Angel's Messiah (8 page)

I actually made Danny wander through all three stores without making any purchases. I wanted to compare prices and goods, weighing up the pros and cons of each item before I made any decisions. As a result it was too late to buy anything that day. We’d need to return tomorrow.

“What was the point of that?” Danny asked when we were back in the room.

“I wanted to do all my research first, find the best goods at the best prices.”

“You know money’s not an issue.”

“I know, but where’s the fun if I can’t find a bargain or haggle?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “What would you like to do tonight that falls within the confines of
behaving?
”

“How about we watch a movie?” I said. “I haven’t watched anything in ages.”

I turned on the television and flicked through channel after channel trying to find something suitable to watch. I finally settled for a movie — I couldn’t for the life of me think of its name — about a boy and his dog lost in the wilderness, trying to make their way home. It was one of those feel-good family movies that have a happy ending.

Danny stood up, stretched and walked to the window to look at the flashing lights and neon signs. As he turned to come back he bent down near the television and picked something up.

“Isn’t this meant to be plugged in for it to work?” he asked.

I sat there gobsmacked and nodded. Had the television been unplugged all this time?

“Seems this is another thing you can do,” he said, waving the plug.

“Me,
why me?
”

He shrugged his shoulders. “You’re the one with the remote. I was just a spectator.”

Super-mum and electro-girl, that’s who I was. How cool was that? It opened up a world of possibilities for me.

“We should get a television for the cottage. You’ll love some of the classics. We’ll be able to watch whatever we want whenever we want. The baby will love it too.”

“If you can power it, you can have it,” Danny said.

“Yay,” I said, clapping my hands. “I can have a hairdryer and a laptop — I wonder if we can get broadband at the cottage — and a night light for the nursery. I’m going to need a pen and paper to write all this down. I’ll never remember everything.”

Danny just shook his head and laughed. He’d unleashed a monster.

I was tired the next morning, not from any night-time activity — I behaved, like I said I would — but from staying up watching television, adding to the list of geek gadgets I wanted, and general lack of sleep. I felt a little dizzy, but it was nothing I couldn’t deal with.

“Shall we head off?” I asked.

“Are we walking?”

“It’s only a few kilometres,” I said. “It won’t kill you to walk. Besides, it looks like such a nice day and we’re in no rush, are we?”

Baby World was our first stop. From that store we bought a pram, change table — complete with baby bath — some soft toys, mobiles and baby clothes in neutral colours, because
I
wasn’t convinced I was having a girl.

At Bouncing Baby we were greeted by a lovely lady whose name was Jill. She was so helpful I decided to buy from her the few things I was going to get at Bubs ‘n’ Bibs. Jill knew exactly what I was after. She even suggested matching curtains to go with the comforter set, and a rocking chair for me to sit on when the baby needed settling. I hadn’t even thought of a rocking chair. There was also a chest of drawers and bookcase to match the cot. Danny already had some books for the baby, so I thought the bookcase was appropriate. I’d also forgotten about a portable cot and play pen, and they were quickly added to the list of purchases.

“What do we
need
all this stuff for anyway,” Danny grumbled.

“Men,” Jill laughed, hooking her arm through mine and steering me towards baby clothing and maternity wear. “They don’t know anything, do they?”

I shuddered at the thought of having to wear clothes that announced to the world I was pregnant —
look at me, look at me
— and while some of it was nice, none of it was me. I’d have to make up my own wardrobe as time passed. Lots of loose stuff to make it look less obvious I was pregnant. I’d rather people thought I was fat than pregnant. It was stupid really. I mean, everyone knows how you get pregnant — what you’ve been up to — I just didn’t want to advertise the fact. All I wanted was something to hide my growing stomach.

Luckily Jill quickly realised conventional maternity wear wasn’t for me and we ended up looking at more baby clothes.

“Babies tend to leak a lot,” she laughed, “top and bottom. You can never have too many changes of clothes.”

Danny walked a safe distance behind us, pushing a trolley laden with goods that could be packed up and taken back to the hotel with us. We added to the trolley little booties and mittens, jumpsuits, singlets, bibs, soft blankets, towels and rattles.

“Thanks for all your help, Jill, you’ve been great,” I said.

“That’s what I’m here for,” she said. “Now, if you can just fill out an address for delivery we’ll be all set.”

I filled out the details and handed the form back to Jill.

“It was nice to meet both of you. I hope everything goes well for you,” Jill said.

“Thanks, Jill. It was nice to meet you too.”

As Danny and I walked out the door I heard her excited whispering to a fellow worker that we were staying at the penthouse suite in the La’miere. Years ago I wouldn’t have heard a whisper like that, but now I could hear a pin drop, literally.

“Danny, I know I bought a lot of stuff. When everything’s been delivered let’s hire a minivan instead of a car. I really don’t want to do more than one trip.”

5.
Blackouts

Danny tried assembling the cot, pram and change table the normal mortal way. He was so baffled by the instructions he gave up in the end, and assembled them the angelic way, with a simple thought.

I hadn’t laughed so hard in ages. My sides hurt and my stomach complained. I blinked in and out a couple of times and Danny thought it hilarious when he heard disembodied laughing. I didn’t wear the silver chain he gave me at home. With no mortals around it wasn’t really necessary. Danny was used to it by now.

Over the next couple of months my appetite increased and we ranged further away to find food. On one afternoon Danny led three werewolves on a merry chase while I let the others attack. I wasn’t quite sure what happened, but woke to Danny shaking me.

