Page 143 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“Her transition was like nothing that I’ve ever seen before. Instead of her heart stopping, Jill slipped into a coma while she healed. She changed during her transition. Her hair, eyes, skin tone, and scent changed to match mine. Her heart continued beating, her breaths remained even and I had no idea what was happening. When she was ready to finish her transition, she woke up only to finally die in my arms,” Logan said, his voice breaking with the last few words while Ephraim kissed the top of the little boy’s head, needing the comforting move to stay calm.

“I want Mommy,” the little boy in his arms mumbled sadly.

“Me, too,” Ephraim murmured, unable to take his eyes off his little girl.

“We can feel each other’s pain, certain physical touches, and emotions. Our connection is through our blood. We feed from each other, which allows us to heal,” Logan explained, making Ephraim frown as he looked at Chris to find his son looking just as confused since the last time he checked, vampires couldn’t drink from each other.

“Were there any other changes?” Noah asked, sending Logan a questioning look.

“Her hymen grew back,” Logan murmured quietly as Ephraim stood there, doing his best not to think about how the leech found that out as he forced himself to focus on the fact that her body restored itself during her transition. During their transition, vampires repaired the damage from whatever caused their death, but everything else remained frozen.

“Chris, check her right hand,” Ephraim said, watching as Chris released her left hand so that he could reach over and carefully raise her other hand and-

“It’s gone,” Chris said, gently running his thumb over where the scar that Jill got from carving pumpkins with Marc a few years ago should have been.

“What else?” Noah asked, checking Jill’s eyes.

“She’s pregnant,” Logan said with a sad smile as Ephraim slowly exhaled and-

“Kissy!”

-kissed the little boy’s head before he slowly inhaled and tried to sort through the scents filling the room, but he couldn’t find it.

“It’s a Pyte. Only a few hours from what I can tell,” Christofer said, confirming that nothing about Jill’s transition was normal. She shouldn’t have changed, her body shouldn’t have restored itself, and there was no way in hell that she should be pregnant, but somehow, she’d broken all the rules.

“Did you give her your blood when this happened?” Noah asked as he shifted his attention back to the stab wound.

“As soon as it happened, but she wasn’t able to consume it,” Logan said as he watched the human work.

“We injected Ashley’s blood into her heart a few minutes after it happened and managed to get a few drops in her mouth,” Chris said as they watched Noah’s brows furrow in confusion.

“How much blood did she lose when you removed the knife?” Noah asked, gently prodding the wound.

“None,” Kale said as he grabbed an extra pillow to stuff behind Ashley’s back so that she could sit up.

“Did the knife puncture her heart?” Noah asked, gently pushing his fingertips against the wound.

“Yes,” Logan said while Ephraim stood there, slowly exhaling and-

“She’s healing.”

CHAPTER 68

“Be sure, Noah,” Ephraim said while Logan watched the human through silver eyes as his hand went still on Jill’s flat belly.

“I’m sure,” Noah murmured as his gaze flickered to Shane. “What happened to him?”

“I’m fine,” Shane said, even as he grabbed hold of the pillow and buried his face against it.

“He forced himself to shift back during his first shift. His body isn’t handling it well, but he should be fine after he gets some food in him,” Kale explained as he made his way across the room and grabbed two IV kits.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Shane managed to get out on a groan as Logan leaned down and kissed Jill’s forehead.

“You need to eat,” Logan said, gently caressing her belly as he glanced up to make sure that Caleb and Emma were safe only to find a pair of red eyes watching his every move.

Not that he could blame him, Logan thought as his gaze flickered to Emma to find her crying in Marc’s arms before he met Marc’s terrified gaze and-

“I’m not leaving her again,” Shane said, drawing his attention to find his son glaring at him through silver eyes.

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