Page 17 of House of Kallan
We couldn’t wait any longer. Takinginto consideration how early multiple births took place under normal circumstances, Suzanne was at the end of her term. We didn’t know how many were in her womb, but after talking with her and a couple other women from the retrieval we received her with, we learned she was close to thirty weeks.
What was interesting was that Suzanne looked like she’d recovered a lot of her vitality. There were a few very precarious weeks where we thought she wasn’t going to make it. That the babies inside her were draining her of life.
But she nearly looked like another person. She primarily remained on her side because her stomach was just too big to be comfortable in any other position, but she was awake now. Smiling. Chatting. Laughing. Reading. We made sure she had plenty of books to pass her time.
However much she’d recovered and why wasn’t truly our concern. By her size and the movements she felt that we closely monitored, we were sure there were at least two fetuses in her womb. Possibly three. Which meant we didn’t want to push it much longer for her own safety.
We’d gotten better about determining which new monstrousspecies were likely to try to rip their way out and which were probably going to be birthed naturally. But they were all susceptible to ultrasound or other means of peering inside the body. Suzanne’s littles were not.
We still weren’t sure what was surrounding them or even if we’d be able to cut through it. Our resident witch thought it was primarily magic that kept them hidden and protected. I might be more likely to believe that if we could feel them. Once in a while, we could sense a basic shape, but it felt round. Smooth. There weren’t any actual features, like body parts.
Suzanne joked that she was implanted with reptilian eggs. Honestly, at this rate, we weren’t going to rule it out.
“Ready?” I asked. I was standing by Suzanne’s head, so I was out of the way but still there for support. We had a Nephilim on standby should something drastic happen.
Suzanne nodded. “I’m ready to not be bigger than my bed,” she said, smiling up at me.
She wasn’t that big, considering we had her on a queen-sized bed. Although, I completely understood the sentiment behind it.
Because I was behind a curtain that cut off most of the view of her stomach being sliced open, we couldn’t see anything. Fortunately, with a spinal block, she couldn’t feel it either.
“Oh,” one of the nurses said.
That’s all it took for me to move around the other side. After patting Suzanne on the hand, I rounded the curtain and went straight to where a nurse was working. However, when it came into view, I had no idea what I was looking at. A… pod?
There were a few different newborn bed habitats ready since we weren’t sure what we were going to get. Humanish meant we could wipe them off. Then there were the more aquatic creatures that we tried to keep moist until, or if, we learned otherwise.
This was entirely new.
“It almost looks like a cocoon,” I said.
The nurse nodded and brought the little oblong shape to thewater. As the amniotic fluid was wiped clean, we found the cocoon was made of feathers.
A second cocoon followed, and I felt triumphant that I was right in that there were multiple. But following the second was a third and then a fourth. Once they were all cleaned off and set in their warm beds, I stared at them.
Suzanne was eventually sutured up, and I wheeled the little carriages to her bedside so she could look. She was silent for a while as she studied the drying feathers that encased the newborns, although I wasn’t sure we could call them newborns. Were they truly born yet? Maybe they had a second birth where they broke free of the feathers?
“Well, I suppose that’s as alien as they might come,” Suzanne said after a minute.
Her voice initiated movement in the pods, and we stared at the one that rocked slightly.
“Speak again,” I said quietly.
“What should I say?” Suzanne whispered.
“Anything. Just talk to them.” I wasn’t at all surprised that they responded to her. Most of the offspring responded to their mother’s voice more than any other stimuli.
Suzanne licked her lips and peered over the side. “Hey, little ones,” she said quietly. “Thank you for not killing me. It was getting a little precarious there for a bit.”
I chuckled, shaking my head.
She reached her hand over the side and gently ran her fingers through the still slightly damp feathers. “You’re so soft,” she said, smiling. It made my heart feel good that she wasn’t horrified by them. “Are you going to come out soon so I can meet you?”
Generally speaking, intelligence wasn’t all that different between supernaturals and nonsupernaturals. Some were more intelligent than others. Some were dumber than a box of rocks. Genetics certainly played into it, but it wasn’t the only thing.
However, I’d had a hunch for a while that the offspring we weredealing with here in Haven were more intelligent and advanced than all other species. Because it wasn’t just one bright baby every once in a while, I had to think that this was something intentional, which was a bit remarkable if I was willing to give the monsters doing this any kind of compliment. I wasn’t, but I could silently be awed by it.
That also led to a lot of questions. If they were breeding more intelligent species, I had to think that they were numbering their days. Then again, anyone could be swayed by your environment. Who knew the kind of shit they’d be feeding these kids. Brainwashing them.
