She could hear several voices in the distance, along with movement, both inside the house and out. Someone slammed a car door outside.
She squeezed Dragos’s fingers, and he erupted upright to bend over her, eyes blazing. He called out, “Medina, she’s awake.”
Almost immediately, the bedroom door opened, and Dr. Medina stepped inside. “I’m here.”
Briefly, Pia considered sitting up, but it seemed like too much effort. “I thought you were a dream,” she told the doctor in a rusty voice.
Dr. Medina smiled at her. “You were pretty confused when I arrived.”
“You fainted,” Dragos told her. Lines of tension scored his face. “Scared centuries off my life when I saw you collapse like a rag doll.”
Contritely, she squeezed his fingers as she thought back. “We were with the president in the library. How long ago was that?”
“Last evening. It’s almost dawn now. Investigators have been here all night.” Dragos touched her face, stroking the curve of her cheek. “How do you feel?”
She admitted, “Achy.”
“Do you need anything, perhaps a drink of water?”
“Maybe in a bit,” she sighed. His caress was so soothing, it made her want to close her eyes again.
Dragos turned a hard expression to the doctor. “You said you would talk to us both when Pia woke up. Well, she’s awake now, so start talking.”
The doctor gave him a look of rebuke. “I also told you she was going to be okay.” She turned to Pia. “And you are going to be okay. Do you feel up to having a conversation right now, or do you need more rest?”
Beside her, Dragos felt so tight, like he was going to explode. Remembering the raging dragon from her dream—hallucination—she nodded. She did need more rest, but she didn’t think he could hold off any longer.
“Okay,” said Dr. Medina, straightening. “I have some great news and some not very great news for you, and it’s all tied together. Remember, the most important thing is—you’re going to be okay, and so is your baby.”
“What?” Pia said, not believing what she had just heard. Was she hallucinating again? She glanced sideways at Dragos, who looked as thunderstruck as her. “I’m not pregnant. I can’t be pregnant.”
Swiftly, Dragos placed one large hand over her flat stomach. She felt his Power probing deep within her. Placing her hand over his, she sank her awareness deep into her body too.
“I don’t sense anything,” Dragos said.
Pia muttered, “I don’t either.”
Dr. Medina folded her arms and regarded them both with a certain wry, sour expression. “You’re not really questioning my diagnosis, are you? The last I heard, neither one of you had a medical license.”
“But I’m not feeling anything.” She felt close to tears. “Does that mean something’s wrong?”
“Wait.” Dragos leaned closer, his expression arrested. “Fuck me. I’ve got it.”
“I don’t feel it! I can’t sense anything.” Frantically she searched harder, but she couldn’t feel a thing, not until Dragos’s Power surrounded her awareness and drew her attention to . . .
A slight something, nestled deep, hardly more than a shadow. Catching her breath, she strained everything she could toward that subtle shadow but couldn’t pick up any more details.
She would have missed it entirely if it hadn’t been for Dragos pointing it out.
And Dragos had missed it entirely until the doctor told them.
“Can you feel it now?” Dragos asked.
“Yes, but what does it mean?” she whispered anxiously. “Liam didn’t feel anything like this.”
An incredulous smile lit Dragos’s hard features, and his gold gaze flashed up to hers. “I think the little shit’s cloaking itself. And its cloaking ability is so damn good, it fooled even me.”
Pia’s gaze flew to the doctor’s, who nodded in confirmation. Wonder coursed through her tired body, along with a tumultuous cascade of joy.
She said to Dragos, “You do have mighty sperm. Once we made the decision, we must have gotten pregnant on our very first pow.”
He kissed her swiftly but sobered as he turned back to face Dr. Medina. “You said there was not so great news.”
“Yes, well.” The doctor looked down at her feet and pursed her lips. “Remember this, and keep it firmly fixed in your mind—you’re going to be okay, and the baby is going to be okay.”
