The beeping was really making it hard for me to sleep. Wait. Was I sleeping? Or was I dead? I didn’t feel dead. I hurt too much to be dead. Although I felt drugged at the same time. Could you be in pain while also sedated?

Apparently, it was a thing.

The beeping continued to be annoying, but the smell wasn’t great either. Like antiseptic and floor cleaner. There was no way I was dead.

I opened my eyes to slits. Everything was blurry, and the light wasn’t that bright, but it was bright enough to feel harsh on my tired peepers. I closed them again but not before I recognized there was a tube running out of my hand.

I groaned as I realized I was in the hospital. I mean, it was better to be in the hospital than dead, but I would have preferred to be home.

Or was I dreaming?

Someone gasped. “She’s awake.”

I opened my eyes again. An older woman with a halo of blue hair appeared in my blurry vision. I grinned. I wasn’t dreaming. “Hi, Birdie.”

My voice sounded raspy, but then my throat was pretty dry. At least my vision was clearing up.

“Hi, Princess.”

I tried to look past her to find my husband. “Sin?”

She nodded. “He just went to get a cup of coffee from the vending machine. I’m so glad you’re back with us. You want some water?”

I nodded.

She helped me drink, holding a cup with a bendy straw in it. The water was lukewarm, but I didn’t care. It was wet, and that was all that mattered.

The door to the room opened, and the most handsome man I’d ever seen walked in.

His mouth came open. “Jayne?”

“Hi, honey.”

He put his coffee cup down and rushed to the side of the bed. “How are you?”

“Better now.” I was too. Seeing him healed all sorts of hurts.

He kissed my cheek. I inhaled the scent of him. So much better than floor cleaner and antiseptic. “Did you get them? Did you get the Quinlans? That’s who did this to me, you know.”

He and Birdie nodded in unison, but Sin spoke first. “Yes. Sandy and Jerry are both in holding cells awaiting arraignment, but with the counterfeiting charges, kidnapping, and attempted murder, they won’t be going anywhere for a long time.”

I tried to remember everything that had happened. “Didn’t Sandy get shot?”

Birdie looked extra happy all of a sudden. “Yep. Right in the hindquarters, too. Ricochet from trying to shoot her way out of that nifty little ice cube you put her in.”

I laughed but stopped since that made parts of me hurt. “She shot herself in the butt? I love that so much. She’s a terrible nurse, you know.”

“Oh,” Birdie said. “Her license has already been revoked. The only job she’ll ever work at is making license plates.”

Sin’s expression had gone more serious. “You got shot too, you know.”

“I did? No, wait, I remember that. I did get shot.” I tried to look at my shoulder, but it was all bandaged up. “Is it bad?”

He shook his head. “Thankfully, no. The bullet just grazed your shoulder. Bled pretty bad, and you might have a scar, but the doctor didn’t think you’d even need rehab.”

“Your head,” Birdie said. “Now that’s another matter altogether. You got twelve staples.”

“Staples?” I looked at her in horror. “In my head?”

“Yes.” She made a face. “And you were badly concussed. In fact, they’re probably going to keep you overnight.”

“How long have I been in here?” I had no real sense of time. It looked like dusk outside. Or dawn. I couldn’t tell.

Sin answered. “Not quite a full day.”

The door opened again, and a big bouquet of flowers walked in. Over the tops of the flowers, I could see familiar red hair. I got a weird feeling in my stomach. Like I was going to have to fight someone again.

“What’s she doing here?” I hissed to Sin.

He looked up and smiled at Gracie. Smiled. “Sweetheart, you might not believe it, but Gracie is the reason you’re alive.”

Gracie shook her head. “You’re giving me too much credit.” She smiled at me. “I just wanted to bring you these. I’m so glad you’re okay.” She put the flowers on the windowsill alongside a few others that were already there. “I’ll leave you guys alone.”

“Wait,” I said. “Explain.”

Sinclair and Birdie took turns telling me the whole story about how they’d figured out where I was, starting with how Gracie had been sure I’d been in the RV park office.

Sin held my hand. “If not for that, we’d have been clueless as to how to find you.”

Gracie looked embarrassed by the attention. She came a little closer. “I want to apologize to you, Jayne. I came on pretty strong when we first met, and I’m sorry about that. You’re so beautiful, I was a little intimidated. On top of that, I blamed myself for letting Sinclair get away, and my jealousy and insecurity came out in a really bad way. You have nothing to worry about from me, I promise.”

