Darkness Everlasting (Guardians of Eternity #3)(90)

Darcy widened her eyes. "Sheesh, do you actually have .. . litters?"

"Puppies?" She gave a sharp laugh. "No, our children are born as humans. We call them litters because we usually carry more than one child at a time, and of course, they do possess the blood of wolves."

Well, that was a quasi-relief. And it reminded Darcy of the one good thing left in this entire mess.

"Salvatore said that I have three sisters?"

"Yes."

"Will I be allowed to meet them?"

"If we can manage to capture them." The green eyes flashed with annoyance. "They are proving to be just as great a pain in the ass as you, my dear."

Darcy was torn between relief that her poor sisters had managed to avoid her own fate, and a regret that she might never meet them.

Sisters seemed like a wonderful thing to possess.

"Are there any others?" she demanded. "I mean, did you have more than one ... litter?"

There was a pause before Sophia shrugged. "I've been pregnant over a hundred times."

"Good lord."

"The pregnancies rarely last beyond the first few months. None survived to birth beyond you and your sisters."

Something that might have been sorrow briefly flashed over the beautiful face before Sophia was slipping back behind her mask of sardonic indifference.

Darcy's breath caught in unwelcome sympathy. Dang it. She didn't want to consider how painful it might be for a woman to become pregnant over and over while always knowing that death waited just a breath away.

Or to ponder the thought that any woman would learn to protect her emotions from such disappointments. And perhaps even to become cynical over the passing centuries.

She didn't want to sympathize with this woman who treated her as if she were an irritating piece of stray property that was necessary to her plans.

"I'm sorry," she muttered before she could halt the words.

"It is a fact of life for Weres."

"Why?" Darcy demanded, recalling Levet's earlier reference to the Weres' lack of children. "I mean . . . why so many miscarriages?"

Sophia made an impatient sound. "Really, darling, use that brain of yours. Can you imagine what happens to a woman's body when she shifts?"

Darcy grimaced. She wasn't entirely sure what was involved with shifting, but it didn't sound good.

"No, actually I can't imagine."

"Well let me assure you that as exhilarating as it might be, it is also extremely violent."

"Oh."

"Yes, oh." With a restless motion, her mother paced across the narrow floor. "There are legends that in the Dark Ages a pureblood female could control her shifts, even during a full moon, so that she could carry her children without fear of miscarriage. If that is true, then the talent was lost long ago."

"So you have to shift whether you want to or not?"

"During the full moon, yes." Sophia halted to regard Darcy with a meaningful gaze. "And, on occasion, when someone is stupid enough to press my temper."

Darcy ignored the less than subtle threat. "So how can I possibly be your daughter? I've never... changed shape."

"And that is what makes you so very special, darling." The green gaze flicked dismissively over Darcy's slender body. "A female pureblood who doesn't shift. The perfect breeding machine."

Breeding machine? Ew. Not in this lifetime.

Now, however, didn't seem the time to argue the point.

"Why don't I shift?" she demanded instead.

"Good God, don't ask me." Sophia gave a faint shiver. "Salvatore can give you all the boring scientific details. Something to do with altering cells or DNA, I think."

Darcy didn't try to hide her shock. Holy crap. She had been prepared for the strange, the bizarre, and even the mystical. A scientific experimentation was at the very bottom of the list.

"Genetics?"

"Yes, that's it."

"I've been genetically altered?"

"Yes, my love." A taunting smile touched her lips. "You are the werewolf equivalent of Dr. Frankenstein's monster."

A low growl echoed through the room as the door was thrust open and Salvatore stepped over the threshold.

"Shut your mouth, Sophia, or I will shut it for you."

Chapter Twenty-Two

Darcy sucked in a sharp breath as the dark, fiercely handsome Salvatore stepped into the room. As always he was wearing a silk suit that was worth a small fortune, this one in a pale blue with a dark charcoal tie. His black hair had been smoothed and tied at the nape of his neck to better reveal the elegant perfection of his male features.

His elegance, however, didn't diminish the dark aggression that smoldered in the golden eyes or the air of violence that suddenly filled the room.

He wasn't pleased with Sophia and looked ready to do something about it.

Darcy instinctively stiffened. If the two Weres were about to go to battle then she didn't want to be tied in the middle.

Seemingly indifferent to the danger, Sophia strolled to stand behind Salvatore, her slender hands stroking over his shoulders with an obvious intimacy.

"All, Salvatore. You see, I have managed to accomplish what you could not," she said in a throaty tone. "Not surprising. A woman is usually more capable than a man, no matter how he likes to think himself superior."