by Jenna Kernan
Ron nodded. “Me, too. You know I’d never hurt you, right, pumpkin?”
“I know.”
Sebastian shifted uncomfortably.
“My heart gave out. Couldn’t take the strain. It’s been giving me the devil’s time for years.”
“I’ve been waiting for him.” Maggie nudged Ron, who moved just like he would have if he still had his body. “He always keeps me waiting.”
The two faced each other, touching foreheads. Maggie remembered Michaela first. “You’ll be all right now without us, won’t you? We won’t go if you need us.”
“I’ll be fine.” Michaela was surprised to get the words out without crying. “I’ll miss you both.”
“Care to see us off?” asked Maggie.
She nodded and spoke to Sebastian. “They want us to see them off.”
He frowned.
The ghosts wandered toward the tree line, stepping right beside Ron’s body without a glance.
Michaela had to stop. “Ron?”
They paused.
“What about…?” She pointed.
“Oh, that.” He frowned at his body as if regarding some nuisance. “Bury it beside Maggie’s grave.”
“I will.”
They were off again and she followed, leading Sebastian along through the line of trees to the stream beyond.
“Far enough,” said Maggie.
Michaela gripped Sebastian around the waist.
“I wish I could kiss you goodbye,” said Michaela.
“Me, too, sweetheart. We’ll see you again. You take good care of those babies. You hear? I know you’ll be a terrific mom.”
Michaela’s gaze shot to Sebastian for his reaction.
Chapter 27
Michaela held her breath as she stared at Sebastian, waiting for his reaction to the news that he was to be a father. It was not until he gave none that she recalled he could not hear Maggie’s words. She alone could hear ghosts.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Ron and Maggie clasped both hands and faced each other as if about to join in marriage. Their bodies grew transparent, like air and water.
“Wait,” called Michaela.
But they were gone.
She leaned against Sebastian. “I wanted to tell them I love them.”
“They know that already,” he assured her.
She sniffled a few moments as he stroked her back. Gradually she returned to herself and to him.
Michaela lifted her tearstained face to him, her mouth open in astonishment.
“Look where we are.”
He glanced down at the blueberry patch.
She lifted her hands to his shoulders and pressed her damp face to his chest. “This is where we first met.”
“And now you’re whole again,” he said, trying to stand straight, like the man he would never be.
“Thanks to you.” When he did not return her smile, her own faded.
He grasped her chin. “No, little rabbit. It is your power that renders him blind. Not mine. You don’t need me anymore.”
Her eyes widened as the implication of his words struck her.
“I do need you,” she insisted.
He tried for a reassuring smile and failed. “It’s time for you to seek your own people, go to your father’s family in Montana and begin your training with your father.”
“No! I want to stay with you.”
“But you cannot live in my world and I am not welcome in yours.”
“You don’t love me?” Her pitiful voice nearly made him weep.
“It does not matter.”
“It is all that matters.”
Should he tell her the truth—that he had loved her since the day he first picked her up and could not put her down? No, this would make their parting more difficult.
“What can I say to make you believe me? I love you with all my heart, Sebastian.”
She reached for him and he stepped back. Her hands fell to her sides.
“Don’t leave me over something I can’t control. I didn’t choose to be Niyanoka. I won’t be if it means losing you.”
“We cannot change what we are.”
“But we can choose who we love.”
“It’s not love, rabbit. It is need you feel, that’s all. But you don’t need me anymore.”
“Stay,” she begged.
“So you can outgrow me?” He shook his head. “No.”
Her expression turned fierce. “This isn’t about me, is it? It doesn’t matter how much I love you, because you’re not good enough. You’re ready to throw me away because you’re too stubborn to accept that you might deserve to be loved.”
He stared at her in speechless astonishment. No one had ever spoken to him like this. His scowl deepened as he recognized that she was right. He didn’t deserve her. He’d thought so from the start.
“Animals only believe their senses. That right?” Her posture and her glower challenged him.
“That is so,” he said, feeling his conviction shaken by the thunderclap she laid on him.
She pulled up her sweater and then grabbed his hand, pressing it to the warm, soft skin of her belly. Her voice held its hard edge. “Well, then, chew on this—I’m pregnant.”
His world tilted as this lightning strike rocked him. “What?”
“I’m carrying your babies.”
