When Serena thought back on the highlights of her life, she always found that there were too many to list. Sure, there had been a lot of tragedy, but the good things far outnumbered the bad.
The day she’d become a vampire was one of the best. So was the day she bonded with her mate, Wraith, an incubus who also happened to be a vampire. And the day Wraith’s brother Shade brought them Wraith’s infant son, born in the hospital run by Wraith and his brothers. It didn’t matter that Serena hadn’t given birth to Talon, who they affectionately called Stewie. He was her son, and she’d loved every minute of her seven years of motherhood.
She and Wraith hadn’t explained the circumstances of Stewie’s birth to him yet, but they needed to do it soon, before he figured it out on his own. His world—and his knowledge base—was expanding thanks to the friends he’d made at the special academy for underworlder children in Switzerland. The academy, hidden in plain sight in a Bern neighborhood, was easily accessible via Harrowgates, making it just a ten minute walk from their house in New York.
Humans—and more importantly, The Aegis, a demon-slaying organization that made no distinction between good underworld beings and evil ones—believed the academy was an elite boarding school for rich kids, and so far, it had been a good fit for Stewie. Shade and Runa’s triplets and Eidolon and Tayla’s son went there as well, and Lore and Idess’s son would start next year.
Right now, though, Idess was on her way over to drop off little Mace for Serena to watch while Idess and Lore enjoyed a night out.
In fact, when Serena heard the front door open, she thought it might be Idess, but a moment later Wraith’s booming voice echoed through the house.
“Hey, sexy vampiress, I’m home!” He swept into the kitchen where she was making Stewie a snack, looking like sin and sex in a tall, blond package. In three strides he crossed the room and swept her into his arms. “Hello, mate.”
She laughed and gave him a kiss. “You’re in a good mood.”
He grinned, flashing fangs, his blue eyes twinkling. “That’s because I cured cancer today.”
“You.” She raised a skeptical eyebrow. Wraith liked causing medical maladies. Fixing them wasn’t his thing. “You cured cancer.”
“Hell, yeah. It’s a rare form of lunecarcinoma that affects werebears.” He released her and propped his hip against the counter, his stance relaxed, but inside he was always coiled tight with deadly energy, ready to leap into danger at a moment’s notice. “I mean, I found a clove in Sheoul last year that Eidolon turned into a treatment. But I did the important part.” He shot her his patented roguish wink and smirk that had drawn her in from the moment she met him all those years ago in Egypt.
“Daddy?” Stewie’s dark head popped up from the table, where he’d had his face buried in twelfth-grade science books. At seven, he had the reading comprehension of a high school senior and the career focus of a thirty-year-old.
Wraith pushed off the counter toward his son. “Hey, little dude. I didn’t even see you there. You doing homework?”
Stewie ignored the question and blurted out one of his own. “You cured cancer? For real?”
“Yes, he did,” Serena said as she turned back to the Mini Chicken Gyros she was going to taste test on Stewie before she made a few dozen of them for Cara’s upcoming baby shower. “Aren’t you proud of him?”
Stewie’s head bobbed excitedly. “You gonna be a doctor now? Uncle Eidolon would let you, I bet. He says they always need help at the hospital.”
“No way, kiddo.” Wraith ruffled Stew’s hair playfully. “Someone’s gotta find all the rare stuff your uncle needs to heal patients.”
Disappointment practically leaked out of Stew’s pores as he slumped back in his seat. “I guess.”
Stewie had worshipped Eidolon practically from the moment he was born, and he wanted to follow in his uncle’s footsteps. Nothing would make him happier than seeing his father do the same.
Wraith didn’t seem to notice Stew’s change of mood as he reached into the pocket of his favorite worn leather jacket. “Hey, I got something cool. Tickets to Monster Mash & Demon Trash this weekend. All species of underworlders battling it out in over a dozen themed arenas. Awesome, huh?”
Serena huffed, hands on her hips. “I thought we were going to talk about this first. You know I don’t like the violence.”
“Most of the time no one dies,” Wraith protested. “And it’s perfectly safe for spectators.”
“No thanks.” Stewie hunkered down with his books again. “Mom and Uncle Eidolon said I could watch a surgery this weekend.”
“Seriously?” Wraith shot her an accusatory look. “You think watching a bloody surgery is okay, but lion shifters versus Ragenor demons on an obstacle course is bad?”
Um...yes.
“The obstacle courses have moving, razor sharp blades, pools of lava, and bear traps.” She plated two gyros for Stewie and set aside the rest for Wraith and Mace. “The surgery Eidolon invited him to see is a minor outpatient procedure on a child, and E thought Stewie could comfort the boy.”
She felt Wraith’s heat on her back as he reached around her to snag a gyro. “Why would E do that?”
“To encourage Stewie’s interest in medicine.” She turned her head to give him a peck on the cheek. “Eidolon’s a doctor. It’s not like he’s teaching him how to be an assassin or something.”
Even the assassins in the family wouldn’t do that.
“Eidolon has his own kid to screw up,” Wraith muttered as he dipped his gyro into the bowl of tzatziki sauce she’d made earlier. “He needs to keep his surgical gloves off mine. Besides, Stewie is only seven. He’ll change his mind.”
