"Okay," he said at last. "Okay." He kissed her fingertips, one by one, then pressed his forehead to her hands, the significance of what she'd just done sweeping over him. "Thank you."
"I knew you missed them. I missed them, too. I'd been working on it, and I'm glad it worked." She shot him an arch look. "Would have been terrible if I'd gotten mixed up and you ended up with bat wings. Marcellus would have been so jealous."
He snorted as she slid down next to him on the porch step. After he watched her rearrange her clothes, making her feel warm under his regard, he retrieved his coffee once more. He restored his own clothes as well, though Mina thought she might have liked it if he'd kept that top button carelessly undone, as he did sometimes when he first pulled the jeans on.
"I'll think about the drills," he said. "Don't nag. Let me just sit with you here for a while."
She accepted that, though plucked a feather for the nagging comment and earned a tug on her hair in return. They sat together for the next few minutes, looking out at the desert, one of his wings pulled around her so she could enjoy stroking her fingers through the feathers again. "I've been thinking about Dante," she said at last.
"Really."
She gave him a curious look. "What?"
"I didn't much care for how he looked at you."
"You were jealous?"
"You're a powerful, beautiful Dark Spawn. He's Dark Spawn. I suspect he would find you very intriguing, if you're the only other one he's met that's reached maturity."
She tilted her head. "I don't think you have to worry so much. He's a little psychotic for me."
"Oh, sure, that's what girls always say. Then they go for the bad boy. Look at me, I'm an angel. Harps and haloes, purity and goodness. What chance do I have?"
"Good point," she agreed. "You did have the Dark One blood in you, though. If you remember how, you could cultivate a sexy kind of broodiness. Jonah broods on occasion. Anna says she finds it very stimulating."
"On that note," he observed, amusing her by ignoring that topic, "your shielding has improved. And you said the Schism buffers you as well. We could test it out by spending time with Anna and Jonah, if you'd like to see Anna more. Maybe start by having them to dinner one night. We've been working on our cooking. She'd probably like to try some of the things you've made."
Have Anna and the Prime Legion Commander for dinner? "You are a frightening man," she responded, when she could make her tongue work. But as disconcerting as the domestic picture was, what was more disturbing was it had some appeal. Despite the glint in his eye which suggested he'd also brought it up to shock her. However, she also knew it was likely his continued attempt to prove that the more they strengthened the positive reasons she had to fight the Darkness, the easier the balance might become.
Easy had never been a word she'd applied to any part of her life. But only a couple of days ago, she'd dropped ice cubes down David's shirt and he'd chased her around the yard and the swing. As she ran, she'd felt the absolute glory of it. Running without pain in her muscles or joints, such that she'd forgotten the teasing and just run. He'd picked up on her needs as always, so that he'd abandoned the game and simply matched her pace and let her run until she ran herself into exhaustion.
Mina.
Surprised to hear the object of their discussion in her head, Mina's head jerked up. At the same moment, apparently getting the same alert from Jonah, David surged to his feet. A second or two later, Jonah landed in the yard in a skidding dust cloud, carrying his pregnant wife in his arms. "She's gone into labor," Jonah said unnecessarily. "And she said she had to have the babe here, with Mina."
DESPITE the alarm that announcement caused, Mina managed to mask it. "Raphael's on his way," Jonah added, giving her a surge of relief.
As her attention shifted to Anna, Mina thought that, while David's healing had given her what could be considered beauty beyond what any woman would long to possess, Anna's beauty was simple goodness, and being pregnant had made her more radiant.
Those violet eyes could soften the heart of a demon. But her soft, loving nature was persistent and courageous, such that it was impossible to get her to back down from her intentions, whether it was to save a Prime Legion Commander from an army of Dark Ones, or refusing to consider a seawitch with the ability to destroy the world anything less than her best friend. Or deciding at the spur of the moment that she wanted her as a midwife.
