by Viola Grace
Khytten winced and opened one eye. “Yeah, she’s a little peckish.”
He reached out and put his finger in Delia’s tiny grip. “Did I leave enough?”
Leodai blushed. “I... had forgotten about that.” She looked at her brother, and he chuckled.
“Don’t worry. I hold back for this kind of thing. He gets what he needs to satisfy him; I keep what I need to satisfy little critters like her.”
Leodai watched as the most efficient killer in the country held her daughter’s hand while smiling at the second most efficient killer.
Khytten smiled. “Do you guys do baby showers?”
Leodai blinked. “Sure. Yes. I mean, both our moms and dads have offered everything.”
Salat smiled. “We take care of ours. Right, little Delia?”
She ignored him and kept eating.
Khytten asked, “Do you and Noring live here?”
“Of course.”
“Ah. Right. Sorry. I am getting used to cultural differences.”
Leodai nodded and smiled. “Frankly, Salat, I thought Delia would see you and scream.”
Khytten chuckled. “I know that impulse.”
Salat snorted. “You saw me and jumped me.”
She wrinkled her nose. “True. You are very pretty.” She paused. “What happened to that shirt?”
He understood right away. “It is in the wardrobe.”
She nodded. “Good. And Little Salat?”
“Still at Jennela’s.”
“Damn. I like that mug.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t.”
“If anything happens to that mug and you aren’t across the continent doing something else, I am so going to blame you.”
Leodai blinked. “What mug?”
Khytten explained that she had gotten a mug, and it had a black-eyed kitten on it, hanging from the lip of the mug.
“Oh, that sounds adorable. Where did you get it?”
She smiled slightly. “At a coffee shop near the park. Torenne knows the place. As far as I know, it was the only one, but there could be other designs.”
Delia fell asleep, and Khytten eased her over her shoulder. Leodai slid a baby blanket in between them as Khytten rubbed Delia’s back slowly until she jerked slightly.
“Salat, take your finger back. Your sister’s daughter needs time with her mom.”
He slowly rolled his fingertip out of the baby’s grip. “Strong grip. She’s going to be a tough little girl.”
Leodai smiled. “She is a tough little girl from a tough family.”
Khytten winced. “With a gnarly diaper. Sorry. That is out of my purview.”
Leodai laughed. “Not a problem. I have this part.”
Salat’s sister got up and went to take care of her daughter. Leodai handed the baby to Noring, and he laughed and walked off with his wife and daughter.
Khytten tidied herself up and looked at Salat. “You want one of those?”
“A husband? Naw, you are more my type.” He tapped her nose. “A baby? Yes. As many as you are comfortable with.”
“Wow. You don’t know what you are asking. I want an entire houseful and a nanny to help.”
He grinned. “Do you, now?”
“Yeah, I just need a smaller house, or shit could get scary.” She smiled and leaned against him.
He wrapped his arms around her. “So, you are thinking an entire town? Kittenville?”
She laughed. “Not that many. My uterus is not mass transport.”
“We use a lot of gestation canisters. You can just donate eggs, and I can add my contribution, and then you set the interval.”
She chuckled. “Uh-huh. What would the general population consider it to be when you start spawning an army?”
He grinned. “No idea, but since the chances of having an active goes up to the fifty-percent range with both parents as actives, I think it could be interesting.”
“Nannies. We would need nannies.”
He nodded. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“I have a sedating effect on children, so having other folks around who would take care of them would be a good relief for the kids.”
“A sedating effect?”
“Yup. They calm the fuck down when I am within twenty feet. It is why I never got into childcare. There is a boomerang effect the moment they have been out of my influence for a few minutes.” She smiled. “I didn’t want to get sued.”
He smiled. “My mother is a good person to ask. I was standard birth, and the others were all tubed.”
“She has six kids?”
“Six strong adults.” He grinned. “Two boys and four girls.”
“Okay, so, since I am not eating, I am going to change out of the nightgown.”
He frowned. “We will be eating within the hour.”
She swayed. “I have four minutes.”
He picked her up and carried her past some startled relatives and to the kitchen. “What do you want?”
“Small items, high calorie.”
He nodded, and she followed up with, “Nothing that ruins a pattern.”
He glanced over at her and sighed. “You just narrowed it down considerably.”
“Two minutes.”
He tossed her something small, and she caught it, popping it onto her mouth. He did it again, and she caught it again. The internal timer was pushed back, and when she had ninety minutes on the clock, she caught the last piece. “That’s enough. I can make it to dinner.”
He sighed and smiled at the kitchen staff. “Sorry. She was about to pass out.”
The man in charge nodded. “Understood. Torenne warned us that she would be a frequent raider, and we needed to keep food aside. We just didn’t think it would start so soon.”
Khytten smiled. “Sorry. I was always quick off the mark, plus I drank all that green sludge to get started, and it just got passed along.”
Salat laughed. “That was a mean thing to do to a baby.”
