Page 44 of Omega's Flight

Immediately all eyes focused on me, which might have been intimidating another time. But I only had a few minutes to find out what I needed before I thought I'd be caught in the next round of agony.

"Yes?" He put a hand in the small of my back, his fingers kneading along the muscles of my hips. "You need something?"

I licked my lips and ignored the blooming pain. "What is it that you can do? Is it one of those omega things?"

His fingers paused, then I felt him twitch and the massage started up again. "Holland?" he said. I adjusted my head a little on the pillow so I could see the Mate more easily.

Holland's face could have been a statue for all the emotion he showed. Except for something about his eyes, like he was being torn in two directions. Finally, he shrugged. "Explain to him what you know you can do."

Bax leaned in and covered Holland's hand where it held mine with one of his own. "Maybe explain omega to him first. What we know."

"That's a lot of information. I'd rather do it when things are calmer." Holland's grip on my fingers tightened and he met my eyes with a comforting smile. "Will you accept some of what we say as something we know is true, at least until I can tell you everything? I promise that as soon as you have time, I'll clear an afternoon for you and you can ask all the questions you want. Okay?"

I nodded, then closed my eyes and breathed my birthing pattern, trying to ride on top of it. Faintly, I recognized the rhythm of Bram's fingers working over the muscles in my back, then a wave of warmth settled over my belly, deep down inside. It was almost too hot for comfort, but that only made it a welcome distraction from the ache of my unsealing womb. The contraction eased with the heat and I sighed and opened my eyes again.

"Better?" Bram asked, leaning over me.

I realized then that the warmth was his hand over my lower belly. Which didn't make sense, because if it was his hand, I should have felt it on my skin, but this was deep down in the core of me. Was this what Holland had meant, about explaining omega to me? "Yes, better," I told him. "What did you do?" I thought that question pleased Holland, because some of the tightness left the muscles around his eyes and he flicked a glance up at Bram.

"It's something... omegas have talents," Bram said slowly, as if he was choosing his words with more care than he usually showed.

The cramping eased some more and I rolled over on my back so I could see both him and Holland at the same time. Bax smiled and sat back, his hand sliding away from ours to rest comfortingly on my knee. "Go on," I said. "I'm guessing it's not being able to sing or draw."

"Not quite," Holland said on a soft chuckle. "I'll let Bram tell you his part of it though. The rest, we can cover later."

I rolled my head to the side to look up at Bram and he nodded. "So, the thing I'm best at is figuring out what's wrong with people. Knowing where they hurt, what's making them sick. And a little, fixing it. By myself."

Wasn't that what nurses and doctors did anyway? Something was missing in this story, so I watched Bram with patient eyes, having had success getting people to tell me things my just sitting there being quiet and expecting it.

It worked this time too.

Bram glanced at Holland then turned his gaze back to me. "That's what I did there. I shared some of my own energy to make the cramps easier."

Shared his own energy? I would have thought he was telling stories except I'd felt it myself.

There really were magic omegas.

I had to ask. I was terrified to, but I had to. If there was any chance at all... "Can you... save the baby?"

His face dropped and he looked to Holland with a desperate expression.

Holland tugged on my hand until I turned to face him. "There's more wrong with the baby than just a too-early labor. He wouldn't survive anyway. Bram's here to keep you alive."

I was having a boy. Losing a boy. No. I refused to believe it. "But... If you're what everyone says you are... Can't you just wish him better?" I wrenched my hand away from Holland and clutched at Bram's. "Please! It's not his fault. He doesn't deserve this." Oddly, my voice was completely under control, despite the tears that were slipping down my cheeks.

His eyes widened in panic and he twisted his hands in mine. I thought trying to free them, but I wouldn't let go. Not until he explained to me why he wasn't doing more to save my little boy.

"It's not that easy. And there's so much wrong with him..."

I let go of Bram and curled around the pain in my heart, which dwarfed the pain of my rebellious womb until I hardly noticed it. So much wrong with him... He was a baby, how could someone say that? My head began to spin and I ignored them calling me.

"Raleigh? Raleigh!" I thought it was Holland who rolled me onto my back, then someone spat the word, "Shit!" and there was a flurry of activity around me.

"What did you do?" Holland cried in a voice so full of fury I almost cringed, except it didn't seem to be aimed at me, and all of a sudden I was feeling... floaty. And dizzy. In the back of my mind it occurred to me that I shouldn't feel so calm about it, but the floatiness was the nicest I'd felt in years. I wanted to stay there for a while longer.

"I didn't do anything I haven't done before!" Bram protested. "Just, I thought if I pinched off some of the blood vessels—"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Holland yelled. I frowned and tried to curl up into a ball again, but they held me down. My womb ached, then screamed at me. Voices shouted back and forth and I cried and begged them to just let me sleep, to stop and let me be. Adelaide spoke in my ear, "This will help. Hold on just a minute," and then the floaty feeling came back again, but not the same one as before. More like a kissing cousin, because this one sucked me down and ignored all my attempts to fight it, until the whole world was black and silent and I thought I slept.