As soon as I lie down, I feel that fluttering feeling again, but this time it’s much stronger.
“Lucas,” I whisper, afraid I might startle the baby. “Feel.”
He puts his hand on my stomach and waits a beat. Of course, she stopped moving and then—
“I felt that.”
“You did?” I put my hand over his.
“I did.” His whole face lights up, making my heart swell in my chest. “That’s our daughter in there.”
“She can hear us now,” I tell him, though I’m sure he knows. Lucas read through a dozen or so pregnancy books before I even downloaded a pregnancy tracker app on my phone.
“Right, she can.” He moves his face down and kisses my stomach. “Hi, Elena,” he says, and I’m instantly choked up with emotion. “You’re going to be strong just like your mother, and those little kicks are proving it.”
It hits me once again just how much is on the line here. When I’m at risk, our baby is, too. Being completely responsible for someone else’s life is a ridiculous responsibility to put on anyone, and if something happens to me, then it happens to Elena, too.
Julian gave me that power-binding potion as a one-time use, but maybe, just maybe, I should ask him for more.
Chapter 17
“I just don’t know.” I bite my lip and shake my head. “It’s such a hard decision.”
“I’m sure you’ll make the right choice,” Lucas says, hand landing on my thigh as the car speeds along the highway. Binx, who is sitting at my side, rubs against me to let me know that he too feels I’ll come to the right choice.
“But what if I don’t?” I look at Lucas with wide eyes as I run one hand over Binx’s sleek fur. “What if I regret it?” Letting out an exasperated sigh, I look back at my phone. “I just had pizza when Easton and Melinda were here a few days ago, but it’s not like I have legit Chicago-style pizza very often. And I have real Chicago-style hotdogs even less.”
“Order both,” Lucas tells me, trying to keep the amusement off his face. We’re maybe ten minutes from the city, and I’ve been debating what to order for lunch for most of our drive. “And eat the other later. It could be a while before we get into a room in the ER. You’ll be hungry later.”
“True, and I think I’m going to go with the hotdog, but I’ll have to microwave it before I can eat it so it’s not contaminated with listeria. While it’s cooling, I can have some pizza. Fuck, I’m going to gain a million pounds.”
Lucas laughs. “The baby is growing, and you’re supposed to gain weight.”
“Not a million pounds.”
He gives my thigh a squeeze. “You’re not going to gain a million pounds. Your breasts have gotten bigger and you’re showing, but you haven’t gained weight anywhere else. And you consumed more calories than the average human before. You need even more now.”
“True.” I put my hand on my stomach, feeling Elena flip around. Hearing Lucas call her by name last night cemented it for us both, and there’s no going back. Elena King is our baby.
“What do you think?” I ask Binx, and he tells me to order both as well. He’ll help me eat whatever is delivered. “Good choice,” I tell him and put in an order with Uber Eats to deliver both a Chicago-style hotdog with fries as well as a pizza, which should arrive shortly after we get to the Lincoln Park house.
“She’s doing somersaults.” I move Lucas’s hand from my thigh to my stomach.
“She must like the car,” Lucas says and revs the engine, speeding around a semi-truck. He took the McLaren today, saying it was a “special occasion” and we deserved to travel in style. I had to enchant the windows to keep the harmful rays of the sun out, and Lucas grumbled for a good twenty minutes nonstop about how his car smells “like sage and magic instead of leather.” Not even Eliza could roll her eyes hard enough at that.
“She doesn’t care about the car.” I look at Binx and roll my eyes. He doesn’t care about the car, either, and is only riding with me to oblige me. He can easily shadow his way from Thorne Hill to Chicago and go completely unnoticed, as he’s done more than once.
“She likes going fast, then.” He pulls up my shirt up and rubs my stomach. His hand are cold but will warm up quickly.
“We need to pick a middle name.” I rest my hand on top of his.
“Do we, though? I don’t have a middle name.”
“Were middle names a thing back when you were born?”
“The aristocratic Romans had three names. I did not. King wasn’t the surname I was born with. You knew that, didn’t you?”
“No, this is news to me, and I’m not sure if it’s going to put me into an existential crisis or not. You’re not Lucas King?”
“I am, legally. When I registered as a vampire, I had to put down a last name. King felt fitting.”
I look at Lucas, blinking. “You named yourself Lucas King because it felt fitting?”
“Yes.”
I blink a few more times and then laugh. “It is fitting. You are a king amongst vampires.”
“And every king needs his queen.” He looks at me, sexy smirk on his face. “And an heir.”
“I am the unofficial Queen of Hell.”
“That would be hot if it wasn’t so…so dangerous for you both.” He pulls my shirt back and puts both hands back on the steering wheel. “You would look good in a crown, which reminds me, I have one I’ll get for you.”
“You have a crown?”
“Yes, from seventeenth-century Spain. It was a gift from a queen.”
I close my eyes and shake my head. “Hold the phone. What? You just have a crown lying around?”
“It’s preserved in storage.”
“Like a real crown?”
“Yes. I did a favor for the royal family and was given the tiara along with other jewels.”