“Tough. She needs to have a thicker skin if she is going to be raised in this family.” She got up, and he quickly put an arm around her waist. “Now, can I get a change of clothes? I don’t want to have dinner in what Torenne passes for a nightgown. I feel like I was in one of the training videos I had to sit through for BDC.”
He grinned. “Tell me more.”
They left the kitchen after she bowed her thanks to the smiling staff, who quickly moved to remove traces of the raid.
He steered her up some back staircase and back to his room. The robe slithered off her shoulders, and the tiny buttons of the bodice slowly were released until the bodice gaped. He took her hand and pulled her over to the wardrobe. “Now, for dinner with the in-laws, I suggest this.”
He held up a leather wrap dress.
“Uh, leather? Really?”
He grinned. “Definitely. Now, tell me about the training vids.”
She smiled. “Fine. Find me some shoes to match.”
“Got ‘em. They were in a bag behind the hanger.”
She pulled the gown over her head and then took the dress from him. “Is there a bag for underwear?”
He smirked. “Nope. The dress has boning in it for support.”
“I was thinking panties.”
He looked it over. “It covers everything. It is nearly to the knee.”
“And it wraps, so when I sit, it will expose me to mid-thigh.” She gave him a look. “More if I cross my legs.”
He sighed. “Fine, but just because my brothers-in-law have been checking you out.” He wandered off and came back with a miniscule amount of fabric dangling from his fingertips. She grimaced and snatched them, putting the scrap of lace and elastic on.
She glared at him as she pulled on the dress. “There was more than Noring?”
“Yes. Samyel’s husband, Minner; and Yuula’s husband, Emrian; and Thaltha’s boyfriend, Imir.”
She paused as she did up
the silver clasps that held the neckline in place making a deep vee by pulling the leather crosswise over her torso. When she finished, she put her hands on her hips. “So, how is that?”
He smiled. “Shoes.”
She sighed and stepped into the shoes, jacking her height up four inches. “What is the deal with you and the heels?”
“They make you as tall as Torenne, and I don’t get a crick in my neck at this height. You seem to manage them well, oh, and they do amazing things for your ass.”
She sighed. “I was afraid it was the last one. Okay. Now, am I presentable?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“Good, now, about those videos.”
She linked her arm with his and explained aspects of training that involved capitulating to the whim of the patron. She had to park all thoughts that something was silly or ridiculous while she was with the patron. She had to be what he wanted for the hours she was booked.
“Was that how you were with me?” He murmured it as they came down the main staircase.
“I was petrified that you wouldn’t like me, and then, you snagged me in the elevator after burying your face in my cleavage. That made quite the first impression.”
“I was verifying that the tremendous mounds that you had were as advertised.” He spoke softly. “My delight when it was true was genuine. My astonishment when you invited me in was peppered with intrigue. It was not a situation I had been in before. Not only did you take me in, but you enjoyed it. That was definitely new.”
She felt a blush creeping up. “If I had known where it would lead, I might have just stuck to the milk.”
He kissed her temple. “I would have come after you anyway. When you find something that works, you stay with it.”
She chuckled and then smiled at Jennela. “Nice to see you again.”
“Interesting conversation.”
“First dates usually are.” Khytten grinned.
Jennela smiled. “In an elevator?”
Salat grinned. “I had to start somewhere. I was not going to wait for her to lose her nerve.”
Jennela shook her head. “Right. Well, we are all lining up for dinner in the great hall.”
“This place has a great hall?” She muttered it to Salat.
Jennela nodded. “Of course. All the old houses here have great halls. Our families used to be huge.”
Khytten smiled. “How huge?”
Salat murmured, “Twelve was the norm until the activation started. Towns were filled with family and relatives. We have sprawling family histories that wrapped around the world and back again. There are some families in the world that sit and become part of the landscape and others that become the wind and sea. My family has always been the second sort.”
She chuckled. “My family has always been the stone beneath the feet. Constant and unchanging. The moment something changed, they panicked. They are stable, but nothing grows.”
They walked into the dining room; she turned around in Salat’s arms and tried to make a run for it. He caught her with an arm around her midriff and lifted her off her feet.
“You will have more dignity if you walk.” He chuckled.
“Tough. Dignity and I are no longer friends. Put me down.”
He nodded, turned her around, and kept a wide hand in the middle of her back as he pushed her toward the two-dozen people seated at the table. She whispered furiously, “Why are they all here?”
“To negotiate on my behalf.”
“You do fine on your own,” she muttered.
“It’s tradition.”
“So, why is Torenne’s family here?”
He chuckled. “To negotiate on her behalf.”
“What?”
“Breeding contracts are serious matters. They involve the entire family as there are otherwise no legal ties between the involved parties.”
“Oh. So... They all have to vet me?”
“No, they are here to convince you that I am a good risk. Then, Jennela will do the same for Torenne. She has a different need but no less urgent to her family.”
Torenne was propping her head upon her chin, and she chuckled. “So, welcome to the ambush.”
The population of the table chuckled.
