10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Ailin

“ J orah,” I said, placing my hands on Jor’s shoulders and forcing him to look at me. “Close your eyes, take a breath, and reach with your magic. You’ll be able to sense them. They’re your kids. Thay, do the same thing, please.”

All of their kids might’ve been adopted, but they absolutely still held the same parent-child bond that they would if they were blood related. Much the same way I had a bond with all of my kids.

Toby held onto his viramore while Thay reached out with his magic. And I kept Jorah calm. Seb threw a shield over the top of our group, keeping us safe and keeping watch while I took care of our son.

Yellow—from Thayer—and green—from Jor—magic floated around us, and I prayed that it would find the kids, that they were alright.

Please let them be okay. Mother of All, please.

Jorah sucked in a breath. “I got them. All three of ‘em. They’re in the back of the school. Holy shit. They’re okay.”

Thayer said, “I feel them too. Oh, thank the Mother.”

Jor opened his eyes. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Anytime.” I nodded, and from her perch on my shoulder, Sera meowed, just as relieved as I was that the kids were alright. “Now, let’s get those kids.”

“We need to shield the monsters and the kids as we go, guys, or we’ll get overrun on our way back out,” Seb said. ”Plus, the other kids need our help too.”

I overheard his thought and rolled my eyes at him. “Obviously.” Then I turned around and threw a shield over the top of three kids who’d come out of a classroom and got cornered by a rogue Christmas wreath. “Stay there. My shield will keep you safe, okay? Nothing can get to you.”

While I was taking care of the kids, Seb threw a shield over the top of the wreath. We sure did make a good team.

“Holy shit,” one of the teens said. “That’s Ailin Ellwood.”

“You’re safe.”

The kid gave me a wide-eyed nod.

I gave them a two-finger salute, then shot Seb a small smile before charging down the hallway.

In my head, I overheard Seb say, “My viramore is a force of nature, that’s for sure.”

I snorted at that and continued on my way.

A Christmas ball came rolling out of a classroom, and since I was feeling especially stabby, I threw an energy ball at the damn thing, blasting it to pieces.

“Shit, A, be careful. Don’t destroy the school,” Seb said, staying by my side and elbowing me.

“I don’t give a shit about anything but getting our kids out.”

“And keeping the other kids safe too,” Seb added, and I had to nod in agreement because, yes, I wanted that too, and he obviously knew it. As if either of us would ever let other kids get hurt.

Jorah pushed to the front of our group, clearly impatient. “Follow me.”

We ran through the hallways, and as we went, we put shields over the top of groups of children—we even checked the classrooms—and shielded all of the Christmas monsters we could find.

Finally, we reached the back of the building where the gym was. The doors were closed, but Jorah burst through with Laiken, Thayer, and Toby behind him. Seb and I were right there as well.

I sighed in relief when I saw all three kids—along with at least ten others—already under a shield of their own. One of my grandkids had covered the entire group with a shield, and it made my heart happy to see her protecting so many people. Relief rushed through my entire body.

They were okay. They were safe—well, relatively safe—and we were going to keep it that way.

“Oh, thank fuck,” Seb breathed out. “They’re okay.”

His relief matched my own, making tension leave both our bodies.

I examined the group of kids quickly, making sure I didn’t see any dire injuries, but I didn’t see even a drop of blood. That didn’t mean that no one was injured at all, but at least I knew it wasn’t an emergency.

Toby used his vampire speed to rush across the gymnasium to the kids, and his daughter, Safa, opened her shield for him. She closed it as her dad nearly crashed into her, pulling her into a huge bear hug. I couldn’t blame him for reacting like that. If I had vampire speed, I would’ve done the same thing.

Thayer, Jorah, and Laiken all ran over quickly, and Safa let them into her shield before she extended it to cover Seb and me. That was sweet and cute, and honestly, amusing to have my granddaughter shielding me.

Seb looked over at me and winked, and I could feel his own amusement at the situation. It made me shoot him a small smile. Both of us were beyond reassured and hella proud of our granddaughter.

Both Sera and Zamm hopped down from our shoulders and trotted over to the kids, slinking in and out of them, rubbing on them, and checking them over while offering comfort.

I took in the entire gym to check for any monsters, and my eyebrows rose as I saw a large chunk of garland under its own shield, plus three other decorations all under one as well.

And every single one of them was Safa’s shield. Impressive.

“She’s getting stronger every day.” Seb’s voice was loud and clear in my head.

“Hell yeah, she is. Look at that.”

“I know.”

“We’ve got a little badass on our hands.”

He shot me a smirk before heading closer to our grandkids.

Safa had been doing extra training with her dads and with me because she decided she wanted to go into the BCA when she grew up, just like her dads. So I shouldn’t have been surprised. But practicing fighting moves and magic with your family and actually doing it out in the field under stress and panic were two vastly different things.

Not only had she acted under pressure, she’d kept her cousins and classmates safe.

