“Beck?” I called frantically, waving a hand in front of his face. His slackened expression and dead eyes weren’t the first signs that something was wrong, but they made me sure of it.

What had I done? What had we done?

“Wes!” I yelled across the way. He was there in an instant, looking almost as worried as I was. 

“Go get Milo. Dunno if I can get him back to the tower by myself. He’s...I dunno. Something’s wrong.”

Wes watched me for a moment, his eyes flicking over to Beck’s and then back to me. “Okay,” he said at last. “But be careful. I’m leaving Dan here with you just in case something happens.”

“Nothing will happen,” I tried to assure him, but before I could finish the words Beck was at my throat, fangs bared, hissing with carnal hunger. 

“Shit!” Dan cursed, lunging for the vampire. Beck’s teeth snapped just inches away from my neck when Dan tackled him, sending the three of us sprawling to the cold ground. 

Beck screamed, hissed, and howled like a hurting animal, flailing every which way as we tried to restrain him. Even with Dan and I’s alpha strength combined, it was a hard job. If this was Beck in his weakened state, I didn’t want to run up against him when he wasn’t starving.

“Get the others!” I screeched at Wes, who was already on the phone and gesticulating wildly. “Can’t hold him forever!”

I braced an arm over his torso and swung my legs over to straddle him. In any other situation, it might have been hot. But right now I wasn’t thinking about that. I just needed to keep him from hurting himself further. 

 “You didn’t bring any of that vamp juice with you?” Dan grunted, wrestling Beck’s kicking legs to the dirt. “It looks like he’s having a seizure or something!”

“How was I supposed to know?” I yelled back. I grabbed both of Beck’s hands that lashed out like claws and pinned them beneath me. My muscles strained against him, but I still had the upper hand.

“Beck!” I bellowed. I took a chance and looked deep into those dark, feral eyes. “Beck, it’s me. It’s Edison. You don’t have to do this. This isn’t you. We’re gonna get you some help, and…and…” My voice trailed off. And then what?

I didn’t actually know.

“They’re on their way,” Wes panted. “Hang in there.”

“Hang in there, Beck,” I panted back at him. He could kill me in a second with those razor sharp fangs. He could slice me open, leave me broken and bleeding. Yet here I was, holding him close with all my strength. Despite it all, this felt like the right thing to do.

And my gem agreed.

I remembered that night in the Brass Lantern Cafe. Remembered the look on his face, the emotion in his eyes. Remembered how responsive he’d been, how needy. And I remembered, too, how my gem had come alive that night, more so than it ever had before.

It had warmed and pulsed with light and life. Energy had zipped between us and filled the room with orange light, right at the moment of climax.

How could I have thought it was anything else?

“I’ve got you,” I breathed. I let my warmth surround him like a cocoon and closed my eyes. With any luck, we’d both come out of this alive.

When Milo and a doctor came rushing in minutes later (was it really only minutes?) they practically had to pry me away from him. Something within me, something from the deepest part of myself cried out to hold him and protect him at any cost. Like the drive to mate, but stronger. I didn’t just want to be here. I needed to be, keeping him safe while the worst of the hunger pains died away.

I watched in horror as they parked the ambulance near the lake and dragged out a stretcher. Dan groaned and let go when they got near, Wes helping him to his feet. Milo and the doc muttered among themselves, too fast to follow, but what I did hear chilled me more than the cold ever had.

“Worst I’ve seen…”

“Needs an infusion…”

“Critical.”

I followed the ambulance with Wes and Dan back to Koxerra. They wouldn’t let me ride with him, as much as I pleaded. Finally, they had to tell me that if I didn’t let them work he could very well die. That clicked something in my stubborn alpha brain, at least.

I’d only just found him, and the thought of losing him filled me with more dread than I could imagine. More terror than I felt when I lost my brother to the clutches of a gang. More guilt than I felt when I couldn’t rescue him. 

This time, I wouldn’t fail Beck.

I’d be the alpha, and the mate, he needed. 

Time passed in a blur and next thing I knew I was sitting in one of those god-awful hospital chairs waiting for the doctor to let me in to see Will. I paced the floor. I chewed my lip. I drank the muddy, watered down coffee that was only ever lukewarm. And I prayed. 

