“And what’s that?”
“If we wake up tomorrow morning or not.”
Chapter 36
“It’s morning.” Lucas pulls back the curtains. “And the sun is still shining. Hell didn’t come to earth.”
I slowly sit up, blinking in the bright light. “We did it?”
“You did.” He smiles and speeds over to the bed, cradling me in his arms. “You fucking did it, Callie. You saved the world.”
“I guess we can have my baby shower after all.”
He laughs and nuzzles his face in my neck. “Yes, we can. Though we’re going to face another end of the world situation with Eliza not being able to prepare the night before like she planned.”
I laugh. “Now that is something I can live with. And I never did cancel the caterers. I figured if the world ended, that would be least of my worries, right? Though if they happened to deliver all that food before Doomsday, I could stick it in the freezer and live off leftovers for the next few months.
“I’m glad it didn’t come to that.”
“Me too.”
He kisses me and slides a hand over my stomach and down between my legs.
“Hang on,” I tell him. “I gotta pee, and Elena is kicking my bladder. Ugh, okay that hurts.” Lucas helps me sit up and I put my hand on my stomach, gently pressing two fingers into my side to get the baby to move. Whatever she’s doing is painful. I feel a little better after I pee, and I think the added pressure was too much.
I’m hurting again when I get back into bed, and Lucas notices the slight grimace on my face. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I say, immediately dismissing that anything could be wrong. “It’s that round ligament pain again.”
“Lie down,” he orders and gets up, fussing with the pillows. “Are you comfortable?”
“That damn sciatic nerve is a little sore. I was on my feet too much yesterday, that’s all, but for good reason. And now that the gates of Hell are staying shut, I’ll happily take the next three months off.”
“I look forward to that.” Lucas drapes his arm around me. “We haven’t had a change to simply relax in a while without it being forced.”
“True.” I run my fingers up and down his arm. “What should we do for the next three months?”
“We should definitely have a lot of sex,” he says seriously.
“Right. We’ll have to wait at least six weeks after the baby is born.”
“You do heal faster than most,” he says, and I sit up so I can glare at him.
“I’m already a little nervous to have sex after pushing out a baby,” I admit. “You have a big dick.”
“Should I apologize for that?”
“No, you most definitely should not.”
Lucas smiles and sits up, resting his hand on my stomach. “She’s active today.”
“She is.” I put my hand over his. “I’m going to be huge by the time she’s born. How big do you think she’s going to be?”
“Under seven pounds and around twenty inches, not too big, but not too small either.”
“I hope you’re right,” I laugh. “I made the mistake of reading birth horror stories while on bedrest.”
“And I think you’re going to handle birth well.”
“We need to talk about a birth plan. Abby texted me about it again.”
“What do you want?” He slowly rubs my stomach.
“I want to give birth in a hospital with drugs and an epidural, but I don’t know if that’s possible. Can we get around them taking bloodwork? Bottom line, I want Elena to be healthy and have the medical professionals around her if she needs it. And what if I go into labor during the day? I can’t exactly bring my smudge stick and cast a spell on the entire labor and delivery floor to enchant the windows, can I?”
“Breathe,” he says calmly, able to sense my heart picking up speed. “If you want to give birth in a hospital, then we’ll figure out a way to make that happen.”
I nod and feel selfish again. “I don’t want you to miss the birth of your only child, though.”
“I don’t want to miss it either, but more than anything, I want you and Elena to be safe.”
“I love you,” I tell him.
“I love you too.” He lies back down and kisses me.
“We should tell Eliza the party is still on so she can get here.”
“I’ll call her. Are you still tired? It was a long night.”
Freya is stretched out on the bed next to me and looks very snuggly. I want to lie back down and cuddle with her. “A little. I’m definitely not getting out of bed yet.”
