"I don't know. I think he looks like a frog or something."
"Wulf!"
"Well, he does. Kind of."
"Dr. Lakis?" She waited until the doctor paused and looked at her. "Do you think the baby will..." She hesitated, unable to finish her sentence.
"Die like an Apollite?"
Cassandra nodded, her throat tight with apprehension.
Dr. Lakis's eyes were sympathetic. "I honestly don't know. We can run tests once he gets here and see, but genetics are a strange thing so there's really no way to predict."
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Cassandra forced herself to ask the other question she was desperate to have answered. "Is there a way you can tell if I'll live longer?"
"You already know the answer to that, Cassandra. I'm sorry. You are one of the lucky ones who has some human traits, but your genetics are strongly Apollite. The mere fact you're in the middle of a blood transfusion says it all."
Cassandra's eyes welled with tears as she felt the last of her hope dwindle.
"Isn't there something we can do?" Wulf asked.
"Her only chance to live longer is to turn Daimon and I somehow doubt you would allow her that option."
Cassandra clutched the picture of her baby as she wondered how Apollite he would be. Would he, too, be damned?
She didn't speak further while the doctor and nurse were in the room with them. It was only when she was alone with Wulf that she reached for him and held him close.
She held on to him tightly, afraid of tomorrow. Afraid of everything.
"It'll be okay, villkat," he whispered.
How she wished that were true. Still, she was glad he at least went through the motions of pretending they were a normal couple with normal concerns.
Someone knocked on the door.
Cassandra pulled away before Wulf went to answer it.
It was Phoebe. She ignored Wulf and moved to where Cassandra sat on the bed. "I thought you might want some fresh clothes."
Cassandra thanked her as Phoebe placed the bundle of clothes on the bed at her feet. "Have you heard anything from Urian?" she asked her sister.
Phoebe shook her head sadly. "But sometimes it takes a few days before he can talk to me. Sometimes a few months..."
Cassandra felt for her sister. She hadn't known Wulf very long and yet she couldn't imagine not being able to talk to him everyday. Not having him make her laugh at something he said. It must be much worse for her sister. "Why don't you live with him?"
Phoebe gave her a "duh" stare. "His father tried to kill me, Cassie. He knows what we"-she indicated herself and Cassandra-"look like. He would kill Urian if he ever caught us together."
Wulf moved to stand near Phoebe. "Since you're still alive and married, Apollo's lineage is safe, right?"
"No," Phoebe said wistfully. Her face was dark and sad. "Daimons can't have children. Like Dark-Hunters, we're walking dead. It's why I allowed my father and Cassie to think I was dead too. There was no need to make them even sadder about who and what I've become."
"Did it change you much?" Cassandra asked. "Is it like we always heard?"
"Yes and no. The craving for the kill is hard to resist. You have to be careful of the soul you take because a part of it blends with you too. I think it's different for Daimons who kill than for those like me."
"What do you mean 'those like you'?" Wulf asked.
"You're an Anaimikos Daimon," Cassandra said.