Authors: Lydia Michaels
* * * *
Adriel joined them for
the ride home from service. Delilah enjoyed Christian’s mother, though
Christian was quieter than usual around her. As he steered the horse she and
Adriel spoke about various things having to do mostly with food and Delilah’s
‘odd’ diet. Adriel was helping her think of recipes that didn’t require meat.
“I suppose you could
have biscuits, but I do not see how good a biscuit is without the sausage,”
Adriel noted. “How about ham. Do you eat pig?”
“No. No pig.” It amused
Delilah how foreign the concept of being a vegetarian was to them. She didn’t
know if that was because they were Amish or because they were vampyres.
Probably a combination of both.
The carriage jostled and
Delilah almost slid off the bench. Adriel caught her sleeve and steadied her as
a car sped by. Christian turned back to face them briefly. “Are you all right?
Foolish English drivers do not like to share the road. I apologize. The horse
jerked.”
Delilah nodded, a bit
shaken and Adriel said, “She is fine, Christian.”
Suddenly another car
whizzed by. The horse jerked again, but this time she was prepared and remained
seated. A moment later, horrible pain knifed through her head. Delilah cried
out and grabbed her temples.
“Delilah?” both
Christian and his mother said at once.
Adriel touched her arm
and hissed, pulling back her fingers as though she was burned. “Christian,
she’s hot.”
She was going to be
sick. So much pain. Oh, God… what was happening?
The carriage abruptly
drew to a stop and Christian was there. “Look at me,
pintura.
What is
happening to you? Tell me what hurts.”
“Everything,” she
moaned, holding her ribs.
“Christian, what is
this? Has this happened before?” Adriel asked frantically.
“I do not—”
Delilah gasped and sat
upright. She looked over Christian’s shoulder. She couldn’t see it, but she
could hear it. Faint, tiny, agonizing. The pain became second to her sudden
need to go to it. She sprung to her feet.
“Delilah, what—”
Unable to answer, she
jumped off the carriage and ran. Her booted feet pounded over the broken gravel
that dusted the road. She hoisted up her skirts and fell into a dead run. The
world whooshed by her. She was moving incredibly fast. As she crested a slight
hill the vehicles came into view.
Loping down the knoll of
pavement her heart raced as her eyes zeroed in on the damage. Two cars, one
flipped completely over, as smoke and steam billowed from the crushed hood. A
horn rang steadily over the hissing of the engines, but nothing was louder than
the fading heart beat playing in her mind. Baby.
If possible, her pace
doubled. She slammed into the first car, tipping it up with the impact of her
body. Delilah regained her balance. She wasn’t sure how she managed, but she
caught a quick bead of the passengers’ status. Hurt, but not mortally injured.
There were two of them. They were young and both male.
Her head snapped toward
the flipped van. The beating heart was hardly recognizable over the soft
hissing engine. The wheels still spun, decelerating, just as the baby’s heart
did.
Her mind cut off and her
body shot into action. She leapt over the smaller car and yanked the door of
the van open. Metal tore and whined. She hadn’t realized she possessed such
strength. The driver whimpered. A female. Her body hung suspended from the seat.
Her forehead was bloody. The scent of human blood cut through Delilah’s urgent
haze and she hissed.
“My baby. My baby. Help
my baby,” the woman in the driver’s seat cried.
Delilah looked up. The
baby looked about ten months old. His car seat was buckled facing the rear of
the car. It had slipped out of place and tipped. The horn continued to blare.
Carefully, she pulled
the child’s seat back. The baby’s eyes were closed and it lay motionless.
Delilah’s breath beat out of her as she carefully located the anchor snaps and
turned the car seat. Placing the strapped baby on the ceiling of the vehicle,
which was now the floor, she gently unbuckled the harness strap. The baby was
very still.
Her fingers pressed over
its chest and she detected the faintest beat of a heart. It was slowing. A
shuddered breath pulled through her nostrils and Delilah wiped her eyes.
