"It will." He gave me a somber look, but didn't say what I knew he wanted to. He didn't offer to take it away. I appreciated it.
"When do we start?" I asked.
Sandalphon hopped onto the bed at my feet. He wasn't a tall angel and our bed was on a pedestal base. I tried not to giggle. He lifted the blanket off of me and motioned for me to scoot down closer to him. "Whenever you're ready." He crossed his legs and looked at me over his short, steepled fingers.
I considered my options. I could sit here a few more minutes, or I could deliver the baby quickly and have more time to hold her before we had to take her to Anna. "Now."
Michael tightened his arms around me and Sandalphon's hands glowed blue. "Sure thing. Brace yourself." Gabriel grabbed my arm with his free hand. I held onto him for dear life.
Sandalphon leaned forward and put his hand on my stomach. As soon as he did, I gasped. The pain set in immediately. Intense, life-altering pain. I cried out, unable to stop myself. "Make sure the baby is okay," I yelled as sobs wracked my body.
The pain was like what I'd read in the books, but a thousand times stronger. My body was being ripped in half by the strongest demons to ever walk the halls of Hell. The fire in the pits of the realm burned through my veins, my womb their source. I writhed in the flames, burning, charring, my body turning to ash. This must be what the tortured souls experienced before they gave in and became demons. This waspureHell.
And as fast as it started, it stopped. I panted, tears pouring down my cheeks, and came back to myself. My hearing returned, and awareness of the room. Jellybean scratched at the door, whining, and someone was sobbing.
Oh, no, that was me. I was the one sobbing, crying the pain out. It had left my abdomen, but the memory of it kept me upset. Michael had me so tightly in his arms it was hard to breathe. I shifted so he'd loosen up a little. When I did, I realized it felt like there was a baseball shoved up my twat. Gasping, I sat up and shoved the blanket the rest of the way off of me. It exposed me completely, but at that point, I couldn't have cared less.
"Holy shit!" Her black, wet hair was poking out of me, and I'd never seen my nether regions looking so strange. "This is nuts."
"Okay, now this is going to hurt as well, Lilith, but it's almost done." Sandalphon put his hand on my stomach again. "Sit up." He pointed with his other hand to Michael. "Support her." Michael moved around behind me and put his legs on either side.
Gabriel grabbed one of my legs and pulled it back, then put his head next to mine. "You're amazing," he whispered. "Stronger than anyone I've ever seen."
The pain set in, but it wasn't anywhere near as intense as before. I gritted my teeth and looked down at the baby as she slowly emerged from my body. "This isn't how it's supposed to go," I grunted as I braced against the pain. I wasn't pushing or doing anything to help her emerge. Part of me was disappointed not to have that real birthing experience, but as she moved out of me, she turned. The moment I saw her face, I didn't care how I got her here with me. All that mattered was that she was here.
In moments, it was over. The pain receded. Sandalphon wrapped my sweet girl in one of the blankets he'd brought with him and put her in my arms.
I didn't have words to express my joy. "She's perfect," Michael whispered. "Looks like Lucifer."
Giggles bubbled up my throat, the birthing hormones making my human body a total mess. "She is perfect, isn't she?"
Gabe reached around and picked up the corner of the blanket, rubbing her face with the gentlest of touches. She opened her mouth and grunted, making her first noises.
"Ariel," I whispered. "Welcome to the world sweet girl. I'm so sorry." I broke down, sobbing again. The thought of giving her up stabbed straight into my heart. I didn't want to see her be raised by someone else, a virtual stranger.
There was no choice.
"I'm going to set the healing in motion," Sandalphon whispered. "I don't have to be in the room for this." He shifted on the bed and waved his arm. I watched him with Ariel pressed against my cheek. The mess all over the bed disappeared. Handy, that magic cleanup.
"Now." He stood and leaned over me, putting his hand on my stomach again. "This will also hurt, but in a few hours, you’ll be like you were before you got pregnant."
I nodded, and his hand glowed. A dull ache spread across my stomach, but I ignored it. As he walked out of the room, Gabriel tucked himself into the bed on one side, and Michael scooted out from behind me and tucked himself in on the other. We all shifted so I held Ariel in the middle, but all three of us could see her. Gabriel tucked the blanket around us.
"I should feed her," I murmured. Unwrapping her, I sat up and grunted when the dull ache in my abdomen spread. "That's distracting."
Enduring every moment of the pain of the labor and delivery had been my right, but now I didn't want anything to distract me from my sweet girl. "Michael," I whispered, my eyes glued to my daughter. "I changed my mind now. Take the pain away."
"Gladly." He rubbed my back, the warmth of his magic seeping into my skin. In seconds, the pain faded. My uterus contracted, shrinking, but there was no pain.
"Gabe, will you grab a diaper from her room?" I stifled a sob at the thought of her room. "I forgot about her room."
We had a nursery ready to go, decorated in a sky theme that would've worked for a boy or girl. It was fully stocked with diapers and wipes and a handful of neutral outfits.
Gabriel was back in seconds with a diaper. He took Ariel from my arms and laid her on the bed at my feet. "You've done that before." I watched him deftly put the diaper on my sweet girl. As he did, she turned her face toward me and opened her eyes.
They were black. I leaned forward, squinting. No. Not black. Very dark brown. Breathing a sigh of relief, I put my hands over my face and tried to quiet the emotions. "I thought her eyes were black," I said.
"I did too, at first," Michael said. "But they're the same deep brown as Lucifer's."He furrowed his brow. “Aren’t baby’s eyes usually blue?”
