CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Thea’s gaze stretched beyond her pillow and she blinked at the pink brilliance of the sun, rising across the racetrack grounds. Normally, she loved sunrise. Not only were they beautiful, but they signified a new beginning—potential. In the heavens, each day remained the same. The temperature, the level of light, the smell of the air. In the Human Realm, the dawn of each day represented a perfect moment of possibility.
It was the rest of the day that destroyed the illusion.
“You all right, angel?”
She jumped at Seth’s voice at her bedside. When did he . . . How had she . . . What happen— All at once, the truth stole her breath. “She took him.”
Her hands trembled as she reached beneath the chenille blanket and found her hollow, flabby belly. Tears fell in earnest and her throat grew tight. “What will she do with him?”
He was there in an instant, gathering her hands in his. “Shh, don’t think about that.”
She stared at the coupling, his knuckles nicked and rough, fingers wiped clean but still not clean. “Thrash is half-Dimme. They consume the marrow of infants. What if—”
“Angel, no.” He squeezed her hands, kneeling so his face came into view. “Our boy is both Lightworld and Nephilim. She won’t risk consuming any part of him. He’ll be poison to her.”
She hoped so.
When she thought she had control on her emotions, she raised her gaze and—her breath caught. “You . . . your wings? When did . . . why?”
He rose from the floor and sat on the edge of the bed, his wings rising at his shoulders and repositioning out behind him. The mattress dipped under his significant weight and gravity rolled her toward him.
Her heart raced. Was it her? Had he realized the danger she was in and claimed his part in their family? Were they bonded? The idea of him claiming her sent her mind into a whirl. She couldn’t deny she was attracted to him, but a lifetime commitment? They were barely past hating each other.
“Our son,” he said, his voice rough. “I didn’t plan on being a father, but that was about me, not you. That doesn’t mean I wanted either of you to come to harm. I’m so sorry.”
So, not her. That hurt more than it should.
Why would it? They weren’t a couple. Still, she was grateful he claimed their child. “How did you find me?”
Seth eased back and smiled a sad smile. “One of Cassi’s soldiers is undercover at Castle Wandread. There was talk about the next shipment of weapons they commissioned from the blood dwarf. He tracked the portal signature and gave us the coordinates to find you.”
She looked at the beautiful bouquet on the dresser next to his sweatshirt. “You brought me flowers?”
He shook his head, an uncharacteristic flush coloring his cheeks. “Cassi and Ronnie. They check in regularly. Everyone is so worried about you. They love you.”
Thea didn’t know what to do with that. They loved her. He didn’t. Well, not that she loved him. She didn’t. Her emotions surged up again and tears rolled down her cheeks.
“I should feel grateful, or at least want to ease their worry. I don’t. I don’t feel anything . . . and at the same time . . . I feel everything, and it’s jumbled and wrong.”
Seth brushed a loose bunch of hair back from her face. “You’re in shock. There’s no wrong emotion right now.”
He offered her a glass of pineapple juice and mounded plate of Austin’s buttermilk biscuits. “Phoenix and my brothers are pulling out all the stops. That bitch won’t get the chance to do anything to our son. The moment we have a target to aim for, we’ll reclaim him and bring him home.”
Thea searched the depths of his gaze, looking for any sign of placation. He seemed genuinely certain. “I failed him,” she said, tears brimming. “I tried to protect him but too late . . . I went to the club . . . I went outside . . . It’s all my fault.”
Seth pulled her into his massively banded arms and held her tight. “Phoenix will find him. He’s as strong and stubborn as I am, and twice as resourceful.”
She doubted that. Austin often spoke of Seth’s tenacious demeanor. At times, it drove the others to frustration, but she said they all respected how he never gave up on anything or anyone he deemed important.
A sip of juice slid down her throat without offering any flavor. She was glad he claimed their son. If there was one thing she knew about transitioned Nephilim, it was how brutally protective they were of those who were theirs.
“I thought I would die in that cave.”
“But you didn’t.”
Maybe not entirely, but something inside her died. “When they stole our son, I lost more than him.”
Her breasts ached almost as much as her heart. Her baby was out there, alone and in the hands of monsters—because of her. Thea swiped away the moisture on her cheeks and laid her cheek against her pillow once again. “You can leave now.”
Seth tightened his hold on her wrist. “Okay, you rest. I’ll let you know the minute there’s any news.”
Seth waited until Thea’s breathing slowed and she relaxed into the blankets. Once he was sure she was out, he slid off the bed and padded quietly toward the door. The scene in the suite’s living room hadn’t changed over the past seven hours. Ronnie, Storme, Cassi, and Austin had been taking shifts waiting, hoping there was something they could do to help.
