by Sarah Noffke
“You’re a ray of sunshine since losing your hippie ways, aren’t you?” Sophia jibed.
He shook his head, a serious expression on his face. “I hope never to think with that kind of mindset again. Too often I found myself focused on promoting peace or wondering how to unlock a higher creative level inside myself.”
Sophia nearly burst out laughing. “So? What’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong with that,” Subner began, “is that as the Protector of Weapons, I can’t be obsessed with peace and creativity. I need to maintain an objective mindset and gravitating toward peace isn’t the way to do that.”
“I don’t know, I think peace could be a good thing, but call me crazy,” Sophia retorted, watching from the corner of her vision as Liv and Papa Creola continued to pace in opposite directions.
Subner, still unconcerned for their worried state, snapped his fingers at Sophia. “Then give me your sword.”
Sophia’s eyes swiveled to Inexorabilis. “No, I can’t do that.”
“Why?” Subner challenged. “If you believe in this peaceful world so much, then give me the instrument you carry that’s related to violence.”
“It’s unrealistic to think that things are simply going to be peaceful.” Sophia pointed out the door at Roya Lane but meant the world at large. “I can want peace, but if it doesn’t happen out there, then I need to be prepared to defend myself.”
Subner simply crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back with a satisfied expression that seemed to say, “You made my point.”
Appreciatively, Sophia nodded. “Well played, Subner. Well played.” She directed her gaze to Liv and Papa Creola, confused why one of them hadn’t weighed in on the conversation, which usually would have caused one of them to chime in with their opinion. “What’s going on with you two? Something is wrong.” The last sentence was more of a statement, and neither one of them contradicted it.
Liv paused her pacing and gave Papa Creola a long look before glancing at Sophia.
“I have something to tell you.” Liv drew in a steadying breath.
Sophia tensed and looked her sister over. She didn’t appear hurt, but magic sometimes worked from the inside out. Liv could be cursed, or it could be Clark or Stefan or Rory…
“What is it?” Sophia asked in a rush, anxious to know. “Is everything okay?”
Liv nodded with an uncertain look in her eyes. “Yes, everything is fine.”
“Then what is it?” Sophia questioned because she got a distinct impression that not everything was fine—at all.
“Soph, I’m pregnant.” Liv’s eyes cut to Papa Creola once more.
Sophia wanted to jump up and down. Run over to her sister and hug her. Squeal. Rejoice. Yet, she stayed frozen in place, her nerves humming in her chest.
“Why do I have the sense that this isn’t the great news it should be?” Sophia looked between Liv and Papa Creola.
The Father of Time turned to face Sophia. “Because we highly suspect that the baby has demon blood.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Because of Stefan?” Sophia guessed. All the excitement she’d felt moments prior evaporated.
Liv nodded. “Yes. Remember I told you a demon had bitten him, but we were able to get the cure and he recovered, making him have all the demon’s powers like speed and longer life, but without all the wanting to steal souls part?”
Sophia nodded. “Yes, he’s the best of all worlds, right? It makes him an excellent demon hunter, right?”
“That’s right,” Liv affirmed. “However, he still has the demon’s blood coursing through him, even if it doesn’t make him evil. We,” she motioned between her and Papa Creola, “highly suspect there’s a chance the baby could inherit the demon blood.”
“Without having the antidote that keeps he or she from turning evil,” Papa Creola added.
Sophia slumped. That was bad…not only bad, but it also was good news wrapped up in highly dangerous news, and that was what made it worse. A baby should be the greatest thing in the world for Liv and Stefan. For the Beaufonts. To know that the child might be part demon, well, it crushed the entire good spirit of the notion.
“So what do we do?” Sophia wanted to be proactive. However, she reasoned that if she found Papa Creola and Liv pacing around in the Fantastical Armory that there was a chance that they didn’t know what the solution to their problem was yet.