Never been a praying man, but today? I prayed.

To God, or Vecta, or whoever was out there, I poured out my thoughts. Please let him be okay. Please give me the chance to prove myself to him. To show him how beautiful, how worthy he is. To take away all those tears and fears. To love him.

Each word and thought reverberated deep in my soul, pushing outward and into the space around me. Papers fluttered in a sudden draft. The hair on the back of my neck pricked up. My skin broke out in gooseflesh.

Was it working?

All the while, the stone cried out for all the lost time. He was in there. I knew it. And I’d never wanted anyone so badly in my life. 

“Mr. Graham?” 

I looked up to see a man in a white coat standing there ushering me into the room. I leaped up from my seat so fast it made my head spin. Oh god.

I tried to read the man’s expression. Was he bringing me bad news? Good? Did he just have a question?

“Yes?” I said. I hadn’t spoken in so long, my voice cracked. Too dry.

“It wasn’t easy, but he’s in stable condition now. You can come see him if you wish.”

Pure, unfettered relief washed over me. My muscles relaxed for the first time in ages. I let out a long-held breath.

“He’s okay?” 

The doctor nodded. I saw when I drew closer that his name tag read Gideon H. Cromwell, VD.

“What’s VD?” I asked, pointing at his coat. 

He gave me a wide, pearly-white smile. “Vampire doctor. And yeah, it’s a thing.”

“Huh.” Learn something new every day. I followed him through the door and past a curtain. 

Dr. Cromwell stopped me right before we reached Beck’s bed. “We found something when we ran through our usual battery of tests. Not sure why it didn’t come up earlier, but we’ve been able to figure out why his body is rejecting the Synth.”

My hand tightened on the rail lining the wall. “What?”

“I don’t know if you were aware of this, Mr. Graham, and it is certainly unusual, but Beck is pregnant.”

I stared at him, mouth agape. The world ground to a halt around me. Wait...what? Did I hear that right?

“Pregnant?” I stammered finally. “Are you serious?”

“We were skeptical at first, but our resident OB/GYN just confirmed it. Beck’s carrying a little one, all right.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat as thoughts forced their way in at full speed. Beck. Pregnant. 

I didn’t even know if it was mine.

“Do you...” I chewed my lip and tried to form the words. “Do you know who the other father is?”

Dr. Cromwell’s eyebrows rose toward his forehead. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know...”

“Who’s is it?” I asked again, my voice shaking.

“Who else’s would it be? The kid’s yours, Mr. Graham.”

Mine. 

Papers fluttered around us like a distant breeze. My coat ruffled out behind me and the world seemed to stop there for that one precious moment. No windows here, though. Nowhere for a draft to get in. Only the growing force of the gem next to my body, thudding and awakening more strongly than I’d ever felt in my life.

Mine. My baby.

“I’m guessing from your reaction that it was...unplanned?” 

“Something like that,” I croaked. “I thought vampires couldn’t have children.” I didn’t want to believe it. Not yet. Not until I saw him.

“That’s the weird part. Vampire biology is different enough from humans. Not a very hospitable environment for a fetus. But if our tests are correct, he conceived before the transformation began. Does that sound about right to you?”

Of course. The memory of that single fated night flashed back to me in perfect clarity. The way he cried out against me when he came. The way the gem seemed to join both our souls in that pivotal moment of perfect pleasure. 

I’d used a condom, but...

“Yeah,” I said finally. “It does. Can I go see him?”

“Of course. He’ll be waking soon, and then we’ll be able to talk about your options.”

I swallowed. Options.

He made it sound so ominous. For me at least, there was no option about it.

Beck was carrying my child, and I’d kill anyone who tried to take that from me.

“I’ll give you some time alone with him. Be back in a few minutes.”

I walked through the final door, still in a bit of a daze. Then there he was. Beck lay on a hospital bed, skin nearly as pale as the starched linen sheets. A bag holding a dark crimson liquid hung over his bed and monitors beeped on a counter next to him. 

