CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Thea paced the wide corridor of the clinic, her entire body both numb and firing at once. She peeked out the door and then returned past the recovery stalls, to the operating room. “They said he’s unharmed, yes?”
Austin rose from the arm of one of the sofas in the waiting area. “Yes. Zander said he seems unharmed. Seth and Hark are bringing him home. I’m sure they’ll be here any moment.”
“And Thrash?”
“Kyrian and Danel tracked her back to a war camp deep in the woods up north. Zander and Phoenix are headed there now. When everyone gets there, they’ll take care of her for good. She won’t hurt you or your son again.”
Thea felt guilty for the surge of pleasure. The animals who’d kidnapped and tortured her and her child would pay for their transgressions. Seth, Phoenix, and their brothers-in-arms would exact the harshest justice their positions would allow.
“What’s tak—”
The gentle creak of the door had her spinning and bolting down the corridor. Seth strode through the entrance, a wrapped child cradled in his arms. Standing to his full six-foot-seven height, wings back, and eyes clear and focused on her, she truly saw him for the first time.
This was the warrior and beast—the father—united and committed to bringing their son home.
Racing as she was, she almost ran straight into him. He opened one arm and pulled her against his frame, preventing her from falling. “Look, little buddy, this is your mom. Isn’t she beautiful?”
Thea didn’t feel beautiful. Tears stained her cheeks and dampened the massive sweatshirt she wore. It was Seth’s. He’d stayed in her room for the hours she’d been recuperating, and when Ronnie came in to tell her he had a lead, she’d put it on to feel close to him and lend him strength.
She swiped her face with the floppy sleeve and held out her arms. “May I hold him?”
“Yeah, you can.” Seth transferred the precious boy into her arms. Staring down at the sleeping child, her worries dissolved.
“He has your cheekbones,” she sobbed, “and your nose.”
Seth nodded, tracing a gentle finger down the baby’s cheek. “And his mouth is all you . . . and the hair.”
She leaned against his side, thankful Seth was the size of a tree and just as strong. “Thank you. Oh, thank you for bringing him home.”
Seth wrapped a heavy arm around her and nodded against her head. “There was no other option.”
“I hate to break this up,” Drina said, from the far end of the corridor. “I’d like to examine him as soon as possible.”
“Right,” Seth said, escorting them toward the purple-haired Reaper. “I don’t want to sound any alarm bells, Doc, ’cause it’s totally cool, but check his eyes and see what that’s about.”
Thea studied the forced upturn of Seth’s tight smile, her heart racing. “What’s wrong with his eyes? They never let me see him . . . have they done something to him?”
Seth shook his head. “I don’t think so, but in all the races in all the realms, I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
As if their son knew they were talking about him, he blinked awake. The silver-blue swirl of his eyes stunned her. Simply stopped her heart short. They were astoundingly beautiful, but she’d never seen anything like it either.
Quickening her pace, she brought him to the doctor. “Why are his eyes like this?”
Doc Drina took the baby and her expression gave nothing away. “Let me check him out, then, maybe we’ll know more.”
Thea started to tremble as Drina placed her son in Nio’s little incubator bed. She feared her legs might not support her much longer, but she didn’t want to take her eyes off her child.
“S’all good, angel,” Seth whispered close to her ear. “He’s fine. I know it. This is just nerves hitting you.”
Her legs buckled, and she dropped toward the floor.
“I got you.” Seth swept her off her feet before she hit the tile. He turned, carrying her away from their son.
“Shh, don’t panic.” He pulled her tighter to his chest and side-stepped into the first recovery room. After propping up the pillows, he sat her at the head of the bed and brought over one of the plastic visitor’s chairs.
“He’s fine. Let’s focus on you for a sec. How you doin’?”
“Me? I’m . . . why do you ask?”
He squeezed her hands and his smile eased. “You got awfully pale there for a sec. Kyrian and Drina both said you’d make a full recovery, but still . . . you’ve been through a lot.”
Full recovery. She wondered what that meant. Would she ever feel like she did before? Would she ever talk to a stranger without remembering? Would she ever forgive herself for what could have happened to their baby?
