"I'm so sorry, I ... I just wanted you to wake up, I didn't mean to hurt you that bad."

Pallo grabbed my wrist. "Gwyneth, I told you to kill me. I am not mad at you for hitting me, I am mad that all you did was. .h.i.t me."

My stomach cramped again. I leaned forward and put my hand on Pallo's shoulder to steady myself. His hand moved around my waist and brushed past my stomach. He lifted my shirt up and looked at it.

"Gwyneth!"

Glancing down, I saw it was moving! Pallo put his hand on it and it settled down, then his gaze fell onto mine.

"James told me that you and Caleb were using protection."

What the h.e.l.l? Like I wanted to discuss my contraceptive choices with him.

Heat rose to my face. "Oh, he did, did he?" I wanted to smack James. I confided in him and he ran tattling to Pallo. I don't know why itsurprised me, but it did. I knew Pallo was his Master, but I never thought he'd betray my friendship.

"We are ... were ... I am," I said, coldly.

"What about when you were with Ken?"

I thought back to the day on the desk. No, Ken and I never used protection. I wasn't able to contract any STDs and pregnancy wasn't an option with Ken. He wasn't a match for me.

Pallo ran his hands over my stomach. "You are with child. I have known since I found you in Caleb's arms on the side of the road." His voice was flat.

I pulled back and looked at him. Was he was joking. I reached down and touched my stomach. b.u.t.terflies crept into my belly. He was right, Oh my G.o.d, he was right!

"This can't be ... I take birth control pills everyday, I take them, and I've felt sick ever since I started them, but I still take them."

Pallo touched my arm. "What do you mean, you feel sick?"

"Cold, the shakes, I thought it was the flu or a nasty side effect of the pills. I can't be pregnant. Caleb didn't..." I went to say that Caleb didn't glow the last time we'd had s.e.x but stopped. When a faerie was ready to fertilize an egg their eyes swirl and change color. It is a built in birth control. Caleb was having problems controlling his and mine at first, but lately he'd been doing just fine.

Pallo reached out to me. "Caleb didn't what?"

I shook my head. I didn't want to talk about this with him. I wouldn't talk about our s.e.x life with him. It would hurt Caleb too much. Not that Caleb's feelings should concern me. I hadn't seen or heard from him since my near death experience on the side of the highway. "Gwen, listen to me, you need to tell me what it is that you are thinking."

He never called me Gwen--this was serious. "I ... can't be pregnant." I looked down at my stomach. Dr. Brown had explained how a Si's gestation period worked to me. I would grow at faster rate than a human womanwould, but not this fast! Judging by my size I was guessing that I was far, but not that far along. Caleb and I had spent the day making love before he left to hunt the Enchantress, but I never noticed his eyes changing colors. Ken wasn't a match for me and Pallo was a vampire. As far as I knew they didn't produce children. It had to be Caleb's.

"Caleb," I said quickly. "He's going to want to know. He'll want to start planning, he'll want to...."

Pallo touched my arm. "I think the child is mine."

I stared at him and knew that my mouth had fallen open. "What?"

"I had to ask you about the others to be sure. Partly because I do not believe it myself." He looked away as he spoke to me. "When I found you in the dream, I sensed something different about you ... I..." His head slumped downwards. "I could smell you, you smelled of me, of my..." He didn't finish.

I wanted to hit him for saying such lies but I could feel the truth in his words. I thought back to the first dream I'd had with him on the altar. They had called me the vessel as he'd spilled his s.e.m.e.n in me. I thought about his black eyes as he bit down on my neck. My mind raced to our lovemaking during waking hours and how my eyes had burned.

My knees grew weak and I collapsed down onto the ground. Pallo was next to me in an instant trying to pick me up. I batted at him to get away from me. Reaching down, I touched my stomach.

"Is it a demon? Will it come out a vampire?"

I waited for him to say no, to tell me that what grew inside of me was a beautiful human child, but he didn't. He touched my stomach softly. "I do not know."

I cried and Pallo pulled me close to him. I let him. I didn't want to fight with him. It wasn't his fault this was happening to me. Whatever was going on was happening to us both.

Chapter 26.

I clung to Pallo for the longest time. He finally had to pull me off him.

He glanced up at the sky. I knew what he was thinking. Dawn was coming. I wanted to stay where we were until the events of the last few weeks made sense but Pallo didn't have that kind of time. I took his hand and let him guide me.

