Lies in Blood (59 page)

“
Only myself.”

“
And David?”

He shook his head. “He refused.”

“
Jason offered it to him?”

“
No. I did.”

“
Why?”

“
I saw Jason running toward the Throne Room with Quaid, no queen in sight, and I called to him, asked him what happened. His words echoed through the manor then, Amara, that you’d gone to take your own life, and before I could react, David was behind me.”

“
He heard?”

“
He did. I offered the letter as proof. But he scrunched it up and pressed it into Jason’s hand again, said farewells should not be written by those not going anywhere.” He stopped for a second, his eyes narrowed as the memory clearly replayed. “And he ran toward the Stone alongside his brother.”

“
Wow.”

“Yes, but . . . although Miss Emily was pleased David had rescued you, I don’t believe it was—”

“
Because he loves me?” I said, nodding to myself. “More like so I don’t get the easy way out, right?”

His lips made a thin line for a second. “You know him too well.”

“
Well, being married to someone will do that.”

“Yes,” he said simply and his attention slowly wandered to the balcony and the morning outside. “Amara, my dear, when David pulled you away from the Stone, I noticed something . . . missing.”

“
Missing?”

“
Yes.” His eyes narrowed, fixing on my waist. “The Mark.”

“
Oh.” I smiled, running my hand over the blankets as if rubbing the Mark away. “It’s gone? All of it?”

“
Apart from the smallest symbol just above your tailbone.”

“What does it look like—or say?”

“
I didn’t get the chance to inspect it. I only saw it as Jason lifted you from the ground to carry you away.”

“
Well, do you want to look now?” I sat forward a bit and motioned to my lower back. “I’m curious to—”

“
Not now, my dear. The Mark wasn’t what I needed to talk to you about.”

“
What is it then, Arthur?” I lay back on my pillow, twisting my long hair into a knot beside my jaw. “I don’t like that worried look.”

He changed it to a soft, reassuring smile. “Nothing is
wrong
, but I fear I have some news that. . .” He seemed to stop and think for a second, rewording that: “That may or may not upset you.”

“
But more likely will?”

He sat back, but as he went to speak, my door popped open and Jason said, “Knock-knock.”

“
Jase.” I pushed my good hand into the mattress under me and sat up again. “Hi.”

“
Hi. Can I come in?”

“
Of course.”

“
Close the door,” Arthur said, waving a hand across the air.

“
Sure.” The door shut and Jason appeared on my other side, dragging a chair closer to the bed. “How’s the hands?”

I held them out. “Better. This one’s healed, but—” I showed him my left hand.

He cringed melodramatically. “Want some blood?”

“
Actually, I really do. But I better order a Sacrificial.”

“
Nonsense,” Arthur cussed. “Jason, feed the girl, and let’s get on with it.”

Jason shrugged as if to say, “Don’t argue with the boss,” and I drew a long breath to steady my heart. His vein was open and his wrist at my lips before I exhaled, and the sweet, mildly aphrodisiac quality of his life force ran down my throat, through my body, and made my damaged hand tingle. I didn’t want to look at Jase’s face while I drank from him—didn’t want to see those eyes, see how much he was enjoying this, because I knew it would only make me want to bite him and, after tonight, he would finally be immune. We were finally free to be together, if I decided to take that road. And that just sent a hundred hot ideas into my mind.

“
Shh,” he said, one hand sweeping my hair back softly, over and over.

I hadn’t made any noise, that I knew of, so I could only figure he heard all of that. I drew my lips away from the wetness of his skin, wiping my mouth with the cup of my palm. “Thanks, Jase.”

“
Don’t mention it,” he said, his eyes locked with a smile onto mine, his hand staying firmly on my head. “How’s it feel now?”

“
It?”

He motioned down to my hand.

“
Oh. Um.” I frayed my fingers and watched the last of the raw skin heal over like clouds passing the sun. “It’s good now.”

“
Good,” Arthur cut in. “Then we need to talk.”

“
Okay.” I settled down in my bed a bit. “Bad news?”

“
No, Ara. Brilliant news,” Jase said, his eyes lighting up then in an almost opposite way to Arthur’s. “Sweet girl. You’re pregnant.”

“
What?” I went to sit up again, but just stayed there with my hands poised to prop me up. “Since when?”

“
Since June, approximately,” Arthur said dully.

“
You’re about seventeen weeks,” Jase added.

“Seventeen? But—” I counted in my head. Jason and I slept together, like,
eight
weeks ago. It was. . .

“
It’s David’s baby, Amara,” Arthur said.

“But. . .” It didn’t make sense. None of it. “I. . . the pregnancy test was negative. I don’t even have a belly. . .”

“You’re Lilithian. Those tests measure certain hormones in
human
pregnancies. But, immortals don’t change the way humans do. Yours won’t show up on a test. And, as for the belly, well—” Arthur smiled fondly at my waist. “You have a bit of bump.”

