Page 86 of Love Bites

"How are you feeling?" Puck asked.

"I'm feeling okay."

Standing next to the bed, Talon squeezed my hand as if scared that I might be lying. It was kind of funny, really. You couldn't tell by looking at him, but I knew my vampire was more nervous about this than I was.

"We're going to be parents soon," I told him, just to see if I could make him squirm a little. Mean, I know, but I was in the process of birthing him a baby, so I felt entitled. Talon didn't squirm, not exactly, but he gripped my hand a little more tightly.

I took a deep breath, feeling as if somethingmovedinside my belly. The baby trying to claw his way out?Easy, little one,I thought to myself.You'll be with us soon enough.

And no sooner had I thought that than the angry red line on my stomach seemed to stretch. Okay,thatwas actually kind of painful. I clenched my teeth, sure that this would be much, much worse if it wasn't for the magic. Puck waved his hand over me, as if he could tell what was going on, and the pain abated a bit more.

I exhaled.

And then my stomach opened. Actually opened. I would have been horrified if I hadn't been expecting something kind of like this. And if my whole belly hadn't been enveloped by an almost blindingly white glow. At this moment, I didn't feel any pain at all, and if I had, I'd likely have forgotten all about it the moment Puck reached down and pulled a screaming baby out of the light.

I stared in awe. Talon and I both did.

Puck grinned at Talon. "You want to cut the cord?" He handed Talon a pair of sterilized scissors we'd prepared in advance and Talon cut the cord without a moment's hesitation. "Congratulations," Puck said, offering the infant to Talon. "I know you probably don't want me to hold on to this forever."

Talon laughed as he took the baby from Puck. "No, I really don't."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" I asked when my brain started functioning again.

Talon studied the baby as if it hadn't occurred to him to check, he'd been so fascinated by the little person in his arms. Meanwhile, Puck waved his hands over me a few more times. I wasn't sure what exactly it was he was doing, but I didn't care too much either. I wasn't in pain, and besides, I was a daddy now. How insane was that?

"It's a boy," Talon said. "A healthy boy." In his arms, the baby stopped crying as Talon wrapped him in a soft blanket.

And then, Talon handed our son to me. By now, my belly had stopped glowing and had gone back to looking as if I’d never been pregnant at all. It was a miracle. Not as much of a miracle as my son, though.

“He's beautiful," I whispered. He wasn’t as pink as other babies I’d seen, but otherwise, my half-vampire baby looked completely normal. No fangs either. Not yet, anyway.

"He really is beautiful,” Talon agreed. "What are we naming him?"

"Phoenix Lucien," I said with a soft smile. “Nix for short.”

“Phoenix…” Talon tried the name on his tongue. “That seems appropriate.”

“Doesn’t it?”

With a smile, Talon stroked a finger over our baby’s cheek. "Welcome to the world, little Nix."

My heart almost overflowed with affections as I watched my man welcome our baby. The world little Nix had been born into had some problems, but when I looked at Talon and the way he looked at our son, I knew that the two of us were going to do absolutely everything in our power to make it a better place.

I was going to make sure that my baby would never have to be afraid of the dark.

The End