The walk back up to the house was quiet. Pallo and I held hands the entire time. We got back up to the porch and I stopped.

"I have to tell Caleb."

His grip on my hand tightened. "We have to tell Caleb." I didn't agree with that, but I didn't want to fight with him.

"Will you still marry him?" Pallo asked.

"What? I highly doubt that he's still going to want to get married.

Besides, I never had a chance to tell you, I called the whole thing off.

That's what set Caleb off that night. Even if that hadn't happened, I'm sure this would be too much, even for Caleb. Not many men are willing to marry a woman pregnant with another man's child."

Pallo smiled but it didn't look friendly. "Ah, I forget sometimes that you have little to no memories of your past with us."

I thought about what he was saying and then it hit me. This had happened before. I had lived with Giovanni for many years. He was the tall black haired vamp with tons of att.i.tude. It's because of Giovanni that I met Pallo. He was the son of a wealthy vineyard owner and still very human.

He and I fell in love at first sight. We spent many months together before he asked me to marry him and run away from Giovanni. I'd taken great pains to keep Pallo a secret from Giovanni because I knew what a monster he could be. I knew Giovanni would kill him and I refused toallow that to happen. I ran away and left Pallo, in an attempt to keep him safe. The saddest part of it all was that I knew I was with his child. Apparently, guilt had gotten the best of me, because I'd gone back to look for him. He was gone. I had nowhere left to go. Giovanni would kill me and the child for betraying him and Pallo was missing. So, I did the only thing I could think of, I went back to Caleb.

Caleb and I had been lovers at one time but I'd left him for Giovanni. He had every right to refuse me but he didn't. It started out as friendship.

He helped me plan for the child and look for Pallo. After months of waiting, rumors came back that Pallo was dead. I sought comfort in Caleb's arms. The love that had once been between us returned. Shortly after that, Pallo walked in on Caleb and me making love. He was furious and a monster. He'd gone looking for me at Giovanni's when I disappeared.

All he found was an angry master vampire.

Giovanni sired Pallo to get back at me. He knew I'd grown to hate his dark side and knew I would hate Pallo's as well. When Pallo returned to find Caleb and me, he took one look at my swollen belly and a.s.sumed the child was Caleb's. A fight broke out and I ended up being chased down a hall and then pinned to a wall by him. In the end, Pallo sent me fleeing from him to avoid hurting me. Somehow, I fell into the clutches of Giovanni again. My life and the child's life ended shortly after that.

I looked at Pallo and understood fully what he was talking about. Caleb had taken me into his bed and planned on marrying me once before, even though he knew full well the child I carried was Pallo's. However, last time around Caleb and I hadn't been matches. We were incapable of creating life together and he knew that. This time around, we were very capable of it and I knew he would be devastated if this child was Pallo's and not his.

"Gwyneth, do not look so sad. Once you were very happy to be with my child."

"It may not be your child. In fact, odds are pretty d.a.m.n good it's not.

Vampires don't produce children. The dead can't create life." I wanted to hit him. I wanted to hit anyone. I wasn't sure about the last part. I'd never looked into vampire fertility rates.

"You are correct, I have no doubt that your little Caleb has had ampleopportunity to give you this." He reached out and touched my stomach. I pushed his hand off me and opened the front door.

Caradoc and James were sitting in the living room staring at us as we walked in. I didn't need to ask if they overhead, they were vampires they had amazingly good hearing. Caradoc stared at Pallo and James stared at me with shock in his eyes. I thought I saw a flash of anger in them but I didn't stop to ask how he was taking it. At the moment, I didn't care.

I headed up the stairs. Pallo followed close behind me. I walked into my room and closed the door behind me. I'd hoped he'd take it for the sign that it was--I wanted to be alone. I pulled my jeans off. There was no way I was going to make it in those. I searched around my closet and decided on a long navy blue skirt and a white sweater. I grabbed my knee high black boots out of the closet and put them on.

Standing back, I looked at myself sideways in the mirror. My swollen belly stuck out enough to tell I was expecting and I looked horrible. My skin was so much paler than usual, and that wasn't saying much.

I headed towards the door and stopped before I opened it. I took a deep breath and went out. Pallo was leaning against the hallway wall. He gaze raked over me.

"Going somewhere?" he asked.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I am. I'm going for a drive to clear my head."

