Night Unbound (30 page)

“They're my friends, not my followers. I no longer command an army of vampires.”

“Yet those at the network look to you for leadership.”

“I'm beginning to wish I hadn't bound your wounds when you were injured,” Bastien groused.

Zach grinned.

Lisette smiled up at him. “You two are so alike.”

Cliff laughed, finally at ease.

Seth reappeared with Chris Reordon.

Before anyone said a word, Chris stepped forward and waved a metal detector over Cliff. “Clear.” He stepped back. “So, Seth says you tagged one of the new vampires?”

“Yes.”

“You can tell me about it in a minute. Right now, we need to get you back to network headquarters so I can start tracking the bastard.”

“Down With The Sickness” overlapped his words.

At the same time, Bastien's phone bleated.

He and Seth shared a look of concern as they answered their phones.

“Ami's water broke,” Marcus and Melanie said in unison, Marcus to Seth and Melanie to Bastien.

“I'm on my way,” Seth told Marcus.

“We'll be there soon,” Bastien promised his wife.

Seth put away his phone and looked at Chris. “Ami's water broke.”

Zach spoke up. “Go. I'll get Chris and Cliff back to the network.”

“Thank you. Come to David's afterward. Dr. Kimiko said once Ami's water broke, there would be no turning back, that we couldn't risk putting the delivery off any longer for fear of Ami or the baby developing an infection. So she'll have to deliver tonight, and I want every healer in the area on hand.”

Zach nodded. “We'll be right behind you.”

Seth crossed to Bastien, grabbed his shoulder, and teleported them away.

Zach, Lisette, Chris, and Cliff stared at each other in somber silence.

“I hope she'll be okay,” Cliff said softly. “The baby, too.”

Suddenly his insubordination seemed meaningless.

Zach commanded the others to close in, then teleported them all to network headquarters.

After the kindness Ami had shown him, he wanted to be there for her in case she should need him.

Over a dozen immortals and their Seconds occupied David's living room in what felt to Lisette alarmingly like a deathbed vigil.

Every available chair, love seat, sofa, coffee table, and footstool was occupied.

Lisette sat in a flat-wing chair with Tracy wedged in beside her. Like children awaiting punishment by a stern parent, they held hands and tried to will strength and hope into the small mortal woman laboring in the next room.

Utter silence reigned, broken only by Ami's labored breaths.

Zach, Seth, David, Marcus, Melanie, and Dr. Kimiko were all with her in the delivery room. Roland and Sean had been asked to linger in the recovery room, ready to rush forward in the event the babe should require healing once delivered. The other three healers might be either too sapped from pouring their healing energy into Ami or too busy trying to keep Ami from slipping away from them to heal the babe themselves.

Marcus whispered words of love and praise and encouragement to his wife and, by all accounts, had not released her hand since discovering her water had broken.

Melanie and Dr. Kimiko monitored Ami every second, guiding her through breathing exercises as contraction upon contraction gripped her, murmuring medical nonsense to each other, and assuring Ami she was doing well. But an underlying thread of tension resided in their voices that led Lisette and the other immortals listening to believe that all was
not
well.

What's a cervix?
Zach asked her suddenly.

Lisette blinked.
What?

What's a cervix? Apparently Ami's has stopped dilating despite the hard contractions, which I gather is not a good thing.

Ummm . . . It's a . . . female thing . . .

I already knew that. What is it and where is it located?

I don't know,
Lisette admitted.

How can you not know? You're a woman.

Yes, a woman born in a time when women didn't sit around discussing their lady parts.

He swore.

Hang on.
She turned to her Second.
Tracy?

Slumped beside her, face pensive, Tracy looked over at her.
Yeah?

What's a cervix?

Her eyebrows flew up.
It's . . . ummmm . . .
Her eyes roved the room as she thought about it.
Actually, I'm not sure.

Lisette didn't feel so bad now. “Does anyone know what a cervix is?” she asked the room at large, frustration mounting. Since Ami was mortal, Lisette didn't fear her overhearing them. And, if Zach needed to know, Lisette would do whatever she had to, to find out for him, even if she had to use Darnell's laptop to look it up on the damned Internet.

Everyone present stared at her with
what the hell
looks.

“A cervix?” she repeated. “Anyone know what it is?”

Sheldon slowly raised his hand.

Tracy rolled her eyes. “Sheldon, put your hand down. Watching porn does
not
teach you what a cervix is.”

He grinned. “I didn't learn it from porn. I read up on pregnancy and childbirth after Seth told us Ami was pregnant.”

Tracy's face lit with surprise. “Oh.”

