by Honor James
“I just don’t like stairs,” he said. “Never have, likely never will. Not when I can just pop place to place. It’s so much easier, less of a strain on my fabulous body and all that.”
Drake let out a snort behind her. He said something, likely to the baby, but it was too soft for her to hear.
“I heard that,” Volos snapped. “That wasn’t a very nice thing to say to the little one about her daddy Volos. Come on, really?”
“Can’t help it if you’re a pansy. I just wanted her to know it now instead of discovering it later and crashing from the overwhelming disappointment of it all.”
Azure laughed. “Oh lord.” She looked back at Drake and the babe. “Don’t listen to them, sweets. They both will love you like crazy. You have two remarkable daddies who are going to love you like crazy.” She hesitated and then grinned. “Rain. Her name should be Rain. What do the two of you think?” She liked it. It seemed to suit the little one, even though she was likely of the fire race of Draygons.
“Works for me,” Drake said.
Volos was quiet for a flight. “I like it,” he agreed. “It’s a pretty name, and one that you can mess around with the spelling to make it unique or super easy. So many options. It suits, I think.”
“I think so, too. For now, though”—she paused in the stairwell and put her back to the wall—“I think that I am going to puke.” She hated to side with Volos, but she hated stairs, too. “How much further do we have to go?” she asked as she gasped for air.
“Uh, about another four flights,” Volos said. He looked at her, or she thought he did. His head was pointed her general direction. “You want to go the rest of the way in a piggyback?” he asked.
“Good lord.” She looked up and sighed. “No. After giving you crap, I seriously shouldn’t take the easy way out,” she told him, and sighed. “Oh, you could pop us upstairs, right? Why don’t you do that? I will even step away from you before puking this time.”
“I could, but that’s also the easy way out,” Volos pointed out. Damned Vhampire didn’t even have the decency to sound winded. “If you want to pop out, I could take us right to the car instead and you can puke in the garbage can that is near the bumper. Drake can flutter on down when he gets up top. By then, you should be fine for us to leave.”
“Easy way out for us it is. But this way, it’s me taking the easy way out so that Drake can’t give you crap.” She moved closer to Volos. At least, she thought she did. “Take me out of here.” It was a sad and horrifying place. The deaths that had occurred still clung to the building walls like a coat of paint. “I need fresh air, hurry.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. Stepping into her, he wrapped his arms around her. “Hold on, sweetheart. Drake, see you soon.”
“You will hear much about this later, Azy. I can’t believe you two,” Drake muttered.
Volos chuckled softly, and then the urge to throw up hit her hard.
Azure pulled away from Volos quickly and barely made it to the trash cans before she threw up. Then the scents of the trash hit her and she threw up again and again until she had nothing left. She was left with her energy flagging and her whole body shaking. Stepping from the can, she walked into Volos’s waiting arms and buried her face against his chest. “Now I just need a toothbrush, toothpaste, a gallon of mouthwash and then life will be good. Right?”
“Absolutely,” he said quietly. She was soothed by the fact he stroked her hair, rocking her gently back and forth in his arms. “Here comes Drake,” he told her.
“Azy, are you all right, sweetheart?” her Draygon asked. The heat of his body was close to her back, his large hand soon resting on her shoulder to squeeze gently.
“I’m good.” Azy turned slightly and smiled at the inquisitive baby that looked at her. “It’s just the whole popping thing, and then the dead thing. Just seriously not good on my stomach.” She shrugged and closed her eyes again. “Can we go home, please? Stopping long enough for a car seat, formula and ginger ale for me?” She added “car seat” for the safety of the child. “Wait, will she be okay in a carrier, car seat, whatever they are called? I want little Rain to be safe.”
“She will be fine in one. They have the ones that go from ‘infant’ up to a few years old, at which point they can then sit in the seat properly. We’ll get her all the supplies needed. Volos, you’d better drive. Azy, you sit up front in the passenger seat and I’ll sit in the back with Rain out of sight. No need to be pulled over and try to explain why we have a baby that’s not ours to an overeager policeman.”