“I’ll have scars . . . from the spikes.”
Seth frowned but it seemed to be more about anger than repulsion. “I’m sorry. That sucks. I know how hard it is on Austin to wear a reminder of a terrible time.”
“I should wear a reminder. We almost lost our child because of me. Can you ever forgive me?”
Opening up his massive arms, he leaned forward and hugged her. “There’s nothing to forgive. If anything, it was my fault you felt so alone. Of course you wanted to connect with a male. I honestly didn’t understand how much of an asshat I’d been until I realized the danger.”
“And now . . . you’ll be his father? You’ll acknowledge him as your son?”
Seth cupped her jaw and tilted her face to look at him. “He is mine.” He used the Alpha tone she’d heard Danel and Zander use when speaking about their mates. “No harm shall befall him, or his mother, as long as I exist within the three realms.”
Thea didn’t know what that meant exactly.
He was claiming her . . . as the mother of his son?
What did that imply? She didn’t have the mental clarity to think it out. Her son was her priority at that moment. “What should we name him?”
Seth shrugged. “I have a few ideas.”
Zander’s shitkickers crunched through the crust of snow as he and Hark joined their brothers. Man, there were times he envied Kang and his crew living in Georgia. He rubbed his hands together, cupped them, and blew warm breath into his palms. “Okay, what’ve we got?”
Kyrian handed him a Tim’s cup and he palmed the piping hot coffee.
“How do you boys have coffee in the middle of nowhere?”
“When Danel’s on a stakeout, there’s coffee. End of.”
Zander met the Persian’s whiskey-colored gaze and the guy shrugged. “Everybody’s got their thing, Z. Mine just happens to be java. Could be worse.”
Yeah, and considering he had a piping-hot cup warming his palms, he wouldn’t complain. He cracked the tab on the lid and clicked it back into place. Blowing into the little opening, he watched the steam rise into the late afternoon air. “I put a call out to Brennus and Bo. I doubt they’ll get it in time, but here’s hoping.”
What about Seth? Phoenix signed.
Zander swallowed a mouthful of caffeine ambrosia. “He’s staying with Thea and the baby.”
He’s passing on the fight of his life?
“It knocked me for a loop too. Priorities change, though. Our boy is growing up.”
Zander sipped at his coffee and considered their options. They were severely outmanned and outgunned. Still, there was no way they would put off taking these assholes down. They needed the win. They needed to send a message.
When the hair on the back of his neck stood on end, he turned to see who was joining them: Colt, Rayvn, Drake, Meck, and Colin came through the trees, looking like the biggest mismatch of Darkworld badasses he’d ever seen.
Zander and his brothers met the five with a jaunty round of fist-bumps. “Just in the neighborhood?”
“We’re your backup,” Rayvn said, a wide grin bustin’ loose on the Dragon’s face. “A little birdy called and said you were revving up for a tough fight, and no one RSVP’ed for the party.”
Zander chuckled, shaking out the tension in his shoulders. “Might this little birdy have a name?”
Rayvn shrugged off his jacket and laid it over a low branch before unbuttoning his shirt. “Didn’t say, but I can tell all y’all that the little lady is forbidding any more injuries flooding back to the clinic.”
Colt checked his magazine was full and sighted a tree trunk in the distance. The red laser cut through the falling darkness and highlighted his target. “There may also have been promises of home-cooked meals.”
“And,” Meck added, “if we prove ourselves in battle, we’re getting deputized for future engagements. We might even get our own vests.”
“Is that so?” Zander shook his head, unsure whether to be angry at the meddling in his Otherworld calling or amazed at the power of a Texan woman with determination.
Colt stretched his neck and let his Ice Demon side ascend. His eyes glowed bright turquoise and he took his gloves off his hands. “How much force are we using here, Sumerian? Are we law keepers focused on Thrash and the latest head of the Leviathan snake, or are we having fun?”
