“Johnny?” A faint echo of a long-forgotten feeling struck a note inside me at this name and vanished quickly, without resonance.
“He is getting married, too,” Tony continued. “To Jen Stratton. Remember her? The wedding is this summer. Not sure how long it’ll last though, knowing Jen.”
“I guess he has finally saved enough to buy a ring.”
Tony gave me a long look. “He wasn’t good for you, Bell. I wish I saw that sooner.”
“It really doesn’t matter now. Wish them my best,” I said sincerely. “And please say hi to everyone.”
“You take care of yourself, you hear me?” He drew me into a bear hug. “I’d better go. Since you’re not coming with me, I may as well hitch the ride in their flying saucer and let them take me back home. Those things are cool.”
I smiled. “I love you so much, Tony.” I held my brother one more time before letting him go.
Chapter 21
WITH TONY GONE, I SAT on the rocky ledge by the waterfall and wondered for a moment if I had made the biggest mistake of my life. This was my one chance of freedom, and I let it go.
Still, the decision to stay felt like the wisest choice, especially with the baby nearing term.
Somehow, against my will, the little being inside me had found a way into my heart, taking her place in it as if she’d always belonged there. Within a very short time, I’d fallen in love with her—completely and unconditionally.
My Elizabeth was what I called her in my mind, because right now, she was truly my own, closer to me than she would ever be again. As long as she stayed inside me, she was safe.
Once she was born, though . . .
My job as her mother, the main purpose of being her parent was to keep my child safe and happy. Now, more than ever, I understood Tairan’s sacrifice. Without ever laying eyes on my daughter, I would gladly exchange my future for hers, the way he had done for Erix.
Except that I didn’t even have that to bargain with. Everything I had—my life, my body, my future, and my freedom—Ricread already owned. I had nothing else to offer.
There was the very real threat of Tairan being taken from me as well, as soon as the baby was born and my deal with Ricread ended.
Tairan had avoided any direct discussion about the future with me. At times, I even wondered how he really felt about our relationship. Despite the wonderful things he had said to me when we were alone, he had never professed his love to me or voiced any long-term commitment.
I feared expecting anything of the kind from him might be setting myself up for heartbreak—the commitment of marriage hadn’t existed in his society for generations. Having recognized my love for him, I wondered what that would mean to him.
Sitting there, lost in my thoughts, I had no idea how much time had passed, until a
cloaked figure turned the corner, heading my way.
“Isabella,” Tairan’s voice sounded concerned from under his hood, safely pulled low over his face. “Are you alright, my ila flower?”
The softness of his voice when he crouched in front of me blew away my doubts like last year’s leaves, filling me with the warmth and tenderness I always felt in his presence.
“I’m fine.”
“I knew I’d find you here when you weren’t in our rooms.”
Getting up, I walked to the alcove by the waterfall and behind the protruding ledge to obscure us from view.
“My brother Tony was here,” I said softly as soon as Tairan joined me. “He came to take me home.”
“What?” He turned around quickly, as if expecting to find Tony hiding nearby. “Where is he?”
“He’s gone.”
“He left you behind?”
“I couldn’t go, Tairan. The baby . . . she’ll need the help of the research team to be born healthy. No human ever delivered a Kealan baby, let alone a Kealan-human one. You know there may be complications. She will need all the help there is.”
“You could have been out of here. Free.” He shook his head, as if not hearing me. “Today.”
“And what about you?” I grasped his arms, wishing I could see through his goggles. “You would have been left here all alone.”
Circling me with his arms, he slid his hands up and down my back.
“That’s not how you should be thinking, Isabella. You have to worry about yourself first—you and the baby.”
“It’s impossible for me not to think about you, honey. No matter what, we are all in this together—you, me,” I placed my hand on my stomach, “and she.”
Chapter 22
TAIRAN
Not counting solely on the information provided by the research team, Tairan had read everything he could get his hands on about human pregnancy and delivery. Before Erix was born, he had learned a lot about the Kealan process, too.
Still, he wasn’t prepared for the moment it actually started happening. He had thought there’d be some noise—a huge commotion from the research team started by screams of pain from Isabella. He dreaded the time when the pain of labour would hit her.
Instead, it all started rather quietly.
Early in the morning, Isabella turned in her sleep with a faint grunt, a few seconds later the door to their bedroom opened, letting Ricread in, accompanied by the core of the research team.
The lights flicked to life, making Tairan blink. For a moment, the dreadful memories of the morning tests came to mind, tightening his stomach with apprehension.
Today was different, though.
“We’ll need you to get out of bed, Commander,” Zavis addressed him softly, tugging at the cover.
As always, he winced inside at her calling him by the rank he held in his old position. Technically, the rank stayed with a person to their death unless they’d been dishonourably discharged. But he didn’t feel he’d earned the honour of keeping it, since he’d abandoned his job. No matter what the reasons for that were, no matter that he’d do it again, over and over if necessary, he’d left, and he had no right to be called Commander now.
“I’m not leaving the room,” he warned, getting out of bed. “Isabella?” Moving to her side, he squeezed past the attendants who had already swarmed her.
