[Echo]While Victor was getting ready for bed and Gray was getting ready for work, Neil and Lisa took the man from Victor’s office and put him in room eight. It was on the other side of the house. Lisa and I changed out the bedding while Neil took the man to the bathroom, undressed him, and cleaned him up. Neil carried the man back to the bed when he was cleaned up and put him under the sheets and blankets without any clothes on. I was startled by all of the tattoos on his body. I had never seen them in real life, but there were some characters on TV and in movies who had them. They made me curious. I really wanted to examine them all closer, but Lisa told me it was rude to stare at him while he was unconscious. Before they left me for the day, I went to give Victor and Gray kisses and hugs. I knew Victor wasn’t happy, but I wasn’t happy when he wouldn’t let me help him. Gray understood, and, even though he didn’t really like the idea either, he did what he could to give me the chance to help. With both of my husbands out of the house, in a sense, I was a lot freer to do what I wanted without having to explain myself. They loved me a lot, but they still thought of me as the girl I was a year ago sometimes. It was annoying and adorable at the same time. Victor let me know that there were four bags in the refrigerator with pieces of the monster they were hunting. He told me that people from each of our allies would be coming to get their part of it, so they could do whatever they needed to help with it. I told him I would make sure everyone got their piece. Our piece would wait in the fridge until Victor woke up again. After Gray left, I paced in the entryway. The doctor was supposed to be on his way from the pack hospital, but it had been a couple hours since Victor got the message that Trent was sending someone. It was as if none of them were taking the health of the man seriously. And, of course, I couldn’t do anything with my healing magic because the strain could be too much for the man. I put my hands over my stomach. We’d had a few visits with the pack hospital. It turned out that I would have a pregnancy like a human’s. They judged, by the size and progress of the baby, that I had gotten pregnant in early December or late November. I hoped the alcohol I drank on Solstice and New Year’s wouldn’t harm the baby.  They gave me a due date in the first week of September. Some days, I was tired, but I had been getting my energy back. I also stopped feeling sick. The doctor said it was because I was in the second trimester. It turned out that all of the rogue wolves around the house knew I was pregnant within the first three weeks, but didn’t feel it was their place to say anything. The pack wolves couldn’t scent it until I was closer to eight weeks along. Vampires didn’t smell it until four weeks, but Victor hadn’t recognized the change in my scent because, as I got healthier, my scent changed. Talia had left before I hit four weeks along with Phoebe. We were probably days away from someone who would tell us finding out by scent. I was glad it happened like it did. Though I hadn’t wanted to have a baby so early in our relationship, I was actually really happy. I hoped that the baby was Victor’s, but I would love it no matter whose baby it was. The buzzer rang and I dashed over to answer it. The doctor had arrived and I let him in. I opened the front door. Neil and Lisa came to stand with me. He was in a normal car, but, when he got out, he went to the trunk. I didn’t know why I had expected him to be in an ambulance or something like that. We went out to help him, but I knew Neil and Lisa wouldn’t let me carry anything heavy. Everyone was overprotective of me because of different reasons. The werewolves all assumed I was weaker and my pregnancy was higher risk because I would have a human pregnancy. I knew it was all out of love, so I tried not to be bothered by it. Lisa grabbed a bag while Neil took a box and a cooler out of the trunk. The doctor had a smaller bag with him. He turned to smile at me. “I’m Doctor Hastings. Alpha Trent sent me to look after the human. Sorry it took me so long. I had to research how to treat this and what else to look out for. It’s been a long time since I treated a human. Omega wolves may not be as resilient as other werewolves, but they aren’t as fragile as humans,” he said in a kind tone. “Please follow me, Doctor,” I replied. They all trailed after me as I led them into the house and up the stairs. I went to the man’s room and turned on the light. Back in the early fall, we had changed out all the dark window coverings in the upstairs bedrooms with the same lighter ones we had in the common areas of the house. It gave more light, but I wanted to make sure there was as much light as possible. Doctor Hastings went straight to the man and started looking him over. He frowned and shook his head. “This is going to be difficult. I should have been called in earlier and I shouldn’t have taken my time. This man is strong, but he’s beginning to weaken to the effects of hypovolemia,” he told us. “What can we do to help?” I asked. “We need to set up the I.V. and get him some blood and fluids. I brought O negative, since we didn’t know what his type was. Unless he’s a super rare type, that should do.” “There is more O negative in the freezer if you need it,” I offered. Doctor Hastings smiled. “Frozen blood might be okay for vampires to drink, but I don’t know how old that blood is and blood can break down if it is frozen for too long. Don’t worry, Mistress Nightshade, I have enough for now and someone will bring more blood as we need it.” I blushed. I didn’t know that. The blood should be fairly fresh, but I didn’t want the man to get hurt because I didn’t know. Stepping back, I watched as the werewolves worked together to put together a stand. The doctor put the bags on it and got the needle ready. He tied some rubber bands around the man’s