Free The Last Stand (Book 3) (The Repentant Demon Trilogy) by Samantha Johns

lot of people in that situation screen for genetic defects.  So now I know to make that baby blanket blue.”
     
    Cal and Abigail smiled comfortably, realizing they'd squeezed by that one.  Eventually, his past was going to come up in conversation, and since he didn't have one, it was going to require some thoughtful planning.  Mike knew, but he was the only one that knew about Cal's prior life—his life before being human.  They needed to invent a background for Cal, and then drill each other on the facts so that they could keep their story straight.
     
    “So, is it going to be Cal Junior?” asked Brady, “Short for Calvin, I guess?  Or, have you not decided yet.”
     
    Abigail again realized they couldn't tell them that it wasn’t his real name and that they wouldn't want to name the baby Calumnius—a demon's name.
     
    “Cal is short for Callahan,” he explained.  “My name's actually Reece Callahan, and I'm not crazy about either one.  We hadn't thought about it much as yet.
     
    “By the way,” he added, “Agent Foley arranged to have the van fixed, and I was supposed to drop it off tomorrow.  Maybe you could pick me up from there if you're going into town anyway.”
     
    “Sure,” she said to him, then she asked Uma, “What was my father's name… his real one, not Wolf-song,” laughed Abigail.
     
    “Jonah,” said Uma, “It was Jonah Aaron Kennedy.”
     
    “How amazing,” gasped Abigail, “Cal, how would you feel about naming the baby Jonah?”
     
    He smiled broadly and nodded in fond recognition of her favorite biblical obsession.  The tomb of Jonah she'd wanted so desperately to find as an archaeologist in Iraq.
     
    “If you kids don't stop making me cry,” joked Uma, wiping away tears of happiness, having assumed they were naming the baby after her dead husband.  “I'm going to have to ask Santa for a case of tissues.”
     
    *   *   *

Chapter 5.  Surprises—Good and Bad
     
    Abigail was thrilled to see the little peanut growing inside her.  Cal was mortified seated beside her, seeing the huge eyes, enormous head, and throbbing heart through layers of transparent tissue.
     
    “Is the baby deformed?” he gasped, to the immediate laughter of both Abigail and the ultra-sound technician. 
     
    Their response put his mind at ease, and he became mesmerized by the tiny moving creature on the screen—his son.  This was a miracle he had never dreamed could ever happen.  He, who had always abhorred inter-species mating, was now thrilled to love a human woman and to be blessed with a human child.  He thought about possibly having more since this was such a wonderful thing—this thing known as reproduction. 
     
    They went to an office and talked with Doctor Scott Cory, a man who seemed too young to be so qualified as the diplomas on his wall proclaimed.  He told them that everything was fine, that Abigail was in excellent health, and that she should take the vitamins he was handing her.  It felt good to have a professional opinion that verified her inherent conviction that this pregnancy was indeed happening.
     
    They left the clinic and drove by the McFarland place to get Uma and then were soon on their way into town.  Abigail did not want to overshadow the Christmas that the kids' parents were providing for them, and she didn't know them well enough to get the things they might have needed or wanted.  She only wanted to give each of them some little surprise to make the party more fun for kids.  Uma wanted to help too, because it was fun buying toys again after so long a time without any children in her life.
     
    “I want to buy a sweet little dress for the new baby,” said Abigail, “They are so thrilled to be having a girl after two boys.  Stephen is ten, and acts like he's much older. He seems a very serious boy.  I was thinking about a book; something about architecture.  I think he'd like it, just a feeling I have.  And his brother, who is eight, is