Ritual Magic (35 page)

Gabriel had a strained look around the edges
of his eyes as he turned to look at Tisha. With that, Tisha walked
over to Gabriel and eyed the readout suspiciously as well, possibly
trying to discern what he had. When she looked up at Gabriel, her
expression was pensive and then they both looked at me with
concern.

"Celeste," Tisha's voice was steady but held
warning in the tone, "are you still experiencing a
contraction?"

I thought about it as I eyed them. The room
wasn't shaking violently like it had before, but there was now an
eerie silence.

"No, I don't think I am." I ran my hands
over my stomach. "What's wrong? What are you not telling me? Is
Cora okay?" I couldn't keep the fear from my voice.

Camela walked over to the other two and eyed
them as if they were dangerous. "What?" Camela said again. It
seemed to be her favorite word of the day. "What is wrong?"

Gabriel yanked the paper through his hands
again, eyeing the lines and peaks as well as valleys drawn on the
paper by the monitoring machine. "It appears... Well, it
appears..."

"Come out with it, man!" Camela's anxiety
was evident as her hands began to twitch at her sides. Her long,
red manicured nails had replaced her threatening talons, but she
was still quite frightening. "What is wrong with the child?!" It
was like she felt she was responsible for what happened to Cora.
Now that is absolutely NOT the reaction I would have expected
from the hellhound of the Baskervilles.

Tisha pushed between Camela and Gabriel as
she laid a soothing hand on the demon's shoulder. Tisha looked at
me instead of Camela when she did it, and it made me feel hollow.
It was like I was listening to everyone from the bottom of a
well—all of the voices muffled and echoing down at me.

"Celeste is experiencing a placental
abruption." Tisha's eyes were steady, but the words didn't soothe
me in any way.

"And what exactly does that
mean
?" I
heard my voice and it sounded like a little girl asking what time
Daddy was going to get home.

"It means," Gabriel walked over to the bed,
leaning over to grasp my hand, "that we must operate...immediately.
The baby's placental lining has pulled away from the uterine wall
and she is in danger of dying from the complication."

I blinked at Gabriel slowly in shock. I was
immediately frightened by the thought of losing Cora. She was my
daughter, my baby. I wasn't going to lose her...not to shadow
demons and definitely not to
this
. I simply nodded at him as
Tisha ran out of the room, barking orders down the hallway. I
couldn't hear anyone else, but I distinctly heard her voice as she
ordered around the numerous demons within earshot.

"Get the operating room prepped! STAT!"

I instantly wanted to faint but, for the
first time in my life, it was just beyond me.

It wasn't something that I would have
thought to be comfortable for me. I was being wheeled into an
impromptu surgery room that had obviously been set up near my
bedroom just in case anything unforeseeable had happened like...I
don't know...death? I remember being impressed with all of the
state-of-the-art equipment and shiny surfaces all over the room. I
was lifted off of the gurney and laid down on the table before I
had time to think.

"Wait! You aren't going to cut me open
without giving me an epidural, are you?! Are you crazy?!" My eyes
darted around the room, searching for anyone within screaming
distance that I could berate.

Tisha appeared next to me in adorable scrubs
with Tinkerbelle all over them and a cloth mask over her face that
covered her nose and mouth. That didn't matter, though, because all
I needed to see were her enormous emerald green eyes screaming at
me that she was in panic mode.

Tisha hated being out of control of any
situation. She would turn into a raging mass of anger whenever she
felt that she could have done something that would have changed any
outcome for the better. Yeah, I know, not very fairy-like, but that
was why I loved her so much—she was passionate. And a passionate
fairy could be two very specific things: dangerous or powerful.
Tisha was powerful. I'm talking 'holy cow did you just see that?!'
powerful, and she was absolutely amazing because of it.

I felt safe just having Tisha there, and she
brought me so much comfort that I felt like I could breathe again.
We sat there staring at each other for a while, applying salve to
the mental wounds that we both had experienced. We were sisters in
so many different ways, but it was easy to see why fate had wrapped
our lives around each other—we needed each other so very much.