Pia’s anxiety came back, squashing the incredulous joy. Not wanting to hear what came next while she was lying flat on the bed, she pushed herself upright. “What is it? Why have I felt so sick and had so many symptoms?”
“Sometimes, when a predator and an herbivore are mated, complications can arise,” Dr. Medina told them. “Sometimes those complications turn serious. You remember how nauseated you were during your pregnancy with Liam?”
She snorted. “I’ll never forget it. I was sick every time I took my necklace off.”
“You can roughly compare this situation to when a human mother has a different Rh factor in her blood than her baby.” The doctor paused. “Have you heard of that before?”
Dragos shook his head, but Pia nodded. “I’ve heard of it.”
Dr. Medina looked at her. “Often there’s no problem with the first child a mother has, but during the pregnancy she develops antibodies to carrying the fetus, so there can be complications with the second child. Those can get severe.”
“What are you saying?” Pia asked, gripping Dragos’s hand tightly. “Are you saying I’ve developed antibodies to carrying Dragos’s fetuses?”
“That’s a simple way to put it, but yes, you have,” the doctor replied. “And your symptoms appeared much more quickly and are more extreme.”
“But you said they would be all right,” Dragos said sharply.
“And they will.” Dr. Medina turned to her and said forcefully, “You will. We will make sure of it. There is no reason at all to panic over this. You will do everything you did for Liam’s pregnancy. You will eat right, exercise when you feel good and whenever possible avoid stress. Last night I treated you with spells to dampen your symptoms. I can also develop a drug protocol specifically targeted to suppress your antibodies, so that your body doesn’t reject the baby. We will monitor this pregnancy very closely. That means examinations every two weeks, so that we can make adjustments if necessary.”
Pia tried to calm the shaking in her limbs. “Okay,” she said unsteadily. She tried to smile at Dragos. “We can do that. It’s going to be okay.”
“Yes,” he said simply. “Nothing else is acceptable.”
But Pia could tell—they both felt too much on edge, too close to disaster to really settle, which was why, when Dr. Medina took a deep breath, they turned to her so quickly.
“Now for the not so great news,” Dr. Medina said.
Pia felt her stomach bottom out. She whispered, “I thought that was the not so great news.”
The doctor gave her a kind smile. “That was part of it. The other part is—and there’s no easy way to say this—Pia, this has got to be your last pregnancy. I’m very sorry to tell you this, but if you try to get pregnant a third time, as extreme as your reaction has become, the likelihood is, you’ll miscarry it almost right away. You would almost certainly miscarry with this pregnancy too over the next month or two, if you hadn’t received medical attention—which you have, and you and this baby are just fine. But if you were to try for a third pregnancy, you’ll only put yourself at risk and both you and Dragos through a great deal of heartache. I can help you bring this baby to term, but I can’t help you with another one.”
Pia held herself still, absorbing the news. After a moment, she said, “Is that all of it?”
“Yes, pretty much.”
She bit her lip as she looked from Dr. Medina to Dragos. “I was so sure I wasn’t pregnant, I took a couple of doses of antihistamines yesterday. Is that a problem?”
The doctor shook her head. “Not at all. Some hum
an drugs work well for Wyr, and that happens to be one of them. And since you’re not human, you can enjoy everything that you did when you were pregnant with Liam, including wine and alcohol, since there’s no placental transfer of alcohol for expectant Wyr mothers.”
She expelled a quick sigh of relief and the stiffness went out of her spine.
Dr. Medina continued, “I want you on bed rest for the next two days, so that your system can recover from the symptoms you’ve developed while I get your protocol developed. Then you can take your first dose. I’ve been making arrangements through the night for my other patients, and I’ve set up temporary privileges at Georgetown Hospital while you remain in D.C. That’s where I’m going in a few hours to work on creating your protocol, so I’ll be on hand if you need me. If you have any questions or concerns, you’ve got me on speed dial. Until then, calm down, don’t stress, eat lots of lovely good food and enjoy your new pregnancy with that very intriguing mystery you’ve got baking in your oven.” Dr. Medina’s gaze slid to Dragos. “And let your husband pamper you.”
