“Incredible, isn’t it?” She pushed up on one elbow and leaned in to kiss his chest. She’d kissed every inch of him last night. Maybe she’d lick every inch of him this morning. “And our baby will be born to parents who love each other.”
Determined to show him how much she loved him, she kissed her way lower. Her lips whispered over his nipple, but before she could taste him, a cramp wrenched her insides. She sucked in a harsh breath, her hand going to her belly.
“What is it?” Azagoth jackknifed up, his expression dark with worry. “Is it the baby?”
Fierce heat swelled beneath the surface of her skin as her abdomen tightened. “I think it might be Braxton Hicks,” she said between panting breaths.
“What?”
“Cara had them.” Closing her eyes to stop the room from spinning, she eased back onto her pillow. “They’re like practice contractions.”
She didn’t remember Cara complaining about being hot and sweating buckets, though. Another cramp streaked through her, and she moaned. Cara had said they were painful, as if someone were squeezing her intestines.
This was more like someone was driving a red-hot blade through them.
“You’re white as a ghost, Lilli.”
Something’s wrong.
No, nothing was wrong. She was being paranoid.
Azagoth rested his palm on her forehead, testing her temperature. “Are these Hicks things supposed to be like this?”
She heard the panic in his voice but not the words. Her ears were buzzing. Her head was pounding. And, suddenly, a wave of agony wrapped around her and squeezed so hard she screamed. Vaguely, she heard Azagoth call out her name as a warm gush spread between her thighs.
“Lilliana? Lilliana!” His voice droned in and out as the room began to tilt. There was shouting. More pain. Her thoughts fragmented.
And then, finally…nothing.
“Zhubaal!”
Terror gripped Azagoth as he shouted for his lieutenant, one of the few fallen angels he trusted with his—and his mate’s—life. Naked and not giving a single shit, he tore open the bedroom door and shouted again. There was so much blood…so much.
“Zhubaal! Call Idess. I need a doctor. Now!”
Z had been sprinting through the long, dark hallway toward the bedroom, but he skidded to a halt as he whipped his phone out of the pocket of his jeans.
“And get Cat,” Azagoth added. Cat was Lilli’s best friend in Sheoul-gra. And just as important, she was female. Surely, a female would know what to do. They had instincts and stuff. Right?
Lilliana cried out, and he rushed back to her, his heart surging into his throat.
At least she’s conscious.
He told himself that was a good sign.
But the reality, as blood pooled on the mattress beneath her, soaking her white maternity nightshirt, said something different.
“What’s wrong with me?” she whispered, her amber gaze glassy, reflections of pain and fear shimmering on the surface.
He gathered her limp body in his arms and tucked her head against his chest, soothing her the only way he knew how.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” he said with confidence he didn’t feel. “But a doctor is on the way.” Azagoth hoped Idess could get Eidolon, but at this point, he’d welcome almost any healer.
He took that back. Heaven had offered to send a team to assist with the birth, but he didn’t trust any of them. Angels were a last resort.
Lilliana looked up at him, her pale expression brimming with trust, and his heart both swelled with love and broke with terror. Gently, he stroked her chestnut hair, alarmed by how brittle it felt. Something was very, very wrong.
“I feel lightheaded,” she whispered. “Am I bleeding?”
“A little,” he said, utterly comfortable with the lie even though he’d sworn to be honest with her. She didn’t need the stress of knowing she’d lost enough blood to kill a human. “Can you feel the baby?”
She swallowed. “No.”
Closing his eyes, he reached out with his mind. He’d connected with the baby when Lilliana first came back. Had heard…no, felt…the child call him “father.” Every night since then, he’d awakened with a peaceful sense of awareness that the baby was touching him. Not physically, but mentally.
Now that Lilliana was home, for the first time in his life, he looked forward to sleeping.
Hey, Baby Grim. You there?
He didn’t expect a response, but it was still disappointing that there was nothing.
The sound of pounding footsteps echoed from the hallway, and a moment later, Eidolon, Idess, and Cat burst inside all at once. Two of Azagoth’s sons, Journey and Emerico, followed but remained inside the doorway as silent, concerned sentinels.
Eidolon strode over, his gold-plated stethoscope dangling over a black scrub top embroidered with Underworld General’s specialized caduceus on the pocket. Azagoth had never met the infamous incubus in person, but he was about what Azagoth expected: tall, darkly handsome, and athletic. Tools of the trade for a sex demon.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his voice oozing with confidence and professionalism as he dropped a medical duffel onto the end of the bed. Azagoth wasn’t sure if he was relieved or pissed off that the guy was keeping his composure when Azagoth was on the verge of losing his.
“She passed out,” Azagoth said as he gently moved Lilliana off his lap and onto the mattress and a pillow, careful to avoid the blood as much as possible. “She was fine, and then she…” He trailed off, unable to voice the obvious.
“Hurts,” Lilliana moaned. “Hurts so bad.”
Eidolon gloved up and gripped Lilliana’s wrist. The sleeve of glyphs on his arm, what Seminus demons called a dermoire, lit up as he channeled energy into Lilli. Every protective instinct Azagoth had screamed for him to make Eidolon stop, but he told himself that this wasn’t a random demon channeling evil shit into her. Seminus demons possessed the ability to heal the body and the mind.
Of course, the same gifts that could heal could also kill. It was what made Sems as lethal as they were horny.
“When did it start?” Eidolon asked.
She swallowed, her throat working for so long, Azagoth reached for the glass of water she kept next to the bed. Eidolon shook his head.
“I’ve been nauseous for a couple of days,” she said between panting breaths. “I mean, I’ve had episodes for my entire pregnancy, but it got worse a couple of days ago.”
Azagoth froze as he shrugged into his robe. “You lied to me?”
“I told you it was nothing, and I didn’t think it was,” she snapped with so much strength that it lifted Azagoth’s spirits. “And you lied about me losing blood, so you can suck on your outrage.”
He laughed despite the situation. Lilliana never put up with his shit, and he loved that about her.
Eidolon adjusted his grip on her wrist. “What about the pain?”
“It started just after I woke up this morning.” She shuddered and cried out, and another gush of blood puddled on the sheets.
“Dammit, Doc,” Azagoth barked. “Do something!”
Eidolon’s dermoire glowed brighter, and his expression grew grimmer. “This shouldn’t be happening. There’s no reason for it.”