And I had to assume that my three grandkids found each other in the chaos before shielding themselves because I knew Raif wasn’t in any of the girls’ classes since he was three years younger.

“I’m really proud of you,” I said as I finally got a turn hugging Safa.

“Thanks, Granddad.”

I smiled, gave her an extra squeeze, then pulled away, keeping my hands on her shoulders. “You did real good, kiddo.”

She grinned at me. “This is what you’ve been training me for, right?”

I nodded. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.”

“What happened?”

Seb had finished hugging our other two grandkids, and he moved closer so he could hear what Safa had to say.

“When things started attacking people, the principal told everyone over the loudspeaker to get out of the building, but it was clear that a lot of kids were having trouble finding an exit that wasn’t blocked by a monster. So Nerissa and I decided to go find Raif before we escaped. I used my magic to push the monsters away—I tried to blast them, but I remember Dads telling me about the attacks from the other night and how they caught the monsters instead so they didn’t damage property. So I decided to do that too. I caught a couple of Christmas ornaments in that hallway.” She nodded to a different door than the one we’d come through.

Wow. She really was a total badass already, and she was only sixteen.

She continued, “That’s where Raif’s classes are, so that’s where we found him. He had a couple of friends with him, so Nerissa and I thought it’d be good to take them along too. Then we heard screaming in the gym, and I couldn’t just leave whoever it was, so… we came in here, and I didn’t think I could protect this many if we were on the move, so… we waited. I knew you guys would show up soon.” She shot me a smile.

I pulled her back into a hug. “You did the right thing. You did so good, kiddo, so fucking good.”

She let out a small laugh and pulled away. “Thanks.” Before she could say anything else, my viramore had her in his arms, whispering things to her.

I walked over to Nerissa next and pulled the young mermaid into a hug, whispering, “Good job finding your brother and all three of you sticking together.”

“Thanks, Granddad. I’m glad Safa was here to shield us.”

“Me too.” Mother of All was I glad for it. “Are you hurt?”

“No. I’m fine. Safa kept me safe the entire time.”

I sent her a soft smile and kissed her temple. Next, I pulled Raif into my arms. “Thanks for staying with your sister and cousin.”

He snorted. “I wasn’t running out of here without them.”

That made me smile. Raif was a satyr, so I wasn’t sure he could do much against the Christmas monsters, but it was a sweet sentiment. Although, he could probably use his strong hoofs to stomp on them in his satyr form… but I was glad he hadn’t tried it. It wasn’t worth the risk.

After kissing the side of his head and releasing him, I asked, “Any injuries?”

“Nope. I’m good.”

I nodded at him, then looked at the other kids. “Is anyone injured?”

There were shakes of their heads, but one teenager pointed at his friend and said, “I think Abel broke his ankle.”

“I’m fine,” the kid, assumedly Abel, said.

“No, you’re not.” The first kid glared at him.

Laiken rushed over to the kids, saying, “I’ve got it, Ailin. I’ll let you know if we need help.”

“Thanks, Laiken.”

That worked well for me because I needed to clear the rest of the building and make sure no one else was hurt or trapped.

I caught Seb’s eye, and he gave a nod of understanding.

We walked to the edge of Safa’s shield, and I asked, “Can you hold your shield for a while longer, Safa? We need to clear the rest of the building.”

She rolled her eyes. “Haven’t I been practicing holding a shield for hours while you fling magic at me?”

Okay, true. “Fair enough. But are you sure—”

“I’m fine.” She opened her shield for us.

Seb and I walked out, and I wasn’t surprised when Basil, Hiro, Jorah, Clover, and Toby came out as well. Laiken and Thayer—along with both my and Seb’s Bondeds—would stay behind to guard our kids and take care of the whole group. Plus, leaving our Bondeds behind meant we could use our bond with them to pull ourselves back here in the blink of an eye, and our Bondeds could do the same if we needed their help. I’d take any extra protection I could get when it came to keeping our grandkids safe.

We all walked out of the gym and went in different directions to cover more of the school. All of them could hold their own, especially against the Christmas monsters, so I wasn’t worried about them going off in pairs or groups of three.

It didn’t take long before the only place left in the school that no one had cleared was the auditorium. We ran into Bas and Hiro, and they decided to join us. We found a handful of monsters on the stage, and just as we were heading into the seating area, Jorah, Clover, and Toby came in to help as well.

Since Bas, Jorah, and Thayer could speak telepathically, it wasn’t surprising that Jorah had been able to lead Toby, Clover, and himself into the auditorium where we were.

“Laiken and Thayer are leading the kids out of the building now,” Jorah said. “Since the gym’s so far away and the doors are even farther from here, I told them it was safe to take them out.”

“Sounds good. I’m sure the teachers and parents outside are worried about their kids,” Seb said.

I hummed in agreement. It would probably be good for the kids to get away from the monsters, not because they were dangerous—since they were trapped—but for their mental health. I couldn’t imagine having decorations attack them with teeth and claws was anything but a nightmare for most kids.