“No I won’t,” Stew called out.
Wraith waggled his eyebrows at his son. “Just wait until your mom decides you’re old enough to go one on of our artifact hunts. It’s exciting. It’ll awaken your Indiana Jones spirit. You’ll see.”
Stewie rolled his eyes and looked back down at his books.
“Hey.” Serena held out the plate of gyros to Stewie. “Why don’t you take your snack to your room and clean it up before Mace gets here? I’ll bring you something to drink in a minute.”
Scowling, Stewie took the plate. “Why is he coming over? I don’t want to play with him. He’s a baby.”
“Listen to your mother.” Wraith palmed another gyro. “And your cousin is four. He’s not a baby.”
“He’s not my cousin.” Stewie slammed his book shut and shoved to his feet. “He’s my brother, and I hate him.”
“Stew!” Serena spun around from the cabinet she’d opened to get a cup. “That’s not nice. You don’t mean that.”
“Whatever,” Stewie muttered as he gathered his books and stormed out of the kitchen.
Wraith started after him, but Serena stopped him with a gentle grip on his forearm. “Let him go. I think he just needs time to process.”
“He’s known that Mace is his biological brother for a month.” Wraith frowned as he stared down the hall where Stew had gone. “He should have processed by now.”
She cringed as Stewie’s door slammed. He’d always had his father’s temper, but he’d never mistreated a door.
“He’s only seven,” she reminded Wraith. “I know he acts older in a lot of ways, but he is a child, and he figured out on his own that Mace is more than his cousin.”
Wraith sank heavily onto a barstool. “We explained how it happened when he asked us about it, though. He knows the whole thing about Lore being sterile. He said he understood.”
And what a fun conversation that had been. As a human, Serena had different ideas about parenting than Wraith, a sex demon did. She hadn’t been prepared for the rather frank way Wraith had explained how he, Shade, and Eidolon had, with their mates’ help, “hand-mixed some baby batter” so Idess could conceive.
“But it’s like he blames me for something.” Wraith looked down at the dermoire on his arm, a series of glyphs every Seminus demon was born with, Stewie included. “He acts like he hates me lately.”
Serena wanted to tell Wraith he was wrong, but Stewie had been acting out a lot since he’d found out that Mace was his brother. Everyone had assured her it was just a phase, and she had to believe that, because she hated seeing Wraith and Stewie in pain.
“He just needs time.” She tenderly pushed a lock of his shoulder-length hair back from his handsome face, loving how he leaned into her touch. “He feels like we betrayed him by not telling him. He’ll come around.”
Wraith again looked down the hall after Stew. “I hope you’re right,” he said, but the troubled expression on his face said he didn’t think she was.
* * * *
Wraith spent the next two days trying to convince Stewie to go to Monster Mash & Demon Trash with him, but his son was dead set on spending the day at the hospital with Eidolon.
What the hell? How had Stew not inherited Wraith’s adventurous gene? Instead he’d gotten Eidolon’s starched sense of duty, and the more Wraith tried to bond with him, the more he pulled away. Serena kept insisting that Wraith needed to back off and let Stew come around on his own, but Wraith wasn’t exactly known for his patience.
Maybe he needed a distraction.
He eyed Serena as she bent over to make the bed, and yep, there was the distraction he needed. Gaze locked on the way her faded jeans hugged her softly rounded backside and slender thighs, he moved toward her, his body hardening with every step.
Yes, he was a Seminus demon, a rare breed of incubus that required sex to survive like humans required oxygen. But with Serena, it wasn’t just sex he needed. He needed her. She’d saved his life in a million different ways. Hell, she saved his life every time she had sex with him.
Serena fluffed his pillow…the pillow he was going to use to brace her hips when he…oh, yeah, he could practically feel his fangs scraping over skin still sensitive from this morning.
They’d spent a lot of time in bed lately. Well, not any more than usual, but for some reason it felt like that was all they did when they were together.
He slowed, suddenly disturbed by that thought.
They used to hunt for artifacts together, but lately Serena had been spending time with Cara to help with the pending arrival of the baby.
She’d spent a lot of time helping to prepare for the baby.
He froze in his tracks, his objective forgotten. As a vampire, Serena couldn’t give birth. Did that bother her? Was that why she was with Cara so much when Stewie was at school?
Serena straightened and turned to him. “Wraith? Is everything okay?”
He blinked. “Yeah. Why?”
“Because I thought you were going to throw me down on the bed and ravage me.” She smiled, showing a pearly hint of her sexy fangs. She’d been a pretty badass human when he’d first set out to seduce her, but with vampire strength and speed, now she was like a superhero badass. So floofing hot. “But instead you’re standing there like a zombie. What’s going on?”
Oh, I was just wondering if maybe you resented the fact that you can’t have a baby.
Probably best not to just blurt that out. They definitely needed to talk, but maybe after they got out and did something. Something besides sex.
He’d probably just become the only Seminus demon in the history of incubi to have that thought.
“Wraith?” Serena prompted.
Think quick. “I changed my mind about meeting Thanatos and Regan for cocktails tonight.”
She blinked in surprise. “I thought you said Eidolon needed you to hunt down some sort of Oni relic.”
