Hammer Down: Children of the Undying: Book 2 (23 page)

Relief painted Zel’s features for a few seconds, then worry returned. “Complications?”

“I don’t think it’s going smoothly.”

“Where is she?”

“In Medical. Your mom and Clara are with her.”

Devi straightened her ponytail and turned to Zel. “How much experience do they have with delivery?”

“Enough,” Zel replied, striding into the hallway. “We’ve got babies popping out damn near every day. But it gets trickier with complications. All the medical equipment in the world doesn’t replace someone with the right training…and we don’t have anyone.”

Juliet had been a midwife’s assistant in Paseo Boricua before leaving Humboldt Park to become a hauler, but she hadn’t returned from the run. “Juliet is due back tomorrow morning. If Hailey’s still in labor then, she might be able to help. She has experience.”

“That’d be useful
and
make her really damn popular. Make sure she knows she can charge and trade for her services, or she’ll be up to her elbows in newborns inside a week.”

“I’ll remember that.”

They hurried to Medical, with Devi wishing she hadn’t spent enough time there already to know its location. People milled around just outside the secured doors, their faces somber and worried.

Closest to the door was Drake, a scowl curling his lips and his obvious anger keeping everyone a good foot away. Devi hadn’t seen him since the challenge in the ring, but time hadn’t mellowed the disapproval that filled his eyes when he fixed his gaze on her.

Zel eased in front of her with a soft snarl, but Devi laid a hand on his arm. “Is there any news, Drake?”

“I don’t know.” He bit every word off, his voice trembling with rage. “Your damn mother won’t let me in there.”

“Is there anyone with Hailey? Just…
with
her?”

“
I don’t know.
”

“Stop it!” Zel raised his voice. “Everyone needs to clear out. Go to one of the waiting rooms, if you want to stay, and we’ll keep people updated. But this—” His gesture took in the whole hallway. “This isn’t going to help anything.”

People grumbled, but they followed his command—except for Drake. “I’m not leaving.”

Zel’s arm tensed under Devi’s hand, but after a moment he nodded. “Her husband was one of your men, and she’s my second. But fighting isn’t going to do her any good. I’m willing to compromise if you are.”

The man almost shook with restraint. “What do you want?”

“If my mother tells you to leave, you leave. But I’ll tell her to let you stay unless Hailey needs the quiet.”

Finally, Drake nodded. “I can do that.”

Zel pressed his palm to the sensor and opened the door. “Ma, Drake can stay as long as Hailey wants him to. I’ll be in there in a second.” Then he curled his fingers around Devi’s arm and coaxed her back down the hallway, safely out of earshot. “Are you comfortable being in a room with him?”

“Sure, as long as he doesn’t try to hit me again.” But that had upset Zel more than her in the first place. She slid her hand into his. “What about you?”

He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “He’ll be hovering over Hailey. If he stays away from you, I’ll be fine.”

Except she’d be hovering over Hailey too. “We’ll deal with it.”

“Thanks, Dev.” His smile looked a little wan. “Smart bet’s that my mother will have kicked us both out inside an hour. You and Lorenzo will get to stay, but warrior halfbloods aren’t very good with women in labor.”

She imagined the sheer amount of pain and distress involved precluded the possibility. “I’ll make sure Hailey’s not alone. I can’t help her otherwise, but maybe I can keep her occupied.”

Zel nodded and started back toward the door. “There’s another reason I don’t want anyone who’s known her for a while in there. She picks up on feelings, and I don’t want her surrounded by people still grieving for her husband.”

“Got it.”

Inside the room, they found Hailey tight-lipped and pale, with Zel’s mother standing next to her. Clara worked busily at a console of monitors and equipment, and Drake paced nearby.

Devi slid onto a rolling stool beside the bed and reached for Hailey’s hand. “Hey. I heard this kid might be as stubborn as his mom.”

“Maybe even more.” Pain laced the words, and Hailey’s delicate fingers clenched around Devi’s hand, hard enough to bruise. “I told Drake he’s got fifteen minutes of hovering, tops, before I start throwing things at him.”

“Might do him some good.”

“Might run out of things to throw too fast.” Hailey managed a strained smile. “Unless you’ll be my accomplice and get more.”

