city of dragons 03 - fire magic (13 page)

I knelt next to her. “Ophelia, are you okay?” I tried to touch her.

Her eyes opened. She stopped seizing.

“Ophelia?” I whispered.

“Ouch,” she said.

I rocked back on my feet. “Are you okay?”

She pushed herself up into a sitting position. “It wouldn’t let me get close. That child has some kind of power, and it… zapped me. I felt it.”

I put my hands over my mouth. “Oh. Oh, God.”

Ophelia rubbed the back of her head gingerly.

“It shouldn’t be able to do that, should it?” I said. “There’s something wrong with this baby.”

“Well,” said Ophelia, “dragons aren’t born with magic, are they? Doesn’t it happen when you come of age? Then you can shift, and with the shifting comes the magic, correct?”

I nodded. “Yeah. That’s right.”

“So, it is odd that your child seems to have magic.”

“It’s
aware
,” I said. “That can’t be right.” I clutched my belly. “I’m so sorry, little one. Your horrible father did something to himself, and it must have gotten into you somehow—”

“Now, now,” said Ophelia. “I wouldn’t leap to conclusions. Maybe it wasn’t the child at all. Maybe it was
your
magic that leapt out at me. Maybe you have a subconscious maternal kneejerk reaction to magical probing.”

“You think so?” I said.

“It’s possible,” she said. “I can do more looking into it, if you’d like. But perhaps you should talk to your doctor about it. Aren’t most dragon doctors at least somewhat knowledgeable about magic?”

“My doctor did say that there was a magical protection around my uterus,” I said. “Maybe…” I chewed on my lip. “But Lachlan and I felt the baby. I felt it. It…” I rubbed my belly again.

Ophelia hugged me. “Penny, child, you’ve been through hell. I know it’s easy to start thinking that means everything will be hell from now on, but it’s not always the case. This might all work out. Have faith.”

I gave her a smile. But internally, I wasn’t sure it was possible for me to have any kind of faith. It seemed imperative to brace for the worst instead.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Lachlan’s living room now contained a couch and a love seat—both of which were a hideous shade of green that resembled puke, in my opinion. They were comfortable, however. He had a coffee table too, and we ate our takeout dinner in there. His kitchen still only had the card table, but he had procured another metal folding chair. The living room was more comfortable than that, though, I thought.

He had a little TV too, and we watched some detective show, even though Lachlan kept interrupting to talk about how unrealistic it was. I understood. Whenever they tried to do anything about dragons on movies or TV, they always seemed to get it wrong.

After dinner, we watched more television, and we snuggled on the couch under a blanket.

It was nice.

Drama-free and easy and sweet. Just what I needed. I didn’t even want to bring up what had happened with Ophelia earlier, and I thought that we might get by without it even coming up, so I enjoyed the relative domestic calmness and kept my mouth shut.

As it started to get late, I felt myself drifting off to sleep. I kept trying to keep my eyes open, but then I would think to myself that I could still listen to the television and shut them. Then I’d start dreaming the show, and it would go wildly off script, until Lachlan nudged me.

“Hey,” he said in a rumbly voice next to my ear. We were spooning on the couch, and he was the big spoon. “You awake?”

“Yes,” I said, not opening my eyes.

“Liar,” he said, and I could hear the smile in his voice.

I yawned, struggling to open my eyes.

He kissed the back of my head. “You can stay if you want.”

“Did you get another pillow?” I murmured

“I did,” he said. “Numerous pillows, including a big, full-body thing, which I thought you might want when you’re, um, further along.”

“You were going to say bigger,” I said, grinning at him. I scooted onto my back, so that I could see his face.

“I was most definitely not going to say that,” he said. “Do you want to stay? Because I can take you home if you’d rather.”

“I want to stay,” I said, burrowing close, and turning so that we faced each other.

“Good.” He kissed me.

It was wonderful. I was warm and close to him and secure and happy. I stroked his back idly. “Moving from this spot, however, is completely beyond my capacity.”

He chuckled. “Well, I guess we’re trapped here, then.”

“Mmm.” I shut my eyes again, snuggling up to him.

