“I said the ritual words to bind us without your consent.”
“Males do so all the time, Gabriel. It is the way of our people and has been so for thousands of years. You have not done anything so unforgivable. This situation is difficult for both of us.”
He dropped his arms and swung away from her. “Why do you accept these things so easily, Francesca? Why do you not condemn me as you should? Your anger would go a long way toward…” He shoved his hand through his hair again. “There I go again, wanting it to be easy. I am selfish, sweetheart, very selfish, and I have tied you to me.”
“Gabriel? You are distraught. You have need of me?” The voice came unexpectedly, easily in his head. He fought with himself to keep his mind blank, to ensure that no information went toward that perfect voice. Lucian had always been able to command with his voice. He could make anyone believe anything with that voice. That weapon. Gabriel had never heard anything quite so beautiful. Lucian had retained that gift even when he had lost his soul for all eternity.
When Gabriel refused to respond, the laughter came, a taunt, almost lazy. It chilled Gabriel to the bone. He had to protect Francesca from Lucian’s wiles. His twin was cunning and smart. Ruthless. Merciless. Gabriel knew better than any other. He had seen him in action for two thousand years.
Francesca laid her hand on Gabriel’s arm. “You are trying to tell me something but you haven’t gotten there yet.”
“You are with child.” He stated the four words clearly, starkly.
Francesca’s enormous black eyes went wide with shock. “That cannot be. It is not so easy. Why do you think our race has bordered on the brink of extinction? Our women are able to bear children only every few hundred years. I am a healer. I studied this for many decades, determined to unlock the key to our bodies so that we could conceive more often and be more successful in the carrying. I had wished to be able to understand why we conceive males instead of females but I could not find the answers.” She shook her head. “No, this cannot be.”
“You know I speak the truth. I knew our women can only conceive every so many years, and that they manipulate that time, but I also knew the chances were very good that, as you had never conceived, you would be ripe to do so and I took full advantage of that.”
She stared up at him a moment in silence, in shock. “But I am a woman, a healer. You could never have done such a thing without my knowledge…” She trailed off as she pressed her hands to her flat stomach in a kind of wonder. “It cannot be so.” Even as she denied it, she closed her eyes and sought inside herself. There it was. The miracle of life. The thing she had longed for. Cried for. Wanted more than anything. The very thing she had given up ever having. Growing. Changing. Cells dividing. A child. She wanted to be upset. She had given up the idea several hundred years earlier. She was prepared to go to the next world. She was not prepared for such an event.
Francesca raised her head so that her eyes met his. “You really did this?”
“I would like to say I knew you wanted a child above all else. I had read that in your memories. I had also read your resignation and acceptance that you would not. I would like to tell you I did such a thing for you, or even more nobly, for a cause, for the continuation of our race, but the plain truth is much uglier than that. I did it so that I would not lose you. So that you would be tied to this world and not escape me into the next. Until Lucian is dead, I could not follow you. I did not want to be alone anymore. I acted out of selfishness. I changed the direction of your life inadvertently so many centuries ago and now I have deliberately changed it again.”