Accidental Surrogate

Accidental Surrogate Chapter 371-Unleashing the Flame

Ella

I fall into a little daze as I watch Hank work, as I hold my sleeping baby in my arms. It’s not that I’m not paying attention –

it’s just that…I don’t really understand what they’re doing or saying, so to me it’s all just quiet repetitive work.

I do pay attention, of course, when Hank deems Cora patched up enough to roll her over onto her side so that they can

perform an ultrasound. Cora gives a low moan when the nurses move her, a sound which at once pains me and gives me

a little thrill of hope. Because as much as I hate to hear my sister in pain –

Damn it, at least it means she’s alive. I watch carefully as the nurses hold her still, as Hank expertly spreads some clear

jelly on her stomach and then begins to search for a heartbeat. Then I bury my head in my hand a few moments later

when he finds it – a fast, faint fluttering of noise. My little niece or nephew, still fighting for life.

I drag my hand away from my face a moment later to see Hank nodding to his nurses and Cora lowered back on her belly.

Then, Hank turns to me, pulling off his gloves as he crosses the room and falls into a crouch so that we can be almost

face-to-face while I stay seated.

“You saw?” he asks, looking up at me a little from his lowered place on the floor. “Yes,” I reply, nodding sharply. “The baby

is alive, but – ”

“Right,” he says, glancing back towards Cora. “It’s – it’s not preferable, obviously, for a mother to be so gravely wounded

so early in a pregnancy. Frequently the body will decide…” he sighs and shakes his head, trying to come up with the right

words. He looks up at me as he finishes his thought, “the body will sometimes decide, Ella, to prioritize the mother.”

“So miscarriage…” I say, looking over at my sister.

“There’s a higher risk of it right now, yes. Ella,” he says again, his voice curious now, drawing my eyes back to him. “Did

Cora ever mention to you the possibility…”

going with this. “I can do it, Hank but,

my head, realizing that he’s not going to understand what I’m talking

God of Darkness. “As we were getting away they they bound my gift and my wolf,” I say, giving

the car,

Hank says, his eyebrows going up in surprise. “So you can –

wounds like that -”

Hank suddenly, a little disturbed by his curiosity about the gift when we

sister. What, really, is he asking me

his hands up in a little plea for forgiveness. “I’m I’m just a doctor, Ella.

able to wield medicine like

out a little sigh and nod, my eyes moving back to Cora, wanting

at Cora himself. “It would help Cora, and the baby, a

know a lot about wolf biology, but not a lot about the religion or the

around this? Perhaps one of the priestesses of the Goddess, your mother? Could

her? Ask for her

eyes flash to him suddenly as I realize that

idea, Hank,” I say, getting quickly to my feet and looking around the room. “Can I

please?”

to the computer and the phone in the corner of the

glances back towards Cora now. “I’m going to run some tests,”

update each other,

to the little computer in the

of the temple in the center of our city, hopping to hell the priestesses there

something to help.

Sinclair

in front of him, his

and turning away as the fire burns

but burning out before it gets deep enough to actually

into one of pain as I turn my

of my neck – a deep and searing

behind me likewise taking the brunt of the flame, I turn back to

back

do it again,” the priest says, his teeth gritted as he glares at us. “I will burn you until your charred skeletons

are left -”

him. “Or else

– frustration, I think, in being caught out. Roger, understanding my point,

to prowl forward