“You idiot!” Darnell shouted at Marcus. “How could you be so fucking stupid?”
“Darnell!” Ami bit out. “I said it was an accident!”
“Stepping on your toe is an accident, Ami,” Darnell protested. “Spilling your tea is an accident. This is fucking stupidity!” he bellowed, his fear for her plain.
Not wanting Marcus to condemn himself even more, Ami jumped to his defense, bickering with Darnell while Marcus silently held her, face buried in the crook of her neck, squeezing her tighter and tighter until his grip bordered on pain.
“Wait,” Seth said suddenly.
Ami and Darnell fell silent.
“Ami, what are your symptoms again?”
She saw a look pass between him and David.
“Fever. Nausea. Vomiting. Fatigue. A heightened sense of smell.”
Again, he and David shared a look.
“Everyone be quiet for a moment,” Seth commanded.
No one said a word.
A minute passed, during which Seth didn’t move.
David suddenly sucked in a breath. His eyes widened.
“You hear it?” Seth asked him.
“Yes.”
Marcus straightened. Keeping one arm around Ami, he faced the elder immortals. “Hear what?”
“Ami,” Seth said, “you aren’t infected with the virus.”
“I’m not?” Relief suffused her . . . until she realized they did not look relieved. “Then, what is it?”
David drew her gaze. “You’re pregnant.”
For the first time in a month, Melanie felt only happiness. She adored Bastien and felt so loved in return. They grew closer every day. They were going to marry.
And now they had their own home. No more watching every word spoken outside their bedroom because anyone could be listening. And would.
As Bastien guided her Chevy up the last stretch of a very long drive, the headlights fell upon a lovely one-story home. Melanie was still getting used to the way color appeared at night with her newly enhanced vision, but thought it was tan or some similar pale earth tone with white trim and dark shutters. Solar panels on the roof reflected the light of the moon overhead. A quaint front porch . . . was occupied.
Seth sat on the steps leading up to it.
Bastien pulled the car up close to the garage and parked.
As they exited the car and crunched their way up the gravel path, Seth rose.
He seemed . . . very somber. Or upset. His eyes were glowing a faint, entrancing gold.
“What’s up?” Bastien asked. He touched a hand to Melanie’s back.
Melanie leaned into his side.
“We have a situation.”
Oh, no. Not Cliff, she thought. Please, not Cliff. He’s been doing so well.
“It isn’t Cliff,” Seth told her.
“Then what is it?” Bastien asked.
Seth hesitated. His long hair, usually neatly combed and confined by a leather tie, was loose and disheveled as if he had run his hands through it repeatedly. “I’m betraying a confidence here. But I need your help.”
Melanie glanced up at Bastien. Judging by his puckered brow, he was picking up on their leader’s anxiety, too. “We’ll do whatever we can,” she said.
Bastien seconded her vow. “What is it? What’s happened?”
Seth drew in a deep breath. “Ami is pregnant.”
The stark declaration sent shock rippling through Melanie. Beside her, Bastien stopped breathing.
“I thought immortals were incapable of impregnating a mortal,” she said slowly.
Seth’s lips stretched in a tight smile that held no amusement. “Ami isn’t your ordinary mortal.”
“That moron!” Bastien blurted, face darkening with fury. “Of all the half-witted, imbecilic, numbnutted things to do! Didn’t he use condoms?”
“No. He thought it unnecessary because technically she’s mortal.”
“She isn’t human!” Bastien bellowed. “She heals at an accelerated rate! Did he never think that—”
Seth held up a hand. “He didn’t.”
Melanie studied the men. “Are you worried that Ami has become infected with the virus? Or are you worried that the fetus is infected?”
“Both,” Seth confided. “I can’t smell the virus on her, but . . . because her physiology is different . . . on her I may not be able to.”
Melanie understood their concern. There was no way of anticipating what the virus would do to her, if it would transform her or kill her. Make her vampire or immortal. And an infant . . .
Would the virus keep it from developing properly? From aging?
And what of Ami’s origins? Would a fetus that resulted from gifted one DNA and alien DNA combining be . . . healthy?
“How are they taking it?” she asked.
Seth shook his head. “Marcus is devastated and is doing his damnedest to hide it because Ami is thrilled. The primary reason she came here was because a virus used as a bioweapon by people from another solar system has rendered an overwhelming majority of the women on her planet either infertile or unable to carry a baby to term. Births are extremely rare on her home world, so . . . yeah. She’s excited.”
Bastien swore. “She doesn’t understand.”
“No,” Seth agreed, “she doesn’t.”
“You have to tell her,” Melanie said. “She deserves to know the truth.”
Seth met her gaze. “Would you talk to her? Examine her?”
“I don’t think she’ll—”
“She wants you to. I told her that, because difficult pregnancies are the norm now for her people, she would need nearly constant medical supervision by immortal healers and human physicians. David and I may have both delivered babies in the past—”
Bastien’s eyebrows rose. “You have?”
“But our overall knowledge of gestation and the various problems that can arise is limited. Unless her health is threatened, I’m not sure we would know what was normal and what wasn’t. I told her as much and . . . she asked that you examine her, Melanie, and guide her through her pregnancy.”
Melanie would be happy to do so. Ami must have lost her fear of Melanie while caring for her during her transformation. And, because Melanie had spent so much time studying the intricate differences in physiology between vampires and immortals, she was the most qualified to monitor the fetus—and Ami—for signs of infection.
“My specialty isn’t obstetrics, but I can read a lot faster now and can learn everything I need to know in very little time. I’ll get started tonight if you’d like.”
“Tomorrow will be soon enough. Tell Chris what books and other materials you need and he’ll have them here by sunrise.”
“Great. I’ll do that.”
“I was also thinking of bringing in an immortal from Germany who has been doing his own research on the virus. He might know more about its effect on babies.”
“I’d welcome his knowledge.”
“David and I discussed it and . . . either he or I will remain here at his home in case anything goes wrong or she should need our healing abilities to help her carry the baby to term.”
Bastien said, “I know nothing about any of this, but I’ll do whatever I can to help, too. Anything you need, just say the word.”
Melanie knew he thought of Ami as a sister and was very protective of her.
Melanie felt protective of her, too. Ami had been the first in the Immortal Guardians’ world to offer Bastien friendship without strings attached. And Melanie had been one of the few people who had been told Ami’s true origins. Most believed her a gifted one.
“So,” Bastien broached hesitantly, “how are you going to keep this quiet?”
“I don’t think we can. We all missed the fetus’s heartbeat because the pregnancy is so new and babies just aren’t part of our world. I realize now that I heard it at dinner. I just assumed it was Slim. But, that heartbeat will grow stronger.”