1
SAM
My mind spun as I sat on the floor, head in my hands, rocking back and forth, reciting prayers I’d learned when I’d been human. I’d heard three of the babies cry but not the fourth. Only a minute or two had passed since one nurse had said Layla wasn’t responding. Or maybe a lifetime had gone by, given the way each second was gut-wrenching, as if someone had stuck their fist into my stomach and ripped out my insides.
“Come on, baby doll,” I whispered, yanking on my hair. “You can’t die on me. I need you more than you know.”
My breathing was all over the place as I listened intently for any sound or voice or an intake of breath. But it was either dead silent inside the operating room or I’d lost my hearing again. I opened and closed my fists, trying to rein in my emotions as the building began to rumble.
Growling under my breath, I pushed to my feet. “I need to get out of here. Otherwise, Iwillkill my wife.”
And not the way Tripp thought. Several minutes ago he’d tackled me to the floor to prevent me from bursting into the OR and ordered me to stand down. “What will you do if you go in there? Think about it. You’ll only prevent them from doing their job. Then Laylawilldie,” he’d said.
Now, I was having a hard time controlling my elemental powers that would destroy the infirmary and everyone it.
“Good idea,” Tripp said as he guarded the scrub station door.
Wife. Fuck!Would I ever again see her beautiful electric-blue eyes or kiss her full lips or see her brilliant smile when she set her gaze on me? I couldn’t go down that road of thinking the worst. But it was hard not to when my feisty huntress was flatlining.
How did we get to this point? Layla had been doing well since I’d rescued her from the clutches of her grandmother, although her heart had given out while she was a prisoner at Intech. But Layla had been under extreme amounts of stress. She’d been kidnapped and involved in a car accident, then she fled her captors and spent two solid days lost in the West Virginia mountains only to be captured once again by her fucked-up sister Rianne.
For the last three months, life had been grand. Our relationship had grown by leaps and bounds. I’d finally proposed. She’d said yes, and not long afterward, we were tying the knot in a beautiful and emotional handfasting ceremony.
She hadn’t shown any signs of complications, even during her checkups with Doc, who’d been watching her pregnancy closely since our kids were inhuman and Layla would deliver in six months instead of nine.
Layla’s cousin-in-law Carly, a scientist who worked for Intech, had speculated that Layla’s heart wouldn’t be able to support four supernatural fetuses. Dr. Martin, a human ob-gyn and a good friend of Dr. Vieira’s, had said the same thing.
On top of that, Doc had found a medical file in our archives on a human, Emily Crawford, who’d supposedly died during childbirth from carrying inhuman twins—a witch and vampire. But since a page was missing from Emily’s file, her death was a mystery.
I stomped toward the exit, the doors rattling as my fear, anxiety, and heartbreak were about to set off an earthquake.
Four flights of stairs later, I was gulping in the balmy July air as I bent over between two military vehicles—a Hummer and a Jeep.
Tripp cleared his throat behind me. “She’ll make it.” His tone was ladened with sadness and not convincing at all. Plus, the worry dripping off him was hitting me like several fastballs at a batting cage.
Growling, I straightened, grabbing both sides of my head as I looked up at the moonless sky. “If she doesn’t, I—”
Tripp leaned against the Jeep. “Don’t finish that sentence. Dr. Vieira and Dr. Martin will not let her die. Do you hear me?” Beneath the cloak of confidence of his steady voice was a friend who was as torn up about Layla as I was.
I knew the medical team would do its best, but we didn’t have any magic to bring someone back from the dead. Or did we?
Alia Costner had the ability to craft potions and magic spells. She’d taught my sister Jo and me some basic concepts. For example, my ability to compel differed from the standard way vampires had been taught. I wove a series of numbers together that caused my victims to drop into a coma-like states. Which I’d done to Rianne that night at the club when I’d first met Layla, Jordyn, and Rianne Aberdeen. Of course, Layla was officially a Mason now.
I swallowed the dryness in my throat, anchoring my nerve-trembling body against the Hummer opposite Tripp. “Have you ever heard of anyone bringing someone back from the dead?”
“No,” he returned. “And again, stop thinking the worst.”
I knocked on my chest at the pain stabbing me like a thousand pinpricks. “Fuck, man. It’s hard not to when Layla is dying.”
The cars in the parking lot wobbled on their tires.
Tripp reached over and slapped my arm. “Ease up on your powers.”
I grimaced, whisking my hand through my hair. “I should be at Layla’s side. If she hears my voice, maybe it will help.” I started for the door.
Tripp blocked me. “No way, man. We’re not going round two.” His bronze eyes flashed vampire, his inhuman gaze piercing a hole through me. “I meant what I said earlier. I’ll throw you in the brig next to Jordyn.” On a blink, his expression softened. “The best place for you is outside. You said yourself that if you stayed in there, you would kill your family.”
I swallowed a growl as I paced up and down between the Hummer and the Jeep. The wordkillwas a punch to the gut, although he was right, and I knew it. But I had to do something. I had to keep my mind from wandering. I needed to hear anything that would give me hope. “I don’t remember hearing the fourth baby cry. Did you?” Then again, the last few minutes had become one big fucking blur, as had the last two hours since I rushed Layla into the infirmary.