“Helena, are you okay?”

I was a bit startled.

“I must have dropped off to sleep,” I said.

“It’s a good thing anything that tries to harm you dies, particularly if you’re going to fall asleep mid-meal.”

“Yeah, I guess it is,” I laughed, though inwardly I was worried. I hadn’t been in the slightest bit tired.

When we got home I sat outside on the garden swing, resting. Danny picked a few freesias, before coming to join me on the swing. He handed me the small bunch of flowers. I held them to my nose and breathed in the sweet fragrance. My mouth started watering. Before I could stop myself I’d popped the flowers in my mouth, the stems sticking out like long, thin green straws. They tasted
so
good, even though I didn’t chew on them. I let them get kind of soggy on my tongue, until they released their natural oil and it trickled down the back of my throat.

“What are you doing?” Danny asked.

I’d closed my eyes and forgotten he was sitting next to me. I pulled the mushy flowers from my mouth, embarrassed at what I’d been caught doing.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly, “I couldn’t help it. I just needed to taste them.”

“You feel okay, though? You’re not going to be sick?” he asked anxiously.

“No, I feel fine. Must be one of those weird pregnancy cravings I used to hear about. Some women even eat dirt or chalk. At least freesias taste nice
.
”

“As long as it doesn’t make you sick you can eat almost anything you like. You know the one thing you’re not allowed to touch though.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know, I know. No mortal blood must ever pass my lips or I’ll be damned to hell. Wouldn’t Satan be
pleased
to see
me.
”

“Shall I pick you a few more?”

“Yes, please. They’re quite delicious. It makes a nice change from my usual diet.”

Danny returned with a couple of dozen freesias. I lay with my head in his lap, stuffing six in my mouth at a time. My stomach had started to swell and I thought I looked hideous and puffy. Danny said I looked more beautiful than ever. I was beginning to wonder about angels not being able to lie. Laying on my back it was even more noticeable that I was pregnant.

I felt the weirdest fluttering in my stomach and thought maybe the freesias weren’t agreeing with me. I placed a hand under my top and rubbed my stomach. I thought I felt something under my hand and sat up quickly.

“Is something wrong with the baby?” Danny asked, alarmed.

“No,” I said in wonder, “I think I just felt it kick.”

I exposed my belly and placed Danny’s hand on the same spot I’d been rubbing. We waited and after a minute or so, we both felt it, a small kick.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Very,” Danny replied.

He knelt on the ground and placed an ear on my stomach, listening.

“Can you hear anything?”

“The heartbeat is much stronger now,” he said, and was promptly kicked in the ear.

He sat back on his knees and rested his hands on either side of my stomach, waiting to see my skin ripple. I was shocked when the first kick we saw was accompanied by a faint red glow.

“Danny, what was that?” I asked, scared.

“I don’t know. Can you look inwards and see what’s going on?”

I closed my eyes and probed my womb. The baby wouldn’t let me get too close, although everything appeared to be fine. I thought I heard a faint giggle, but the baby wouldn’t be making noises yet, would it?

“Helena.”

“Oh, sorry,” my mind was replaying the giggling sound, “everything seems okay.”

“How are we to know what’s normal and what’s not?” Danny asked.

“As long as the baby is growing as it should, I think we’re going to have to take things as they come. I mean, mortals don’t blink or crave werewolf, so we’re beyond the realm of
normal
anyway.”

Life certainly didn’t get any weirder than this. The bigger I got and the more the baby kicked, the stronger the red glow became, and the more prone I was to what I’d discovered were blackouts. Luckily Danny had never seen them happen, though I knew it was only a matter of time.

Twice now when we’d been hunting werewolves I’d blacked out. Once I blinked before blacking out. I had to give Danny some story about my ankles feeling too swollen to run, and that was why it had taken so long for me to catch up to him. It was absolute rubbish, but I didn’t want to be confined to the cottage just yet. The second time Danny thought it was a ploy to get the werewolves to attack, and they did. It’s just that I wasn’t conscious at the time. I knew when it was about to happen. I felt my blood pressure drop sharply. My eyes would start to roll to the back of my head before I’d lose control of my body and mind.

Danny was now starting to slow the pace down, thinking my ankles were bothering me. He’d even offered to track the wolves and return to transport me to their location. I told him I still needed the exercise and it was only every now and then that my ankles troubled me.

If I was truthful with myself the blackouts did scare me. I wasn’t going to let my fears get the better of me though. If I could survive being trapped in a blanket box for thirty to forty hours as a child, and get over my fear of confined spaces, I could do anything.

“Danny,” I said, as I eased myself into bed, “I’m curious about something.”

He pulled the covers over me and raised the end of the bed, so my feet were slightly elevated. Apparently that was meant to help with fluid retention. He’d been reading a lot of books on pregnancy and childbirth to try and get an idea of what to expect, at least from a mortal perspective. My body
had
been mortal not that long ago. Danny thought there would be parallels between the various stages of pregnancy and birth.

He climbed into bed next to me and I crawled into his arms.

“What would you like to know?”

“You know I’m not really religious.”

“That’s not a question,” he said.

“I’m not finished yet. Will we be teaching the baby about religion? I mean, which one is right, about God?”

“Our daughter won’t be living amongst mortals. She doesn’t need to know about their religions, though she will need to learn the histories of mortals and immortals. She needs to know what we’re up against. As to religions, most of them believe in one true God. It’s basically the only thing they agree on. Religion is for the masses. They think they need religion,” Danny snorted, “when all they need is faith.”