When he stepped out of Thea’s bedroom, the whispered conversation between Cassi and Ronnie stopped. “Would one of you mind sitting with her while she sleeps?” he asked. “I don’t want her to wake up alone.”
Ronnie rushed forward, gave him a hug, and then closed herself into the bedroom. That left him and Cassie. Now it was his turn to dole out the hugs. He pulled the Greek’s mate against his chest and held on tight. “Please, thank your man. I can’t . . . I don’t know what to even . . .”
Cassi stepped back and squeezed his arms. “I have thanked him, but I shall again. That Larkin was able to help find Thea is thanks enough. I’m only sorry it wasn’t in time to bring her home before the baby was born.”
He was too. Damn, it ate at his insides like he’d swallowed a gallon of acid. “If you’re okay to stay here for a bit, I’m gonna run downstairs and see where we are.”
“Of course. You go. We won’t leave her.”
Seth left the wives to watch over Thea, and headed down to join his brothers. By the time he got to the main floor, he’d pretty much run out of steam.
If they had credible intel, they would’ve told him.
And unlike the adage—in this case, no news was certainly not good news. “Tell me, my brothers.”
Phoenix rounded the war table and met him palm to palm. We’re running down a hunch. Come see.
A hunch was better than nothing. He followed his twin, a flicker of hope smoldering in his heart.
We know from Ringo’s drawing that Thrash hooked up with one of the Leviathan leaders. We also know that Gregor’s crew tends to work and live within a certain perimeter.
Seth caught the drift and followed his brother to study the map of Toronto laid out on the table.
Zander took the lid off a Sharpie and circled a red dot close to the lake. “The attack behind the Royal York.” He pointed to another spot within the green shading of parkland. “The battle in the Don Valley.” He pointed at another ten locations they’d hit head-to-head with those slimy shits and he saw the pattern.
“If they’re hunting by venturing out from their nest in spokes, then their nest should be located somewhere near . . .”
Zander intersected the location and pointed to a spot on the map. “This neighborhood is mostly residential and commercial. Nothing much in the way of buildings that could house a large group. Except, maybe here.”
Danel spun his laptop around and he stared at the Google street view of a large, three-storey building. “It’s an abandoned sanitarium. It’s isolated and built to house large numbers of patients. There’s enough space for the Leviathans, as well as their Serpentine women and children.”
Seth stared at the map, liking the logic.
Phoenix rapped his knuckles on the table and raised his hands. I’m pretty sure, if I get close enough, I’ll sense the boy. Seth and I are linked, and I could sense Niobe long before she was born.
Zander emptied the contents of his glass and swallowed. “If you can zero in on the baby before we move in, I’d feel a shit-ton better. Let’s go test out this theory, shall we?”
“Good luck,” Tanek said. “Recon only until we’re sure what we’re dealing with. I’ll follow you from here.”
Hells yeah, Seth thought. With Tanek on the squad, they had their missing link back. “Give me two to grab my gear and tell the wives where I’ve gone.”
“Way ahead of you, Egyptian,” Zander said, handing him one of the dark angel over-the-head vests, and a couple shirts. “Ronnie’s getting slick at cranking out our custom couture. You’re gonna have to rethink your wardrobe, now that you got those bad boys.”
Seth threw a blue shirt over his head and zipped up his right side under his arm and repeated on his left. Weird, but better than bare-chesting it all winter.
Next, he ducked into the Kevlar vest and strapped the Velcro to lock his new weapons vest in place. He fingered a little cam on his chest and smiled. “Have we got visual now?”
Zander waggled his brow. “Tanek’s idea. It’ll give our ghostly overwatch a bigger picture of what’s doin’.”
Fuckin’ A. “Are Brennus and Bo still living it up in Hell?”
Zander slid his weapon’s vest over his head and got busy with the Velcro straps as they made their way to the front hall. “The way time works there, I’m not expecting them back for a week or two, maybe a month.”
Kyrian opened the door and the five of them were off.
Phoenix, D, Z, and Kyrian shot into the air, while he and Hark dematerialized and ghosted their molecules across the city. He had to admit, his Dark Angel upgrades were badass, but there was a steep learning curve to flying.
Tonight wasn’t the time for a test drive.
When he and Hark took form behind an off-property storage building, his brother gestured to the wings. “The angel?”
Seth shrugged. “Nah. This is all about my kid. Kinda snuck up on me, ye know? You ever think about kids or committing to one woman for a lifetime?”
