Incipient A Dark Paranormal Romance - Bianca Scardoni Page 0,5
to wipe the image from my brain. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“What’s the matter, Jemma? Are you afraid you’re finally going to lose Trace for good once he finds out I’m carrying his child?” If evil looks could kill, I would’ve been dead twice over with the one she was giving me. “We both know the kind of man he is. He’ll stand by my side and raise his baby with me.”
My hands balled into fists. “That’s not his baby, you no-brain-having psycho-witch from hell. It’s Lucifer’s!”
Nikki tossed her head back and laughed like I was the crazy one here. “It was Trace’s body. Trust me, it’s his baby.”
Anger broiling, I took a step toward her. “Are you insane? That isn’t the way this works, Nikki, and you know it. Lucifer was in control of his vessel. It’s not Trace’s baby.”
“Yes, it is!” she roared back, clearly in a deep state of denial.
“Do you know who this is?” I asked her as I grabbed War by his shirt and yanked him forward. “This is War, as in one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”
Her eyes darted from me to him and then back again. “And?”
“And don’t you think his timing is a little suspicious? Don’t you think it’s weird that he knew you were pregnant before you told anyone else? Use your head, Nikki. You’re carrying Lucifer’s baby, for god’s sake!” I shrieked, my panic steadily rising as she continued to look at me blank faced. “Just forget it. You need to come with me right now,” I said as I reached forward and grabbed her wrist. “We have to go to the Council. They’ll know what to do—”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said and ripped her arm free from my grasp, her eyes all but igniting into pools of orange fire.
Before I could even make sense of the literal flames swirling in her iris’s, Nikki pushed me back, sending me sailing clear off her front porch with the kind of power I’d never felt from her before.
“Come here again and it’ll be the last thing you ever do,” she warned and then slammed the door shut.
With my ass still planted on the floor, I looked back at War and groaned in pain. “What the fuck was that?”
Unfazed and unimpressed, he calmly strolled over to me and held out his hand. I grabbed a hold of it and let him pull me off the ground and back onto my feet.
“She’s feeding off the fetus’ power,” he informed, his eyes darkening into something that was void of any color. “And she will protect it at all costs.”
3. SIGN OF THE TIMES
The ride over to Temple was uncomfortable to say the least. Not only was my backside still aching from being tossed onto it by Nikki and her newfound power, but War’s earlier premonitions, or whatever you called them, were beginning to make a serious dent in my head. He was right about Nikki being pregnant, and he was right about the way she would react to me—the way she would protect her unborn child.
And I was petrified to my bones to find out what else he may be right about.
If the baby was already powerful enough for Nikki to feed off of, I could only imagine the strength it would have once it was actually born. The damage it could potentially do if it were to fall onto the wrong side of the line (as War was so grimly predicting).
Walking into Temple with a Horseman of the Apocalypse should have been a lot stranger to me than it was. Somehow along the way, I’d gotten used to a life that was anything but normal. Demons. Vampires. Hellgates. Spawns of Lucifer and all the joys that came with it were just another day in the life.
When the hell did that happen to me?
“We need to talk,” I announced as I waltzed into the Senior Magister’s office without knocking.
“Oh, Jemma. Yes. Of course,” said William, his hand gesturing for me to come in. “Please close the door behind yourself if you don’t mind.”
“Sure thing,” I said as I reached into the hallway and grabbed a hold of War’s barbarically big bicep and hauled him into the room with me.
William’s jaw all but hit the floor. He wasn’t even speaking, which was probably a first for him.
“William, this is War. As in one of the Four Horsemen. War, this is our Senior Magister.” I smiled at William’s shocked