7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Ailin

I wonder if I could convince Seb to adopt more kids with me.

It would probably be a hard sell, but I could maybe do it.

I glanced over at Seb standing there with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. Mother of All, he was handsome.

And he looked fucking cute when he was all angry, although what he was angry about, I had no idea.

Annndddd… he likely overheard my thoughts about adopting kids, and that was probably what put that grump on his face. Sigh . Maybe I wouldn’t be able to convince him then.

As soon as I handed the last kid his toy and he ran off, I stood, stretched, and walked right over to my viramore. I wrapped my hands around his waist, went up on my toes, and pecked his grumpy mouth. He sighed like he was annoyed, but he wrapped his arms around me, gave me a chaste kiss back, and pulled me into a hug.

“You made those kids so happy,” he murmured.

“ We did. And everyone that helped us. It wasn’t just me.”

“No, but you’re the one who played Santa Claus—well, you and Opal—so you’re the ones who they’ll remember.”

“Fair enough.” I kissed his cheek and stepped back. “I guess we gotta go home and see what Del’s come up with.”

“Sounds good. Let me just leave the extra toys with someone who can give them out in case we missed anyone or if people come in late.”

“What about the kids that are in the hospital? I don’t know if we have time to go all the way there today, but…” I shrugged.

He sent me a smile. “I already talked to Opal about it. She’s going to grab Laneo, and the two of them are going to head over to the hospital today.”

Laneo was a sky fae from Faela—the land of the fae, which was in another realm—and also happened to be Opal’s viramore. He was a sweet guy who’d been a part of the family for a long time now.

I didn’t know why I was even surprised that Seb had already thought of that. “Great.”

“I texted Del about an hour ago to see if he had any news, and I got the feeling he’s having trouble with the cursed things.”

I eyed him. “Really?” Delaro was the best at work like that, so if he couldn’t find anything, we were pretty much screwed.

“Don’t say that to him. You know how hard he is on himself. He’ll blame everything on himself.”

I winced. Clearly Seb had overheard my thoughts. “I would never say anything like that to him.”

“I know.” He gave me a nod, then shoulder-bumped me as we stacked the extra gifts against the wall. “We really need to find some time to wrap our Solstice presents. We have absolutely nothing wrapped yet.”

“I’m aware.” I blew out an annoyed breath. “After we figure out who’s behind this, we’ll spend a day wrapping.”

“As if we ever have a whole day we can dedicate to anything.”

And that was… fair. With as big a family as ours, we were kept very, very busy. “True enough, baby. Maybe we can concentrate on wrapping all the grandkids’ stuff first, then move on to our kids. If we run out of time, we can always throw stuff in bags.”

“I hate using gift bags for Solstice.”

I had no idea what his beef was with gift bags, but it was a thing twenty years ago and it was a thing now. “Needs must.”

He sighed and waved me off. “Better than nothing, I guess.”

“You’re so picky.”

“Look who’s talking.”

I snorted. “Me? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You sure do think high and mighty of yourself, don’t ya?”

“Yeah, that’s me, Ailin the High and Mighty.”

He chuckled, and from behind us, Tio said, “You guys are so weird.”

I sighed. “Of course that would be what you hear.”

Seb laughed a little harder, then pulled our son into a side hug, saying, “Don’t look at me. That was all your dad.”

I elbowed him with a laugh, making Seb snort and Tio shake his head in exasperation at us.

Soon enough, we were heading back out to our cars, and I gave Opal, Niya, and Tio each a hug, thanking them for their help today.

Niya waved me off when I thanked her. “You don’t need to thank us, Dad. You know we like helping out with stuff like this.”

I smiled at her. She was right. All of the kids liked helping us do things like this, and Niya volunteered at all of the adoption events held by Eastbrook Youth Academy—the place we adopted her from. Most of my kids helped out at least a few times a year at their events, but Niya and her viramores were steadfast in their volunteering, and I was pretty sure she’d only missed a handful of events since she turned eighteen.

Which was way longer ago than I wanted to admit.

I pulled her into a second hug, and she grumbled a bit but didn’t pull away. Then I kissed her temple and released her. “Alright, pumpkin, let’s head home.”

She shot me a smile, then hopped into her vehicle and headed toward coven land. Like most of my kids, she didn’t live in the same house as me anymore, but she did live on coven land—the safest place on earth—with her three viramores. Honestly, she needed that many people to keep up with all her hyperness. The four of them made a good team.

Seb climbed into the driver’s seat, I got in the passenger’s, and we followed our kids out of the parking lot. When I placed my hand on Seb’s thigh, he shot me a smile and set his hand on top of mine, giving it a squeeze.

“You doing alright?” he asked me after a little while.

“I’m good.”

“You’re awfully quiet.”

“Just thinking about all those kids and about the cursed toys that attacked them and stuff.” I shrugged.