“No.”
Taharqa, a man of few words.
“North wing, clear,” Danel said over the comm. “Seems to be the entrance for the residences. I’ve got movement but it’s of the women and children variety.”
“The good news, folks,” Tanek added. “By the visuals I’ve got, they are definitely Serpentine. We’re on the right track.”
“Head to the east wing, D,” Zander said. “I doubt Thrash and her Leviathan piece of ass are hangin’ with the local riffraff. Look for a command area. An entrance segregated from the rest, with more military advantage.”
Hark pointed to the old exercise yard and the sentry tower. Good thought. Seth signaled that he would materialize up there and take a look.
Either there would be soldiers, or he’d get a good look at what they were dealing with. Seth threw his cells into the night air and drifted across the outer grounds. When he got to the base of the outer fence, he pulled up and took stalk.
Two guards, each facing opposite directions.
Silent as a snowy owl with prey in site, he materialized behind them, Crystalline dagger in hand. Liiiike butter. “Wham. Bam. Two in the can.”
“Sixty to go,” Kyrian said from the front of the building.
“Ten each,” Seth said, donning the hat of one of the guards and peering out into the courtyard. “I like those odds.”
“Danel?” Z said. “Has Phoenix picked up anything yet?”
“Ah . . . negative.”
Seth thought about Phoenix’s plan to connect with his son and opened the channel. His twin sensed Nio long before his powers amped. If his brother could do it, maybe he . . .
Nothing came to him.
Yeah, well, he wasn’t Phoenix, now was he?
A rush of jealousy brought bile up the back of his throat. As he swallowed the vomit, he thought about how Thea fawned over his brother. Even when the guy was clearly off the market, still the angel gushed over him.
Seth pushed his beast back. This new symbiosis bullshit was would take getting used to. The dark side of him raged strong, and without being able to tether and bind it, he was off-balance.
Breathing slow and deep, he kept his eyes locked on the exercise yard while Hark aimed his crossbow in sweeping arcs over the grounds surrounding the property.
He had to rein himself in. He needed a clear head.
His son needed him to keep cool.
“Stupid, waits too long,” a female whispered next to him. He turned to the young woman crouched next to him. Judging by the ratty beige nightgown and the way he could see the other side of the observation tower through her translucent head, he’d guess she’d been a patient there a long time ago.
“We’re gathering intel.”
“No. Stupid birdman’s wasting time.”
Seth spun. “What business is it of yours?”
Hark looked at him like he was the one who’d flown over the cuckoo’s nest. Didn’t he see her?
“My building. Want them out. They stink.”
He couldn’t argue there. Leviathans came from Serpentines. They were snake demons and not the most hygienic nesters. “Have you seen a baby?”
“I not stupid. Many babies.”
“What about a newborn . . . maybe kept apart from the others . . . in the care of a blonde woman?”
“I see that.”
It was stupid to jump in with both feet. Still, he couldn’t stop the burgeoning hope. “Take me to him and I’ll exterminate your building.”
“No more stink people?”
He nodded. “Guaranteed.”
He offered her all the conviction he could while she eyed him up and down. “Fine, birdman. You come. You see too.”
His ghostly guide shot off a split-second before he up-and-overed the half-wall and crossed the courtyard behind her. “Moving in,” he said, materializing at the door. “I’ve got an inside line on my son.”
He didn’t have time to explain—they had to trust him. The best thing about his brothers was that they would. There was no doubt in his mind they were moving in from all sides.
Grabbing the door of the abandoned building, he cranked it open. Hark, back-flatting against the brick, followed him in. The precision of the infiltration spoke of the thousands of years they’d had each other’s backs.
The interior of the sanitarium brought him up short. The rich colors of twenty-foot fabric swaths, the ambient glow of the chandeliers, the spice of incense burning up ahead.
W.T.F.? He pushed the Martha Stewart mindfuck out of his head and jogged along the wall of the vast common room. The worst part of this was that the enemy had the advantage of all the hiding spots, while he and Hark were out in the wide open, with a target on their backs.
Here I am, it said. Pick me off.
The sound of a baby crying up ahead jarred his heart rate.
I’m coming, little man. Hang in there.
He followed the sound of the child into the darkness of patient resident corridors. Light burst behind him and he knew Hark was on the case. It was a damned good thing that years of training had him checking sightlines and clearing corners because his mind wasn’t in it.
His beast lost its grip, infuriated by the boy’s distress.
His protective instinct detonated within, his Mark exploding into a brilliant green glow. Yep. Without a doubt, that child was his. His! And Thrash had dared to take him from them.
