“If someone doesn’t get me a lemon in the next five minutes, everyone will suffer. A lot.”
“Jude, I love you. Which is why I can say you’re being just a little overdramatic.” One look at my face and Theo changed his tune. “But then again, you could say pregnancy is dramatic and you’re just getting into the groove.”
“Nice save.” I tried to sit up again. Halfway through the upward movement greasy waves of nausea rolled over me and I eased back down onto the pillow. Strands of black hair clung to my sweaty face and I closed my eyes, exhaling slowly. “Not as nice as that lemon would be right now, but nice.”
“Elizabeth will be here in a moment. No doubt she’ll have a lemon. And tea. And toast.” Theo turned over to face me, laying one hand over my still mostly flat stomach. If you looked close, you could see the smallest of bumps.
I know, because I checked. Every other day or so.
If anybody told me three months ago, that the week before Halloween, I’d be lying in bed with a man who absolutely adored me—even the crazy parts—I’d have asked them what the hell they were smoking. If they’d thrown in being pregnant, I would have punched them in their jaw. Then gone to the store and bought a dozen pregnancy tests and prayed for them all to be negative.
But that was before the Covenant.
In two weeks, I’d gone from being an orphan raised by nuns, to the latest in a long line of only daughters. Women charged with the protection and well-being of hundreds of people with unique powers. Some made flame burn for hours, while others called the wind to knock you flat on your ass. They were a group of people who came together over two-hundred years ago, bound by a prophecy. One with no past, lost in the present, will bring in the future, through gifts of both this world and the next.
And lucky me, I’d passed the job interview.
I’d sent Hart to a muddy, watery grave-literally. Unless something went crazy wrong, he’d stay under the Mississippi until the Final Judgment. Williams ruled the vampires of the city now and kept his distance as much as possible.
And I, Jude Magdalyn Henries, led the Covenant. Maybe I wasn’t terrific at it. But Gillian would be proud.
All things considered, I think I came out with a pretty good deal.
“I’m going to kill her.” I didn’t throw the phone across the room like I wanted to, but instead, set it down gently on the coffee table. I took a deep breath and held it for a long moment before releasing it. “I’ll just have to owe Williams another favor.”
 “That would put you at owing him three times, which is three times too many.” Theo slid the phone out of my reach. I’d already thrown two phones this month, so I didn’t begrudge him the action. “What exactly did Danie do this time?”
It’d been almost a month since Williams had shown up in the foyer and left his niece—Hart’s daughter—in my care. Not that I really wanted her here or that she wanted to be here. Things were just getting back to normal after the terror of Halloween, after darting around the city trying to find Hart’s other psychopathic brother. Having Hart’s daughter under my roof made me more than a little uneasy, even though he was still at the bottom of the Mississippi.
I’d argued with Williams. Danie had argued with Williams. Even Mickeal, Williams’s second-in-command and currently stationed at the Crossroads, had argued with Williams. He refused to budge. And my conscience wouldn’t let me throw her out without a definite place to go.
So Danie stayed. And did her best to make all our lives a living hell.
“Shoplifting. Again.” I drummed my fingers over my stomach, then stopped when one of the bumps kicked a little. Theo and I still called them the bumps, even though it was starting to look like I’d swallowed a small beach ball. At the rate I was going, I’d be as big as a cow by the time I delivered in May. “Down at that tourist shop.”
“Which one? There’s only half a million or so.” Theo made a little circle motion with his finger and I gave him my back. I always seemed to have a knot between my shoulder blades these days. Whether it was from Danie or from the bumps, I couldn’t begin to guess.
“Voodoo Blues. The owner recognized her, so instead of calling the police, he let her go and called me. I’ll send Elizabeth down tomorrow to take care of it.”
“Have you ever thought about letting her get picked up by the police? Seeing if having the law come down on her would actually make her see how stupid she’s being?” Theo pressed a kiss against my bare shoulder. I shrugged half-heartedly, tapping my fingers on my knee.
“Maybe it would work. Or maybe she’d go nuts on them and then we’d have a serious problem.” Restless now, I stood up to pace in front of the fireplace. It was just now ten p.m. and most of the house had been up long enough to start getting into trouble. Any minute now, someone was going to knock on the parlor door and tell me they needed help with something.
I wasn’t psychic. It had happened often enough that it was a given.