Chapter 15 #2
“True. I’m gonna bring him out to meet you guys through the doorway, if nothing else, just so you can say hi. He’s amazing. He really is.” And Corbin was stupidly in love.
“Yes, and we can’t wait to see the babies. I bet you make amazing babies. Do you think they’ll be green?”
He pondered it. “I think they’re going to be very earth-toned. Evander is very earth-toned, and so am I. So, yes, I think so.” He hoped so. It would be hard to explain pink and purple babies.
Devon sat him down and plates started to appear—bread with honey poured over the top, a whipped chunk of soft white cheese, the tomatoes with salt and pepper and just a splash of dark vinegar.
It was exactly, perfectly what he wanted, and he began to eat like a ravenous thing.
The dragons moved around him snacking and laughing, offering him a glass of apple cider to wash it down with. It’s all fascinating because in the dragonland, all apple cider was purple. He loved that.
Purple apple cider.
Arielle came through with her red hair like a curtain around her, and he stared, because she was growing up. She looked like a young lady. It made him smile. She’d been a precocious child when he’d met her, and now she was becoming a fully realized person.
“Uncle Corbin, how are you?”
“Can’t talk, eating.”
“Ah, pregnant, hmm? Good for you.” She chuckled.
“I came in to get snacks for the babies. Everyone has decided that they’re starving to death.
” She rolled her eyes. “Nevvy’s trying to teach them how to play ball, and I think Elliot thinks he’s a ball, and Isabelle keeps snatching the balls off the ground and flying away with them. ”
“Oh, wow. He really likes to roll around. His bird, Eddie, chases him and tries to pick him up and carry him. It’s just a silly game, but that’s probably what he thinks he’s doing right now.”
“I think it’s adorable.” Arielle waved a hand. “Let me grab some snacks.” She kissed him on top of his head. “It’s really good to see you. Do you need me to get you anything? I could fly down to the village.”
“Sebby said he sent a message down to Tyr, who’s gonna bring some honey up. That’s really what I want. I was craving tomatoes and honey, not together, on separate pieces of bread.”
“Well, we have both of those things, I see.” She grinned at the table, grabbing a cracker to dip into the whipped cheese with honey on top of it. “Mmm. You know what this needs? A sprinkle of nuts.”
She pulled out all sorts of little bags of things that looked like cookies and crackers and maybe dried fruit and headed back outside, waving at him.
He looked at Devon, shocked a little bit. “She’s amazing. I can’t believe how much she’s grown.”
“Yeah, she’s gonna be off to university soon in the city, and it breaks my heart.”
“My goddess, I can’t even imagine. I’m just going to lock my kids in the basement, I think.”
Brand hooted. He was so constantly sarcastic; it was kind of grand. “Yes, but in your basement, things lead places. You can dig all sorts of new corridors just with your mind. Remember that.”
“Heavens. Yeah, I don’t even want to think about that.” Corbin knew it was a problem— Cosmo had proven that without question when he was pregnant with Elliot.
Devon waved one hand. “We need to talk about other things.”
He grinned. Then he glanced at Myk. He really wanted to bring up the whole vampire situation, but he thought maybe he had traumatized Myk enough for one day just mentioning it about Evander.
For now, he would keep it to himself. Brand seemed to know that something was going on, though, and so did Tyson because they were both staring at him. Eagan was very preoccupied with Ollie, so he wondered what was going on there. Hopefully, Ollie wasn’t ill.
Who knew? Maybe Ollie was pregnant again, although that was unlikely.
He couldn’t imagine, after having the special Ks, that anyone would ever want to have another baby. Not that they weren’t absolutely amazing children, because they were, but wow.
Still, Brandon and Ty were watching. And if he wasn’t careful, soon Zeke would be there, and then the boss would be in there. If the boss showed up, he was fucked because everybody knew that the boss—
“Corbin, I haven’t seen you in so long!” Gavin came swooping in as if conjured by his thoughts, large and in charge and demanding, and Corbin just wanted to hide his head for a minute, but he didn’t, because this was the boss.
“Boss, I’ve missed you. I’ve just been very busy with…
things.” Previously vampiric lovers and vampires invading the summer land and fighting with Mother and getting pregnant.
Periodically uncle-sitting two flying demons and a rock.
Poor Isabelle, he wasn’t sure yet if she was going to be a demon or a rock. She was sort of like a flame, and—
“Come walk with me.”
He winced and rolled his eyes. “I’m sort of eating.”
“Bring the bread; Myk will make more. We’re just gonna have a quick stroll, give you some room so you can digest.” Gavin’s tone brooked no argument.
He smiled at Myk. “Sounds great. I would love some more tomatoes. I’ll be right back, huh?”
Myk nodded and grinned at him. “What is it with you triplets and tomatoes?”
Corbin shrugged. “They used to say they were poisonous. Maybe that’s it.”
“Maybe it’s the acid,” Myk winked. “One stroll and then come back. Otherwise, you know that your brothers are going to be right behind you.”
“Well, Cosmo, anyway. I don’t have the other two fly-babies.”
