Page 31 of Incipient

“Yes.” She nodded regretfully. “They’ve been happening a lot more often lately.”

I relaxed in my seat and studied her for a moment. “Maybe it’s not too late.”

“For what?”

“To stop Nikki from telling him.”

The fact of the matter was, Trace had no idea that Lucifer had ever been inside his body let alone that hediedbecause of it, so how exactly was I going to convince him that this wasn’t his child without triggering the time bomb in his head? This whole thing had the potential to go wrong in so many ways that it was making my head spin. My only hope was that Nikki would come to her senses and shut her damn trap.

Though I really wasn’t counting on that.

“Nikki doesn’t listen to anyone, and especially not me,” she said matter-of-factly.

But that wasn’t good enough. “Then you need tomakeher listen.”

“And how do I do that? This is Nikki we’re talking about.”

“I don’t know, but you better think of something and quick,” I warned, weary of not letting too much slip out. “She can’t have Lucifer’s child, Morgan.Theywon’t let her,” I said, looking over my shoulder, half expecting the Senior Magister to come waltzing in and drag me away for insubordination.

Her eyes narrowed into slits. “Are you saying they’ll try to kill her if she keeps the baby?”

“Keepit?” I half laughed, though there was nothing funny about this. “At this point, I don’t think they’re even going to let herhaveit. As far as they’re concerned, this isn’t a baby. It’s not human. It’s evil incarnate.”

“But they can’t know that. It hasn’t even been born yet,” she argued, but she was barking up the wrong tree.

“You’re speaking to the choir, Morgan. They’re not willing to take that risk,” I said, remembering War’s chilling words when we’d spoken about it. As far as they were concerned, this whole thing had already been mapped out in a prophesy and that was as good as gold to them.

“You’re the only hope we have right now. You have to convince her that she’s too young to have a baby. That she’s making a mistake and needs to end this pregnancy—”

“It won’t work,” she interrupted quietly as she looked up and meet my gaze again. “She’s going to have this baby, Jemma. Whether we like it or not, itwillbe born.”

The lump in my throat made it impossible to swallow. “How do you know?”

“Because,” she said and then shook her head. “I’ve already seen it.”

13. RUSSIAN ROULETTE

Needless to say, I spent the remainder of the day in a daze. Getting Morgan to convince Nikki to end the pregnancy was my one and only hope of stopping this entire thing before it even started, but her vision had made it clear that there was no chance in that happening. Nikki was going to have this child, and she was going to claim it as Trace’s.

My entire body tensed at the thought of it.

What would she do once she found out the Council was coming for her? That they had no intention on allowing this child to live? And would Trace protect her believing the baby was his? The whole thing was making my stomach turn.

And if that wasn’t enough, I had Dominic’s compulsion fluttering around in the back of my mind like an imminent warrant on my life. I hadn’t mentioned anything to Trace last night, because duh, and hoped that once I’d slept on it, I’d have a clear plan of what to do about it, but unfortunately I was just as stumped as I was the night before.

Dusk was quickly approaching, and I knew that the moment the sun went down, Dominic’s command to come find him would overtake me whether I was ready for it or not. I could certainly try to fight it—hope and pray that I was strong enough to resist it, but chances were, I would fail miserably and end up heading straight to the Huntington Manor, completely unprepared for whatever he had planned the very moment the sun set.

Isocould not have that.

For all I knew I was walking into a vampire-infested trap with Dominic and his Sire-bitch Pricilla waiting in the wings to watch me get ripped to pieces. Then again, he could also be calling for me for nothing more than to inflict some more sexual torture on me. Either way, I wanted no part of it. I had to do something.

I could, of course, reach out to Trace for help, but after what happened last night and then this morning, it was clear that I needed to keep my distance and give him some space from me. It didn’t matter how badly I wanted him. The fact was, Icouldn’thave him right now and I needed to accept that and stop messing with his emotions, however unintentional it may have been.

That really only left me with one option.

As soon as the final bell rang, I headed up the stairwell to the second floor in search of Ben. He was after all my friend, as well as a Shifter. Surely, he would be able to provide me with the kind of assistance I required in the small matter of restraining my damn self.

“I need a favor,” I said as I approached him at his locker. There was a cute blonde talking his ear off, but he didn’t seem all that interested in what she had to say. I fixed her with a look and said, “Disappear.”

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