I was kind of speechless. She’d been intimidated by me? It was a pretty big move to make such a public admission like that. Plus, she’d saved my life. “Why did you come into the store looking for Christmas Magic paper?”

“Because I really wanted some. When I got home and talked to my brother and he told me what was going on with it, I really felt stupid. You must have thought I was up to something. I promise I wasn’t. Just bad timing on my part.”

I looked at Birdie. She gave me a little nod. Her way of telling me Gracie was on the level. I believed her. Birdie would never steer me wrong. I smiled at Gracie. “Let’s put all of that behind us, okay? Thank you for everything you did to help Sin find me.”

She smiled with a little more feeling this time. “You’re welcome. I’m so glad I could do it.”

There was a knock at the door, and a doctor came in. “I understand our patient is awake?” He came over and looked at the chart at the foot of the bed.

While he was reading it, Birdie patted my leg. “Gracie and I will leave you two alone to talk to the doctor. We’ll be right outside if you need us.”

As they left, the doctor looked up at us. “That was a pretty bad blow to the head you took, but I’m more concerned about the Versed you were injected with.”

Sin frowned. “That’s the first I’ve heard about it.”

He nodded. “We found traces of it in her system. Because of that, we’d like to keep her for another day for observation.”

“I feel fine,” I said. Total lie but I did feel well enough to be home. I could be in pain there just as easily as I could here. More easily, actually.

“I’m glad to hear that, but Versed can cause complications, especially in the early stages of pregnancy, so we’d like to—”

“What did you say?” I stared at him. I knew what he’d said. I’d heard the word. I just needed to hear it again to be sure.

“Versed can complicate early-stage pregnancy.”

The tight jeans, the increased appetite, the weird queasiness, the heightened emotions, the new desire for spicy foods, even the extra drain that using my magic had caused … all those things made sense now.

I looked up at Sin, realizing he hadn’t said a word. For a necromancer, he sure looked a lot like a zombie right now.

“We’re, uh …” He swallowed, staring at the doctor. “Did you say …”

The doctor grinned. “I take it neither of you knew? Well, let me be the first to say congratulations. I’m sure you’re hungry, too. I’ll get a nurse in to take your order. We need to keep you in good shape, mom.”

The doctor left, but Sin and I just looked at the closed door in silence for what seemed like an undeterminable amount of time.

Finally, Sin turned his whole body toward me. “You’re pregnant.”

I nodded slowly, which didn’t hurt nearly as much as it had just a day ago. “It’s your fault. Homemade doughnuts are practically an aphrodisiac.”

The biggest, goofiest grin spread across his face. I hadn’t seen him look that happy since our wedding day. “You’re pregnant.” His eyes were liquid with unshed tears. “You’re going to be a mom.” He sucked in a breath. “I’m going to be a dad.”

I felt a little weepy myself. “You’re going to be the best dad, too.”

Carefully, he took my face in his hands and kissed me. When the kiss ended, he kept his forehead pressed to mine for long time. “I love you, baby.”

“I love you, too.”

We stayed that way for a few more seconds, then Sin straightened, a look of concern on his face. “Birdie’s going to have a field day with this.”

He wasn’t wrong. “Maybe … maybe we don’t tell her right away.”

He gave me a look. “Sure. We’ll just keep it a secret from the woman who knows everything.”

“Hey, I’m on drugs here.” I put my hand on my stomach. I couldn’t feel anything, but just knowing that there was life in me was pretty awe-inspiring.

The nurse came in with Birdie behind her. “All right, I understand you’re ready for some dinner?”

I nodded. “I am starving.”

The nurse, who looked nothing like Sandy, handed me a menu. “Here you go. You’re not on a restricted diet, so you can have anything you’d like.” She smiled. “Got to keep that energy up when you’re incubating.”

Birdie stiffened like a bolt of lightning had gone through her. “Incubating? What’s that mean?” She looked at me, eyes wild and hopeful. “Does it mean what I think it means? Are you—are we having a baby?”

With his big grin back in place, Sin nodded at her.

She sat down and started to fan herself.

The nurse excused herself. “I’ll give you all a minute.”

As Birdie shed happy tears, I couldn’t do anything else but laugh, even if it did make parts of me hurt. While she got her composure back, I looked up at Sin. “I still haven’t gotten you anything for Christmas yet.”

He beamed at me. “I think you’re about to give me the best gift I could have ever wanted.”