Page 10 of Blood of Night (The Thorne Hill)

“Good, sweet baby,” I tell her, smiling as I look down at her. A minute later, she pops off, gurgling and coughing. Panicked, I stand up and hold her against me, patting her back. The longest twenty seconds of my life pass by as she coughs and gasps for air before finally growing silent. I pull her back, needing to look at her face to make sure she’s breathing, and she spits up down the front of my shirt.

Then she starts crying again. And this time, I do too.

“Callie?” Eliza stops in the doorway. “Is everything okay?”

“No,” I admit, bottom lip quivering.

Eliza speeds over, stopping just a foot in front of me. I’m holding Juliet away from me, not wanting to cradle her against my spit up-covered chest and get it on her, though I doubt she’d care or even notice.

“I got her,” Eliza says over her loud cries. Sniffling, I hand her my baby and go into the bathroom, stopping in front of the mirror. I’ve been covered in blood and guts before and have thrown away more clothes than I want to think about because of it. I peel this shirt off me just like I would one that’s covered in body parts but toss it in my laundry basket instead. I don’t have that many tops that are easy to nurse in.

I rinse off the remaining spit up in the sink and go to my closet. Lucas and I each have our own closets, and his is neat and tidy, with everything in its place. Mine is semi-organized, with three piles on the floor for dirty clothes, clean clothes, and then some that fall somewhere in the middle. I pick up a shirt that’s halfway between the dirty and sorta-dirty clothes, taking my chances with either.

Juliet is still crying despite Eliza’s best efforts, and it takes a good ten minutes to get her calmed down enough to be able to nurse.

“Are you okay?” Eliza asks, perching on the side of the bed.

“I don’t want to do this alone,” I say, voice breaking.

Eliza puts her hand over mine. “You’re not alone, Callie.” She blinks back her own tears. “You know at first, I didn’t understand why so many people were willing to run headfirst into danger in order to help you. I didn’t think any human was worth it if it meant risking my nails.” She stops, taking in a breath she doesn’t need but instead is trying to keep her composure. “For the rest of my existence, you’re worth ruining a fresh manicure for. Fuck, I’d even ruin a new pair of shoes.”

“Coming from you, that means a lot.”

Blinking back her emotions, Eliza gives me her trademark grin. “Now, give me my sister once she’s asleep and go shower. Then we can get back to your annoying heroic and borderline neurotic planning.”

“Deal.” I bend down and kiss Juliet’s head. I’m getting a cramp in between my shoulder blades from holding her like this so much. How the hell do full humans do this? A few minutes later, I’m able to slowly pull her away, but right before Eliza takes her, she tips her head, listening to something I can’t hear.

Scarlet barks the exact second Eliza gets to her feet, and then the doorbell rings.

ChapterSix

Eliza’s eyes meet mine. “Stay here,” she says and then zooms out of the room. Who the hell is ringing my doorbell at this hour? It’s notthatlate, but the only people with a reason to come to my house know I have a baby and wouldn’t ring the damn bell.

“Freya,” I call, summoning my familiar. “Stay with Juliet.” Pandora is downstairs with Scarlet, guarding the door. She lets me know there’s a vampire on the porch—one she’s sensed before. Moving as fast as I can, I get Juliet in her swing, turn it on, and take a lingering look at my daughter before rushing out of the room. Freya shadows into her true form, hovering next to the swing. Binx follows me out of the room, and we race down the back staircase and hurry to the front door. Damn this house for being so big. It feels like it takes forever to get to the foyer.

Eliza has the door open several feet and is standing in a typical Eliza stance: arms crossed and looking bored. She’s anything but, though you couldn’t tell unless you really knew her. Scarlet is standing by her side, letting out a low growl. Pandora is shadowing behind, eyes flashing.

“Ahh, Mrs. King,” whoever is on the porch says, and the familiarity in his voice sends a chill through me. I know exactly who it is, and I do not have fucking time for this. The fact that he got past the wardings means he actually has no intention of causing me harm…or whatever happened with the Horsemen messed up the lines of magic and my wardings aren’t working as they should be.

“Eamon Ó Clêirigh,” I say, coming up next to Eliza and opening the door the rest of the way. I rest my hand on Scarlet, fingers touching her collar. I’ll take it off and let her rip this ancient vampire to shreds if he annoys me enough.

“I was just tellingElizahere how nice it is to finally meet the protégé of my dear friend Lucas King. I can see his influences already. And my, he did a fine job selecting a human to seek revenge on. It’s a shame it’s taken three centuries to meet.”

“What do you want?” I ask, cutting to the chase.

“You didn’t respond to my invitation, and it’s been a while since Lucas and I were thick as thieves but the lack of response is simply rude. I came to inquire as to why I didn’t get even a simple yay or nay.”

“Look dude,” I huff, remembering all too well the night I got his stupid letter. It’s the night War appeared, and the night that proved how outmatched I am to go head-to-head with Paimon. “I had more important things to attend to, okay? The world doesn’t revolve around you or your stupid little plan to overthrow the humans.”

“It’s more than that, Mrs. King. Why don’t you invite me in, and we can discuss this civilly over a glass of wine. For you, of course.”

“Hah. Nice try.”

“I didn’t think you’d be one to fear vampires.” Eamon laughs, flashing his fangs. In the back of my mind, I know a two-thousand-year-old vampire is bad news. He can cause horrible damage in just a matter of seconds and massacre an entire town overnight. Yet, compared to the end of days shit I’ve been dealing with, I’m not scared of him.

And that should scare me, but it doesn’t.

“I’m not scared of vampires, undead asshole. I just don’t want you in my house.” To prove my point, I step onto the porch. Scarlet and Binx move right along with me, and I see something flicker across Eamon’s face. Fear? No…I think it’s more curiosity. “Now, why are you really here?”

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