Right now, she was in mermaid form, for of course during her pregnancy she could not shift. Purple and blue tattooing swirled in intricate patterns along her biceps. The gleaming purple and deep blue scales of her tail shimmered down to tinier pieces until reaching the delicate pink, pearlescent edges of her featherlike tail fin. She was still wet from the ocean, her golden brown hair dark and slicked back on her skull, and she smelled of the salt air.
While mermaid was only one of four forms Anna could take, Mina knew it was still the best choice, for a mermaid pregnancy and birth were much shorter and easier than a human experienced.
Now Anna's eyes fastened on her as she reached out, grabbing Mina's hand. "I'm so sorry. I should have told you," she blurted out. "But I was afraid you'd say no. Ah, heavens, here comes another." The rush of words expired on a gasp as her belly contracted before their gazes.
"Come inside," David said, looking a little pale.
Anna's hands had clutched Mina's fingers and Jonah's muscular shoulder, her face tightening, eyes turning inward to concentrate on what was happening inside of her body.
"We'll take her in the cellar, to the spring," Mina said, and instead of taking her hand away, she let it be held, moved inside as the commander carried his mate and David followed, guiding Mina's body so she wouldn't trip on the stairs.
The enchanted spring David had mentioned when he and Mina first came here had seen frequent use these past weeks. Mina loved the hot water, enjoyed swimming in it with him, the twining of their bare bodies together, her ability to shift to mermaid form if she wished, but not have the problems with the cold-water environment in which she'd used to live.
It was also the perfect environment for a mermaid mother's birth. But when Anna had to release her so they could move single file down the stairs to the cellar, she could see the worry in Jonah's face.
Mina knew as well as Anna that, as bad as the curse's trait of taking a daughter of Arianne's life at twenty-one seemed, the worst part of the curse was when the new daughter was born. Every generation was born with diabolically self-destructive magical abilities that cut the infant off from normal contact. In a way, it made dying at twenty-one a kindness, though Mina was sure only someone with Dark One blood might see it that way. Fortunately, Mina's decision as a nine-year-old had saved Anna that one burden.
The mother would be worried for her child, while Mina knew Jonah's worry was for both. If Anna made it a few more months, to the age of twenty-two, they would know the events of the Canyon Battle had broken the curse, but the key to the death of the daughter of Arianne had always been that it came shortly after she had the next daughter.
Mina thought of a world without Anna in it and could understand the shadows around Jonah's eyes, the tautness of his mouth as he waded into the spring with her, held her an extra moment before he lowered her to the rock shelf. Anna's fingers lingered on the bracelet Jonah wore, the one made of her hair. Jonah's reminder of why he fought, of why he'd chosen life over death, good over evil. For her.
"Do you know how to do this?" David murmured in her ear, his body a reassuring brush against her back. He hadn't put his T-shirt back on, of course, and she was grateful for the distracting heat of his muscled flesh.
"My mother taught me, but no one ever came to me for it. Don't worry. Raphael's on his way. And I have extraordinary powers, right? What's the birth of one little baby?"
That angel better be here any minute, she added mentally.
"Mina?"
When Mina moved into the water toward Anna, she changed to her mermaid form to give
her more stability against the current. The expectant mother had her hand outstretched again, and Mina found herself taking it once more.
"When I was born," Anna said steadily, holding her gaze, "it was you who saved me. I know this was horrible of me, because it could bring back such terrible memories for you. But then again, I thought it could be a new beginning. Or bring a close to it. Did I offend you?"
"No."
Anna nodded, relief easing her features. "Can you check anything now?"
Mina had to wait a moment for Jonah to shift to the other side of Anna. The commander wasn't letting go of her for long; that was certain. Mina laid her hand on Anna's distended stomach, noting the purple and blue scales closer to her distended belly were starting to turn a glistening pink, like those at her tail fin.
She closed her eyes. Probing, listening. A faint smile crossed her lips. When she opened her eyes, it was to Anna's amazed expression. "I've never seen you smile. Mina, you're beautiful."
"Yes, I am. I didn't have any choice."