“I’ll bring you breakfast in bed,” he says, kissing me again and then going downstairs to call Eliza and to make me breakfast. I pull Freya onto my chest and run my hand over her fur. She starts purring right away, and I’m in a blissful state of half-sleep, half-wake when I get a slew of text messages from Eliza. She’s freaking about having to rush around now to get the house ready for the shower. The party is at one and it’s only nine-thirty. Plus, she has super speed. It’ll take her an hour to get things set out.
And really, I don’t need a fancy party, not at all. Demons almost took over the world last night. Getting an ombre pink balloon arch up in the foyer is the least of my concerns. Still, I tell her I’ll start blowing up balloons as soon as I get out of bed, having them ready for her to assemble when she gets here in an hour or so. The decorations she purchased have already been delivered to the house, and Lucas will get them up from the storage room in the basement.
She bought a new dress for me to wear too, one that coordinates perfectly with the balloon arch for photos. It’s endearing how much she cares, though she has a very Eliza way of showing it. She’s family, and is going to be a very important part of Elena’s life.
I fall asleep after Lucas brings me strawberries and a bagel for breakfast, and wake up two hours later to a clattering noise echoing up the stairs.
“What’s going on?” I ask Freya, who’s hogging my large pregnancy pillow now. She opens a sleepy eye and goes back to sleep. She looks too snuggled and cute to pester, and since I have to pee again, I get out of bed, use the bathroom, and then go into the hall, walking toward the grand staircase at the front of the house.
Scarlet is standing in the foyer, excitedly wagging her tail at two very terrified-looking caterers, who dropped an armload of silverware after getting started by my huge dog.
“Scarlet,” I call, patting my leg. “She’s friendly,” I tell the caterers as my hellhound bounds up the stairs. “If only they knew, right?” I tell her and pat her head. She joins Freya on my bed, and I get dressed in my usual black leggings and grab a long-sleeved black shirt. I pull it on over my head and am a little shocked to see it stretched tight across my stomach. This shirt was from before I was pregnant, and it definitely doesn’t fit me now. I take it off, toss it on the ground, and go into Lucas’s closet to get one of his t-shirts instead.
His closet is still as organized as the day we moved in, where mine has several piles ranging from “clean”, “kind of clean”, and “dirty”. The system works for me, and hey, closets have doors for a reason.
I wash my face and brush my teeth but hold out on doing my makeup, since Eliza is going to want to do it. Curling my hair with magic, I go down the back stairs and find Eliza overseeing everyone in the kitchen.
“Finally,” Eliza huffs when she sees me, and I smile, happy to have someone be a little snappy with me again. Everyone’s walked on eggshells the last few weeks, it’s been tiring. I’m not fragile, and I don’t like to be treated differently because I’m pregnant. If anything, Elena makes me stronger. “I thought you were going to blow up the balloons.”
“I will,” I tell her. “I slept in.”
“Yeah, until nearly noon!”
“I was a little busy keeping the gates of Hell from opening so I deserve to sleep in,” I say and one of the caterers looks at me funny. She thinks it’s a figure of speech—hah.
“And I’ll get on it. Where’s Lucas?”
“The office, and that’s where he’s going to stay until it’s time for you to open your gifts. Men don’t come to baby showers.”
“Do I have to open them in front of people?” I wrinkle my nose and go around a caterer to get the cranberry juice from the fridge. “It’s awkward opening things in front of people.”
“Why? I love getting gifts.” Eliza flips her blonde hair over her shoulder. She’s wearing a pretty sage-colored dress today. It’s longer in the back than in the front, with thin straps and little flowers embroidered around the neckline. The color looks good on her, though to be fair, any color would look good on her.
“I don’t know, it’s just…weird. I don’t like being the center of attention.”
“Really, Miss Queen of Hell?”
“That’s different,” I say, aware the caterers are looking at us again. I pour myself a glass of juice, take the packs of balloons from the counter, and find Lucas in his office. He’s leaning back in his chair with his feet on his desk, watching some sort of comedy movie.
“Can I be banished in here too?” I ask, shutting the large door behind me. “She’s a tyrant.”