He stood in front of me. "No, you are staying here. You have not been dealing well with this pregnancy, you have been very sick. Driving around by yourself is not a wise decision, and it is not going to happen. Should I bring James up to remind you what your last drive around town nearly cost him?"

I began to argue and then stopped. It wasn't like me to back down from a fight. "You're right," I said. He looked shocked. "I won't go alone, I'll take Caradoc."

"No, I will go with you."

"You're the reason I need to think." I walked away from him and he grabbed my arm. I sucked my lip in because the arm he grabbed was the oneI'd cut on the tree branch. He pushed me, softly, back against the wall and put his face in front of mine.

"I will go with you." His mouth came down on mine. At first I kept my lips closed. My body grew warm from his touch. My inner thighs tightened.

I parted my lips and kissed him back. My body reacted to him. I wanted him, I'd always want him, and he knew it. I put my hand on his chest and pushed him back from me.

"We can't do this," I said. His hand slid down to my stomach. It was a very subtle way of saying we already did. "Pallo, I'll take Caradoc."

"No, I will accompany you or you will not go!"

My temper flared. "Who the h.e.l.l do you think you are? You don't own me. I will come and go as I please."

I slapped his face and headed off down the hall. I saw a black blur pa.s.s me. I headed down the stairs and ran right into Pallo. I'd forgotten how fast he could be when he wanted. He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back towards my room. "Get out of my way!" He picked me up. I tried kicking my feet in protest but it was useless. "I won't spend the rest of my life with a s.a.d.i.s.tic-dictating-vampire!"

He didn't put me down but he did stop. "I will not watch you walk out on me again. I drove you away to your death with our child in your womb once already. I will not let that happen again. I could not live with myself if something happened to you." He glanced down at my stomach. A wave of guilt swept over me. Pallo wasn't trying to hold me hostage. He was trying to protect me. The last time he'd watched me leave pregnant I never came back.

I touched his cheek. He pulled away from me. I'd hurt his feelings saying those nasty things to him. "I'm sorry, Pallo. I was just angry and I wanted to hurt you."

He carried me through my bedroom door. I tried to turn his head towardsme, but it wouldn't budge. "Pallo, please, I'm sorry...."

"I am not angry with you."

"Could've fooled me."

He set me down on the edge of the bed and took two steps back from me. I was hurt. "I do not trust myself around you." The s.e.xy expression on his face told me exactly what he didn't trust about himself.

That made me smile.

"So, if you don't trust yourself why bring me in here?" I lifted my arms and motioned around the bedroom.

Pallo's face twisted into a wicked little grin. "I am a hopeless fool."

He let out a long sigh. "I will make you a deal, you stay up here and rest and I will go down and have James fix you something to eat, then if you still want to go out for a drive I will take you myself, anywhere you want to go."

I looked up at him. "Sounds good, all except the part about sleeping ...

the psycho chanting robed guys show up every time I shut my eyes."

"No, they show up every time we shut our eyes. I will stay awake while you rest. I will send Caradoc up to watch over you as you sleep. When I return, I will sit with you myself. I will wake you if there are any signs of trouble."

"Why can't you just stay here with me now? I know that you can call the boys without leaving this room or opening your mouth."

A devilish smile played across his face. "Ah, I have been caught me. I want to make some calls regarding our dreams but I am very pleased to hear that you want me to stay with you."

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. What could I say? He was right. I moved up onto the bed and took my boots off. I slid under the covers and waited to hear Caradoc come in before I got too comfortable.

Chapter 27.

I woke to the smell of chicken. Opening my eyes, I found James standing near the edge of my bed with a tray of food. He gave me a big white grin and looked down at the tray.

"Chicken soup, crackers, and milk, for the mommy-to-be."

"Mmm ... smells great, and it's not from a can. I'm jealous."

James nodded his head to the side. "Boss-man thought you'd like it."

I turned quickly. Pallo was sitting on the bed next to me. "I didn't hear you come back in."

"You were very tired. Did you rest well?"

I reached up and took a cracker from the tray James was holding. "Yes, I did. In fact, I don't remember dreaming at all." I glanced out the window. It was still dark. I knew Pallo hadn't slept much during the day hours today. He'd been up and worried about me or worse yet, dreaming the same crazy dream as me.

"Why don't you get some sleep? I could watch over you, too," I said.

Pallo looked at James and then to me. "No, no you go and eat. James is becoming quite the domesticated one. Let him try out his skills on you."