A nurse who’s not Cassandra comes into the room, looking at the machine with a bit of confusion on her face. Oh, right. I cast a silence spell on this room. She could see the alert from the nurses’ station but couldn’t hear the alarm until she crossed the barrier and came into the room with us. She silences the alarm and looks at the screen for a moment.
“Is my daughter all right?” Lucas asks, brows furrowed. The young nurse looks from the screen to him, visibly taken aback by everything that Lucas is: attractive, intimidating, and giving off ancient dark energy nons wouldn’t be able to place but are both scared of and drawn to at the same time.
“Ummmm,” she starts and squirts hand sanitizer onto her hands, quickly rubbing it in before coming over to me. “Let me adjust this first.” She moves one of the monitors strapped around my stomach and helps me move more onto my side. Her face relaxes when she looks back at the monitor. “Baby’s heart rate is back to normal. The monitors slip out of place rather easily.”
“Thank you,” I tell her.
“Of course.” She watches the screen for a moment, making sure things are still good, and then goes back to whatever she was on her way to do.
“Fuck,” I say under my breath and put a hand on the side of my stomach, careful not to move the monitors. My skin feels so fucking tight, like it’s super dry and sunburned at the same time.
“You need to seriously consider bedrest when we get home.” Lucas paces from my side to the monitor, looking at it as if he knows what any of it means. “You might not have ended up here tonight if you went on bedrest when Maryellen first suggested it.”
“You’re blaming me for this?”
“Of course not.”
“But you said it,” I snap. “You said it so you must be thinking it. It’s my fault I’ve been feeling weird pains and now have high blood pressure.”
“Weird pains? You said you were fine.”
“I’m not feeling any pain now. And fine, Lucas. Lock me up in a tall tower, away from everything bad, and you will be the one to explain to our daughter why she was born into an apocalypse. You will be the one to tell her you kept the only person who could have stopped the Horsemen—”
“It doesn’t have to be you!” Lucas throws his hands out in frustration. “The weight of the world doesn’t fall only on your shoulders.”
“I wish that wasn’t true.” I say each word slowly, fighting to quell the anger inside me so I don’t blow up the monitor. “But we both know it has to be me. I’m the only who stands a fighting chance against them, and I’m the only one who can open and close the gates to get them back in.”
“No, you’re not!” He picks up the chair and throws it against the wall, shattering it into a dozen little pieces and denting the wall. I’ve never seen Lucas this angry before, and I get it. I really do. Of course I don’t want to do anything that puts Elena at risk. Getting pregnant was the last thing I wanted, given everything going on. But we don’t get to pick and choose our destiny, and the stars aligned in such a way that, against all odds, Lucas and I were able to have a child of our own.
I remind myself Lucas isn’t solely mad at me. He’s mad about this whole fucking situation, as am I, but it’s unfair to take it out on me like this. The lights flicker and the monitor starts beeping rapidly. The soundproof spell I cast on the hospital room won’t prevent the nurses from rushing in when they get alerted to the monitors again. Clenching my fists, I try to pull all my anger, all my power inside.
“Who else, then?” I say through gritted teeth.
“The archangels. They had to be the ones who did it before. They can do it again.”
“But at what cost, Lucas? How long do we have to sit back and watch the world burn before my all-powerful yet extremely disconnected relatives swoop in to save the day? The world has gone to shit before, and they didn’t help.”
“I don’t know,” he bellows. “But not at the cost of your life! If I lose you, I’ll lose Elena too.” The anger breaks away from his face. “I can’t lose you, Callie. If I lose you, I’ll have nothing.”
Heart hurting, I extend my hand for him. I absolutely hate fighting with Lucas, and tensions are high right now. Having a complication during pregnancy can happen to anyone, no matter how healthy and careful they are. Add in trying to stop an apocalypse and it really is a wonder I haven’t had a mental breakdown yet.
“You have Eliza,” I say, and Lucas comes back to me, taking my hand in both of his. “And someone has to take care of Scarlet.” I slowly push myself up. “You’re not going to lose me, Lucas. I’m way too stubborn to die.”
“We need to be realistic, Callie,” he says, voice somber. He’s right, and I really do need to come up with a contingency plan in case of my death. I don’t have a will, and now that Lucas’s wealth is mine as well, meeting with a lawyer to put things in writing is something I shouldn’t have put off. “And smart. You’re not a selfish person, but I am. So blame me for making you put yourself first. Step back. Don’t be the better person. Let the world burn.”
He knows I can’t do that. Sitting back and letting innocent people die goes against every fiber of my being. Literally. My dad is the protector of the innocent, the warrior against evil. It goes against my nature to let demons get an upper hand, even if I know I can take them all out later.
“After you give birth,” Lucas goes on. “You won’t be as human and as vulnerable. You’ll have full access to your angelic powers again, and there’s no risk this time when Michael unlocks the rest of them.”
“You’re right,” I tell him and blink back tears. My head is pounding, making me feel like I’m going to throw up. I bring my left hand up, forgetting about the IV line, and wince when it pulls.
“Rest.” Lucas pulls his hand from mine and gathers up the pieces of the broken chair, putting them in the corner near the bathroom. “Someone is on their way into the room,” he says, able to hear something I can’t. A few seconds later, Dr. Stevenson comes in and does a quick assessment before rolling the portable ultrasound machine to the bedside.