David coughed over a chuckle and Anna's eyes sparkled. "Is it so bad?"
"No, but that's because David treats me the same. I like that. I need that." Mina glanced down significantly. "Except he can't really hide the fact that he's happier about..."
"Breasts." Anna rolled her eyes. "Males are so predictable."
David snorted. "I noticed she didn't tell Raphael not to expend the energy to restore certain of my parts."
"Well, I had to have some use for you."
The commander managed a half smile, but Mina saw that the worry in his expression didn't abate, though he managed a reassuring look when his mate's attention turned briefly to him. Then another contraction arrived. Anna gripped one of Mina's hands again, breathing through it.
"Heavens, this hurts a little bit," she managed to pant.
"You're going to be fine," Mina said. And she made herself change the arrangement of their hands so hers were around Anna's now. "I'm here. Jonah and David are here. We're all going to take care of you. And your baby."
"Okay," Anna said. As she kept her gaze on the seawitch, Mina didn't need any special powers to read what was there. Anna was a little scared, but she wasn't going to show it, not for the world. She wouldn't add any worry to her mate right now. "What did you feel, when you touched me and smiled?"
"I saw your baby," Mina said. "And she felt me, responded to my touch, so she has some ability already."
"What about the curse?"
"I don't feel anything." But before Anna's smile could blind them all, Mina added shortly, "I won't know for certain until she's outside the womb. But don't worry about that now. You just concentrate on getting her out."
Raphael arrived then, and when Mina would have moved back, Anna wanted her close, demanded it, so Mina moved to her head, where it lay against the curve of Jonah's muscular arm, the water lapping just under her breasts.
As Raphael examined her, Anna kept her attention on Mina's face, only about two feet between them. Reaching up abruptly, she touched Mina's earlobe. "You're wearing that dolphin ear-ring I gave you."
"I've always worn it." It wasn't so hard to admit it now, the tiny bauble she'd kept hidden on her unscarred side, disguised beneath her hair. She reasoned it was a good test of her shields when Anna's smile nearly blinded her. Her soft sheen of tears would have sent an army galloping happily to their deaths if it would restore her happiness.
"We've beaten the odds, again and again, both of us," Anna said. "We'll do it again. I know I'm being a bit of a coward," she added, her voice lowering as if no one else were there. "But all I could think was you had to be here. And not just for that. You're my friend, Mina. My true friend."
Mina briefly met Jonah's gaze and then shifted back to Anna. "You know I don't know how to be a friend."
"You don't have to. You are." Anna's violet eyes held hers, steady. "You think that I don't know? You think I didn't pump David for information?"
When she reached up, Mina found her hand taken again. This time she found herself squeezing back, hard, and it wasn't because of the labor pain. It was a shared something Mina couldn't define, the thing that had always lain between the two of them. Not between the daughter of Arianne and the seawitch, but between Mina and Anna. Something she realized she valued.
A light smile played on Anna's lips now. "It's actually really easy to get David to talk. He's so in love with you. And you know, maybe we're not so different, the dark and light thing. I do think about murdering Jonah about once a week."
"You do not," Jonah objected.
"I do, too. You're overbearing and stubborn most of the time, but I love you anyway. And now you'll have someone else to be overprotective about."
"He'll have a whole battalion assigned to her all the time," David observed while Raphael hid a smile.
"Keep it up, and I'll make you the head of that detail." But then Jonah's gaze softened on his wife as she worked through another contraction. "All right?"
She nodded and lifted her chin, which he responded to by leaning forward and taking her lips in a long kiss, while she put her hand up to stroke through his hair. "It's going to be okay," she murmured against his lips, then broke the kiss to smile at a discomfited Mina.
"You can't make a joke out of the Dark Ones."
Anna sobered. "How can we do anything else, with the way our lives have been? I'm about to have a baby." A fierceness came into the expectant mother's face. "She is going to be happy and safe, because I just won't tolerate any other possibility. And you, you and David have each other now, you see? Someone loves you and is watching out for you."