Screw Eidolon. He was trying to drag Stewie to the Dark Side. Okay, yeah, there were worse things his brother could do than foster Stewie’s interest in the medical profession, but Wraith felt like being petty. At least he admitted it. That had to count toward something, right? Like, maturity points.
He was totally next-level mature.
“E can wait until tomorrow,” he said. “We need to hang out with friends and be social.”
And how crazy was it that he considered Thanatos, the Horseman known as Death, to be a friend? His best friend, in fact. They’d hit it off from the beginning, and Regan and Serena had developed a close relationship, as well.
“Really?” Grinning, she checked her watch. “I’ll get Runa to watch Stewie.”
It only took them forty-five minutes to get in a playful quickie in the shower and drop Stew off with Shade and Runa. A few minutes after that, they took a Harrowgate that delivered them within two blocks of one of their favorite watering holes, a hard-to-find underground bar in Bruges. The place was dark, moody, and had the atmosphere of a Gothic tomb. Best of all, it was rarely packed with tourists.
Regan and Thanatos were already seated at a table near the back with a cheese and meat platter, and Thanatos, bless his apocalyptic heart, had a beer waiting for him. Regan had ordered a hard cider for Serena, earning a hug before they all sat down.
“It’s good to see you, man.” Thanatos, wearing a sweater the color of the Guinness in his hand, lifted his glass in salute. “Been awhile.”
“Wraith has been busy with work.” Serena palmed Wraith’s thigh under the table and gave him an affectionate squeeze. Her excitement at getting a night out told Wraith they needed to do this more often.
“Uh-huh.” Thanatos scoffed. “Wraith doesn’t work. He hunts treasure.”
Wraith knocked back half his beer. “No, it’s true. I cured cancer, in fact.” He smirked at Thanatos. “What have you done lately? Haunted cemeteries?”
The Horseman snorted. “Now I remember why it’s been awhile.”
Laughing, Regan took Thanatos’s hand. “He’s been teaching Logan how to ice fish.”
“I can’t wait until Amber is old enough,” Thanatos said. “Then we can all go fishing.”
“All?” Regan gave her mate a you’re delusional look. “I think ice fishing sounds like it would make for a wonderful father-offspring weekend.”
“While Mom spends quiet time binge-watching shows she’s missed,” Serena added.
Regan clinked glasses with Serena. “You said it, sister.”
“I think ice fishing sounds great.” Wraith wrapped his arm around Serena. “I mean, screw the fishing part. But warming up in a cold shanty with your mate? I can deal with that.”
“I’m with you,” Serena said, snuggling against him. “Fishing isn’t my thing, but I’d let you keep me warm.” She dragged a playful finger down the center of the Four Ponies of the Apocalypse T-shirt he liked to wear to taunt Thanatos. “I love it when you get all romantic.”
“Wraith?” Regan plucked a cube of cheese off the plate. “Romantic? Bullshit.”
“No, really, I am,” Wraith insisted. “Just last week I brought Serena a corrupt politician to eat.”
Serena nodded. “It was so sweet. When I was done, he told the loser to confess his sins to the public or Wraith would find him again.”
“Dude.” Than nodded approvingly. “That’s awesome.”
Regan just shook her head and signaled the bartender for another cider. “Romance is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.”
Serena took a sip of her drink. “What do you consider romantic?”
Regan appeared to think on that. Finally she said, “Sometimes Than puts the kids to bed, runs a bubble bath for me, and while I’m soaking he reads to me.”
That sounded super lame to Wraith, but Serena perked up.
“Reads? Like what?”
“Depends,” Regan said with a shrug. “Sometimes it’s something light and funny. Sometimes it’s one of the thousand accounts of the exploits of the Four Horsemen.”
Thanatos’s weird yellow eyes went heavy-lidded as he leaned back in his chair and eyed his mate like he was hungry and she was a steak. “Tell them your favorite reading material.”
Even in the shadowy darkness in the crypt-like atmosphere of the bar, Regan’s blush bloomed bright. “I like it when he gives me a glass of wine and reads a steamy romance.” She shot him a seductive smile. “I always know it’s romance novel night when he gives me red wine.”
“I like the way red wine turns your cheeks pink and makes you adventurous,” he purred.
“You think I’m not adventurous?”
“Oh, you’re game for anything.” Thanatos fed her a piece of cheese, placing it gently on her tongue. “But my bold warrior isn’t so bold with the dirty talk.”
Regan’s eyes sparked with the light of battle. “You’re asking for it now. I’ll take that as a challenge.”
“Good. Wanna go home and challenge me?”
That was a total eye-roller right there. “Are you two done?” Wraith asked.
Thanatos hid his smile in his glass. “Sorry. With two little ones we don’t get a lot of alone time.”
“Who’s watching the ponies while you’re here?” Serena asked, using the term Regan often used to refer to their kids.
“Cujo and the vampires,” Regan replied.
Between Thanatos’s vampire servants and Cujo, a hellhound given to their son Logan as a puppy, nothing was going to get near those kids.
“Cujo and the vampires, huh?” Wraith mused. “Sounds like a rock band.”
