As much as I didn’t want to hear the bad news, I had to. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe he was just emotional that Layla had been severely hurt.
Breathing heavily, I stared at him, waiting for him to say what he came to say.
“I’m so fucking sorry, Sam. She didn’t make it.” More tears flowed down his face.
My brain was numb. “I don’t believe you.” Spittle flew from my mouth as I screamed in anguish, deep, gut-wrenching sobs racking my body as I yanked on my hair. “She can’t be. She was just talking to me. No. No.” I kept repeating it over and over again.
Tripp pulled me into a fierce embrace as his body shook along with mine.
As much as I needed an anchor, a Hail Mary, and a miracle, I shoved him away. “She’s not dead.” In vampire speed, I was in the building, climbing the steps two at a time. I pulled the fourth-floor door off its hinges and sprinted until I was in Layla’s room.
Jordyn, Jo, Webb, and my dad were gathered around Layla’s bed. Their collective emotions were too much for me to handle as an empath. I was already dealing with my own, and I couldn’t take their sorrow and pain.
Jordyn sobbed along with my sister.
Webb and my father quietly shed tears.
Jo launched herself at me, but I backed away. I was suffocating. I was a strong individual. I could handle anything thrown at me—but not this. Not my wife’s lifeless body.
Once again, I was on the move. This time I had to be with my kids. I had to hug and hold them.
Like a tornado moving at warp speed, I was in my apartment.
Agnes jumped up off the couch. “What happened?”
“Layla died.” Abbey’s voice cracked with emotion as if she knew.
Fuck. She did know. She had a vision of Layla dead, not once but twice that I knew of. Hell, she’d seen Layla’s death the first day Layla showed up on base to engage my help to remove the compelling spell I had on Rianne.
I started for the nursery.
“Sam, is that true? Please tell me it’s not.” The agony in Agnes’s tone was a knife to my gut.
“I can’t.” I went into the nursery and closed the door.
I could hear Agnes and Abbey talking. Then Agnes sniveling.
I tuned them out as I watched Orion, Ellie, and Luna sleep. Rorie was wide awake. Her legs were up in the air, and when she saw me, she smiled.
I melted as I wept, lifting her into my arms. “Hey, baby girl.” Cradling her, I sat in the rocker, fixating on her beautiful mahogany eyes and that red hair. “You’re as beautiful as your momma.”
She smiled as if she understood. Maybe she did. At seven weeks old, all of them were becoming more alert, attentive, and curious about shiny things that caught their attention. Doc suspected they would be walking in a few months.
I held her tiny hand and grinned, hoping I didn’t look like a freak as I continued to weep.
Agnes opened the door but didn’t come in. “How did Layla die?” Her brown eyes were flickering to orange, a sign her inner witch was about to surface.
“Rianne scratched and bit her,” I said, looking at my daughter. “If that was even the cause, I don’t know for sure.”
“I want to see her,” Agnes said. “I also need to speak to Dr. Vieira. They need to put Rianne down.”
“She’s dead. I snapped her neck.”
Agnes sighed heavily.
Then something she’d said clicked. “Why do you need to talk to Doc? Do you know something?”
She lifted a shoulder. “I’d overheard Roman and Adam talking about the serum one day. One of their test subjects attacked their new scientist. They’ve been through two now. The scientist died within ten minutes after he was attacked. Their saliva is highly toxic or poisonous.”