He headed outside with the boss, and it was so pretty and warm. It would have been perfect if Gavin hadn’t been looking down at him with serious eyes. “You know I know something is up, right?”
“I’m just here to have a snack. La la la, snackage.”
“Uh-huh, spill it. Not that I don’t trust you three, but I really don’t trust you three.”
“Hey! We’re relatively functional, especially in a group. I’ll have you know, boss, we managed to immolate an entire vampire together, and I was pregnant.” He glanced at Gavin. “You don’t think that’s gonna hurt the babies, do you?”
Gavin shook his head. “No, I don’t think it’s going to hurt the babies. But you need to tell me what the fuck is going on so we can help.”
Corbin shook his head, a sick feeling deep in the pit of his stomach even as they walked through the soft grass and he could see the kids playing and everybody was happy. “There were vampires in the Land of Summer. They tried to get Mother. They want babies to feed on. And I don’t know what to do.”
“Fuck. Fuck.” Gavin stopped and stared at him. “When did this happen?”
“A couple days ago. I haven’t been back here since. It took a little bit of recovery. Evander thinks somebody smuggled blood in, just enough to infect somebody, but not an infected person. So they would have had to have it magicked to get it in.”
“Are you trying to tell me that a fae did this on purpose?”
“I don’t know. Mother seems to think not, but surely you have connections in the courts, right?”
Gavin shook his head. “Zeke says no. She hasn’t come back to see him since the veil closed behind us. I don’t think she can.”
Corbin sighed, “My mate has his brother looking into it. But I’m worried, like really worried that they’re coming.”
Gavin nodded to him. “Tyson says the house you live in is like a beacon to them.”
“They killed dragons there. I’ve replaced the floor. I’m growing things. I laid down salt and silver. I don’t know what to do.”
“Let me look into it and see what I can figure out. You keep an eye on you and all the babies. Hopefully, Cosmo will give you a warning should something terrible happen.”
“He did right before the immolation. I don’t want something terrible to happen. I want to be a happy pregnant dragon fae person.”
“Sure you do.” Gavin grinned at him then, a razor-sharp expression. “Just like I love being mostly a dragon of leisure these days. But we can still mobilize pretty fast.”
He knew it. Austin, Dustin, and even some of the dragons who had never worked for Gavin all kept in top form just in case.
He still didn’t think it was any fair though. Not that it mattered.
He knew fairness wasn’t part of this. Not for any of the three of them, not for their mates, and probably not for their children.
Although Corbin imagined it would only be three or four of their children who actually stayed to continue their work when they were grown.
Still, he looked at Devon and Ollie and the rest of them and envied their peace and happiness. He couldn’t even find peace at home, much less in the wider world.
“Are you done?”
Corbin flipped Gavin off. “I didn’t ask for your opinion.”
“No, but I’m still going to give it. You just have to relax.
You’re the best at what you do. And that’s why all of you were there—as weird and as flighty as you seem to be, the three of you, you’re deadly, and I trust you with protecting this world, the entire thing, from the vampires and from anything else that might threaten us. ”
Gavin’s words were a balm to his psyche. “Thank you, Boss. I just, you know, I—”
A scream cut across the land, and they both moved as a single being.
Corbin knew that scream in his soul. That was Elliot.
Let him go! Arielle roared, already shifted, flames pouring off her scales.
They made it to the clearing just in time to see a huge bird trying to fly off with Elliot, the little stone boy caught in its claws.
His heart clenched in a panic, but Arielle was already moving to overtake the bird. But it was little tiny Isabelle up there shooting fire, her flame like a miniature propane lighter, and she was burning off one tail feather at a time as she screeched and squalled.
“If he falls, he’s gonna get hurt.” And Corbin was too pregnant to fly.
“On it.” Although Gavin didn’t have to be.
Cosmo came zipping out like a little magenta dart. Hawk was right behind him, the massive dragon roaring so loud that the land itself shook.
Corbin sighed. He was so going to get in trouble for this.
He wasn’t even a hundred percent sure he’d asked if he could take the kids. And really, he just wanted tomatoes and honey and bread. What the fuck?
The bird let go of Elliot, Arielle snatched Isabelle out of the way of the big snapping beak, and Cosmo caught Elliot as he went hurtling to the ground, their little gargoyle crying.
“Da! That bird is bad. Spank it!”
Corbin! Cosmo snapped.
“It was under control. The boss is right here.”
Arielle landed with little Isabelle, handing her over to Hawk without a single word.
“What the hell was that?” Corbin asked Gavin, who shrugged.
“Great big bird?”
“You know, I could just kill you right here and then go back across the veil, and they wouldn’t be able to come and get me for murder. Do they even have murder here? I’m not sure they have murder here. But if they did have murder here, they couldn’t get me. Also, please protect me from Cosmo.”
“That I can do.” Gavin headed over to Cosmo and Hawk, and Corbin just walked into the house.
It was nice and empty because everybody else was outside trying to figure out what the deal was with the big bird, and undoubtedly someone at some point would put a giant net over the clearing so that no one could steal any more of the children. He was going to eat.
Tomatoes, cheese, honey, and bread.
It was totally unfair that his was the only mate who couldn’t come over.