Page 19 of Used By the Unicorn

“Howarethings?” he asks me gently.

Somehow, the whole sorry story kind of tumbles out of me. Carston and the gambling debt, and the separation. Getting married as dumb eighteen year olds and regretting it ever since. Leaving him, and then letting my guard down for one stupid night, only to have him take advantage of me yet again before disappearing with my wallet. Then finding out that one stupid mistake left me pregnant to the single worst candidate for baby daddy I can think of.

I fight down a new round of tears. “I’m trying to be OK. I’m just not. I can’t delay the scan any more. That’s what that call was. Why I freaked out. I have to go tomorrow.”

Stirling clears his throat. His tail flicks against his leg. “Would you... would you like it if someone came with you? If I came with you? Would that help?”

“You don’t have to do that.”

God, he doesn’t have to do half the things he’s done for me in the last couple of weeks. Pay me for my unpleasant company, beendlessly patient with me, let me vomit on his clothing without complaint and see me home safely.

“Would you like it, though?”

I crumble under his gentle persistence. “Yes.” It comes out so small and wistful I’m ashamed of myself, but it’s the truth. I can’t explain it. I hardly know him, but when he’s around I feel safe. So safe that I think I’m the worst possible version of myself around him, but amazingly he doesn’t seem to mind.

“Then I’ll come.” Just like that. Like it’s the simplest thing in the world. Maybe it is. After all, it’s only a scan. I’m the idiot making this into something bigger than it is.

“Thank you.” I really wish there was a way to make those words mean more than that. To make them weightier, so he knows how I’m feeling. Because right now, from where I’m sitting, he’s looking a whole lot like a fucking hero. And a whole lot like someone I’ve been overlooking until now.

NINE

Jade

I’m frozen outside the generic-looking white building. My feet have somehow decided to stop following orders.

Beside me, Stirling holds out his hand. I’m not a hand-holder. At least I never thought I was. I always cringe when I see those couples who routinely walk around hand in hand in public.

Only, when I reach out and place my hand into his big warm one, I instantly feel better.

Maybe those couples had it right all along.

The automatic doors swish open and admit us into a waiting room as white and sterile as the outside of the building. Hard plastic couches line the walls and people sit staring at their phones or their feet, not making eye contact.

I approach the lady behind the counter. She gives me a warm smile that crinkles the corners of her eyes and makes me feel a little less nervous. “Hello, dear. Can I help you?”

“I’m Jade? I have an appointment this morning.”

“Lovely. Have you got your paperwork there?”

I fish it out of my handbag and slide it across the desk and the receptionist takes it and begins to read. She looks up at Stirling. “And is this the father?”

I twist my head to stare at him in shock. I’d never actually thought about the fact that monster human couples must sometimes have babies, now that supernaturals are out. They’ve probably been doing it longer than that, but I guess people are aware of it now. “No. He’s um... a friend.” The fact I’m struggling to put a word on what he is should concern me more, but I’mpretty focused on just getting through the appointment today. I can’t worry about that now.

He squeezes my hand, but says nothing, so I keep my death grip around his thick fingers.

“OK, well why don’t you go have a seat, and they’ll call you in when they’re ready.”

I dutifully find a plastic bench and we squeeze in next to a woman with long dark curls and her arms crossed over a green shirt. She stands almost instantly and, as she moves away, I hear her mutter under her breath. “...shit’s not natural. Gonna contaminate the gene pool.”

I stare at her as she moves across the room. I can’t help it. I’m fuming. Who the fuck does she think she is? “Say it to my face next time,” I call across the quiet space.

The quiet, palpable before, drops to such dead silence that the small awkward cough of the man opposite and the squeak of the receptionist's chair are starkly audible.

The woman says nothing. She picks up a magazine and pretends not to know what I’m talking about, but I’m too mad for that. I leap out of my seat to storm across the room and confront her, but Stirling grabs me around the waist and hauls me into his lap. “Hey!” I struggle, but he’s too strong for me.

The guy next to us on the other side gets up to join the bitch on the far side of the room.

“Leave it, Jade,” Stirling says, breathing into my ear.

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