Lucas chuckles. “She means well. And you can only be banished in here if you take your clothes off.”
“Then shouldn’t you take yours off too?”
“I like the way you think,” he says with a smile. “Why do you have balloons?”
“Eliza wants me to blow them up.”
“I’ll help,” he offers and takes a package of hot pink balloons from me.
“Can you blow up a balloon?” I ask, sitting in the window seat.
Lucas looks at me funny. “I know how to blow up a balloon.”
“No, I mean, can you. You don’t breathe.”
He stares at me for a few seconds, making sure I’m serious. “I can still suck in air and blow it out.”
I shake my head, hair falling around my face. “That was a question I never thought I’d ask, and now I feel like I have a nugget of invaluable information: vampires can blow up balloons.” Laughing, I open another package and start blowing up the balloons. Lucas is much faster than me, no surprise there, and we get the balloons all blown up and moved into the foyer just in time to see Eliza hanging pink tulle garland on the balcony railing.
“Oh wow,” I tell her. “It looks great.”
“It will if it’s done on time,” Eliza says with a dramatic sigh.
“What’s left to do?” Lucas asks, looking around the foyer. “It’s a baby shower, not a Christmas party.”
Eliza shoots him a pointed look. “I have to put together the dessert table for the humans, and finish decorating the living room.”
“How can we help?” I ask, ignoring Lucas’s annoyed look.
“Put the tulle skirt on the table in the kitchen,” she says, and I have no idea what that means.
“Okay,” I say anyway, and Lucas and I go into the kitchen. Whatever the caterers are making smells amazing, and the table Eliza wanted us to put a skirt on is moved over in front of the windows in the kitchen. Pink flowers decorate the windows above the table with the words “Oh Baby” cut out in cardboard and painted a sparkling gold hanging above. The table is decorated—save the skirt—and a photo from Elena’s ultrasound is part of the decor, stuck inside a pretty pink frame. There’s another photo of Lucas and me on our wedding day in another pink frame right next to it, and dammit, seeing it is making me emotional.
Eliza might have outdone herself here.
“How do you put a skirt on a table?” I ask Lucas, who shakes his head.
“It’s that thing,” one of the caterers tells us. “I’ve seen it done at a few parties.”
“Oh, thanks,” I tell her and pick up a box and pull out what legitimately looks like a shirt that you attach to the sides of the table. Lucas and I fiddle with it a bit, making sure it’ll be to Eliza’s liking. We help her with the balloon arch, which she adds strings of fairy lights and a shimmery white backdrop to, and then ushers me upstairs to do my makeup.
She goes back down as soon as she’s done, leaving me to change into the dress she got me, which is a long white dress with a pretty floral pattern. It’s flowy and pretty and the most girly thing I’ve ever worn after my wedding dress.
“Care to trade your Hell-crown in for this?” she asks as I walk down the stairs. “And you look beautiful.” She holds up a headband made of flowers.
“Ohhh, that’s pretty! And it’s a hellfire crown.”
Eliza smiles and puts the headband on, messing with my hair until it’s perfect. Lucas has been shooed into the office once again, and something tells me he’s not too broken up about it. I’m sneaking snacks from the kitchen while Eliza rushes around like a crazy person making sure everything is perfect, which it is.
Tabatha and Kristy are the first to arrive, followed by Ruby along with three other witches from our coven. I wasn’t sure who to invite since my social circle is small and I’m fine with it, so Tabatha helped me pick and choose a handful of witches she’s close to, and who live for these types of things. Danielle, Vanessa, and Betty from the store all arrive together, and I don’t think Vanessa was even aware I was pregnant until she got the invite to the shower. Once Abby, Penny, and Melinda arrive, the party officially gets started.
I’m mostly interested in the food, and Eliza must have asked Lucas for help planning the menu because it’s all of my favorite things. Eliza promised to keep this party classy while still being traditional, and she pulled it off perfectly. Once we wrap up a game about guessing Elena’s due date, we go back into the kitchen for cake.
