
“But if you had given yourself to the wolves you would have only made them stronger.”
“Perhaps. But then I would no longer have had the burden of living. I would have no longer felt the guilt and shame when I failed to protect an innocent. The rage… Rage at the world, at myself, at creation for allowing such things to happen to good and innocent people. I just wanted to be released from it all. Then, one night, when I had finally decided to be through with it, I ran across a tiny little woman strong enough to survive the creatures bite and soft enough to touch the heart of an old man like this.”
He looked up over her hair, back down to her eyes, to her mouth, over her whole body before he looked up again. “You made my heart beat with new life.”
“How/” she asked, wanting to hear this but not wanting to at the same time.
“Just by being you. Seeing the heart break you felt for your sister, how vulnerable and open you are. To see you smile, it brings sunshine into my soul. If you would let me, I would bring you joy as often as I can for as many years as you’ll have me.”
He leaned down and kissed her then. She loved the way he kissed. If his words weren’t enough, his kiss told her the truth. She had never been kissed like this before, and she had a feeling that she never would be again. When he finally pulled back she looked at him slightly dazed, lips still puckered. He smiled and the smile poured from his eyes. She could not pinpoint the moment that she had begun to love this man, but in this moment she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she had fallen hard.
“Well,” she breathed on a sigh. “You certainly know how to make a girl feel-”
Before she could finish her sentence she was up on her feet and running for the bathroom. This time she didn’t push him away when he came to help her. When she was finished he cleaned her off, picked her up, and headed for the bed. Once she was all tucked in he went to the automatic coffee maker and turned it on.
“No. I want you to be able to sleep,” she objected.
“I am only making tea. Besides, if you think I’ll be getting any sleep while you are sick, you are mistaken.”
Once the water was brewed and the tea bag removed, she watched him approach with a paper cup. “Sorry. There are no mugs here.”
She shook her head and sat up as he sat next to her. She felt her stomach move around. “This i
s not right,” she said after she had sipped some tea.
“I know. I don’t know how it happened at all. I-”
“No. Not that. It takes nine months to have a baby. It’s only been a week since we first slept together. I should not be this far along. I shouldn’t have suspected I was pregnant for at least another month, and I shouldn’t be sick until about three months out. Something is wrong. I shouldn’t be able to feel it moving, but…” She placed a hand over her stomach and felt the child within caress her.
He put his hand where hers lay and his eyes widened in amazement when he felt it move. “In the movies, when a woman is going to have a baby, she sees a doctor right?”
Her eyebrows rose as she looked at him. “You watch movies?”
“I’m old, not dead,” he responded with a chuckle.
“Obviously,” she teased. He laughed at this. “And yes, a pregnant woman usually goes to a doctor.”
“Then we will go to one in the morning.”
Her stomach grumbled loudly. “I need more food,” she said apologetically.
“All right, but I will have to find out where I can get more blood. I may have to steal it since there is no way to get the Mentor’s Assistants to send me some. We have enough for you to make it through a few days, but that’s all.”
“What about you?”
“I took fresh blood from you. I should be able to sustain for another month or so.”
After she ate, she settled back into the pillows, her mind a jumbled mass of confused thoughts. She felt him watching her, but she was so tired that she couldn’t stir herself to ask him not to. Not that she minded all that much.
* * *
Albion stalked towards the witch. She tried to back away from him but she was surrounded. Miriam Sweeney was a beautiful woman with her long red hair and deep grey eyes. He grabbed her lovely slender neck and lifted her nearly off her feet, which might have been a hard task for a human being seeing that she was a lithe and solid woman, but for him it was like lifting air. He could hold her up there all day.