Smitten (29 page)

“I feel terrible in that, all of this, your happy news has been overshadowed.”

“Don’t feel like that,” Chloe said. “We’ll get through all of this and then you and I can go buy cute maternity outfits, pig out on ice cream with bacon in it, and drive our men crazy. It’ll be a blast.”

Chloe’s words had the intended effect. Ēostre laughed and the pent up tension she’d been holding onto unraveled. She swiped at her eyes with one hand while picking up her lemonade with the other.

“I’ll put myself in your hands then and see what your tests say. How do they work?”

“Oh, you pee on a stick.”

Ēostre choked on her drink but Chloe was there to pat her back, a wide grin on her face. “You what?”

“Finish your food and I’ll show you. Well, not
show
you, but you know what I mean. It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Really.”

Contrary to Chloe’s claim, it was every bit as crazy as it sounded. She doubted in the accuracy of a human test, but for Chloe’s sake, she tried and emerged from the bathroom with a little plastic cover on the end of the strange device.

“Now what?”

“Give it a few minutes. If two pink lines show up in the window, you’re pregnant.”

“And if they don’t?”

“Then we try again tomorrow morning. Or after a week maybe.”

Ēostre looked down at the pink test, doubt in her eyes, “But this is a human test, right? How do we know it will show me anything at all?”

“Well…” Chloe fidgeted before continuing. “When I was pregnant with Astrid, Saul had some scientist friends of his do some tests to make sure there wouldn’t be any problems. Completely secret, of course! We found that dragons are a lot more closely related to humans than we would have expected… but I guess that explains how Marcy and I were able to get pregnant, right?”

Ēostre’s mouth dropped open, “What about other shifters?”

“A couple of wolves volunteered, and it looks like they’re pretty close to human as well. I mean, a hospital would probably still freak about seeing something unexpected in a blood test, but there is definitely a connection back on the family tree. Not that we could tell anyone, though… can you imagine some of the ancients if they thought they might be related to humans?” Chloe made a face, prompting a laugh out of Ēostre.

“Chloe?” Saul called.

Ēostre hid the little stick behind her back when Saul appeared at the top of the stairs.

“Hey, hon, what are you doing up here? I thought you were going to stay with Max.”

“Astrid wished to sit with Maximilian for a time, so we’ve switched places,” he explained. “Mahasti is with her.”

“That’s good for them both. Why don’t you go make her a snack then and take a nap yourself?” Chloe urged as she nudged him toward the door.

“Why are you hurrying me away?”

“No reason,” Chloe said, the rest of her words flowing in a rush, “but I think I left that pitcher of lemonade out on the counter. Would you put it away before Felix dips his paws into it?”

Skeptical, golden eyes studied Chloe, then flicked back and forth between them before Saul made his way from the hallway and down to the ground level, resigned to whatever mischief they were planning.

“Okay, let’s have a look.”

Ēostre’s heart slammed against her chest as she brought the pregnancy test from behind her back. She didn’t know if the results would be accurate, but she trusted Chloe’s judgment, and by proxy, had to trust her human methods. Glancing down, she saw two, bold pink lines stretched across the rectangular window.

Her heart skipped, from racing to flutters behind her ribs. Pregnant. Max was going to be a father for the second time. Saul would have a little sibling.

“Ēostre…” Chloe slipped an arm around her. “Congratulations, sweetie. Are you pleased?”

“I’m… I don’t know,” she answered truthfully. Her fingers shook and fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. “What if he doesn’t come back? I practically raised one child alone, Chloe. I can’t do this again. Not without Max.”

“Shh, no, hon. You won’t have to do it without him.”

“Mommy! Grandma!” Astrid’s voice echoed up the stairs.

“What is it sweetheart?”

“Grandpa Max is waking up!”

Chapter 21

Maximilian’s most recent memory was of Ēostre’s beautiful face over dinner. Everything afterward was a blur. The evacuation and the bomb had been lost in a hazy white glare.

“Grandma needs you,” he heard a young voice whispering beside his ear. “We all do, but Grandma most of all. You promised me you weren’t old enough to become one of the Ancestors, and I need you here.”

Tiny hands glided over his neck, circling in a soothing stroke pattern that made him quietly sigh. The petting paused and fingers hovered above his skin.

“Grandpa Max?”

How long had he slept, he wondered, opening his mouth to speak, but coughing instead. He cleared his throat a few times and opened his eyes to see Astrid in her human form beside him with huge, owlish blue eyes on his face.

“You’re awake! You’re finally awake!” She darted off toward the house, screaming at the top of her lungs. “Mommy! Grandma!”

Within moments, adults piled outside of the manor. Max became very aware of a half dozen inquisitive and hopeful eyes watching him, and when he tried to push his weight onto his front claws to greet them, a bloom of pain exploded in his gut, promptly putting him back down. Ēostre hurried forward at once and set one hand to his nose.

“Save your strength, Belenos… please. Don’t move.”

“Were you injured?” Max asked. His throat, dry and raspy, made the words come out with a harsh cough.

Tears gleamed in her eyes as she shook her head. “No. You saved all of us.”

In her human form, Ēostre was tiny by comparison. She hugged the side of his face and sobbed against his cheek. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“No. Too stubborn.”

“A trait all too common among you reds.” Saul grinned at him. “Glad to have you back with us, old man. Mahasti, he must be starved by now, would you—”

“Of course,” the genie replied before Saul could finish his request. She snapped her fingers and a banquet fit for a dragon king appeared before them on a gigantic marble slab. A cool vat of water materialized beside it which he drank down to the bottom, sloshing water everywhere in his haste.

While he sated his hunger pangs, Ēostre and Saul approached his midsection to inspect his gut wound. She peeled back the enormous bandage taped over his abdomen then rocked on her heels and stared. Max immediately tried to twist for a better look.