“Oh, God, Ethan. My
Ethan. Is he okay? Oh, God. Oh, God. Help him. Please help him,” the mother
frantically cried.
“Quiet,” Delilah snapped
as gently as one could snap. The woman immediately silenced. The child was
dying.
Delilah tilted her head
and petted the soft side of his little cherub face. “No pain,” she whispered.
“No pain.”
Lifting her curled palm
to her lips, she bit into the plump curve of her thumb. The mother’s breath
hitched, but she remained quiet. Delilah heard the oncoming footsteps of
Christian and Adriel.
Pintura, no! You cannot!
She slammed down an
impenetrable wall on her thoughts, blocking Christian’s intrusion into her
mind. She became wholly focused on little Ethan. With absolute tenderness, she
scooped the child out of the snug seat and cradled his limp little body in her
arms.
She brought her palm to
his pale lips, her curled fingers soothing his soft brow. “Drink, baby.”
The child’s mouth
latched on and he pulled from her. She had no idea what she was doing, but was
too concerned to truly think about the driving instinct directing the act.
Something deep inside of her told her this was what the child needed. The more
he pulled from her blood the stronger his heartbeat. Translucent little eyelids
pinkened and fluttered and soon his blue eyes were looking up at Delilah.
She smiled. “There’s a
big, strong boy. There you go,” she cooed.
The mother was breathing
fast and she could sense her terror churning with the relief as seeing her son
healed. Delilah paid her no mind.
Pulling her hand from
the baby’s mouth, she licked her wound and it sealed closed. His tiny little
baby teeth poking through his gums showed red from her blood.
She stuck out her tongue
and quietly blew raspberries in the air at the little guy. He hiccupped and
laughed.
“That’s a good little
man.” She smiled and rocked him, soothing away the memories of the accident.
“Delilah!”
She jumped at the snap
of Christian’s voice. He stood in the door of the van. He was furious. Glancing
to Ethan’s mother who silently cried, fear rippled off her in waves
,
and
suddenly Delilah could hear the woman’s thoughts.
Please don’t hurt him.
Please. Please!
Delilah frowned. She
wasn’t going to hurt the little guy. She just saved his life. And how had she
heard the woman’s thoughts? She was hysterical and falling to a place close to
shock.
“Put the mortal back,
pintura.
”
Christian’s voice was level and cold.
She looked into his
eyes, noting the unbending censure there. Had she just violated some big
vampyre law or something? Adriel remained stiffly observing to his left, eyes
wide with shock.
Okay, time to wrap up
this party.
Delilah kept her eyes on
Christian as she pressed her lips into Ethan’s soft head. Christian winced and
turned away. Ethan’s mother whimpered. She gently tucked the baby back in his
seat sitting upright on the ceiling of the van and strapped him in.
“Now go back to the
carriage,” Christian said quietly, his tone absolute.
She looked at him and
then to the mother of the baby.
“I will handle it,
pintura.
Go. Mother, take Delilah to the carriage and drive her back to the house. I
will meet you there.”
“What about the rest of
them? We have to call an ambulance—” Delilah hissed.
“I said I would handle
it!”
She jerked back at the
anger in his tone, but did as he said. Brushing a soft hand over the baby’s
head one last time she said goodbye and followed Adriel back to the carriage.
She wanted to ask why
Christian was so angry, but figured she should save her questions for him.
Adriel handled the carriage expertly and Delilah added carriage driving to her
bucket list. She wanted to know how to do that.
When they arrived at the
house the yard was flooded with animals. Cows had come from the field, kittens
and barn cats lolled in puddles of sunshine on the porch. A goat ate at the
shrubs surrounding Christian’s porch. Squirrels raced over the gutters and two
fat gophers sat up like prairie dogs guarding the porch steps.
“What in the world…?”
Adriel whispered.
