Turning Night (2 page)

Raila was pacing and Raven was prepping the bed. She discretely went into the bag and grabbed one of the thermal blankets, slipping it between the sheets and mattress. Max caught on that it was to minimize the mess. That she knew. Birth was a messy process.

Raila came over to Max, sweat beading her brow. “Thank you for bringing the midwife. How did you know?”

“It was a precaution. Rithak made it clear that you were very, very pregnant, and I am not equipped to handle a birth on the fly. That and Raven is a good friend. It was an excuse to hang out together.” Max was honest.

“Well, thank you for having a friend who is incorruptible by charms. I was terrified that I would be stuck with Henhin and that he would steal my baby.” Raila flinched and gripped her belly. “Gotta walk.”

“You keep walking. I can hear you anywhere in the house.”

“What is your other friend doing?”

“Hellebore is a siren of sorts. She controls magic with her voice. She is setting up a perimeter that will slow down intruders. It will give me enough time to get to them while she tunes up for battle.” Max sat out of the way in a chair in the corner.

“You are ready for an attack?”

“I am ready for almost anything. Anyone who says they are ready for anything is a liar. It may be indelicate, but why is the father suddenly obsessed with obtaining the child?”

Raila wrinkled her nose. “It was a one-night stand to try something new. I had never been with an elf before, never mind a midnight elf. You can see and feel the stars on their skin, you know.”

“I didn’t know. They are fast and hard to catch. That I do know.”

Raila laughed and gasped.

Max counted in her mind. The contractions were two minutes apart.

“Well, it was a one-night thing for him too until he heard I was pregnant. I guess they have a smaller birthrate then my kind do, so he suddenly wanted the child. The problem was I want it too.”

“That isn’t a problem; you are the child’s mother.”

Raven cleared her throat. “That isn’t precisely true. Midnight elves aren’t really elves at all. They are spirits. They reproduce by finding a suitable host for a piece of themselves and implanting it in that host.”

“Implanting?”

“Sex.” Raven brushed her snow-white braid over one shoulder. “I will explain how sex works later, Max.”

Hellebore came in. “Is Max asking about sex again? I thought you were going to have that talk with her, Raven.”

Max drummed her fingers while Raila giggled.

Raila stroked her belly and sighed. “Right, so I knew that the baby would be a midnight elf, but I want a child. This might be my only chance, so I took it. I told Hulorn that I was keeping it and he could get bent. That is when they started stalking me.”

Max narrowed her eyes. “So, just to confirm, you knew you were an incubator?”

“I did. This child will be named Danlorn, after my father and its father.”

Raven moved around, but there was a worried pucker between her eyes.

Raila kept pacing and her water broke. Raven checked on the progress, and before Max knew it, it was time for Raila to focus on bringing a new life into the world.

Max sensed a shift in the energy outside the house. Something powerful was approaching.

She beckoned to Hellebore. “Can I get through your wards without wrecking them?”

“Sure. I cheated; it is a gender-specific restriction. I did that so I could put more power into it.”

Max smiled to the room at large. “I will be right back. This isn’t really my thing.” She headed downstairs and out the back door, closing it carefully behind her.

A handsome man made of dark skin and starlight stood there. “Hulorn I presume?”

“Has my child arrived?”

“I don’t know. I am not a courier. It is her child as well.”

He waved that off. “It is mine, and we both know it.”

“Yes, but
I
know nothing of the kind, and I will tear a hole in you if you set one foot near that house.”

He crossed his arms over his bare chest. It was a little unseasonably cold to be wearing only trousers, but he pulled it off.

“Someone must have told you what I am and how I reproduce.”

“Yes, but no one told her body that. It has been nurturing, caring for and supporting a baby all this time. If the baby is taken, her body will mourn it and that can be fatal. She has no mate to comfort her. The loss would be great.”

He narrowed his starlight eyes. “What are you telling me?”

“Either court her or leave the child with her until it is an adult. You can train it once it is old enough to learn the differences between her people and yours.”

“That will not work. She lives and operates in the human world.”