"Putting up with her," David added. Mina shifted a narrow gaze to him.
"He's an idiot," she retorted.
"An idiot over you," Anna laughed.
"Shut up and have this kid already. I have things to do." Mina aimed her attention at Jonah. "You may not have noticed, but he has his wings back. So he's coming back to you. To the Legion."
Jonah blinked. Did a double take. "I'm thinking about it," David amended. "I've not decided on it yet."
"Your place will be there," Jonah said at last, giving an assessing, thoughtful glance to the bicolored wings.
"It's hard sometimes, worrying about them fighting. But it's what they do, isn't it?" Mina could tell Anna was trying not to look at Raphael's sober expression and worry. "And I suspect before long, you'll be helping them fight in some way. There are big plans in the universe for you, I think. Oh, here comes another."
Raphael took over the conversation then, thankfully, and Mina moved to Anna's opposite side as Jonah took a place on an underwater rock ledge, holding Anna in the cradle of his embrace to help her push, breathe and follow the healer's instruction.
As the birthing process happened, Mina let her gaze pass over them. Jonah, so absorbed in his wife, sharing every pain with her, every smile. Raphael, calm and capable but in his element, knowing just what to do, thank the Goddess for him.
And David. Just behind her in the water, his hand on the small of her back, a reassuring touch. It was an amazing moment, for her mind could not help but go back to the birth of Anna so long ago, the terrible chain of events it unleashed, but which somehow had led to this, a very different moment.
"Don't let your head get all big about that comment," David murmured, his hand on her hip. "I'm not a complete idiot about you. You can be a terrible pain in the ass. And I have thought about murdering you in your sleep."
She turned her face to his throat. "Anna defines that as love, I think."
"Loving Jonah, for sure," he said. He pressed a kiss to her temple, but then they shared a collective gasp as the merchild slid into the water in a burst of loosened scales that spun away like coins sparkling in the water.
Raphael caught her deftly, holding her beneath the water's surface. Mina knew a merinfant took additional moments to orient its gills and lungs, so they couldn't breathe above water for the first few moments. The healing angel made u
se of the time to clean off the afterbirth, clean out the nostrils and mouth. Since Jonah was still holding his wife, Raphael looked to Mina. "I think she wanted you to hold her first."
Mina nodded. Conscious of the anxious gaze of a mother and the tension of a father, she slid her hands beneath the small body, still attached to her mother by the umbilical cord. Something soft and downy pressed into her palms, and she realized she was feeling tiny fledgling wings. Gods. A merangel. As she looked down, the baby's blue eyes opened, stared at her.
She couldn't help it. Not knowing the how or why, tears began spilling down her cheeks. David was holding her shoulders, steadying her, giving her the love that was so easy to him, so precious to her.
"All right, then. Let's take her up." Raphael, rather than taking her away, put his hands beneath Mina's and together they brought the baby up. Blinking through her tears, Mina focused, focused hard. She didn't find the trace of dark shadowing that had been the sigil of the self-destructive magic within every daughter of Arianne. It just... wasn't there. She shifted her glance to Anna's white face, shook her head.
"She'll be a shifter, like you, but whatever magical ability she'll have will be pure. And learned." She swallowed, wondering why her voice was trembling, why she was willing to offer hope, which she'd never believed in before. "It's a very good sign the curse is broken."
"Oh. Oh, thank the Goddess." Anna's face began streaming as Jonah's arms closed over her, his face pressed into her neck as she slid her fingers into his hair and tightened fiercely, the two of them taking the hope she offered and making it part of the love they already shared.
While they did that, Raphael guided Mina to lay the child on Anna's breast. Even the Prime Legion Commander looked somewhat choked up as they released each other to greet their daughter for the first time. He touched her tiny hand with one enormous finger.
Anna looked at Mina again. "If the curse is truly broken, then it would be broken for you as well. You no longer are bound to protect me."
A Witch's Beauty Page 39