“The genie’s bottle?” Liv asked in a tentative tone, immediately earning a scolding expression from Papa Creola.
“I told you—”
Liv waved him off, interrupting him. “Yes, I know. It’s dangerous.”
“Because the genie will try and kill you after you use up your wishes,” Sophia guessed, realizing now why Liv had been acting so strange and asked her to find out the location of the genie’s bottle and enlist Evan’s help. It was all starting to come together…sort of.
Papa Creola shook his head. “No, Liv won’t use all the wishes so we won’t have to worry about Stan murdering her. At this point, she has to worry about me doing that.”
Liv laughed at him dryly. “I realize that using wish magic destroys the fabric of time, but you can sew it back together.”
He grimaced at her. “What do you not understand about the word ‘destroy?’”
“Fine.” Liv waved him off, seeming more like her old self as she bantered with the old man. “We’ll get you a new bolt of the fabric of time.”
“Again, not how it works,” he argued.
Liv stuck her hands on her hips. “We’ll endure one little snag to avoid my child being born a demon, okay?”
He considered her for a moment, matching her defiant expression. “We won’t resort to that option unless we know that it’s necessary.”
“You did get the location and also a means to get the genie’s bottle, right?” Liv asked Sophia.
She nodded and pulled out the map that Rudolf had made for them, having kept it in her cloak since he gave it to her. “Yes, and Evan agreed to help. We need to pin down when.”
“Or more importantly, if it’s necessary,” Papa Creola stated.
Sophia looked between him and Liv, confused. “What are we supposed to be doing, exactly?”
Liv sighed. “We have to determine if the baby has demon blood and therefore the potential to be one, first. According to Mr. Rules over here, anyway.”
Papa Creola’s eyes fluttered with annoyance. “Excuse me for not wanting to take unnecessary extremes if we don’t have to.”
“So how do we know if we need to use the genie’s bottle to retrieve Stan?” Sophia asked, realizing that Liv had planned on using a wish to fix the baby.
“You need to enlist an expert,” Papa Creola explained. “Someone who can help determine the child’s status.”
“Is there such a person?” Sophia asked. “Can we do that?”
Liv nodded. “Apparently.”
Sophia scratched her head. “Wait. Papa Creola, can’t you tell us what the baby will be? You often see the future and know what we’ll become.”
He shook his head. “I can’t see the child. Probably because something skews its timeline. It’s not fixed at this point.”
“Maybe because he or she is a demon,” Liv argued. “And we use the wish to reverse it.”
“Maybe,” Papa Creola stated. “It’s as likely that it’s because I’m too close to the situation. I’m losing my objectivity when it comes to you.”
Liv playfully batted her eyes at him. “You like me…you really do.”
“I’m your boss and need you back on cases,” he argued, but Sophia could spy the twitch of his eyes that marked his lie. Papa Creola didn’t want anything to happen to Liv, and giving birth to a demon was probably one of the worst things that could. It would kill her. The baby would go on to plague the Earth and have to be ended by its father. It was awful on all avenues. That much was clear.
“How do we find out about the baby?” Sophia asked, willi
ng to drop everything at this point to devote her full attention to this. There was little else that was important at this point.
“His name is Renswick,” Papa Creola stated.
“The elf who helped to heal Stefan,” Sophia guessed.
Liv nodded. “Yeah, he’s an expert on demons. Our best chance of testing the baby.”
“Can’t you tell us if Renswick will be able to help?” Sophia sensed Liv’s and Papa Creaola’s doubt.
“That’s not how it works,” Papa Creola answered. “I’m not an all-knowing creature. I can sometimes see the future. Sometimes I can’t. Sometimes I know things. Sometimes I don’t.”
Liv grinned at Sophia. “Isn’t he cute? He’s sometimes helpful. Sometimes not. Sometimes a pain in the ass. Sometimes not…”
“Okay, so we need to go and see this Renswick.” Sophia angled her head in the direction of the door. “Let’s go.”
