49. Jaiyana

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

JAIYANA

R ehan pulled us out of the Ley Line like it was child’s play, and I practically beamed at him.

“It’s just a Ley Line,” Tyson bitched, eyeing my aura. “You’ve lit up like a candle.”

“Don’t be jealous, Ty,” Lux patted him on the shoulder and ducked before Tyson decked him.

“I’m not,” Tyson mumbled.

Og chuckled.

I turned away from my dragons, my lovers, and my best friends to survey the dark night gripping Malta. We stood at the gateway to Mnajdra, an ancient megalithic temple. Caoimhe screamed. The sounds of her labor echoed against the open aired passages of carved stone.

The last eight months had been a whirlwind. My mates had turned their focus from me to fixing their people, which included relocating those who wanted to move to communities all over the world where they didn’t have to hide. They still had to be careful of humans, but in the long run, dragon shifters needed the freedom to be dragons.

Of course, some dragons refused to change. Reptile Refuge, as I’d named their island, which I was in the process of purchasing, would remain a private island. I helped where I could. Mostly by introducing Oliviarose, now the dragon shifter’s voice in the supernatural community, to the Alliance, who was way over their heads but had the staff and the resources to help on a global scale.

Despite new self-awareness, a piece of me still doubted my dragons would come back. Not that mate-marks worked that way. But worry was a hard thing to kick, and now that I admitted I wanted them, I really wanted them, and I couldn’t hide or run from my truths anymore.

But I didn’t need to. Each of my mates pulled me into their worlds as they focused on their homes and families. Once their duties slowed, they came together into my world. It wasn’t just the sex making me happy. We had a lot of work ahead of us, which would require teamwork! Something we were getting better at every day.

Tenzin materialized out of a carved stone opening. “Are we taking you away from a demon pod?”

I stepped toward Tenzin. “Even if you were, I would have come.”

When I bound Gorm, it left thousands of half-formed demons in the Ley Lines, which the newly healed magic of the world promptly ejected. They fell to Earth, creating fun surprises for the masses. They were a product of Gorm, me, and even a splash of Brad. Technically, none of them were developed enough for life on their own, but each one was a potential problem.

The human media called it a meteor storm of epic proportions. Doomsday theorists believed it was the beginning of the end. My favorite people were the Ancient Astronaut Theorists, who threw all of their energy into the alien story. I might have added a few comments in forums to help that one spread.

Truth or conspiracy theory, it was a nightmare.

Caoimhe screamed again.

“Someone give her a belt to bite or something,” I said. “Natural birth hurts. A lot. Marduk could have heard her in Under London, and if she’s already this far along, he knows.”

“I still wish you could kill him.” Tenzin’s scales rippled across his body. “He’s evil. He’s trying to take my daughters.”

Shrugging wasn’t the right motion, but the young fire dragon had asked this so many times I didn’t have another motion to give him.

“He’s almost as powerful as Gorm,” I explained. “But with his finger in every pie. Even with all my magic, I couldn’t kill him. Any attempt would result in a fight, which would not lean in my favor. If I pulled a win out of my ass, we’d still have to deal with his literal armies and allies all over the world.”

Tenzin bit his lips together. I could see the anger eating him alive. I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed. I understood too well. I still owed the asshole my firstborn, not that I would have one to give him. Worse, I never asked Brad what he gave Marduk in exchange for his help. Now, I wouldn’t know until Marduk wanted me to know. Brad had bound me to my old nemesis, who I let walk this earth for far, far too long.

“Someday, he’ll get what he deserves,” I promised. “But today isn’t that day. Take me to your mate.”

Tenzin took a harsh breath but guided us further into Mnajdra. A short, unlit path took us to a large stone circle. Dead center Oliviarose knelt between Caoimhe’s legs on a bed of blankets lit only by a small ball of floating magic. Tenzin ran forward and placed his hand on his mate’s sweaty forehead before whispering in her ear.

My friend looked up at me with wild eyes. “You’re taking them.”

“Them?” I asked.

“Twins,” Oliviarose said. “But the birth is slow. One is turned.”

I glided forward and pulled Gorm’s Pink Compact out of my pocket. Although the top looked normal, I’d spent an entire month etching a network of tiny runes on the bottom, altering the terms of the crazy god’s imprisonment. His power now protected instead of hurt, whether he liked it or not.

I knelt next to my friend. “I am. I promise they will grow up well looked after and far, far away from Marduk’s sight. But you cannot look for them, and you cannot know where they are. The moment you do, Marduk will find them.”

Pain filled Caoimhe’s face as another contraction bowed her body.

“I can’t wait. Marduk’s already on his way. The temple’s ancient magic is hiding you, but it will not last. Your babies need to come out now.” I rested my hand on her stomach. “May I?”

She nodded.

I closed my eyes and sunk my power into her stomach, forcing the turned baby to right itself and come out first. The air twitched unhappily as if I’d forced a change on the world it wasn’t prepared for. But what was done was done. On the next contraction, Caoimhe cried out and pushed. The second baby slipped into Oliviarose’s arms.