Max inclined her head, “Then, make her an offer. Provide for her and her child. Allow her access to her own people and you can have unlimited access to your child. It is up to you. I will return before dawn to hear your decision.”

Hulorn inclined his head. “You are very wise, Abomination. Gregori was right to take you as his apprentice. It seems you have learned much.”

Max moved with blurring speed and was back inside the house with the door locked before the shocking knowledge that he knew who she was seeped through.

As shocked as she was, she still felt the tiny ripple of power when tiny, little Danlorn entered the world. She also heard Raven’s, “Holy crap!”

Max was up the stairs in seconds. She saw a beaming Raila holding a squalling infant with pale skin and midnight hair. His ears were pointed, but his body was chubby and the pink and white of a newborn.

“He is a shifter, like me.” Raila smiled happily.

Max went over and sniffed near the child. There was a lot going on in the room, but it was the same scent that she had just been talking to outside. “He might be, but he is still Hulorn’s son.”

As if to confirm her words, the infant opened his eyes in a squint and there were stars flowing in a sea of midnight blue.

Max could smell both parents in the child, wilderness and ancient magic. “I think this was a natural and not a supernatural conception. I believe that those can and do happen.”

Raven was still tidying up, but she agreed. “I have delivered more than a few freaky occurrences.”

Hellebore was still staring at the spot where the baby had emerged, and she didn’t say anything. She was startlingly pale though.

“Hells, sit down. You came into the world the same way; we all did. Deal with it.”

Max took Hellebore by the hand and steered her to the chair that she had used earlier.

Without being asked, Max fetched a glass of water and stayed there while she drank it. She kept her senses on high alert. This was a very vulnerable time for Raila and Raven.

When Raven had finished the tidying, she gestured for Max to help her. “Lift her please.”

Max carefully lifted the shifter and her infant and held them tightly while Raven changed the bedding with Hellebore’s help. Max looked down at Raila. “Huh. It really does take a village.”

Hellebore grinned, “To make a bed?”

“To have a baby. And make a bed, I suppose, I don’t know. I leave the bed and it is made again by the time I get back to it.”

Raven laughed, “Eyleno is a neat freak as well. He is probably waxing the floor as I speak. He has been wanting to get to it for weeks.”

Raila smiled sleepily. “Thank you for being here.”

“Thank your brother for asking for help. If Rithak hadn’t negotiated with the Guild Master, I shudder to think what would have happened.” Max tried to be solemn, but the little guy was looking at her with those starry eyes. She puffed her cheeks and made a face.

“I still can’t believe that you are the infamous Abomination.” Raila winced a little as Max tucked her into the crisp sheets and fluffy duvet.

“I can’t believe that I came here as a bodyguard and happened to bring along a midwife.”

Raven was sitting and rubbing lotion into her hands. “Me neither. That was freaky, Max.”

Max finished tucking her charges in. “It was only prudent. She was pregnant and I had no experience with that. Well, that, and I have a project for my Turning Night that I want to complete before the party. For that, I needed you with me, so it was a logical turn of events to invite you along.”

Hellebore winked, “What about me?”

“Well, you are just fun to have around, and I love making the transporters send you.”

Hellebore snorted and stroked the baby’s thick fuzz of black hair.

“Well, I suppose we are to take shifts.” Hellebore raised her brows.

Max shook her head. “We are all staying up until dawn. I have a negotiation to attend.”

Raila blinked drowsily. “Negotiation?”

“If he is the father, he has the right to visitation, but he will have to pay for it. Supporting you and the child is the way he will do it. When the child is an adult, it will have to choose the society it wishes to live in. There is no doubt about that. I will talk to him before dawn.”

Max fished her camera out and took a picture of mother and son. “I will need this as proof. I don’t want to carry him with me. Hellebore, stay in this room, stay with Raila and Danlorn.”

She left and headed for the main floor. She was positive that the father was not going to return alone.

Away from the smells of blood and birth, Max breathed easier.

She could feel the living beings upstairs, but it was the ones outside that she was concerned about. There was a dark gathering of power, and it was intense.