“And I suddenly feel so boring,” I laugh as I run a hand over Binx’s sleek fur. “What kind of favor did you do? If it’s sexual, I don’t want to know. But I do. Yeah, I do.”
“I did fuck the princess a few times,” he says causally, and I find it amusing he fumes with jealousy if I mention having a slight, innocent crush on anyone. “And they had me take care of a rival family by holding them spellbound and making them commit treason.”
“Ohh, sneaky. I like it. How did they know you were a vampire?”
“The princess,” Lucas says with another smirk. “You would say she had a thing for bad boys.”
“And undead men. But you’re mine now, and being Queen of Hell is much cooler than being a Spanish princess, but I am a little curious about this tiara.”
“It was appraised at six million the last time I had it looked at, which was a while ago. I’m sure it’s worth closer to eight or ten now. It’s gold with hundreds of diamonds,” he tells me. “And will look perfect on you.”
“When I’m naked, right?”
“I think that’s the only way you should wear it.”
I let out a snort of laughter, though the thought of putting on a crown and making Lucas be my submitting servant does sound very fun. “How soon can you get me this tiara?”
“It’s in one of my storage units in Europe. I’ll call and have it shipped over.”
“When this is all over, we’re taking a week off just so I can go through your storage units. You’ve been holding onto things for centuries…it would be like going through a museum.”
“I have a few paintings I should give to a museum, come to think of it. No one is enjoying them sealed and stored in the dark. Anonymously give them, I should add.”
He’s told me before he likes keeping his age more or less a secret, and he didn’t put his real age on his vampire registration. Only vampires over five hundred years old are able to hold anyone spellbound, and technically, Lucas would have more restrictions if people knew his real age. There’s no way to prove he’s older than he says he is or if he were actually a younger vampire claiming to be older.
Vampires are able to sense each oth
er’s ages, down to a few years at least. A younger vampire might not be able to zero in on an exact number when it comes to Lucas, but he’s been undead long enough to be able to sense a younger vampire’s age with impressive accuracy.
“That would be amazing, and as much as I want to say put them in our house, they’d be much safer in a museum, and it would be so cool to know the rest of the world can enjoy something historic like that, too.”
“We’ll have to take Elena to as many museums as we can.” He glances at me, smiling. “And I can explain history to her as it really happened.”
“You mean history books aren’t accurate? Shocker there,” I say with a laugh. “History at the Academy is documented differently. How we learn about the Salem Witch Trials is much different than how the nons learn about it. What transpired in Salem is more or less correct, but the real witches…you don’t read about them in history books.”
“She’s going to be a smart child,” Lucas says and puts his hand on my stomach again. “And between the both of us, she’s going to be very well rounded in her education.”
“She will be.” I smile, really enjoying talking like this, like having a vampire and a Nephilim for parents can be a good thing. I get a notification that my hotdog and fries are on their way right as we’re pulling up to the house in Lincoln Park.
There’s a pearl-white Mercedes parked in the street with a sparkly license-plate holder, letting me know the car belongs to Eliza. This house has a small garage, but Lucas needs to park in it so we can close the door, sealing off the sunlight before he can get out.
The interior garage door opens as soon as we get out of the McLaren.
“Good, you’re here early.” Eliza’s hair is twisted up on the top of her head in a series of intricate braids, making her look like some sort of Elven royalty. Her deep blue dress is a contrast to the pastel she usually wears, and she looks freaking gorgeous. “You need to fucking see this.”
“What is it?” Lucas rushes out, hurrying toward the house but stopping to wait for me.
“You’ll see,” Eliza goes on, pursing her lips.
“Tell me,” Lucas demands, and Eliza has no choice but to answer.
“William fucking Martin, on the news.” She lets out an annoyed sigh and walks through the house into the family room. The metal blinds are down, keeping out all natural light. Unlike vampires, I can’t see in the dark. Conjuring a string of white light, I hold it up to light my way.
“What is he doing now?” I ask as the voice of the news reporter on TV echoes through the hall. The live coverage breaks to a commercial right as we get into the family room. Eliza picks up the TV remote.
“He’s trying to legally punish anyone who’s married to or works for a vampire.”
Chapter 18
“What?” I look at the TV, not blinking. Binx moves around my feet, rubbing against my ankles in an attempt to calm me down.
“See for yourself,” Eliza says and rewinds the live TV, going back to moments before we came, pressing play in the middle of a news anchor’s speech.
“…in a radical move by the notoriously conservative Senator William Martin, comes a new bill—spearheaded by his son and local politician Scott Martin—that would legally forfeit the right to provide both health insurance and overall insurance coverage to anyone married to or willingly employed by a vampire.”
“What?” I echo, staring at the TV. “No. This isn’t real. It can’t be real.” Lucas steps in closer to me, resting a hand on my shoulder. I swallow hard, feeling Elena do another flip in my belly.
“And along with the startling announcement by Senator Martin, comes his proposal of a so-called ‘red tax’ that will dismiss traditional state tax percentages and instead tax a vampire on their overall acquired wealth. When asked about this proposal and whether or not it’s fair, Senator Martin said, and I quote, Why should we give them basic human rights when they stopped being human the day they died? It is unnatural and against God’s will that they are still here, and I, along with many God-fearing, Christian people, feel that vampires should not only have the rights given to them by the dangerous liberals repealed, but should not be allowed to assimilate into American society without heavy repercussions.” The news reporter shakes his head. “Our very own Kelsey Clemmons has taken to the streets, asking fellow Chicagoans how they feel about the proposed laws.”
