Dark Flight (The Shadow Slayers) (22 page)

Kara turned slowly, not sure who she was about to meet. There was a heavily pregnant woman with golden-brown hair that fell to her waist and exotic eyes almost the same shade as her hair. She had skin the color of fresh honey, but her beautiful eyes were rimmed in red.

The pregnant woman held another woman in her arms, and this woman had black hair, not more than an inch long, and skin as pale as the other woman’s was rich. The black-haired woman didn’t seem to be breathing, but then her lungs had been used as a pincushion. At least a dozen arrows protruded from her chest at every angle, and three of those went straight through her heart.

Kara locked eyes with the first woman. “Rachel?”

Upon hearing her name, the woman’s lips parted. “You know of me, Kara Reed?”

“Yes, of course, Gavin…” She wanted to say that Gavin had spoken of her, but the oddity of the situation robbed her of words. Really, what was the appropriate thing to say to her lover’s baby mama?

“Gavin…” Rachel whispered. “He remembered me?”

Kara was surprised. Did Rachel think Gavin wouldn’t remember her? How well did she even know him? “Of course he remembers. He even has a home waiting for you. It’s gorgeous, built especially for you and your son. I think you’ll like life on Mercury Island.”

Kara wasn’t sure what she’d said, but Rachel’s eyes welled anew. “I’m sure I would like it very much. But you don’t seem to understand—we’re never going to escape the Monster. It’s not possible.” As she said the last word, she grimaced and clutched her stomach.

Kara dropped to the floor and scooted closer. “Are you okay?”

Rachel shook her head. “No. The child is coming soon, and my Darrinda—” she looked down at her friend and cradled her head closer to her breast, “—Darri is in need of rest. I’m afraid she may miss the birth.”

With three arrows through her heart, Darrinda would need some major regeneration. The baby might be talking before Rachel’s BFF woke again. But there was no reason to voice that and cause Rachel even more suffering. “I think you’re right.”

“Will you help me?” Rachel asked.

“Yes. What can I do?”

Rachel glanced down at Darrinda’s still body. “I need to remove these arrows so that she can begin to heal. I tried one. I can’t do another.” She picked up the remnant of an arrow and held it up to Kara, and it was then that Kara realized Rachel’s hands were completely covered in blood.

“You want me to…uh…pull those arrows out?”
Oh, please no.

Rachel cried out again, and the way she writhed told Kara that the baby was coming sooner rather than later. “Do you think, maybe, we should do it after the baby is born?”

Rachel met Kara’s eyes and looked daggers at her. “No. Now. Darrinda needs the arrows out now.”

“Okay. Sure. I can do that.” Kara nodded, trying to convince herself that was true.

She walked on her knees until she was thigh to thigh with the black-haired woman. She seemed dead, and maybe with her regeneration stalled, that’s exactly what she was until Kara got these arrows out.

Kara moved the shaft of one, investigating how to pull it out.

“No!” Rachel cried, and Kara jumped back. “You can’t pull it through without first severing the fletching. I want nothing left inside her.”

“The fletching?” Kara repeated.

“Yes, the feathery part.”

“Ah. Okay.” Now, how to do that? She extended her red claws and used the tip of one to scratch a deep groove around the base of the feathers. When that was done, she snapped the end off as gently as she could.

When Rachel moaned and moved down on her mat, Kara knew she had to hurry. She didn’t want to be insensitive to Darrinda’s plight, but after all, her head was still on. Kara didn’t need to worry much about any damage she did pulling the arrows free.

What had looked like a dozen arrows had been ten, but by the time Kara was finished plucking them from the woman’s body, she was shaking head to toe. Brakken really was a monster.

“Okay, I think that’s it,” Kara told Rachel. “All the arrows are out, and no feathers were left in.” She readjusted Darrinda’s body so it lay stretched out on the mat, close to Rachel but still giving the pregnant woman some room. “Rachel?” Kara said, glancing over at her when she didn’t answer.