“Good point. I meant, will she be okay with her being so hot? You know, melting things?” She just wanted the child to be safe, not melt the seat and be harmed even more by something that should have kept her safe. “Can you reach her mind? I don’t know if she’s developed enough that possibly you can use your Prince mojo on her and read her, get her to understand what you are doing? Something?” Something to let the baby know she was safe and would never again be harmed.
“Prince mojo?” Volos asked. His lips were twitching but he appeared to be valiantly attempting not to laugh.
Drake was staring at her like she was speaking some foreign language. “Azy, I love you, sweetheart, but really?” Clicking his tongue he cupped her face. “I think someone needs a nap time.”
“I think that I do as well. Maybe Rain will cuddle up and nap with me,” Azure said and pulled back. “And yes, I said mojo. It’s a word I heard one of the humans using. I figured that the word would be appropriate right now. You using your abilities, so your mojo, to talk to Rain.”
“We need to get you home,” he said, smiling at her. “Come on, Azy, into the vehicle before the AEDA descends on us, trapping us with an increasingly hungry baby Draygon. Of a race that isn’t supposed to exist, if everyone will recall.”
“Shoot.” Azure moved from Drake quickly. Into the vehicle she went, and waited for the others. “Come on, boys. We need to stop and get our daughter food, a car seat, clothes, and then we are taking her home. I don’t want to spend another night on this world with her, if you wouldn’t mind.” Azure was already thinking of ways to protect the child, keep her safe, always. “We will need to find guards for her, ones that will be hers as Maurice and Graven have always been mine. She will be a Princess of two worlds. She will need to be protected as the treasure she is.”
“Yes, dear,” Volos said with a huge grin. He chuckled when she shot him a look. “What? I’m getting into the role here. Though, I like the idea of a couple of Draygons for her guards. They are pretty damn indestructible, after all,” he said as both he and Drake joined her in the SUV.
“With her being Draygon, female at that, it’s going to be necessary. Finding the right ones, though, will be a challenge.”
“Then we will assign Maurice and Graven to her until we have found her the proper guards. Although, to be honest, I don’t want to spend much time from her. If she’s going to be our daughter, I want her to know it and not live as I had to. I was apart from my father far more often than I chose to be. I never want that for a child of ours, Rain, or any that we might be blessed with one day. I only want the best for them, and who better than us?” she asked with a grin.
“We are pretty awesome,” Volos said. He pulled away from the curb just as they heard the first echoes of the sirens bouncing off the buildings around them. “AEDA’s a little late,” he commented with a frown. “I gave them directions. Obviously, someone didn’t bother to follow them correctly.”
“Or”—Azure turned in her seat and looked forward—“someone inside of the AEDA is looking for ways to ensure that we fail.” She didn’t like saying that, but the one time they told the AEDA where the danger was and where the dead were trapped was one time when no one was able to get out alive, Human or Races.
“Someone could be playing the middle,” he said with a slow nod. “Maybe working with these freaks to trap the Races, maybe even doing the trapping for them. We need to warn the local Captain,”
he said.
“Agreed. He’s a good man and won’t stand for that shit happening in the agency. Not a second time around,” Drake said. “Oh, up there, hit that big-ass place. They should have everything we need all in one go, Volos.”
“I see it.” He nodded. “Shit, I’m going to have to get up to the corner and come back at it. Damn medians randomly put in the way of people on non-busy roads. Who the hell plans this crap, anyway?”
“Don’t look at me. I’m not from this world,” Azure said with a frown. She looked back at Drake and the sleeping baby and smiled. “I am going to have to go in alone. I hope that I will be able to get her size correct.” Volos was driving and Drake was holding the baby, so that left her to go in to do the shopping. It only made sense. “This way, Volos will be able to park at the doors and you can wait for me.”