arm, poked around in the bend of the man’s arm, and then frowned. “It’s been a long time since I did this. I should have brought a nurse,” he chuckled. “What’s the problem?” I asked. “Doctors don’t tend to start I.V.s. That tends to be a nurse’s job. I thought I would be able to handle it, but there’s not enough blood volume for me to find a vein and puncture it properly,” Doctor Hastings explained. “I can do that,” I replied. “Vampires and dhampyrs have very good instincts when it comes to veins and blood.” “This is a little different from feeding, Echo. Maybe we should call in a nurse,” Neil said. “I’m worried about that taking too long. Like I said, this man is weakening. If we don’t get started, I’m worried there might be irreparable damage.” “Let me try. I’ll just find the vein and we can mark it. You can put the needle in,” I insisted. He looked at me, then to the man in the bed. The doctor nodded and I went to the side of the bed. He handed me a marker. “I need you to find a nice sized vein and mark a couple inches of it so I know what direction the vein is running in.” I nodded and started examining the man’s arm. My finger traced over his skin and I saw some goosebumps raise up on his skin. His body knew it was being touched by something that would eat him. It might not have known to react to the werewolves, but there was something about the chill of vampire and dhampyr skin that did that to people. Carefully, I marked out a vein that should do for what the doctor needed. I stepped back and handed him the marker. He sanitized the area and poked around where I marked. He shook his head. “I can’t feel it. I don’t like the idea of going in blind.” Exasperated, I pushed him aside and cleaned off my hands with a few of the alcohol wipes. I took the needle and put it into the vein in the man’s arm. When I turned back to the doctor, he was just barely starting back toward me. I’d done the vampire speed thing. It explained why no one tried to stop me. I moved away from the man and the doctor examined what I’d done. He didn’t say anything, but fiddled around with everything and taped tubes to the man’s arm. Once everything was connected, he started the bags flowing into the man’s arm. “Though I appreciate your help, Mistress Nightshade, never do that again.”“I am not going to make that man suffer more when I can help. If you have a problem with how I handle things in my home, I can contact Alpha Trent about getting a different doctor,” I replied coolly. “I was not the one who miscalculated what was needed.”He regarded me more seriously now. A lot of people saw me and didn’t realize I was capable of things. They thought of me as some sort of child. He needed to be reminded that I was the mistress of this territory in more than just name and he was in the seat of my power right now. We stared at each other for a while, but he looked away first. I turned back to the man in the bed, pulling the blankets up around him and trying to make him as comfortable as possible. There was nothing else I could do for him until he was awake. “I’ll monitor him, Mistress Nightshade.” “Alright,” I said. “I’ll come back with some lunch for you later. Feel free to visit our library, just have Lisa or Neil come in to watch over your patient.”  An hour later, we were visited by Elle, one of my friends from high school. She came to get the piece of the monster for the witch coven. They often used Terry or Elle for their in-person communications with us. The coven leader said it was because they were comfortable around us, but Elle said they were thinking of leaving the coven because people were treating them badly. They were saying that my friends were corrupted by the darkness of vampires. Ever since the curse situation, Elle and Terry had been questioning the coven and the coven leader. Especially after they found out she tried to engage her young daughter to my brother, Val. Elle smiled as I opened the door. She was always so fun to see. When I met her, her hair was blue, but now it was a vibrant purple. She had several piercings and told me she was thinking of getting a tattoo. Now that I had seen some in real life, I was interested in seeing what she was planning to do. “I’m here to get the thing your vampire got from the creature last night,” Elle said as she followed me into the house. “So no social call?” I asked with a laugh. “Honestly, I am so tired of our coven leader and her band of mean girl rejects. It’s like I never left high school,” she groaned. I sighed. Some people did crappy things with power. I knew that from how my fake parents treated me. I also knew some people could do amazing things with it. Like Bellamy. I looked up to her a lot. “Why don’t you leave, though?” I asked. “Because I’m pretty sure Mrs. Layton would forbid my family from being part of my life. Terry and I want our families around. We just have to deal with it and hope her daughter is a better leader when she grows up,” Elle replied. “Could you join the Eaten Heart Collective? It might be okay, since the coven is allied with them.” She looked thoughtful, then nodded a little. “You know, I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll talk to Terry about it. She couldn’t disapprove of that move.” We went into the kitchen and I got one of the bags from the fridge for her. Elle scrunched her nose up at it. I agreed, it looked gross. Before she left, Elle gave me a hug. I’d see her again for Sean’s game night. I came in for a couple a month. Gray and Victor had agreed that it was important that I had time with friends. They ran a game that was just to play with me on those nights. I appreciated it. I went back to doing my chores and trying to entertain myself. Over the next few hours, the messenger for the fae and the werewolves came for their pieces. I made lunch for the doctor and took it to him. The man looked a little better, but I was sure it would be a while longer before he was awake.