Rachel had rolled to her side, her hands clutching her stomach, her face contorted in agony. “Darri said the baby should have been born by now. Something must be the matter with him. Eva?”

Who’s Eva?
Kara wanted to ask, but it seemed rude to make Rachel answer any questions under the circumstances.

A moment later, a huge guard with a quiver of arrows strapped to his back walked through the door. “What are you hollering about, Rachel?”

“Eva,” she panted. “I need Eva. The child is stuck.”

He laughed. “I offered to help before, but you didn’t take me up on it. Don’t complain about it now. And Eva is indisposed. She won’t be available for at least an hour.” He smiled and poked a finger at Kara. “That one can help you.”

When the guard left the room, Kara looked to Rachel and saw the blood staining the bottom of her flowing nightdress. It was then it occurred to Kara that she might just be in hell. “I’ve never delivered a baby before. I’m not sure I can do it.”

Rachel’s forehead was dripping sweat, and her cheeks had bright pink splotches on them. “You will do fine.”

“I’ve never even seen a real live birth.”

“Kara—” Rachel met her eyes and smiled with a quiet strength, “—you can do this, because you have to do this. I can’t turn the baby myself.”

Kara felt her blood drain to her extremities. “Turn the baby?”

“Yes. Simply reach up there and make sure his head is in the proper position. Turn him if you have to. If you feel his feet first, then the best we can do is make sure his leg isn’t stuck at an angle. If both feet are together, grip them firmly at the next contraction and pull. I may lose consciousness, but the contractions will not stop until he is delivered. You must do this. You have to.”

Hell. Yes, she was in it.

Julian looked out over his land at the hundred-plus warriors in full battle gear standing in neat rows. They wore thick breastplates with metal collars to protect their necks. The breastplates would slow all but Brakken’s arrows, which were shaped from his will.

The strange flashes in Julian’s mind were distracting him at a time when he most needed clarity. But since his time with Mazeki, a feeling like déjà vu was ever with him. It was almost maddening, seeing things and sensing something familiar, but not being able to put a name to it.

“Julian,” Gavin said from behind him.

He almost couldn’t bring himself to turn around. But he did. “Yes?”

“We’re ready, and I have good news. Kara is awake and resting in my room on Mercury Island. She seems to be over her bloodlust, and now she is safe from the battle as well.”

Julian nodded. “Do we have any idea what triggered her illness or why she went unconscious again?”

Gavin frowned and folded his hands. “No, I’m not sure.”

As strange as it was, Julian could honestly say he was thankful Gavin had been training with Kara when it had happened. He wasn’t sure he trusted anyone else to care for her on the surface. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For watching out for her.”

“You don’t need to thank me. I protect her because I love her and for the memory of my friend, who loved her as well.”

Inexplicably, Julian’s vision went red. “You don’t think I love her—me? Not that damned old Julian you all were so fond of.”

Gavin sighed. “I think you love her as an Aniliáre loves, as though she is a treasured possession. I’ve never seen more from a black-wing. I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Who am I to judge one’s love?”

“It does matter,” Julian answered. “I’ve successfully traveled to the surface, and when I learn to navigate it better, I will come for her. I can’t keep her safe from a distance, so I don’t see the point in being apart.”

“I’m not going to let her go. Not even for you.”

Julian shook out his wings to relieve the tension building there, and it kept him from wrapping his fingers around Gavin’s throat and severing his head with his bare hands. “She will make her own choice. I may be a black-wing, but even I can see that you and I can’t decide this for her.”

Gavin nodded. “That is true. And Julian?”

His eyebrows hiked up, waiting to hear what Gavin had to say. “Yes?”

“You deserve my thanks as well. I am honored to have you by my side today, fighting for what used to be your clan and your people.”

A silver-wing carrying something large sped their way, coming to a crashing halt before Gavin. The thing he’d been carrying in his arms was actually a warrior, and the warrior’s body was shot through with spikes.