Tisha squeezed my hand as she headed for the
other side of the huge sheet that had been erected to keep me from
looking. That sheet alone was enough to drive me insane. Really, I
couldn't even see who was on the other side of the sheet, but I
could hear them, and that was enough to frustrate me.

Gabriel and Tisha talked back and forth
about preparations, equipment and magic. It was like they had
worked together for ages, but that was a thought I didn't want to
contemplate. It was just too weird for words.

My heart stopped when the door to the
operating room slammed open and the other three men, Cora's
fathers, stormed inside. Tisha's voice rang out to everyone in the
room as the three men eyed the setup and tried to process
everything. "Get scrubbed up now or GET OUT! There are hospital
scrubs by the door."

Oooh, Tisha was nearing her breaking point
for anger and power.
Coooool.
There were going to be some
fireworks if any of the men stepped out of line and I was going to
have a front-row seat.
What is wrong with me? I'm a nice person,
really I am!

I watched as the men disappeared from view
and then slowly returned one by one in their green and blue
hospital scrubs. Part of me wanted to giggle at how ridiculous they
all looked, that is until I laid eyes on Solomon. His spiky blond
hair and bright blue-green eyes were in sharp relief against the
blue of his mask. He was absolutely hunky and my heart skipped a
couple of beats as it tried to tap dance its way through my chest.
He looked like one of those soap opera doctors that every woman in
America would give their last piece of chocolate cake to see in
person.

I opened my mouth to try to speak but it
came out as, "Uhhh, blah, blah, blah."
What in the world is
wrong with me?!

Tisha's head popped out from the other side
of the curtain and smiled down innocently at me. "Celeste, I forgot
to mention that I have placed a numbing spell on you. We need you
conscious for the operation just in case anything happens...so the
numbing spell will help. You will feel nothing, but you will be
completely conscious and aware of everything. The numbing of your
tongue is just one of the first signs that it is working properly.
You will be able to speak clearly shortly." She nodded down at me
with a twinkle in her eye and then popped back to the other side of
the curtain.

My tongue felt like it had grown three times
its normal size, and I was fighting to find room to allow my air to
get past. Panic welled up inside me as I looked up at Solomon's
concerned eyes. Realizing I could see him, he immediately cleared
his expression and plastered a smile on his face, causing the mask
to rise up gently on both sides, grazing his cheekbones.
Paging
Dr. Goodbody, Dr. Goodbody...
My goodness he was delicious,
even when all I could really see were his eyes. He was a remarkable
man...

Voices began to rattle off like machine guns
on the other side of the curtain as the walls of the surgery room
began to groan and grind. A shower of dust fell down on us as the
shaking continued, and Leo's voice sounded to the left of my head,
drawing my attention back to his side of the room.

"It appears that the contractions are still
directly related to the attacks on the castle." Leo looked over at
Solomon's frustrated expression and then down at me. His eyes were
so expressive that it made me wonder how I had missed that all
along. It was like he could hold an entire conversation with just
his eyes. If it was truly possible, it felt like the conversation
was going like this:

Leo: After this you should run away with me
and we will make love for days on a sunny beach covered in nothing
but tanning lotion and our smiles.

Me: Dream on, demon boy.

Leo: You know you're dreaming of it too, my
love.

Me: Whatever you want to believe. No, wait!
You don't need to believe a crazy dream like that is ever going to
happen.

Leo: Yes, yes, I believe! Grrrrroooooowwwwl!
(making cat paw motion with his perfectly manicured hands.)

Me: Gross.

Leo: Keep telling yourself that, my dear.
Whatever helps you convince yourself that you don't want me...that
way.
(Twinkle in his eye that was extremely hard to
resist.)

Me: Grrrrrr.

Solomon cleared his throat and I flipped my
head back in his direction to catch the clear look of hostility
that he was flinging because of Leo's lecherous looks. My heart
sped up as he looked back down at me with the sweetest expression
one pair of eyes could share. I thought of everything that we had
been through. I thought of everything that I wanted for our future.
I thought of all of the naughty things that I wanted to do to him,
and that was when I felt a warm flush spreading across my
cheeks.

