Chapter 40
Chapter
Forty
brIANNA
M alcolm? I tentatively reach out to my mate’s brother, needing connection to anyone safe, anyone not here.
The pain is getting worse, to the point where I don’t know how much more I can take. How much more my body can take.
“Hold on, baby, just a little longer. I’m going to find out where our family is, and we’re going to get out of here.” I wrap my hands around my belly, trying to hold myself together.
Malcolm doesn’t answer, and I let out a frustrated groan as I rifle through my bathroom until I find a container of bobby pins.
I’m getting out of here. Now. I can’t wait for a savior. I can’t even wait to make sure I get Donna out.
Not if I’m going into labor.
I drag over my desk chair, knowing there’s no way I can squat or bend over to get these locks picked.
With a deep breath, I start in on the first one. The simpler of the two—a standard interior room lock, but the handle’s been swapped around so that the button lock is on the outside to keep me in, rather than allowing me to keep people out.
Child’s play, really, when it comes to getting unlocked.
I bend the bobby pin so that I can use just one side of it, and I insert it into the lock. It takes just a little bit of wiggling, but I hear the pop of the button lock giving.
One down, one to go.
I take a deep breath, focusing on the deadbolt lock just above the handle.
A cramping feeling rips through my stomach and I drop the bobby pins all over the floor, gripping the sides of my stomach as I scream.
DECLAN! The thought seems to echo through my head, as loud as the scream coming from my mouth. Everything hurts, and it feels like my body is ripping apart from the inside out.
The pain starts to subside, and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and die. It’s not supposed to be like this.
I’m not supposed to be alone.
I’m not supposed to be a prisoner. Not anymore.
I’m supposed to be with Declan, surrounded by people who love him, people who will help me, help us.
I’m supposed to be somewhere safe.
This baby is supposed to have a father. We’re supposed to be doing this together.
Like nine months from now.
Mate. Mine.
Two words. Two words to remind me that I’m not alone.
That I never have to be alone again.
I groan as I try to pick up a couple of the bobby pins.
As I try to refocus on getting out of here.
I don’t know how far I can run, not when my body feels like it’s trying to kill me, but I don’t care. I’ll keep fighting, keep running, as long as I can. I will keep this baby safe and out of Grey’s hands.
My fingers finally snag on two bobby pins, and I quickly get to work reshaping them into tools I can use.
I grimace against the pain, likely another contraction starting as I get my tools into place.
One tumbler. Two.
And then the pain spikes again.
There’s no way I can get out of here now. Not if I can’t even hold my tools long enough to unlock a fucking deadbolt.
It’s not even a complex lock.
The sound of a dragon roaring echoes through my head, and I can’t tell if it’s real, if it’s here, or if it’s in my head. Or if it’s just my imagination, wishing my dragon was here.
As I work to refocus on the lock, I hear the mechanism clicking into place.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit.
There’s no way to hide what I’ve been doing. No way to even get far enough away from the door to pretend like I wasn’t trying to escape.
“Ah, I’d wondered how you managed to sneak down to your dragon all those nights.” Grey’s voice is like ice. Sharp, cold, bone-chilling.
“Fuck you.” I grit the words out as another contraction starts to build.
“Just like a human. So crass, so barbaric. Nothing more than a means to an end. Shouldn’t be long now, though.” He reaches down and grips my chin, squeezing to force me to look into his blood red eyes. “I had promised Peter he could have you to play with once you gave birth, but I’m sure he won’t mind me taking a taste. I’ve always wondered if humans who mate with magic taste different.”
He leans down and licks my face, starting at my jawline and going up my cheek almost into my hairline.
“I guess I’ll find out soon enough.” Grey pats me on the head like I’m a dog, and smiles at me, all teeth and fangs. “I’ll send the doctor in. Don’t die until I get my taste, Brianna.”
I want to fight, to find something, anything to even try to hurt him with, but with the labor pains coming faster, closer together, I don’t even think I can move.
Frustrated, despondent, full of fucking rage, and I can’t do anything but watch as he walks away, leaving the door wide open.
Taunting me with freedom that’s just out of reach.
If I could stand, if I could walk, I could leave.
Donna comes down the hall, dressed in scrubs and pushing a cart that I assume is full of medical supplies.
“Okay, Brianna, we’re going to get you into bed in just a minute, and I’m going to make sure you and that baby get through this just fine.”
I shake my head, tears in my eyes. “I don’t want to just get through it. We have to get out of here.”
