Page 133 of Midnight Sanctuary

I bite back my fear and my helplessness. “Do what you have to do.”

The scalpel presses into Alyssa’s stomach and ruby red blood appears instantly. I glance quickly at Alyssa’s face but she doesn’t seem to feel it.

“Don’t worry,” Emily reassures me. “She’s numbed from the neck down.”

She may not be feeling the pain right now, but that doesn’t mean her body’s not going into shock. Her blood pressure starts jumping erratically as Emily lengthens the incision. More blood. More beeping. More snarled medical jargon flying around the room like insects I can’t even begin to understand.

Emily starts barking an endless stream of orders to her staff and it takes everything I have in me not to go snatch the tools from her hands and try to do it all myself. With an agonized sigh, I drop back to my stool beside Alyssa’s head and focus on her face.

“You’re going to be okay,” I tell her fiercely. “You’re a fighter, Alyssa Bugrov. You’re a fucking warrior. You’re going to survive this and so are our babies.”

I keep talking through the frantic sounds and metallic clinks of medical instruments, the unsettling screeches of this and that piece of equipment. I keep whispering to her even after I’ve stopped listening to myself. I keep trying to give her comfort hoping that some part of her can hear me right now. And then—

“Waaaahhh!”

My heart skips a beat. Never have I heard anything quite as emotional or quite as beautiful as that piercing, high-pitched shriek. Just like that…

I’m a father.

“Get that little fighter out of here,” Emily’s voice booms over my head. “The other one’s right behind her. Right… here.”

Her?Did I hear that right? Do I have a daughter?

I don’t hear the second baby, though. The nurses whisk them both off before I get a chance to see either one of them. It doesn’t matter; I can’t bring myself to look away from Alyssa. Her skin has lost all its color in a matter of seconds. She’s starting to turn gray, ashen, cold to the touch.

“Uri.” Emily’s voice snaps me out of my reverie. “I’m going to need you to leave now.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“I know this is hard, but you’re going to have to trust me,” she insists. “I’m going to save Alyssa but you need to give me the room to do that.”

I stand up and step back. “I’ll give you room,” I tell her. “But I’m staying right here.”

Emily meets my eyes. She must see the determination in my face because she sighs defeatedly. “Fine. But in this O.R., I’m thepahkan. Got that?”

Under different circumstances, I might have smiled. Laughed, even. But all I can do now is nod. I’ll save the laughs for later.

When she’s healed.

When she’s safe.

When she’s in my arms where she belongs.

* * *

The moment her eyes open, they focus on me. It’s the sharp, intense stare of someone who recognizes the person they’re staring at, even through the bleary delirium of drugs and pain and labor.

“Alyssa,” I whisper her name. “Fuck. I’m so sorry.”

It’s amazing how easily that apology rolls off my tongue. It costs me nothing at all to say. In truth, it makes me feel lighter, freer somehow. Maybe that’s why I keep saying it.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry…”

She raises her arm weakly and places a limp finger against my lips. “Shh…” She squints against the light and looks from side to side. When she tries to say something, it comes out only as a feeble croak. She clears her throat and tries again. “Wh… where am I?”

“St. Mary’s.”

She frowns. “B-Boris?”

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