Free Turning Night by Viola Grace Page B

up to the door, ringing the bell and waiting.
    A woman with huge pansy-coloured eyes and midnight hair opened the door a crack. She sniffed slightly.
    Max extended the card to her. “Raila, my name is Max, and your brother sent me. This is Raven and this is Hellebore.”
    It wasn’t the right situation to stand on ceremony. Max could smell her fear. She could also smell something else and hear another adult heartbeat.
    “Raila, are you alone?”
    As silently as she could, Raila moved the chain lock from the door. “Of course. Without Rithak here, who else could possibly be here?”
    Damn. Max moved fast and slid past Raila with as little disturbance as she could manage. She scented the air and followed the smell of damp leaves to the kitchen. The door slammed, and she hissed, running after her prey into the woods. He was hiding and she smelled fear.
    Hellebore called out, and Max abandoned her hunt. She used speed to return her to the house, and she locked up securely as she closed the door.
    “What is it, Hells?” Max spoke softly.
    Raven was next to Raila, holding her and with her other hand on the woman’s belly.
    Hellebore spoke softly. “Raila is in labour. That man was the father’s cousin. He was here to claim the child. He tricked her into drinking spiked tea, and it started her contractions.”
    Max nodded and swiftly locked the front door. It wouldn’t keep out a determined shifter but that is why Hellebore was here.
    “Can you sing us a ward?”
    “Warning only. I can’t put that kind of power into a place I don’t live.”
    “Anything is good. I will carry her upstairs.”
    Raven looked at her with amusement in her red eyes. “She is pregnant, not crippled. She can and should walk around as much as she is able. Gravity is a helpful tool for labour.”
    Max bit her lip. “I don’t know much, but I will help where I can.”
    Raven beckoned her over. “Get the supplies from the car. She doesn’t have a midwife, so I will do what I would under normal circumstances.”
    Max nodded and exited the house with all haste. She grabbed the duffels from the car and returned to the neatly appointed home before the door had finished swinging shut.
    Raven had been precise on the phone. A good medical kit, foil blankets, lots of gloves and gauze and plenty of canned soup and tea. Surprisingly, Anthony had had most of it on hand.
    Max locked the house again and followed the scent of human and panther up the stairs. Hellebore was still humming wards around all the doors and windows.
    Max hauled the food into the kitchen before she took the medical bag upstairs. Rithak had struck a nerve. With whatever caused vampirism in her bloodstream, she was well and truly out of the gene pool. A child with Gregori’s dark hair and darker eyes haunted her dreams, but it was just that, a haunt. It was the ghost of an idea that had started when her cousin Tabby had had her first child. Gregori had held her while she cried as the truth sank home. Abominations couldn’t have babies, nor could vampires. They might live fairly indefinitely together, but it would be them alone.
    Raila was pacing and Raven was prepping the bed. She discretely went into the bag and grabbed one of the thermal blankets, slipping it between the sheets and mattress. Max caught on that it was to minimize the mess. That she knew. Birth was a messy process.
    Raila came over to Max, sweat beading her brow. “Thank you for bringing the midwife. How did you know?”
    “It was a precaution. Rithak made it clear that you were very, very pregnant, and I am not equipped to handle a birth on the fly. That and Raven is a good friend. It was an excuse to hang out together.” Max was honest.
    “Well, thank you for having a friend who is incorruptible by charms. I was terrified that I would be stuck with Henhin and that he would steal my baby.” Raila flinched and gripped her belly. “Gotta walk.”
    “You keep walking. I can hear you anywhere in the