Chapter 67
I love him, Ellie.
—Beth Deveraux-Ling (Once, between Sisters)
Elena ran into Harrison the next day, on her way to meet up with Ashwini.
Her brother-in-law had, to everyone’s surprise, turned a corner the day after he’d first realized she was pregnant.
Back then, she hadn’t comprehended the pivotal nature of their interaction, but she remembered every second of it nonetheless—because she’d been certain it would be one of the last times she’d ever see Harrison.
The door to his private infirmary room had been open, and when she’d glanced inside, she’d noted the truth with a sinking heart: he’d done nothing to personalize the space—not so much as a poster on the wall or a few books on the bedside table.
As for the man himself, he’d been sitting like a statue in a chair in a corner.
Doing nothing.
Just waiting.
Nisia had warned her only a few days prior that Harrison was beyond medical intervention, whether via the few mood-stabilizing drugs that worked on vampiric systems or the healing abilities of not only herself, but of the specialist she’d called in from Suyin’s territory.
“I wanted to give him a full year of counseling, in the hope that he might find a pathway forward,” Nisia had murmured. “Such is not an excessive timeline in the case of a man who has passed the one-millennium mark. But now, we—all of us who have worked with him—agree that would be a cruelty.
“I’ve arranged for one final assessment by a senior healer who specializes in wounds to the mind and spirit in two weeks’ time. If he, too, agrees with the diagnosis to date—that Harrison has made his choice and will stand by it—then I will sign off on his petition.”
That day, emotion choking her throat, Elena had said, “Hey, Harrison.”
A slow lifting of his head, two long seconds before his vacant gaze snapped into focus—and landed on the bump she was cradling. “Ellie!” He’d jerked to his feet. “You’re going to have a baby!”
Happy to see such life on his face, she’d fought to keep her voice light. “In just under two months if it goes according to schedule.”
He’d stared at her belly. “Beth was bigger at seven months. She used to worry she was getting plump, but she was so beautiful.”
Elena’s nod had been jerky. “Bethie bloomed—had the glow and then some.” Sweet, happy, content, a woman whose dreams were coming true. “She always wanted to be a mom.”
“Yes. Brought it up on our third date.” A small laugh. “Said there was no point in us going on if I didn’t want kids.”
Startled, Elena had said, “I can’t imagine her being so take-charge at that age.”
His smile had held so much love, it hurt. “When it mattered, Beth could put her foot down.”
Elena had ended up spending a good thirty minutes with her brother-in-law—and he hadn’t been disengaged for any of it. She’d hoped, but hadn’t dared think beyond that…until Nisia gave her an update five days later.
“I canceled his final evaluation,” the healer had said. “Your brother-in-law has begun to take an interest in his space. He bought a plant for his window the other day. Then today, he asked if he could help me in any way.”
A month later had come another update: “Harrison continues his upward trajectory. He also has infinite patience—it’s quite extraordinary. He’ll sit and read a book aloud for hours if that’s what a patient wants.”
By the time of Elena’s return from the Refuge, he’d moved out of the infirmary and into a set of quarters lower down in the Tower.
He’d also asked for and been given permission to come up to the more secure floors to see Elena and Phoenix; he was, however, always monitored—and it was to his credit that he didn’t take that badly.
“I was in a dark headspace for a long time,” he’d said. “I wouldn’t trust me alone with a baby, either. However long it takes for you to trust me, that’s how long it takes.”
Today, he raised his hand in a greeting, his face thin but healthy. “Hi, Ellie, I don’t suppose Nixie’s around? I have the afternoon off and thought we could go look at the fish in the aquarium my friend in the next apartment just put in.”
“Sorry, Harrison, Majda and Jean-Baptiste have him today. Playdate with several of the toddler descendants. They’re baking cookies together.” The activity was taking place in their Enclave home, with the Legion a discreet security presence. “How about next week? Same time?”
His face broke out into a huge smile. “Sure, that’d be perfect.”
* * *
“Do you think Harrison’s attention to Nix is worrying?” Elena asked Raphael that night in bed. “He’s never crossed any boundaries, and Nixie loves spending time with him but…it’s like our son is the fulcrum of his happiness.”
“I’ve noticed the same. I think on this, we must consult Nisia.”
When they did, the healer said, “He’s not dangerous to Phoenix—I’d have warned you if that were the case. No, it’s the opposite, I’m afraid.” Arms folded, she’d exhaled. “Truth be told, he’s still fragile. He’s also determined to carry on his wife’s love of family.”
That was when Elena got it. “Phoenix is a direct line back to Beth. Not generations removed—and he’ll always be that because he’s immortal.”
“Just so, Ellie.” Nisia’s smile was poignant. “But your brother-in-law’s devotion isn’t a dangerous fixation. I’ve counseled him enough to say that categorically—he’s simply glad that Phoenix exists in the world, and that he’s permitted to interact with him.”
Only after she and Raphael were alone did Elena say, “I trust Nisia, but I think we should keep an eye on the situation. Still…I don’t get any sense of threat off him.” And her instincts were those of a hunter and a mother. “You?”
“No,” Raphael said. “He has never once asked for more than we give him. He seems happy to have even crumbs of time with Phin—but if he is that devoted, then why not use it for the good?”
Elena raised her eyebrow; she knew her archangel was ruthless, but he was no longer the same kind of ruthless as the man who’d made her close her hand over her blade on that long-ago roof. “I’m listening.”
“He’s an excellent bureaucrat,” Raphael reminded her. “And since our child is throwing bolts at this age, he will one day more than likely need bureaucrats. All the better for him to have one who is wholly loyal and in his corner.”
Elena thought about it. “I can’t see a downside. Harrison will be happy, and Nixie will have a good man on his team.” She played absently with her bracelet. “What do you think about training him in a few offensive and defensive skills?”
“An immortal bureaucrat who understands battle?”
“I mean…Dmitri.” She grinned.
“Call my second a bureaucrat at your peril, hbeebti,” Raphael warned, but his lips curved. “I see your point, however.”
That was how Harrison Ling, skinny bureaucrat, ended up being thrown into a strengthening regimen in the months that followed.
After he wasn’t so breakable anymore, he commenced having his ass handed to him on a daily basis by one of the ground-combat skills trainers—and the female vampire was a hard-ass who didn’t give an inch.
What surprised Elena was that Harrison didn’t utter a single complaint.
“If I’m going to serve Phoenix one day,” he said to her after a session, his body dripping sweat, “then I need to be able to be his right hand. Like Dmitri is Raphael’s—he handles all the bureaucratic and political stuff, and he’s lethal as a fighter, a brilliant battle strategist. Hard act to follow, but that’s my goal. ”
No depression now, only the fires of determination.
Thinking of her child’s needs and wanting to gauge Harrison’s sanity on this point, Elena said, “What if Nix decides he doesn’t want you at his side?”
“So be it,” he said without hesitation. “I don’t need to be next to him to serve him. I can as easily become a mole in an enemy court—no one pays much attention to the paper pushers.”
Elena didn’t chew Harrison out on his assumption that Nix would one day ascend; he knew never to voice that thought in his nephew’s hearing. But that particular theory was rife in the immortal world. Everyone, it seemed, was waiting for three generations of archangels in one family.
Which was another reason Elena was glad they were raising Nix in New York. She and Raphael might agree that their boy was showing clear signs of significant power, but they never, ever placed any sense of archangelic expectations on him—and the people around them followed suit.
Here, he was just a mischievous little boy.
But they couldn’t keep him in the city forever.