The first two sandwiches had gone to Teddy and Liam, who had been pulled away from their cartoons to eat at the table. By the time the boys had finished and run back to the television, the coffees were poured, three large stacks of sandwiches were ready, and everybody was drooling in anticipation. There had been a stampede to the table and silence had reigned as they ate. Now that silence was over, Allie thought as Tybo answered Sam’s question.

“The rogues we saved Allie and Liam from,” he told her, and gave her a brief rundown of what Allie had already told them as they all stood to carry their dishes to the sink for a quick rinse before setting them in the dishwasher. By the time the dishwasher was loaded and turned on and the group returned to the table, Mortimer’s wife was caught up enough to ask, “I am guessing Liam is the reason Stella left her sire and the others?”

“Yes,” Allie said solemnly. “To her, his existence seemed a miracle from God.”

“All babies are a miracle from God,” Tricia said softly, her gaze sliding to the door and the sounds coming from the television in the room across the hall.

Allie supposed that was true. Every baby seemed a miracle to those around them, but that wasn’t what she was talking about, so explained, “Yes, but it was different for Stella. You have to understand she thought she was dead. That she had died in that room and risen a vampire. By that reasoning, she couldn’t have become pregnant after the turn, but must have been pregnant when she was killed and turned. Yet her baby still lived and grew inside her dead body.”

“A baby would not have survived inside the mother during a turn,” Lucian said into the brief silence that followed.

“No, it would not have,” Magnus agreed. “Stella probably got pregnant in the first days or weeks after the worst of the turn finished.” Glancing to Allie, he explained, “Immortal females need to take in a lot of blood to prevent losing a pregnancy, and new turns need a lot of blood for the first while after they are turned. From what you said, it sounds as if Stella’s sire was ensuring she and her husband had a lot of blood after the turn. That would have allowed a fetus to grow without the nanos attacking it.”

Nanos again, Allie thought, but didn’t ask what those were. Lucian would just grump that she could ask her questions later.

“But Stella would have had to continue to consume copious amounts of blood throughout the pregnancy to ensure she kept the baby and carried it to term,” Sam pointed out now.

“Her sire told her that when he told her she was pregnant,” Allie said. “He apparently was the one who realized it first and revealed to Stella that she was with child. She had no idea until then. In fact, she didn’t really believe him when he first said it.”