by R. E. Butler
Merrix came into the kitchen and kissed her. “Any good messages?”
She told him about her parents and the others.
“I’ll call Mishka and see if he wants to meet tonight still, but after we meet with Grace. She’s on her way and will meet us at the club. They’ve also got some good news about the exam and delivery room issue.”
“Oh, you mean where I’m going to give birth?” she asked.
“Yep. We’ll meet her in the reception area.”
“Okay.” She finished her steaks and then video called her parents.
Her mom’s face appeared after two rings. “Aeryn! I’m so glad you called. You look well. Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
She smiled, and tears stung her eyes again. “I’m really good, Mom, thanks. I got your message.”
“Well, I feel just terrible that it took something awful happening to you to get me to realize that my behavior was wrong. I can’t tell you how badly I feel that I could’ve lost you, and you would’ve believed that your dad and I hated you.” Her dad appeared in the frame.
“Hi, Dad.”
“You’re well?”
“Yes. Merrix took great care of me.”
“But Cyrus said you freed yourself,” her dad said.
“Yes, but it was Merrix’s military training that helped me take out the males who abducted me, and without him, the tracker wouldn’t have been able to locate me at the school.”
“We’re thankful you’re okay, and we’re doubly thankful to Merrix for getting you home safe,” her mom said.
“You can tell him yourself,” Aeryn said, moving to the family room where Merrix was sitting on the couch.
She sat next to him and held out the phone so they were both in the frame. “Hello,” Merrix said.
“We wanted to thank you for getting our daughter home safely,” her dad said.
“And we wanted to apologize for our behavior. We’re happy to welcome you into the family, Merrix.”
“It’s my duty as her mate to keep her safe,” he said, “but thank you for the apology and welcome.”
“We’d like to have a visit soon,” her mom said. “Both of you, of course.”
“Maybe next week?” Aeryn said.
“Anytime, just let us know.”
“I love you guys.”
“We love you too,” her mom said, her dad echoing the sentiment. The call ended, and Aeryn rested her head on Merrix’s shoulder.
“That was nice of them to apologize,” he said. “It’s too bad you had to get abducted for them to realize what idiots they were being.”
“I know, right?” She chuckled. “What’s up with Mishka?”
“Grace is on her way, but it’ll take her another half hour or so to get here, so we can meet with him first. Ready?”
“You bet.”
They left their apartment and entered the club, heading for the War Room, which Aeryn had never been in. She’d heard about it when she’d been tasked once with creating a catering order of frozen SyBl for the War Room, but she hadn’t done the delivery.
Merrix held open the door for her, and she smiled when she saw Mishka and Harmony sitting at the head of a long table.
Harmony stood and hugged Aeryn. “You’re well?”
“Very,” she said. “Thank you.”
“We’re thankful you’re safe and back home,” Mishka said.
“Me too,” Aeryn said.
Mishka gestured to the chairs, and she and Merrix took their seats. Aeryn’s gaze immediately went to the table where three books waited. They looked old, judging by the worn covers and yellowed pages, and she could pick up the scent of dust and mold.
Mishka touched one of the books. “I don’t know if you’re aware, but Kelly and Bellamin called me last night after they were on the way home with the caravan and asked if they could still go to the archives to search out the books related to Valkyries.”
Aeryn’s brows rose. “I didn’t know.”
“They’re sweet like that,” Harmony said.
“Generally, my collections don’t leave the archives, but this was a special request, and I granted it. They found only three books about Valkyries. It’s not to say there aren’t more or that there isn’t information related to them in other books, but this is what was located for now. You can take these books for as long as you need them, I just ask that you be careful. They’re irreplaceable.”
Aeryn picked a book up. “Wow, it’s heavy.”
“The old books usually are,” Mishka said.
The title of the book was Unique Creatures and Oddities. Her brows rose. “Someone thinks Valkyries are creatures?”
“Well, it was most likely written by a human,” Mishka said. “And it’s at least six hundred years old.”
“Thank you so much,” she said. She stacked the three books and then said, “Can I ask you about the church?”
“What about it?” Mishka asked.
“Will...Jason retaliate because I killed Sean?”
“Most definitely,” Mishka said. “I wouldn’t try to sugarcoat the situation in any form, my dear. You caused great harm to the church, including taking out the head of the Cleveland branch. That would’ve infuriated Jason regardless, but then adding in the fact that it was his brother who was killed and the opportunity for him to kill publicly one of our own to prove his point was ruined. Who knows what will happen?” Mishka shrugged. “The male is unbalanced, which is why it’s so difficult for us to figure out his next step.”
“I wish I hadn’t made things worse,” Aeryn said.
“Don’t feel that way,” Harmony said. “You did what you had to do. And speaking as someone who also killed one of Jason’s relatives, I can tell you that the guilt is misplaced. You saved yourself, your baby, and your mate. No one faults you for anything that Jason may do in retaliation.”
Merrix squeezed Aeryn’s hand. “Was any information gathered from the cell phones of the church members?”