Zander set his coffee back in the cardboard carrier tray. “It’s your lucky day. This is total annihilation. I’m so fucking sick of these assholes coming at us. Pipe bombs and stealing our kids go waaaay over the line of all’s fair. This is a culling of the enemy, my brothers. Burn the bodies and keep the heads.”
“I can’t be the one to kill Thrash,” Kyrian said. “I killed Cassi’s father, I can’t kill her sister too.”
Zander nodded. “Not an issue, Adelphos. For her part in both Austin and Thea’s suffering, I’m looking forward to lopping off her head myself. If you boys get there first, that’s fine, but there will be no mercy given to the female.”
He registered the surprise in the gazes around him but none of them held hesitation. Good.
“All right,” he continued. “This is for Seth and his family.”
Kyrian drew his twin SIG forties. “Let’s get’er done. I, for one, want to get home and meet my nephew.”
After Drina gave his son a thumbs-up to leave the clinic, Seth took him and his mother back to the house and got them settled. Drina had no idea what the swirling with the little dude’s eyes was about, but she didn’t think there was anything to worry about—at least, not yet.
So, yeah, he was a dad.
Ha! What was the saying? Life was what happened when you’re busy making other plans. True dat. He didn’t know shit about babies, but figured his boy for the best-behaved newborn ever. Even after the rough start, the little monkey just slept, blinked up at them, nuzzled Thea’s breast, and then went back to sleep. He couldn’t blame him. Perfect setup, right?
Weren’t babies supposed to scream and stink and stuff?
Okay, he’d spoken too soon about the stinking, and jinxed them. “Is that him?” He pressed his hand against his nose. “How can someone so tiny drop a cloud like that?”
Thea giggled, gliding over to the change pad she set up on the dresser. “That’s normal. Nio can clear a room as well.”
A rush of dawning hit, and Seth felt like a royal shit.
He’d been so freaked out by the whole baby plotting and fallout, he’d avoided his family like the plague. He hadn’t even held Zander and Austin’s daughter yet.
No wonder Austin was disappointed in him.
No wonder Phoenix wanted to knock his block off.
Still, the whole time he’d been on the outside looking in, he’d been sure he held the moral high ground.
He was, after all, the injured party. Except . . . he didn’t see things the same way on this side of fatherhood.
He stood behind Thea as she took care of the HAZMAT cleanup and marveled at his own one-eighty. He’d been a father less than twenty-four hours and would die for the boy. Zander alluded to that truth last week, but it still hadn’t resonated.
“There,” Thea said, zipping up his little Harley Davidson onesie and picking him up. “Presentable once again. Would you like your turn?”
“Hells-to-the-yeah,” he said, opening his arms. No matter how long he stared at his son, he couldn’t get over how a person could be so tiny. “Hey, dude. How’s things?”
“I think he’d like to explore his home and meet his aunties.”
In response to his mother’s suggestion, the boy yawned and farted against his hand. “Yeah, he can hardly contain himself.”
Thea laughed and pushed them toward the bedroom door. “Come on, the others want their turn fawning over him. Let’s go be proud parents.”
He could get into that.
The raid on the rebellion encampment occupied a huge part of his mind. Maybe Tanek had news. Opting out didn’t mean he was indifferent. Far from it. He wanted Thrash and her ass-licking minions put down for what they’d done.
He just wasn’t ready to tap out of the fam just yet.
The two of them walked down the hall, him carrying his son, Thea’s arm wrapped around his waist, leaning in to make smiley faces at the babe. As insignificant as the moment was on the scale of millennia of living, he’d never felt so . . . content.
Weird. Maybe he really was a big fool.
Maybe Tanek was right and Lady Divinity was giving them what they needed most, whether they knew it or not. Not that he was falling madly in love with the angel, but he saw the appeal. Besides, they were linked now. No need to be crazy and dive into love just because everyone else was doing it.
Been there, got the wings to prove it.
Yeah, but that was different. Loving your child was easier. It was instinctual, like breathing, or getting a hard-on when you watched porn. Just natural. Right?
The succulence of celebration cooking and the warmth of lively conversation filled the halls, even before they got all the way to the kitchen.