I laid both hands across it. It was so small it felt only as if I’d exhaled heavily and puffed it out a little. I wasn’t anywhere near as big as my mom when she had Harry. “Are you sure it’s David’s? I mean, this belly is more like a. . .”

“
A first trimester belly,” Arthur nodded. “Lilith was the same, so I’m told. At thirty weeks gestation, she barely looked twenty.”

“
Oh my God.” I covered my mouth. “I was pregnant when I tried to kill myself.”

“
And she’s okay.” Jason pulled my hand gently down from my mouth. “She survived it, Ara. She’s strong, and—”

“
You were only a few weeks pregnant when you jumped,” Arthur said. “It is my opinion that the life force in the blood of immortals kept her alive for that few minutes your heart stopped.”

“
But the fall alone could’ve—”

“
She is well protected inside your immortal body. And she has an immortal body of her own. Even if she did, in fact, die with you, she is clearly as restorable as her mother.”

“
Arthur actually thought she was dead.” Jase pointed his thumb at his uncle, half laughing.

“
And with good reason, too,” Arthur defended. “Your abdomen was torn open on one side. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that your uterus was enlarged. I wasn’t sure if it was a pregnancy or swelling, but I was bound by time, so I stitched you back up before anyone could notice, and left what I hoped was a child with a fighting chance.”

“
When I came in to see you after you woke, the old man let his thoughts slip for a second,” Jase said with a grin. “He was trying to find a way to tell you the baby was dead.”

“
Why’d you think it was dead?”

“
I’d examined you after everyone left the room—confirmed you were pregnant, but. . .”

“
He still couldn’t hear a heartbeat,” Jase said.

I looked at Arthur.

“
After Jason’s initial shock about the child’s death, he looked at me as if I’d gone insane and asked why I would tell you the child was dead, when he’d just heard pulses coming from her tiny little brain.”

“
Pulses?” I looked at Jase.

“
Yeah. They’re the electrical signals all living things give-off. You should know, Ara. You feel it when you walk in the forest, or—”

“
When I’m in a room with a vampire.” I nodded to myself.

“
Yeah, or a human.”

“
And you can sense them, too?” I asked. Jase

“It’s a talent we share.” He grinned. “So, I knew she was still alive. We just . . . we can’t hear her heart beat.”

“
Why not?”

“
Something to do with your skin, we figure. It not only protects her from savagery, but conceals her, too.”

I laid a hand to my belly. “I’m . . . how come I didn’t sense her?”

“
Are you sure you didn’t?” Jase asked, his smile growing.

“I haven’t felt anything—at all. Aside from hungry.”

Arthur and Jason laughed.

“
I can’t believe I’m pregnant.”

“
It’s pretty good news, huh?” Jase said.

“
Yeah, but. . .” The crease on my brow deepened as I looked at Arthur. “Why did you make plans to use the turkey baster if you knew all along I was pregnant?”

He laughed. “I never actually made plans, my dear. I put you off repeatedly, didn’t I?”

I nodded.

“
I wasn’t ready to tell you about the child, Amara, because—”

“
Because it meant there was no way to save David.”

“
Yes. But now it seems we will lose him anyway.”

I looked at Jase. His face was stone white and expressionless. “Jase, what’s wrong?”

“
I was so cut up when I realised you were pregnant—when. . .”

“
When he realized he’d bedded you for no good reason other than his own primal needs.”

“
Uncle, it wasn’t like that,” Jase said.

Arthur stood and moved away.

“
So, I was pregnant when we. . .?”

“
Yes,” Jase said. “I’m sorry, Ara. You know that if I’d known that, I would never have—”

“
I know.” I stole his hand and kissed the knuckles. “What’s done is done. And it’s in the past. None of it matters now.”

“
Except that David is still hurt,” Arthur muttered.

“Yes.” I sat up more. “I messed up—bad.”

“
Both of us did.” Jase smiled softly at me, squeezing my hand.

“
But I can either move on from it, or wallow in it. And I have a baby to worry about now, so I’m sorry, if David can’t forgive and move on, too, even enough to be civil to me, then that’s his loss. Not mine.”

Arthur sat down on the couch across the room. “Then I pray he finds civility before he leaves.”

“
Leaves?”

“
Ara.” Jase waited until I looked at him. “Arthur’s handing the dagger over to David tomorrow. He—”

“No!” I threw my covers back and leaped out of bed. “He can’t. Not yet. He hasn’t . . . I mean, does he even know?” I clutched my stomach. “Has anyone told him?”

“
He knows,” said a dry, cool voice. I looked across the balcony to where the long-legged king leaned sideways against the railing, his arms folded.

“
David, please tell me you’re not going to kill Drake tomorrow.”

He looked at his uncle. “Give us a moment.”

“
Of course.” Arthur appeared across the room and opened the bedroom door. “Jason?”

Jase sighed, touching my arm as he passed. “I’ll be right outside if. . .” He looked over at David. “If you need me.”

I reached down and squeezed his hand. “Thanks.”