Real Vampires Don't Wear Size Six (46 page)

“I told you, it’s Rafael. I’m thrilled. He’ll be a wonderful father.” She sighed and leaned back on throw pillows. “This is a miracle. A dream come true.”

“No, it’s not. But I’m calling him anyway. He can help me get the truth out of you.” I hit speed dial for him. When he answered, I was suddenly speechless.

“Glory? What’s up?” His voice was calm and I could hear music in the background. I glanced at the clock. It was still early and the club wouldn’t be too busy yet.

“Can you come over, Rafe? I have sort of an emergency here.” I turned my back on Alesa’s grin. Oh, but she was loving this, that she’d get Rafe involved with her again and that I was the one putting them together.

“Food,” she whispered.

“Sure. Can you give me a hint? What kind of emergency? Life and death? Or just one of your mini-crises. If it’s one of those, call Blade.” Rafe was all business. Which was the way he’d been treating me lately. It broke my heart.

“Work with me, please. This isn’t a Blade problem. I need you. I have company. Someone only you can help me with. Could you stop and pick up a sack of burgers and fries on your way? Oh, and a chocolate shake?” I was getting mental messages for dessert but ignored them. The baby was probably already going to be born reeking of sugar. Who knew what pouring more inside it would do. Bad enough that it had Alesa for its mother.

“You sure you didn’t take one of those drugs again? That lets you eat? You remember what happened last time.”

“No, I learned my lesson.” I put my hand on my tummy that could have passed for a minor baby bump itself. “Please hurry. This is someone you need to see.”

“From the amount of food, sounds like you have more than one person there.” The noise around Rafe stopped, so he must have stepped into his office. “You okay?”

“For now, but I’ll feel better when you get here. See you soon?” I gripped the phone tightly, wishing we were back to our old easy friendship.

“On my way.” He ended the call.

I turned to Alesa. “I swear.” I cleared my throat. “I swear that if you hurt my friend I will make sure there aren’t enough pieces of you left to go back to hell for Lucifer to fry. Are we clear?”

“Wow, Glory, get radical, why don’t you?” Alesa widened her eyes. “And, remember, I’m going to be a mommy. Think of my baby.”

“I am. The biggest favor I could do that child is to make sure he or she never sets eyes on you.” I stomped into the kitchen and plucked a bottle of supercharged synthetic blood out of the refrigerator. I twisted off the top and took a gulp. It wasn’t as good as fresh, but took the edge off. Then I hit speed dial and called my fledgling.

“Penny, are you working all night?” I’d seen her off to her job at a lab just an hour before Alesa had arrived.

“Supposed to. Though Ian’s talking about letting me off early. Trey and I may hook up later.”

“Great. Can you stay with him? I’ve got some company. An old, uh, friend.” I hated calling Alesa that, but didn’t want Penny to worry. My fledgling had a relationship with Trey, the shifter who worked for Rafe at his club, and had been spending a lot of time with him lately. I wasn’t going to feel guilty now suggesting she stay with him for her death sleep. She’d done it before and was basically an adult. We’d recently celebrated her twentieth birthday.

“No problem. You sound funny. You sure you’re okay?”

I sighed. Penny Patterson is a genius. No kidding. A prodigy with a doctorate and a bunch of other degrees at her young age. Of course she’d picked up on my stress.

“Not okay, but Rafe is on his way over to help me with this person who isn’t actually much of a friend. We’ll manage but thanks for asking. Just stick with Trey so I don’t have to worry about you too, okay? I don’t want you to meet this character. We have a bad history.” So much for not worrying Penny. But I really didn’t want her popping in, not even for a change of clothes. “Seriously, don’t drop by. I mean it.”

“Whatever you want, Glory.” Penny sighed. “But I could help, you know. Don’t underestimate me in a fight. Ian’s been working with me. He’s got some amazing weapons here.”

“I just bet he does. Thanks, but not this time.” I hung up. Penny worked for Ian MacDonald. The vampire was another genius and had probably come up with some stuff I could use against a demon. But a pregnant one? That had to give me pause.

“Glory, you know I can read your thoughts and hear your conversations, don’t you?” Alesa stood in the doorway. “Come back to the living room and tell me what you’ve been up to lately. Who is this Penny?”

“Like I’d confide in you? Forget Penny. Sit on the sofa and wait for your food.” I finished my synthetic and rinsed out the bottle for the recycle bin. Good thing I didn’t need to inhale, because the sweet stench of hell would have put me off my drink completely. When I heard the knock on the door, I realized I still had a turban on my head and no makeup. Swell. The only upside of this is that Alesa’s news was bound to take my looks completely off Rafe’s radar. At least my jeans were clean and hugged my butt and my T-shirt was a flattering red color.