Delilah blushed. This
had something to do with her. She just knew it.
Adriel parked the buggy
and Delilah jumped down. The cow eyed her with big brown eyes as she walked
past. It stunk and its tail swatted at flies as its mouth chewed a hefty
swallow of grass. She ran her hand over its back and recognized the flower like
splotch of brown on her back.
“Hey, Cher, what are you
doing all the way over here?”
Cher batted her long
lashes and continued to chew. Something told Delilah to look under the cow’s
belly. She sucked in a breath at the sight of its one udder. It was red and
irritated, maybe even infected.
“Aw, does your booby
hurt?” she said empathetically.
Delilah squatted down
and cupped the teat in her hand gently, ignoring the way Christian’s mother
frowned.
Shutting her eyes,
Delilah focused. She could sense the cow’s pain. It stilled as she placed her
energy into the soreness and forced it back.
As the sense of
irritation faded, Delilah swayed. She released the cow and caught her balance
by pressing her palm into the cool grass. Dizziness had her wobbling.
Next came the goat. The
poor thing had an aching tooth. Bastard tried to eat Delilah’s apron, but she
helped him anyway. The one barn cat was pregnant and due soon. There wasn’t anything
Delilah could do for her. And some of the other animals just seemed to be
hanging around.
By the time she checked
on each one she was exhausted, barely able to remain standing. She plopped into
a rocker on the porch and huffed.
“How did you know to do
that?” Adriel asked quietly. The woman had been so silent watching her. Delilah
had almost forgotten she was there.
She shrugged. “Dunno. I
just…can.”
“I have never seen an
immortal capable of such things. It is like a sixth sense to you. Even our healer
needs the use of medicines.”
Heat crept up Delilah’s
neck. “I guess I’m sort of a freak.”
“You are not a freak,
Delilah. You are gifted. Christian needs to tell the elders of your talents.
They could be of great use some day.”
“Do immortals get sick?”
“Not really. We possess
rapid healing abilities, but there are times… There are times that even the
pain for a short period is too much.”
She looked at
Christian’s mother. Her eyes focused somewhere in the distance. Delilah
followed her gaze and thought even if she saw what Adriel was looking at she
wouldn’t see what the other woman was seeing.
There was something
inherently sad about Christian’s mother. She was terrified the other woman was
about to confide something in her, but wasn’t sure. Either way…
“So service was a
literal pain in the ass today,” Delilah said.
Adriel’s head snapped in
her direction. She looked shocked, but then smiled and laughed. “They are quite
long when Eleazar speaks. You’re lucky it was not Abraham’s turn to do the
sermon. He can be quite pious.”
“Abraham?”
“My brother-in-law. He
was married to my sister who passed some time ago. His poor daughter Abigail
has to listen to him all day long.”
“Oh…good old Abs. Yeah,
we sort of met. Well, not met, but she came by. I was in the kitchen.”
Adriel frowned. “Was
Abigail not polite? I’ve never seen her be anything other than mannerly. She is
a quiet child. I feel for her.”
“If her life’s so
miserable, why doesn’t she just leave? Get her own place? Christian said she’s
his age. Oh man, is it because she’s a girl? The men here are so—”
“It is because she lost
her mother and her father fears losing her as well. He is very overbearing, but
it is the only way he knows. He loves her. And Abigail is very good to him. I
am sure she minds at times, but for the most part she does not complain. She is
a sweet girl, Delilah. I believe you would like her, since you are such a sweet
and accepting person yourself.”
Tricky woman.
She chuckled. “Sly,
Adriel. Sly. I don’t have anything against her. At least not since I learned
she’s related to your son and not some floozy trying to…well, you know.”
Adriel smirked.
“Christian adores you, Delilah. He may not always show it in the best way, but
he would never pick another female over the one intended for him. Even if she
weren’t his cousin, it would make no difference. Christian is an incredibly
loyal male. Once he decides something, he keeps to it.”