The woman’s eyes stared at him. Had she heard him? Would she listen to him?

18

Maya arrived at the same time as Eddie and Gabriel rushed into the back office of the bookstore. With shock in her eyes, she stared at the scene in the small office for a second, then leapt into action, dropping to her knees next to the woman.

“Can you feel the baby’s heartbeat?”

Thomas nodded. “It’s getting weaker.” He pointed to the stab wounds on her belly. “Chances are the knife injured the fetus too,” he whispered, leaning closer to Maya so Sergio’s mate wouldn’t hear him. If she thought that her baby wouldn’t make it, she would probably give up immediately.

Maya leaned over the woman and placed two fingers at her neck, feeling for her pulse. “Did somebody give her vampire blood?”

“Oliver did. But she didn’t drink much.”

Maya gave him a grave look. “We’ll have to turn her to save her. Her injuries are too severe.

We can’t heal her.”

“I was afraid you’d say that. I guessed the same.” Thomas glanced back at the woman’s face.

He finally remembered her name: Helen. Her eyes were closed now.

“I have to get the baby out first. If we turn her while the baby is still inside her, it will die,”

Maya continued.

“What can I do?”

Maya reached for her bag and rummaged through it. “I’ve got no scalpel, and there’s no time to get one from my office. I need a knife.”

“You’re going to do a Cesarean?” Thomas felt a shudder go through him. Without anesthesia Helen would suffer unbearable pain.

“We can’t get the baby out through the birth canal. It’ll take too long.” She glanced at Helen’s face. “She doesn’t have that kind of time.”

Thomas pulled the silver knife from his boot and handed it to Maya, careful that she didn’t touch the blade. He noticed how she swallowed hard, her hand trembling. He wrapped his palm around her hand as it gripped the knife and squeezed it. “If anybody can do it, you can.”

“She’s in shock. She won’t feel much of this. But just in case she does, I need you to distract her. Can you use mind control on her?”

Thomas nodded. From the corner of his eyes he saw his colleagues look at them with bated breath. “Give us some space, please. And somebody find us something clean to wrap the baby in.”

Then he concentrated on Helen, laying his hand on her forehead. Going deep inside himself, he reached out to her.

Helen, can you hear me?

There was a soft murmur.

You feel gentle hands stroking you, massaging away all pain. Your body relaxes and you inhale a cleansing breath. You feel all tension flow from you, all anxiety gone.

Over and over, he repeated the words in his mind and noticed how Helen’s breathing calmed.

For an instant, he glanced back to where Maya bent over her belly, the silver blade slicing her open. He noticed how carefully Maya cut through the skin and muscle, not going too deep in order not to hurt the baby inside.

When Maya laid the knife to the side and reached her hands inside Helen’s belly, Thomas turned his head. He didn’t need to see this. Instead, he doubled his efforts to calm Helen with his mind, control her sensations, her feelings, and with them, her life.

Seconds ticked away, yet they felt like hours. Then a high-pitched cry cut through the silence in the room. Helen’s eyes flew open.

“She’s beautiful,” Maya announced. “Beautiful and healthy.”

Thomas looked at the bloody, moving bundle Maya held in her palms, the umbilical cord still attached to it.

“My baby,” Helen whispered, her breath labored.

Maya brought the baby to lie on its mother’s chest and Helen looked at it.

“The baby was lucky; the knife didn’t get her anywhere,” Maya said to Thomas in a low voice. She continued just as low. “Turn her now. Do it.”

Thomas shook his head. He couldn’t do it. His blood was evil, and he’d never subject Helen to the same kind of battles he was fighting each day. “Cain, please. You have to do it.”

Cain instantly crouched down and opened his wrist, but Helen turned her head. “Sergio is waiting . . . ”

“No!” Thomas said. “No! Helen! Your baby needs you.”

Cain looked at him, hesitating. “What do you want me to do?”

“Sergio,” she whispered as her last breath rushed from her lungs and her head rolled to the side.

Thomas felt a tear roll down his cheek. He pressed his hand to her neck, feeling for a pulse.