And then after that, it’s opening presents…in front of everyone. Why is this a thing? Whoever thought up the whole open gifts and fake excitement in front of the gift givers was a sadist, I swear. I take my time eating cake, hoping people will just leave and I can open gifts alone with Lucas.
“Take a seat right up front,” Eliza tells me, motioning to a pink velvet chair in the middle of the living room. Kristy, who knows I don’t like being the center of attention like this, pats my hand. Putting my sparkling cranberry juice down, I go to the chair.
“Open mine first,” Eliza says, picking up a big pink box that’s probably a lot heavier than it looks considering she has super-strength. “You’re going to lo—” She cuts off tipping her head. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?” I ask right as Lucas comes out of the office, speeding into the living room. Whatever Eliza heard, he heard it too. “What’s going on?”
“It sounded like chains dragging over the ground,” he tells me, and my blood goes cold. “I’ve heard it before.”
“You have,” I say, breath coming out all shaky. “When Varrador came through the gates of Hell.”
Chapter 37
“What do we do?” Kristy asks, springing to her feet.
“The nons,” Tabatha says, somehow thinking clearly. “We need to get them out of here.”
“I’ll handle it,” Lucas says, breaking away from me. He holds Betty, Vanessa, and Danielle all spellbound, telling them they enjoyed the party but now it’s time to go home. He breaks contact and they gather their stuff, thanking me for inviting them and saying they had a good time.
No sooner are they out the door, I notice smoke rising from miles away. If Hell did come to earth, the demons are wasting no time. My fingers start to tremble, and I turn, closing the door. How is this happening? The protection spell worked. Demons didn’t get through our lines last night.
We won.
There’s a slight shift of energy in the air and I turn to see Julian in the foyer.
“The gates of Hell have been opened,” he says, eyes wide with fear. “The demons are coming to earth.”
“How did this happen?” I rush out. “We cast a protection spell on the Ley lines last night.”
“I don’t know,” Julian answers. “The demons must have found another way.”
Footfalls come from behind us, and Tabatha, Lucas, and Kristy all hurry to us. “The gates opened, didn’t they?” Kristy asks, blue eyes full of fear.
“Yes,” Julian answers, holding out a hand. “And they’re headed here. They’re going to flock to the towns along the Ley line first, taking what they can before moving onto the next one.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Tabatha says, chest rapidly rising and falling.
“How do we stop it?” I ask Julian, desperation bubbling inside me.
“Close the gates,” he replies.
“Okay…but how?”
“There is a way to restore the seals and shut all the gates, but from the inside.”
“Then go,” Lucas urges. “Go close them. You can fly down to the underworld, can’t you?”
“I can,” Julian says. “But only someone with archangel blood can restore the seal.”
“Take me,” I say. “Take me there now so we can close the gates once and for all!”
“Callie, no.” Lucas shakes his head. “You’re not going to Hell!”
“I’ll come back,” I counter. “What kind of world is this for our daughter?” I sweep my hand out at the front window. “Demons are coming to take over Thorne Hill. This isn’t the world I want her growing up in.”
I grab Julian’s hand. “Take me to Hell.”
He gives a curt nod and then we disappear, twisting and turning, and spinning and falling. Traveling to the underworld is a lot different than traveling to a pretty beach in Australia. I get my bearings and blink several times.
“This is Hell?” I whisper, looking around. We’re standing in a vast wasteland of nothing but tall, dried grass, with gray cloudy skies drifting overhead. There’s a large black castle just feet from us, with dark stained-glass windows and evil-looking gargoyles on every peak and corner of the roof. Thick twisted and spiked vines wrap around the large columns on front of the castle, and all the vegetation around is dry and dead.
“We need to go in,” Julian says. “Once we’re in, we have to find a hall that leads to a throne. There will be a sigil on the ground. Anoint it with your blood, and it will lock all the gates.”
Reign of Night (The Thorne Hill Series Book 7) Page 28