6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Seb

T he next day, Ailin and I wanted to go to the mall where all the toys and decorations came from, but Basil, Jorah, and Thayer convinced us to let them handle that while we bought toys for the kids—and made sure they weren’t cursed or unsafe.

Ailin had grumbled a bit, but he was trusting the kiddos to do their job—which was kind of a big deal. My viramore was stubborn and usually wanted to do absolutely everything himself, so this was a nice change. Plus, the kids were good at their jobs and didn’t actually need us to do it for them.

So far, the kids had gotten the name of the store that had donated many of the items for the mall’s Christmas Gift Party Event, and they were heading there now. The mall received other donations, but this place supplied the most, so it was our best bet on where the cursed objects had come from.

As much as Ailin had let the kiddos take care of it, he’d been constantly demanding updates from all of them. It was kind of ridiculous, but the kids were handling it like old pros—handling him like old pros, I should say.

I reached across the center console of our minivan and grabbed his hand, stilling it from where he was currently texting the kids. Again.

“They have it under control, A.”

He let out a long, drawn-out sigh. “I know they do. I just…”

I gave his hand a squeeze. “I know. But we’re doing something good and worthwhile, right? There isn’t much else we can do right now until we have a lead to follow, anyway. The kids said they’ll call us if they find anything good.”

He sighed again but pushed his phone into his pocket. “Fine. I’ll… let them be… for now.”

I gave an amused shake of the head, but at least I’d gotten him to chill out for a few minutes. I knew it wasn’t going to last, but I’d take the small win.

Ailin’s give-kids-presents-plan worked out pretty well. We basically bought out an entire toy store this morning—a different place than where the kids were going. And now we were on our way to the safehouse Alec had set up for all the victims of last night’s attack. It was just a few old warehouses owned by the government that they added a ton of beds to for the night. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was all the BCA could provide with such short notice.

From what Alec had said last night, they were planning on having the families stay there for one more night before letting them back into their homes. If they had to stay longer than that, the BCA would’ve found actual homes or at least motel rooms for everyone, but since it was so quick, this would do.

I parked our minivan, which was absolutely packed with toys, and the two of us and our Bondeds got out.

Opal, one of our kids, parked her minivan beside our own. On the other side of her van, our other daughter, Niya, parked her SUV. And our son, Tiordan, parked his SUV beside our van.

All of their cars were also absolutely packed with toys.

It was ridiculous.

But also… awesome.

I was so happy we were doing this, although it sucked that we couldn’t wrap the toys up first. But we didn’t have time since we needed to get back to investigating and stopping whoever had done this in the first place.

Opal sent me a smile. “I guess we should start carrying everything inside.”

I sucked in a breath and nodded. “Yep. Let’s do this.”

Everyone grabbed as many toys as they could carry, and we headed inside. We piled them off to the side, then went out for more while Zamm and Sera ran off to find some kids to play with. They loved running around with kids, which was the whole reason they’d even wanted to come with us today. I didn’t mind—it was fun for them and the kids both.

Honestly, who wouldn’t want to play with a small dragon and a cute kitty?

Just when we were finishing up, Alec parked his car in the lot, hopped out, and came over to me. “I would’ve gotten here sooner if I knew you needed help.”

I waved him off. “It’s fine. We’re nearly done. What’re you doing here?”

“I’m checking in on my people who’ve been conducting interviews with all of the victims. It’s… a lot. I’ve been going back and forth between here and over to our temp HQ at the site since last night. And to top it off, I got a call that a few of the people here were giving some of the officers a lot of grief. I came to smooth things over and explain why they can’t go back to their homes yet. We’re still collecting evidence and making sure it’s safe. We need a little more time.”

“Honestly, I think two days is pretty damn impressive. You guys move fast.”

“Only because we have some powerful witches on our side speeding up the process.”

I smiled at that. “That’ll do it.”

He smacked my shoulder, grabbed a pile of toys out of Tiordan’s SUV, and walked inside with us.

Sera and Zamm went zooming past us with a trail of giggling children running behind them, making me chuckle.

Ailin gave Alec a nod before coming over to me as I set the toys down. “How do you want to do this?”

“Well… I guess we should tell the parents to bring their kids to this warehouse since there are some in the other two next door, then make a line. Why don’t you stand there, and you can talk to the kids and hand out toys. One of us will grab whichever toy the kid needs and pass it to you, I guess?”

Ailin nodded. “Let’s have another person talking to the kids and handing out the toys to make it go a little faster.”

“Sounds good.” I turned to the kids. “Who wants to hand out toys?”

Niya and Tio both turned to Opal. She gave a shrug, then stepped up beside Ailin. “I’ll do it.”