“Is this your first ultrasound?” she asks, moving the wand around my stomach. There’s no TV screen to look at this time, and I crane my neck to try and see what she can on the little screen.
I had an off-the-books one a few months ago, but I don’t want to get Abby in trouble or anything.
“Uh, yeah,” I say, flicking my eyes to Lucas. “We, um, have a strong feeling the baby is a female, though.”
“I see,” Dr. Stevenson says, moving the wand over my stomach. The outline of a baby comes in and out of focus. Lucas is holding my hand again, standing near the head of the bed so he can see the images on the little screen.
“There’s your baby. And it is a girl.” I push up on my elbows so I can see our baby and get all emotional the second I see the outline of her head. “Everything is looking good in here,” Dr. Stevenson tells us not long after taking a few more measurements. “I want to keep monitoring for contractions and the baby’s heartbeat, but know everything is good on that end too. So now we need to get your blood pressure down so you can keep that little girl in there for a couple more weeks at least.”
“Right,” I say and then realize what she said. A couple? It’s not June yet. Elena needs to stay put for more than two weeks. Dr. Stevenson gives me a paper towel to wipe the gel off my stomach and wheels the little stool she’s sitting on over to the desk to add notes to my file.
“I found a typo,” she says, sounding like she’s talking to herself. “This says you’re estimated due date is mid-June.”
“It is,” Lucas and I say at the same time.
Dr. Stevenson snaps her head up. “You’re measuring right around thirty-three weeks.”
I look at Lucas, too stunned to speak. “That’s…that’s not possible,” he says.
“It’s more common than you’d think to get a due date wrong, especially when you don’t get an early ultrasound. I can tell just by you lying there that you’re normally a very athletic person and can appear to carry small. It doesn’t mean your baby is small. It simply means you don’t look as pregnant as the average mother.”
My due date can’t be wrong. There was only one day Lucas was human enough to get me pregnant. What the hell is going on?
The phlebotomist from the lab comes in to take my blood, and Dr. Stevenson moves the ultrasound machine back against the wall and goes to check on her other patients. The blood can be taken out of the IV port, so no pain on my end, yet I still have to have Lucas distract me, which is pretty easy considering how we’re both still having our minds blown to hear that I’m only seven weeks away from being considered full-term.
“What the fuck?” I ask once we’re alone in the room again. “How did I bypass, like, a month?”
Lucas slowly shakes his head. “You were right on track with a June due date when Abby got you the ultrasound.”
“And we know the exact day I got pregnant. I even roughly remember the time. And what position we were in.”
“I do as well.” His eyes fall shut for a few seconds. “I remember the way you sounded when you came.” Opening his eyes, he looks at my stomach. “I could have sworn earlier when I hugged you that you felt bigger.”
“I thought so too. And Maryellen said I’m measuring bigger than she thought. But how?”
“I have no idea,” he says and sits on the bed next to me. “I’m going to assume it’s because you aren’t human, like you’ve been saying all along. The important thing is our baby is healthy. We will make sure you are as well.” He smiles. “And we’ll get to hold her sooner than we thought.”
I wish this brought me the same comfort it’s bringing Lucas. All it does is make me worry something is wrong, and Elena’s sudden growth spurt could leave something underdeveloped. Letting my head fall to the side, I close my eyes and am almost asleep by the time Cassandra comes back.
“Good news,” she says, wheeling in a med cart. “Your urine analysis came back normal.”
“And her bloodwork?” Lucas asks.
“A machine seems to be malfunctioning in the lab,” she replies, and I give Lucas a worried look. There’s nothing wrong with the machine. It can’t process my blood because it’s programed only to work for humans. “We were able to see that she is a little dehydrated, though, so the doc wants you to stay until the IV bag is empty.”
“How long will that take?” I rush out.
She looks at the bag. “You probably have another hour left. She also wants you to take some Benadryl to help lower your blood pressure. If we can get you down to normal range, she feels safe discharging you.”
“I need to be out of here before sunrise,” I say, looking up at Lucas. There’s no way I’m staying without him. “I can’t stay that long. I need to go home.”
“Um, I can’t force you to stay,” Cassandra says slowly. “It is in your best interest to let us help you.”
“Cassandra.” Lucas has her spellbound as soon as she makes eye contact with him. “Close your eyes and count to one hundred. You won’t hear anything we say in that time.”
“Okay.” She slowly nods and closes her eyes, quietly counting.
“It’s going to be okay,” Lucas tells me. “Kristy or Tabatha will come right away so you won’t be alone.”
“I want you,” I say, voice breaking. “Here with me.”
“I want to stay.” He looks pained.
“Then stay.” I blink back tears. “I have what I need to cast the spell on the window in my purse.”
“Callie,” he says gently, and my tears start to fall. Lucas takes me in his arms, holding me carefully so he doesn’t pull on the IV lines. The rest of our hundred seconds passes too quickly, and Cassandra gets out a syringe of medicine to push through the IV line.
I’ve never taken Benadryl before. The anti-itch salve Kristy makes is much better for treating pesky bug bites, and I’ve never had allergies. I’m not prepared for how tired and loopy it makes me feel, and I fight against the pull of the medicine, clinging onto Lucas’s hand.
“I’m scared,” I admit, voice a thin whisper.
“It’s going to be okay,” he tells me. “Go to sleep, my love.”
My eyes flutter shut, but not before I catch a glimpse of the rising sun in the window behind Lucas.