Temptation, Chronicles of the Fallen, Book 3 (16 page)

Without warning, the room fell away in a swirl of color. Gideon’s den solidified around her as she landed with a thud, naked, on the worn carpet.

“Gideon! What the hell?”

“Oh Christ on a crutch! Oh hell.” He gasped, rushing over to her and helping her to her feet. “I forgot,” he stammered, clearly shaken to the core. She’d never seen him so flustered. “I didn’t think about—”

He conjured clothing for both of them. As soon as she was steady on her feet, he released her and backed away like she was a bomb with the timer quickly winding down.

“What’s going on?” she demanded as he began pacing around the room.

“Stupid! Stupid!” Gideon swore, long and loud. He stopped every so often to glance her way and rake both splayed hands through his hair. He’d throw his arms in the air or slap a hand to his forehead, only to resume pacing, mumbling beneath his breath. She couldn’t reconcile this frenzied, flustered Gideon with the otherwise soothing and unshakable Gideon she’d come to trust and lo—
care about
in such a short time.

“Gideon,” she tried again, but she couldn’t get his attention. “Gideon!”

Frustrated, she glanced around the room, her attention snagging on the pillow lying in the corner—the one she’d thrown at his head the last time he’d shimmered her there with no warning.

Snatching it up, she waited until he turned her way in his pacing, then launched it into his face. “Gideon! So help me, if you don’t start talking to me, and you damned well better start making some sense, the next thing I throw at your head is going to be something very heavy and very, very hard!”

Finally, she got his attention. He rushed to her, grabbing up her hands, only to drop them and back away as if he feared touching her. If he didn’t explain himself really fast, she was going to lose it.

“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t thinking,” he gushed. He was so rattled, and it was scaring the living hell out of her.

“You already said that,” she reminded him.

“No, not about the shimmering. Well, yes, about that too. But not that.” He shook his head, looking like he was about to take up pacing once more. Or throw up. His face was pale, too pale, his eyes all but bugging out of his head.

“Gideon,” she snapped, striding forward to grab his shoulders before he could resume circling the room, giving him a rough shake.

“Oh God, Maggie, I screwed up.” His wild-eyed gaze met hers. Suddenly, she was the one who felt panicked, she just didn’t understand why. “I didn’t use protection, didn’t even stop to think. Not once last night. All night! Every time we…I didn’t use protection. I was so caught up—”

At last, his words, his behavior, the way he’d touched her stomach earlier began to make sense. A wave of dizziness washed over her, and she took a staggering step back, her mind racing.

“No,” she whispered. No, that was ridiculous. To just assume…

It was impossible. Too soon to know anything, at the very least.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. Clearing her throat, she shook her head and offered him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. Someone had to be calm and reasonable here. And it didn’t look like that was going to be him. Besides, she was just as responsible for this mess as he was. “It’s okay. We’ll just have to be more careful from now on. Besides, the likelihood of…of…well,
that
happening has got to be pretty…ah, slim. I mean, it was only last night. There’s no way to tell so soon if… Why are you shaking your head at me like that?”

“Maggie,” he said, approaching her now with firm, sure steps. Gone was the panic, gone the hysteria. And in its place was a deadly, serious calm that terrified her far worse than she could ever imagine. His hands caught her shoulders with an urgency she’d rarely seen in him.

“Maggie, you
are
pregnant.”

She shook her head, trying to pull away. A snort of laughter, so out of place, slipped out. God, she was losing her mind. Clapping a hand over her mouth before she laughed out loud, she struggled to breathe. Great. Now she was the one going hysterical.

“No,” she finally managed to get out, delayed but firm. “No. Don’t be ridiculous, Gideon. That’s impossible! It’s been less than twenty-four hours. There’s no way to—”

“Maggie!” He cut her off, lowering one hand to cup over her abdomen, his touch so very gentle. She could feel a spark of something kindle low and deep. A flutter of power. As if something—something separate from her but something inside her—were reaching for him. “I can feel him, Maggie. I can feel his power. Power, individual and separate, from yours. I’m not mistaken.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but nothing came out.

“You’re pregnant, Maggie.” His gaze held hers. Determined now. Protective. Unflinching. And very, very possessive. “You’re carrying my baby.”