“You’re not wrong,” Thanatos muttered. “Thanks to Limos and her brilliant idea to give Logan a drums set for his birthday.”
“I can’t wait to pay her back,” Regan said. “As soon as Keilani is old enough, I’m getting her a tuba and a hellhound puppy that’ll howl when she plays it.”
Wraith had heard Cujo howl, and the sound was definitely an ear-splitter. Stewie had asked for a hellhound puppy for his birthday a couple of years ago, but even if Serena hadn’t put her foot down on that one, Cujo’s vocalizations—and his potential for eating people—had given Wraith second thoughts.
He ordered another beer, and they all sat around the table for the next couple of hours catching up and talking about Ares and Cara’s upcoming baby shower. Finally, when the bartender announced he’d be closing the joint, they drained their glasses and headed for a dark alley where Thanatos could gate them all home.
Wraith didn’t envy the Horsemen—their lives had been even more floofed up than Wraith’s, and they still had centuries of prophecy to deal with. But damn, their ability to open gates to anywhere was one Wraith would kill to have.
As they rounded the corner on their way to their usual spot, a group of people started toward them. To the casual observer, they appeared to be human.
But as the hair on Wraith’s neck stood up, he slowed, pulling Serena to a stop at the same time Than and Regan came to a halt.
The group of eleven underworlders, a mix of demons and shifters, if Wraith’s senses were working right, stopped a few yards away.
“Looks like we eat well tonight, friends,” the one in front said, and Regan barked out a laugh.
“You idiots chose the wrong people to floof with,” she said.
The lead idiot hissed, his mouth filling with sharp teeth. “You’re outnumbered, idiot.”
Wraith snorted. “That’s like telling the Avengers that they’re outnumbered.”
One of the creeps in the back of the pack snickered. “Yeah? And what Avenger are you?”
“Me? Not to brag, but I’m kind of invincible. You know, like Thor.” He looked over at Serena. “Right, babe?”
She gave him a thumbs’ up, and a “Sure, hon. Thor.”
He loved how she humored him.
Wraith gestured to Thanatos. “He’s Iron Man.”
Thanatos played along and skimmed his fingers across the crescent scar on his throat. Instantly a suit of armor clacked into place, covering him from head to toe. Wraith smirked at the uneasiness that filtered through the group of scumbags. An uneasiness that grew when the souls kept prisoner inside Thanatos’s armor began to writhe around his feet, shadowy wraiths that wanted out. That wanted to kill.
It was creepy as floof.
Casually, while the pack of idiots were focused on his inane Avengers talk, he palmed one of the blades at his hip with one hand and gestured to Serena with the other.
“She can shoot a bow like Hawkeye and move like Wasp.” He jerked his chin toward Regan. “She’s a professional demon slayer. The Black Widow of our group. And Iron Man, here? His name is Death. He’s literally Death. And I almost singlehandedly closed the gates of hell and saved the world. There might be fewer of us, but I promise, you are the ones who are outnumbered.”
Regan heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Do you realize that every time you meet someone new, you find a way to bring up the fact that you saved the world?”
“It’s true,” Than said, and Serena gave him an apologetic nod of agreement.
“What can I say?” Wraith asked with a shrug. “I need the adulation. My ego is fragile.”
“Shut up,” one of the newcomers growled, his voice becoming slurred as he and his toadies began to morph into their true, ugly-ass forms. “We don’t like our dinner to talk back to us.”
Oh, yeah, Wraith thought as he settled into a fighting stance.
This was gonna be fun.
* * * *
It had been a long time since Serena and Wraith had fought side-by-side against an enemy. Family life had kind of put a damper on some of their more intense adventures, so this...this was a throwback to their roots, a reminder of how they’d met, and how they’d fallen in love.
And as she crunched a flying roundhouse kick into the throat of one of their attackers, she wasn’t surprised to see Wraith peel away from the black-horned demon he’d just decked to back her up. In tandem, the way they practiced at the UGH gym, they took the bastard down. Wraith devastated the fang-toothed monster with a series of blows to the upper body as she spun, delivering sweeping kicks to soft spots and vulnerable joints in the demon’s legs.
Regan and Thanatos were working together as well, mowing through the group of scumbags with the ease of a freshly sharpened blade through grass. In less than three minutes, the four of them were standing in a circle, back to back, the enemies lying around them like broken sacks of grain.
“Well, that was fun. A little too easy, but fun,” Thanatos said, but his lips were turned down in a troubled frown that drew a scowl from Regan.
“What is it?” she asked.
The scorpion tattoo on Thanatos’s neck had come to life, its tail whipping around as if stinging him. “Something’s...wrong. The souls I released aren’t being gathered by griminions after their kills.”
Serena tried not to shiver, but the creepiness of Thanatos’s soul-killer gift weirded her out. Regan had told her that the shadowy souls would fly around until the Grim Reaper’s griminions came to collect them, which usually didn’t take more than a few seconds.
“Wait,” she said. “Didn’t you say earlier that the gates to Sheoul-gra are closed? Isn’t that where the souls are taken?”
Thanatos turned his intense yellow eyes on her, and if she wasn’t a friend, she would have shrunk back. “Yes,” his deep voice rumbled. “I’d forgotten about that. Dammit, Azagoth had better get his shit together.”
