“Yes.” She did. She didn’t have to like that he would put himself in jeopardy for her, but there would be no arguing with him. Well, at least no winning the argument.

He set her very gently on her feet and stood, towering over her. She watched him walk to the door. She couldn’t tell that he’d been in a major battle just hours before and that it had taken half the night to heal him. Power clung to him and as he moved, it seemed to be distributed throughout the room. Flames flared as he walked by the candles, reaching toward the ceiling and flickering brightly.

Dragomir resisted the urge to glance over his shoulder to look at his woman. Her fear was palpable. He wanted to soothe her, to reassure her, but he had no idea how the healer would react to the child in her womb. His child now. His daughter. He should have taken blood from Emeline, but he’d already pushed her very far out of her comfort zone, and he could see it on her face that she would have fought him. She was very resistant to compulsion. The childish sleep spell wouldn’t have worked at all on her if she hadn’t been so exhausted.

Gary Daratrazanoff stood in the doorway, Blaze one step behind him. Behind her was Maksim, her lifemate. He didn’t look happy and Dragomir didn’t blame him. Emeline wouldn’t be summoned anywhere without her lifemate going to ensure she was safe.

“Thank you for coming. We have great need of a healer. Great need. We will need blood. A good amount of it. Maksim, I must ask you to wait outside until Emeline talks to Blaze. It will be difficult for her.”

Maksim and Blaze exchanged a long look. He finally nodded his consent. Dragomir stepped back to allow the healer and Blaze entry. Blaze went immediately to Emeline and took both her hands. Gary remained standing beside the door, waiting. He didn’t look like a man easily shaken.

Emeline moistened her lips. “I can’t go through telling that again, Dragomir. I prefer you do it.” She had dropped into her favorite chair again, too shaky to stand.

Dragomir stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders to steady her as he quietly told them what happened to her, including that the same may have happened to the young girl, Amelia. As he told them, he watched them closely, not only for visual cues how they took the news, but feeling for any ripples of hostility. He had subtly spread the receptors through the room, drifting in the air with the scents of the candles.

“You’re pregnant? With Vadim’s child?” There was horror in Blaze’s voice. “Emeline, you should have told me. You shouldn’t have tried to do this alone.”

“You were able to make certain the child is female?” Gary asked. His first question. He watched Emeline closely, his strange eyes burning over her face.

She nodded. “I didn’t think he would want a female as much as a male, and if we got away, he would lose interest. I don’t know.” She pushed back the few tendrils of hair falling around her face, showing them her exhaustion. “I honestly don’t know what I was thinking, I just acted instinctively. Something told me to do it and I did. I could at least control that.”

“An extraordinary feat, especially considering Vadim would be using compulsion on you as well as forcing his will physically. Later, when you feel up to it, we will need to know exactly what his delivery system was like. Perhaps you can give us the image in your head. Or at least,” he added when she looked horrified, “give it to your lifemate.”

Blaze shook her head but before she could deny that Dragomir was Emeline’s lifemate, the healer continued. “By now, the parasites will have found every hiding place in her body.” Gary switched his attention to Dragomir.

“I’m particularly concerned with the baby’s heart,” Dragomir said. “If you listen, you can tell that each beat is painful. The child can’t last with this kind of torment.”

“Are you certain you want the baby to survive, Emeline?” Blaze asked. “She might always be a reminder of what happened to you.”

“She wants to live,” Emeline said. “We went through it together. We’ve been through the pain he inflicts together. I won’t abandon her.”

“I need to look and see what we’re dealing with.”

“I will enter with you.” Dragomir didn’t bother to tell the healer that he was a dead man if he made one move against Emeline or the baby. He reached over Emeline’s shoulder and took her hand. “I will reassure the baby.”

Emeline’s fingers tightened around his. She didn’t look at him, and he knew she was holding herself together by a thread. He was proud of her, and by the end of the healing session he would make certain they would form a telepathic bond no one else could hear – including Vadim. When the master vampire woke from his sleep, his favorite punching bag would be out of his reach.

Vadim will fly into a rage when he awakens and cannot hurt her. He will definitely retaliate. The girl must be checked.

You know if he has planted a spy…

I am aware. I have told her there is a possibility we cannot save the child, but we are going to try. He was firm on that. His lifemate had fought to save her daughter. He could do no less nor would he allow the healer to do less.

“Blaze, what do you think Maksim’s attitude toward Emeline and the child will be? Emeline is very fragile. We need his blood but not his condemnation.” Dragomir pinned her with a hard stare, hoping she got the message that retaliation would be swift and brutal.

“Maksim loves Emeline,” she said. “Of course he will do anything he can to help.” Her chin went up. “Why would you care one way or the other?” It was a challenge.

“Blaze.” Emeline sounded horrified. “He saved my life. He saved the children.”

“Emeline is my lifemate,” he said firmly.

“But that’s imposs —” Blaze broke off under his continued stare.

“The night is fading,” Gary said. “Forgive me, but I have very ancient blood running in my veins. I cannot yet take the dawn light easily.”

Neither could Dragomir, and he was already exhausted. They still had several hours, but they would need every one of them. He wished he could send Emeline to sleep.

Blaze hurried to the door to allow Maksim entry. Clearly she had told him what was going on, because he positioned himself beside the healer to donate blood when needed. Gary didn’t wait. He shed his body with astonishing speed, his energy so strong the light was blinding in the muted light of the room. Dragomir followed him.

Emeline’s bloodstream was packed with parasites, streaming through her body, hiding in cells and surrounding the baby and placenta. Gary didn’t hesitate. He began driving the parasites out of Emeline, leaving the child to Dragomir.

Emeline’s blood circulated through the baby, so the healer was right to try to clear her blood first, but the child was in pain and struggling for survival. Dragomir surrounded her with his spirit, sending her reassurance as he moved into the tiny being. Her heart was clogged with the parasites. Every time they moved her body thrashed in pain, her heart hiccupping. Dragomir’s light moved to her developing brain. The parasites were fewer there, much fewer, but they were beginning to increase in strength. They washed through and some remained, building a nest.

He attacked them first. Little one, hold on. We will get rid of these things causing you pain. He wasn’t good with children, but he felt sympathy for her. More than just sympathy, but he thought that might be a reflection of what Emeline felt. He worked carefully, meticulously, driving the parasites from the tiny brain, all the while looking for any anomalies and abnormalities. He took his time, even though he felt urgency to aid the child.

You’re being so brave, little one. So very brave. You are like your mother. She was. She was stoic and courageous, just like Emeline. He moved through her brain, over and over, leaving little pieces of himself behind. Her little brain absorbed his spirit, his energy, the bright light that shone from his innermost soul – the light Emeline had given him, so that he became a part of her. Satisfied that her brain was developing normally despite the torment from Vadim and the continual assault of the parasites, once he knew every last one was gone, he moved to her heart.

The heart was so clogged it seemed almost impossible for it to continue beating. It was clear to him that Vadim was setting up to kill the child. Why? He was still trying to acquire Emeline. Was it possible Vadim realized the baby was female and Emeline had managed to thwart him on the sex? Was it possible the baby was resisting him in the same way Emeline was? Whatever the reason, the heart was laboring because Vadim had ordered the parasites to clog the chambers. They scurried away from the light, some clinging in desperation to the walls.