Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Angelo
Prudence appeared in the library doorway, wiping her hands on her skirt.
Faint traces of magical energy still clung to her like static.
“The wards are finished.” Her healer’s gaze swept over Serenity with professional assessment, taking in the tear-streaked face, the exhaustion evident in every line of her body.
“You need to rest, Serenity. This has been an incredibly tiring day, and stress isn’t good for you or the baby. ”
Serenity rubbed her belly with both hands and yawned. “I am tired,” she admitted quietly.
I didn’t wait for further discussion. I slipped one arm behind her back and the other beneath her knees, lifting her carefully into my arms despite her pregnant weight. She was precious cargo—the most precious I’d ever carried.
“If you’ll excuse us,” I said to the room at large.
As I carried her toward the door, I caught Lorenzo’s eye. “Send for Dimitri. Have him come to my bedroom.”
“Why?” Gianna’s voice came from behind me, curiosity and concern mixing. “What are you planning, Angelo?”
“You’ll see. He’s going shopping.” I didn’t break stride, holding Serenity close against my chest.
She leaned her head against me and sighed, the sound so peaceful it made my heart ache. In a few quick strides, I had her in our bedroom. I laid her carefully on the bed, arranging the pillows behind her back the way she liked.
“Stay with me,” she murmured, her eyes already half-closed with exhaustion.
“I will, tesoro. But first I have to send Dimitri on an errand.”
Her eyes fluttered open, a hint of curiosity breaking through the fatigue. “What errand?”
“Shopping.”
“Shopping for what?”
I brushed a strand of hair from her face, unable to stop myself from touching her, reassuring myself she was safe. “For the ingredients for your cookies, of course.”
Her expression softened, surprise and gratitude and something that looked suspiciously like tears shimmering in her eyes. “Angelo...”
Before she could say more, a knock sounded at the door. I crossed the room and opened it to find Dimitri leaning against the hallway wall with studied casualness, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised.
“You rang?” he drawled. Then his gaze flicked past me to Serenity on the bed, and his expression shifted to something more serious. “How is she?”
“Exhausted. Terrified. Trying to be brave.” I kept my voice low. “Which is why you’re going shopping.”
Dimitri blinked. “I’m sorry, what? Did you just say—“
“Shopping. I need you to go to the store and buy everything needed to make Mexican Wedding Ball cookies.”
Serenity yawned. “And Peanut Butter Blossom ingredients.”
I could see the protest forming on his lips and cut him off. “Now, Dimitri.”
He straightened from the wall, all pretense of casual amusement dropping away. “You’re serious. You want me—vampire, enforcer, general badass—to go grocery shopping for... cookie ingredients?”
“Yes.”
A beat of silence. Then a slow smile spread across his face—genuine this time, understanding dawning. “For Serenity. To give her something normal.”
“Exactly.”
He nodded once, sharp and decisive. “Consider it done. Though I’m going to need a list because I have no idea what the hell goes into Mexican Wedding Balls or Peanut Butter Blossoms.”
I tilted my head toward the library. “Joy knows. Get the list from her. Tell Elena she’s not going shopping with you. No woman is leaving this house until Balthazar is stopped.”
Dimitri’s eyebrows shot up, and that familiar smirk curved his lips.
“Oh, this just keeps getting better. So let me get this straight. I’m supposed to walk back into that library where Joy is currently crying her eyes out and Enzo’s wrath is still hanging in the air like a bad cologne, ask her for a cookie recipe, and then tell my mate she’s under house arrest?
” He let out a low whistle. “You know, most people just say ‘thank you’ or ‘I owe you one.’ But no, you’re going full dictator here. ”
“Dimitri—“
He held up a hand, but his expression had shifted to something more serious beneath the sarcasm.
“Relax. I get it. Lockdown protocol. Keep our women safe while we figure out what fresh hell Balthazar is cooking up.” His jaw tightened.
“Though I should warn you—Elena’s not going to love being told she can’t leave.
She gets... stabby when people try to interfere with her domestic duties. ”
“Then you’ll deal with it. Carefully.”
“Right. Because I’m so good at careful.” Dimitri pushed off from the wall.
