She smiled tentatively at me. Pregnancy with a tiny monster was agreeing with her. Her dark hair shone in the dim light of her living room. Her face was flush with good health.
"How's your supply?" I asked.
Marissa shrugged, a delicate blush coloring her cheeks. "It's fine, though I'm running low on red meat. I confess I can't quite shake the cravings these days."
She'd admitted to consuming large amounts of raw meat over the last couple of months, something vamps never did, but wolvesdefinitelydid. Wecouldeat and did at social occasions, and sometimes even at home, but mostly we relied on the Midnight Cove Blood Bank for sustenance. Wolves, however, ate a lot and quite ravenously at that. So I had to start delivering large amounts of raw red meat cuts to her door. I'd been weirded out by the whole thing, but I'd also never been pregnant or even around kids that much.
"I'll grab you some more next time I come to visit. Do you have enough left to last a week?"
She nodded. "I could go out and get some," she said, a hopeful note creeping into her voice.
I shook my head. "You know if you go out it could raise a lot of questions we can't answer."
She huffed and sat back on the couch, her arms crossed and a mulish expression on her face. "I'm dying in here, Lucas. It's terribly boring! I can't do anything. I can't go anywhere." She rolled her eyes. "I take it back. Icando something. Grow fat and swollen!" She glared at her ankles as if they were out to get her. "Why can't I take a walk? Or start a book club? Or go out to eat?"
I’d been over this a thousand times. "You know why. I'm taking a huge risk just having you here. And to add to that, your baby." I made my voice as serious as I could. "We would both come under the ax if even a single person knew what you were carrying."
She snorted. "You make it sound like the baby is going to tear out my insides and come roaring into the world full of bloodlust."
I sipped my tea to keep from answering because that's kind of exactly what I thought was going to happen. If it got to that point, I wasn't sure what I would do, but I knew Sikes would want this baby, too. If it killed her, well...honestly I wasn't sure itcouldkill her. It was something we'd have to see. At minimum, the baby would have to be contained.
Or it could just be an adorable, super weird baby, but luck was rarely on my side these days.
"Oh for the gods sake," Marissa snorted. "My baby is not going to be some clawed tiny ninja assassin. Good grief, Lucas. If we are to survive, we must be willing to change."
I let out a laugh at that one. "And how many of us do you know who are open to change?"
Her lips thinned. "Considering I'm sitting here pregnant with one of the first werewolf-vampire hybrid babies, I'd say at least one."
"Well good luck to you on changing the world then, Marissa," I said, and immediately felt guilty when a hurt look crossed her face.
"I'm sorry. That was uncalled for." I took another sip of tea. "You know how difficult it is to deal with an immortal. Both the wolves and the vamps came together to specifically outlaw this one thing. I would not push your luck. I'd have the baby and then we can deal with getting you out of here and into a safer place." What I didn't tell her was the second her child did something out of character, I wouldn't be able to stop the hordes of violence that would come its way.
"Fine," she huffed. "Have it your way."
"I shall," I said and stood. "Send me your grocery list within the week and I'll make a stop for you. Try to tone it down on the candy. I don't know if vamps can get gestational diabetes, but I also don't want you to be the first case."
Marissa snorted. "What else have I got to do around here besides stuff my face?"
I picked up the remote control and tossed it to her. "I paid for a year of Netflix. Watch it."
"The regular world has much better tv. I'm so sick of zombies," she said as she tossed the remote onto the coffee table.
I shrugged. "I'll stop at the library and get you some chick books."
"Go away, you misogynist pig," she said, but there was no heat in her voice.
As I walked away, she shouted, "Get me books with sex. A lot of sex!"
I shook my head at her. Marissa was getting Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. Or whatever I could find that had the least amount of sex in them. Before I'd gotten into my car I began to wonder if our library had a Puritan section. Now that was a time in our history when even the mention of sexual relations could have earned you a burning.
Marissa was going to be so pissed at me.
I whistled all the way to my truck.
