Shadow Watcher (Darkness #6)(38)

Chapter Eleven

Charles paced in the front room of the suite. He heard Sasha cry out and had to stop and squeeze his fists against the mortal anguish she was obviously in. “Don’t they give drugs anymore, bro?” He started pacing again. “I mean, the movies had drugs.”

Jonas sat in the chair, gently rocking. Paulie leaned against the wall by the door. Tim, Ann and Delilah sat on couches. Delilah’s man was beside her, holding her hand, trying not to look totally freaked out. He was not pulling it off. When a guy in the field sounded like Sasha, that meant he was dying. He was holding his intestines dying a slow, agonizing death.

Jonas had thrown him against the wall when he asked if Sasha was dying. Then one of the annoying women in pink told him to calm down, that this was all standard practice.

Standard my ass. This shit is shit. That’s what it is. Shit.

Swearing, even mentally, should’ve helped. Why didn’t it help?

Another tortured cry came from the inner room. She’d been at this for eight hours. In pain for eight hours, and his was serious pain. World-ending pain. Pain someone didn’t come back from.

“How is this normal?” Charles muttered. Pacing.

“Why don’t you knit?” Ann offered.

Terrible idea. This called for movement. Fighting. Swords.

“What’s the deal with that panther? Can I rough him up or something? Let’s get a pen together and I’ll fight that bastard. That’d give me something to do.” Charles flexed his fingers.

“We have him squared away. We’ll question him after Sasha has the babies and Stefan can get away. I’d also like to wait until Dominicous and Toa get—”

A soft knock sounded at the door. A smiling woman in pink— though smiling at a time like this seemed ridiculous—crossed the room and opened the door. Dominicous stepped in with a hopeful expression. Mr. I-Stare-Constantly, Toa, glided in right behind him.

“How is she?” Dominicous asked in a hush. He carried a huge teddy bear under each arm. Toa held a giant bouquet of flowers.

The agonizing scream sounded again. That door didn’t do much to muffle the torture of childbirth.

“She’s nine centimeters dilated. Won’t be too long now.” The woman gave that irritating smile again and took the presents. Dominicous smiled, too, as if there wasn’t someone in anguish in the next room.

Charles wasn’t cut out for this. He wasn’t up for this kind of thing.

“Dominicous, we have an issue you might need to know about. I’m not sure how much Stefan has told you,” Tim said, his eyes tight. He was trying to act cool, but childbirth was freaking him out, too. Charles could tell.

“Did the panther surface again?” Dominicous asked pleasantly. It was hard to miss the edge to his voice, though.

Toa sat at the opposite end of the couch as Tim. He stared at Charles with those icy blue eyes.

“Not in the mood, bro.” Charles paced toward the other side of the room.

“You would think this is your child,” Toa said. “You have a deep loyalty toward Sasha, it seems.”

“Give that guy a prize, someone. It only took him a couple years to clue into what everyone else already knew.”

“The humor, yes. I had forgotten.” Toa sniffed and shifted his gaze. Thankfully.

Jonas cracked a smile. Which dwindled at the next cry from the other room.

“He tried to attack Sasha,” Paulie said in a growl.

Dominicous turned to the human and took his measure with that flat, assessing stare born of leading men through battles. Paulie held it for a moment, not one to back down from anyone. But, as anyone with a bit of sense did, he looked away not long after. Charles didn’t blame him.

“I’ve heard about you, of course. A human with great potential. Cato can’t wait to meet you. You, and a few others Toa is already acquainted with.” Dominicous turned back to Tim. “But this attack came…recently?”

“Right before she went into labor,” Jonas spoke up. “She was walking in the grounds here and he attacked. His two minions went after Charles and Ann. They were most likely a distraction. The panther must have thought Sasha would be distracted and wouldn’t see his attack until too late. He knew she was a mage high in power though.”

Dominicous’ whole body tensed. His jaw clenched and a vein pulsed in his neck. Burnished gold flared through his tattoos and lit up the blade of his sword attached at his hip.

“Let’s just remove all weapons, shall we?” the smiling woman in pink said in an irritatingly pleasant voice.

“He probably didn’t think she would be able to do magic in her advanced state,” Toa said thoughtfully. That glacial gaze stared at Jonas.

Jonas stared back with fire. “I think you’ll be the best person to get that question answered…”

“Oh yes,” Toa agreed before glancing at Dominicous. “I think that is exactly right. Especially if this is someone working with the Europeans. They would’ve been skeptical of a human being high in power.”

“And we don’t think he was acting alone?” Dominicous turned to Paulie.

“I have someone tracing his plates. They need to use a hacker I know who’s good but expensive,” Paulie answered, holding the gaze a little longer that time. “This guy’ll come through, though. If there’s a trail, he will follow it.”