“I can’t thank you enough,” Pia told her.
Dr. Medina touched her shoulder. “It’s my pleasure, Pia. I’ll leave you two alone now.”
When the door shut behind her, Pia sat for a moment, absorbing everything the doctor had said.
Then she whirled around to throw her arms around Dragos, her face suffused with glee. “Oh my God, we’re really pregnant! Part of me was so convinced it wasn’t ever going to happen!”
His arms came around her, crushing her ribs, he held her so tightly. He rasped, “When you fainted like that, you scared the shit out of me.”
“I know, I’m so sorry.” She stroked the back of his head.
Pulling back, he kissed her hard, several times, then hugged her tightly again and rocked her.
Compulsively, she put her hand on her stomach and sought once more for that subtle shadow. When she found it, joy thrilled through her again. “You didn’t by any chance get a glimpse of what sex it is, did you?”
“No. It’s cloaking too tightly.” Catching what she did, one corner of his mouth lifted as he said, “He’s sneaky.”
“Or she’s discreet,” she told him. “Oh my God, I really didn’t think we could do it—and I certainly didn’t think we could do it so soon.”
Dragos’s smile died. He asked, “How do you feel about the rest of what the doctor told us?”
She sobered too as she considered. After a few minutes, she said, “You know, I feel good. I’m still in shock that we actually got pregnant, and I’m just relieved to know that the baby and I are fine.” She caught a glimpse of his face and added quickly, “And we’re going to continue to be fine. As far as the rest of it goes . . . Dragos, we’re lucky that we have one child, let alone that we’re going to have two. I think—I’m not going to lie, I think it’s going to make me sad sometimes. But if that happens, it will be far in the future, and all I will have to do is look at the two beautiful children we do have and I’ll be able to remind myself how lucky we are. Besides, if we get ever desperate to have another baby around, we can always adopt.” She sneaked a peek at his frowning expression. “How about you?”
“As long as you’re okay, everything is okay even when it’s not.” Unsmiling, he met her gaze. “When you’re not okay, the world is hell.”
He had tightened one hand into a fist. She laid her hand over it, remembering the raging dragon in her hallucinations. She said gently, “And I’m okay. I’m more than okay, I’m over the moon.”
“Despite feeling achy?” He passed one hand over her hair, tucking it behind her shoulder.
“This is worth feeling achy any day of the week.” Somewhere, a door slammed again, reminding her of the outside world and its concerns. “What happened while I was out of it?”
He made a face and gesture that sliced through air. “Drama llamas.”
“What?” She laughed.
The stress had begun to lift from his face, which she was glad to see. He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Don’t you remember what you said just before you collapsed?”
She thought back then shook her head. “No, I’m afraid not.”
“You rolled your eyes and said, ‘I can’t even deal with the drama llama.’” He chuckled then rubbed his eyes. “It wasn’t funny at the time, though, dammit.”
“I’m so sorry.” She leaned against him, and he shifted to put his back against the headboard while keeping one arm around her. She curled against his side, one leg draped across his hips. “Do they have any idea who did it? Who killed Colton, I mean?”
After a moment, he told her, “After studying the footage from the cameras, security narrowed the suspects down to three people—Aaron Davis, Janice Wilmington and the speaker’s security detail. And a few hours ago, they found the murder weapon. It was exactly what I thought, a gauntlet with curved blades welded to the ends of the fingers and thumbs. The murderer had it custom made.”
She shuddered at the thought. “Where was it?”
“The killer had pried up a board and stuffed it under the floor in one of the bathrooms.”
“I know we own this house, but I’m so glad this didn’t happen in our actual home,” she told him. “I would feel so violated if it had.”
His hold tightened. “We would never have had any of those assholes in our home.”