“Yes, quite a lot, actually,” Mishka said. “We were able to get contact information for what we believe are more church members, as well as the video that was taken of Aeryn before she freed herself. We thought he might have live-streamed the video, but he only recorded it. The video chat between Jason and Sean was recorded, and we have that too. I can cue them up if you want to watch.”
Aeryn shook her head. “Nuh-uh. I don’t want to see myself killing anyone. Or reliving that in any way.”
“Sweetheart,” Merrix said.
She smiled at him and picked up the books as she stood. “You can watch. I think you should, so you know what happened. But I don’t want to be here when you do.”
“I’ll watch it another time,” he said. “We have an appointment.”
“No, you should stay,” Aeryn said. “I’ll wait in the office.”
“I can take you to the exam room,” Harmony offered. “I’d love to show it to you. Cella and I did the decorating.”
“Sounds perfect,” Aeryn said.
Mishka cleared his throat, and she looked at him. “When you’re up to it, we need a full account of what you went through. A statement such as you’d give to the human police, except it’s only for our records.”
“Okay.”
“There’s no rush,” Mishka added.
“I’ll let you know,” she said. She kissed Merrix and thanked Mishka for the books.
Following Harmony out of the War Room, she said, “Did you feel guilty when you killed his sister?”
“For a while. I had to tap into the dark nature of my power to set myself free. The consequence was that I couldn’t differentiate between the enemy and the family when they came to help me. I could’ve killed Mishka and the others. It was Mishka’s quick thinking that stopped my power.” She mused on that for a moment. “I think that made me feel worse. That I might have killed my beloved and essentially doomed myself. I made peace with it. There isn’t anyone in the church with good intentions, let me tell you. They’re
all evil, and they’d kill you rather than look at you. You can feel guilty because you took a life, but don’t let it eat you alive. Make sure to talk to Merrix and anyone else about your feelings and reach out to me anytime. I’d be happy to talk.”
“Thanks. I think it’s still sinking in. But I don’t want to drown in the bad feelings.”
“Good for you.”
They reached a secured stairwell. Harmony unlocked the door and let Aeryn inside. The band lived in three apartments, but there were more on the floor, including two that were attached.
“Ready to see where you’ll get to meet your baby in a few months?” Harmony asked.
“Definitely.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lahn had just closed his eyes to sleep when he was roused from bed by whispers. They were the demonic sort of whispers, the ones that accompanied his descent into dark magic. He’d been unnerved by them at first, but as he gained more power, he realized he could use the whispers to gather information for him. In essence, they were demons that hung around this realm, congregating where bad people did bad things.
Not that Lahn believed he was a bad person. Far from it. He was the poster boy for doing the right thing and avenging past wrongs.
He sat up in bed and closed his eyes, drawing on his power so he could commune with the spirits that surrounded him. He heard their whispers clearly—someone was putting out feelers for a contract killing. The intended dead? Him and Jude. It took only moments for him to piece together what had transpired to cause the two of them to become assassin targets.
Based on the information Lahn had given Jason about a potential new mate in the coven, Jason had ordered the female captured, and Sean had planned to kill her on video and declare anyone associated with the coven would see the same end. It was bold. And kind of dumb. Because it turned out the female in question was a tigress, and she slaughtered Sean and the seven males with him.
Lahn let out a sigh. He so didn’t need this right now. He had things to do. Power to gather. Vengeance to mete out.
He got Jason’s whereabouts from the demons and then waved them away. He found his sister asleep in bed. He debated waking her up, but decided to let her sleep. She did a lot for him, gave up a lot to stay by his side and keep an eye out for him. She was a warrior, and he was supremely blessed to have her by his side.
He mused for a moment that it was possible his descent to the darkness had not rotted him away entirely because of her. She kept him in the light. At least a little bit anyway. Aside from vengeance against the falcon king, Jude was the only thing he cared about in the world. It was bad enough that the asshole church leader wanted him dead, but to go after Jude? Well, that wouldn’t stand.
He headed into his room to gather weapons. He didn’t anticipate needing to hurt Jason so long as he got rid of his kill order, but he never went anywhere without being prepared for the worst-case scenario.
Ten minutes later, he was ready to go through a portal.
Lahn called his power and opened a portal to Jason’s location. The male thought he was well hidden, and he was from humans and most supernatural creatures, but his location wasn’t a secret from Lahn. He could pretty much find anyone, anywhere. Except for the damn falcon king, who was somehow preventing his exact location from being revealed. But Lahn would think about that another time.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jason demanded as he rose from his seat on the couch, a glass of liquor shattering as it hit the floor.
“Calm down,” Lahn said. “I came to talk.”
“How did you get here?” Jason asked.
“You were told that I could find you, so why are you surprised?” Lahn asked. “At any rate, I’m here because I know you put out feelers on the dark web for someone to kill Jude and me.”
Jason was quiet for a moment, and then he said, “Sean is dead because of you!”
“No, he’s not,” Lahn said. “He’s dead because he didn’t investigate the female further. If he’d done more research, if he hadn’t been so gung-ho on killing her on video and making an example of her, he would’ve found out she wasn’t human.”