“You’re going?” Liv asked, surprised.
“Of course,” Sophia replied. “We’re in this together. I’m not letting you go through all this alone.”
“It’s fine, Soph. You’re busy, and I don’t need—”
“She needs your support,” Papa Creola cut in. “Go with her, Sophia, and both of you hurry. You do have other cases that demand your attention separately.”
Liv made for the door while shaking her head at the Father of Time. “It’s always rush, rush, go, go with you, Papa. I swear, if I were in charge of time, I’d be a lot chiller about it than you are.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“That’s Renswick’s home?” Sophia stood on a grassy hill in a park directly across from an old Victorian house that stood out in the idyllic town of Ashland. Liv had warned Sophia that the small valley was home to many West Coast hippies, and that she shouldn’t make eye contact with them unless she wanted to be told her bogus fortune and also food allergies that she didn’t know were possible—like intolerance to beet juice or caraway seeds.
Liv nodded. “Yep. He doesn’t ever leave it because although he’s an elf, he can’t stand hippies.”
“Make sense.” Sophia noticed a horde of long-haired hippies frolicking in the distance. They were like carefree children, dancing while holding hands and singing with their chins straight up to the sky. That would have been inspiring on its own, but their children were crawling toward the nearby road where VW Bugs drove by or other shaggin’ wagon vehicles passed.
“Hey!” Liv yelled to the group, who were doing a lot more dancing than parenting. “Get your kid before she gets run over!”
A hippie playing the guitar looked up with a smile on his face. He glanced at the toddler crawling toward the road and back to Liv. “Daffodil is on her own journey. It’s not our place to corral her.”
Liv sighed, pointed, and flicked her finger in Daffodil’s direction. A short baby gate-type fence popped up along the road as the child neared it, preventing her from getting in the street. “I’m the tour guide for Daffodil’s journey, and I say she can’t get run over today.”
The guy shook his head and went back to playing the guitar, a look on his face that seemed to say, “You’re not ready.”
“I really think they all want me to kill them,” Liv seethed.
“So, Renswick.” Sophia indicated the Victorian, which was large and mostly black and white. The yard with the wrought iron fence and statues resembled a graveyard. “Something tells me he’s not all chipper like the hippies here with long tangled hair and dirty clothes.”
Liv shook her head. “Renswick is the anti-hippie. Thankfully, I had to get past his wards once, which means that we won’t have to fight the gargoyles, or as it were, not fight them because that was the riddle.”
Liv started forward, but Sophia held out a hand and stopped her sister.
Liv glanced up, looking around as if her sister had stopped her from getting hit by a passing car or hippie or something else crossing the road she hadn’t seen.
“Hey, I know that it’s probably hard to celebrate with all the unknowns, but congratulations on the baby.” Sophia offered her sister a simple smile.
Liv released a heavy breath, seeming to relax a little. “It’s hard to celebrate yet. For one, it doesn’t seem real. I never really considered myself mother material.”
Sophia pursed her lips. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be the person that I am. I wouldn’t even be a dragonrider.”
“Soph, I abandoned you for five years.”
“You were a teenager,” Sophia argued. “Someone murdered our parents, and you were the only one willing to notice that it had something to do with those inside the House of Fourteen, who we were supposed to trust. I don’t think anyone faults you for leaving to maintain your sanity.”
Liv sighed, not at all appearing convinced. “This baby will be born to two Warriors for the House of Fourteen. It seems a little unfair to bring someone into the world who will have so much danger around them all the time.”
“Mom and Dad were Warriors and Councilors for the House of Fourteen,” Sophia offered. “You were constantly around danger, but that was because they believed in what they did, like you and Stefan. Isn’t that better than offering your child this safe existence where they don’t witness their parents fighting for a better life?”
Liv lowered her chin and regarded Sophia with an intense expression. “When did you get to be so wise?”