“Wanna talk about it?”

I sighed, then ground my teeth for a few seconds as I thought about this entire shitty situation. “I hate that all of those people were in danger. We need to find the bastard that did this and stop them, and we’re just… failing at that. It’s pissing me off. We did good today, but if we can’t stop this asshole, then everyone’s still screwed. For all we know, he’s already planning another attack.”

He lifted my hand and placed a kiss on the back of it. “We’ll figure it out, sweetheart, and at least they’re all safe now.”

I nodded in agreement. I knew we would… eventually, but I was worried someone would be killed if more toys attacked people. We were very lucky that no one had died yet, but I had a feeling we wouldn’t be that lucky in the future.

Once we made it home and parked the car, we got out and headed toward Delaro’s house. Originally, we’d wanted to keep the spelled objects in our basement, but Del had taken them to his workshop, which was bigger than his house at this point. It was still on coven land, right across the yard from his house and just a short walk from ours.

When we walked into his workshop, I wasn’t surprised to find Nikolai and Grayson inside, assisting our kiddo. Sometimes, I still found it hard to believe that Delaro had two viramores and that one of them was Nikolai.

I loved the guy now. He was family, but if someone would’ve told me that back when I first met him, I never would’ve believed them. He’d always been so… devious, or at least he’d given that impression. Now I knew he was a kind, caring, and loving man.

And Gray was a great guy too. He was a gentle giant and a sweet guy who obviously loved Del and Nik and their kids very much. The three of them worked well together.

But that didn’t mean I had to tell them that.

When Seb and I reached the other side of the building where they were, I said, “Nik. Gray.” I gave them each a nod, then turned to Delaro. “Hey, kiddo.”

Del met my gaze, then rolled his eyes, amused by my less-than-thrilled greeting to his viramores. “Hey, Dad. Pops.”

I sometimes missed the days when the kids called Seb Papa . I understood why they’d stopped—they were too old for Papa —but Seb and I both missed it a little since it was the first parent title the kids had assigned him. Seb thought Pops was cute, though, so that was good.

Seb, being the kind and sweet man he was, walked over and gave each of the men a hug. I normally did too, but I suppose I was in a mood because, from the look on Del’s face and the lack of messages throughout the day, I could only assume we still didn’t have any answers.

Which meant everyone, literally everyone in Brinnswick, was in danger of being attacked again.

Sonofabitch!

“Any news, Del?” I asked after all the hugs were done.

Del grimaced. “Well, it isn’t ghosts. But you already knew that.”

Seb sighed. “Does this mean you don’t have new information?”

“Pretty much. I can’t sense anything different whether I’m in this plane or the ghostly one.”

Because of Del’s Bonded, Zig, the two of them were able to hop between our plane and the ghostly one. Zig was a bakeneko, which was a kind of cat spirit, although he had a physical form… when he wanted to. Del had been utilizing his access to the ghostly plane since he figured out Zig could pull him there when he was a teenager.

To us, when he went into the ghostly plane, it looked like he disappeared into thin air. Which tended to freak me out a bit sometimes, even though I was used to it. Seb always said I was too easy to panic with stuff like that—stuff I didn’t know about or couldn’t control—but he was just as bad as me.

“I heard that.”

That made me sigh. “Of course you did.”

“You’re thinking awfully loudly over there today, A.”

“Sorry.”

“What the hell? Why are you apologizing? You never apologize.”

“I apologize.”

“Yeah, after I practically force you to.”

I sighed again. “Not true.”

“Wow. Just… just wow.” He eyed me for a moment. “Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”

I flipped him off, and he gave my hand a light smack, chuckling. Hearing that sound made me crack a smile and helped ease a little of the tension in my chest.

“Are you two done with your telepathic argument yet?” Del asked, bringing my attention back to him and his men.

I lifted a brow. “How do you know we were arguing?”

“When are you not arguing?”

“We don’t argue that much,” Seb said, looking totally affronted. That made me smile too.

“Riiiiiight.” Del exaggerated the word. “You two never argue.”

Seb waved him off, and I said, “Okay, you little turd, we get it.”

He chuckled, and I was glad for it since I could tell he was being hard on himself.

Getting back on task, I asked, “You can’t follow the life essence from the ghostly plane?”

Del shook his head. “Unfortunately, no.”

“Damn. I was hoping you’d be able to see it from there.”

“Sorry.”

I glanced at my kid, then walked closer and placed my hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Kiddo, you don’t have anything to be sorry about.” He went to open his mouth, and I was sure he was going to apologize again, so I cut him off. “Nope. Nothing at all. Thank you for looking into it. Pops and I will have another go at it. Don’t worry, alright?”