“I’m good. Honestly.” She smiled at him from the headrest, seemingly calm and collected in contrast to the quivering mess he felt inside. “Just some little cramps for now.” Grabbing his arm, she pulled him down to her. “Go, put some pants on, honey,” she whispered in his ear, sparks of humour bouncing in her dark eyes. “This whole thing may take a while.”
Like most Kealans, Tairan slept naked. Getting dressed didn’t seem like a priority right now.
“There is nothing here that they haven’t seen,” he muttered.
“Still, I don’t want all these girls to ogle that pretty penis of yours.” Her tone was light, teasing. And he realized what she was doing. Facing the pain and uncertainty of labour ahead of her, Isabella was trying to ease his worry, thinking about him before herself.
His chest tightened, and he swallowed a huge lump in his throat. Placing a kiss on her smiling lips, he gave her what she wanted—he smiled back, no matter how hard it felt to stretch his mouth and to force his brow to smooth over.
“Don’t go anywhere,” he said, making an extra effort to match her light tone of voice, then walked to the shelf on the wall where his clothes lay.
Quickly putting his suit on, Tairan closely watched the technicians as they took off the dress Isabella wore to bed then applied a number of sensors all over her body. Combined with the readings that were constantly sent through her arm device, now Ricread could literally monitor and record every twitch of her muscles and every slight change in her blood content, along with those of the baby.
The normalcy of getting dressed helped calm his nerves somewhat. When he came back to the bed and met Isabella’s gaze again, he was sure his expression was relaxed, his fear hidden securely behind a smile.
“Come here.” She reached for him, and he took her
hand. “Just stay here, please.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he promised, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, then sat on the bed beside her. “I’m with you.”
AFTER HOURS OF LABOUR, Isabella was still working hard. Her gorgeous hair slick with perspiration, her face flushed dark, she clung to his hand like to a lifeline as he watched the energy drain from her over time, helpless to do anything about it.
The bed had been raised, the headboard was removed, and the part with the headrest elevated to place her in a more suitable position.
Their spacious bedroom seemed way too small now, packed tight with personnel and equipment. In addition to the research people, the Head of Security, Sikril, was also present, along with several of his team. Silently, they lined up along the perimeter. Tairan was sure they were here to keep an eye on him.
Doctor Saroyan, a human medical professional, who reportedly had vast experience in deliveries of high-risk newborns and had been highly recommended by Earth’s coalition, was allowed to work alongside Ricread today. Her jet-black hair was slicked under a hairband similar to the ones all of the research team members wore. Unlike their grey uniforms, however, she had a white coat on.
And none of all these highly trained, experienced professionals could do anything to ease Isabella’s suffering. Gasping for air, during the moments between contractions, she panted hard, her eyes closed.
Something was going wrong. No one had said a word to him to give any updates, but he sensed the tension in the air by the drawn facial expressions of the attendants and by the overall atmosphere in the room that had changed from busy excitement to that of grim focus.
“How is the baby?” Doctor Saroyan asked someone quietly.
“The heartbeat is still there,” Ricread confidently replied instead of the person she’d asked.
“It’s weakening,” one of the Research Assistants, Ires, added quickly.
“I know your goal was a vaginal birth, professor,” Saroyan spoke to Ricread. “But I would get ready for an emergency caesarean section at this point.”
“You have been made aware, doctor, that Kealan babies have practically no chance of survival unless they travel through the birth canal,” Ricread replied, his voice unwaveringly calm, arms crossed on his chest.
“It’s been taking too long with hardly any progress. Their condition has been getting worse, you may be risking losing both the mother and the baby,” she uttered softly, but the words reached Tairan, piercing him straight through the heart.
A decade-old flashback exploded through his memory—a different room on another planet. But the situation quickly turned similarly frightening.
Another violent contraction rocked Isabella’s body, tearing a strangled groan from her throat. She had been denied pain medication out of concerns it might disturb the delicate balance during the labour.
His hand long numb in Isabella’s grip, Tairan leaned to her ear, wishing he could absorb her pain for her, and whispered all the things he’d often told her, listing everything he loved about her, hoping that he could help her separate herself from the pain.
“We have a partial abruption of the placenta, Professor.” Urgency vibrated through Ires’ voice. “She’s hemorrhaging.”
Unlike Kealan’s pale blood, Isabella’s was dark. Tairan knew the name of the colour was ‘red’. But to him it seemed to be the same as the grey surgical pad they had placed under her. Flowing out in a pulsing gush, the blood soaked the pad and seeped into the sheets around it, as if the life itself was draining out of Isabella and was absorbed by the bedding.
“You brought me in for my advice, Professor.” The stern voice of Doctor Saroyan reached him, a brittle note of genuine fear ringing through it. “I strongly advise performing a C-section on this woman. The baby is half-human, she may have a better chance than a full-blooded Kealan. Otherwise, you’ll kill her and the mother.”
“The baby’s heartbeat is faltering,” Ires called out.
“Make sure all life-support equipment is connected and functional,” Ricread ordered to his team.
