Chapter Twenty-Two

My vision was hazy. Vaguely, I registered figures moving around the room and hushed but urgent female voices. I lay prone on a soft bed but I couldn't remember how I got there or what came before. What was happening? There was something important I had to do. I was sure I knew what it was but at the moment my mind just couldn't grasp it. It was like a dense fog had settled over my brain and the more I fought it, the thicker it got. I was so tired and my limbs were heavy.

The shadowy figures zig zagged across my field of vision but I couldn't make them out or understand the words they seemed to hiss at each other. There was a sense of urgency in the room and I knew it had to do with me. I opened my mouth to call to them, but it was so dry the sound I made was nothing but a raspy croak. One of the figures flew to my side.

"She's awake," she said, her words clear now but sounding like they came through a long tunnel. Suddenly there was a glass at my lips and cool water flowed over my tongue.

"She needs blood." The other figure appeared at the foot of the bed and I could hear the distress in her voice. Something was very wrong. "Eric's blood."

His name was like a bucket of ice water to my brain. Eric. Something had happened to Eric. Panic gripped my chest and I fought to sit up.

"Where is he?" I demanded, even as my head swam. Two sets of hands pushed me back down to the bed.

"Lie still, Abby," one of them said softly. I recognized the lilt; it was Maeve. My scrambled brain started to make sense of the situation. Maeve and Pam were here with me. The pieces started to come together. The vivid memory of blood pouring down my legs flashed across my mind. Oh God. Maeve saw the dawning horror in my eyes and took my hand in her comforting grip.

"I can't feel them," I gasped.

Maeve nodded. "I numbed you already, dearie. You were out for a while. The babies are coming early. I expected this might happen. But your body's in distress, so I don't want to take any chances. I'm going to do a c-section, Abby."

"Now? But where's Eric?" I was scared and struck by how much I needed him here for this. I needed him with me, my fierce and unyielding vampire. How I wished in that moment that I'd tried harder, that I'd made more of an effort to resolve things with him. Facing an imminent, uncertain future, I wished my last words to him hadn't been full of anger, spite, and pain.

"We don't know," Pam answered. Maeve shot her a warning look but Pam clearly didn't give a fuck. "She has a right to know," she hissed, "She won't settle until we tell her."

"Is he OK?" My voice came out weak and small.

Pam knelt by the bed so she was eye level with me and explained, the worry lacing her voice, "He was called to Shreveport to meet with a powerful vampire. He was wary of the meeting, but this is a vampire you don't refuse. It was urgent, but Eric didn't know what it was about. He told me he would keep in close touch in case we had anything to worry about. Their meeting should have ended hours ago but I haven't heard from him and I can feel that something is wrong. Our people in Shreveport can't find him. He's too far away for me to get a better sense of him… I'm not sure what's happened."

"He's just… gone?"

"He is an old and strong vampire. I'm sure he will be fine," Maeve said, "We need to handle the task at hand."

I nodded. "Whatever you have to do. Just get them out safely. Please." I could feel hot tears streaming down my cheeks. Maeve and Pam shared a look. "What?"

Maeve seemed to be chewing on her words so Pam beat her to the punch in her usually blunt way. "You could die, Abby. You need Eric's blood. We don't know that mine will be enough. We're trying to hold out for him as long as we can."

It was a shit situation, but the answer was clear. With no hesitation whatsoever, I told them, "Do whatever you have to do. Just save my babies. I don't care about anything else."

Eric

As I sat on a rooftop in Shreveport, wrapped in silver chains, locked inside a silver cage waiting for sunrise and imminent doom, I had plenty of time to reflect on just how much I had fucked up. I knew shouldn't have come to Shreveport. I shouldn't have left Abby. Fuck. It was so close to her time; what was I thinking? She needed blood daily, at least, and I knew Pam's could only hold her over for so long. Fuck!

I should have ignored the request, but when a vampire king sends for you, you pretty much have to fucking go. In retrospect, it would have been wiser to ignore him and take my chances. Instead, I'd gotten myself royally fucked. Fucked at literally the one point in my millennium of existence that mattered more than any other that I not be fucked.

The sizzle of silver on my skin was a background annoyance. More dominant in my mind was the anger and, if I was being honest, the utter despair at the reality of my situation. I had fought with everything in my being, in the end I'd even begged, but I still ended up on a fucking rooftop chained in silver. And Abby was miles away. That was a blessing, really, because she was safe but I would have given anything just to speak to her one more time. I hated how I'd left things with her. Really, I hated everything about those four months we'd been apart. I had doubted her. When she needed me most, I had doubted her love and her loyalty. I had abandoned her. It was like a stake to the heart just thinking about it. And now I wouldn't even have the chance to fix it, not that I'd been doing such a great job at that anyway.

She thought I had other women. I realized that during our last conversation... if you could even call it that. It was a natural assumption for her to make; I knew this. But still, it had shocked me. Abby had ruined me for other women but she had no fucking clue.

