Chapter 18

Brooklyn

The screaming, my God, would it ever end?

“Seriously,” Blythe growled between clenched teeth. “If one of you doesn’t shut him the fuck up, I’m going to levitate out of this bed and show him what pain really is!”

I watched as Nikolai finally took pity on his brother and put him out of his misery.

By knocking him out.

With his fist to Keifer’s temple.

“Nikolai!” both Blythe and I squeaked in outrage.

Nikolai blinked.

“What?” he asked, blinking owlishly.

My mouth opened and closed like a guppy.

“I think,” Skylar said, “that my sister-in-laws are upset over the fact that you cold clocked Keifer.”

Blythe and I nodded, but then Blythe’s stomach tightened as another contraction started to roll over her.

“It’s too soon,” she moaned, her arms banding tightly around her belly as she started to pant for breath.

I looked at Skylar.

Neither of us said what we were thinking.

It was incredibly too early for the babies to be born.

In fact, at this point in time, the babies may not survive.

We didn’t have the same capabilities as Dallas’ busiest hospital did.

If we were lucky, we could get the babies there in time.

Likely, though, we wouldn’t.

Although we were close by a dragon’s flight, we couldn’t just go flying up to the helicopter landing on the hospital’s roof and demand attention. Not after the last time we’d gotten fined out the ass and told not to ever do that again. Oh, and threatened with lethal force. That was a biggie, too.

We’d have to stay and hope for the best.

Pulling Nikolai to the side, I stared him in the eyes so he could read the seriousness in mine.

“Listen,” I said to him. “Drag him to that chair over there. Calm him down, and shut him up when he wakes up. Seriously, this is going to be quick and dirty; he needs to keep his shit together, okay?”

Nikolai nodded, and we both turned at the same time when a scream erupted from Blythe’s lips.

I patted him on his hand before I left, giving my full attention to Blythe.

Her eyes were scared, and she was looking at me with fear.

“It’ll be okay, best friend,” I whispered to her. “We’re mated to freakin’ dragon riders. Conditions couldn’t be any better than they are right now.”

She nodded, wanting to believe me, but I could tell she didn’t.

We both knew what happened to babies that were this early.

They were literally two months and a few days premature. That was eight weeks. That meant each baby was thirty-two weeks and three days. Full term was considered thirty-seven weeks, and they were five weeks shy of that. And to top that off, they were smaller because they were twins.

The lungs were what developed most fully during this time. Although everything was formed, the surfactant that made the lungs stay inflated wasn’t working efficiently yet.

That was the main worry.

There were others, of course, but the lungs were the main worry as of now.

We wouldn’t borrow trouble, however.

“We need to do a sonogram to see how the babies are positioned,” Skylar said to Blythe and me, completely ignoring the whole room of people.

Jean Luc and Ian were in the back of the room, partially closed off by a partition that blocked one room off from another as they watched over our newest sanctuary occupants.

The rest of them were in the living room/break room off of the main area where the patients were held.

Needless to say, there was a lot of commotion going on.

A groan from the seat beside the bed had Blythe’s attention moving to her mate while I brought the sonogram machine up to her bedside.

After a quick setup, Skylar took the wand and did her thing while I watched the screen anxiously.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the first baby was head down.

We’d worry about the second once the other one came out.

“Okay,” I said, my voice obviously portraying my relief. “Who do you want to check you?”

Her mouth pursed. “I guess, either way it goes, it’ll be uncomfortable. How about we just take turns? How about you first? It’ll make our friendship stronger.”

I laughed.

“Yeah,” I said. “Having my fingers up your hoo-hoo will make our relationship stronger, I’m sure of it.”

After donning gloves, I quickly checked her.

“You’re at nine centimeters,” I told her. Once done, I washed my hands and asked, “How long have you been in labor?”

She shrugged.

“About four hours now, I guess. At first, I wasn’t sure that it was for real. I’ve had a lot of lower back pain since I’ve found out I was pregnant, and it’s all lower back. Every bit of it.” She growled when the pain under question flared again, her face going tight with agony.

“Can you give her any drugs?” Keifer asked, his voice sounding much more like himself.

“I don’t have anything that I think is safe enough to give her that won’t affect the babies as well,” Skylar said. “I thought I’d have a few more weeks to get the things we’d need.”

“What don’t you have?” I asked worriedly.

“Anything,” Skylar admitted. “I have blankets and towels. But I don’t even have a suction bulb. It’s all on order, but it’s not set to arrive until a few weeks from now.”

I looked over at Nikolai.

“Can you make a trip to the store and get some things?” I asked.

He nodded, his eyes going to Keifer then back to me.

I saw the warning for what it was.

If he wasn’t there, Keifer very well might go a little crazy.

I nodded, letting him know I could handle his brother, and he left without another word.

“Isn’t he going to wait for what I tell him we need?” Skylar asked.

“I’ll tell him. It’ll be faster, just in case Blythe goes faster than either of us anticipates,” I told her.

She nodded, not questioning me or my decision, and went back to studying the monitor.

“I’m not a baby doctor,” she admitted. “I’m very rusty on what needs to be done, so you’ll have to help me. You’ve had training for this as well, and I’m going to depend on you to be the check to my balance, okay?”

And that’s how the next four hours went.

Nikolai arrived back in less than two, his arms filled with sterile packages that I wondered how the hell he’d found.

My guess was he’d gone up to the hospital and lifted it right from under their noses.

It was all hospital grade, and not one item looked to come from the grocery store, but a major medical supply chain that supplied hospitals with their supplies.

I didn’t bother asking, though.

I’d leave that for a later date.

“I think we’re ready to push,” Skylar said, fear leaking into her voice.

I reached down and grabbed her hand.

“We can do it,” I promised.

And we did.

We delivered the boy first, and the girl within five minutes after that.

However, nearly instantly we realized that they weren’t going to be okay.

Both of their lungs were very underdeveloped.

The boy was worse than the girl, and both babies were sitting in their father’s arms as they struggled to draw breath.

I was holding an oxygen mask over the girl, while Ian was doing the same for the boy.

“You’ll have to let me hold him. I can keep him here long enough for you to take me to the hospital,” Ian said, his voice serious.

I could tell Keifer didn’t want to let Ian have his child, but in the end he did what was best for the baby.

Keifer placed the small boy into Ian’s arms and took the tiny girl into his arms with the portable oxygen around her little face. We all started to walk to the dragons that were crowded around the compound’s hospital.

Even Angus, the little boy’s paired dragon, was there.

He was usually a lot more anti-social, but in this instance, he was every bit as concerned as everyone else.

And also the most useless. At least that’s what he was thinking.

Angus had suffered a loss the day Nikolai’s dad died.

Both dragon and King had gone down, and although the dragon hadn’t died like the king had, he might as well have.

He was useless with only one wing.

He was surly. Angry. And he hated anything that had to do with a Purist.

He was best by himself and didn’t make any excuses for his behavior.

Right then, though, I saw the devastation in his eyes as he watched Ian, Keifer, and Nikolai mount.

“Take care of them,” Keifer said.

My eyes widened as I looked back at Angus, whom the order had been directed to, and nearly smiled.

Angus, now full of a purpose, nodded his head in understanding and acknowledgment.

I will, my King.

Then they all took flight, and I watched with my heart in my throat as they took off with the future King of Dragons and his baby sister.