I walked to the door, aware of Alesa’s eyes following me. She had a smirk on her face that made me want to slap her. My stomach knotted as I threw the dead bolts.

“I could smell demon from the bottom of the stairs, Gloriana. What the hell is going on here?” Jeremy Blade, my lover and my maker strode into the room. He stopped at the foot of the couch and stared at Alesa, who stretched as if to show off her plump breasts in her low-cut violet sweater. He didn’t seem to notice, busy pulling one of his knives out of his boot.

“Jerry, stop. You know you can’t kill a demon with a knife.” I put my hand on his arm. I wasn’t sure what it took to kill a demon. Everything we’d tried had failed. They seemed indestructible. The most you could hope to do in a fight was to send them back to hell and it took a priest or other type of holy man and some other powerful stuff for that.

“Maybe not, but I could enjoy trying.” Jerry wasn’t about to put his knife away. “What’s this bitch doing here?”

“Causing trouble, what else?” I pulled Jerry toward the kitchen. “Alesa, don’t say a word. Please. Let me handle this.” I gave her a look that she actually heeded. She just sat back with a smile and a wave.

“Handle what? Me?” Jerry looked down at my hand on his arm. “I thought we were finally done with demons.”

“So did I.” I sighed and leaned against him once I had him in the kitchen. Jerry and I had been through some really rough times. He’d managed to forgive me for betraying him with Rafe, who was part demon. I’d blamed my infidelity on Alesa being inside me. Demon tricks. Then other demons had come back and made more mischief in our lives. Through it all, Jerry had been there for me.

I held on to him. He’d positively hate this latest development, but he’d see this as nothing to do with us. That Rafe had a problem, end of story. So I knew I was going to have a fight on my hands if I wanted to help see Rafe through this. And I was determined to do just that.

“She’s pregnant, Jer.” I looked up when I said this. To gauge Jerry’s reaction.

“The hell you say.” He slid his knife back into his boot. “Why’d she show up here?”

“She claims it’s Rafe’s child. Made while she was inside me.”

“That’s a cock-and-bull story if I ever heard one.” Jerry shook his head. “She wasn’t corporeal. And you . . .” He hugged me. “Sorry, lass, but you’ve got to know you can’t conceive a child.”

“I know that. I said the same thing to her. But here she is, stomach swollen, claiming Lucifer kicked her out for being pregnant and saying it’s Rafe’s.” I pushed back. “He’s on his way.”

“Let them hash this out, demon to demon.” Jerry watched me with narrowed eyes.

“You know I can’t do that.” I sighed. Now it started. Jerry would never understand the depth of my attachment to Rafe, the man who had guarded me for five long years. He’d risked his life for me and shared secrets that I’d told no one else. I loved Rafe. Just as I loved Jerry. Well, maybe not just as. Jerry and I had a long and turbulent history, four hundred years’ worth. Rafe and I were friends, briefly lovers and equals in a way Jer and I could never be.

“You
could
leave them to it, but you won’t.” Jerry turned his back on me. “I see no way for this to be resolved without you getting hurt. Demons play dirty, you know that. Alesa will make sure you have naught to do with Rafael if she wants him for her babe’s father.”

“You’re right. Yet here she is. At my home, asking for my help.” I bit my lip. Was I being set up? Alesa hated me. I’d humiliated her in her world, keeping her trapped in my body far longer than most hosts would have managed, according to the other demons I’d met. And Lucifer wasn’t crazy about me either. Had he sent her here to get even with me? I’d managed to best him the last time we’d met. I knew he’d been pissed off about that. And when you pissed off the Devil . . .

“Tell her to leave. To take her brat and deal with Valdez elsewhere.” Jerry grabbed my shoulders. “It’s the only way you’ll be safe.”

We both turned at the knock on the door. I really needed to breathe. I’d missed the smell warning of Jerry’s arrival and now Rafe had managed to sneak up on me.

“Well, he’s here now. Let’s see how this plays out.” I touched Jerry’s cheek. “No matter what, please don’t pull out a knife. That will only make things worse.”

“You’ve got a pregnant demon on your couch and another demon at your door. How could it get worse, Gloriana?” Jerry strode toward the door.

Good question. But it certainly could and did.

REAL VAMPIRES HAVE CURVES
REAL VAMPIRES LIVE LARGE
REAL VAMPIRES GET LUCKY
REAL VAMPIRES DON’T DIET
REAL VAMPIRES HATE THEIR THIGHS
REAL VAMPIRES HAVE MORE TO LOVE
REAL VAMPIRES DON’T WEAR SIZE SIX