“You should’ve told me she wasn’t human,” Jason said.
“I didn’t know,” Lahn said, “and it wasn’t my job to tell you anything about her. I told you there was a potential new mate in the coven. It was your duty to ferret out what you could before you took action, so you didn’t make any mistakes.”
Jason looked like he would argue, but then he slumped back down on the couch and rubbed the space between his eyes. “Sean was always impulsive.”
“So, your brother’s arrogance is a reason to put a contract out on us? You know I can kill you right now, right?”
“No! Don’t!” Jason put his hands up. “I’m sorry. I–I lashed out in my grief. Surely you can relate.”
“That’s neither here nor there,” Lahn said. “Remove the inquiries for the hit on us, and I’ll help you retaliate against the coven.”
“Done,” Jason said. He picked up his phone and barked orders at his assistant, Pamela, who appeared a few minutes later, looking haggard with her hair all mussed and dark circles under her eyes. Jason explained what he needed her to do and sent her to call the person they hired to send out the feelers on the dark web for the hit.
Lahn was glad that he’d left Jude home, not only because he hadn’t been sure what he’d be portaling into in Jason’s safe house, but also because he had an idea to attack the coven. Jude was pretty moral and didn’t like harming innocents, and his idea was definitely going to cross her ethical line. It was better she didn’t know about it, or she might try to stop it from happening.
It would be a lot easier if Jude were also tapping into dark magic so she wasn’t so damn moral about everything, but she wasn’t interested in touching darkness in any way.
“So, I’ve got an idea that’s going to really hurt the coven. It will be a shot across the bow to Mishka and should go a long way for your cause.”
“I’m all ears,” Jason said.
* * *
Merrix watched the screen with awe. That was his baby in there, a perfect little mixture of him and Aeryn.
Grace said, “Everything looks great.”
Aeryn blew out a relieved breath. “I’m so glad. I was trying not to worry, but it was hard not to.”
“You probably won’t be able to shift anymore,” Grace said as she printed off a screen image and handed it to Merrix. “Certainly, by the next full moon, you won’t be able to, but if something should come up and you need to shift, I caution that you probably won’t be able to.”
Grace removed the wand, and Aeryn said, “So you’re telling me I probably shouldn’t get myself into any dangerous situations?”
She chuckled. “Not if you can help it.”
“I’ll do my best.” Aeryn smiled at Merrix.
“I have a question,” Merrix said.
“Ask away,” Grace said.
“We’re beloveds, but I’m worried about feeding from Aeryn and hurting the baby.”
Grace looked up from the tablet she was using to take notes. “It’s my understanding that you have to feed from her, right? That you can’t feed from someone else once you’re beloveds?”
“Yeah. But I read that the blood donation centers don’t allow pregnant females to donate, which must mean it’s dangerous.”
“True.” Grace put the tablet on the counter and faced them. “But you’re doing a feeding, which isn’t the same as if Aeryn were hooked up to a blood bag and donating a pint. I don’t believe you’re taking enough blood during a weekly feeding to injure either Aeryn or the baby. I suspect that the feeding might make her more tired, but I can't say for sure as far as what it will do to her. If you’re worried about feeding from her, you can try to drink donated blood and see if your body will reject it. If you can drink from someone else, I think you should, but on the other hand, I don’t necessarily think it will hurt her in the long run because s
he’s a shifter, and her body would replace the withdrawn blood fairly quickly.”
Merrix frowned and looked at Aeryn. “I know you won’t hurt me,” she said softly, squeezing his hand.
He was glad she was confident. He was feeling anything but.
“You’re in new territory here,” Grace said. “Don’t worry about making missteps and mistakes along the way. You’re both granted a learning curve. Hopefully, you’ll find some helpful information in the books Mishka loaned you, but even if you don’t, I don’t want you to panic about anything. Call me any time with questions, and I’ll do my best to help. Just cut yourselves some slack as you go on this journey. In a few months, you’re going to have a beautiful, healthy Valkyrie to hold and love.”
After Aeryn was cleaned up and dressed, Grace drew blood for lab work and gave Aeryn a bottle of horse-pill-sized pregnancy vitamins. They set up an appointment to see Grace the following Saturday after sunset for their next ultrasound.
“Are you still staying with the bears?” Aeryn asked as Grace walked them to the door.
“For now. Mishka offered to put me up in one of his downtown properties, especially once we’re closer to the delivery date.”
“Thank you for upending your life for me,” Aeryn said.
“It’s my pleasure. I like living in this realm because of all the modern conveniences. I don’t mind living with the bears, but being underground all the time isn’t for me. I’m looking forward to having a place of my own and some peace and quiet too.”
Aeryn hugged Grace goodbye, and they left. Merrix carried the books and held Aeryn’s hand as they made their way outside. She stopped on the sidewalk and took in a deep breath.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Good. Curious.”
“Oh? About what?”
She tugged on his hand with a slow smile. “Feeding.”
If his heart were beating, it would be thudding irregularly in his chest right now. He was sure of it.