It didn’t take an expert in obstetrics to see that Hailey was weakening fast. Devi held her hand more tightly and smiled. “Bricks or knives?”

“Br-bricks—” The word disappeared in a hiss as her hand spasmed. Pain distorted her features, and one long, helpless moan of agony escaped her.

Drake started forward, but drew up short. “Should it hurt this much?”

Clara snorted. “Do you really want to discuss the mechanics involved here, Drake?”

Sora laid a gentle hand on Hailey’s head and turned to Zel, her eyes worried. “It’s time to fetch Rosa. And Lorenzo, if he’s willing. She’s used to working with him.”

Devi closed her eyes. The last time anyone had called for Rosa and Lorenzo, someone had lain dying.

Chapter Seventeen

Nothing in the world made Zel feel quite so helpless as women giving birth.

Blood and pain and fear may have been as natural as breathing to him, but only in the context of dealing death, not giving life. That the latter made him more nervous than the former was an irony he’d long ago learned to appreciate; people had a
lot
of babies in Rochester.

Drake paced the length of the room. “This is taking too long.”

“It takes as long as it takes.” Even though he’d heard the words a hundred times, they sounded hollow.

The other man’s answer was succinct and harsh. “Bullshit.”

Zel tensed. Hours had passed since his mother had thrown them from the room to pace out their worry, but Zel had honestly expected Drake’s guilt-driven concern to abate after a while. The fact that it hadn’t made him wonder if guilt and loyalty to a fallen comrade had less to do with the halfblood’s worry than something far more personal.

Drake dropped to a chair and rubbed his hands over his face. “Hailey needs this kid.”

It wasn’t what he’d been expecting. “I know she does.”

“She
cannot
lose all she has left of Rasul.”

“Hailey’s tougher than that.” Zel leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. “But it doesn’t matter. Rosa can keep her strong.” He put more force than necessary behind the words, maybe to convince himself. Rosa still desperately needed training, and Lorenzo—Lorenzo could only give so much. She’d all but drained him twice recently, first saving Cache and then fighting for Trip.

“Yeah. Rosa can do it.” The capitulation was unexpected, as was the almost desperate enthusiasm behind it. “Rosa hasn’t let us down.”

If he didn’t know better, he’d think Drake, the biggest thorn in his side, was a little bit in love with his second-in-command. Commenting on it with tension running so high would mean a brawl in the hallway, so Zel focused on the one thing that might sway his erstwhile enemy. “She hasn’t. And we’re going to get her training soon too. Now that we’ve got those rigs, we can get her safely up north.”

Drake stared at him for several long moments before shaking his head. “You should have just told us that’s how you were playing it. We all thought you’d lost your fucking mind.”

It took Zel a second too long to understand the words or the tone, but his instincts had already reacted. He caught himself halfway across the hall, body shaking with the need to finish his charge, to smash his enemy into the wall until the man learned respect. “You had better tread lightly.”

The other man lowered his gaze. “Right.”

“I mean it, Drake. From one crazy halfblood to another who’s acting like a damn fool himself.”

“It’s not the same thing, Zel.”

“Isn’t it?”

Something almost protective flashed in Drake’s eyes. “Hailey’s not a stranger.”

Hailey had been Zel’s friend since childhood, the girl whose summoner blood made her vulnerable. Protecting her had always been second nature, to the point where even her husband’s interest had roused something dark inside Zel at first. He should be feeling that same stirring now, the drive to protect a friend from another halfblood, one who could strip her will from her with a twist of magic.

He should be. Angry protectiveness already churned inside him, but it had found its focus in Devi. A human. A stranger.

A woman he couldn’t stop needing.

“What?” Drake asked darkly. “You’re not going to argue with me over that too, are you?”

Zel didn’t have to. “We were all strangers once. You wouldn’t be here if my stepfather hadn’t taken your mother in. I won’t argue that they brought trouble with them, but trouble was coming anyway, and they’ve more than made up for it.”

“Maybe.” Drake stood and turned away. “Or maybe it’s all just starting.”

The ominous words chilled Zel. “What do you mean?”

Drake glanced back at him. “You really think Nicollet was running a little light reconnaissance, Zel? They sent a spy here. Even if it had nothing to do with that hauler and her crew, this is only the beginning.”