“You’ll need his chip to pay for things,” Drake said. “So he goes in with you. Besides all that, you aren’t going into a huge store alone this close to the place we just busted people out of and smacked a shit-load of humans around in. You go nowhere on this planet alone, Azy. Not now, not ever.”
Sighing, Azy nodded. “Okay, but only because I don’t have a chip. If we are going to spend more time on this land, I should likely get one.” She never had, because there had never been a need. She always had her guard with her, and she had never been to a world where she would have to pay for things. “I hadn’t thought of payment,” she added with a blush and shrug of her shoulders. “Will you and Rain be all right out here alone?”
“I think we will manage. She’s starting to calm down finally, but don’t take too long. She’s hungry and would likely be appreciative of clothing. Don’t forget some diapers as well,” Drake told her. “Formula, car seat, diapers, clothing, wipes, baby-safe shampoo, and anything else you think she needs. Get her a soother as well, love. She’ll probably appreciate having something to gnaw on now and again.”
"She won’t get sick on a soother, will she? I mean, she can’t bite through one, right?” Azure was worried for the babe. “Okay, we will get her normal baby things and then we will figure out what will and won’t work with her. We will be back as quickly as possible.” She touched the babe’s forehead and smiled. “She’s beautiful.” The child really was gorgeous. She had mops of curly, flame-red hair and a complexion as pale as porcelain. She was stunning.
“Twenty minutes, tops. If we are lucky, I will learn quickly how to make her a bottle so she can be fed as we travel back to the—Oh, crap. The AEDA. How will we explain her? And I refuse to allow anyone to know she’s a Draygon babe. Shoot. I really wish now that I would have listened when Graven and Maurice told me where we could cross without going into the AEDA.”
Volos snorted at that. “Don’t even worry about it. We know all the places to get through the Veil, places the AEDA, human police, and the general public will never know about. Besides, we have a key right there,” he said, jerking his thumb to the back seat, and Drake. “Let’s go, we have shopping to do.” Sliding out of the truck, he took her hand as she exited the vehicle.
Chapter Eleven
“Holy hell, are you trying to tell me that one little person needs all this shit?” Volos asked in horror. He was staring at the cart she had practically stuffed to the gills. “Azy, there’s no way something so tiny needs even a third of this. Is there?”
“Yes, she needs all of it, and she will need more,” Azy assured Volos for the fourth time. “We have gotten enough formula so that we will be able to feed her here, and then when we get to Drake’s home world, we will switch her food source out so that the wee babe will get all that she needs, nutrient-wise. Don’t look so worried, Volos. I can assure you that each and every single item will be used, and used well.”
“Good Gods,” he muttered. Shaking his head he started pushing the cart toward the checkout once more. “I never knew that babies were so, so…Hell, I have no idea where I was going with that thought.”
“It’s perfectly fine. Yes, babies will require a great deal of items in their lives and they will be things that the child will outgrow quickly, but she needs them and therefore we will supply them. The little princess deserves nothing but the best of the best. Period.”
“Hey, I’m not arguing with you, sweetheart. So don’t go ‘protective momma’ on me. I’m on your side. I’ve never been around younglings. I was an only child, no cousins, and no friends that ever had babies while I was around them. So, deep breath, smile at your mate, and maybe my poor balls will reappear sometime this century.”
“I’m sorry,” Azure said, and moved so that she could hug Volos. “It wasn’t my intention to go all overprotective and stuff, but I don’t know. I guess I did.” That had her grinning. “I think that I’m going to enjoy being a mom. Now, if only the wee babe would let me hold her.”
“She will once she’s in a safe place, somewhere she knows she’s safe. Until she gets a bit older, though, you need to be careful. Any time she gets upset, her internal temperature will rise and she’ll be too hot for you to hold. So always check before scooping her up in your arms,” he said quietly.
“I will try.” Azy didn’t like the thought of having to take time before scooping her child up, at least a child that she was accepting as her own. “I don’t know if I will like it or not, or if I will think about it. Especially if she falls and hurts herself. That will break my heart to have to take a moment before taking her into my arms.”
