Bled Dry (Vegas Vampires #3)(6)
Author: Erin McCarthy

See, this was what had gotten her in trouble in the first place. When he did that whole appearing out of the dark sexy thing, she couldn’t help but get a little excited. She should tell him no, but they did need to talk. “Fine. But knock on the front door instead of coming in my window this time.”

He relaxed, uncrossed his arms, and cupped her cheek, stroking across her skin. Brittany stared into his pale green eyes, taking comfort in the strength and determination she saw there.

“Our baby will be fine, I am convinced of it. This child is not a mutant, or an aberration, or an accident, but a child born of passion, and I am honored that you will be his mother.”

Now that was a sweet thing to say. Brittany felt some of the tension in her ease. “Thank you. And you really think everything is okay?”

“Absolutely.”

“I’ll see you later then.” Brittany left, feeling much better.

Corbin watched Brittany leave with Carrick and her sister, and stuck his hand in his hair.

Mon Dieu , his child was going to be born a mutant.

A freak of nature, a bloodsucking baby. This was not good. And he had lied to Brittany. This was not fine, this was not okay, this was a complete and total genetic nightmare, and yet again he was to blame for such an act of total stupidity.

Nearly thirty years of mortal life, two hundred as a vampire, and he had never once gotten a woman with child. That he did now, with an Impure half-vampire/half-mortal woman, was a strange and cruel irony. Of course, skipping birth control in a century when it was available at every turn for less than a cup of coffee, was inexcusable.

Corbin had made mistakes before. Grave and unfortunate mistakes that had left one woman dead and his work in question.

But he was so close to finding a cure for vampirism. Success was just a few tests away and now this. He was such an idiot.

Corbin called in the guard who was standing in the hallway. “I must leave for a few hours. Keep an eye on Ringo.”

The guard nodded even as Ringo said, “I don’t need a baby-sitter. I’m not going to leave.”

A determined but belligerent patient, Ringo had been dealing with the withdrawal symptoms fairly well, but Corbin knew drug lust drove vampires to desperate measures. He preferred having a guard keeping an eye on Ringo. Especially since part of Corbin’s own punishment was essentially doing whatever the current government wanted him to do in exchange for being allowed to continue his research. Carrick was the head of that current government and Corbin didn’t want to anger him and jeopardize his work. Of course, getting his sister-in-law with child probably hadn’t endeared Corbin to Ethan Carrick.

He was such an idiot. He just couldn’t say it enough.

“I know you are not going anywhere. You’re technically under house arrest. He is just here to see to your comfort until I return. If you like, I can ask Kelsey to come and keep you company.”

Ringo made a face. “I’m really not in the mood to listen to her babbling.”

“Fine. I will be back later this evening.” After he’d had time to gather his thoughts and mentally slap himself around a few times. After he’d had a chat with Brittany about how they were going to proceed, and how soon they could marry. He would not heap further mistakes on top of the first by allowing her to raise an illegitimate child alone. Of that he was certain.

“Take as long as you want. I get sick of you hovering over me all the time. You make me feel like a kid with a disappointed father, you know that? It’s freaking annoying.”

Corbin winced as he headed out the door. A father. Good Lord, he was going to be a father. To a mutant child.

It did not bear thinking on.

Instead, he would head to his lab, and he, Corbin Jean Michel Atelier, would fix this.

Eventually. Somehow. Maybe.

Three

“Okay, what was so important?” Brittany asked. She was exhausted, her stomach still hurt, and a giant pit of worry had lodged itself in her chest like indigestion that no Mylanta could cure.

Ethan had ushered her into his apartment and now he was pacing back and forth in front of the patio door. Alexis was biting her nail from her seat in a plaid easy chair.

“I want you to know that you are not the first.”

“The first what?” Woman to get knocked up from a one-night stand? Of course she wasn’t. That number could probably fill the UNLV stadium.

“The first to have a three-quarter vampire child. There was one before, that I know of. It was kept quiet, but I had personal knowledge of the situation.”

Uh-oh. This could get dicey. While her sister knew her husband had a past—a very long one—Brittany still didn’t think it was going to thrill Alexis to hear that Ethan had had a child with a mortal woman.

“Was the baby okay?” Regardless of Alexis’s feelings, she had to know.

“The baby was fine and was kept hidden from her father. I do not believe he has knowledge of her existence to this day.”

“You’re not the father?” Brittany asked in confusion.

Ethan looked startled. “No. Why would you think that?”

“Can we just start at the beginning, please?” Alexis asked. “Before I get pissed off that you’ve kept yet something else from me.”

“Alexis,” Ethan said with a look of forbearance. “I have nine hundred years of existence to account for. There hasn’t been time to tell you everything that’s happened to me, let alone to other people I’ve known.”

Brittany felt guilty. “Don’t fight, you guys, this is all my fault. I’m causing problems for everyone.” She felt close to tears again.

“This isn’t fighting,” Alexis said. “This is our form of communication. I get ticked, Ethan gets exasperated, we gripe at each other, then have sex. It works for us.”

Well, that was too much information about her sister’s marriage.

“Any way,” Brittany said. “So who was the mother and what happened?”

“The mother is my sister, Gwenna.”

Brittany had met Gwenna only once, at Ethan and Alexis’s wedding, and she had popped in, vampire style, said nothing to anyone, then left again. She had looked pale and fragile, and was a full vampire, not an Impure like Brittany was.

“I don’t understand. Gwenna is a vampire, right?”

“Yes. I turned her when she bled to death after giving birth to her daughter. This was the eleventh century, you know, and childbirth was a risky, nasty business.”

“I don’t think this is the beginning,” Alexis complained. “I had no clue Gwenna was an Impure. How was that possible if you weren’t an Impure?”