Eliza clicks the TV off, having heard enough.
“No,” I spit, shaking my head. “No! He…he can’t do this.” I let out an exasperated sigh. “We all know he’s only doing this to go after me. He’s pissed I called him out in front of his friends at dinner, and now he’s trying to punish me. But fuck him, because it actually doesn’t hurt me and in turn is going to hurt a lot of people. Good people, who don’t deserve to be shit on by some holy-rolling asshole.”
The lights start to glow above me, and Lucas moves in, putting both hands on my shoulders.
“Callie,” he says calmly, deep voice usually soothing my soul but doing little at the moment.
“Don’t Callie me,” I tell him and grit my teeth. “He’s doing this because of me. Taking away insurance and healthcare doesn’t even affect me. But it will affect millions of others. It will hurt millions of others,” I press, shaking my head. “I don’t really know how bills and laws form, but my asshole ex-father is a Senator, and if he gets the fucking Senate to vote for his stupid law, then so many people will be shit on.”
“I’m not trying to Callie you,” he says, and I see the glint in his eye. “I’ve said it before, you’ve always been too merciful with them.”
“You have said that.”
“He’s right,” Eliza agrees, holding up her phone. “And look at your former brother’s Twitter account.”
“Do I want to?” I wrinkle my nose in disgust but take the phone, reading Scott’s latest tweet, which was from only an hour ago. “Blood suckers are not Americans,” I read out loud and then scroll down, reading another tweet from two hours ago. “We are one nation under God, and nowhere in the Bible are vampires mentioned. Must be from the devil.”
I give the phone back to Eliza. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It doesn’t, and the comments from people who agree with him make even less sense.”
Lucas takes the phone from her and speed-reads through the feed. “It doesn’t have to make sense. People will follow anyone who spews the same hatred they want to display. It’s cult-like mentality, and they will cling to anything to rationalize their hatred.”
“You’re right,” I say as Eliza goes back to live TV. The reporter is back, and though he’s trying to stay neutral as he reports, I can see the what the ever living fuck look in his eyes.
“…one of our representatives is there now, reporting live. Let’s go to you, Melissa.”
“Thanks, Doug,” Melissa says when the camera cuts to her. She’s standing outside an official-looking building that I probably should recognize but don’t. Like I told Lucas, history wasn’t my strong suit in school. “As you can see, Senator Martin has gone inside and has not come out for questions as of yet. I was, however, able to speak with an advisor who told me the reasoning behind the radical proposal, which, if passed, will take away insurance from millions of Americans, is that—according to him—anyone who partakes in any sort of relationship with a vampire is reckless and a liability.”
I wave my hand at the TV, telekinetically turning off, as I’m unable to hear any more. “I can’t let him do this,” I mutter under my breath. “I can’t let him get away with trying to hurt me by in turn hurting others.” I shake my head. “I’m so sick and tired of people trying to get to us by using other people. How many humans work at Taproom? And what about your other businesses? And that’s not to mention all the other people I don’t even know.”
“We’re married,” Lucas starts. “And you’re a part owner to a store.” He glances back down at the phone, reading something. “Your employees might fall under this categ
ory, too, deemed too reckless to warrant any sort of insurance.”
“That’s bullshit!” The lights above us glow bright red. “I’m going there—now.”
“Where?”
“Scott’s office. His day isn’t over, and I’m not going to sit here and let him control me like this.”
“It’s not quite sunset yet,” Lucas says.
“Give me a head start?”
“Yes, my Queen.” Lucas give me a devilish grin, fangs coming down.
I know exactly what he means. As the Queen of Hell, it’s my job to punish the wicked, and this time, I won’t be merciful.
Chapter 19
“Hi, how can I help…help you?” The smile disappears off the receptionist’s face as I step up to her desk. She’s not the same receptionist who was here last time, which is probably a good thing, but her eyes widen a bit in fear, making me think Scott has my photo posted somewhere with big warnings under it that I’m armed and dangerous or something. The fact that I’m carrying a black cat in my arms is a tad odd, too, I suppose.
“Hi,” I say, letting Binx jump out of my arms and onto the desk. “I’m here to see my brother, Scott. You can tell him his little sister, Callie King, is here to see him or I can just scoot on by and surprise him. It’s been ages since we’ve seen each other, and I know he’s going to just die when I show up.” I flash a big smile, and the receptionist slowly starts reaching for something under the desk, no doubt a panic button specifically to warn against vampires and me, no doubt.
“You know what,” I say and telekinetically push her hand onto the desk. “It’s been a long day and you look tired. I think you should take a nap.” Heels clicking on the tile floor, I move right up to her desk and extend my hand. “Somnum.” The receptionist’s eyes flutter shut, and she slumps forward, head landing on her keyboard.
Reign of Night (The Thorne Hill Series Book 7) Page 16