“Finally,” Ronnie said, jogging over to meet them as they approached the massive harvest table. “Is it our turn to hold him? Does he have a name?”
Seth reluctantly gave up his son to Danel’s wife. Bereft with his arms empty, he shifted for a comfy position.
Thea seemed to realize his struggle and hugged his arm, leaning her cheek against his shoulder. “His name is Zane. Seth picked it and I think it’s lovely.”
Austin smiled, rounding the island to join them, her gaze locked on his son. “Hello, Zane. Welcome home, sweet boy.”
“Can you see him, cowgirl?”
Her chestnut ponytail bobbed as she leaned in and kissed his forehead. “Sure can. He’s Otherworld on both sides. I see him as plainly as I see both of you.”
“And Niobi? Can you see her?”
He regretted the question as her smile tightened. “Not yet, but Zander thinks that if Nio’s powers continue to grow at the rate they already are, it won’t be long.”
Seth tugged Austin aside and gave her a private hug. The two of them had been close for the past year and then he’d gotten jammed up in his own shit. “I’ve been an ass and I swear I’ll do better.”
Austin didn’t hesitate to wrap him in the warmth of her endless southern charm. She hugged him tight and kissed his cheek. “Apology accepted, sugar. Now, come on over here and take a load off. I’ve been rustlin’ up the highlight reel of your favorites all day. You must be starvin’.”
He was, but for the first time in his life, it wasn’t for food.
Before Austin, they’d never had emotional connection in their lives. Now, he’d fight, tooth and nail, never to be without it. He glanced over at Ronnie and Thea fussing over Zane, and then watched Austin heaping food onto a plate for him.
If this was the Nephilim new normal, he had to admit, it didn’t suck at all.
Kyrian recited what he’d say to Cassi all the way home to the hotel. The battle against the Darkworld rebels had been long and bloody. They’d encircled the forested camp and come at the enemy from all sides. Engaging in mass slaughter wasn’t their SOP, but extenuating circumstances and all that.
Cassi wouldn’t see it that way. The dead Shedim were her people—hunters and soldiers she’d known her entire life, and they wouldn’t return home to their families.
Neither would her sister.
Such a soft-hearted soul, Cassi would lament that Thrash was the last blood-family she had, and she never got the chance to know her. She’d tried and been rejected. Didn’t bother him.
That Shedim/Dimme half-breed bitch was shallow and spiteful, and nothing but the worst of both her parents. Thrash hadn’t deserved to breathe the same air as his Cassi.
Still . . . she’d be sad . . . which made him sad.
He’d showered and changed at the loft to lessen the blow, but with a heavy heart, he materialized beneath the shadowed overhang of the old hotel’s entrance. His poor Cassi. He hated that he couldn’t protect her from the brutal realities of the realms. She deserved nothing but joy and respect.
“Is it done?”
He looked up from the cracked front steps and his well-rehearsed answer dissolved on his tongue. “I’m so fucking sorry, sweetheart.”
“Don’t be. You did what was necessary to keep innocent people safe. That she kidnapped Thea is unconscionable. That she stole the child and sacrificed his mother for the sake of making more weapons to kill you and the others—I can’t . . .”
He led her inside, pulling her into his lap on one of the purple velvet wingback chairs in the lobby. It didn’t matter what her head knew, her heart ached.
So, he held her and let her cry it out.
When the waterworks ended, and he thought they were back on solid ground, he pulled a couple three-ply squares from the box on the side table and let her fix her face.
“I haven’t gone to the ranch yet,” he said. “I thought, if you felt up to it, you might like to go with me and meet Seth and Thea’s son together.”
Cassi brightened, and nuzzled his neck in a nod. “There are fewer people on this earth targeting you, and I am glad. Don’t think I’d ever trade anyone’s life for yours. She chose her path.”
He pressed his lips to her long, ginger hair and breathed deep. She was his heart and soul. With her in his arms, he truly believed they could keep the world safe from evil.
“I love you, Cass. More than I can express. How about you tell Dougal we’re heading out and I warm up the Range Rover. I’m anxious to meet our baby nephew. Zander said he’s a cute little thing.”