“Do you realize the time, peasant?”
“Not now, Greer. I need a healer.” Power slithered over my flesh as the scent of a carnal male slammed against me. My gaze moved to the staircase as Knox slowly walked down, shirtless and covered in sweat that made his flesh glisten in the light of the chandelier. His hair was a mess. It was a mussed mess that my fingers itched to run through, and even though my brain reminded me of why I was here, my hormones or something deeper wanted him.
“I need a healer, please.”
“For?”
“Luna, something is wrong with the babes, and she’s bleeding out.” He stared at me as if he was considering telling me to get out, and I shook my head as the plea left my lips. “Knox, please.”
“Greer, go disturb Brander and his newest bed companion and tell him it’s an emergency.” Knox’s voice was filled with sleep, raspy, and it slipped around every nerve in my body.
I closed my senses off and began pacing aimlessly in the entrance hallway. Knox vanished and then returned, pulling a shirt on as he made his way to where I stood. He stopped beside me, watching me as my hands balled into fists and then released them repeatedly. My feet tracked dirt over his pristine floor, and I didn’t stop until he grabbed me, placing his hands on my shoulders as Brander came into the hall naked, swinging a massive sword between his legs. My eyebrows shot up in shock, and Knox growled from deep in his chest.
“Get your dick covered and grab your medical bag. Luna is experiencing difficulties in her pregnancy.” Knox didn’t ask for details, Brander did.
“How many months along is she?” he asked, uncaring that I was staring at his overly large weapon. “Aria, fucking focus, how many months along is Luna?” I shook my head, dispelling the raw need that was playing hell inside of me.
“I think four months or so, she got pregnant the first week we got back into town, or so we assume. She’s part alpha wolf, and she took a male the first night we got here behind the store. I don’t know for sure, but there is so much blood. It’s all over the bed, and she’s just screaming and howling. I don’t know what to do to stop the bleeding.”
He turned to Knox, staring at him as if he couldn’t believe he was helping us. “I’ll get my stuff.”
“Calm down and shut your hormones off, woman.” My eyes slipped to Knox’s heated stare, and I shook my head while fighting the rattle that escaped my lips. His chest rattled, and my hands pushed through my hair as my head rolled, stretching to alleviate the heat it created.
“I feel like my skin is crawling, and everything is falling apart around me. My body is perpetually soaked from sweat, Knox. I can’t shut it off, it’s stifling. It’s like I’m in heat, yet I know I’m not. So tell me, how do I fix it?”
“Listen to your body’s needs before you end up burning the entire town down, Aria.”
“That isn’t happening, considering I would probably murder someone and end up fucking a corpse. Dead bodies are a huge no-no around here.”
“You wouldn’t kill me.” He crossed his arms, staring me down.
“I’m fine.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
“Let’s fucking do this,” Brander said, interrupting us.
My hands pushed through my hair as I internally screamed in frustration, following Brander out of the mansion, and started finally toward my house. I was acutely aware of Knox following us and didn’t want to waste time arguing it. We entered the house to a room full of worried faces.
“Brander is the doctor? I thought he was the electrician?” Aine’s hair was a mess from pulling it out as her twin screamed endlessly in pain. I shrugged, uncertain if he actually was. He seemed to be a jack of all trades.
A howl sounded from upstairs, and I moved toward it while Brander issued orders. I didn’t stop running up the stairs until I reached the bedroom and threw the door open, gasping at the sheer volume of blood she was losing. I left the room, grabbing my phone to call the vampires to get blood to heal her.
Kerrigan Montgomery answered on the first ring and listened as I spoke. “Five spells for one bag,” he negotiated. Greedy fucking bloodsuckers.
“Done—we need it now,” I stated, hanging up before moving back to the room. “Vampires are sending blood.” Brander looked up from where he stood beside Luna with a thankful look in his eyes.
“Good, we’ll need it. Luna will lose the babes without it.”
I nodded, stepping out of the room to lean against the wall, sliding down it silently while I pulled my knees against my chest and exhaled. Someone settled beside me, and I turned, staring into oceanic eyes.
“You cannot be running down the block half-naked, woman.”
“This isn’t about me.”
“You have bounty hounds tracking you by scent, and you’re covered in sweat; it is about you. You’re not safe; next time, send someone else, Aria. Ignore my warning, and I will put you over my knee and spank your pretty little ass.”
“Is that supposed to be an incentive or a deterrent?” I asked huskily, and his eyes dipped to my lips before they slowly rose, locking with mine. I frowned, realizing what I had said. “I can’t believe I just said that.” I shook off whatever the hell was happening to me.
Screaming erupted, and Aurora stepped out of the room, staring at us where we waited for her to speak. I wanted to clamp my hands over my ears and pretend my sister wasn’t inside that room, screaming in pain as Luna lost her babies. I wasn’t stupid; they were too tiny to live.
“I have to go get the blood.” Aurora moved down the hallway with her shoulders slumped in defeat, and sadness washed over me with what she hadn’t told us.
“Luna carries boys. Fuck.” I wrapped my arms around my legs to lean my head against it.
“I need help in here!” At Brander’s demand, I turned to look at Knox, who had a haunted look in his eyes as he stared at the wall opposite of us. I frowned, standing, and moving into the room. “You need to help me deliver the babes. If they’re viable, they will need help breathing until the blood arrives.”
“They won’t be viable, save Luna.”
“You don’t fucking know that!” Luna cried.
“They’re boys, Luna.” I fought the tears that burned my eyes as she began to scream and wail against my words.
“No! No, they’re not. We don’t make boys!”
“No, Luna. We don’t give birth to boys. We lose them before they can sustain life outside our bodies. Hecate witches don’t birth boys; we lose them because of the curse which refuses to allow us to bring them into the world alive. I’m so sorry, honey.” I ignored Brander, who glared at me as if I was being an insensitive asshole.
She pushed for what felt like hours, and I held her hand as she screamed and bore down with each contraction until the first son was born. I accepted his limp body, staring at the faceless creature as tears slipped free of the hold I’d held on them. Grabbing a blanket, I wrapped him in it as Brander stared at the lifeless boy.
“It doesn’t have a face.” Brander’s tone held horror, and worse, accusation as if we had agreed to be cursed, when in fact, we were born with it.