The bitch would suffer.
“Cafeteria, east wing,” Zander said over the comm.
“Entering now,” Seth said, running, watching his footing, searching for tripwires or booby traps of any kind.
Women screamed ahead and his bowels all but liquified. The only thing that kept him level was the constant drone of the baby’s cry. “It’s a community room,” Zander said. “I repeat, there are Serpentine civilians in here.”
“Thrash is rabbiting,” Kyrian said. Heavy breathing filled the comms as they waited for more to go on. “Carrying a bundle in her arms.”
Zander growled. “Get her, Greek. Danel and Phoenix, back him up.”
Seth and Hark pushed past the crowds, the Nubian holding up his Moonstone to light their way. The brilliance of the heavenly light forced the demons back into the shadows, leaving a cluster of citizens in the center of the room.
“Stupid birdman!” the young ghost yelled, pointing down a dark corridor, deeper into the residential rooms.
“The blonde’s on the run,” he said. “She has my son.”
“Fooled the fool, she did.”
Seth cursed his snarky Yoda. “You’re saying she doesn’t have my son?”
“Many babies. Come. You see.”
Seth looked from the corridor to the exit, torn between wanting to join the chase and the look in the ghost’s eyes.
Zander cleared the common area, riled up and lethal. “What’s the holdup? Thrash is on the run.”
Seth raised his gun and headed down the corridor after the ghost. “You go. I have to check something out.”
Zander fell into stride behind him, with Hark bringing up the rear. “Mind cluing me in?”
“I’ve got a ghost telling me Thrash is decoying us.”
Zander didn’t say anything more. If this was a mistake, it was his to make. His kid. His call.
He followed the apparition past an old nurse’s station to what would have been a patient ward back in the day. And yep, there were, indeed, babies.
The women tending to the children fled as the three of them burst in, leaving three playpens of small children and babies.
“There, stupids,” the ghost said. “See. They stink.”
“We’ve got you covered,” Zander said, stepping to the far side of the playpens, forcing the women further into the shadows. “Is he there?”
Seth drew a deep breath, terrified to look too closely at the children. What if he couldn’t tell? What if he didn’t recognize his own son?
He thought about Thea’s suffering and kicked himself in the ass. He needed to ball-up and grab the fucking reins.
Two toddlers lay in the first playpen and four infants slept on the cushioned mat of the second, the third had three more, and—his breath caught as he locked onto the little angel he sired.
It wasn’t the golden hair of his angel mother or the olive skin that mirrored his own, that made him certain this was his son. When his eyes locked on, the kid stilled his heart and mind.
He felt the child within him.
He felt the boy’s hunger . . . his need.
He felt his son shift the very foundation of his soul.
His Mark burst into another round of pub-sign illumination and he sheathed his guns. He reached down and picked up the swaddled bundle. The motion of claiming him from his nap jostled him awake and he blinked.
Strange silver-blue eyes swirled up at him. They shimmered and caught the light like nebulous gas. “Did that bitch do this to him?”
Zander leaned in and took a look. “Maybe it’s natural. After all, he’s the first child born from a Nephilim-Powers mating. He doesn’t seem to be suffering in any way.”
Seth reached out with his magical side and agreed.
The boy was now content—utterly happy to be in his arms. Seth shifted position and cradled the tiny dude while trying not to forget his own strength. Yeah, the eyes were weird but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, right?
Zander positioned himself before the line of Serpentine women and drew his dagger. “Gregor’s sons—your husbands and brothers—allied themselves with the Shedim rebels. They targeted a member our family, a pregnant female, and took from us. No quarter will be given. They will die for it.”
One female waved a hand through the air. “You can’t hold every male responsi—”
“Serpentines will live,” Zander continued, cutting her off. “Leviathans will be hunted and killed on sight. That second phase of your Darkworld nature was forbidden for good reason. Raise this generation wisely, ladies. Teach your children that rebellion serves no one.”
Seth didn’t give two shits about the lives of the people who’d done this to Thea and their son. He would spend his days tracking down and dispatching every Leviathan aberration until extinction took hold.
Phoenix jogged into the room and signed the update on tracking Thrash. The bundle she’d had was bogus.
They knew that, thanks to Ghost Girl.
Seth held up his son, so his twin could see. “He’s pretty fucking spectacular, don’t you think?”
That he is, my brother, Phoenix said, checking that Zander and Hark still had the room secured before leaning in to take a closer look. Let’s get him home. His mother has waited too long to meet him.