“Anyway, the next few months were nice. We had late-night barbecues, attended movies together once the sun started setting earlier, and became best friends,” Allie said, her voice deliberate, and gaze meeting Lucian’s in quite the most beautiful silent fuck you Magnus had ever seen.
When Lucian growled low in his throat in response, she beamed a smile at him and said, “We had great fun when I wasn’t working.” Her smile faded slightly as she added, “And then that night in early December came.”
“That night?” Magnus asked with concern.
Allie nodded. “We’d gone to the movies and then a late dinner. We were walking back to my car when Stella suddenly grabbed my arm and began to move more quickly. It was a moment after that before I heard the footsteps behind us and understood what had her agitated. Or thought I did.”
Glancing at him, Allie apparently noted the confusion on his face, and explained, “The movie had been over for more than an hour by then, and the parking lot was nearly empty. There was only one other car at the back of the lot besides ours, so footsteps at that point were a bit . . .”
“Anxiety inducing?” Tricia suggested with understanding.
“Yes,” she sighed, and then said, “I had barely registered the sound and experienced that anxiety when I was suddenly hanging over Stella’s shoulder, my head banging against the back of her coat as we flew the rest of the way to the car. And believe me,” she said solemnly, “in that moment it did seem as if we flew. I mean, she was really moving. It couldn’t have been more than a matter of seconds before we reached the car.”
Dropping back in her seat, she said dryly, “All I can say is it’s a good thing I forgot to lock the doors, because I really think she would have just ripped the door off. She damned near did anyway and it wasn’t locked.” Allie shook her head at the memory. “Anyway, she tossed me in like a Raggedy Ann doll, and then climbed in after me. She had the door slammed and locked in about a half a second, and immediately started to feel up my pockets, shrieking, ‘Where are the keys? We have to go! Give me the keys!’”
Allie blew out a breath as if she still couldn’t believe what had happened. “And then there was a knock at the car window. We both froze and then slowly turned to look out. A young couple were standing uncertainly on the pavement next to the car. They couldn’t have been more then seventeen or eighteen. When Stella just stared, I got out on my side of the car to talk to them. They were the source of the footsteps we’d heard, and while they didn’t appear to have seen Stella carting me around like Godzilla, they had heard her shrieking once we’d got in the car, and had hurried forward to make sure someone wasn’t being attacked. I assured them everything was fine and said Stella was pregnant with her first baby and a little hysterical about what was coming, is all. They looked in at her and relaxed at once. Stella was very pregnant at that point,” she added dryly. “I mean, she was huge. I’m sure her carting me across the parking lot over her shoulder with her big belly leading the way would have been a ridiculous sight if anyone had seen it.”
Magnus smiled faintly, able to envision it.
“Anyway, to reassure them, I opened the car door so they could see that Stella was all right and told her the nice young couple were concerned for our well-being. Fortunately, she pulled herself together enough to tell them everything was fine—she was just suffering a little pregnancy madness. Her hormones were all over the place and making her a bit crazy. Then we thanked them nicely for their concern, wished them good night, and I got back in the car.
“Stella apologized all the way home, saying she’d thought it was ‘them,’ that they’d caught up to her and would try to drag her back so they could take her baby.” Allie sighed sadly. “I had no idea what she was talking about, but I was a bit freaked out by what had happened. Her strength and speed hadn’t been normal,” she pointed out, peering at Magnus with big eyes.
When he nodded in understanding, and took her hand to squeeze her fingers reassuringly, she flushed slightly, but continued. “Anyway, I was upset and confused, but just kept saying it was fine, we’d talk when we got home. But when we got back to my place, she muttered that she was very tired and rushed across the street to her town house. I thought, fine, we’d talk the next night.”
“I am guessing there was no talk the next night,” Magnus said quietly when she paused unhappily.
“No,” Allie admitted. “Or the night after. Stella pulled a disappearing act. She didn’t come over, wouldn’t answer the door, and wouldn’t answer my phone calls or texts. I don’t think I ever would have seen her again if I hadn’t staked out her place.”
“Staked out her place?” Magnus asked, unsure what that would entail in this case.
Allie nodded. “I plunked myself down by my front window and watched for her to leave, intending to rush out and talk to her if she did. I did that for two and a half nights with no results before I lost my patience. When there was no sign of her by three a.m. on the third night, I took the house key she’d given me—” She stopped her narrative to explain. “I talked her into giving me a house key just the week before this all happened. She only had a month and a half to her due date, but she was so big I was afraid the date was off. I was worried she’d go into labor and not be able to negotiate the stairs to the main floor safely on her own. I told her if she started having contractions, she was to call me and I’d go over, use the key to get in, then help her down to the car and drive her to the hospital.”
When he nodded in understanding, she returned to the original subject. “Anyway, at three o’clock that third night, I took the key and went over, determined to make her talk to me. We were friends. I’d helped her pick her unborn baby’s name, promised to be a free babysitter and help her with him or her. Besides, I had a ton of questions.”
“Was she there?” Tricia asked with curiosity.
“No,” Allie said with disgust. “Her car was there in the garage, but the house was empty. She’d dug a path through the snow from her back door to the fence and had apparently jumped it and used the footpath through the woods to go Lord knows where.” Anger tightening her lips, she added grimly, “On foot. In November in Calgary. November twenty-fifth to be exact. It was minus 17 degrees Celsius that night,” Allie told them with a combination of dismay and outrage. “I mean, how irresponsible is that? She was pregnant, for heaven’s sake. What if she’d gone into labor while strutting through the snow? Liam would have frozen to death before he hit the ground.”
“Liam would have been fine,” Tricia said soothingly. “Immortals do not freeze as easily as mortals.”
“Well, I didn’t know that, did I?” Allie said dryly, and then sighed. “She showed up at a little after four in the morning. I was sitting in the dark so that she wouldn’t see the light and avoid coming home. A bad idea as it turned out. She mistook me for a robber and damned near killed me before she realized it was me. Of course, then she alternated between feeling horrible for throwing me across the living room, and being angry that I had been sitting in wait. And of course I was a confusion of anger at her for avoiding me, and apologetic about using the key when I knew she wouldn’t have wanted me to.”