CONCEPTION (The Others) (15 page)

He straightened behind her. “Do you not wish to hold our
daughter?”

“No.”

His finger on her chin turned her face up. He was frowning
at her. She might have been doing a bit of that betraying projecting again. “I
might drop her,” she explained hastily.

“That is not what you fear.”

“How do you know what I fear?”

“I do not, but I do know that is not one of your—”

“She could use a name.” The soft interruption came from
Marlika. The baby rested against her shoulder. She burped her gently, a frown
on her beautiful face. “No child should go unnamed.”

Deuce’s arm tightened around her, warning her to silence.
“Agreed.”

Eden ignored the warning. “Maybe Marlika would like to name
her?” In front of her, Marlika drew back in shock, shaking her head while
cradling the baby protectively. Behind her, Deuce stiffened in disapproval.

“You insult me and our child with such a suggestion.”

“What’s so bad about Marlika picking a name?”

“A name is a sacred thing, a bonding between past and
present, hope for the future. A gift from parents to their child.”

“Oh.” Obviously, his culture placed a high value on
children’s names. “Then maybe you should pick it out.”

“We will choose it together.” The flat delivery left no room
for argument. Deuce motioned to Marlika. She got to her feet in a graceful move
and brought the child over. Though she held herself tall and proud, there was
an aura of deference in her posture when she approached Deuce—a dropping of her
eyes as she held the baby out toward him.

Edie would have used the moment to escape, but Deuce kept
her within the cocoon of his arms as he accepted their daughter into the cradle
of his big hands. The baby started and whimpered for the heartbeat he held her
suspended before them, then he brought her against Edie’s chest, imprisoning
her in a hug that encompassed them both. Eden wanted to keep her hands at her
sides, but one look into that perfect little face with its confusion and
distress, and her plan fell to the wayside.

She cradled the child instinctively—shushing her with a soft
voice, feeling a moment of dread as her daughter looked back at her with deep
blue eyes, as if taking her measure. Then, with a soft gurgle, the tension
disappeared from the baby’s face and her mouth opened wide in an impossibly
sweet yawn. Eden rocked her naturally, her weight a precious burden against her
trust, just one more incentive to succeed.

“You
will let yourself love her, my heart.”

Eden
couldn’t tell whether Deuce spoke aloud or into her mind. In the end it didn’t
matter. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

“It’s
not safe.”

“I
will protect you, Edie.”

“You
can’t. You don’t know how powerful they are. How relentless.” She glanced back,
catching his gaze with hers. “They won’t stop coming after me. They
will
take me back.”

His
big hands settled over hers, easing their child closer to her heart. Against
her back, his pectorals flexed. Cold, deadly energy swirled around them in a
restless wave, skating across her skin briefly before flaring outward. “Any
such attempt will fail.”

“We
can’t take the chance that it won’t.” She shook her head as his eyes narrowed
and his lips thinned. He didn’t understand how committed the Coalition was to
discovering the secret to immortality, nor how vital they felt she was to the
process. “If they find me here, they’ll know about the baby.”

His
arms wrapped around her and their daughter, turning them so they rested within
a shield of his energy and power. For all the comfort of his touch, there was
not an ounce of softness in his tone. “I will not allow you to leave.”

She
had no doubt he meant it. If the decision was left to him, he would hold her
here forever. She had no intention of leaving it to him. “No matter what
happens to me, Deuce, you need to protect the baby. She has to be your first
concern.”

“My
daughter will be safe.” He turned her completely in his arms. “As will you.”

She
stepped back and ran into the barrier of his hand. Slight pressure from his
fingers on the base of her spine moved her forward. She hitched the baby higher
and stumbled as weariness made her awkward. His hold shifted, offering her
support where she most needed it. He made it so easy to think in terms of
giving all her cares over to him. “Thank you.”

Some
of the energy around them softened. The little girl began to struggle. Deuce
touched her cheek. His finger was huge against the small face. But so
gentle. So incredibly gentle. “She hungers.”