Dang it!
Solomon's smile broadened
behind his mask, lifting his ears slightly and stretching the mask
against his fascinating face.
Sighhhhh.

The rumbling ceased and I felt a shifting of
my body.

"Okay, we are beginning now. We have to
remove the baby as quickly as possible. Please do not be alarmed by
any sounds that we make." Gabriel assured me from the other side of
the curtain.

Yeah, sure, disembodied voice, I'm going
to trust you since there is nothing else that I can do.
I
glared up at the curtain as I heard movements on the other
side.

"The scalpel isn't working. It appears as if
her uterine wall has been spelled." Gabriel's frustration was clear
in his tense words.

"I will aide you with magic. I recognize
this shield spell." Tisha spoke softly and then everything went
quiet again. I held my breath to listen to their progress. Nothing
happened for a long amount of time and then...

"Okay, that's good. Now, Celeste, you are
going to feel some tugging and movement. Don't let it alarm you."
Gabriel spoke again.

"Just do it already. Take care of Cora." My
eyes went up to Solomon's white forehead and then over to Leo's
pensive eyes.

Leo looked down at me and nodded firmly. He
agreed with my desire to take care of Cora, but of course he
would.

My body was pulled and shifted for a few
seconds and then I heard Tisha's voice drifting down on me, "Her
eyes are golden. I never expected..."

"It would be a surprise to me if they were
any other hue. This child is special, unique. She is a child of
legend—anything less than gold would be a complete disappointment."
Gabriel's voice sounded stronger, confident and sure.

A wave of security swept over me as I smiled
to myself listening to them fuss over Cora.
She's fine. She's
beautiful. She's my baby girl.

"I want to see her." I heard myself say the
words, but it sounded like I was talking from the end of a tunnel
instead of stretched out in the middle of all of the action.

"Give us just one moment, Celeste, while we
check her over." Tisha's voice rang over the curtain near my chest
and I sighed deeply with impatience. Geesh these people were
pushy.

Leo drifted away towards the commotion over
Cora while Solomon reached down and laid his cool palm on my sweaty
forehead. He leaned down close, hovering over my face like an angel
of salvation, peering down at me with his eyes roiling with
emotions beyond my comprehension.

I hiccupped unexpectedly.
Where the heck
did that come from? I'm hiccuping? Don't children hiccup when
they're nervous?
Sheesh!

Leo returned with a small pink bundle in his
arms, beaming with pride.

"Cora Elena Ravenwood, welcome to the world.
My name is Babbo." He cooed down at the bundle while my eyes fought
to catch sight of the face of my child.

My heart beat frantically as Leo rocked from
foot to foot instinctively. It seemed that even demons had the
natural instincts for child-raising.
Weird.
His eyes were
glistening with what I would imagine were tears, but I couldn't
imagine that demons cried for any reason. He took a short step
towards me and ducked down slowly, cradling the soft pink bundle at
my eye level—my first glimpse of my baby.

My eyes welled with tears as I gasped at her
perfect features. Her angel-fine hair was brushed to the side,
gently framing her beautiful face. Her sweet little cheeks were as
peach as the sunrise, and her nose was a cute tiny bulb,
complementing her face as a jewel would complement a crown.

Her eyes searched for me silently and
twinkled with the reflection of the lights beaming down upon us.
She was absolutely angelic—a tiny little piece of heaven brought
down to Earth for us to hold and love.

I caught my breath between the gasps that
were escaping between my lips.

"Cora Elena Ravenwood." Solomon's voice
shook as his hand reached out over me to brush the fabric away from
her cherub cheek.

I was instantly jealous that he could touch
her, hold her. I was still incapacitated by the spell, but it was a
delightful moment to behold such perfection. I was instantly in
deep, limitless, all-encompassing love. It felt like I had just
fallen into a pool of emotions, surrounded by every thought I had
ever had of Cora, dreaming of a future for her that didn't include
the words
weapon, killer, sword, or shadow demon
. I sighed
as I tried to twist on my side to see Cora better.