Page 44 of Love Bites
"The witch who bore the first dhampire baby was male."
"What?" Luke and I both gaped at Talon.
Was he saying that... wait, what was he saying? "Men can't have babies."
Talon sighed heavily. "There was a spell involved that allowed him to fall pregnant from a vampire, and according to your father's notes, it's still in effect."
"But I can't... That's not... No fucking way." I heard Talon's words, but my brain wouldn't process them. Dad's notes couldn't be right. Males couldn't have babies. Not from vampires or anyone. That was ridiculous. The stuff of fiction.
Then again, so were magic and vampires.
But still...
"I never had sex with a vampire."
Talon looked at me, but said nothing.
"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me if you're telling me that I'm miraculously pregnant from sexI don't even remember. You better be giving me that memory back, mister." I jabbed my finger into his ribs. Could I believe that I'd let him fuck me? Totally. It was the rest I struggled with.
All of this was insane.
Completelyinsane.
While my world seemed to fall away from under my feet, Talon sat immovable on the edge of the couch, completely ignoring my jab. "I can't give you one memory back without giving you all of them back."
I opened my mouth, but then realized I didn't know what I wanted to say. Truth was, I didn't know if I wanted all of those memories back. I sure as hell didn't want the panic attacks related to some of them. Even if I couldn't recall the memory, I remembered wanting to forget it.
"What does all of this have to do with his fangs?" Luke basically repeated his earlier question, reminding me that he still existed.
It was still an excellent question too.
"If you're having a baby, he's half vampire and he needs blood to grow."
For a long time, neither Luke nor I said anything.
Learning that my fangs were made for blood-sucking shouldn't have shocked me this much, but it did.
Explained the thirst, though.
And why I was pale and dizzy.
If there was a baby and it was currently takingmyblood...
I grew even paler, if that was possible. My hand flew to my mouth as the urge to throw up again rose like bile in the back of my throat. I hardly noticed Talon leaving my side until he was back and offering me a paper bag. I took it.
"I understand this may be a bit much to process," he said.
"A bit much to process?" I laughed the way you did when a thought was just too massive to compute rationally without going insane. "Yeah, guess what, the idea that I might be pregnant is making me freak. I'm allowed to freak. How areyounot freaking?" I jabbed him again, hoping for more of a reaction this time. Couldn’t he show some goddamn emotion? "If I'm pregnant, you're the Daddy. How does that make you feel?" Jab, jab. "You better not believe I'm doing this on my own."
“Of course not.” Talon caught the hand I was jabbing him with. “I’ll be here with you. Every step of the way.”
Every step of the way… What way? He meant the pregnancy, didn’t he? Oh my God, could I really be pregnant? “You need to fix this,” I demanded. “Fucking fix it!”
“Collin…”
“What?” I ripped my hand out of his grip. “Don’t tell me to be reasonable, or to calm down, or…” I gestured wildly, words failing me. I wasnotgoing to calm down. Not right now. Not after everything he’d just told me. I grabbed one of the couch pillows and flung it at the wall.
“Collin,” Talon said again as if he was about to tell me to stop throwing things, so I grabbed another pillow and hit him with it.
