A round of chills crawled down my arms, feeling like sharp talons scraping along my skin at Jordyn’s statement. Orion had been in every one of my recurring dreams.
“She’s right,” Jo and Harley said in unison.
“Don’t discount anything,” Harley added.
I stiffened. “We’re not going to figure out my mom’s message from the dead anytime soon.” I rose, removing my finger from Orion’s mouth, and yawned. “Are the nurses on duty?” If they weren’t, I would bring my kids into the birthing suite. I carried Orion to his bassinet and set him inside.
“They are,” Jo said. “I gave them a reprieve. They’re in the break room.” Jo could fill in as a doctor or nurse. She pulled me in for a hug. “Again, I didn’t mean to jump down your throat.”
I returned the gesture. “I need you more than ever.” I truly did. She was just as powerful as Sam or even more so.
After we broke apart, she said, “We’ll get through this. Try to sleep. Tomorrow is a new day.” Then she glided out.
“Layla, go,” Harley said. “I’ll stay the night in here.”
“I will too,” Jordyn said. “But first, can we chat? I’ll walk you to your room.”
Voices tittered in the hall, announcing two nurses as they sashayed in, smiling as if they had been telling each other secrets. The three nurses who had been in the operating room were nice and bubbly. All of them were vampires who worked at the Boston medical facility.
“Where’s Wendy?” I asked.
Beverly, the redhead, checked on the babies. “She’s not on until midnight.”
Amy, brown haired and shorter than Beverly, crossed the room and punched the keys on a computer sitting on the counter. “She’ll replace me.”
Only two had been on duty, allowing the third nurse to rest. Not that I didn’t trust the nurses. They had been vetted by Doc and Jo. But having Harley and Jordyn stay the night would just make me feel more comfortable.
Jordyn waited for me by the door.
“Can you add two teaspoons of Sam’s blood to Orion’s bottle instead of one?” I asked the nurses. “He seems to need more. I’ll be in my birthing suite if you need me.”
They both nodded as Harley struck up a conversation with them.
Once Jordyn and I were in the hallway, quietness followed us for several steps as Jordyn chewed on a nail.
“Spill, sis,” I said.
“I want to wipe our slate clean. No more secrets on my part. It’s been killing me not to tell you, but in my defense, Doc didn’t want you stressed during your pregnancy.” She traded one finger for the other and gnawed on the fresh one.
I gently tugged on her wrist. “Stop that, and just say what’s on your mind.”
She inhaled deeply. “Fred came on to me when I interviewed with Intech. Before you ask, no, he didn’t violate me, but he would have if it weren’t for his phone ringing in his office that day.”
I ground my molars together as rage gripped my throat. Her actions and her hunger to seek revenge made more sense now.
She shuddered. “He told me I would be his.”
I draped my arm around her. “Hey, he will never put his hands on you.” No question in my mind that Fred Emery would face a slow and painful death. “You will have your revenge. I promise you that, Jordyn.” Though I wasn’t sure how.
Jordyn resumed chomping on a fingernail.
“Anything else bothering you?” I asked, knowing there was something else.
“I am worried about where we go from here,” she said. “There are so many unanswered questions about who we really are. Who was Mom? And if we are related to Abbey, do we have latent powers that we don’t know about? Sam said we couldn’t be as strong as Abbey because our father wasn’t a vampire. But since you have the Vel-negative blood type, that means we come from a line of witches.”
“What are you afraid of? That you’ll zip around the country on a broom?” I teased, trying to infuse some lightness into the conversation on our ever-changing lives.
She snickered. “Funny. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I hate the unknown. Can you imagine if Rianne had witch powers?”