“Life-support?” A frown of utter confusion set over the female doctor’s face. “This is highly unnecessary right now.”
“Trust me, things can change at any moment, considering the circumstances,” Ricread retorted, his voice sharp as a laser blade. “I’ve seen more stillbirths than I care to count. No matter what, I’m prepared for it—I’ll be able to collect some excellent data through a full post-mortem analysis.”
“I don’t understand.” Saroyan shook her head, her eyes wide as she stared at Ricread. “Do you actually want the baby dead?”
“No. Of course, I’d prefer it alive. However, I find a stillbirth acceptable. It still offers plenty of opportunities for post-mortem data collection and analysis. This is just a first step, doctor. And I am satisfied with the results of this stage.”
“Will you deliberately let the baby suffocate rather than do a relatively simple procedure like a C-section and give it a chance?” Sariyan demanded, raising her voice.
Moving his gaze from Isabella, Ricread regarded the doctor with cool disdain. “I will not let you damage the uterus. It is necessary for my future work. I need it intact.”
“What do you mean by ‘damage?’ Women on Earth routinely proceed to have vaginal births, following a C-section. If the possibility of another pregnancy is of concern to you—”
“Just one other pregnancy will not be sufficient to complete my research. Neither will a few. A scarred uterus has a much shorter useful life.”
“But the scars will heal,” the doctor protested, her cheeks darkened and her chest rose in quick shallow breaths. “Even with our current medical advances, women can still have a number of pregnancies after a C-section. And I’ve heard Kealan technology for tissue healing is phenomenal.”
Tairan felt grateful to the doctor for fighting this fiercely on behalf of his wife. However, the dreadful premonition that she was losing this battle sank heavily into his chest. He froze, keeping quiet so as to not attract any attention to himself while he considered the options for action that needed to be taken.
“We can make it heal faster,” Ricread agreed. “However, the strength and elasticity of a scarred organ is permanently compromised. I have at least forty more pregnancies planned for this particular subject. Can you guarantee me that the scars of her uterus won’t rupture before she has gone through them all?”
“Forty?” The doctor gasped. “That’s scientifically unrealistic.”
“For you, certainly,” he scoffed. “But I can and will make it happen. By using my techniques of tissue rejuvenation and maintaining hormonal levels, I can extend her reproductive age well into six decades of her biological age. But I need an uncompromised organ.”
“With all due respect, this woman is hemorrhaging, Professor.” Saroyan threw her hands in the air, visibly exasperated, then pointed at the screens around them. “Her other systems are in distress. You are in danger of losing your uterus altogether.”
The grip of Isabella’s hand in Tairan’s weakened. Her skin felt cool, with a sheen of sweat. Her chest rose and fell rapidly. Tairan threw a glance at Ricread, who turned to his team. “Monitor her vital functions. If any of them fail, replace them by turning the life support on.”
“She may not even need the life support if we hurry,” Saroyan protested. “I believe, the baby is contributing to the mother’s condition. Let’s get the baby out now, then we can work on stopping the bleeding and stabilizing the woman. Professor, it’s criminal to let this continue. Without the C-section, she’ll be brain dead within hours or even less.”
“I don’t need her brain,” Ricread bit out, turning away from the doctor, as if to shut her out completely. “In fact, I would be able to achieve more with the subject being comatose. Her free will has caused nothing but interruptions and delays in my work.”
“Listen,” the doctor wouldn’t give up, stepping around Ricread to make him f
ace her again, “you’ve said before that Kealan sperm does not survive outside of the body. Are you planning to force this man to have sex with his clinically dead wife in order to further your experiments?”
Ricread leveled her with his stare, unyielding in his arrogance.
“If that is what it takes . . .”
Tairan had stopped listening. One thing was perfectly clear to him, Isabella had been mistaken ever believing that Ricread’s objective could be aligned with theirs and that he could be reasoned with. Any trace of kindness or empathy in the man had been killed by cold ambition.
Isabella was frighteningly still now, her chest barely rising in small shallow breaths, her eyes closed.
Carefully letting go of her hand, Tairan quickly scanned the room for any possible weapons, noting the exact location of each member of the security team.
All the medical tools were slim and delicate, securely attached to the robots as parts of bulky equipment, useless to him.
His gaze slid along the belt of the security man closest to him—a laser blade and a stun gun—both were for hand to hand combat. Not pausing to decide which one would do better, Tairan went for both.
Leaping across the short distance that separated him from the guard, he tackled him to the ground. The element of surprise and intense physical training he’d been putting himself through came in handy now.
Easily overpowering the guard, Tairan snatched the stun gun off the man’s belt and clipped it to his, then grabbed the laser knife, squeezing its handle to release the hot-white blade.
“Get him!” Ricread cursed under his breath, but Sikril was already rushing across the room to Tairan, a stun gun in his hand.
Another guard jumped onto Tairan’s back. With his free hand Tairan grabbed the wrist of the man’s hand that held the stun gun, forcing it away—he could not afford to be knocked unconscious. Without his help, Isabella was as good as dead.
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