Page 74 of Death Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Cal did not take offense. He just watched me with that protective focus that made my skin prickle.

Faith stood near the door with her arms crossed and her eyes on the ward lines like she could glare them into obedience. Nishi had taken a position by the front window, scanning the street every few minutes, then checking her phone for updates. Eve sat at the kitchen table with her own phone, thumb moving fast as she read messages from Victor and Hunter.

Tegan paced in small loops, tracker in her hands, trying to get a clean direction without triggering the shield zone again. Every few minutes she stopped, frowned at the bone needle, then started walking like motion might intimidate it into cooperation.

Greyson stood near the painting. He looked calm if you did not count the way he kept raking a hand through his hair.

I closed my eyes for a beat and centered on the egg. On life. On warmth. On the tiny steady pulse that told me there was still a baby in there, still fighting.

The urge to cut the connection with Cal rose again, stupid and impulsive.

My instincts did not care about timing. They were apparently feral.

I forced the thought away and focused on what mattered.

The baby.

The relic.

The undead.

Nishi’s phone buzzed, and her posture snapped tighter.

“Report,” she said into the call, voice clipped.

A pause. Then her eyes narrowed.

“Where?” she demanded.

Another pause.

Nishi ended the call and looked across the room. “Ravenholde Hospital.”

The words hit the house like a thrown rock.

Eve swore softly. “No.”

Faith’s head turned. “What now?”

“There is another outbreak,” Nishi said. “Patients and staff are being attacked. Security is overwhelmed and the mundanes have their phones out.”

Of course they were filming.

I wanted to scream. There were people there who could not run. People hooked to machines. People whose bodies were already trying to fail without undead assistance.

Tegan’s face went pale. “The hospital morgue. If the dead are being called, that place is a buffet.”

Cal’s jaw tightened. “And a blood bank.”

Eve’s eyes tightened at that. “Shezmu.”

Cal nodded once. “If someone wanted blood, they picked the right building.”

Faith glanced toward the under-stair door, then toward me. “Can you move?”

I tested my breath, rolled my shoulders. The bond tugged, but it did not snap. It felt like a cable under strain, not a chain.

“I can,” I said. “I won’t love it.”