He stared at her upturned face. “It’s not possible.”
“Because only a woman who loves you can bear your child?”
He nodded.
She pressed harder on his hand. “Well, I’m carrying twins.”
He closed his eyes and knew it was so. Felt it in her thoughts, emotions. Her father had told her this in her dreams.
Sebastian’s grip slackened, and he swayed at the internal wind that ripped through him, sweeping away all his beliefs in an instant.
“Could it be so?” He dared to hope.
“Ask Bess. She sees them, I’m sure of it, or their auras.”
“But Niyanoka and Inanoka cannot couple. We are different species.”
“Well, somebody got that wrong, too.”
The truth she had been telling him showered down on him like warm rain. He clasped her to him, sending the air from her lungs. He loosened his grip and rocked her gently. Joy, pure and sweet, bubbled within him, but it tempered when he felt her uncertainty. He drew back to look into her upturned anxious face.
“Sebastian, I need to know how you feel about me.” She stiffened and braced herself with her chin high, as if waiting for a blow.
He kissed her, once, twice and then a third time, until she was breathless.
“Little rabbit, you have my heart as long as it is beating.”
She shook her head. “Not good enough. I want you here and in the Spirit World.”
He pulled her close. “Then we will walk that trail together.”
“Yes,” she sighed. “Together.”
He drew back as another worry jabbed at him. “What will our children be, Skinwalkers or Children of the Spirit?”
“Does it matter? We’ll love them, whatever they are.”
He drew her into his arms for another kiss, thinking the world was suddenly sweeter than ever in his memory. She lifted her hands to his shoulders and pressed her damp face to his chest.
She hugged him, sending a warm wave of happiness radiating through him. How could he be so lucky, to win the heart of such a woman?
He held her in his arms, closing his eyes against the unfamiliar burning. His breathing came in a ragged gasp, as if some unseen force closed his windpipe.
Michaela drew back to look up at him.
“Sebastian, are you crying?”
He lifted a hand to his eye and it came back wet. “I never have before.”
“Why now?”
“I can’t believe my fortune. I never dreamed to find a woman who would love a great beast like me.”
She hugged him fiercely, then drew back to give him a smile full of all
the promises she had made him, and he knew she would keep every one.
“I never expected to find a man I could trust. But I do, with all my heart.”
He glanced at the low bushes sprinkled with plump berries. He drew a heavy sigh as new uncertainties buzzed within like bees.
She stood waiting before him, a hopeful expression on her sweet face.
He shifted uneasily, thinking of their future together. “I’ve never been a father before.”
“You’ll be great.”
Nagi billowed at the core of his world. Far on the horizon, the ghosts streamed by in their endless circle, giving him a pleasant and constant breeze. But the view never changed.
Another Seer in the world and now her trail was lost. He would need good luck to find her again.
He tried to satisfy himself with the knowledge that he was timeless, while she had only a few short centuries on earth. She would die and he would try again.
He straightened.
But what if she had offspring? She might raise a nest of Seers. He needed to kill her now—would have already, if not for that meddlesome Inanoka. Their races had not worked together since before the war. It did not bode well for him.
Halflings. They were so smug in their powers, walking on earth, but privy to the workings of the universe. They were not very powerful, but they did have life and that was something he longed for.
The idea struck him fully formed. He contracted at the genius of it and waited while he searched for flaws. No, it could work and it would be so easy. Any female would do.
No—not any. She must be strong, big, powerful. Like a female buffalo. But human, yes, human.
If Niyan could father a Halfling race and the great oaf Tob Tob could sire herds or litters or whatever he called his Halfling horde, then why couldn’t he do the same?
Children of Nagi. They would be powerful.
He had gone about this all wrong. Using possession to take the living, using ghosts, it was not the same as actually being alive. More like a simulation than the real deal. You couldn’t touch or taste or smell.
But to go into a human female and impregnate her—yes. That was something. His own children would be resilient. They could overcome man, despite the Niyanoka. Those hippie freaks hadn’t faced a real threat since the Inanoka attacked them. Excising ghosts, healing injured minds and helping humans regain control of their silly little lives. What a joke.
His offspring would give them a real challenge. How many children could he sire in just one month’s time?
He ungulated with delight.
It was good to have a plan.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4485-0
DREAM STALKER
Copyright © 2009 by Jeannette H. Monaco
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