Sophia smirked at her sister. “I learned it firsthand from you, so think how much you’ll have to offer your child. They’ll be very lucky to have two talented and loving parents.”
Liv gulped, and Sophia spied the tension hiding behind the surface. “Yeah, I want to believe you’re correct, but first I have to ensure I’m not giving birth to a demon. Then I’d be contributing to the world’s problems.”
“If that’s the case, we’ll get the genie’s bottle and make everything right.”
Liv nodded, not at all appearing convinced. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Sophia grabbed her sister by the arm and tugged her across the road toward Renswick’s house. “Come on. Stop worrying before we know what’s going on. Even then, don’t worry because we have options. You’re going to have the best, most awesome baby in the world.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
The figure who opened the door almost reminded Sophia of a butler. Renswick wore an old-fashioned, tailored suit that was all black except for the starched white shirt under the jacket and vest and a single red rose in the lapel.
Sophia knew this was Renswick and not a butler because of his air of authority. It was subtle, but there was a dominance in his cold eyes that told her he owned this house. He opened his door because he was the only one there, or so Sophia guessed.
“Liv Beaufont, Warrior for the House of Fourteen.” Renswick sounded like someone speaking from centuries prior with a dignified nature to his tone. “I hadn’t expected the honor of your visit…or rather, the bad news that you could be bringing.”
Liv feigned a smile. “I’m sorry to call on you without warning. I’m not here regarding any bad news. It’s uncertain circumstances that I hope you can shine some light on.”
Renswick nodded. “I’m happy to be of service to you and your…friend?”
“Sister,” Sophia supplied and offered a hand to the elf. “I’m Sophia Beaufont.”
He eyed the offered hand and raised an eyebrow at her. “A dragonrider as well.”
“How do you know that?” Sophia asked, curious.
“The chi of the dragon simply radiates off you,” he answered, standing back. “Won’t you both come in, and we’ll get down to your requests, Liv.”
Dutifully, they both stepped into the house. No one had ever recognized Sophia as a dragonrider like that. This Renswick was already proving to be quite exceptional and observant.
He strode confidently down the hallway after shutting the door, seeming to expect them to follow him to a back room.
Sophia blinked at her surroundings, for
a moment feeling like she’d stepped into a black and white movie. Almost everything in the house was varying shades of the two colors, and the objects she passed on the way to the sitting room were as curious as the color palette. There were all sorts of strange artifacts on display as well as interesting antiques. This definitely wasn’t the home of a hippie. Renswick was a fascinating character for sure.
“Can I offer you a drink?” Renswick asked once he’d led them to the back room, which was full of elegant furniture, all of it either black or white. “Maybe a brandy or a whiskey?”
Liv shook her head at once. “No, and we won’t take much of your time. It’s just that Father Time thinks you’re the only one who can determine something for me. You remember that when you healed Stefan of the demon bite that Sabatore’s blood remained in him?”
“Yes.” Renswick poured himself a glass of brownish liquid. “It will almost assuredly be to his benefit. Make him stronger, faster, have enhanced senses, and greater longevity.” He paused and suddenly looked up. “Is this about how he’s more sensitive to evil now? Is it controlling his impulses as I warned?”
“If by controlling, you mean that he hardly sleeps and hunts demons every chance he gets, then yes,” Liv replied with a laugh. “He’s learned how to corral the urges. We know his limitations and keep him away from situations that would be too overwhelming.”
“Very good.” Renswick sipped his drink. “Then what is it that brings you here today?”
“Stefan and I are married now,” Liv began, her tone uncertain.
“Well, then congratulations are in order.” Renswick held up his glass. “A toast to you and the demon hunter.” He smiled, then his mouth twitched, and he lowered his drink once more, his expression shifting. “Ooooh…I think I understand…”
Liv nodded. “I thought you might.”
“You’ve conceived then,” he guessed.
“Correct.”
“You’re worried that the child could…”