He turned back to the alleyway where the bodies of the dead demons were caving in on themselves, disintegrating into bubbling puddles before poofing into fine ash flakes. Within seconds, there would be no trace of them left at all.
Thanatos cursed as even the ash flakes fizzled out of existence. “Can we not go even a decade without a crisis? Floof it, I’d take even a couple of years.”
“What’s been going on?” Serena asked. She’d been so out of the loop lately.
Regan finished searching the alley for her throwing knives and tucked them into her purse. “There have been rumblings of a new coup planned against Revenant.”
“And there’s been a spate of angel assassinations, most of them Memitim,” Thanatos said. “Before the near-apocalypse a few years ago, we used to be able to go centuries at a time without large-scale incidents of demonic turmoil.”
“What’s different now?” Serena asked, turning to give a couple of drunk humans at the end of the alley a look that said they’d be smart to take another route. Wisely, they took her wordless advice.
Thanatos waited until the humans were gone and then turned his attention back to Serena, although, like Wraith, he never stopped watching for trouble. “My theory is that in the past, organized demonic activity didn’t have much of a point. Yes, Satan always had his minions out looking for ways to corrupt humans and recruit disenfranchised angels and commit general mayhem, but most high-level activity was ultimately done with the goal of starting the End of Days.”
“But we won,” Wraith said. “We floofing beat the Apocalypse. Satan is imprisoned.”
“Only for a thousand years,” Thanatos reminded him. “When he is loosed, the real End of Days will be upon us.”
An ominous silence settled over them like a shroud.
Then Regan laughed.
Thanatos leveled a flat look at his mate. “Armageddon amuses you?”
“No, I just think it’s funny how you go all medieval-sounding when you get angry or serious. All you’re missing is some thees and thous.”
“Thee end of the world is pretty serious,” Than muttered a little defensively.
Which Serena thought was funny. The guy was a seven-foot-tall warrior decked out in massive bone-plate armor and covered in 3-D tattoos depicting scenes of death, and he got as pouty as Stewie sometimes.
“Oh, come on,” Regan said. “We have plenty of time to prepare. Not to mention the fact that since we beat the prophesied demonic apocalypse, we only have to worry about the Biblical one. And the Horsemen fight for good in that one.”
“We might be on the side of good, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be good. Psychopaths make the best assassins, after all. When our Seals break, we may still become monsters.”
“Whoa, there, Debbie Downer,” Wraith drawled. “Nothing like doomsday talk to end a night, huh?”
“Oh, give me a break,” Serena teased. “You love this kind of thing.”
Wraith grinned. “Yeah.”
Thanatos cursed again, his eyes glowing eerily until Regan took his gauntleted hand. “I’m sure Azagoth will open Sheoul-gra to souls again soon. Try not to worry about it. Whatever the souls you released do now will not be your fault.”
Thanatos didn’t look mollified in the least.
“Hey,” Wraith said in a cheery voice Serena knew was meant to distract. “Why don’t we find a good breakfast joint? I know this restaurant in Hawaii that whips up some crazy good Spam omelets.”
“Another time, demon,” Thanatos said as he opened a gate to Wraith and Serena’s backyard in New York. “We’ll see you on Ares’s island on for the baby shower?”
“Of course,” Serena said. “We wouldn’t miss it.”
They said their goodbyes, and then Serena and Wraith stepped through the gate, which closed behind them.
“Well, that was an interesting evening,” she said as they mounted the steps to the back deck.
“Yeah. It was one of the more normal ones we’ve had with them.”
She laughed at the truth in that. Weirdness followed the Horsemen everywhere they went. “It’s still pretty early...want to hunt?”
“Don’t we have to pick up Stewie?” He held open the back door for her, and as she entered, she palmed his muscular chest and playfully dragged her hand down to the waistband of his jeans.
“Runa said she’d bring him home tomorrow. We have all night.”
“That’s what I love to hear.”
He scooped her up as if she weighed no more than a pint of cider and carried her through the house. He nuzzled her neck as he strode toward the bedroom, his fangs scraping her jugular possessively. Oh, she couldn’t wait to feel them sink deep.
“Thank you,” she whispered as he set her down next to the bed.
“For what?”
“For giving me a distraction.”
He pulled back and looked down her, puzzled. “A distraction?”
“From worrying about Stewie.” She kicked off her shoes. “I’ve been really freaked out about telling him the truth about his birth.”
“You worry too much. And it should be me thanking you.” His warm hands slid beneath her top and began a slow, torturous slide upward. His touch, gentle but commanding, was a sensual weapon that he wielded like a master. He could get her to do anything, and she would never complain about that.
She sighed as his fingers breached the fabric of her bra. “Mmm...for what?”
Dipping his head, he brushed his lips along the curve of her ear, his hot breath fanning her skin and making her shiver. “For being such a great mother to my son.”
She froze, unsure how to take that. Maybe she was being too sensitive, but something about the way he’d said that struck a nerve, and she jerked out of his grip.
“Excuse me? Stewie is my son too.”
“I know,” Wraith said, reaching for her again. “Now, if we can just get horizontal...”