I headed down another row of auditorium chairs. We went through each and every one, just to be safe. As I reached the end of my row, something jumped out from under one of the chairs and latched itself onto my leg. My leg bracers kept me from feeling its teeth and claws, but I still hopped out into the main aisle so I could actually see what the hell was attacking me.

When I glanced down, I grimaced. It was a Santa Claus statue kind of thing, but it looked more like a… like a doll. A Santa doll.

I shook my leg vigorously, trying to get the damn thing off as my heart raced. The second I stopped shaking out my leg, the thing’s head turned and looked right up at me.

I let out an involuntary scream and started hopping around and shaking my leg, yelling, “Get it off me! Seb! Get it off me!” My viramore was already running toward me, but that didn’t stop me from screaming at him, “Hurry the fuck up! Get it off me!”

Without hesitation, the second Seb was close enough, he reached down, grabbed the thing’s little body, and yanked it off me. He had it trapped in a shield a second later.

I looked down at it and made a disgusted sound of surprise when I found it already looking at me. “Mother of All, get that fucking thing away from me.”

Seb, very obviously trying not to laugh, said, “Sure thing, sweetheart.”

He used his magic to push his shield up the aisle, and when it passed by me, I let out another sound that was definitely not a scream, no matter what Seb said.

I backed away quickly as Seb’s magic took the gross Santa doll-statue thing with it.

I shuddered as I watched it go. What the fuck? What the actual fuck was even going on right now? Fucking hell .

Seb turned to me, and it was extremely obvious that he was hiding a grin. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. No. I mean, yes. I’m not hurt.” I huffed, and my viramore let out a small laugh.

Seb covered his mouth, like that could hide the fact that he was laughing at me.

But then I realized I could hear other laughter. No, not just regular laughter, hysterical laughter. Slowly, I turned around and found my kids cracking the hell up.

Jorah pointed at me, then wiped tears from his eyes, and the little shit laughed out, “I’ve never… seen you… freak out… like that. Holy shit… hilarious.”

Basil, still laughing, said, “Funniest thing… I’ve ever seen. Fuck, I’m gonna… be laughing at this… forever.”

I flipped them both off, but all that did was send them into another fit of hysterics.

And then a bubble of laughter came from right beside me. I turned a glare on my viramore even as I felt amusement at myself fill my chest—not that I was going to let anyone else know.

He stared at me for a beat, then a full-on laugh burst out of him, and he bent in half, laughing so hard he couldn’t even stand up, apparently.

With one hand resting on his knee, he lifted the other at me in a placating gesture. “I’m sorry… I just… oh my god… Ailin.” He laughed for a full thirty seconds before trying again. “I’m sorry. I… you… oh my god.”

Since that was all he was capable of saying, I sighed and ignored him, then turned to walk down another row of seats.

Basil called over, “You sure you wanna do that? There might be another Santa under there.” He started laughing before he finished speaking, but I still understood him.

Seb, Jorah, Hiro, and Toby all laughed with him.

“Fuck you all.” I flipped them off again, and they cracked up.

But then I eyed the row, and a bit of anxiety made my chest clench. What if there really was another Santa in there? What if it jumped out and looked at me ?

I shivered involuntarily. Fuck .

Seb, still chuckling a tiny bit but at least able to walk, moved closer and kissed my cheek. Then through our bond, he said, “Why don’t you start ushering all the monsters out of the school? You can start destroying the things outside. The kids and I will finish in here.”

I frowned at him. I knew he was only offering because he knew I was nervous—not scared, never scared—of running into another Santa, or Mother forbid, an actual motherfucking doll.

Okay, I was actually freaking scared. And I knew that was so fucking ridiculous, but holy shit, those things were creepy.

To Seb, I asked, “You don’t mind?”

“Not at all.” He gave my cheek another kiss, then gave me a small push toward the door. “Go.”

I sighed, annoyed at myself more than anything. “Thanks.”

Since my kids laughed again when they realized I was leaving, I flipped them off as I walked out the door, then snorted in amusement when they laughed harder.

Then I got to work, pulling all the shielded monsters along with me—not even glancing at the gross Santa.

By the time I made it outside, I had more monsters than I could count, and it made me clench my teeth. Someone had done this.

At a school.

To children.

Who in the fuck messed with children this way?

They’d messed with all those kids who’d only wanted a present from Santa. Then they messed with all the kids at the houses today. And now this. A school. And not just any school, but my own grandkids’ school.

Whoever had done this had endangered my grandkids.

My. Grandkids.

I ground my teeth.

The fucker behind this had no idea that he’d just sealed his own fate. Because if there was one thing everyone should know, it was that you didn’t mess with the Ellwoods.

You didn’t mess with my family.

Now, I was even more determined to find this bastard and take him down.

That asshole had no idea what was coming for him.