There was no way Drake could know how right he was—or how bad it was going to get. From the outside it probably looked as if Zel was oblivious, distracted by petty town disputes and pretty, truck-driving strangers. Zel had kept his inner circle tight because of the town’s unrest, but now he had to wonder if his unwillingness to confide in anyone other than Trip, Hailey and Lorenzo had brought its own brand of trouble.

He forced himself back against the wall and relaxed as much as he could. “I know. It may not look like it, but I know.”

The other man relaxed marginally, as well. “Think they’re planning an attack?”

“Maybe. I think they’re scared. I think they’re trying to figure out how much of a threat we could be.”

“Then that’s even worse, isn’t it?” Drake heaved a bleak sigh. “Fear and the unknown—two things guaranteed to make an animal lash out.”

It was the truth, and reason enough to find a way to breach the distrust between them. “How loyal are you to Hailey?”

The answer was immediate and absolute. “I’d give anything to protect her.”

“Would you stop fighting me?”

After a moment, he inclined his head. “Yes.”

Either Drake was lying—unlikely, considering how willing the man always was to deliver uncomfortable truths—or he was in love. The former was an uncomfortable proposition, but the latter could be downright dangerous. If the halfblood felt strongly enough, instinct would override intention when it came to keeping Hailey safe.

The only thing to do was channel that feeling. “Once Hailey’s on her feet again, we’re going to have a strategy meeting to discuss a transition to a more…useful council structure. If you’re willing to support her—and not fight us—I’d like to have you there. But if you betray her trust and go against us because you think you know better than she does, I will
end
you.”

Drake started shaking his head before Zel finished speaking. “I wouldn’t do that to Hailey. You, yes. But not her.”

“What do you think you’ve
been
doing? She’s my damn second-in-command, Drake. She agrees with what I’ve been trying to do.”

“You sure?” Drake asked quietly. “Agreeing with what someone’s trying to do isn’t the same thing as agreeing with how they’re going about it.”

“I don’t—”

A cry rose inside the room. High, outraged—the wail of an infant. Zel spun and started for the door, but it opened before he could reach it. His mother stepped out, looking drawn but relieved. “Hailey has a healthy baby girl.”

Drake’s shoulders slumped, and his scowl split into a grin. “Is she okay? Hailey?”

“She’s exhausted, and Lorenzo and Rosa will need a big meal and twelve uninterrupted hours of sleep. But everyone will be just fine.”

Relief weakened Zel’s knees. He found his mother’s gaze and saw nothing there to contradict the truth of her words. “Can Drake see her?”

“For a few minutes.” She stepped back and pulled the door wide. “Then all of you are leaving the poor girl in peace for a while.”

Drake rushed inside, leaving Zel whispering silent words of gratitude until Devi came to the door, her face and hands freshly washed. “It’s a girl.”

“So I heard.” He reached for her hands and drew her close enough to wrap his arms around her. He’d already grown to love the feel of her, the way she was soft and hard at the same time, and how willingly she settled against him. “How’s Hailey?”

“Exhausted, but I don’t think that matters now that she gets to hold her daughter.”

“I know. Ten fingers and toes?”

Devi laughed softly, her breath warm against his neck. “Everything’s just right.”

Maybe he was crazy. Maybe he’d lost his mind, like Drake had claimed, but he felt almost content as he kissed the top of her head and pulled back. “Now we need to—”

He didn’t get a chance to finish. Devi jerked, her eyes rolling back, and he barely caught her before she hit the floor.

The transition was so wrenching that Devi barely managed not to drop right back out of the network. She tilted and would have fallen, except for the chair that suddenly materialized under her.

Then she saw Juliet. Her signal was weak and glitchy, but the fear on her face was plain. “We’ve been attacked.”

Devi pitched off the chair anyway, rolled to her knees and clenched her hands into fists. “What happened?”

“I don’t understand it.” Frustration colored the words. “The demons didn’t kill anyone, not even the ones fighting the hardest. Now they’re taking us somewhere…”

Cache wasn’t bothering with niceties like fake terminals today. Her fingers twitched at her sides as her eyes darted back and forth, tracing something Devi couldn’t even see. “I’m trying to find your signal, Ruiz.”

And Devi knew she’d be successful. “Juliet, how many were there?”