“True.” She had to think a moment to place the names with titles and faces. Aaron Davis was the vice president’s chief of staff, Janice Wilmington was the majority leader. She couldn’t remember what the speaker of the House’s security detail looked like. Curiously, she asked, “Who do you think did it?”
“I’m positive it was one of the two men, Davis or the security guy. Colton was a tall man. Wilmington isn’t tall enough to have inflicted the wounds on him, at least not at the angle the cuts at his throat were made. As for why, I really don’t give a damn. I just want them all out of my house and gone for good.”
He pressed his mouth to her forehead, and they rested for several minutes.
“Bed rest for two days.” She sighed. “I didn’t bring any books with me. I thought I was going to be too busy to read this week.”
“I’ll go out and get you something to read tomorrow,” he whispered. He began rubbing her back in long, soothing strokes. In no time, she grew sleepy and relaxed.
“Pregnant,” she murmured. “I feel so gleeful about that, I could bust. We’re pregnant, and we have no idea what it is.”
“I could try to scan again, but I don’t want to force it,” he said quietly.
“No, I don’t either. He or she will come out from behind that cloak when they’re ready.” She smiled sleepily. “Not knowing is kind of fun, kind of like a Masque or Christmas present.”
“What an interesting future we’re going to have,” Dragos said. “I’d like to keep the news to ourselves for a little while, if you don’t mind. Let’s just enjoy it for a few weeks, then we can tell Liam and our close circle. Is that all right with you?”
“That sounds perfect.”
This time she fell asleep peacefully, and she had no more bad dreams.
Late the next morning, when she woke up, Dragos was still in bed with her, although he had showered and dressed, she saw, when she rolled over. He was busy reading some kind of typed report, which he set aside as she gave him a sleepy smile.
“What are you doing here?” she asked in a sleep-blurred voice as she stretched. All the muscle aches had eased, allowing her freedom of motion. “Why aren’t you at—what was supposed to happen this morning? I can’t remember it now.”
He raised his eyebrows at her. “You collapsed last night, remember? I get to stay at home today to make sure you’re recovering.”
“Hmm.” She hummed contentedly as she lifted her face for his kiss.
“Are you hungry?”
She nodded, and as he called down to the kitchen to order her some breakfast, she sat up in bed. Across the room, a high pile of w
rapped presents sat on the table. “What are those for?”
“Those are for someone who is newly pregnant and can’t leave her bed for two days.” He lounged back against the headboard, looking sexy and wicked. “They’ll be fun to look at until you can go get them, won’t they?”
She rounded on him with a look of utter betrayal. “You wouldn’t!”
He laughed. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“Well, okay then,” she grumbled, subsiding. “Besides, I can’t stay in bed for the entire two days without getting up. I’ve got to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth.”
She did so, and she also washed the remnants of last night’s makeup off her face, while he carried the presents to the bed. She felt shaky while she was on her feet, and when she was done with her toilette, she was glad to crawl back between the covers.
Then she opened presents while Dragos handed them to her, one by one. Sexy lingerie, a half a dozen books, several magazines, and ooh look, a beautiful pair of aquamarine earrings, vegan chocolates, a warm chenille robe, and a new tablet.
He had noticed that she had broken the screen of the tablet she had at home.
Warmed again by his attention and thoughtfulness, she turned to kiss him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I can buy you a TV too and have a dresser moved in to set it on, if you want.”
She looked around the lovely, historical bedroom. “Thanks, but no, I like the bedroom this way. I can always watch things on the tablet if I feel like it.”
“Well, let me know if you change your mind.” Tilting her face further, he kissed her again. “I hope this all helps with the bed rest.”
“It does,” she promised.
The next day, he left her to join in the normal meetings and activities for the week. He texted her often, while she slept far more than she thought she would—she was still so tired—and nibbled on chocolates, and read.
The enforced bed rest also gave her a chance to really think about what the doctor had said, but even after a bout of soul-searching, the only real reaction she had was one of deep relief that she had actually fainted, which had gotten her the medical attention she needed before she could miscarry.