“Goddamned elf.” Alex scooped up his unconscious nemesis and hauled him through the doorway. The way he let Rand’s head crack against the doorframe had to be intentional.
“Where do you want him? Never mind, I see a spot.” Alex carried Rand to a rug in front of the fireplace and unloaded him in a heap, and none too gently. Eugenie kicked Rand’s calf as she walked past to turn up the gas flames. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.
Alex and I sat on the sofa and Eugenie in the adjacent armchair, and we watched Rand intently as if he were a circus act. I had no idea what to do with an unconscious elf, and was fresh out of smelling salts. As his body warmed, he gradually lost the stiff, embalmed look and instead turned into a pretty sleeping elf prince. He was cute enough to set on the mantel for decoration as an Elf on a Shelf. Well, if the Elf on a Shelf spontaneously spouted outrageous pronouncements without warning and had the potential to set off a preternatural war.
I stretched out a leg and nudged his shoulder with the toe of my boot. “Rand. Wake up, honey bun.”
Alex poked me in my sore ribcage.
Rand turned his head in my direction, but didn’t open his eyes for another minute or so. When he did, they were the clear, cerulean blue of a tropical sea, but not quite focused. “Hi, Dru. You look beautiful.”
Alex made a low growling sound and poked me in the ribs again.
It was enough to make Rand wake up and realize he wasn’t in friendly territory. He sat up and looked at me, then Alex, and, finally, Eugenie. He started that scary glowing thing. Whenever he was angry, his inner fire started up. Too bad his lack of consciousness hadn’t knocked that out of him.
“You would have let me die out there,” he said to Eugenie.
She raised an eyebrow as if to confirm it.
Oh, good grief. “Let’s start over. Rand, are you okay? What happened out there? Do you want something hot to drink?”
And could you quit glowing?
He wrenched his glare from Eugenie and looked at me. The anger drained quickly. “Elves don’t tolerate cold weather well. Our systems shut down to protect our vital functions.”
I stared at him. “You mean you really do hibernate?” My earlier comment had been a joke, or so I’d thought. “Like a bear?”
“Elves are not like bears. Bears are like elves. It’s a very advanced survival system.” He looked offended at being compared to Yogi and Boo-Boo.
“Right.” I wondered if I had enough elven DNA to blame for my flagging energy on the walk through the snowy French Quarter, and set that aside to ponder later. “Would it help to have something warm to drink?”
Rand smiled. “Tea would be nice, Dru. Thank you.”
“I’ll get it.” Alex sprang off the sofa so fast it was almost preternatural. Unlike vampires, however, shifters couldn’t do that speed-of-light thing. Now that Rand was awake, Alex was just trying to escape a scene that was likely to be messy and emotional. Alex hated messy and emotional.
He wouldn’t be gone long, though. As much as he hated emotional stuff, he’d want to monitor anything with political overtones.
Rand looked down for a moment, seeming to gather his thoughts. Then he climbed to his feet and approached Eugenie slowly, as one might walk toward a skittish puppy. I moved to the edge of my seat and put my left hand in the vicinity of Charlie, just in case I needed reinforcement.
But he knelt in front of her and reached his hand toward her abdomen, still moving cautiously. “May I?”
Eugenie looked at me and I nodded. Rand touching Eugenie was probably the next best thing to a prenatal exam, given the fact she couldn’t see a human doctor and wizard doctors wouldn’t know crap about elven reproduction. Thanks to Adrian, I now knew a lot more than before; I just hadn’t had a chance to tell Eugenie.
“Okay.” Her voice shook. “Don’t do anything to me.”
“I won’t. Promise.” Rand reached out gently and slid his long fingers beneath her sweater, resting his hand on her belly. He closed his eyes and sat perfectly still for what seemed like a week and a half.
“It’s a boy. I have a son.” He opened his eyes and looked up at Eugenie, and then at me, his face lit with genuine joy. I realized I’d never seen him truly happy. Scheming, angry, playful, and petulant, but not happy.
“Only…” He cocked his head at Eugenie. “You had another baby boy, one who died. It still hurts you.”
Eugenie’s eyes widened and she again looked at me. I seemed to have become the referee and interpreter here, whether I wanted the job or not. Again, I nodded. She knew in theory about Rand’s mental magic, sensing moods and reading thoughts, but she hadn’t experienced it. Before we were bonded, he’d used it on me a few times, but it no longer worked. He was being very gentle.
He also could manipulate people’s feelings, which was not acceptable in my book and I was on the lookout for it. So far, he hadn’t tried it.