Jonni was scared and she was in pain, which made it very hard to think clearly. She knew that DeMorrell was responsible for everything that had happened to her. He had trapped her in a woman's body. He had made her desire him sexually. He had wished that she would become pregnant by him just like his other captive woman. He had wished that Jonni would marry him and raise their children with him and never try to harm him or be unfaithful to him. She knew all these things objectively, but now that the moment was here and she was finally in labor, about to give birth to the children he had forced her to conceive, she wanted him by her side. His touch stirred something primal and female inside her, arousing her body and quieting her confused mind all at the same time. She needed him here to guide her through this, so where was he?
Another contraction rippled through her, a wave of liquid pain that began in her back, constricted her massivebelly, and ended between her legs. Jonni whimpered. She had never been in so much pain in all her life. Briefly gasping for breath, she gathered her strength and cried out, "Lucius! Lucius, where are you? I need you!"
"Calm down, Mrs. DeMorrell, everything will be fine, you'll see," the OB-GYN tried to comfort her, little realizing that she hated to be called Mrs. DeMorrell. Marrying Lucius had been his idea, part of his twisted little plan to make her the mother in his Happy Little Family of Evil. Still, if he was going to force her into the role of babymaker the least the bastard could do was be here when it was happening!
There were signs that the babies were coming all day, backache, minor contractions, and so on, but the doctor had initially thought it best to wait. It wasn't until well after her water broke and the contractions began in earnest that Jonni's maid, Lucia, had summoned two nurses and an orderly to take her away. It wasn't a long trip. Even amidst her agony, Jonni added on to her piecemeal mental map of the Maison D' Morrell. One elevator ride and a few long hallways. After all, what did they need with a hospital? DeMorrell's palatial home had a fully equipped medical suite left over from the days when he had been dangerously old and ill, hovering like a moth at Death's door. Now that the stone had made him young and vital and virile once more it had been a simple matter to wish it was re-outfitted for delivering the twins his unwilling young wife carried.
"We've already contacted him, Mrs. DeMorrell!" the doctor said with a trace of exasperation, "He'll be here as soon as he can, okay?"
Jonni bit her lip and nodded, afraid that if she spoke it would be one long unintelligible cry of fear and anguish. She hoped Lucius would get home soon. She couldn't do this alone. Little did she realize, she would have to. The doctor was providing her with a carefully rehearsed lie. Lucius could hear Jonni quite clearly. He was only just in the other room, a comfortably appointed reception area he had furnished for seeing important visitors back when his health had prevented him from leaving the grounds. Lucius was from a different time, a simpler, better time, he liked to think. He was from a generation that didn't require men to force smiles and wallow up to their elbows in women's business. The doctor, nurses, and orderlies were more than capable of seeing his wife through the childbirth process. Lucius was content to listen to her wails of discomfort as he persued a first printing of the The Castle of Otranto and sipped brandy. Once the messy part was over with, he would visit his wife, inspect the newborns, offer his congratulations, tell her how proud he was of her, and how she needed to get some rest, and then he would return to his solitary pursuits. Besides he had the stone in hand if it were necessary to avoid any complications to the birth with a well timed wish.
Lucius chuckled. His revenge upon Jack Merlin and his heirs would be nearly complete with the end of this day's business. Merlin's male heir and handpicked guardian of the stone had been easily captured, completely unmanned, and amusingly reshaped into a more pleasing vessel with which DeMorrell could entertain himself. She had conceived by him and forced to wed him. Now Merlin's own bloodline was inextricably bound up with that of the far nobler and more powerful DeMorrells. Jonni would be an attentive mother and a compliant wife, a buxom bit of fluff to parade around at important functions and a pleasing bedmate to reimpregnate when the time was right, that time, of course, being when she asked for him to give her a child again. That was when his revenge would be complete, even if it was nearly so now, the day Merlin's spawn willingly came to his bed of her own free will and filled herself with his seed.
DeMorrell smiled, his fist clenched hard, imagining it was Jack Merlin's neck in his crushing grasp. It was all so perfect, but the bastard had to go and die under his guards' guns before he could know true suffering, true degradation, true defeat! He hissed the words passionately, little realizing what he was saying, "I only wish Jack was here right now to see what has become of his successor! I wish the man could live just one more day to know how utterly I have destroyed him!"
DeMorrell's eye stung and he flinched away from the page he was reading for a brief second. It was only then that he realized what he had done! He still had the stone in his hand!