“How bad is it?”

“It’s… it’s healed,” she said, stunned.

“What do you mean, healed? I hurt like hell.”

“Exactly what I say, Bel. The physical damage is healed far beyond what it should be.”

“There’s definite scar tissue left behind, but the injury is closed,” Saul commented. His brows drew together in consternation and then he shot his daughter a look. “Did you heal him again, Astrid?”

Ēostre, Saul, and Chloe stared at Astrid while the girl shyly scuffed her toes against the dirt. “I know you told me to rest, Daddy, but I was worried. Am I in trouble?”

“No, no,” Saul promptly replied once he recovered his wits. “You’re not in trouble.” He and Chloe moved up to the child, the former kneeling down to shorten the distance between them. “You did a very brave thing, Astrid, and you may have saved your grandfather’s life. I don’t know how you found the power to do it, but it was a very good thing.”

“Thank you,” Ēostre whispered. She hugged Max again and clung to him, motionless, her tears against the ember-hued hide stretched over his broad ribs.

“Yes, Astrid, thank you.”

“I love you, Grandpa,” Astrid whispered. “I wanted you to get better.”

“Thanks to you, little one, I will.”

Astrid stepped in and hugged his neck, her parents right behind her in expressing their affections.

Max glanced across the field to see Fafnir’s ruby red face staring at him from beside the estate. The other ancient’s features were twisted into a mask of unconcealed hatred, his yellow eyes narrowed slits. Without a word, Fafnir turned his back to them and lumbered away to return to the hoard, but Max couldn’t shake the feeling that the dragon he’d once revered and loved as a brother, would have rather watched him die.

***

It took the better part of two days for Max to regain enough strength to even attempt to take his human form. When he did, his control wavered, and Ēostre quickly forced him to abandon the attempt.

“At least tell me what I’ve missed. Bring me a phone,” Max groaned as he lay stretched over the ground beside the veranda.

“You nearly died, and you’re concerned with having a phone?” Ēostre demanded.

“I need to know what’s happened in my absence. Have you kept Kenneth abreast of the recent developments?”

“Of course. He called frequently while you were sleeping, and Ian even visited. His people are turning the Secret Service inside out right now and getting to the bottom of how a dragonslayer got past the vetting process.”

Max grunted. “I’m not sure if you realize this, but we don’t ask government officials if they have an undying hatred for paranormal creatures during typical interviewing procedures.”

“Maybe it should be added to the application,” she teased lightly. “I’ll get you a phone, or I’ll bring Kenneth to you.”

After arrangements were made on the phone, Ēostre coordinated a meeting between Max, Kenneth, and a small number of agents cleared to take over Max’s protection. They talked White House business while Ēostre hovered protectively at her recovering husband’s side and refused to budge. She internally vowed to turn them inside out if they so much harmed a single feather on his wings.

“It’s a pleasure to be reassigned to you, President Emberthorn,” one of the young men said. He had the smell of a bear on his skin, and the broad-shouldered bulk of a grizzly. One of Ian’s, no doubt. “I’m Agent Jim Pellman.”

“And I am Agent Charles Price,” the second agent said. A normal human nose wouldn’t detect anything, but Max smelled wet dog. A hound of some kind with dark brown hair and big, bloodshot eyes. He stood about average male height with broad, muscular shoulders, and had a habit of sniffing occasionally.

One by one the new agents introduced themselves, two humans accompanying the pair of new shapeshifters. Each of them had been selected by Ian himself.

“I’m glad to see you’re on the mend, Max, and I won’t be the only one. Most media outlets have been hailing you as a hero since it happened. And the ones who aren’t… fuck ‘em,” the vice president said in a rare use of vulgarity.

Max chuckled and pushed up into a sitting position. The sudden movement brought him to a towering height above the group of men. The two human agents fell back a few steps, and their jaws dropped while their eyes focused on his enormous teeth. Knowing he was a dragon and seeing it with their own two eyes changed everything. The slightest movement from him renewed their awe, as well as well-deserved fear.

And he had to respect them for suppressing their flight or fight responses, something many humans failed to control the first time they made contact with a dragon.

“What’s the official story as far as I’m concerned?”

Kenneth cleared his throat. “You’re at a secure medical facility making a swift recovery. The nation is not without a leader. You should, uh, see the amount of bouquets and other, er, gifts arriving at the White House.”

“Gifts?” Ēostre asked.

“Someone sent a longhorn steer all the way from Texas,” Agent Price spoke up in amusement. “We found a rancher willing to take him.”

“In the meantime, we’ve asked the public to refrain from further gifts, and to make donations to your preferred charities instead. Military veterans, foster children, and the like.”

“Ah. Excellent,” Max said. “Anything else?”

“Well… there is one other thing,” Kenneth said.

One of the agents snickered briefly.

“What is it?” Max asked, suspicious of the break in Pellman’s solemn expression. “If it’s funny, I could use the laughter. We all could.”

“Did you want us to keep the virgins around? They’ve been showing up in droves.”

Ēostre twisted around to stare at him. “What?”

Kenneth wiped at his eyes, unable to contain his laughter. “We’ve had women showing up at the gates, asking to be virgin sacrifices. They’re out there almost every day now, hoping to heal their president with their, and I quote, ‘innocence and purity.’”

Ēostre groaned into her hands but Max’s chest rumbled with full-bellied laughter.

“I’m sure a few of them aren’t actual virgins, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought it was unicorns that had the preference for chastity?” Agent Pellman asked.

“Alas, we haven’t seen nor heard from any unicorn in many centuries. As far as I know, they’ve died out,” Ēostre answered. “And really, the whole virgin thing is a man-made myth. They don’t taste any different, believe me.”