How long should I wait, though? I thought. How long could I wait? I didn’t really know anything about having a baby (somehow I’d never gotten around to reading the pregnancy book that Beezle and I had bought a billion years ago), but it seemed to me that the whole process was moving pretty fast. I should have expected this, since the baby had grown unusually large in a short amount of time. In fact, I wasn’t anything close to a normal term for a human pregnancy, and yet here he was, on his way.
Suddenly I felt a surge of emotion inside, and I realized that two things were happening at the same time. One, Nathaniel was coming for me. I hadn’t hallucinated his voice in my head. The bond between us, forged in magic when I’d released his legacy from Puck, had penetrated the barrier of the door and whatever dimension we were in.
Two, Lucifer had just discovered something that made him angry. I’d felt Lucifer’s emotions occasionally in the past, though not often with clarity. Usually I could just feel him approaching, blood calling to blood. I wondered what had pissed him off this time, and fervently hoped it had nothing to do with me.
Another contraction hit me hard, and it was a struggle not to cry out. I didn’t know how soundproof that door was, or if there were guards on the other side. If I started screaming, then they would come running—
I smacked myself in the forehead. “What a dope I am.”
I opened my mouth and started screaming as loud as I could. A moment later there was an audible sound of fingers punching a keyboard, and the magical shield dropped away from the door. That was interesting. I’d never seen magic that could be programmed with a computer before.
The entrance swung open, and one of the big guys who’d escorted me into the oubliette stood there. I blasted him in the face with nightfire and he fell to the ground without making a noise, which was mighty convenient.
Jack had opened his eyes when I started screaming, but was still sitting on the steps with a dazed look.
“Come on, dummy,” I said from the doorway. “We’re busting out of here.”
He came to his feet like a two-thousand-year-old man and climbed the steps at a pace so glacial that I almost screamed again in frustration. I cautiously moved into the passageway to scope things out while Jack shambled along behind me.
We definitely seemed to be in some kind of back hallway, away from the action of the mansion. That was good. It increased the probability that we would be able to sneak away out the servants’ entrance or something like that. This particular passage was lit dimly with just one small bulb on the ceiling. There were two ways to enter it—from the basement and from the opposite end of the hall. There was an open doorway to the right, and yellow light streamed from it.
It is hard to walk quietly and cautiously when you’re pregnant. It’s even harder to walk quietly and cautiously when you’re about to give birth at any moment. Every time a contraction hit, I had to bite back a cry of pain. I concentrated on keeping my breath quiet. Just to make matters more complicated, Jack was shuffling like a confused zombie behind me, heedless of any noise he might make.
I flattened myself against the wall beside the open doorway, and Jack copied me. I peeked around the frame into the room. It was empty, a storage room lined with pantry goods on shelves. There was another door opposite.
“Were you paying attention when they brought you into the cell downstairs?” I whispered to Jack. “Do you remember what’s on the other side of that storage room?”
He shook his head. “Some big guy rang my bell pretty good. I mostly remember the floor tile.”
“And I wasn’t paying attention,” I said, my breath catching as another contraction hit. “Look, let’s just try to proceed as quietly as possible. We could come upon someone at any moment who could raise an alarm.”
We edged into the storage room. It wasn’t very large, and while the walls were stacked high with food, the center of the space was completely empty. I felt exposed and on edge. Magic crackled across my fingers. If anyone came charging through that door, they were going to get blasted into oblivion.
Then I heard the sounds of a struggle in the next room, and smelled the ozone burn of nightfire. My heart surged.
“Nathaniel,” I said.
He rounded the corner into the room, followed by Beezle, Samiel, Jude and J.B., and stopped short when he saw me. He looked slightly disappointed to find me there.
“Will you never allow me to rescue you?” he said. His expression was just a little grumpy, like I’d stolen his thunder by getting out of the basement on my own. That face made me want to kiss him until he smiled again, and that was when I realized I loved him.
I loved Nathaniel. It was a hell of a moment for a revelation, especially since another contraction hit at that very second. Freed from the restraint of silence, I cried out, my breath coming in panting bursts.
Beezle’s eyes widened. “You’re in labor now? Can’t you ever make anything easy on yourself?”
“Not a lot of choice, Beezle. Rescue away,” I said to Nathaniel. “This kid is going to pop out any second.”
“And where did he come from?” Beezle asked, pointing at Jack. “And why does he look drunk?”
“Apparently he found out about the wedding on the Internet and couldn’t resist the opportunity to have the crap beaten out of him by Lucifer and his flunkies,” I said.
“You know, I’ve said a few times that you are too stupid to live,” Beezle said to Jack. “It’s nice to know that I was right.”