His phrasing reminded her of the differences between them.
She had to stop thinking of him as a man and keep in her mind that he was a
vampire with an agenda of his own. Before she could hand over the baby, Marlika
handed her the bottle. “She has a healthy appetite. She should finish the rest
of this.”

The rest didn’t look like enough to sustain a gnat, but what
did she know of babies? She took the bottle. “Thank you.”

Deuce’s chin brushed the side of her head. A quick glance
showed him nodding to Marlika. “Thank you for the care you have shown my
daughter.”

“I’ll be happy to care for her anytime.”

“And we would be honored to have our daughter under the care
of the Pack.”

Pack? Eden’s breath caught tight in her lungs. Marlika was a
werewolf? Good God, she’d left her daughter in the care of a werewolf? Deuce’s
palm curved over her shoulder, his fingers stretching down the upper slope of
her breast. The knot in her chest eased. Her breathing smoothed out and the
shaky surge of energy ceased as abruptly as it had started.

“Marlika is awaiting your thanks,” Deuce mentioned in a
whisper so soft that she had to strain to hear.

Edie dragged herself out of her shock. Taking a deep breath,
she forced herself to smile. “Thank you.”

She kept the smile on her face during Marlika’s “You’re
welcome”. She had to stop freaking out over things like this. This was her
daughter’s world now. She wasn’t human and the only danger to her came from
humans. She would grow up among werepeople and vampires, preternatural beings
of legend that Eden had never believed really existed. But it was all right.
Here the baby would be accepted, protected, and loved. Here she had a prayer of
surviving.

Deuce’s arm dropped to Eden’s waist as he turned to the
door. “We will care for her in our room.”

“You’ll need her bag.”

Eden looked over her shoulder. The bag Marlika held looked
big enough for a weekend stay. “There should be enough in here until morning.”

Eden blinked. “Are there instructions in there?”

Marlika laughed, obviously not taking her question
seriously. “No.”

Eden glanced up at Deuce as he took the bag with his free
hand—diapers, bottles, creams and cloths overflowing the top. To think she’d
managed with nothing but a carrier for a day. “Do you know what to do with all
that stuff in there?”

He arched a brow at her whispered question. “No.”

She shook her head. “We are so screwed.”

Deuce pulled her into his side as Dak opened the door for them.
“We will figure it out.”

Chapter Ten

Deuce
was apparently as serious about the naming as he was about everything else.
He’d started nagging her about it four steps out of Marlika’s room with a
question about her preferences. A simple statement that she didn’t have one
only led to questions designed to narrow the options to areas she would like.
He was like a dog with a bone when he got something in his head, and he now had
it in his head that the baby would be named. And that she would participate. She
sighed, admired the way the muscles splayed out from his spine and the flexing
of his tight butt beneath the jeans as he opened the door to their apartment.
Naming their daughter clearly topped his to-do list.

Eden
followed Deuce into the dark apartment, flicking the light switch as she passed
through the door.

The
baby squealed.

“Damn
it!” She pushed her hair back from her face, the lingering echo of the infant’s
cry cutting into her like a knife. “I can’t see in the dark like you,” she
explained as Deuce turned, pulling the baby’s face protectively against his
chest.

“It
is fine, Eden.”

It wasn’t fine. She wasn’t doing anything right. She
motioned to the grunting bundle in his arms. “Is she okay?”

“She was but startled. No harm was done.”

“This time.”

“New parents are not expected to know everything.” He
motioned her to him.

She stayed where she was. “But this is different. This baby
is not like others.”

“She is of her parents. There is no difference.”

“But she’s half vamp—Chosen.”

“This is what you fear?” He eradicated the distance between
them in three long strides. His free hand skimmed up her neck, curling along
the underside of her chin, tipping her face up to his. “That because her blood
is of both worlds, somehow she does not need her mother?”

“I can’t do anything for her.” It came out as a whine, and
she hadn’t meant for that to happen.

The pad of his thumb pulled her lower lip free of her teeth.
“You will love her, my heart.”

His words were as much of a lure as his touch. She stiffened
against the temptation. “You can’t make me.”

His hint of a smile was the gentle one he usually reserved
for the baby. “I would if it were necessary.”

