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“My baby. Please help my baby!”
Her body hung suspended from the seat, her forehead bloody. The scent of human blood cut through Delilah’s urgent haze and she hissed, her fangs flashing.
More squawking wails screamed from the car seat. The baby looked about ten months old. His car seat faced the rear, but the airbags had pushed it out of place. The horn continued to blare.
She fumbled with the buckles, unable to free the baby.
“Come on,” she growled, panicking when the crying stopped, its little heartbeat hardly more than a murmur. “Unlock!”
Recalling that she had claws, she sliced through the belt and cradled the infant to her chest. He wasn’t’ breathing.
“Is he okay? Oh, God! Please help him!”
Delilah’s heart raced as she carefully maneuvered the baby out of the van. The blaring horn numbed her skull like the needle of a tattoo numbs the skin. She rushed the baby to the grass and lay his still body down.
“Come on, little guy. Breathe.” She loosened his tiny clothes.
“Delilah!”
Her fingers pressed over his chest and she detected the faintest beat of a heart. A shuddered breath pulled through her nostrils and Delilah wiped her eyes.
“Oh, God, Ethan.” The mom screamed over the blaring horn. “My Ethan. Is he okay? Oh, God. Help him. Please help him,” the mother frantically cried.
“Quiet,” Delilah snapped and the woman immediately silenced. The child was dying. She needed to think.
Tilting her head, she petted the soft side of his little cherub face. “No pain,” she whispered. “No pain.”
Lifting her palm to her lips, she bit into the plump curve of her thumb.
Pintura, no! You cannot!
She slammed down an impenetrable wall on her thoughts, blocking Christian’s intrusion into her mind. She became wholly focused on little Ethan. With absolute tenderness, she scooped the child off the grass and cradled his limp little body in her arms.
She brought her palm to his pale lips, her curled fingers soothing his soft brow. “Drink, baby.”
His precious mouth was turning blue. She dabbed a drop of blood over his tongue. The child’s mouth latched on and he pulled from her. Instinct drove her actions and sweet relief broke out of her in a sob when his heart beat back to life.
The more he pulled from her blood the stronger his suckling became. Translucent little eyelids pinkened and fluttered and he was looking up at Delilah with those precious baby blues.
She laughed through her tears. “There’s a big, strong boy. There you go.”
“Delilah, drop it!”
She jumped at the snap of Christian’s voice, her hand ripping from the baby’s mouth and tucking behind her back.
He stood by the door of the van, his fury radiating like a heatwave. Ethan’s mother who silently screamed her fear, and suddenly Delilah could hear the woman’s thoughts. Please don’t hurt him. Please. Please! Why, God? Why? Help my baby!
She saw what the woman saw. The blood. The fangs. The claws.
She wasn’t going to hurt the little guy. She just saved his life.
“Put the mortal back, pintura,” Christian ordered, ice in his tone.
Adriel stood stiffly observing the situation from several feet away.
Delilah kept her eyes on Christian as she pressed a kiss onto Ethan’s soft head. “You’re okay now.”
“Delilah, now!”
Ethan’s mother whimpered as she approached the car. “He’s okay. You can talk to him.”
A sob bellowed out of the mother. “Help me down so I can hold him.”
She set the baby down where there wasn’t shattered glass—
“That’s enough, Delilah. Go back to the carriage. Now.”
“Wait!” the woman screamed. “You can’t just leave me like this!”
She glanced from the woman to the baby. Christian closed a firm hand on her shoulder. “Now.”
“We have to get her down.”
“No. You need to do as I say.” Sirens wailed in the distance. “I’ll handle the rest.”
She didn’t want to leave until she knew everyone was safe. “Don’t hurt them—”
“Get in the carriage.” His tone turned threatening. “Now. My mother will take you home. Do not speak to anyone about this. Do you understand?”
“I just—”
“Do you understand?” he snapped and she jumped back, quickly nodding.
CHAPTER 23
When they arrived at the house the yard was flooded with animals. Cows had come from the field, and kittens and barn cats lolled in puddles of sunshine on the porch. A goat ate at the shrubs. Squirrels raced over the gutters and two fat gophers sat up like prairie dog gargoyles guarding the gardens.
“What in the world…?” Adriel whispered.
Baby geese waddled after their mother and Delilah gaped, certain this wasn’t normal.
It had something to do with her. She just knew it.
A cow eyed her with big brown eyes as she walked past. It stunk, and its tail swatted at flies as its mouth chewed a hefty swallow of grass. She ran her hand over its back and recognized the flower-like splotch of brown on her back.
“Hey, Cher, what are you doing all the way over here?”
