Angel's Messiah (6 page)

“
Helena,
” Danny yelled. “Are you still here?”

“Yes,” I called out, though the sound seemed slightly muffled.

I saw Danny’s face appear above mine. For the first time since I’d met him he looked ruffled. His hair was messed up and his clothes dirty and torn. It was a turn-on, seeing him like that. A pity I was being torn to shreds though. I realised then that when he patrolled he must clean himself up after a fight, before returning home to me.

“Helena, have you blinked again?”

“I’m gone am I?” I asked. “What about the wolves, they’re still here, aren’t they?”

“Yes, you’re gone, but you don’t have to worry about the wolves.”

I felt a twinge of pain as Danny pulled the wolves from me and their teeth came free of my flesh. I sat up and focused on blinking back. Danny was relieved to see me in one piece.

“We have to be more careful,” I said, and pointed to my stomach, “baby, remember.”

“It’s my fault,” Danny said. “I’m getting as reckless as you.”

I laughed. “
As if.
”

I looked at the scene around me — three
statues
of werewolves and two piles of ash.

“What happened to them?” I asked, pointing to the granite-like bodies.

“Helena, you’re causing it. You’ve developed another defensive mechanism,” Danny said. “Perhaps it’s in response to being pregnant. I really don’t think there’s anything in heaven, earth or hell that could kill you at the moment. I think you and the baby are being protected.”

Wow! I was some sort of super-mum, protecting myself and the life growing inside me, without even knowing it.

“Cool,” I said.

“How do you feel though? The bites were quite deep.”

I thought about where they’d bitten me — leg, stomach and arm.
Stomach.
I lifted my top. The wounds had already healed. Had the werewolf’s fangs punctured my womb? Was the baby at risk? I looked inwards and heard the fluttering of the tiny heart, unchanged. Nothing had been damaged.

I looked at Danny and smiled. “Everything’s fine and I feel great. You look a little worse for wear though.”

“I was rushing to get to you quicker.”

I stood up and poked my finger through a hole in his shirt.

“I think I need to tend to
your
wounds,” I said.

“I don’t have any wounds,” Danny replied.

“No, I
need
to tend your wounds.”

I pushed him to the ground and sat on his lap, tearing at the holes in his shirt as I did so.

“I don’t think here is a good place.”

I transported us back to the garden outside the cottage and continued in my attempts to undress him.

“Are you happy now?” I purred. “Oh look, here’s another place they scratched you,”
rip clothes, kiss the long healed wound,
“and this one’s definitely a bite mark,”
rip clothes, kiss the long healed wound.

Danny ended up enjoying himself as much as I did. He wasn’t the least bit phased about hurting the baby and I totally forgot I was pregnant, for a while.

The next day I was ravenous
again.
Werewolf agreed with me, even though I’d eaten in a very unconventional way — it’s not every day you get to turn your attackers into stone
and
score their energy.

I really was eating for two. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was burning off the energy with Danny almost as quickly as I was gaining it, I would have soon ended up with a body the size of a pig, to match my pig-headedness. My hungers had not waned — not for food, not for Danny.

Danny rolled his eyes. “Is it time to feed you again already?”

“Yes, I’m starving.”

“It’s all well and good to feed you, but the time you spend burning off the energy afterwards is going to kill me,” he complained.

“I can’t help it,” I pouted. “My body has
special
needs at the moment. You just happen to be one of them.”

“If you continue to have as much success with the wolves as you did yesterday, I might let you out on your own in a week or so. That is, provided you don’t feel sick or dizzy. I’ll be in need of a rest.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said dryly.

I felt like Danny was coddling me in some areas — like feeding — and giving free rein in others — like sex. I guess it was a miracle he agreed to sex at all now I was pregnant.

4.
Shopping

Werewolves were a lot of fun to hunt. They were bigger and fiercer than vamps and rarely travelled alone. Danny had made it his job to find them for me, then he’d hang back while I walked in and let them take a bite out of me. As long as they stuck to my legs, arms, or upper body I wasn’t bothered too much. The small amount of pain I had to endure was nothing compared to the pleasure afterwards. I was still wary about letting them bite my stomach and lower abdomen, even though no damage had been done so far.

We didn’t bother clearing away the bodies. It all added to the fun, knowing the vamps and werewolves would be wondering what was killing these massive creatures so effectively — how they were being turned into stone. Maybe there was a market for them in the city. People would buy anything if they thought it was art.

After the four werewolves currently fastened to me whimpered and died — they all whimper in the end — I was on a high from their energy. I pushed their bodies away — detaching their teeth from my flesh always hurt a little — and rushed over to Danny, jumping into his outstretched arms and wrapping my legs about his waist. I’d have to eat ten vamps in order to get the same buzz from four werewolves. Maybe a permanent change of diet was in order.

“I’ll race you home,” I laughed, and dropping down to the ground started running.

It was a good four hundred kilometres back to the cottage. I wasn’t going to run the whole way, but Danny didn’t need to know that. Besides, I’d probably have difficulty finding it on foot. I looked back over my shoulder. He wasn’t there. As I looked ahead of me, I caught movement out of the corner of my left eye. It was Danny. The sneak had transported ahead and was now intercepting me. He wrapped his arms around my waist as I ran. Before I could react we were back at the cottage, in the garden at the rear. Something smelled different. It was a familiar smell, yet not one that belonged here. I found myself thinking of the beach, of all places.