She blinked. Could he control her emotions to that extent?

His thumb slipped down the inner curve of her lip, gliding
smoothly on the moist lining, sending spiraling trills of pleasure dancing down
her spine. “But there is no need, is there?”

She
didn’t answer, just squared her shoulders and matched his smile with a glare,
increasing the intensity as his amusement spread to the corners of his mouth.
He dropped his hand to her shoulder and turned her toward the bed. “Come.”

Like he gave her any choice. The hand on her shoulder was
insistent. She didn’t know if he was projecting or if she was supposing, but
she had no doubt he’d pick her up and carry her if she planted her feet. “You
are way too bossy.”

His “You like it” was completely unconcerned.

She planted her feet at that. “What makes you think that?”

He took the last step to the bed, laying the baby down
before tossing his hair out of the way and looking back at her over his
shoulder. “Your pleasure flows when I give you an order.”

He could not mean what she thought he meant. She crossed her
arms over her chest, mortified to her soul. “It does not.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You are wet now.” There was no
way she could call that relaxation of his facial muscles anything but
satisfaction. “It pleases me.”

It was a hard choice whether to pray for a hole to open up
in the floor and swallow her, or to brazen it out. She settled for the latter.
“I’m getting you a set of nose plugs.”

“You may spend my money as you please.”

He said that with a nonchalance that she took to mean no
matter how many nose plugs she bought, he wouldn’t be wearing them. The muscles
on his back moved under his skin, the golden flesh gleaming darker in the low
light, the hollows beckoning her hands, her tongue. Mindlessly, she took a step
closer. And then another, until she was close enough to touch.

Deuce reached back and caught her hand, pulling her into his
side, linking their fingers as he rested his arm across her shoulders. “Look at
her.”

It wasn’t what she’d expected him to say. She looked down.
While she’d been admiring him, he’d been undressing the baby. The little girl
lay in the pink blanket, arms and legs akimbo, her dark blue eyes wide with
wonder as she stared up at them.

His
arm tightened across Eden’s shoulders in a hug that lingered as softly as his
proclamation. “Our daughter is perfect.”

Tears
burned her eyes. How was she supposed to keep a strong front when he said
things like that, with all the love he felt for his child just hanging out
there for the world to see? She blinked the tears back. “I’m glad you like
her.”

The baby kicked her feet, and froze, as if the ensuing jerk
of her body came as a surprise.

Amusement
joined the pride in his voice as he tickled the bottom of one tiny foot. “She
is learning about the world. She will find many surprises.” The stroke of his
fingers on Eden’s upper arm punctuated his chuckle as the baby jerked away and
then promptly pushed her foot back, as if searching for the sensation again.
“She will need the love of her father and mother to guide her through them.”

He made it sound so easy, so imperative. “You can’t make me
do this, Deuce.”

“She already loves you.”

“She doesn’t know who I am.”

He shook his head, his hair brushing her cheek as it fell
forward. She blinked once, twice, fighting the breakdown that battled for
release. “She feels your love and your turmoil, but mostly your love.”

She bit her lips and took a stabilizing breath as his cheek
rested on her head. If they were any other couple, this would be a tender
moment, rather than just a painful one. “You can talk to her?”

“Yes.”

“With your mind?” The baby looked too innocent to be
telepathic.

“Yes.”

This time, she had to blink long and hard to keep from
embarrassing herself. “I didn’t know she could do that.”

“She is very intelligent.”

From the amount of paternal pride packed into Deuce’s tone,
their daughter could be a blithering idiot and he wouldn’t care. To him, she
was a miracle. What more could she ask? “I’m glad.”

It was too much to hope that he would miss the catch in her
voice. There was no fighting the pull of his arm, the kindness in his touch, or
his power as he pressed her cheek to his chest, enfolding her in his strength.
“I promise you it will be all right, my heart. You were strong enough to
survive, to bring yourself and our child to me. You did what you had to, but
you need to let go now. I am your mate, your strength, your voice.” His finger
under her chin brought her face up. She didn’t know black eyes could be so
soft. “You will entrust to me the safety of yourself and our daughter.”