Seth retook his position beside David at Ami’s head and placed a hand on her shoulder. He met David’s gaze and saw the same dread reflected in his dark eyes that Seth felt himself.
He nodded to Dr. Kimiko.
Dr. Kimiko made a horizontal incision on Ami’s lower abdomen.
Ami stiffened and clutched Marcus’s hand so tightly her knuckles turned white. Pain contorted her features. Her breathing turned harsh. But she made no other sound, didn’t scream or moan, her ability to remain silent a holdover from the torture she had endured.
Marcus leaned so close to her their noses practically touched, maintaining eye contact. Seth overheard Marcus speaking to her mentally and knew Ami listened to every word, drawing what comfort she could from it.
Before Dr. Kimiko could make another incision, the first began to heal and seal itself. She met Seth’s gaze.
Steeling himself against the pain he knew he was about to inflict, he refocused his energy and used it to prevent Ami from healing. The temperature in the room rose a degree as David, then Zach, threw their energy into the mix.
Seth’s eyes burned as he felt Ami’s pain magnify tenfold.
Lisette, and everyone else present, cringed at the first whimper that escaped Ami. Another followed. And another. Then a moan.
She heard sniffles and could almost see the tears trailing down Ami’s pale temples.
Which was more painful, Lisette wondered: Being cut? Or Seth and David’s preventing Ami’s body from doing what it did naturally and healing itself?
Another whimper.
She feared it was the latter.
Ami cried out in agony.
Darnell leaned forward and buried his face in his hands, his bald, brown head gleaming in the overhead light. Closer to Ami than anyone else in the room, he was clearly terrified for her.
Tracy tightened her hold on Lisette’s hand. “Anything?” she whispered.
Lisette shook her head. Zach hadn’t said a word since the cesarean had begun, and Lisette didn’t dare distract him. She didn’t know how large a role he played.
Icy fear abruptly breezed through her like a winter wind.
Lisette stopped breathing.
Not her fear. Zach’s.
The babe isn’t breathing, he told her.
Lisette’s eyes burned as tears welled.
“What’s happening?” she heard Ami ask, voice trembling.
“What’s wrong?” Marcus asked in clipped tones. “Is the babe okay? Why isn’t she crying? Shouldn’t she be crying?”
“Roland. Sean,” Seth bit out.
Jenna turned her face into Richart’s chest. Richart wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
Tears slipped down cheeks as Marcus repeatedly asked about the babe, each question growing more frantic than the last.#p#分页标题#e#
Ami began to sob softly, her questions growing weaker.
“Roland,” Seth pressed.
“I’m trying,” Roland snapped.
“What’s happening?” Darnell asked, face still hidden in his hands. Like the other mortals present, he couldn’t hear the terse comments issued in the infirmary. He knew only that Ami’s cries had ended.
Lisette could barely swallow past the lump in her throat. “The babe isn’t breathing,” she whispered, almost afraid that saying it aloud would make the horror more real. “Roland is trying to help her. Sean, too, I think.”
Krysta buried her face in Étienne’s shirt. Étienne buried his in her hair and clutched her close.
Moments passed, so long and filled with tension that Lisette wanted to scream.
Then the high-pitched wail of an infant broke the silence.
Lisette’s breath escaped in a whoosh. Tears blurred her vision and spilled over her lashes.
Several others breathed sighs of relief. Heads dropped back against chairs.
Darnell raised his head, his eyes red and full of moisture.
“She’s okay,” Roland said in the infirmary, his voice full of relief and exuberance. “She’s okay. She’s breathing on her own now. She’s okay.”
“The baby’s breathing,” Lisette told Darnell and the others.
Some of the tension left the room.
Some, not all. They had yet to learn if the babe were infected with the virus.
“You hear that, Ami?” Marcus murmured, elation brightening his words. “She’s okay.” He laughed. “And listen to her work those lungs!”
Lisette smiled through her tears. The poor babe sounded pissed.
“Ami?” Marcus said, the jubilance draining from his voice. “Ami, sweetling?”
Everyone tensed.
“Ami?” Marcus called, his panic palpable. “Why isn’t she responding? What’s wrong with her?”
“Dr. Kimiko,” Seth said.
“Ami, can you hear me?” the doctor asked. In a lower voice, she said, “The incisions aren’t healing. Are you still blocking her regenerative capabilities?”