Page 20 of Haunt Improvement
“Grab that pillow off the rocking chair and place it behind her head.Then go fetch a tub of water from the second-floor bathroom.”
“Right.”Glinda jumped up, eager to have something useful to do besides watch me writhe in pain and breathe like an asthmatic kid trying to blow out birthday candles.“I’ll be right back,” she told me after tucking the pillow under my neck.
“Could you get my bathrobe?”I gasped.“This dress has got to go.”The seams were straining with every tortured breath I took.The little silver bat at my throat was a nagging irritation now, too.I ripped it off and tossed it across the room.
DeeDee took the cue and slipped off my silver flats, calmly setting them aside.“If you’re doing this on your back, we should put a rolled towel under your hips.”
I snatched the towel from her and stuffed it behind me before the next contraction set in.“Done.”I groaned and rolled my head back to look out the window.
The storm was still going strong, but I tried to focus my breath, imagining it dispersing the clouds.Blowing Ingra away didn’t sound like such a bad idea, but I didn’t want Dylan trying to reach me in this mess.
Breathe in...one, two, three...breathe out...one, two, three...
The rain softened to a sprinkle, and a ray of light flickered through the gray.The next contraction smothered it out.But I kept breathing, willing the storm to pass along with my labor.
“I’m here!”Dylan finally shouted from downstairs.A chorus of gasps echoed up from the foyer, and then a wet fruit bat bolted into the nursery.Dylan shifted back to his human form and knelt beside me, taking my hand in his.“Are you okay?”
“Do I look okay?”I croaked.“She’s early.”
“She’s right on time,” Mama Hermosa replied.“My little Yanet is almost here.”She giggled and rubbed her hands together, stopping only when a flash of lightning lit up the windows.“Or whatever you decide to name her,mija,” she quickly amended.
Glinda returned with my robe and the tub of water just as something south of my border split open, and I made a sound that I was pretty sure no witch or Shifter had heard before, considering the looks on all their faces.
“Did she shift in there?Is that even possible?”I wailed, gripping Dylan’s hand hard enough to draw a grunt from him.
“You’re doing great,” DeeDee said in her docile voice, rolling up the hem of my dress to spread my legs wider.“She’s crowning.”
“It feels like she’swearinga crown,” I said through gritted teeth.
“The littleprincesa,” Hermosa cooed.
“Keep pushing,” DeeDee encouraged.I was too lost in agony to ask what the hell she thought I’d been doing all this time.I needed this baby out,now.
And then, after a moment that felt like an eternity, she was here.Our daughter had arrived.
“There we are,” DeeDee shushed the baby’s delicate cries as she cleaned and swaddled her.Glinda helped Dylan peel off my dress and wrapped me in the soft bathrobe, and then our little bundle was tucked in the crook of my arm, with Dylan’s wrapped securely around us both.Only then did I realize that he was still naked.
“I’ll go fetch you some britches,mi cachorro,” Hermosa offered, frowning at Glinda’s wandering gaze.My cousin dragged her eyes away from my batty beau’s brawn and looked down at our daughter.
“She’s so tiny,” she marveled.“Is that normal for a fruit bat Shifter?”
DeeDee nodded.“She’s actual slightly above average—and just slightly below average for a full-blooded witch.Andwellbelow average for a cow.”
“She didn’t feel below average coming out,” I commented, though my labor pains had melted into something softer, drowned out by overwhelming bliss.The storm was gone, and a triple rainbow stretched over the house, the colors shining through both windows and filling the nursery.
Tears blurred my eyes, but I blinked them away to better see our masterpiece.She was perfection.The most perfect thing I’d ever created.A pink, cupid’s bow mouth stretched into a yawn beneath her button nose, and a curl of dark hair rested on her forehead.Equally dark lashes lined her sleepy, emerald-green eyes.There was West in there, but also plenty of Hernández.
The best of us both, I begged the Wizard.
“Congratulations, cousin,” Glinda whispered as she knelt beside me and dropped the softest kiss on the baby’s head.Then she pressed one to my cheek and smiled sadly.“I don’t want to leave.”
“I know, but your sister and mother are waiting—”
“No, I don’t want to go back to Kansas,” she said.“I can’t imagine being halfway across the country and only watching your daughter grow up in photographs.”
“Then don’t go back,” I pleaded, feeling more vulnerable with my whole world nestled around me and in my arms.
Glinda smiled and stood.“I’ll be back after dinner.Cross my heart.”She made the motion over her chest, and one of her puffy sleeves snagged her attention.Her nose crinkled in disgust.“I’ve had about enough of this nonsense, too,” she said, snapping her fingers.