When I took a seat next to the bed and Dr. Cromwell closed the door behind us, Beck’s eyes fluttered open.

“Beck,” I breathed. I leaned forward in my chair, reaching out for his hand. I grabbed it in both of mine, not caring about his cold, clammy skin.

Beck blinked a few times. Yawned. Looked to me, the chair, and finally down to our clasped hands.

His mouth hung open in a silent ‘o’ of realization. 

“What happened?” 

Well, if that wasn’t a loaded question. I squeezed his hand and huffed out a breath. Where to even start?

“The doctor can explain to you in more detail what happened, but your body had a bad reaction to the synthetic blood. The Synth.”

“Yeah,” Beck shifted in bed up to a sitting position. I helped him stuff a few pillows behind his back. “Still feel like shit, too.”

“They’re gonna take good care of you here.”

“Where is here, exactly? Koxerra?” 

I nodded.

His eyes fully met mine for the first time since waking. Those warm red orbs no longer glowed with feral lust but something deeper. Something I’d noticed the first time we’d met. Even before, actually. The soft sadness in those eyes. The loneliness. The longing. 

“You didn’t leave.” Beck’s voice came out as a whisper. “You’re still here.”

Oh, my sweet omega... 

What had happened to him that he thought himself so worthless? Seeing him like this  sent a sharp pain straight through my heart. How could he not see his own value? How could he not see how much I wanted him?

“Of course not, darling. Why would I do that?”

I wanted to pepper him with kisses and affection. I wanted to hold him close to me until his tears dried. But most of all, I wanted him to finally believe he was worth something.

Beck watched me with skeptical, tear-laced eyes. “I tried to kill you.” He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Twice. You shouldn’t...We shouldn’t...” He broke off and looked away.

“I’m a monster,” he said at last. Beck wrapped his arms around himself and squeezed his eyes shut in a bitter grimace. “I’ll only hurt you.”

My face crumpled under those words. “No,” I breathed. I leapt up out of my chair and leaned over the bed, wrapping my arms around him. “No, sweetheart. No. You’re not. You didn’t choose this. And even if you did, you think that it would make me like you less?”

Beck stayed frozen, but the tension began to leave his limbs little by little. “I don’t think you understand,” he continued, burying his face in my shirt. “You could literally die. What if I can’t stop myself, and...”

“Shhh,” I soothed him, running a hand through his hair. “You’re forgetting one very important thing.”

“What’s that?” 

“I’m a Gemstone Guardian, Beck. Things trying to kill me are pretty much par for the course.”

That got a laugh out of him. A sobbing, choking laugh, but I’d take what I could get. “You’re crazy,” he said, shaking his head. But he didn’t let go of me. “Insane.” 

“Maybe,” I agreed, continuing to run a hand down his back. “But I know how I feel about you.”

This time he really did draw back enough to look me in the eye. The tears had gone, leaving shining trails in their wake. When I met his gaze this time there flickered the first beginnings of hope. 

“You really mean that?” Beck whispered. He slipped his hands down to link with my own. “I thought when you left me after we hooked up that was all I’d ever be to you.”

“I was an idiot,” I smiled. “Too afraid to see what was in front of me.”

“What about now?” He asked.

“I see you,” I said simply. “All of you. And I want us to give this another go, if you’ll have me.”

“I...” Beck started, fumbling for the words. “I don’t know, Ed.” He kept his arms wrapped around me, but there was that tension again. That fear. “If something happened, I don’t think I could forgive myself.”

I tilted his chin up to face me and planted a kiss on my omega’s lips. It was a quick, chaste peck, but even that simple contact sent blood racing to all the wrong places. “What am I gonna have to do to convince you that you’re perfect? I want you, Beck. All of you. Even the jagged edges.”

Beck swallowed visibly, his eyes heating up for only a fraction of a second before cooling once more. He’d been through more than any man should. Was it any wonder that he was bitter and hurting and afraid? I just knew, with all the Guardians past and present as my witness, that I would do whatever it took to make him whole again. 

“I may not be able to reverse the vampirism,” I started, the idea unraveling as I spoke. “But I can give you something else.”

“What?”

“Justice.”