“A scout?” Julian asked.

But something was terribly wrong. Gavin’s face looked like he’d seen death itself. He took the injured warrior by the shoulders and shook him like a ragdoll. “Kara?” the Mercury Lord inquired. “Where is Kara?”

The warrior’s eyes were fluttering open and then closing again. “He took her.”

“Who?” Gavin demanded.

“Your father.”

Julian felt a curious sensation course through his blood. Something elemental. His muscles felt as though they weren’t just swelling with blood—they felt as though they were swelling with energy.

He couldn’t hear what Gavin said after that, and he only marginally registered it in his vision when Gavin dropped to his knees and curled his fists into his hair.

And all the while, the Shadowland itself seemed to pour into Julian’s being, flooding him with energy until he thought it might bubble up under his skin and peel his flesh from his bones until he was nothing but spirit. And he welcomed it. He embraced it. If he was a spirit, it was the very spirit of vengeance itself.

Chapter Eighteen

The only thing that had gone right was that Rachel
had
actually passed out when Kara had found the baby’s foot and positioned it beside the other.

And now what? Kara’s sleeves were rolled up to her underarms, her forearm was up where she’d never imagined it would be and her mind was racing. Had Rachel said to turn the baby headfirst or to pull it out by the legs?

Maybe it didn’t matter, because just finding the miniscule foot and bringing it into position had taken a dangerously long time. Demiáre babies couldn’t die, could they? What happened to them if the placenta detached and they didn’t get air?

When the next contraction tightened Rachel’s body, Kara grasped the feet of the babe and pulled. “Come on, baby!”

But it only moved a half inch if it moved at all. Everything was so damn snug and with the feet barely in the birth canal, Kara worried she might dislocate the child’s hips or legs if she pulled too hard.

With her other hand she gently patted Rachel’s cheek. “Rachel. Wake up. I need you to push.” When that did nothing, she patted harder. “Rachel, please! Wake up!” The responding murmur that came from the other woman was a glorious sound. “Rachel?”

Her half-lidded eyes slowly crept open. “Yes? Is it finished?”

“Oh, crap, sweetie. I’m so sorry, but it’s not over. The baby isn’t moving down, and I’m going to need you to push.”

With her free hand, Kara positioned Rachel’s leg at an angle with her foot flat on the floor. She didn’t dare let go of the child’s feet because they too easily slipped back into the womb.

“The next time you feel a contraction, I want you to push with everything you’ve got, okay? I’m going to pull, and I’m going to do it a little harder this time.”

Rachel moaned and gave a shallow nod to let Kara know she’d heard her. Then not more than a minute later, her eyes flashed open. “It’s coming!”

Kara smiled and gave Rachel’s hand a squeeze. “You can do this, Rachel. You are a strong woman, and your son can’t wait to meet you.”

When the contraction came, Rachel cried out through gnashed teeth and pushed so hard, the veins in her temples protruded. At the same time, Kara pulled, and she felt it when the baby’s shoulders cleared the cervix and the child slid free. The next thing she knew, she was holding Gavin’s bloody little baby by the feet and quickly bringing her hand under his head to support his neck.

He was amazing. Absolutely beautiful. Careful of the cord, which was still attached, Kara laid him on Rachel’s chest. “Here he is, Mama. Your beautiful little boy.”

Tears fell from Rachel’s eyes. She held him up and inspected him, seeming pleased with what she saw. To Kara’s surprise, the little guy didn’t seem as floppy as other newborn babies she’d seen, almost as if he could support the weight of his own head right off the bat. Those Demiáre really did have good genes.

Rachel met Kara’s eyes. “Thank you, Kara. I’m sorry you were taken, but I’m glad you were here.”

“Me too, Rachel. In exactly that order.” She smiled. “Do you have a name picked out?”

Rachel shook her head side to side, nostrils flared. “I will not call him Gable Two. I don’t care what Brakken does to me. I won’t do it.”