Chapter Thirty-One

Apparently hellhounds had an insatiable curiosity about eggs. At least that was the only reason Simon could think of why the mated couples, and then the single hellhounds all turned up at random times, ostensibly just to be friendly. But nearly always before the coffee even had time to brew, they were asking to see the egg.

Blue and Beau turned up first – Blue holding their son, Tristan, who was growing fast, and Beau carrying a large hellhound stuffed toy. “I don’t want any grief about this,” Beau warned Kolton. “I’ve tried to explain to Cain that newborns can’t see well, and hellhounds are naturally huge. There’s no point in buying a tiny one that won’t be seen and might get stepped on.”

Kolton took Beau through to the room where the egg was situated – they were slowly turning it into a nursery. “Did you want a coffee?” Simon asked, as Blue followed him into the kitchen. “Is there anything I need to move so you can put Tristan down?”

“No, he’ll be fine,” Blue said brightly. “He’ll shift into his puppy form the moment his little feet touch the ground. I just hope you have plenty of kitchen towels around as he has been known to have a few accidents when he gets excited.”

“Let’s just keep him off the rugs, if we can.” Simon grinned as Blue put Tristan down, and sure enough, a puppy appeared. “He’s growing fast.”

All in all that was a really fun afternoon. A week later Ollie and Cain turned up with Poppy. Cain’s offering was a smaller toy, and he grimaced at Beau’s offering. “That hound just had to get in first,” he grumbled as they all trooped in to see the egg. Simon caught a couple of really cute pictures of Poppy, who seemed fascinated with the egg. She was waving her hand across it, babbling away, and Simon got the sense the little one was genuinely talking to the baby inside.

Consort Ali turned up, without Lord Hades, and carrying a gift basket full of useful little things Simon had on his list to buy but hadn’t gotten around to doing it yet. “Hades is at the huge stage of his pregnancy,” the bright young man confided. “I don’t know why he does this to himself. I told him I could carry our next lot, but he seems to like it…makes a change for him creating life instead of dealing with death all the time, I suppose. Now tell me, do you think the baby in this egg can hear what’s going on around it? Isn’t the shell an amazing color.”

Faron and Patrick were the next week. Two days later Raoul and Jason turned up. Java and Cyril were the week after that, and then the single hounds such as Giorgio, who did seem jumpy, but he made conversation, stroked the egg, and then disappeared promising to visit again real soon. Petrov, Edgar, Damon, a hound who introduced himself as JC, and Lamont, all turned up as well, separately, bringing gifts, studying the egg, offering congratulations and then disappearing again.

“Do they have a separate group chat or something?” Simon teased Kolton after Lamont had left for the evening. “They all came at different times – not one of the visits overlapped.”

“Something like that. We rarely visit each other without warning. We’re not supposed to all be in the same area at the same time.” Kolton was keeping his voice low. He liked to spend the evening sprawled out on the couch with the egg cradled in his arms. “On times when we have got together, it has to be for a solid reason, like chasing the wendigo or moving the house off Jason. If we wanted to get together for a barbecue or something like that, Lord Hades prefers we do that in the Underworld so none of the other gods or paranormal groups in an area get upset with us.”

He yawned and Simon went over, lifting Kolton’s head so he could sit down, resting Kolton’s head back on his thigh. “Do the other gods really care if you all spend an evening together? Only, I was thinking, we’ve narrowed our house search down to four possibilities. I could get in touch with Elijah and see if he can send me a map of paranormal groups in those areas. If we can find a place where there aren’t any, perhaps your friends could visit more often as a group instead of one at a time. I’m sure you and your packmates would enjoy that.”

“I don’t want to get into trouble with Lord Hades,” Kolton warned. “But I do think if you can get hold of a map without any problems, that could be handy. We don’t want to buy anywhere near a wolf pack for example, because they all get huffy when someone with higher power levels moves into what they see as their territory. Bear clans tend to keep to themselves, but prides and herds can also get upset. That’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed in Vegas for so long is because no organized groups of paranormals can live here, and no one group can claim it as their territory.”

“I didn’t know that, but it makes sense with so many transient people going through the place every day.” Simon fished his phone out of his pocket. “Oh, it seems like Elijah’s texted me already. He wants me to call him.” Clicking the button, Simon put the phone on speaker. “Hello, Mr. Casino Manager, how’re things going?”

“Simon. Thank goodness.” Elijah sounded out of breath. “Hang on a minute. I’m just going into my office.” The sound of a door closing came over the line and then Elijah said, “Have you two been out at all today?”

“No. One of Kolton’s packmates came to visit.” Simon glanced at the time. “Elijah, it’s gone ten o’clock. What are you still doing at the casino? Are you having problems there?”

“Not here, no. But there’s a gargoyle in town,” Elijah hissed. “Not just any gargoyle, a big assed mean motherfucker, excuse my language, who’s looking for Dr. Teeg. He was in here this morning, and he’s been in touch with the Paranormal Council offices twice since yesterday. He knows you’re in town.”

“Most gargoyles are mean motherfuckers. That’s one of the reasons they stick to their clans and shun the outside world. A place like Vegas would infuriate them.” Simon looked at Kolton who’d sat up and was cradling the egg in both arms. “I need something more than that. Do you know where he’s staying?”

“It’s not here or anywhere on the Strip, from what the porters told me. He upset a few people here, I can tell you. Apparently, he’d gone to the hospital first and been told you’d quit and was working for the government on a research project. He’s clearly put two and two together and got five and worked out you wouldn’t be working for the regular government, so now he’s pestering the Paranormal Council offices trying to get your address.”

Kolton had flames in his eyes as they both looked at their egg. “I hate to ask this but is there any chance our little one will be safe in the Underworld for an hour or so?”

Kolton’s nod was short and sharp and seconds later he and the egg disappeared. “Okay,” Simon said to Elijah quickly. “See if you can find out where he is. Kolton’s just taken the egg to safety, and then we’ll head into town.”

“You think this is about the little one?”

“I haven’t seen another gargoyle in centuries and truly believed they’d forgotten I existed. But an egg is the only thing my clan ever cared about,” Simon said grimly. “They’re not getting their hands on our child, which means I’ve got to keep them away from here.”