The Beast (Black Dagger Brotherhood #14) - J. R. Ward Page 0,169

speaking, but he had no clue what he was saying.

Something must have made sense—and been accurate—because Vishous said, “I swear, she deserves to die if she did this.”

Doc Jane turned to Vishous. “Can you help with these chains?”

“On it.”

Vishous stepped forward, removing the black leather glove on his hand. Reaching out, he clasped one of the lengths—and a brilliant glow gathered in his palm, heating the links, disintegrating them such that the weight fell free to the floor with a clank.

Assail rubbed his face as the Brother went around to each of the four points, releasing so much of the weight. The bands around the wrists and ankles stayed in place, but at least the heavy links were off.

When Vishous came back over, Assail said in a low tone, “Is he going to live?”

The Brother shook his head. “I have no idea.”

FIFTY-EIGHT

Qhuinn stood in the corner of the operating room, his eyes locked on Layla as Manny performed yet another internal exam on her, the male ducked in between her spread thighs, a sheet covering what was going on to preserve her privacy.

“It’s too soon…” Qhuinn shook head and tried to keep his voice down. “It’s too soon—this isn’t supposed to be happening now. Why is this—it’s not supposed to be happening. Jesus, this is too early. What the fuck—the ultrasound said it was okay.”

Not happening, his brain insisted. This had to be some kind of a dream.

Yup, any minute, he was going to wake up and find Blay next to him in their bedroom—and he was going to take that deep, relieved breath you got to suck in when you realized that the bogeyman who’d been terrorizing you was in fact nothing but a figment of your imagination. Or maybe a backed-up chili dog.

“Wake up,” he muttered. “Wake up now. Wake the fuck up…”

Blay was, in fact, beside him. But they were not horizontal, and they sure as fuck were not back up at the big house in their suite of rooms. His male was, however, supporting the shit out of him: the only thing keeping him standing was Blay’s strong arm was around his waist.

Manny retracted his hand from under the sheet and snapped off his bright blue glove. Then he got up and motioned for Qhuinn and Blay to come over to the bedside.

The fact that Layla was still conscious was testimony to how strong a female she was, but oh, God, she was pale. And there was so much blood, filling the pan under her bottom, scenting the air like a stain in the oxygen molecules themselves.

Manny put his hand on Layla’s shoulder and addressed her. “The bleeding is slowing. That’s good news. But now both of them are showing signs of fetal distress, with the boy’s heart rate beginning to fluctuate as well. Moreover, I remain particularly worried about the little girl, what with her being the smaller of the two of them. I strongly recommend that we do a Cesarean section—”

“But it’s too soon!” Layla looked at Qhuinn in a panic. “It’s too soon—”

Manny took the female’s hand. “Layla, you’ve got to listen to me. The babies are struggling—but more to the point, you are not going to make it unless we get them out.”

“I don’t care about me! You said that the bleeding is stopping—”

“It’s slowing. But we’re running out of time and I need you as strong as possible when I put you under.”

“I don’t care what you do to me! You need to keep them inside—”

Layla hitched a breath as another contraction hit her, and Qhuinn rubbed his face. Then he motioned for Manny to step away with him.

Lowering his voice, Qhuinn said, “What the fuck’s going on?”

Manny’s eyes were steady in the midst of all the panic, a harbor in the thrashing sea of emotions. “I’ve spoken with Havers. There’s nothing that can be done to keep the pregnancy going. On ultrasound, it’s obvious that the placenta is separating from the uterus. It’s exactly what happened to Beth—this is extremely common, especially with multiples, and the cause of most maternal and fetal deaths in your species. Layla hasn’t done anything wrong—she did everything right. But the bottom line is, the pregnancy is failing and we’re at the decision point where we need to save her life, and try to save theirs.”

There was a pause. And Qhuinn ran the words that had been spoken to him back and forth in his head. “What about their lungs? We need another couple of