I thought I would just go right back to sleep, but the TV was still on in the background, and it was distracting. I wasn’t facing it. I started to turn, to try to look at it.

He shifted, trying to accommodate me.

I opened my eyes. “We have to get off the couch, don’t we? We don’t fit.”

“My arm is kind of asleep,” he said, gesturing. One of his arms was sort of pinned under my neck and dangling off the couch.

I sat up.

He did too.

I yawned again. “Did you find out anything from Bertram’s neighbors?”

“Nada,” he said. “None of them saw anything.”

I made a face.

“I think we should check out Fletcher Remington’s father, though, as a possible suspect as well.”

“Okay,” I said. “Doesn’t hurt to look into that.”

“Yeah, we can go tomorrow.”

“Oh, I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow,” I said.

“You do?” He scooted forward on the couch, putting his feet down on the ground. “If you want, I could come along? Or is that…?”

“You should come,” I said, brightening. “That would be nice. Besides, maybe the doctor can give us some answers about what we felt.”

“You didn’t have any luck with Ophelia, then?”

I explained what had happened.

He listened with a sober look on his face. “Wow. That’s…”

“Scary,” I said. “Really scary.”

He rubbed my knee. “Hey, it’s going to be okay.”

“I don’t know, I’m totally freaked out about it right now,” I said, shaking my head.

“Well, that’s understandable,” he said. “And I’m sorry, because I think it’s my fault. I put this in your head.”

“No, it was strange what happened when you drank my blood. That would have worried me anyway.”

“Maybe,” he said, “but I made it worse, and I’m sorry.”

I twisted my hands together. “You know, if you aren’t okay with all of this, you don’t have to pretend that you are.”

“What?” He furrowed his brow. “I’m okay with it.”

I shot him a glance.

He put his arm around me, kissing my temple. “I’m completely okay with it.”

“It’s not going to be easy, you know,” I said. “I’m going to get moodier and get this big belly and waddle around, and my ass is going to get huge, and I’ll have heartburn and… and
gas
, and I’ll be the size of a small planet and—”

He laughed. “Don’t be silly, Penny. I’ve done this before. I can handle it. Besides, I have a feeling you’re going to look incredibly sexy with a big belly.”

I pulled away. “No one looks sexy with a big belly.”

He just grinned. “I don’t know. I’m picturing it and… yeah, it’s hot.”

I snorted, rolling my eyes and getting off the couch.

He followed me, grabbing me by the hand and tugging me close. “You’re amazing, you know,” he said in a low voice.

I peered up at him, and my heart started to thump the way that it did with him.

“You dazzle me, Penny. Always.”

I touched his face, running my fingers over his jaw. “Let’s go to bed,” I breathed.

* * *

In the middle of the night, I awoke starving and nauseous. I tried to go back to sleep, but I felt like I was going to vomit, and I had to throw aside the covers, put my feet on the floor, and get out of bed.

I knew that there were some leftovers from our dinner in the refrigerator. Mostly Lachlan’s, because I had eaten everything, totally famished, but I hoped he wouldn’t mind if I snacked on it now.

I didn’t really want to. I felt ill. I hated this part of pregnancy, because I was always forcing protein down my gullet, trying to stave off the horrid feeling of nausea.

I made it to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. I went for Lachlan’s leftovers, but then I spied something else.

It was a glass container of blood, quart-sized with a lid, reddish purple against the white interior. It looked… delicious.

Eeew
, I thought. Seriously, I’d heard of weird pregnancy cravings, but this took the cake. I was not drinking blood.

Very firmly, I picked up the container of leftovers and started to shut the door.

The blood caught my eye again.

My mouth started to water.

God. There was no way I actually wanted to drink blood. I would take one taste of it, and it would be disgusting, and then I would put it back and eat leftovers.

Yeah
, I thought.
Just a taste so that I understand it’s gross.

I set the leftovers down on the counter and took out the blood. I unscrewed the lid and lifted it to my lips.

The smell was coppery and wild. I inhaled it greedily.

I took a small sip. Oh, that was exactly what I wanted.