“Delighted to be here.” She leaned up and asked Salat, “I don’t think the invisibility could be an STD, could it? I really want to disappear.”
He wrapped his arms around her before he sat her next to his mother and then took the position on Khytten’s right. “Now, listen to the pitch and consider your options. Don’t be afraid to list your requirements.”
“Wait. What are you going to be doing?”
“Taking turns with Torenne at keeping you fed. We are in competition to pick your favourites.”
“This food is all fairly foreign to me, so I don’t have favourites.”
“Excellent.” He smiled, and Salmet began her pitch as to why breeding for their family would be an excellent move for her.
Riko looked a little nervous during the proceedings, but then, he knew what she did. It wasn’t her first child. He relaxed a little as Salat nodded to him and kissed her hand.
Khytten nodded toward Salat. “Don’t worry. He knows.”
Riko exhaled slowly. “That was a bit of a shock.”
“I didn’t know you were going to touch me, or I would have stifled it.”
“You have done too much stifling. There is no shame in it.” Riko smiled softly.
“I know, but it freaks people out. As you are proof of.” She chuckled. “Salat dealt with it because he has a passing acquaintance with me, but even he wanted to kill without a contract for a few minutes.”
Salmet blinked. “So, pretty serious.”
“Yeah. Do you have a minute?”
Salmet looked around the gathering, and then, she slowly nodded. “I think I might need to.”
They got up and went to another room where Khytten briefed the would-be grandmother. That was what this was all about, after all.
Salmet had huge, fat tears on her cheeks. “Oh, Khytten.”
The hug was nearly the same strength as her son’s, and Salmet smoothed Khytten’s hair like a mom would do. That nearly brought Khytten to tears.
She wiggled loose. “Okay, enough waterworks. You know, and right now, Jennela is probably sobbing as well.”
“Did Torenne know?”
“She was messing with my uterus to tinker with my cycle, so it is entirely likely.”
“You know that Torenne would need to use you as a surrogate?”
“Oh, yeah. I had guessed as much. She isn’t going to be fathering anything if her semen does what it does. There had to be a secondary cellular source.”
“Would you be willing to act as a breeder for our eldest?”
“Sure. I just require childcare. Babies are the only ones I am comfortable around. As soon as they start moving on their own, they get creepy.” She smiled. “I still love them, but they watch me. I need a go-between.”
Salmet chuckled. “Fine. One more hug.”
They hugged, and Salmet chuckled. “How did Salat get so lucky as to find you?”
“He hired an escort.”
She laughed. “Yeah, that is going to be one for the family archives. But, you have given me the boy who activated again. It might mean that he has to grow up a little, but I think he is well on the way.”
They walked back toward the dining room. “How did the rescues from the warehouse get along? There was a pregnant woman in the mix. She was in labour.”
“She had a fine baby boy. She’s at the hospital under observation. She had been damaged by her confinement, so they are keeping an eye on her.” Salmet sighed. “She is a nature activation, and the metal and concrete suffocated her.”
“Oh, dear. I should go for a visit.”
“Let’s get through tonight first, Khytten.” Salmet smiled. “You aren’t getting away from this.
Tradition must be upheld.”
“So, this is just for breeders?”
“Yeah. They don’t bear any responsibility to the children after they are born, so during the gestation period, they are under intense scrutiny.”
“Wait, so I would be stuck being watched?”
“Yes. Much like now.”
Khytten frowned. “What can I do?”
“Study, take up a hobby. Volunteer at the hospital, get some counselling for what you just told me about. Any of that.”
Khytten sighed. “I have had counselling. That is where all my money went. I was working to deal with things, spending as little as I had to on living so that I could figure out what living was supposed to be. The Blind Date Corporation provided an option so that I could start figuring out what I want to do. You spend enough time surviving, living takes a back seat.”
“Let’s hope that can change.”
Khytten cocked her head. “Maybe I should do what others have done before me and become a counsellor myself.”
They were outside the room, and Salmet nodded. “A good counsellor is always needed. The actives here are mainly trained to kill, and you come by that skill naturally, but it is at odds with what you are born to be.”
“What I was born to be was forced on me and taken away in the same action.”
Salmet stroked her hair. “Take it back.”
With that statement, they resumed the dinner that would confirm she was willing to have Salat’s child and carry Torenne’s after. The actual raising of the children was up to the families, but she had unlimited visitation. The price was astronomical for a healthy, nearly term birth.
Salat’s soon-to-be sister-in-law smiled. “If I had known the price to carry was that high, I would have signed up for that instead of marriage.”
Salmet chuckled. “It is only an offer for an active carrying an active. The same deal that Riko’s family offered me for the first child. It was a bit of price shock, but Salat was worth the therapies, training, and nearly being motionless for days at a time. It is harder for us, as you know, and far more dangerous for the baby. I must say that having a healer in the family will be delightful. Not that we have ever not considered you family, Torenne, but now, we are making it formal.”
Torenne held up her glass of wine. “Glad to be making it official.”