After she'd left Shreveport, I'd tried. I'd wanted, no - needed - to banish her from my mind. So I'd tried to drown myself in eager fangbangers. Once. I picked three randomly from the bar one night and brought them back to my office, but that horrible empty aching in my chest didn't budge. Nevermind relief, I couldn't even find blessed numbness. I couldn't stand their touch on my skin or how they looked at me or the sounds they made. It was all wrong. I ended up kicking them all out in a fit of rage. I hadn't even tried to fuck anyone since then and when I fed it was as banal as a business transaction. Instead, I jerked it to memories of Abby and that wretched, wonderful, horrible, perfect photo album she'd made me. Then I wallowed in my pain, like some pathetic heartbroken schoolboy. Sometimes I even wallowed and jerked it at the same time. That's how fucking lost I was without her.

And Abby thought I had fangbangers lined up from New Orleans to Shreveport.

I growled and slammed my fists against the bars. I'd never get to fix this. I'd never get to hold her again, kiss her, fuck her. I'd never meet our children. Another growl came from my chest, this one more like a roar. Fuck! I was going to die up here, alone, bitter, and with my bonded hating me.

Maybe this was just what I deserved. I'd done some seriously awful shit in my time. Maybe this was karma. I could be all right with that, actually. I could accept my life ending here, if it meant Abby was safe and my flesh and blood were on this earth. That's more than I could have ever hoped for at the end of it all. Thankfully, the king didn't give any indication he knew about Abby or the babies. That had been my biggest fear walking into the meeting. But he had made it clear this was about business, specifically my business and how he wanted an insanely huge cut and he wanted Sophie Ann out entirely. When I scoffed at the idea, he decided on Plan B, which was to take me out of the picture. Thus, the cage and front row seat to watch the sunrise. If he had known about Abby, that would have been his move, not this.

I hung my head and sagged against my bonds, the silver burning itself deeper into my flesh. I took comfort in the knowledge that Pam would keep Abby safe. I had no doubt about that. She had already taken care of her when I did not and I knew those two would be OK as long as they had each other.

"Eric."

My head jerked up at the sound of Abby's voice, weak and scared, but so close, like she was right there on the roof with me. I looked around but I was still alone.

"Eric, please." Louder now but somehow more desperate, she called again and a heavy sense of dread fell over me. I shouldn't have been able to hear her. She was too far away. I closed my eyes and focused on our connection. Pain, horrible pain gripped my gut and the muscles of my back. Fear, worry, and anxiety mixed noxiously in my chest. I cringed against the onslaught.

"Abby," I called to her and like a switch had flipped, I could feel her every emotion as if she were standing next to me. Something was very, very wrong.

"Eric," she cried again and her fear, her pain seemed to crack my chest wide open.

"I'm here," I answered, hoping she could hear me like I could hear her. Feeling her distress, I tried to block my own from pouring over our connection, not wanting to add to her burden.

"I need you," she said, "The babies… I'm scared."

If my heart still beat it would have stopped dead in my chest at that moment. Abby needed me. My children needed me. Dying here with them safe at home was something I could deal with. Failing them was not. Not again. Never again.

I sat back on my haunches and tried to think. The image of Abby's beautiful, smiling face conjured itself in my mind's eye and I focused on that. The way she laughed. That little arch in her eyebrow when she was being snarky. The way those pencil skirts she loved so much hugged the curve of her ass just right. How she loved the goofiest human shit that would have me sneering at anyone else, but somehow just made her more adorable to me. Her wit and biting sense of humor. Her total lack of Call of Duty skills and how pissed she would be if she knew I thought that. How she would curl her body into mine and fall into restful sleep, utterly content and secure in my arms. The way her beautiful body looked, writhing under my touch. The sounds she made. The sweet taste of her blood. The way she breathed my name when she came.

Galvanized and with fresh determination, I rose to my feet. The cage didn't allow me to reach my full height, so I stood as tall as I could and tried not to think too much about what I had to do. Instead I thought about Abby and the babies. Gripping the chains that bound my arms, I ignored the silver burning its way through my hands and pulled with all my strength while simultaneously pushing out with my arms. A strangled roar wrenched from my throat as the silver burned through my palms down to bone and started slicing through the muscles in my arms. I pulled, pushed, and strained, ignoring the pain until I finally heard a pop and the chains slithered to the ground at my feet.

Renewed and hopeful, I plucked the pieces of the chain that had embedded themselves in my skin and stepped to the bars. I had to pause a moment. My hands were two bloody messes, the bones visible through the burned, torn skin. Away from the silver they started to heal, but I would need to feed before the wounds would close completely. I gave it a second but I didn't have time to waste so I gripped two of the bars, gritted my teeth, and pulled. For a moment, I thought my fingers would shear off but I pushed through the pain. The bars started to give, bending apart enough to spur my determination and moments later I slipped through, falling in an exhausted heap. My sizzling skin stuck grotesquely to the asphalt roof.

I didn't take the time to care. Forcing myself to my knees I reached across the bond to my woman, hoping she heard me. "I'm coming, Abby." And with one great push I took off into the night sky.