She stared up at Gideon, unable to process his words. They just kept buzzing around in her head. No. The buzzing was in her ears. Her throat was suddenly, inexplicably dry as a desert. She forced a swallow, vaguely aware she was swaying on her feet like a drunkard. But that wasn’t right, because she was floating. The room began to spin.

And then everything went blessedly black.

Chapter Fourteen

Gideon stifled a curse as he swept Maggie up in his arms. He shimmered them back to his bedroom and gently lowered her to the bed. A quick check of her pulse revealed its flutter entirely too fast to be healthy. That couldn’t be good.

Oh, dear God, please no!

What if there was something wrong with the baby? It wasn’t as if he could just take her to the emergency room. Heaven only knew what a doctor would find. What if the babe wasn’t compatible with Maggie’s body? What if carrying his child ended up killing her?

Another panic attack hit him like a tidal wave. Nothing had ever been mentioned about what happened to the Halfling upon the Chosen One’s birth. Would she…
could
she even survive?

It was in that instant that the magnitude of the situation fully hit him. In seeking her out, in bringing her under his protection—in losing control of his overwhelming desire for her—he’d unwittingly created the fourth relic.

He’d created the Chosen One.

What do I do?

He began to hyperventilate. No, he couldn’t panic. Maggie needed him. Gideon clawed his way back from the edge. He would do her no good if he continued down this road. He had to figure this out.

First things first. He needed to make sure she was physically all right. Maggie and the baby were top priority. He swiped his phone from the nightstand and thumbed in Mikhail’s number.

The Demon of War answered on the first ring. Gideon was so shocked it took him a moment longer than necessary to remember how to speak.

Mikhail filled the silence. “Is she with you at the plantation?”

“Yes,” Gideon said, frowning. How had he known this was about—

The phone line went dead. Gideon held the device away from his face, staring at it incredulously. Before he could hit redial, he heard massive feet pounding up the grand staircase and then thundering down the hall. Gideon went instantly into a defensive crouch when the door burst open. He relaxed infinitesimally, straightening and extinguishing the plasma ball in his hand the moment Mikhail cleared the doorway.

Mikhail took in his surroundings in a split second. He’d never had cause to be in Gideon’s bedroom before, hence the reason he hadn’t shimmered straight there. Demons never shimmered to someplace they’d never been before. The potential of solidifying halfway in the middle of a wall, or three steps past the end of a cliff, was something to avoid at all costs. Mikhail rushed to the bed, and Gideon could only look on in disbelief. He’d not seen the Demon of War look so…concerned.

Hell, he’d not seen Mikhail look
anything
before. Mikhail didn’t do emotion.

Although Mikhail had defected from Lucifer’s rule with Gideon and the others, he’d always held himself carefully apart. He’d gone about this business of seeking forgiveness in his own way, on his own terms, never relying on the others for help unless it was absolutely necessary. Even then, he’d been known to Lone Ranger it to the point of suicidal inclination on more than a few occasions. Gideon had never wondered about that before, having been caught up in battling his own demons. After all, they all had their own crosses to bear.

Now, however, certain things were starting to click into place. Like the way Mikhail had known something was wrong with Maggie without Gideon having to utter a word. Or the way he’d flown to her side and instantly placed his healing hands over her abdomen without anyone telling him what had happened. Sometimes, Mikhail just seemed to know things.

“How long has she been unconscious?” Mikhail asked, interrupting his musings.

Gideon was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Mikhail actually experienced emotions, and wondering over what other powers Mikhail might possess, so he didn’t immediately respond.

“How long?” Mikhail barked with customary impatience.

“Only a minute or two.” Gideon hurried to the other side of the bed to get out of Mikhail’s way and watched. Concern for Maggie overrode his confusion over Mikhail’s uncharacteristic behavior. But only just.

Mikhail sat on the side of the bed at Maggie’s hip. He immediately placed both hands over her abdomen once again, dropped his chin to his chest and closed his eyes. He sat like that for immeasurable minutes. Gideon didn’t say a word, though everything in him balked at having another male so close to her, putting his hands upon her.