I took a gulp. Another gulp.

I stood there, clutching the container with both hands, drinking and drinking. I didn’t even bother to shut the refrigerator door.

The light in the kitchen came on.

I moved the container away from my lips and turned around.

Lachlan was standing in the doorway. “Penny?”

I set the blood down on the counter and wiped my lips. “Sorry. It just looked… good.”

He raised his eyebrows.

I felt a little bit weirded out now. I took several steps back, staring at the container of blood as if it had possessed me.

Lachlan’s voice was tight. “You don’t think…?”

“Think what?” I was still staring at the blood.

“My body is dead,” he said. “Dead. It’s only magic that keeps me moving, and that magic doesn’t extend to anything beyond making me move around and talk and stuff. So, there’s no way that I… that you…”

I looked at him. “What are you talking about?”

He crossed the room, snatched up the blood and stuck it back in the refrigerator, which he closed. Then he turned, putting his back against the fridge, and folded his arms over his chest. “They didn’t find his DNA. Not on you, not… in you.”

“Oh,” I whispered, and I moved, taking tiny steps toward Lachlan. “You think I drank the blood because… the baby is—”

“No.” His voice was frayed. “That’s impossible.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Well, it’s actually possible to do paternity tests early on in pregnancy these days,” said the doctor, who was rubbing jelly onto a fetal Doppler. She smiled at me.

I was lying back on the examining table, and Lachlan was hovering in the corner, nervously shifting on his feet.

“There are actually cells in your blood that belong to the baby,” said the doctor. “It’s ninety-nine percent accurate, and if it would provide you peace of mind, I suggest you do it.”

I swallowed. “So, you could just draw my blood and they could test that and find out who the baby’s father is? Just like that?”

“Well, not me personally,” said the doctor. “You mail samples off to a lab. I’ll get the information for you, if you’re interested.”

“Is it worth it?” spoke up Lachlan. “I’m a vampire. I don’t think that’s possible. It isn’t possible, is it?”

The doctor shrugged. “I’m not an expert in vampires, I’m afraid. But what was it that you were telling me about, Penny? This bond thing between the two of you? That’s how you feel that you communicated with the baby, yes?”

“We don’t feel like we did, it actually happened,” I said. “It freaked Lachlan out.”

“I wasn’t freaked,” he said, sounding defensive. “I was… startled is all.”

“Well,” said the doctor, “there’s a precedent for there being a magical bond between vampires and dragons, though I don’t know much about it. I’ve heard some vague stories passed down is all. But if it’s magical, it’s unpredictable. You know, the truth is, there isn’t much dragon medicine done, because dragons shift when they’re ill or hurt and heal themselves. So, the prenatal care that we do is basically the only branch of medicine that anyone studies, and we are vastly ill-equipped to help. We lose so many dragon pregnancies, and we are unable to help couples conceive no matter how hard they are trying. In a lot of ways, I feel as if I’m working blind most of the time. We simply don’t know enough about how magic affects the body, what it does. It’s possible that this bond you have has changed the way you operate, Mr. Flint. Maybe the magic has brought, er, parts of you to life.”

“So, you’re saying it is possible?” I said.

“Anything’s possible,” said the doctor. “Especially when we’re dealing with dragons and magic.” She eyed Lachlan. “You know, if you wanted to know whether or not you do have viable sperm, that’s an easy sort of test to get done. We actually have an infertility wing here, and they’re used to testing samples. If you wanted to give us one—”

“The paternity test would suffice, though, right?” said Lachlan, who was blushing.

The doctor smiled. “Right.”

“Well, we should do the test, then,” I said. “We should find out for sure.”

“Like I said, I’ll get you the information.” The doctor held up the Doppler. “Do you want to try for the heartbeat? We might not be far along enough yet to hear it, but a lot of times it comes through clearly at this point.”

I nodded.

She stepped forward and placed the Doppler on my belly. It was slick with jelly, which had been warmed, and it felt a little odd roaming over the skin of my lower abdomen, but not unpleasant.

Almost immediately, there was a sound, like tiny hoofs galloping at top speed.