“Layla would’ve been more furious if you hadn’t told her, Jordyn,” I said.
I wanted to treat my wife with kid gloves, protect and shield her from the bad shit outside these walls, but I knew I couldn’t. She would be important in our battles ahead, and she would cut off my nuts if I locked her up. I had to trust in her, in her strength, her resilience, and those attributes that made Layla feisty and strong. I also had to have faith that fate had our backs.
“Doc, how are my son and daughters? I think they reacted to Layla’s scream.”
He was in the middle of checking her blood pressure. “Babies are doing well. The nurses are feeding them as we speak.”
Which was why I didn’t hear any more crying.
“I didn’t think Layla would have any powers once the babies were born,” Jordyn said, biting a nail.
“It might take time for them to dissipate, or maybe not,” Doc said.
“Maybe she had a bad reaction to the healing blood you gave her, Doc. Or maybe she’s doing too much too soon.” Even vampires needed to recover after an injury.
He slid his penlight into the chest pocket of his lab coat. “Possible on both counts. But I gave her the healing elixir hours ago. If it had a negative effect, we would’ve seen something before now. I’ll check her incision. There might be complications from the surgery.” He eyed me then Jordyn.
“I’m not leaving.” I appreciated Doc’s professionalism about respecting Layla’s privacy, but she was my wife.
“The incision won’t bother me, but I want to meet my nieces and nephews. Can I see them?” Jordyn asked Doc.
Doc dipped into his lab coat pocket and produced a pair of nitrile gloves. “Of course. You can help feed them since we only have three nurses.”
Smiling, Jordyn grabbed her phone off the couch and sped out.
After his hands were gloved, Doc opened Layla’s robe, lifted her gown, then removed the dressing covering her incision. He studied the pinkish cut and stitches. “I knew the mixture of Abbey’s blood and a shifter’s did wonders but not this fast for a human. I was expecting to remove the sutures tomorrow. Normally, we would leave them in for about three days.”
“That’s great, Doc. But why did she pass out?”
He lowered her gown. “She’s not displaying any signs of infection or internal bleeding, but I’ll have Dr. Martin examine her.”
Layla’s eyes fluttered open. “Hey, vampire. I missed you.” She reached for me with one of her ball-squeezing smiles.
I peppered kisses on the back of her hand. “You scared the fuck out of me again.” Man, I couldn’t take much more.
She rolled those electric-blue eyes that made my dick jerk. “I told you. I’m not dying on you.” Turning toward Doc, she scrunched her face. “What happened?”
Doc chuckled. “You tell us.”
“Oh shit. I still have my banshee scream. But Jordyn? Is she okay?” Layla’s voice hitched.
“She’s fine, baby doll. But you usually don’t pass out after one of those Hollywood performances.”
She giggled. “True. What’s happening to me? I mean, I was so flipping mad about everything I learned today. Knowing what Fred Emery did to my father threw me over the edge.”
“I’m more concerned about you passing out. Stress is a possibility. Any pain in your abdominal area or anywhere else?” Doc asked.
“Not at all,” Layla said, seemingly thinking. “Oh, I did drink Sam’s blood that’s in the fridge. Maybe that has something to do with it.”
I didn’t agree. She’d been downing my blood like it was water during her pregnancy, so I was going with stress.
Doc’s brow lifted. “There shouldn’t be any blood in there.” Removing his gloves, he pivoted on his heel, went over to the refrigerator, and pulled out a tray of vials. “Mm. The nurses were supposed to dispose of these. They were labeled wrong. That’s why I was pulling more blood from the babies.” He returned to Layla’s bedside with one tube that had a very small amount of blood in it. “Is this the one you drank from?”
Layla read the label. “Yeah. That saysSam.”
I remembered my sister pulling two tubes of my blood earlier, mainly to help Orion.
“In the craziness in the OR, things got mixed up,” Doc said. “This one might not be Sam’s but one of the quadruplets. I’ll have this tested to see whose it matches.”