It took every ounce of his self-restraint to keep from wringing his hands like a helpless old woman. “Can’t you fix her?”

“It’s not a wound. She’s not broken,” Mikhail bit out. “It’s a babe growing within her. A healthy babe. There’s nothing to fix.”

Gideon hadn’t meant
fixing
the babe. He’d meant fixing whatever it was that had made Maggie turn white as a sheet and pass out. He remembered the wild flutter of her pulse. Was it her blood pressure? Sometimes expectant mothers had problems with blood pressure, didn’t they? Her pulse had been erratic.

But the angry hiss Mikhail emitted when Gideon opened his mouth to explain silenced him. Gideon bit his tongue. Best to let Mikhail concentrate. He glanced down, dismayed to realize he was clenching his hands together in front of him. He jerked his hands apart and fisted them at his sides as he stood still, his focus darting between Maggie and the scarred warrior.

At length, War straightened, though his gaze never left Maggie’s face. The air left Gideon’s lungs in a sibilant hiss. Mikhail was looking upon Maggie with unmistakable awe.

Gideon didn’t know what to say, or how to react.

Mikhail reached up, his large hands hovering at either side of her head. He frowned in severe concentration.

Slowly, Maggie blinked blearily between the two demons.

Mikhail stared down at Maggie. He wasn’t smiling now. He didn’t offer any words of comfort and kept his expression guarded. Yet Maggie seemed to take solace from his presence. Rage rose up inside Gideon, snarling for the chance to rip Mikhail’s throat out. That was
his
woman.
His
babe. Mikhail had no business…doing whatever it was he was doing to make her feel better. That was Gideon’s job.

Just as quickly, Gideon slapped the monster back in its cage. No way was he letting that thing come out with Maggie in the room. Not ever again. It had damned near killed her the last time. And now that she was pregnant?

Oh, hell no.

Without a word, Mikhail conjured a glass of water. He slipped a gentle hand behind Maggie’s shoulders and helped her sit up. Gideon remembered another time when he’d been the one to conjure a glass of water for her. She hadn’t touched it.

Maggie took this glass from Mikhail with a grateful smile and swallowed several sips before passing it back. Mikhail accepted the vessel, vanishing it in the blink of an eye while Gideon seethed with jealousy. Over a glass of water.

“Feeling better?” Mikhail asked.

Another first. Usually, the moment Mikhail healed a human, he pulled a Houdini. He sure as hell never stuck around to make small talk. Bedside manners were about as important to War as the dirt on the bottoms of his size thirteen combat boots.

“Yes, I think so. Um, did Gideon…ah, call you?”

“Yes.”

“So you know…what he thinks?” Why did the fact that she systematically continued to deny she could be pregnant with his child stab at him so painfully? She waited until Mikhail nodded before going on. “Can you explain to him he’s jumping the gun? There’s no possible way I’m—”

“You are with child,” Mikhail said firmly.

Maggie lost what little color she’d regained. Gideon reflexively jumped closer to the bed. She wasn’t going to pass out again, was she?

“H-how can you tell?”

Mikhail laid his hands upon her abdomen once more, closing his eyes, as if in communion with the being already growing inside her womb.

“I sense his essence.”

“His
essence
?” Now it was Gideon’s turn to shake his head in disbelief. “You mean…does he have a soul?”

Mikhail nodded solemnly. Maggie shot Gideon a baffled look. “What do you mean,
does he have a soul?
”

“He’s part demon,” Gideon said by way of explanation.

“It’s also part human,” Maggie argued, then shook her head. “
If
I were pregnant—which I’m
not
. I can’t possibly be.”

“You are. And the babe is also part angel,” Mikhail added, quite unnecessarily, in Gideon’s estimation.

That reminder brought a long moment of contemplative silence.

The Chosen One.

Mikhail rose. He reached out, placing a hand gently on the top of her head for another moment. Gideon bristled, watching as becoming, healthy color flooded Maggie’s cheeks.

Slowly, Mikhail withdrew his hand, his own face pinched and much paler than before, the scars slashing down the side of his grim visage standing out in stark relief. He turned to face Gideon, arching an eyebrow. “I am the closest thing she has to a doctor. Get used to it. Green doesn’t look good on you.”

