Be Still My Vampire Heart(42)

 

Connor rushed in from the parlor, his claymore drawn, while at the same time, Ian dashed in from the kitchen.

 

"Och, 'tis you." Ian turned and headed back into the kitchen. "Ye should learn to call first."

 

Angus watched Connor sheathing his sword. "Why are ye here? Ye should be guarding Roman and Shanna."

 

Connor gave him an exasperated look. "They're here. Ye dinna show up for Mass, so we all came here to see you."

 

"Mass?" Angus winced. "I… forgot. I was busy."

 

"So we heard." Connor's mouth twitched. "Jean-Luc called about an hour ago with an interesting story."

 

"Bugger." Angus frowned. Now the teasing would begin. "I have some work to do upstairs."

 

"Angus, I can hear you," Roman shouted from the parlor. "Come on in."

 

Connor chuckled as Angus trudged toward the open double doors of the parlor. Three maroon couches surrounded three sides of a square coffee table. The fourth side was taken up with a huge wide-screen television that was turned off.

 

"Here's Angus," Connor announced as he entered the parlor. He strolled to the couch on the right where Gregori sat.

 

"What?" Gregori stared at Angus, dumbfounded. "What happened to his skirt?"

 

Connor cuffed Gregori on the head before sitting down.

 

"Ouch. See what I put up with, Father?" Gregori muttered to the elderly man on the middle couch.

 

"I shall pray for you," the priest answered, smiling. He stood and greeted Angus.

 

"Father Andrew." Angus bowed his head to the priest he recognized from Roman's wedding. "How are you?"

 

"My life has become much more interesting since the night I took Roman's confession."

 

Angus nodded, then noticed Shanna struggling to get up from the couch on the left. She was huge. As he watched Roman assist his pregnant wife to her feet, a memory flashed from long ago. Joy and pride on the birth of his three children. Worry and guilt over the labor his wife had endured. And then pain and betrayal when he'd tried to return to them after the Battle of Flodden Field. He'd felt sure his wife would understand his new undead status.

 

She had not. She'd forbidden him to ever see his children again. In anger, he'd disobeyed and watched them grow over the years. And watched them die. If he pursued Emma, wouldn't he be asking for that same pain and despair all over again? He would have to watch her die. If they had mortal children, using Roman's scientific technique, he would have to witness their deaths, too.

 

"Are you all right?" Roman asked quietly as he gave Angus a quick hug.

 

Angus noted the sharpening of Roman's eyes. Bugger. Roman could always see right through him. "Could we talk later?"

 

"Of course." Roman stepped aside for his wife.

 

"Angus, it's so good to see you." Shanna kissed his cheek.

 

"Ye're looking grand, lass."

 

She laughed. "More like mucho grande."

 

"She's about to pop," Gregori muttered, then winced when Connor elbowed him in the ribs.

 

"I feel like bursting." Shanna rubbed her enormous belly. "The baby's already dropped."

 

"We've decided to induce labor this Friday night." Roman guided her back to the couch.

 

"That way, we can be sure the Vamp doctors will be awake and ready."

 

"Ye have more than one doctor?" Angus asked as he rounded the middle couch to take a seat next to the priest.

 

"Two, just to be safe. I'm not taking any chances." Roman helped Shanna sit.

 

"You worry too much." She settled on the couch. "This baby is perfectly fine."

 

Roman sat beside her, frowning. "I've prepared a delivery room at Romatech. Just in case."

 

In case the bairn wasn't human? Angus could understand Roman's reluctance to have Shanna deliver in a mortal hospital.

 

Shanna shook her head. "I'm telling you, this baby is perfectly normal. It kicks me during the day as much as night."

 

"I agree," Father Andrew said. "I've been praying, and I have a very good feeling about this child."

 

"Thank you. Gregori's mother said the same thing." Shanna took Roman's hand and smiled at him. "And you know Radinka is never wrong."

 

Father Andrew turned toward Angus. "Roman has been telling me some fascinating things about you."

 

"All lies, for certain."

 

The priest smiled. "Then you weren't knighted for heroism during World War II?"

 

Angus shrugged. "That was over sixty years ago."