For some reason, that just pissed her off. No, not for “some reason.” She knew exactly what had done it. He was dismissing her concerns, prioritizing sex over them. Sure, he was a sex demon, and he’d die without it, but she also knew when he was in desperate need and when he wasn’t.
Right now...he wasn’t.
“Wait.” She backed up, not ready to give in yet. This was too important and she was way too stressed about it. “Why did you say I’m a great mother to your son?”
He frowned. “You just said you were worried about how he’d react to the fact that you didn’t give birth to him.”
“But is that what you really think? That I’m just taking care of him because he’s yours and I’m mated to you?”
Outside the house, a truck rumbled by, filling the awkward silence until finally Wraith said, “It’s not that. It’s just that I noticed how much time you’ve spent with Cara. I thought maybe it’s because you can’t have a baby of your own.”
“Floofing excuse me?” she repeated, her temper hitting the flashpoint. “I’m spending time with Cara because she’s my friend. I don’t need to hang out with a pregnant lady because I have feelings of inadequacy or some shit.” She jammed her feet into her shoes. “I need to take a walk.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll be at Cara’s. You know, wishing I could be pregnant.”
“I didn’t mean it, Serena.”
She paused and blew out a long, calming breath. “I know.” She did. And she knew she was being irrational. And maybe, just maybe, he was on to something and she didn’t want to admit it. She wasn’t sure, but what she was sure of was that she needed a little time to think, and she couldn’t do it around him. “I just need some time alone. I’ll be fine. See you later.”
Before she could reconsider, she snagged her purse and got the hell out of there.
* * * *
Serena hadn’t come home last night.
Wraith had been forced to dose himself with the sexual suppressant drug that Eidolon had developed a while back, and then he’d prowled around the house for hours. Just as he was about to head to Ares’s island to bring her back, she’d texted.
I know you’re probably pacing around the house like a caged tiger, but I promise I’m fine. I’m not mad at you. I just needed to step back and think about things a little. Cara helped me get my head on straight. I’m going to return the favor and help her out today, but I’ll be home this evening. I can bring something home for dinner.
Tonight? Floof that. He wasn’t waiting until tonight to see her. He’d spent the early morning thinking about why she’d been so angry, and only when he put himself in her shoes—personal growth, floof, yeah had he realized why she might be so touchy about Wraith’s shit-poor choice of words. She was already worried about how Stewie would react to the truth of his birth, but then to have her fears of rejection reinforced by Wraith’s idiotic phrasing...yeah, he could see why she’d been hurt.
Usually when he floofed up, he made it better with charm and sex. But when he thought back to the bedroom and how it all started, it seemed like he might need to pull a new trick out of his bag of forgive me tactics.
Weird. He’d always thought sex could fix everything.
Son of a bitch, he was growing as a person, wasn’t he? And Shade said it would never happen. Asshole.
Shoving his personal revelations aside to revisit...never, he checked with Runa to make sure she could keep Stewie for a couple more hours, and then he headed to the neighborhood Harrowgate. Few knew about Ares and Cara’s Greek island, and even fewer could access it, but the Horseman had given his most trusted friends and allies the key to the island’s lone Harrowgate.
Wraith stepped out into the mid-afternoon sunshine, but before he even got to the main cobblestoned path leading to the mansion, Ares intercepted him, decked out in cargo shorts and a cheery green shirt that didn’t fool anyone into thinking he was an easygoing dude.
The guy’s Horseman name was War, and fittingly, he was built like a tank. His face was as hard as one as well, and Wraith knew that from experience.
“I wouldn’t.” Ares’s voice rumbled like the waves in the distance.
“Wouldn’t what?”
“Bother Serena.”
“Bother her?”
“You know what I mean, demon.” The sea breeze stirred Ares’s short, reddish-brown hair as he stopped in front of Wraith. “Our females are strong and independent. They come home when they want to.”
“Big words, man. But you know if the situation were reversed, you’d throw Cara over your shoulder and haul her back home.”
One massive shoulder rolled in a shrug. “I’d think about it,” he admitted. “And then I’d remember that every hellhound in existence would bite me if she told them to.” He sighed. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m guessing you floofed up big time. Right?”
“Maybe.”
“What did you do?”
“I said something that implied Serena was basically nothing but a babysitter for my kid.”
Ares winced. “Dude.”
Wraith swore he could actually feel Ares’s pity. The old Wraith would have gotten defensive and sarcastic and called him a horse’s ass. Personal Growth Wraith was going to listen to the ancient warrior and merely keep the sarcasm on deck in case of emergencies.
For a long moment, Ares stood there, his gaze turned inward. “I said something similar to my first wife, except she did give birth to our children. But I was an arrogant hardass and it was a different time, when a mother’s influence on boys was considered to contribute to softness.” He shook his head. “I was such a fool.”
Ares’s entire family had been killed by demons, and his sorrow radiated off him in waves, even though it had happened thousands of years ago. Wraith hadn’t believed pain could last that long, but now that he had a mate and son of his own, he no longer doubted.
“What did you do to make it up to her?”
