She hesitates a beat. “I’m heading home to nap.”
Nap. That’s not like her, but I agree we could all use some downtime. “I’ll come home. We’ll nap together.”
“I don’t want to take you away from your job with the vampires today. They need you.”
I glance around my office. White walls, plaques I don’t give a shit about, and a stack of paperwork that I can’t put off. A line of soldiers waits to see me outside. Breaking and heading home to nap is a pipe dream. Both Tricia and I know it. It’s why she tells me not to come. She understands what we’re both sacrificing to keep our own people safe when they continue to hate one another. “Tonight then, after I meet with the caterers for the wedding?”
She pauses, and I hear her loud and clear. I need to do more, move quicker in lieu of allowing interruptions to ruin our special day.
“Yes, Riley. Tonight. I don’t want you to worry. Okay?”
I crawl my way into her mind, rooting around the crevices to find why she’s shielding me the way she is. What doesn’t she want me to know? After all we’ve been through, it has to be bad. “I’m here for you. You know that, right? That I love you and can’t wait to call you my wife? That I can’t wait to hold our daughter?”
Her facade cracks, and that’s when the image of her grandmother’s sneer slaps me in the face. I jolt to my feet, shoving back from my desk to close the office door. “You’re not telling me something.”
“And you know why. It’s Catherine. It’s always her and her dark magic. She knows how to push my buttons. That’s all. I’m heading home. I’ll reach out when I wake, okay?”
Before I can question her, there’s a knock on my glass door.
General Shaw stands on the other side, his brows pulled into a V and his steely gaze locked on mine.
I lift a finger, telling the five star general to give me a minute as I wrestle with Tricia’s continued distancing. I take a moment to mentally scold myself for waiting so long to marry her, for doubting that I’m the right choice for her as fae and vampires continue to carry animosity toward one another, even with a bipartisan truce. What kind of world are we to raise our daughter in when it’s filled with hate?
I shake my head, frustrated that our world continues to be strained by old enemies. As the Master Vampire, a leader and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps with special conditions for the PDU, I have a duty to protect the lives of those who depend on me. I also have enough respect for Tricia as my future wife, as a queen, to let her decide when I need to know information that threatens us as a couple and as leaders of our respective clans. “Sweet dreams, my love.”
As soon as I return to my chair, General Shaw enters.
“I’ll never get used to watching you communicate with, I assume, your mate. You have a worry line that ripples your forehead when you speak to her whereas those lines don’t exist when you speak to members of your coven. But you may have a worse reaction when you see what just came in.”
“I’ll have to work on erasing my ‘tell.’ I can’t be seen as vulnerable.”
“Men who have something to protect fight harder than those who don’t. This way…”
The sound of a whimpering baby hits my ears before we round the corridor leading to the infirmary. Ben’s standing with Camille off to the side, but there are over a dozen turned-human females, their husbands and babies. I narrow my gaze, drilling into Ben’s mind as he’s my closest friend since elementary school, a new father and husband. By the way he’s fawning over his daughter, I understand his distraction. “Good. You’re here.”
Ben flicks his gaze at me. “Tricia met with Camille. Salina has a mark of some kind on her leg.”
I play along. “I just spoke with Tricia.”
“No doubt she’s filled you in. The doctor is inundated. He’s never seen a single mark like this on a child, except for ringworm. This isn’t a fungus or a rash. It’s unique. Some are blaming dark fae magic. All the other newborns are marked in the same way as my daughter. I’m concerned, Riley. Did Tricia give you any additional insight as to what’s causing this? Or what the mark could mean? Because I’m a mess. Salina is my only child. I’m unable to have more children as a turned vampire. I can’t let anything happen to her.”
I tell myself to trust Tricia, to give her space to investigate her routes, to trust she’ll get back to me when she knows more. But I can’t deny that a sick feeling comes alive inside of me at the thought of her distraught and hiding from me as a way to protect me somehow.
General Shaw claps me on the shoulder as he waves over Ben.
Ben retreats from my mind as he strolls toward me, presenting his daughter. “This is what the mark looks like. Tricia suggested we see the doctor. When Camille arrived to find these other new parents whose babies also have the same mark, she panicked.”
I check Ben’s hold, measuring his vampire control, and finding that he’s recently fed, and through him I feel a shared sense of steadiness that exists but shouldn’t. Maybe it has to do with the mark. “Wait here.”
Inside the infirmary, Dr. Westly listens to a newborn’s heart, but his focus is on a three-legged spiral mark on the baby’s thigh. The mark is raised, pink, and suspicious. If Tricia sent Camille here, she no doubt suspects some kind of magical interaction, which makes sense of the reason why she visited Catherine.
I close my eyes, reaching out to Tricia, but find her shields erected. “Any guesses as to how the baby got this mark?”
Dr. Westly swaddles the baby and hands her to her mother. “Let me know if she starts to run a fever, gets a runny nose or cough, or shows symptoms that would suggest this is the beginning of something viral.”
When the woman gathers up her child and spins to face me, I recognize her straightaway. “Arianna. I’m sorry I was distracted and didn’t recognize you from where I was standing.”
She cradles her daughter, swaying from side to side. “Lily seems fine otherwise. It’s why Garibaldi isn’t here with me. I didn’t want him to fuss over nothing, but now I’m running scared after seeing all the others. Please tell me you know what’s going on? It appears that all of the babies have a parent or parents who were once vampires. It’s like whoever is targeting our children has marked them because of their vampire connection. Only I don’t know if that mark is to protect them from something that’s coming or to strike them down.”
I fight back a shiver but stand unaffected. The last thing I want is to inflict panic in these parents whose babies appear to be healthy and normal. “Soon as I know anything, I’ll send word.”
“Thank you. You’re a good master, Riley. I really appreciate everything you and Tricia have done for me and my family.”
“Of course. Tell the next woman in line that the doctor will be with her in just a few minutes.”
Once the door closes us in, I ask the obvious question of Dr. Westly. “Have you seen anything like this before?”
“If this mark were etched on an adult, I say it’s a brand of some sort. But since it’s shown on every baby under one year of age living here on PDU grounds, I guess it’s some kind of curse or magic. I’m just not sure what the mark means or why anyone would design a spell to mark infants.”