Maggie reached up and grasped Mikhail’s hand. The demon started, blinking down at her. Gideon couldn’t help the scowl, didn’t even try to hide it.

“Thank you for coming to check on me,” she said. “And thank you for making me feel better.”

And she
did
feel better, Gideon reflected sourly. She appeared the soul of tranquility now.

Mikhail inclined his head in acknowledgement. Gideon didn’t miss the brief tightening of Mikhail’s hand over hers before the demon released her.

“When you need me, I shall come again. Rest now.”

When
, not
if
, Gideon observed. And then Mikhail shimmered away.

Gideon stood staring at the shifting air beside the bed for a moment, scowling. Had that been a threat aimed at him? Some illicit promise to her?

She shifted on the bed, swinging her legs over the side so she could sit up, snapping Gideon’s attention to her once more. Unsettled, Gideon worked to push the unwanted suspicion and jealousy away. He strode around the bed, perching beside her.

“Looks like we have a lot to talk about,” he said, reaching for her hand.

Seeming to anticipate his move, she clasped her hands tightly in her lap, smoothly avoiding his touch. Gideon stiffened at the rejection, grinding his teeth.

“Look, you might not have wanted a kid—”

“I never said I didn’t want kids,” she said, cutting him off. “I’d love to have kids. Someday. A couple of them.”

“Just not now, huh? Not mine.”

“You’re the one who had the meltdown,” she pointed out, painfully polite as she crossed her arms.

“Yeah, well, you passed out.”

He knew he was being petty, but couldn’t seem to stop himself. He could see her withdrawing and couldn’t figure out how to stop it. This was that careful distance, that solicitous politeness she hid behind. Must be pure hell, doing everything within your power to hide from emotional attachment, yet driven by your angelic blood to be the very milk of human kindness.

“It’s not every day a woman finds out she’s pregnant after a one night stand.”

Gideon went utterly still. Rage exploded inside him so swiftly he barely kept himself from morphing into Temptation.

A one night stand?

What part of never letting you go did you miss, darlin’?

Maggie drove him insane. She argued with him at every turn. She was, by turns, curious and courageous and intelligent. And she brought out these marrow-deep protective instincts he’d never experienced before. The woman set his blood on fire. She challenged him, making him—for the first time in his entire memory—actually and truly want to be a better person, not just go through the motions.

Not to mention, she was the only woman he’d been able to touch in an eternity. She thought what they’d just experienced had been nothing more than a one night stand?

She was in for a rude awakening.

“It’s a little late for second thoughts now, isn’t it, sweetheart?”

“I don’t know about that,” she snapped, giving him the evil eye. Seeming to have to work to calm herself, she added, “I just never pictured myself…” Her words trailed off with a slight frown.

“What? Pregnant with demon spawn?” God, he was being a bastard. He knew it. But he was too mad to give a damn.

“No,” she said sharply, scowling ferociously. “Not that. And my child is not demon spawn.”

A spark of relief kindled in his chest. It had been the first time she’d spoken possessively of the child they’d created. Maybe there was hope she might come to care for it after all.

A tiny part of him wondered if she could care for the child, could she also come to care for his father?

“So then it’s just the fact that it’s my kid that you find so distasteful,” he pressed.

“I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.” Standing up, she made to walk away. He shot a hand out, grabbing her wrist.

“Then what is it? Explain it to me.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she drawled, heavy on the sarcasm. “I guess maybe I imagined when I finally did start a family it’d be with a husband at my side. With a man that—”

“That’s just it, isn’t it? With a
man
. Not with a
demon
.”

“With a male,” she said loudly, speaking over him. “One that might actually love me. Hell, right now, I’d settle for one that just plain cared for me. Not somebody who was only interested because I was knocked up with some relic in a stupid prophecy.”

Gideon stared at her in stony silence.

Well, he’d be damned if he’d beg. He wasn’t a fool, and he wasn’t a glutton for punishment. At least, he never used to be. But damn it all, he still wanted her.

Maybe he was a fool after all.

Damning silence filled the room as they glowered at each other.

“You’re an idiot,” she finally growled. She jerked her wrist free and stormed from the room, slamming the door behind her.