“Kids fall. It’s part of learning and growing. You can’t coddle them all the time, sweetheart. Sometimes you have to just let them fall, and pick themselves up.” Volos stopped and grinned. “Damn, that was deep. I need to write that down.”
Azure shook her head and grinned. “I’m sure that you will recall it because it was good. It was also heartfelt, and I will try. I really will. I want her to know she can face the world down herself without worry, but I also want her to know we will always be there for her.”
“She will know that, love. She will know how and when to fight her own battles, and when they become too much, she’ll know she can come to us. We’re not tossing her out into the world, Azy. She’ll be trained, she’ll be taught, she’ll be loved and then one day, she will go out into the world on her own two feet.”
“Good, now let’s get checked out and out of here. We are close to the time that I gave to Drake, and we both know he will come in searching for us, should we tarry too long.” Azy was ready to get back out and to Drake and Rain. She was feeling the overriding urgency to get the girl to the other side of the Veil as quickly as they possibly could.
“He is rather paranoid, isn’t he?” he asked. With a mighty groan, he got the cart moving again. It wasn’t that heavy, she knew it wasn’t, but her Vhampire did like to mess with her. He shot her a grin over his shoulder as he got the cart into place to check their items through. “Grab some bags for the smaller items, love. We’ll need to do the big ones first to get them onto the scale thing there and stack everything on top of them.”
Azy did as instructed and before she knew it, they were pushing their cart laden with bags of items for the babe out to the parking lot.
While Volos got the car seat settled into the back, Azure made up a bottle for the baby and looked to Drake. “Can I feed her? Think she will settle enough so that I can ensure that she’s fed, changed and clean?”
He nodded with a smile. “She’s calmed considerably since we left the building. She’s still a little warm, but only a couple of degrees above average for a human child. Come around this side, Azy, and take her.”
Azy did just that. She moved to the other side and looked up at Drake. “Okay, give me our little girl so that I can feed her. As soon as she’s no longer hungry, we will put her in her seat and head toward wherever you boys are talking about to take her home.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” he said. Smiling at her, he eased the small bundle into her arms. “Got her?” he asked. At her nod, he moved out of her way and to hel
p Volos load the SUV. “By the Gods, did you buy the store out?”
“Sure as hell seems like it,” Volos muttered. “Apparently, children need all this stuff.”
“Yes, she does,” Azy said as she looked down at the little girl. “You are too precious by half. Rain, you are such a wonderful child and such an amazing gift. I can’t wait to tell you of the heritage that you have been born into.” She spoke to the child as she fed her from the bottle, stroking her finger along the jawline of the child to get her to slow just a bit before she got an upset stomach.
“She has a good appetite,” Drake commented as he rounded the vehicle again. “Don’t feed her too much, though. She’s not been fed well during her captivity, so we need to take care she doesn’t gorge and make herself ill.”
“Believe me, I know.” Azy hadn’t made the babe a full bottle and she was slowing down as she ate. “We will have to work with her so she realizes that she will never go hungry again. That she will never feel pain again, either, as long as we can help it.”
“She is young enough that the memories will fade quickly. For now, we hold her, love her, be with her often,” he said softly. “Why don’t you get in the back with her? I’ll ride up front with Volos so we find our spot on the first try instead of driving around all night.”
“Hey, that was faulty directions from my so-called navigator.”
Drake snorted. “I gave you clear and concise directions. Not my fault you couldn’t find your own ass with a map, four Sherpas and a bloodhound.”
Azure laughed. The baby looked around, and then she smirked. “Hey now, watch the language, Daddies,” she grumbled. “If our little girl starts to cuss, I’m so going to beat both of you. I mean it,” she teased them. “Isn’t that right, darling girl? If your daddies rub off on you, we will beat them.”
Volos snorted at that, climbing into the passenger seat. “You’d better warn everyone else as well, then. Because we’re not the only ones who tend to use those words. Though, technically, ‘ass’ isn’t actually a swear word. Depending on the usage, of course.”