Anna's Heir - Eve Newton
1
Annabelle
I take a deep breath as Aleister Shifts and lands on the bed in Gargoyle form, spreading his wings out over Xavier to stop the assault from the fireballs.
“Thank you,” I mouth to him and then my dad and Gregory burst into the room.
“What in the fucking hell is going on?” Dad thunders at me.
“Four Horsemen and me in one place equals Apocalypse and Xavi is giving birth. Help me?” I say as calmly as possible.
His eyes flick to Pestilence screaming on the bed as if he hadn’t noticed her yet and then shoves up his sleeves. “Right,” he says. “Right.”
“Mom and the baby okay?” I ask as he climbs onto the massive bed with Xavi.
“I sent them to Earth with the other men. They’ll be fine,” he says.
I nod, now that I know that I’m good to go. “Where do you want me?”
“Need this?” Hael interjects, thrusting her massive sword into my dad’s eyeline.
He raises an eyebrow and gives her a thorough, yet hasty once-over. When those furious blue eyes flick to mine, I know for a fact that he knows what she is.
“We will talk about that later,” he growls at me. “But no, thanks,” he adds to Hael. “All I need are these.” He snaps out a wicked looking set of claws and rips Xavi’s dress wide open. I flinch on her behalf, but she is past giving a flying fuck. She screams as the residence starts to burn to the ground around us.
I grab Elijah as the males hover in closer to us. “Please watch over Gregory,” I murmur.
He nods grimly, positioning himself in front of the human with determination. Then I forget all about them and focus completely on Xavi.
Her eyes lock with mine and I smile. “Everything is okay,” I tell her even though things couldn’t be less okay if they tried.
She shakes her head but doesn’t say anything as she focuses on my dad.
“Do it,” I say and grab hold of her legs.
“Where’s Killian?” Dad asks.
“Gone,” I say, feeling the stab in my heart. “He had to leave…”
Dad nods. “Elijah, come here. You’re going to have to hold her down.”
Elijah gives me a look to check and at my shrug, he ducks around Aleister, who appears to be holding up under the fire-shower. I reach out, pulling Gregory closer to me and the nightmare that is about to go down on the bed. Elijah throws himself over Xavi as Dad takes his wicked, poisonous ex-Devil claws and wastes absolutely no time in ripping Xavi’s abdomen open. I hold back the retch. I have absolutely no problem with disemboweling any fucker who looks at me wrong, but someone I love? Nopey nope. Xavi’s inhuman shriek echoes around the room, the only other sound is the crackle of the inferno. I grip her legs tighter and turn my face away. I wish I hadn’t though, because all I can see now is Sid. He is huddled in as close to Aleister as he can get, rocking slightly as his worst nightmare rages all around him.
“Fucking hurry up,” I growl to my dad.
He snarls back a response that I don’t even hear. I slam my eyes shut as he reaches into the cavity he has made. The sucking sound turns my stomach, the bile rising up.
I open them when I hear a plaintive wail to see my dad holding up a bloody, tiny human-looking infant that is kicking and thrashing. Gregory jumps closer, a white towel in his hands, which he wraps around the baby and holds her out to me. I shake my head. I can’t, not right now.
I scoot around to give Xavi a quick kiss. “You okay?” I ask, even though it is clear that she is not.
“Yeah,” she croaks out. “Congrats.”
I give her a weak smile. “Elijah. Take Xavi to the cabin in the Wastelands. The more Horseman we move out of Hell right now the better. Maybe the Apocalypse will stop or at least it will slow it the fuck down.”
“Dad, thanks for your help. Go to Mom and your family, I’ve got this.”
“Are you sure?” he asks earnestly.
I nod back steadily.
He squeezes my shoulder, a look of pride on his face as he quickly kisses the top of my head.
“Hael, take the baby and follow me. The rest of you, meet me in the cavern where we defeated Lucifer.” I grab hold of Gregory after he has handed the baby to Hael and flame out with him as my home burns