Ashes (Dark in You 3)

“I’ll feel bad keeping it from them, especially since Raini knows. Personally, though, I think we should keep the pregnancy quiet from as many people as we can for as long as we can.”

Knox rubbed her upper arms. “I agree.” Or people might attempt to either kill her to stop the birth of the baby or kidnap her to have access to the baby once it was born. “But you can still tell your closest friends.” Mostly because he suspected that it would make them keep a close watch on her. That idea appealed to Knox and his demon a great deal. The more eyes she had on her, the better.

“We’ll need to also tell the sentinels,” he continued. “And you need to see a doctor. One of the gynecologists in our lair, Dr. Rodgers, is one of the best in the US.” Knox fully intended to make sure she had the best of everything throughout the entire pregnancy. “He’s odd, but he cares about his patients and he’s very discreet.”

“We can make an appointment tomorrow —”

“No, we should ask him to come here. Now.” The primal part of Knox wanted nothing more than to take Harper to the floor and bury himself inside her – it was an unexpected urge, but it was there all the same. However, the overprotective part of him was in a frenzy and wanted her to be checked out and to have the pregnancy confirmed. “I need to know that you and the baby are fine.”

“Then I guess you’d better call him.”

Dr. Rodgers was nothing like Harper had expected. Small, gangly, and sporting geeky glasses, the Chinese American demon looked more like a scientist than a gynecologist. Given that he now possessed information about Harper and Knox that the rest of the lair did not yet know, he didn’t seem excited or smug as she might have expected. Her demon eyed him suspiciously, too overprotective to trust any strangers around them.

As he stood in her living room, hands clasped, Rodgers flashed her a professional smile. “So, you believe you’re pregnant.”

Sitting on the sofa beside Knox, she said, “The test was positive.”

“Demons can get fake positive results, so the tests aren’t always very reliable. What about symptoms? I can tell just by looking at you that you’ve had trouble sleeping. How’s your appetite been?”

“Not at its best.”

He pursed his lips. “Your tongue ever feel like it’s burning?”

She frowned. “Yes.”

“Headaches?”

“Yes.”

“Nausea?”

“Yes. But I haven’t had morning sickness or anything.”

“Some pregnant women don’t.” He offered her a bottle of water. “Drink.”

She didn’t take the bottle. “I need to use the bathroom, so I’d rather not.”

“Don’t pee. I want to do an ultrasound scan, and the images will be better quality if you have a full bladder. Now drink – we want it nice and full.”

Knox took the bottle, twisted off the cap, and handed it to her. “Good girl,” he said as she sipped at it. They both watched the doctor as he switched on the portable ultrasound machine that he’d brought with him.

“Given what you’ve told me,” Rodgers began, “I’d say you’re about nine to ten weeks pregnant. Demonic babies develop at a faster rate than human babies, so the pregnancies usually last around thirty weeks. There are three stages to a demonic pregnancy. I call them infestation, oppression, and possession.”

She paused with the bottle close to her mouth. “Aren’t those the stages of demonic possession?”

Smiling, he shrugged. “Pregnancy is pretty much the same thing.”

“No, it’s really not.” She cocked her head. “Anyone ever told you that you have the oddest sense of humor?”

“Once or twice.” He pushed some of the buttons on his portable ultrasound machine. “Lay back. Let’s get a look at this baby.”

Knox kissed her temple and then rose from the sofa, but she tightened her grip on his hand. “I’m not leaving you,” he told her, perching himself on the arm.

Mollified, Harper lay on the sofa and pulled up her T-shirt. Rodgers squirted cold gel on her stomach and then moved a handheld probe around her lower abdomen, which put pressure on her bladder and made her really need to pee. But the sound of a heart beating strong and fast pushed her discomfort into the background.

Knox leaned forward as they watched the screen. He could make out the head and the outline of the baby’s body clearly, and his chest tightened. She really was pregnant. Even as he looked at their baby, the whole situation still felt surreal.

Rodgers tilted his head. “Huh.”

Knox’s muscles went rigid. “What does ‘huh’ mean?”

“It means I was wrong. You’re sixteen weeks pregnant, Harper. Congratulations.”

Harper gaped. She was nearing the end of the second stage of her pregnancy? Her demon blinked, shocked for the second time that day. “How is that even possible?”

Rodgers turned to her. “Well, there’s such a thing called ‘sperm’. During sexual intercourse —”

Knox sighed. “Do you have to be an idiot right now?”

“Sorry.”

“You’re sure she’s that far along? She doesn’t look pregnant. Her stomach doesn’t even have a slight pouch. If anything, she’s lost weight.”

“It’s not unusual for a she-demon to lose weight at first, especially if their appetite has been suffering. It’s usually at around the eighteenth week that the mother begins to actually look pregnant. Then things go pretty fast from there.” He turned to Harper. “You’re approaching the end of stage two, so the tiredness will start to wear off and you’ll get your appetite back. But you’ll have to deal with backache, joint pain, an increase in sex drive, and of course weight gain. Oh, and your demonic abilities might play up a little. The latter doesn’t always happen, though, especially if the she-demon is powerful like yourself.”

“Sounds grand,” she said dryly. Most of her attention was still on the monitor. She suspected that the image would just look weird to anyone who wasn’t emotionally invested in the situation. For Harper, the little bundle on the screen was a marvel. Her throat felt tight and she had to cough to clear it.

“Does everything look okay?” Knox asked the doctor, keeping his fingers linked with hers.

Rodgers turned back to the monitor and moved the probe a little. “It all looks good. Although…”

Tension gripped Knox. “Although what?” he prodded when the doctor fell silent.

“The fetus is smaller than it should be, though that can change. It could have a growth spurt at some point.” Rodgers’ mouth curled as the baby started wriggling around, looking like it was trying to do the breast stroke or something. “Quite the little mover, isn’t it? It’s small, but it’s feisty. Ever feel a little fluttering in your stomach, Harper?”

Now that she came to think of it… “Yeah. The fluttering has gotten more… pronounced. Sometimes it feels like bubbles popping.” She’d just thought it was, well, gas. And she was paranoid that she’d let it all go in public.

“That’s the fetus moving around. In the next couple of weeks, there’ll be a noticeable difference in the strength of the movements.”

Rodgers removed the probe – thank God – and turned off the ultrasound machine. He then gave her a paper towel to wipe off the gel. Knox helped her clean it up, and then Harper righted her T-shirt and sat up. “Is there anything I can do to make sure that the baby grows as it should?”

“Just ensure that you take care of yourself,” said Rodgers. “If you take care of your body, your body will take care of the fetus. We’ll have regular scans so we can monitor how things are going and make sure it’s developing just fine.”

Knox nodded. “What will happen if the baby doesn’t grow like it should?”

“That depends on a few things. Harper may have to be induced and have the baby early, but I don’t think it will come to that.” The machine whirred as it printed out a small picture of the screen. Rodgers handed it to her.