Steal the Sun (Thieves #4)(26)

Daniel looked up at me. There was a look of strange wonder in his eyes. After a moment, he turned to Sarah. “I’ve heard of it. Is it true, Sarah?”

Sarah’s face was so serious, and for a moment I thought I caught a sheen of tears in her eyes. “Yes, I believe so. You understand the implications?”

“I do,” he said, but there was a little grin on his face.

“What implications?” Anxiety began to pulse through my system. There are times when I just know things are about to change and I want another couple of minutes of blissful ignorance. The way Daniel and Sarah were looking at each other, this was one of those times and I doubted it had anything to do with whether or not I was pregnant. “I’ll eat. I don’t want to make Danny sick because I forgot.”

“It’s more than that, Zoey,” Dev said, exchanging a look with Daniel.

“This is serious.” Sarah looked at me. “It means Daniel isn’t immortal, Zoey. He’s connected to you on a base level, and it’s about more than just blood. He’s formed a biological and psychic connection. If he’s trying to bolster your strength now, think about what happens when your body fails. No matter how long you take his blood, your body will fail.”

“Danny’s body will try to keep mine alive?”

Sarah nodded, thankful I was finally getting it. “And he will fail but not before you drain him of everything. When you die, he’ll go with you.”

Daniel should have had eternity. My heart nearly seized at the thought of what I was going to cost him. “Can we stop it? Is there something we can do?”

“He can break the connection now,” the healer said academically. “If the vampire walks away now, it is possible that he could break his connection with you, but he is not going to do that, Your Grace. The fact that the connection was formed at all is proof that the vampire needs you.”

“I don’t want to do anything, Z,” Daniel said. “I’m fine with this. I’m kind of happy about it. But baby, you need to eat. I can’t take care of you if I’m fainting because you have morning sickness.”

“Is she really?” Dev asked, his voice breathless. He looked at me with a mixture of joy and abject horror in his eyes.

Daniel lay against me suddenly. He placed his ear right above my pelvis and everyone got very, very quiet. I watched Daniel’s eyes close as he focused everything he had on listening for that one sound. He sat up and looked at me. There was so much tenderness in his eyes, I knew what the answer was before he said anything.

“Z, you have two heartbeats.” He gathered me against his chest and kissed my forehead. “You’re pregnant, baby. I told you sleeping with that bastard would catch up with you.”

Dev was sitting rigidly, staring at us with his mouth hanging open. “But I used a condom.”

“Not on our wedding night,” I corrected him. “Not when we were on the altar.”

“That night’s a bit of a blur, sweetheart,” he admitted. “All that magic flying around kind of messed with me.”

“Yes, all that fertility magic,” Sarah pointed out.

“Oh, goddess, my wife is pregnant,” Dev said as though he had to say it out loud to believe it. “We’re going to have a baby.” He turned to Daniel and there was a wariness in his eyes. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, Daniel. I tried to protect her but I didn’t. It’s my fault.”

Daniel’s arms tightened around me. “You don’t want a baby? I thought you would be happy about this.”

“I want it more than anything,” Dev admitted. “But it’s not what we agreed upon. We were all supposed to decide when the time was right, if it would ever be right. I took that decision away from us.”

“It was a matter of time,” Daniel said. “I always knew it was going to happen. We were fooling ourselves if we thought we could control it. I’m fine with it, Dev. I am.”

Dev tried not to laugh but failed and finally came up behind me, letting his head rest against my back. I was glad the boys were working through their angst because I was still numb. I was having a baby. It didn’t seem real, but there was another heart beating inside my body and I was responsible for that tiny sound. It was mine. It was mine, I decided. It was mine and Dev’s and Danny’s. Our baby might end up being a fertility god, but he or she would be ours first.

“Well, it seems Her Grace is in good condition.” The healer stood, clutching his bag as he walked to the door. “You will need a midwife. Until I can find a good one, the witch can make do. It is fine for you to feed your vampire, Your Grace, so long as he is not greedy. If you take his blood, you should definitely continue to do that. It will strengthen you and the child. And intercourse is permitted though, please, one at a time.”

“We will take good care of our wife,” Dev promised the healer, his hands going around my waist.

Sarah got up to go as well. “I’ll leave you guys alone to let it all sink in. Daniel, as long as Zoey starts eating again, I think you’ll feel stronger. I’ll make sure Albert makes her some ginger tea in the morning. We’ll get a couple of good meals in her and it should help.”

Daniel’s head suddenly came up. “Sarah, am I going to go through labor with her?”

Sarah bit her lip, trying hard not to laugh. “If only I could make that happen. No, you aren’t going to feel her pain and you won’t ever be able to take pain for her. This connection works to give her strength over long periods of time. It helps her to survive when maybe she shouldn’t. But I could try to work out a spell…”