“Fine. Cookie ingredients and breaking the house arrest news to my lovely, temperamental mate. This is definitely how I pictured my evening going.” He paused at the top of the stairs, glancing back with a more genuine look.
“For what it’s worth? You’re doing the right thing.
Serenity needs this. Normal. Something to hold onto. ”
Then the smirk returned. “Even if it means I have to brave a grocery store during the holiday rush.” He shook his head. “The things I do for love and cookies.”
“Angelo,” Serenity murmured, watching me from the bed with those blue eyes that always saw too much. “You don’t have to put all of us under house arrest.”
I closed the door behind Dimitri and crossed back to the bed, stretching out beside her.
The mattress dipped under my weight as I gathered her close, careful of her belly.
“Think of it as being stranded at the North Pole,” I said, brushing my lips across her forehead.
“Safe. Cozy. Nothing but snow and magic between you and the outside world.”
She turned her face up to mine, and I couldn’t resist kissing her properly—soft and slow, savoring the taste of her lips, the way she always melted into me. She responded immediately, her hand coming up to cup my cheek, her thumb stroking my jaw.
When I pulled back, I rested my forehead against hers. “Now go to sleep and dream of our daughter and Christmas.”
Balthazar better not dare enter her dreams tonight. If he did, I’d find a way to make him pay—consequences be damned.
A slow smile curved her lips, the first real one I’d seen since the veil opened. “You finally admitted we’re having a girl?”
I traced lazy circles on her hip, letting myself imagine it—a little girl with Serenity’s blonde hair and fierce spirit, wings like her mother’s, ruling my world completely. “Yes. And we’ll try for a boy later. Several, if you’ll have me.”
Her laugh was soft and breathy. “Several? Someone’s ambitious.”
“I’m a king, tesoro. I think big.” I kissed the tip of her nose. “Now sleep. You need rest.”
“Stay with me?” Her fingers curled into my shirt, holding on like I might disappear.
Keir’s harpies couldn’t drag me away. “Always,” I promised, pulling the blanket over us both. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She was terrified, and I couldn’t promise her the one thing she needed most: that Balthazar wouldn’t haunt her dreams. I’d burn the city down for her, but I couldn’t follow her into sleep.
“Good,” she whispered as she laid her head on my chest, her hair spilling across my shoulder like silk.
Within minutes, her breathing deepened and evened out, her body going soft and heavy with sleep. Her hand rested over my still heart, trust absolute even in unconsciousness.
I stared at the bassinet positioned near our bed—white wicker with soft cream fabric, ready and waiting.
We’d set it up just last week, Serenity directing while I assembled it, both of us laughing at my frustrated curses when the instructions made no sense.
It had been such a simple, perfect moment.
Now it felt like a target.
Balthazar was really a bastard. Why couldn’t he just leave us alone? We’d defeated him, sent him to hell, and still he reached for us like a poison that wouldn’t wash clean.
My arm tightened around Serenity. I wouldn’t let anyone hurt my family.
The words settled in my chest with the weight of a blood oath.
My family. After centuries of solitude, of being convinced I could never create life or deserve love, I finally had everything that mattered.
I’d never thought I’d have a mate, let alone my own child.
A daughter who would have Serenity’s goodness and my strength, who would be loved and protected and cherished every day of her existence.
If Balthazar—or anyone else—hurt them, I’d show no mercy.
They’d wish for death, beg for it, but I was an expert on torture.
Dracula himself had taught me well during those long, brutal years.
I knew techniques that would make even demons scream, methods that would strip away sanity piece by piece until nothing remained but agony and the memory of the mistake they’d made in threatening what was mine.
Let Balthazar come. Let him try.
He’d learn what true hell looked like.
I stayed with her, watching her breathe, listening to her heart beat, one hand always touching her—reassuring myself she was safe.
When her breathing finally deepened into true sleep, when I was certain she wouldn't wake, I carefully extracted myself and positioned Lorenzo outside the door with strict instructions: if she so much as whimpered, he was to come get me immediately.
Serenity slept through the rest of the day and all through the night, her body demanding the rest it needed. It was only when dawn broke on the next day that she finally stirred.