Heir of Night (The Thorne Hill)

There’s a soft knock on the door, and Lucas gets out of bed to open it.

“I had at the strongest feeling I need to come check on Callie,” Tabatha says from the hall. “Is everything all right?”

“Yeah,” Lucas tells her, voice low. “This is a lot for her to process.”

“A regular human birth is enough on its own,” Tabatha agrees and looks in on us, unable to help but smile when she sees Juliet. Michael puts her back in my arms and rests his hand on my shoulder. The feeling of comfort and peace I get just by being around other angels relaxes me, and I lean back against my pillows with my baby on my chest.

“I called you here,” Michael tells Tabatha, crossing the room. “So I could thank you for being the mother Callista wanted our daughter to have.”

“Oh my.” Tabatha is instantly choked up. “It’s been a blessing having Callie in my life. I am proud to be able to call her my daughter.”

“Take care of them both,” Michael says, looking from Tabatha to Lucas. He turns, eyes full of emotion. “I do love you, my daughter.”

And then he disappears.

I let out a shaky sigh and close my eyes. Lucas was right to say this is a lot to process, because it fucking is.

“You have to be exhausted.” Tabatha comes to me and runs her finger over Juliet’s tiny hand.

“I am.”

“Sleep,” she says. “I’m not going anywhere.”

My eyes go to Lucas. He knows I can’t just pass the baby off and lie down. My mind won’t allow me to do just fall asleep like that. Lucas sits on the bed next to me again and takes Juliet from me.

“We’re not going anywhere,” he says. “You pushed a living human out of your body. You need to rest.”

“Holy fuck. I did.” I shake my head, and Lucas kisses me, settling into bed next to me. Tabatha gets Maryellen, who does a final assessment of us before heading out. She’s going to come back in the morning to check on us again and will have her phone next to her in case anything happens.

Everyone else comes in one last time to see Juliet. Tabatha and Eliza are the last to leave the room, and Tabatha shuts off the light and closes the door.

“Get some sleep, Callie,” Lucas tells me. “It’s been a long day.”

“It has.” I realize that I don’t even know what time it is, but we have to be approaching dawn.

“We’ll stay right here,” he assures me.

“Wake me up if she needs to eat.”

“I will.” He slowly leans back, adjusting Juliet’s little blanket over her body. She starts to cry but stops, settling down and falling asleep now. I turn, lying on my side so I can look at Juliet.

Our baby.

My eyes fall shut and almost instantly, I’m asleep.

I wake in a panic, sitting up fast and blinking rapidly. I reach out, thinking I fell asleep with the baby in my arms and she fell off the bed or is tangled in the blankets.

“Shhhh,” Lucas soothes. “She’s still asleep.”

My eyes adjust to the light, and I see Lucas standing by the window, Juliet swaddled in a new blanket than she was in before.

“Is she okay?” It’s a dumb question, but I have to ask it.

“She’s still perfect.” Lucas comes to the bed and seamlessly passes her to me. She moves her head, rooting for milk. I bring her to my breast and struggle to get her latched on. Hungry, she’s frustrated not to get any milk and starts crying, which in turn makes me almost panic.

“I’m doing it wrong.”

“It’s all right,” Lucas says, calm voice reassuring.

Muted sunlight glows behind the curtained windows. I want so badly to go back to sleep but know I need to feed my baby. Lucas tries to help me adjust the baby, but with her crying, I can’t get her latched on. Lucas takes her, and I move the pillows, leaning back a bit instead of sitting straight up.

It takes a few more tries, but we get it. Beaming, I look from Juliet to Lucas. She nurses for a good few minutes before falling back asleep, and Lucas says he can hear Eliza at the door.

She’s ready to jump in and be the nanny. I didn’t think it would be hard to let anyone other than Lucas take my baby, but when Eliza swaddles in her a pink blanket and takes her in the nursery so she can sit in the rocking chair while I shower, I feel uneasy.

“I can hear her cry from here,” Lucas reminds me. He pulls the blankets back and helps me out of bed. I’m not as sore as I expected, which I’m sure has to do with being back to my old Nephilim self, though this time I have access to more powers.