While my subconscious guided me to the main street of New Haven, my actual conscious was trying to make sense of all the senselessness that was now my life.
If he expected me to believe him—that magic was real and he was a douchey product of some Conduit witch’s temper tantrum—then he had another thing coming. It was too farfetched. Well, except for the douchey part. Abram definitely fit the bill where that was concerned.
But what about all the crazy things I had seen? I couldn’t ignore them. Like it or not, I couldn’t explain half of the things that had happened to me since I returned to New Haven. But magic? Could that really be the answer?
My head was still swimming when I made it up Lulu’s walkway. It was after dark now, which technically made me a fugitive thanks to the town’s ridiculous ‘women only’ curfew.
Screw that. If I could deal with strange woods monsters, possessed witch prisoners, and a boyfriend who could throw me around in all the wrong (and right) ways, then this one-horse-town’s Barney Fife patrol was the least of my worries.
I heard the baby crying before I even settled in front of the doorway. The sound of his wails, haggard and tired as though they had been going on awhile, sent shivers down my spine. Something wasn’t right. When Jack cried, his mother dealt with it. She was freaking Super Woman.
Instantly, I thought of the fence, of the way Lulu freaked when she saw it was broken. It made sense now. If there were creepy kooky monsters doing creepy kooky things one hundred feet from where my kid slept at night, I would want to keep the fence up, too.
My entire body went cold as I fumbled through my purse for the key to the house.
“It’s okay, Jack. It’s gonna be okay,” I said, my hand shaking as the key found its way into the doorknob.
Of course, I couldn’t back that up. For all I knew, there could be an army of Conduits or weird wolf-monsters or hell, leprechauns, waiting to hijack me as soon as I walked through the door. And what could I do? I was a plus-sized model whose only knowledge of self-defense came from last winter’s ill-fated trend of designer combat boots.
Oh, that’s right. What was it Abram said? I had magic blood that could do spells or something. And apparently that meant my blood was in high demand. How refreshing. Whether it was true or not, it didn’t speak well for my safety, let alone my ability to save others.
God, please tell me I’m not considering it’s true.
As the door swung open, I saw the reality in Lulu’s home was a bit more ordinary in origin, though no less horrifying.
My friend lay on the floor of the foyer, her face pained and tense, a puddle circling her body. Her water had broken. She was in labor.
I ran to her, forgetting all my worries as I knelt beside her on the floor.
“Are you all right?” I asked as she did her breathing exercises. “How long have you been like this?”
“The phone,” she said through grunting breaths. “Get the phone.”
She was calmer than she had any right to be—definitely calmer than I would have been if my glorious ass was in the same position. Looking over, I saw her cell phone was out of reach. She mustn’t have been able to get Jack to bring it to her.
I lunged for it and was already dialing 9-1-1 before I realized I could have used my own phone without the dramatic dive into the living room.
I didn’t even let the operator finish her intro before I cut in. “My friend is in labor. I need you to get somebody to—”
This time she interrupted me, reciting the address.
“Yeah, that’s it. Hurry. I think she’s about to blow!”
Lulu crinkled her eyebrows. “About to blow? I’m not a whale, Charisse.”
“Forgive my lack of etiquette. I’m trying to get the morons to hurry,” I answered. Then, realizing I was still on the phone, I said, “Not you, 9-1-1 lady. You’re awesome. Just send someone.”
Ending the call, I flung the phone back onto the couch and joined Lulu at her side.
“Relax, please, Charisse,” she said, wincing. “People give birth at home all the time. It’s not—” She moaned, keeling over farther where she lay on the floor. “—life or death.”
“You look like you’re dying to me,” I said half-heartedly. Truth was, her pain terrified me, no matter how normal the Discovery Channel said this life event was.
“Thanks,” she muttered. Somehow, she was smiling between the bouts of pain, but it never lasted long. She seemed to only get a few seconds break between each of her moaning fits.
I think I was squeezing her hand tighter than she was squeezing mine. Man, those birth shows she was always watching had it all wrong!
“Do I need grab the sheets or boil some water or something?”
“That depends on if you’re trying to get stains out of my bedspread.” Lulu grunted. Obviously she was in pain, and obviously I wasn’t the type of person you wanted to bring with you to a medical emergency.