Shame cast shadows in Ares’s eyes. “Nothing. So here’s what you do. Learn from my stupidity. Plan something nice for Serena. Something she won’t expect, that’s outside your comfort zone. Show her that without her, you wouldn’t have a family.” Wraith must have had a skeptical look on his face, because the Horseman snorted. “You kidding me, demon? I know you. She’d be fine without you, but without her? You’d be dead. I’m willing to bet that she’s the glue that holds all of you together, right?”
Wraith had never really thought about it like that before, but the horse’s ass had a point. Without her he wouldn’t be who he was...assuming he would even be alive. Either way, Shade and Runa would be raising his son. Serena was absolutely the reason Stewie was a stable, happy kid and the reason Wraith had a family at all.
“You’re right,” Wraith admitted with a shrug. “Had to happen sooner or later.”
Ares snorted again. “I’m always right.”
“I have a feeling Cara would disagree.”
“No,” Ares said, “she wouldn’t. Because we’re not going to tell her I said that.”
Wraith laughed. He’d known the Horsemen for years now, and it cracked him up that these warriors of legend and prophecy could take down entire armies...but they could be felled by a solitary female. No mystical armor was a defense against the love of a mate and the draw of family life.
The reminder was a welcome one for Personal Growth Wraith, and Ares’s advice was even more welcome.
Now it was time to turn that advice into action. Action Serena would never see coming, because while very little existed outside Wraith’s comfort zone, there was one thing he didn’t do. Ever.
He was going to cook.
* * * *
Butterflies stirred in Serena’s belly as she opened the front door.
But the moment she stepped into the house, the nervous butterflies turned ravenous as she was overcome by the incredible mingled aromas of chocolate and buttery seafood.
“Whatever you’re doing in the kitchen,” she called out, “it smells amazing. You must have picked up dinner at the Bits & Bites down the street.”
“Nope,” Wraith said, poking his head around the kitchen corner. “I cooked. No shit.”
Whoa. He never cooked. He could barely make a bowl of Top Ramen. “You...cooked.” She spoke as she walked down the hall. “All by yourself? No way.”
She rounded the corner and nearly fell when her foot slipped on flour on the floor. Actually, there was flour everywhere. And splatters of...well, she wasn’t sure what the reddish brown stuff was on the cabinets and counters. She did recognize the linguini noodles stuck to the wall, though.
She wasn’t going to ask.
Wraith, looking unexpectedly sexy in jeans, no shirt, and an apron, turned away from a pot of boiling water to toss a fork into the pile of pots and pans in the sink. He must have used every dish in the house.
“Way. And this morning I learned to tie my shoes.”
She laughed, relieved to find that their little spat hadn’t made things weird. Maybe talking about it would be easier than she’d even hoped for.
“Both feats are impressive,” she teased. “Now if you can master peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Stew I’d be really impressed.”
“Peanut butter sticks to the bread and rips it apart. It’s stupid. I need to introduce Stewie to bologna sandwiches. Those things kept me alive for a year once. No joke.”
He shot her one of his patented you-gotta-love-me smiles and pulled a baking dish out of the oven. She moved closer to see what was in the dish and was shocked to see oysters swimming in butter. She loved them, but Wraith wasn’t a fan...something about how they looked like they’d come from out of a harpies’ nose.
And yet, he ate Spam.
“Speaking of Stewie, where is he?”
He dumped the boiling pot into a strainer in the sink, and linguini plopped out. Explained the noodles on the wall. Sort of. “He’s in bed.”
“Did you feed him dinner first?”
“You ask me that a lot.”
“Because of the time you forgot to feed him.”
“Ah, that. Well, he can talk now. He doesn’t let me forget.” He smiled at her, his lips softening as he went from flirty amusement to genuine happiness. “I’m glad you’re home.”
“I am too.” She nodded at the stove, where a covered pot seemed on the verge of boiling over. “Do you need some help?”
“Nope. It’s done. If you want to pour the wine, we can eat.”
“You got it.” While she poured the merlot he’d opened and set out to breathe, he finished up and loaded the table with food.
“I made grilled oysters,” he said, a little sheepishly, “but I made them too early and had to put them in the oven to stay warm.” He shrugged. “I’d say I might have ruined them, but they’re floofing oysters. How the hell would you know they’re ruined?”
She punched him lightly in the shoulder, and he grinned. “What? They’re nasty. But they’re supposed to be aphrodisiacs, and I figured that after my bullshit, I needed all the help I could get with you tonight. I even got the recipes from one of Suzanne’s romance-themed shows. See?” He gestured with a serving spoon at the laptop on the counter, which was streaming an episode of Angel in the Kitchen. “She showed me how to make Seafood Linguini.”
The amount of effort he’d gone to made her heart clench. Wraith showed her all the time how much he loved her, but he’d always done it in ways that were unique to him and in ways he excelled. He definitely didn’t excel at cooking, so seeing him go to this kind of effort filled her with both joy and guilt.
“Oh, Wraith, I’m so sorry I freaked out like that. I think I took what you said the wrong way because I was the one who was afraid you felt that way. I’ve been feeling kind of insecure lately.”
“Why?”
She sank down in the chair and waited for Wraith to do the same.