“I know.” She glances over her shoulder. “But you can’t talk about that right now. Not when you need to worry about bringing this beautiful baby into the world.” She smiles at me, but her eyes are saying something else. Something I can’t decipher.
Not that I want to right now, as my body cramps again and I let out another scream.
Donna quickly changes out the sheets on my bed, and then lays down a few towels before she comes back to me. “Ready to move?”
“No.” I groan. “But it’s not like I have a choice.”I hardly recognize my own voice filled with fury and pain.
I let her help me up, and then she quickly scoops me into her arms like I weigh nothing, moving me over to the bed before she goes back to close the door.
“Okay, Brianna, I know this isn’t how you wanted to do this at all, but we don’t have a choice in it right now. I’m going to help you through it, but you must listen to me.”
“Listen? To you?” I scoff. “You’re the reason I’m in this situation in the first place.”
She scowls at me. “Look, you want to get out of here, at this point, I’m your best shot. You’re not going anywhere until this baby’s out. I can’t move you in this condition, but I have a plan.”
I roll my eyes. A plan, from the woman who brought me here? Who force-fed me drugs that made me go through this pregnancy faster than should’ve been humanly possible?
As my latest contraction eases just a bit, I see the sorrow and worry on Donna’s face. I take a shaky breath in. I remember she’s a prisoner here too.
“We need a car,” I pant. “We need some way of distracting Grey so we can get away.” I grimace again, and Donna reaches out to take my hand, holding onto me as the pain rips through my body.
“Just focus on breathing. Focus on getting through this baby, and I swear, I will get us all out.” She’s watching her watch, as if this is all commonplace. As if she does this every day.
I suppose if she’s truly a pediatrician and neonatal surgeon, she’s probably done quite a bit of it.
But for me, this is the worst pain I’ve ever experienced, and I can only assume it’s going to get worse before it gets better. “I need my mate.” The words spill out of me on a sob, and I press my free hand to my belly. “I need your daddy.”
Donna squeezes my fingers and sighs. “I know this is hard, but we’re going to get you through it.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, picturing my mate, focusing on Declan’s face. On that dream I had, of us starting our family together.
Not like this.
I need his strength, his confidence, his love, to get through this.
And all I have is a doctor that I can’t even trust, a vampire who wants my child and a taste of me, before he hands me over to another vampire who wants to drain me dry.
“Okay, Brianna, it’s time to push. Are you ready to meet your daughter?”
I grimace and squeeze Donna’s hand, even though I know she’s doing her best to just keep me on track, to keep me and my daughter healthy through this. “No.”
I’m not ready.
I’m not sure there is such a thing as “ready” when you’ve only had a short bit of time to process being pregnant, and a vampire has every intention of taking your baby away from you and leaving you to be eaten by something else.
“You’re going to have to figure out how to be, because she’s coming, whether you’re ready or not.” Donna looks up at me from her position between my knees, a kind expression on her face, trying to encourage me. “I’m going to talk you through this, okay? And then we’re getting out of here.”
I still don’t know how we’re going to manage to walk out the front door, how Grey’s going to just let us go, when he doesn’t seem to care about what happens to either me or Donna.
But I can’t really think about anything right now, other than getting through this, bringing my daughter into the world. The pain won’t let me think of anything else.
I grip the sheets in both hands, screaming again as I try to listen to Donna’s coaching. Wishing I’d had even one pregnancy and birthing book in this room to read, anything to prepare, beyond movies and TV shows that don’t even begin to cover the agony that is natural childbirth.
“You’re almost there. I see the head. Keep breathing, Brianna. Stay with me.” Donna’s focused, but her voice has a soothing quality, something that seems entirely out of place with everything going on, with all the pain I’m in.
If this is only the head, how much worse is it going to get before it’s better?
Push the baby out. You’re almost done. Grey’s voice echoes in my skull with a commanding tone, one that makes me want to weep.
How is he still in my head, still demanding things of me? How is there any room left for anything beyond the pain, beyond the pressure, the stretching, the bone-breaking agony of labor?
If there’s any voice I want to hear right now, it’s the one voice I can’t seem to connect with.
Declan, where are you? I need you.
Tears and sweat are running down my face as I bear down, giving every last bit of energy I have in me.
I can’t even tell if the sound of my screaming is in my head or echoing around the room.
“You’re almost there, Brianna. One more big push!”
The sound of a baby crying is the last thing I hear as I slump back against the pillows and my vision blurs and goes black.