Max quickly called the house. When Anthony replied, she spoke quickly. “I need Tonho, and I need him fast.”

“How fast?”

“
I will deal with Gregori later
fast.”

She heard him crack his knuckles. “Oy, Tonho. The Apprentice needs you.”

“What?”

There was a crackling of power, and Anthony announced. “He is in the front yard.”

“You are a champ.”

“I am aware.”

She hung up and slipped out the door into the front yard. A confused troll was standing next to some begonias.

“Tonho. I need your help around back. What do you know about midnight elves?”

“Spirits in elven form. Why?”

“Because, by my count, there are a dozen of them on their way through the woods. We have Raven, Hellebore, a shifter and a newborn in the house. They can’t come in.”

He nodded and lumbered around back without further explanation. Trolls were great once they knew what you wanted them to do.

She retreated through the house, checking for any possible breach sites. The house was secure, and the living, breathing women upstairs were safe.

Max waited in the kitchen and made a pot of tea while Tonho settled down on his haunches and stared at the woods. He was one of her best friends at home and had a focus on protection that was admirable in the extreme.

She brought him a mug of peach tea and settled down next to him. “Here you go.”

“What are they waiting for?”

“The hour before dawn. We have a few minutes.”

Tonho sipped at the tea. “Huh. Good blend.”

“She has a lot of herbal tea, but I know you like peaches.”

“Thanks, Max. Why are they waiting?”

“Because, I told the baby’s father that that is the time I would negotiate. Now, I find that he is holding less cards than he thinks.”

Hulorn appeared out of the forest that backed the yard. “What do you mean?”

“Do you have exposure to modern tech?” It was a fair question. Many of the modern magical creatures ignored technology as beneath them.

“I do.”

“Good. Your child is not what you think it is. It is a splice of your body and Raila’s.” Max brought out her phone and showed him the picture. “This is your son. Danlorn.”

Hulorn blinked his star-bright eyes. “It isn’t possible.”

“It is more than possible. It is what has happened. The baby has his mother’s skin, his father’s hair and eyes. Well, his eyes are deep blue with stars in them; they are lovely.”

He looked at the image of Raila and the infant. As he touched the screen, the image of the baby expanded until its chubby face filled the screen.

“He isn’t a midnight elf.”

“No, he isn’t, but the question is, do you want to have anything to do with him, or do you and the rest of your clan just retreat back into the woods.”

He gave her a slow look. “You know that they are there?”

“I didn’t come out just to give my companion some tea.”

Tonho rose to his feet, barring any entrance to the home.

“You brought a troll?” Hulorn looked shocked. “They eat children.”

Max scowled at him. “And midnight elves steal them in the middle of the night. Myth can often hide the full truth. It is truth but hardly the full story.”

Max had looked into trolls when she first started hanging out with one. Trolls ate their dead. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was part of their culture. A rotting troll carcass could cause disease to spread in an area faster than any other pathogen. Burning that much meat would be a waste in lean times, but it was now commonplace when food was plentiful and sanitation of the corpse disposal could be assured.

Funerals had taken the part of feasts, but the foods served at the feasts had names that harkened to the ancient traditions. That was far grimmer than the current state of the troll nation. They were bodyguards, hired muscle in forestry, shipping, anywhere where lifting a lot of weight was an asset.

Hulorn nodded. “Point taken. I simply do not like one of his so near my son.”

Tonho snorted. “I hate the scent of wet leaves that your kind brings in, so we are even.”

The midnight elf may have been taunting him to distract him, but when one of the elves made a try for the house, Tonho stopped him with a meaty hand to his forehead, gripped him and hurled him away.

The elf skidded along and fetched up against a tree.

Max winced. “Well, that isn’t good. Now, Hulorn, will you tell them to stand down so you can tell me what you are willing to offer the child and its mother?”

They stood in the fading darkness and spoke softly, negotiating until they had reached an agreement. Max finally called a halt when the sun came out. “I will make the offer to Raila. If she agrees, she will come out with the baby at sunset so that you can meet your son.”