Ailin gave her shoulder a pat, shooting her a small smile that she returned.

With a smile of my own, I nodded at her. “Perfect. Should we let the kids decide what they want?”

Ailin shrugged. “I have no idea, but I guess we can try it that way and switch it up if it’s not working.”

“Sounds like a plan. I’m gonna grab a couple of chairs for us, just in case we need them.” I gave Ailin’s hand a squeeze before walking past him as he went to ask the parents to spread the word.

There were already a bunch of kids sitting close by, eyeing the toys, so I figured it wouldn’t take long before there was a long line.

A woman came up to me, asking, “Are you sure these toys aren’t going to do the same thing as the other ones?”

I smiled at her. “We’re one hundred percent sure. We had five different people check them over, using several different magics. No one detected a thing, and we inspected the other toys enough to make sure we knew exactly what we were looking for. I promise these are safe.”

She made a face, and I could tell she still wasn’t sure.

Since I had no better idea, I added, “They’re Ailin and Sebastian Ellwood approved.”

I wasn’t sure if the people here knew we were the ones doing this yet, and well… our names held clout after everything we’d been through and everything we’d done to keep Brinnswick safe. Hopefully, knowing we were the ones who checked over the toys would help put her at ease.

She blinked at me for a moment before her eyes widened. Her gaze swept over me, then over Ailin before swinging back to me. “You’re…”

I gave her a small smile. “I’m Sebastian. Ailin’s handing out toys over there.” I pointed at him. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Holy shit,” she breathed out quietly in a way I knew I wasn’t meant to hear, so I pretended not to. After a brief hesitation, she blew out a breath and gave a single nod. “Alright. Thank you. We all really appreciate everything you guys are doing for us.”

“Of course. It’s our pleasure.” And honestly, it really was. Giving out toys to kids was a lot of fun and made my heart happy.

I set a chair behind Ailin so he wouldn’t have to bend over constantly to hear what each kid wanted, and he sent me a grateful smile as he listened to a little girl’s request.

When she finished, he turned to Niya, saying, “A doll with red hair, if we have one.”

“Coming right up,” Niya said, going back to the giant pile of toys.

I nudged Ailin as I walked past him. “You sure you can handle giving her that doll? You aren’t too scared? I can come sit in for any and all doll requests if you want.”

“Shut it, asshat.”

I laughed out loud.

In all the years I’d known him, he’d never been afraid of dolls. He’d always been fine playing with dolls with all of our kids and grandkids. But I had to wonder if he’d want to stay away from them after last night.

Shaking my head, I concentrated on helping organize the toys to make it easier to find what we needed so we weren’t here all day long.

About an hour in, I figured this would end up taking way longer than I expected. But at least the kids were really happy, and some of our kids were still studying the spelled objects at home, so it wasn’t like this was a waste of time or anything like that.

Alec came over to say his goodbyes, but before heading out the door, he nodded toward Ailin and said, “He’s really in his element, isn’t he?”

I turned to see what he was looking at.

Ailin was kneeling in front of a young girl, talking animatedly and making the girl giggle. Niya handed him a toy, and when he passed it over, the little girl gave him a hug around the neck. He laughed and patted her on the back, then booped her nose when she released him.

As soon as she moved away, a young boy took her place, and Ailin looked just as happy talking to him as he did with her.

“He really is,” I replied. “He loves kids.” I glanced at Alec. “You know, if he ends up wanting another kid after this, I’m blaming it on you.”

He barked out a loud, deep laugh. “On me? I’m not the one that decided to buy all these kids toys.”

“No, but you’re the reason we got involved in the first place.”

He huffed. “Maybe, but it’s still not my fault if he wants one.”

“Yes, it is, and if he does, you’re taking alllll the babysitting duties.”

He snorted. “Does that mean you don’t mind if he wants more? You’re willing to adopt more kids?”

I grimaced a little. “I… no. I don’t particularly want more—I like having my viramore all to myself now and not having to make babysitting plans—but I… think he could probably convince me. I mean, hell, he convinced me to let all those thunderdogs in my house before. He could probably convince me to do anything—don’t tell him I said that. God, don’t ever repeat that. Ever .”

He held up his hands, looking amused. “I promise I won’t. But, man, you’re so coming out of this with more kids. Just look at him.”

I pursed my lips. “Maybe I can get him a puppy or something instead.”

Alec snorted and patted my back. “Good luck with that. I’ll see you later. Call me if you guys find anything.”

“Will do. See ya.”

I sighed and simply watched my viramore play Santa Claus for a little while longer, keeping my fingers and toes crossed that he didn’t come home and try to convince me we should adopt more kids.

Eighteen was enough, for fuck’s sake.