“Hell, no,” Allie said on a laugh. “I mean, sure, she was in terrible pain, but at one point, in that pain, she gouged grooves of skin out of my arms and I can’t count the number of times I had to warn her to let go of my hand or wrist because she was about to break the bone.” She shook her head at the memory. “I should have read up on childbirth. I had no idea it could be so gross. I mean, it wasn’t just the baby that came out, and when the pain was at its worst she started vomiting blood.”

Tricia was smiling wryly at this news, but Sam paled and whispered, “Oh, my.”

It made Allie suspect the woman hadn’t had children yet and she completely understood her distress. That experience had been enough to make her kind of glad she hadn’t had children herself and that she had Liam. Not that she still couldn’t have them, physically, but constantly being on the run with Liam wasn’t likely to lead to her meeting anyone she might want to have children of her own with.

“Liam was the most beautiful baby I’d ever seen when he finally showed up.” Allie smiled. “I insisted Stella stay with me for a while so that I could help look after him while she healed from the birth. She was seriously exhausted and pale by the time it was over. She was also incredibly cranky and basically ordered me to take the baby and leave her alone. I just thought that was the crankiness until she said I smelled like dinner to her and unless that’s what I wanted to be I should leave at once.” She grimaced at the memory. “Since her fangs were out, I took her at her word, scooped up little Liam, and hurried upstairs and then just paced around rocking him. It was probably fifteen minutes later that I heard the front door open and close. It was Stella leaving. I couldn’t believe she was up and about already, but she obviously needed blood, so I just continued to rock Liam. Stella returned a couple hours later and, I swear, looking at her, you wouldn’t believe she’d just been through what she had. She looked completely fine, her old self. Well, except that her stomach was completely flat again, and I know that wouldn’t happen with a mortal,” she added wryly.

“Immortals heal much more quickly than mortals,” Magnus explained solemnly.