Page 60 of The Baby Hex
“I’m pregnant. Is it a bad time to start going out again? Maybe check on the bar again?” Crilus asked.
“I’ll go with you of course,” I said because as much as I would’ve liked to keep him locked in here forever with me, my mate was right. We both needed to get out of the house for a while.
Teal knocked on the bottom step and Crilus stole a quick kiss before telling him he was in the clear to come back up into the attic. He’d made up a bloodshake, topped it with whip cream and chocolate shreds, and stuck a straw in it.
“Use the straw,” Teal said.
“Why?” I inquired sniffing the shake.
“Because it will take longer and perhaps, we can finish the ultrasound without you knocking a me-shaped hole in your attic floor. I’m not paying the bill if that happens,” Teal said. “We’re on the same side, Pierce. Maybe you can’t see that locked inside the magic or full of hormones or whatever’s going on, but we are. Who do you think figured out which Other World Gateway Sharon Claudis escaped through?”
My heart fell into my stomach and my fangs elongated again. Crilus reached over and stuck the straw in my mouth. I drank because he was my mate and whether or not Sharon Claudis stayed at large forever or a few days, we needed to find out what our unborn child would need when they arrived.
“They hadn’t told you?” Teal sighed. “I told them to tell you straight away. Look, after we’re done, I’ll text Ciro and let him know I’ll be late. Then we’re having a meeting with everyone. I know. I know. I sound like Clarence. I’m not Clarence. It’s moredoctor’s orders than trying to tell you what to do. Then I can take a peek at Preston too.”
Neither of us argued mostly because my mouth was full of sugar and blood. This time, Teal had me sit down against the sofa arm and had Crilus lean back against me. My mate lifted his shirt again and my heart skipped a beat. Why did he have to be so exposed? Why wasn’t there just a camera that could take a photo of the baby in utero?
“Because soundwaves are safer than all that,” Crilus said, picking up my pondering over our mating link.
A few minutes later, we held in our hands a sonogram of an egg. A tiny little crow egg. With the advancement of the little machine we could just about make out the blue-green hue of the egg or perhaps that was my imagination filling in the gaps.
“I think you should stay close to home for a few days,” Teal said, tucking his machine back into his pocket. “Your egg is in position to be laid.”
Crilus turned beat red and for a second, I considered beating Teal around the ears with my knuckles. He was speaking as a medical professional. The medical professional my mate had chosen because he trusted him.
“So, I need to go out and stay in?” Crilus laughed.
“Yes, and have a bloodshake. I’m not saying the baby will pick up the vampyric gene but there’s always a chance. Plus, wolves and crows like blood too.”
I held out what was left of my shake to Crilus, and he put the straw back into my mouth.
“I’ll get my own. You finish that. I have a feeling you’re going to need it when we sit down with the others and figure out what the heck is going on.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Crilus
A few hours later, we all gathered around the kitchen table to finally discuss what Pierce and I had missed during our matingmoon. As much as I hated to admit it, the little feast signaled the end of our being locked away together. While Pierce cooked, I had taken down as much of the elven spell as I was comfortable with doing. Sucking the magic back inside me gave me the pop of energy I needed to deal with what would undoubtedly be upsetting news.
Teddy had gone home to his pregnant mate and daughter but everyone else was there. Us, Teal, Pierce’s parents (Cion and Beck), Mori, and Preston. We all chatted while the food finished cooking. We kept the conversation as light as we could. I only paid half attention as I was texting all three of my parents to thank them for their help and writing a several paragraph apology text to Medwin.
Sharon Claudis and her son didn’t come up until the dessert dishes were clear, and we all sipped coffee. Well, they sipped coffee. I had a bloodshake infused with orange juice. I found the recipe in a little box behind the blender and the citrus complemented the blood better than I thought it would. I sat with my legs draped over Pierce’s lap. With most of the magical tension gone he hadn’t tried to bite Teal again, but I didn’t want to repeat the situation that unfolded upstairs.
“It took them a few days to track her down after what happened in the GGB,” Mori began. “Venal was arrested of course. There was a lot of arguing over whether or not Teddy was going to press charges over the bite. In the end, he didn’t officially, but Venal still got assigned community service. She’shis mother and all but she’s also a violent magic user who is probably operating while not drawing with a full box of crayons. Othoni wanted two of his toes in retribution but that’s not how the GGB works. I would’ve given them to him but that’s because I saw how that nutjob he calls mom had him tied up in the basement.”
“Moving on,” Preston sighed, resting his hands on the zenith of his pregnant belly. “We’re not going to talk bad about him around the baby. Obviously, growing up with that woman has left him scarred for life. They tracked her to Hemlock Mountain and then to the Nightshade Bear Territory. I think she thought perhaps we went home. She got into a magical duel with our carrier. She lost and hauled ass. She slipped through the Other World gateway there. She showed up in France and was spotted in Spain too. Once she tried to go back to her house but she slipped the guards. It was Patrica, one of the people at Teal’s warehouse, who figured out she’d gone through a gateway in the north and is probably hiding out on a world Earthside hasn’t officially explored yet. I still have a trimester and a half left. I think she’s waiting for the baby to be here.”
“She never showed up here, right?” Pierce asked.
“No,” Mori answered for his brother. “I think the blood magic hides him here. That’s why we’re hoping even though we think you’re matingmoon is over, that we can still hang out here.”
“Of course you can,” I nodded.
Mori glanced at Pierce who nodded his agreement and asked if Xenos and Barry were okay.
“They’re fine,” Preston said. “At first, our sire thought a ghost was attacking. He flung a pan of frying sage, rosemary, and sea salt at her thinking she’d disappear. Our carrier is still cracking up over it.”
“Should’ve hit her with the pan,” Mori grumbled, and I let out a long sigh and took another sip of the tasty bloodshake.
