“Skyla!Hurry!” Chloe thunders and rattles the walls with her misery.
A part of me knows that I should have mercy and get Ezrina here asap. And yet a very petty part of me realizes this baby will take hours if not days to arrive. Why not give Chloe what she deserves? An unmedicated, solitary birthing experience.
They say you can tell a lot about a person when they are faced with extraordinary circumstances. The last time Chloe and I crossed this bridge, I bit the bullet and helped bring October Edinger into this world.
Chloe roars from the other side of the door as if the hounds of hell were trying to usher her home.
I could call Ezrina right now.
Or I can be petty.
I choose petty.
Evening falls hard. The evergreens crouch in as the fog begins to walk along the ground. All of the pink papery flowers have blown off the bougainvillea climbing along the outside of the slider leading into my old home. It looks like an overgrown briar patch, dangerous with its two-inch thorns, its menacing sprawl. Its branches wave in the wind like skeletal arms trying their best to snatch you.
Logan texted and let me know that Wes challenged them to a game of pool. Wesley put in a game room to end all game rooms a few weeks back. Laken told me all about how much Wesley loves his toys. I wanted to point out that she was one of his favorite toys, but thought better of it. We’re both hormonal and I’d hate for a sarcastic quip to lead to World War III.
But alas, Laken is a toy to Wes. He has proven that time and time again.
Anyway, I told Logan to have at it. To take his time. That I was actually having a good time with the boys in the Tad-free environment.
I spend the next few hours out back just shooting the breeze with my mother and Demetri while enough kids to comprise a preschool jump their hearts out in the bounce house. Funny how neither my mother nor Demetri found my behavior odd. Under any other circumstances I would never carry on an endless conversation with Demetri about the finer points of growing up Nephilim. But as luck, or my celestial mother’s twisted brand of fate would have it, all of the children in the bounce house are not only Nephilim, but a majority of them live under the Landon roof.
Mom shivers as she rubs her bare arms. “It’s getting late. There’s a chill in the air. It looks as if we’ll have an early autumn. But what a spectacular sunny day we had!”
I can’t help but make a face at the monster before me. “We had a spectacular day because someone put in an order for sunshine.”
Mom coos at him and gives his cheek a pinch. “You really are a prince, Demetri. Is there anything you won’t do for us?”
“I’d give you the moon—all you need to do is ask.”
He pulls off the jacket to his suit and wraps my mother in its hellish warmth.
My mother executes a series of lusty moans as she tap-dances in her heated bliss.
Figures. Demetri would disband the solar system for this woman—or so he says—and yet he willingly sends her daughter’s people to hell in a handbasket. But then, I’m technically not blood-related to her and my mother is a Count. I’m sure that pleases Demetri to no end.
And, of course, the piece de résistance is that my mother has decided not to pick a sidebecause she loves both Gage and me so much.
I call bullshit.
I wonder what she’ll do once I have the ability to hide the markers? A part of me wonders what would happen to Demetri if the feds caught up with him. But knowing that celestial weasel, he would dematerialize in a puff of smoke, thus threatening all of Nephilim-kind even further. He’s that much of a coward.
The backslider door growls open to the rear of the house and my heart lurches. I glance back, half-expecting to see Chloe waddling out wielding a machete my way. But it’s not Chloe, or Gage for that matter, with a fresh placenta in his hand ready to bury along with some green sapling. It’s Ezrina.
She lifts her chin my way. “It is done.”
“What’s done?” My adrenaline kicks in with all the possibilities. My God, Chloe could have died, and a very nasty part of me thinks that would be fantastic.
Mom scoffs. “She probably means dinner. Speaking of which, I promised Tad I’d bring home leftovers. Demetri, would you be my love and help me herd the kids into my minivan? I’ll grab the trays I’ve already loaded up in the kitchen.”
A normal person would have said “would you be alove,” but my mother got right to the point, didn’t she?
The kids march out in a single file line and I kiss each of the boys and tell them to be good for Mee-maw.
“Mom, I’m going to help Chloe clean up around here. I’ll be right on your tail and in time to give the boys a bath,” I say as I head over to Ezrina. She’s just standing there in the murky light, her hands spread out past her thighs as if she were soaking wet. “Ezrina, what are you doing here?” I feign surprise but hell, I am surprised to see her. Chloe must have slithered down the stairs like an octopus and gotten ahold of her phone.
My eyes snag on the red stains running up both of Ezrina’s arms.