“I’m really freaking about how Stew will react when we tell him the truth about his birth. We have to do it soon. He’s far from stupid. He figured out on his own that Mace was his brother—it’s only a matter of time before he learns that vampires can’t give birth.”
“That’s not entirely true...”
She gave him a get serious look. “Your circumstances were unique.” And bizarre. Sometimes she was amazed that there weren’t more bats in Wraith’s belfry.
“He’ll be fine,” Wraith said as he presented her with an oyster in a cute little leaf dish. “He knows all about our species. He knows how we reproduce. Most Sems are killed at birth or have shitty mothers, ‘cause, you know, demons. We never even meet our fathers. It won’t matter to Stewie that you didn’t give birth to him. You are his mother. It’ll be okay.”
She wanted to believe that. She was desperate to believe that. “But what if it’s not? Most Sems are raised in Sheoul. They grow up among demons. But you’ve got humans in the mix now, and this will be the first generation of Sems who are growing up in truly a human society, with human family traditions and customs. I mean, he even goes by Stewie instead of his given name.” Her hand trembled as she picked up the oyster dish. “We need to tell him the truth, Wraith,” she whispered. “But I’m afraid.”
“Mama?”
Startled, Serena dropped her oyster and they both whipped around in their seats. Stewie stood at the entrance to the kitchen, his favorite blanket wrapped around his shoulders, his Spiderman pajamas hanging loosely on his little body.
“Stewie,” she gasped. “Honey, what are you doing?”
He tugged the blanket more tightly around him. “I wanted a drink of water and I heard you talking.”
Oh, no.
“Hey, buddy.” Wraith stood. “Let’s get you some water and get you back to bed.”
“But Mama’s afraid.”
Her heart cracked right down the middle. “Oh, baby, I’m perfectly safe. We all are.”
He looked down at his bare feet. “You’re afraid of telling me the truth. I heard you.”
Closing her eyes, she swallowed hard, trying to keep tears from forming.
“We can talk about this later,” Wraith said.
“But I wanna make Mommy feel better.”
Serena threw her arms wide. “Give me a hug. That’ll make it all better.”
Stewie ran over and threw himself into her lap. He smelled like bubblegum soap and blue raspberry shampoo. Wraith had even remembered to make him take a bath.
“I know vampires can’t have babies,” he said, his big brown eyes locking onto hers, wise beyond their years. She’d always told Wraith that he had an ancient soul, and times like these confirmed it.
“So you know...” She didn’t know how to say it. She’d been preparing for this moment for seven years, and she still wasn’t ready.
“I know I was in someone else’s belly.” Stewie yawned and rubbed his lids. “Am I like Mace? Is someone like Aunt Tayla my secret other mother?”
Serena hugged Stewie close. “No, sweetheart.” She pressed a kiss into his silky hair. “Is that why you’ve been angry lately? You thought your birth mother was part of your life and we didn’t tell you?”
He nodded and looked over at Wraith. “Who was she? My other mother.”
Wraith paled. For all his assurances that Stewie would be fine with the information, he was worried, too. “This is something we’ll talk about when you’re older, kiddo. All you need to know right now is that we love you and that your mother, your real mother, is the one who has been there for you since the day you were born.”
“I know.” Stewie looked up at Serena. “You will always be my mama. I’m glad it was you.”
Her heart swelled until it felt like it might burst. “I’m glad it was me too. I can’t imagine my life without you.”
Stewie smiled and then sniffed the air. “What are you eating?”
She glanced over at Wraith. “We were enjoying a romantic dinner.”
Wraith nodded, a mutual understanding building between them. “But you know what, buddy? Let’s make it a family dinner. There’s nothing more important than that.” Wraith lowered his voice to a conspiratorial stage whisper. “Besides, you know you want to stick around to try my grilled harpy boog—”
“Wraith!”
* * * *
Wraith watched as Stewie and Serena finished the last of the Red Devil’s Food Cake. Stew had managed to get frosting all over his face, but it was adorable. Serena hadn’t gotten even a smudge on her lips, but Wraith had set aside a little frosting for...later. Oh, yeah, she was going to get frosting all over, and he planned to get it all over his face when he licked it off of her.
Dinner had been fun. No, he hadn’t planned on it being a family affair... he’d wanted to seduce Serena with every bite, to feed her oysters with his own hand and then play Lady and the Tramp with the linguini. But the bonding they’d done as a family had been even better.
Wraith had grown up without love. His father had been absent, but the guy had been a monster, so that was no loss. His mother had tortured him and kept him in a cage. But eventually he’d escaped and had been found by his brothers, who had taught him what family was.
It was because of Shade and Eidolon that Wraith had been able to accept Serena into his life, and it was because of Serena that he could be a father.
So, no, she hadn’t given birth to Stewie, but she’d still made him a dad.
Shade liked to say that life often threw curve balls.
Pretty cool that Wraith had finally learned to catch them.
* * * *
Wraith, along with his brothers Eidolon and Shade, are the foundation characters on which my Demonica series was based. Wraith plays a prominent role in and , books 1 and 2 of the Demonica series, and he finds his mate, Serena, in book 3, , so if you’re curious about the origins of the family you just read about, any of those books will be a good place to start. Enjoy!