Mads stood in place, fidgeting lightly. “I—could you call?”
Nite sighed and pulled his phone out. He fished through all the numbers before calling the clinic. The tiny ringing buzzedin his ears as loudly as if it were near his own. His hearing had improved vastly since he’d discovered his new form.
“Hey, Doc—yeah, I’m not calling you that. You’re lucky I respect your degree. What was it in again, art history?” Nite gave Mads a telling look as Dr. Vans’s voice rose a few octaves to tell him in no certain terms about his very extensive, if slightly outdated, medical degree.
Nite interrupted him halfway through his spiel with a huff. “Fine,Esteemed Councilman Doctor Vans.” Nite closed his eyes as the doctor thanked him. “Your patient, Mads Penumbra, appears to be up the duff.”
Do what?Dr. Vans’s voice chirped through the line.
“He’s pregnant.”
It’s not mine.
“Nobody would make that connection in a thousand years, I promise you.” Nite rolled his eyes. “He wants to know if his current medication list is safe for pregnancy.”
Nite frowned as papers rustled on the other end. Muffled mutters eeked through.
“Yea? Okay.” Nite leaned over Mads’s pillbox and fished out a single pink pill from the last three days left in it. “And you’re calling something else in?”
Nite tapped his foot as he broke the pills in half and replaced each day with half a pill instead of a whole. “Gotcha. And that’s all you’re worried about?”
That about summed it up as Dr. Vans gave Nite a verbal dressing down and hung up.
“Safe now?”
“Yeah, he said most of these are perfectly safe. This one is debatable, but he didn’t think you needed to be on it much longer, anyway, so he’s weaning you off.” Nite put the last pill and a half back into the correct bottle in the cabinet. “Half a pill a day for the next week then every other day and then cold turkey.If you get to where you can’t sleep or start entertaining suicide—give him a call. But he wants you in right away, regardless.”
Mads huffed, tears stinging at his eyes, ones he refused to shed. It was like he got a second chance he didn’t deserve.
Marquis chose that moment to pop back in, and Mads slapped his med box over the test before dry-swallowing his pills. They were few and small, so it earned a half cough and nothing more. “Good timing.”
“Doc wants Mads in the office.” Nite gave Mads a hug before scooting off, muttering something about finding where Rex and his kid got off to.
“Hmm?” Marquis checked his phone and gestured for Mads to follow.
Mads kept trying to figure out how to tell Marquis, taking a breath before hesitating as they strode toward the garage and got into the car, Marquis opening the door for him. But such was Marquis that he never questioned Mads’s needs.
“What did Leroy want?” Mads folded his hands in his lap after hooking his seat belt. Marquis reversed from the garage, the door doing all it needed via some automatic sensors that Mads didn’t understand.
“We have to head out tomorrow. There’s a meeting of the humans we contract with.” Marquis made it off the estate and neighborhood to the main road. “They managed to get a good grip of them together, save for Midnite’s former captor. He met an unfortunate end.”
“Oh.” Mads didn’t know how to react. “Our doing?”
“Overdose. Wouldn’t stop wish.” Marquis shook his head. “We warned him. In humans, it causes strokes, not unlike what some opiates will do.”
Mads sneered. “Had I any awareness… I wish I could have stopped this, said something…”
“We all should have noticed. We’ve been dwindling in numberbeforethe rapture. We are unifying. Some good will come of it.” Marquis sighed heavily.
Mads rested a hand on the strap of his seat belt, fingers traversing the synthetic fibers. Perhaps, if everything went right, they’d be part of the solution to raising mage populations once more. The age-old tradition of having only two children had been hammered into them for so long. Lost in thought, he spoke aloud. “How many children do you wish to have?”
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel complete with only Rex, but I want more. A table full.” Marquis laughed.
“What size table? I’ve seen some very large ones.” Mads leaned against the door, cheeks aflame.
“My personal dining table seats six. I suppose four? We could always buy a bigger table.” Marquis shook his head, eyes not leaving the road.
As they pulled into the council headquarters to visit the infirmary beneath, Mads’s mind drifted off, praying they’d start that family sooner rather than later. It had to be. He’d gone through so much not to have his life back… “We’ll start with one, then.”
