"No message," the vampire groaned. "It's a sham. I'm supposed to go in and get what the Soul Eater wants. The other guy has his own instructions."

"What's that?" Max asked, something cold clenching in his guts.

Patrick looked at Bella, a crazed light coming to his eyes. His mouth parted in a sickening smile. "You're going to die. You know it. You should have let me stake you."

"Shut up." Max pressed the stake into Patrick's chest.

He didn't pay any attention to his imminent demise, his eyes still trained intensely on Bella. "You'll suffer. And you'll die. And you'll know you are powerless to protect your child."

"What?" Max looked to Bella for a denial. She backed away with her hand over her mouth.

This can't be happening. The last few weeks unspooled in his mind. The riddle was so obvious now that he knew the answer.

The vampire beneath him laughed. "You didn't know?"

He burned before he could scream.

Max grabbed Bella's arm and jerked her from the cottage, oblivious to her protests. He knew he should have investigated the room for more evidence. No, he didn't care they'd come all this way for nothing.

Once they were in the car, driving way too fast down the dirt road, he exploded.

"What the hell was he talking about? A kid? It sure as hell can't be mine!" The vehicle went airborne for a minute when they reached the road. For a second, he wasn't sure they wouldn't sail into the ditch.

Bella sobbed silently beside him. "It has to be! I have not been with anyone except you."

"Hate to burst your little lie bubble, but vampires aren't exactly fertile!" He gunned the engine to make it through a yellow light. "Meaning that can't be mine!"

"Well, how else would you explain it?" She pounded the dash with her fist. "I do not know how it happened. But it happened! And now the Oracle will take our child!"

"There is no child!" He clenched the steering wheel almost hard enough to snap it. "We're going back to Chicago. We'll get this all sorted out there."

She nodded, for once being reasonable. "You are right. We will leave. We will leave."

"Finally, something you say makes sense." They'd get as far away from the Oracle as Max could get them. As for Bella's story of how she got knocked up… well, they could figure that one out later.

He relaxed a little, settling back in his seat. Things would work out. Bella wouldn't die, they'd be finished with this Oracle business and everything would work out.

He saw the headlights of the car just before it hit them crumpling the passenger side and spinning them into a ditch.

Chapter Seventeen
Mother

"That's not possible," Nathan insisted, shaking his head. "If Bella were pregnant, wouldn't the baby end up—"