I stood back, giving Oliviarose and the new mom a minute to clean up the babies and say goodbye before stepping forward again. I fingered the compact. I hadn’t accounted for twins, but the raw magic of a god should still hide them both, at least until they could defend themselves.

I slipped the make-up accessory into the deep red blankets, swaddling the first twin. Although I couldn’t see any visible change, I felt their presence dim. A quick peek with my third eye showed me nothing but simple humans.

Exactly what they needed to be.

One at a time, I handed the chubby, healthy girls to Tyson and Rehan. Tyson’s entire face lit up, and he pulled the child close to his chest, making Tenzin a silent promise with just his gaze. Rehan smiled down at the girl like she was a gift. Which, I guess, all babies were. Even Lux and Og leaned in, though their interest in babies was far less.

Tears streamed down Caoimhe’s face. “I can’t see them.”

“You can’t,” I said firmly. “Marduk will be watching you and everyone you know for any hint of the girl. But I’ll be their mentor, and I’ll tell you every detail.”

Caoimhe tried to smile, but between the pain of birth and the pain of loss, she didn’t have it in her. I understood, and I still loved her for it. I focused on Tenzin. “Now that you’ve had your firstborn, Marduk can’t touch you or your family-to-be. Take her home and enjoy your life with the fire nymphs.”

Caoimhe lay back, exhausted, and Tenzin wrapped her in his arms. “We will.”

I backed away from them, Oliviarose with me.

“You know those girls are special,” Oliviarose brushed the bright red, still sticky hair off one of their foreheads.

“I will train them like they are,” I promised, signaling to my guys. We had to get moving. If Marduk physically saw the girls, the game would be up. He had to believe I stole the child and sacrificed it rather than see it under his control.

The move was petty and evil—everything Marduk expected of me.

I stepped through a portal to an altar in Russia I’d staged just for this event. A small group of my ‘worshipers’ watched me set one of the girls on a smooth table where I used good old-fashioned trickery to make her vanish in a ball of light.

One of my worshipers used a portal to send me to my home in the Swiss Alps, where I found my guys waiting with both healthy twins. Rehan jumped us three different Ley Lines over three different continents, only for me to portal us directly into the kitchen of a bar in Casper, Wyoming. Casper was one of the safest cities in the US. The supernatural population was small and tight knit. Most notably, one of the kindest, most caring human women I’d ever met wanted children her body would never conceive.

Marisol jumped out of her seat with her hands clasped in front of her. “Is this her?”

“Them,” I said. “Twins.”

Her demure plaid dress swung as she jumped with excitement. “My ma’s gonna be over the moon, two grandkids to fawn over instead of one.” The short, curly brunet held out her arms, and my mates handed over their precious cargo.

I’d interviewed Marisol extensively. The baby girls were in good hands. Even if something went wrong, I would never be far. I watched Marisol take the babies to her truck, her loving husband waiting with the engine running. Two more identical trucks pulled out at the same time. The vehicles were going on an all-expenses paid road trip just in case Marduk got this far.

Once the parking lot was empty, I draped myself over the bar. I trembled, finally letting myself react to my friend's pain and the terror of what I’d just done. But it needed to happen, and for better or worse, this was who I was. The woman who made hard decisions so the world changed, apparently.

But I wasn’t alone anymore.

“Fuck me, that was hard,” I mumbled. “Can I get a drink?”

Frank, a big, burly bear shifter, came out from the back. “It’s ten in the morning. I’m not even open.”

“It’s six pm where I just flew in from,” I said, eyeing the man I now paid to keep a second eye on the new twins in his town. “Or maybe three if we count the country before that.”

Tyson thumped the bar. “Get my mate what she wants.”

I picked myself up and leaned back, a sly grin on my face. “Whatever I want?”

All four of my dragons press forward, caging me in.

“You do not pay me enough to have to bleach the tables,” Frank stated. “Use your apartment.” He jerked his thumb up.

I laughed before sobering. “We shouldn’t stick around right now, but once the dust settles, you’ll be seeing a lot of us, Frank.”

Frank let out a long suffering sigh. Rehan and Tyson beamed. It wasn’t exactly what they’d dreamed of, but it was a compromise. Twins to help raise and train. A new generation they could shape. If they needed more, the Air Dragon’s orphanage still ran. We could adopt or even start a school of our own.

“We can go anywhere in the world, right?” Lux asked tentatively.

I pulled myself out of my thoughts.

“Anywhere,” I promised.

A sly smile spread across Lux’s face. “Have you ever heard of the board game Monogamy?”

My jaw dropped. “You are in a polyamorous relationship and can go anywhere in the world, literally, and you want to play a board game?”

Lux leaned against Rehan and brushed his floppy white hair out of his eyes. “Don’t knock it till you try it. We can always make some house rules.”

“We can play it in a castle in Scotland,” Tyson added.

“Without any clothing on,” Og added.

Lux poked Og. “The game does that for you. And it’s not about what or where. It’s who we’re with.”

Rehan rolled his eyes, but a twinkle still kissed his gaze as he snapped it to me.

Love poured into me, making it hard to breathe. I flung myself forward and wrapped my arms around anybody I could touch. “I love you guys so much.”

“We know,” Rehan said. “But we’re glad to finally hear you say it.”