He stared at me for a moment, then sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He wore it braided back on one side the same way I did, only his hair was blond. After a moment, he said, “I can’t tell what kind of creature did this, but the magic feels similar to fae magic.”

I released him and stared for a beat. “So you think we’re looking for a creature that originates from Faela?”

Many of the magical creatures we had here came from there. But so many of them had come here centuries ago and were now considered natural inhabitants of Brinnswick.

“That’s what I’m thinking. I know that doesn’t narrow it down a whole lot—”

“But it’s a start.” I sent him a smile, then reached out with my magic to inspect the objects. I let my magic seep in around the mistletoe that immediately started going crazy when it felt my energy.

I focused on the magic, trying to get a feel for who or what put a curse on this little monster decoration. Just like before, I couldn’t even tell what type of creature it was. But I could sense exactly what Del meant.

It really did feel similar to fae magic. Sort of earthy and otherworldly. Faela had so much magic it was almost overwhelming. It was distinct and very different from my magic, even though my magic was nature-based. The fae were made of Faela magic themselves, and their magic felt almost like Faela itself, so it was hard to distinguish the two. I’d visited Faela so often I was surprised I hadn’t picked up on it sooner.

“It really does feel similar to fae magic.”

“Agreed.”

“Good catch. Thank you, Del.”

He nodded. “You’re welcome. Sorry I wasn’t more hel—”

“You were plenty helpful. Stop apologizing.” I looked at Nik and Gray. “I think it’s time for you two to drill it into his head that he’s helped us a lot, and everything he did is enough.”

Nik nodded, and Gray smiled, saying, “Don’t worry, we will.”

I pulled Del into a hug and whispered, “I mean it, Del. You did great. I’m proud of you, and I appreciate your help. Thank you.”

He was quiet for a beat before he gave me an extra squeeze. “You’re welcome.”

I released him, kissed his temple, and let him go so Seb could hug him again. Then I walked over to Nik and Gray, and without a word, I pulled them each into a hug, silently apologizing for my shitty mood when I’d come in. Since they both hugged and smiled at me, I figured I was forgiven.

Seb and I collected all of the spelled Christmas objects—and my viramore graciously carried the shield-enclosed doll so I didn’t have to get close to it—and we headed back to our house.

“Straight to the basement,” Seb said as we walked in through the back door.

“Lead the way, baby.” Once we were down there, I headed to the work table we had set up on the side of the large room. The basement was filled with rows and rows of shelves, and nearly all of them were filled with dangerous magical items. We also had a vault built into one wall with even more precautions and wards set around it for the really, really dangerous shit.

And inside that vault was a large chest with the stuff that really shouldn’t exist. The stuff we had no idea how to destroy—the stuff of nightmares.

We didn’t mess with things in that chest.

Ever .

We set the stuff down, and I backed up, staring at it. All the pieces were encircled by a shield, and all the damn things were wiggling around, smacking into the shields, and trying to bite and claw their way out. It was kinda creepy, if I was being honest.

Especially that damn doll that didn’t look any better at all now that the blood on its face had dried. I held in a shudder. So gross.

I stepped up to the mistletoe, ready to examine it with my magic again, but Seb moved into my path, blocking me.

I raised an eyebrow. “Can I help you?”

“Yes. Come upstairs with me.”

I opened my mouth because that sounded like an amazing idea, but then the moving teddy bear caught my eye, and I grimaced. “As much as I want to take you up on that offer, I need to figure this out.”

He shook his head. “Not tonight, you don’t. We’re not going to figure anything new out tonight.”

“But maybe if I use more magic or… something…” I… wasn’t confident that would work.

“You know that won’t work.”

“But—”

“We’re going upstairs, eating some leftovers, then going to bed.”

“But—”

“Ailin.”

I sighed. “Sebastian?”

“We need to get some sleep so we can come at this from a new angle. We got maybe two hours last night. We’re not thinking clearly. We’re tired and starving, and I really just want to hold you for a little while before we have another hectic day tomorrow.”

That made me soften a bit. He wanted to hold me for a little while? I… really liked the sound of that. “Okay.”

He opened his mouth, clearly ready to argue with me some more when he realized what I’d said and snapped it shut.

I laughed and kissed his chin. “Let’s go eat, cuddle, and sleep.”

He opened his mouth again, then snapped it shut and gave me a nod, waving at the staircase. “I mean, if you don’t want to hear the rest of my arguments, lead the way.”

I headed for the stairs. “You’re dying to get them out, aren’t you?”

“No.”

I laughed. “You liar.”

He sighed, then smacked my ass. “Shut it, A, and move faster.”

With a chuckle, I reached the stairs and walked out of the basement, doing my best to leave work down there so I could enjoy my viramore for a little while.

He was right. We weren’t going to get anything productive done tonight on so little sleep. We needed food and rest.

And cuddling with my viramore sounded like the best damn idea yet.