“Clearly you need to burn off some energy,
again.
How about a swim?”

I looked behind me. A good portion of the garden was gone, replaced by an Olympic-size swimming pool. I clapped my hands and, wriggling out of Danny’s arms, ran and jumped into what I hoped was the deep end. It turned out that it was the same depth the whole way around. Danny probably didn’t know that most pools had a shallow end and a deep end.

My clothes were weighing me down, so I sent them away without much thought. The water may have only came up to my neck, but clothes were a hassle in a pool. I looked down at the water. I’d always liked the way water can make your body look distorted — with the small waves I made my body appeared to be undulating.

Danny dove in one end of the pool and swam all the way underwater to where I was, grabbing my legs and pulling me under. He kissed me and lifted me out of the water.

“I like your swimsuit,” he said.

I looked in the water and grinned. “Yours isn’t bad either.”

Danny rubbed my stomach, something he’d taken to doing a lot lately.

“Are you putting on weight?” he asked.

“It’s not like I’m
supposed
to,” I said sarcastically.

“Okay, you were being sarcastic, weren’t you?”

I laughed and kissed him. He was so funny sometimes.

“Let’s do some laps before I wear you right out,” I said. “Maybe a bit of dancing later … I still have to show you what a lap dance is.”

He ran his hands through my wet hair and kissed my neck.

“I’m looking forward to learning how to do that one.”

“You’ll be a passive participant,” I murmured in his ear.

He gave me a look that said he didn’t understand. I tapped the side of my nose and smiled. That was for me to know and him to find out.

I took off down the pool to do some laps, and after half an hour, and a few kilometres of ground covered, I was ready for a tango, salsa or rumba. I’d leave the decision up to Danny. He was getting very good at the tango, though really needed to work on the other two. Whichever he decided didn’t matter, it would be a good warm up for the other dancing still to come.

“Tango, I think,” Danny said.

“How did you know what I was thinking?”

“If you thought it any louder our nearest neighbours a couple of hundred kilometres away would have heard it,” he chuckled.

“Oh,” I said.

It must be another pregnancy thing, along with vagueness. It was a good thing I could summon things. I kept putting stuff down and forgetting where I’d put it, and forever had to summon it back to me.

I stepped out of the pool, naked and dripping, and returned to the cottage. Danny met me in the ballroom and suitably attired us. My costume was a bit tight — I
was
putting on weight — and I adjusted it accordingly.

An hour into the dance Danny switched to a slow dance. He was trying to wind me down. I didn’t mind. The more energy I saved now, the more I could expend later. As we slowly made our way around the dance floor I was conscious of my stomach pressing up against Danny.

“Danny, I’ve been thinking.”

“About what?” he asked dreamily, contentedly.

“About the baby,” I said. “It’s going to need a room of its own and lots of things. Babies are a lot of work.”

“Don’t worry too much, we can cater for her every need.”

Danny had his heart set on having a girl. I hoped he wouldn’t be disappointed if it were a boy.

“I know we
can,
but I’d really like to do this the way it would be done if I were still mortal. I want the whole shopping experience.”

“Shopping,” Danny groaned.

“Yes, shopping, and I want us to do it as a couple. I think it’ll be great fun buying all the stuff the baby will need.” I pushed my belly hard against Danny to remind him what we were talking about. “I’ve still got
my
credit cards.”

He laughed and hugged me tight, in a warm, safe cocoon. “What is it about spending money that you like so much?”

“Finding a bargain or that special little thing is very much like the thrill of the hunt. I get a real adrenaline rush out of it. Shopping helped me through some hard times years ago.”

Danny nodded his head. He still felt guilty about what had happened to me after he’d died — how I’d suffered, and the things I’d done as a direct result of his death. If there was one thing that would guarantee me getting my way, it was playing the guilt card, intentionally or not.

“When do mortals usually do their baby shopping?” he asked.

“It depends if they’re superstitious or not. Most miscarriages happen in the first three months, so a lot of people don’t shop before then. There are lots of women who think having any baby clothes in the house before the baby is born is bad luck.”

“What’s your opinion on it?”

“I say you get started on that room today. I want to go shopping, and we’ll need somewhere to put everything.”

“Did you want me to create the room now?”

I thought about it, for all of two seconds, and nibbled his ear.

“After,” I said. “It can wait until after.”

Danny created the baby’s room off our bedroom. Like when he’d added the ballroom, from the outside the cottage looked no different, though on the inside it was bigger. He made everything pink. I hated it. It looked like some sort of fantasy room for dirty old men to get their rocks off with girls dressed in school uniforms. It reminded me that the baby’s education was another thing we’d need to discuss.

“I don’t mind a mix of pale pink and pale blue, but not this,” I snorted. “It’s disgusting.”

“I’ve never dealt with babies before. I don’t know what’s right and wrong. You’ll need to provide me with some guidance,” he said.

“Oh,” I replied, not that I’d had much to do with babies either. “Well how about I take care of decorating and you can be in charge of assembling all the furniture we’re going to buy.”

Danny shook his head. I wondered if
he
wondered what he’d gotten himself into. I was a bit of an emotional terrorist at the moment. My hormones still hadn’t settled down. I slipped my hand into his and kissed his cheek.

“The room is great by the way, the perfect size for a baby. You can always make it bigger as the baby grows and wants more personal space.”

“Personal space? What about us, are we going to get any personal space?”