“The cervix is the lower portion of the uterus that opens into the vagina. During pregnancy it closes to hold the baby inside the uterus. During labor, it dilates or widens to allow the baby to pass from the uterus into the vagina.”

Everyone stared.

Yuri looked around. “Anyone else think that was too much information?”

Every male save Sheldon raised a hand.

Did you hear that?
Lisette asked Zach.

Yes. Thank you.

His presence in her mind receded.

Once more, Lisette waited with the others.

Stanislav cleared his throat. “How bizarre is it that Sheldon knows more about a woman's body than the women present do?”

Sheldon smiled.

More waiting.

More unbearable tension.

Several knees bobbed up and down.

Anxious teeth abused fingernails.

Stanislav's Second, Alexei, paced back and forth and back and forth until several voices shouted at him to sit the hell down.

Suddenly, Zach swore.

What?
Lisette asked, unable to remain silent.

Dr. Kimiko is recommending a cesarean.

 

 

Seth studied Dr. Kimiko. “Is there no other way?”

She shook her head. “I fully understand the ramifications and wouldn't recommend this if it weren't absolutely necessary.”

He looked to Melanie.

Melanie nodded.

Marcus's eyes, when they rose to meet Seth's, carried fear and dread and a desperate need for Seth to assure him that everything would be okay.

How Seth wished he could make that promise.

Seth leaned down and stroked Ami's hair. “Sweetheart, the babe is being stubborn. Dr. Kimiko and Melanie think a cesarean is necessary to bring her into the world.”

Ami nodded, her sweet face pinched with pain as she breathed through another contraction. “Do it.”

“You know they can't sedate you or numb you. Because the babe carries both alien and
gifted one
DNA, we have no way of knowing how the medication would affect her.”

“I know. It doesn't matter.”

“David and I may have to—”

“Just do it,” she commanded. “I endured six months of torture. I can endure this.” She looked at the doctors. “Do it. Whatever it takes. Just keep her safe.”

That was all they needed to hear. The two women went to work. Sterile drapes replaced the lightweight hospital gown that covered Ami's belly and the monitors strapped to it.

Melanie placed a short screen above Ami's abdomen that blocked her view. “To keep the field sterile,” she told Ami with a smile, then looked to Seth.
And so she won't have to watch us cut her
.

Seth and David had been monitoring Melanie's thoughts ever since they had arrived so she could think concerns to them that she didn't want to voice in front of Ami and Marcus.

Melanie wheeled a tray of surgical instruments closer to the table while Dr. Kimiko scrubbed for surgery. Seth hadn't even thought about germs, assuming he could heal any infection that resulted if Ami's own incredible regenerative capabilities failed her. But he supposed Dr. Kimiko had some concerns for the baby. None knew what kind of immune system the child would possess. Or if she would even possess one. None knew if the babe was infected with the virus. Ami had had such difficulty carrying the baby to term that testing the babe in utero had been deemed too risky.

Seth retook his position beside David at Ami's head and placed a hand on her shoulder. He met David's gaze and saw the same dread reflected in his dark eyes that Seth felt himself.

He nodded to Dr. Kimiko.

Dr. Kimiko made a horizontal incision on Ami's lower abdomen.

Ami stiffened and clutched Marcus's hand so tightly her knuckles turned white. Pain contorted her features. Her breathing turned harsh. But she made no other sound, didn't scream or moan, her ability to remain silent a holdover from the torture she had endured.

Marcus leaned so close to her their noses practically touched, maintaining eye contact. Seth overheard Marcus speaking to her mentally and knew Ami listened to every word, drawing what comfort she could from it.

Before Dr. Kimiko could make another incision, the first began to heal and seal itself. She met Seth's gaze.

Steeling himself against the pain he knew he was about to inflict, he refocused his energy and used it to
prevent
Ami from healing. The temperature in the room rose a degree as David, then Zach, threw their energy into the mix.

Seth's eyes burned as he felt Ami's pain magnify tenfold.

 

 

Lisette, and everyone else present, cringed at the first whimper that escaped Ami. Another followed. And another. Then a moan.

She heard sniffles and could almost see the tears trailing down Ami's pale temples.

Which was more painful, Lisette wondered: Being cut? Or Seth and David's preventing Ami's body from doing what it did naturally and healing itself?

Another whimper.

She feared it was the latter.

Ami cried out in agony.

Darnell leaned forward and buried his face in his hands, his bald, brown head gleaming in the overhead light. Closer to Ami than anyone else in the room, he was clearly terrified for her.

Tracy tightened her hold on Lisette's hand. “Anything?” she whispered.

Lisette shook her head. Zach hadn't said a word since the cesarean had begun, and Lisette didn't dare distract him. She didn't know how large a role he played.

Icy fear abruptly breezed through her like a winter wind.

Lisette stopped breathing.

Not
her
fear. Zach's.

The babe isn't breathing,
he told her.

Lisette's eyes burned as tears welled.

“What's happening?” she heard Ami ask, voice trembling.

“What's wrong?” Marcus asked in clipped tones. “Is the babe okay? Why isn't she crying? Shouldn't she be crying?”

“Roland. Sean,” Seth bit out.

Jenna turned her face into Richart's chest. Richart wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.

Tears slipped down cheeks as Marcus repeatedly asked about the babe, each question growing more frantic than the last.

Ami began to sob softly, her questions growing weaker.

“Roland,” Seth pressed.

“I'm trying,” Roland snapped.

“What's happening?” Darnell asked, face still hidden in his hands. Like the other mortals present, he couldn't hear the terse comments issued in the infirmary. He knew only that Ami's cries had ended.

Lisette could barely swallow past the lump in her throat. “The babe isn't breathing,” she whispered, almost afraid that saying it aloud would make the horror more real. “Roland is trying to help her. Sean, too, I think.”

Krysta buried her face in Étienne's shirt. Étienne buried his in her hair and clutched her close.

Moments passed, so long and filled with tension that Lisette wanted to scream.

Then the high-pitched wail of an infant broke the silence.

Lisette's breath escaped in a whoosh. Tears blurred her vision and spilled over her lashes.

Several others breathed sighs of relief. Heads dropped back against chairs.

Darnell raised his head, his eyes red and full of moisture.

“She's okay,” Roland said in the infirmary, his voice full of relief and exuberance. “She's okay. She's breathing on her own now. She's okay.”

“The baby's breathing,” Lisette told Darnell and the others.

Some of the tension left the room.

Some, not all. They had yet to learn if the babe were infected with the virus.

“You hear that, Ami?” Marcus murmured, elation brightening his words. “She's okay.” He laughed. “And listen to her work those lungs!”

Lisette smiled through her tears. The poor babe sounded pissed.

“Ami?” Marcus said, the jubilance draining from his voice. “Ami, sweetling?”

Everyone tensed.

“Ami?”
Marcus called, his panic palpable. “Why isn't she responding? What's wrong with her?”

“Dr. Kimiko,” Seth said.

“Ami, can you hear me?” the doctor asked. In a lower voice, she said, “The incisions aren't healing. Are you still blocking her regenerative capabilities?”

“No,” Seth answered.

“Is she bleeding internally?”

“No.”

“Her pulse is thready. Are you trying to heal her?”

“Yes. I'm pouring as much strength and energy into her as I can,” Seth said.

“As am I,” David added.

“And I.” Zach said.

Minutes ticked past. Minutes during which the babe's cries quieted to snuffles. Since the doctors were occupied with Ami, Lisette assumed Roland and Sean were cleaning up the baby. Wrapping her in a warm blanket. Doing . . . whatever it was that doctors and nurses did to newborns.

“Ami?” Marcus repeated, his voice choked and barely climbing above a whisper. “Come on, sweetling. Don't do this to me. Don't leave me. Please.”

“The incisions are starting to heal,” Dr. Kimiko announced. “Her pulse is getting stronger.”

“Her blood pressure is improving, too,” Melanie murmured.

Lisette conveyed the latest to the Seconds present.

More minutes.

More knees bobbing up and down.

More nail chewing.

“She's stable,” Dr. Kimiko announced.

“Seth?” Marcus asked.

“I think Ami has slipped into her healing sleep,” Seth told him.

“You think or you know?”

A pause. “I think. If she has, it's different this time, perhaps because we depleted her energy and kept her from healing long enough for the babe to be born.”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“Yes.”

“Seth,” Zach said, a faint reprimand.

“She'll be okay,” Seth insisted, “if I have to feed her energy twenty-four hours a day until she wakes up. She'll be okay.”

 

 

Seated at his desk in network headquarters, Chris Reordon rubbed eyes that burned from fatigue. He'd pulled too many all-nighters lately, trying to help Seth track down whoever the hell was betraying the Immortal Guardians. Now one of the vampires had admitted to leaving the area he was allowed to roam at headquarters and had stolen high-tech equipment, so Chris had to watch last night's surveillance video to see what else the young vamp might have gotten into.

Dragging his hands down his face, he eyed with longing the cushy seven-foot sofa that had been his sleeping place more often of late than his bed at home. He looked at the clock.