Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lila
“ W e would like to introduce you to our babies,” I announce to our gathered family. Everyone is here, Bubby having set the autopilot so he could be here like I requested. Even Ghosie, who is still subdued after his interaction with Zeydan, is here, looking at the merlings with so much longing, it hurts my heart.
“This is Typhoon,” Nikos holds up our son so everyone can see him, and the cranky little boy waves both his arms around and cries at being lifted out of the water, much like the furious storm he’s been named for.
There are cheers and cries of welcome from our family. Link looks surprised then proud, because he was the one who suggested the name. Nik and I couldn’t think of a more appropriate name.
Then it’s my turn to lift my mini me out of the water so they can see her, including her delicate tail flukes. “And this is Hali,” I tell them, keeping with our nautical theme. “It means from the sea, and I couldn’t go past it. It’s so pretty and perfect for our little angel.” My gaze moves to Saxon, who was the one who presented that name. They were all allowed to propose one boy name and one girl name, otherwise the list would have been crazy, but Nik and I had the final decision.
Saxon puffs out his chest and looks smug as the rest of them coo and call to our mer princess, trying to get her attention.
“What wonderful names,” William congratulates us as we place the children back into the water. The kraken babies encourage them to swim over to the little ledge, and once there, they shift back into their other forms. The merlings look startled for a moment, but the babies babble to them in childish voices, introducing them to their daddies one by one. Each man gets dragged into the water so they can give the new little ones a proper welcome. Even Zeydan, Ghosie, and Silac get introduced to our new little ones. They look slightly overwhelmed, and I decide that’s probably enough introductions for the day.
“Okay, it must be pretty late. How about we call it a night, and you can swim with Hali and Ty in the morning?” I tell them. There are a few tears, and Jack crosses his arms and sits his butt down in the water, refusing to move, but Xavier just scoops him up and carries him up the stairs, his wails echoing back down to us. The girls are better behaved, and with a sloppy kiss for each of their siblings, they let Saxon and Tirrian lead them away.
Neither of my cats got into the water, and I can see the merlings looking at them with curiosity in their eyes.
“Daddy Echo and Daddy Maxsim aren’t very good with water,” I explain, but I’m not sure if they understand. “You can have cuddles with them once you shift for the first time.”
Ty’s face falls, and he starts to swim backward, but Hali screws up her face in concentration, and I gasp as she shimmers and her mer body disappears, replaced with two legs. She still has scales on her body and face, but so does Nik in his two-legged form. She claps her hands with delight, hurries through the water, and climbs out before she stumbles over to the two lightning cats. She’s unsteady, but Maxsim leaps forward and gathers her into his arms. His expression of shock must match mine.
“Is that supposed to happen?” Echo asks, pointing at the little girl before looking at Nik. Nik shakes his head.
“No, not for a few weeks.” He sounds flabbergasted.
“Kitty!” Hali shouts in a musical voice that has us all sighing, and I feel my body relax.
“Whoa, her song is powerful.” Nik looks at Link, who is busy scanning Hali’s body, checking her over.
He nods and looks back at us. “Just as I expected, she shows the same kind of DNA markers as the krakens. She is perfectly healthy, I promise.”
Only the cats and Link remain, the rest of them having retreated upstairs, so it’s not so loud and chaotic down here now.
“Should we try to get her to change back?” I ask Nik, not sure what to do.
Ty is watching on with a frown on his face, but he has made no move to attempt the same. Hali is busy running her hands over Maxsim’s fur, babbling happy sounds at him. I snicker at his shocked expression, but Echo quickly joins the cuddles and starts purring as he rubs his head against her little back, scent marking her as he likes to do to all of us. She squeals with delight and wriggles around in Maxsim’s arms and pulls on Echo’s whiskers. He winces and softly untangles her little fingers, whispering about being gentle.
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of a merling who shifted before the first two weeks. I still need to feed her.” He sounds lost, and I wish I could call Nixie and ask her, but that’s out of the question.
Link must be on the same wavelength as me. “Shall we contact your family to announce the births and ask if they know of any instances of merlings shifting within the first twenty-four hours?”
Ty must be getting tired, because he swims into Nik’s arms and nuzzles against his chest. He shows no inclination whatsoever to follow his sister, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Now I have three headstrong girls, which must make all their daddies’ assholes pucker. I smother the smirk that wants to break free, since now is not really the time to gloat about that.
“No,” is Nik’s very abrupt response before he clears his throat and answers a little calmer. “No, I don’t want to contact my family. I haven’t heard a word from either my mother or Nixie since we left. I think that shows how much they care about me and my babies. If you could, please do a little more research. I’m sure you have access to medical journals or maybe contact the Celestians.” He looks hopefully at Link, whose eyes soften as he nods his head.
“Of course. I’ll go to the med bay and explore all my databases and contact the queens to see if they have any suggestions. Will you be okay here?” He looks between us, his concern making my heart ache with love.
“We will be fine,” I assure him, flicking my tail and swimming toward the ledge. I allow my fins to fade away so I can climb out and collect our little girl, who is now busy chasing both Max’s and Echo’s tails, but they keep them moving quickly so she can’t grab them, a look of indulgence on both their faces.
“Come on, my little guppy, let’s get you back in the water and feed you.” I scoop her up, and she squeals so loudly both the cats clamp their paws over their ears.
“Wow,” Echo murmurs. “She has a set of lungs on her.”
She kicks and screams and wiggles like crazy, but I manage to wrestle her back into the water. Just like that, her legs disappear, reforming into her tail. I guess she isn’t able to control it consciously yet, thank goodness.
She’s still wailing and bashing against my shoulder as I will my own change and sink beneath the water, cutting off her external noise. It now switches to screams inside my head, and I grimace as she makes her disappointment known. Her vocabulary is mostly still baby babble, but I make out the word “kitty” and “mine.” She’s going to have a fight on her hands if she thinks she has exclusive rights to my lightning cat mates. Her big sisters and brother will not stand for that. I’ll make sure I have another important thing to deal with and let the guys sort that out.
I see Nikos and Ty swimming next to us. Ty is latched onto Nik’s nipple and feeding as Nik brushes a hand over his head, looking calm and serene. Well, at least we have one calm baby. We settle back into the anemone, and I pass Hali over to her father once she calms down and decides her hunger is more important than her righteous anger. While he feeds them, I close my eyes and nap. I know I’m going to need to take as many cat naps as possible to keep my energy up. I’m also going to have to up my intake of blood and sex for the next trials we have to face. We’re only a few days out from Fluxx, and it’s time to deal with Silac’s problems. Hopefully that job will be quick and easy, and we can focus on returning to Earth and rescuing Brannock’s Chloe from Agent Smith’s clutches.
W hen our ship finally docks at the space station high above Fluxx, both Hali and Typhoon have shifted and made the move from the large pool to our suite. They still spend plenty of time in the water, but the pool in our suite lets them have longer stretches before returning to the large pool.
Watching the relationships develop between our five children has been amusing as well as frustrating. Ty and Jack have bonded despite the couple of months age gap and are as thick as thieves, but we are constantly breaking up fights between the girls. There’s been hair pulling and biting that has required me to shift and heal Cordy when she wouldn’t let Hali have her turn riding Maxsim’s back. I didn’t think merlings had the same sharp teeth as adult Aquilians, but Hali put that idea to rest after she took a large chunk of flesh out of Cordy’s leg. I was horrified and cried to my mates for over an hour.
They just laughed it off and told me that it was normal, and that they were trying to form a hierarchy and I should let them. As much as I don’t disagree, I draw the line at permanently maiming each other. Hali was punished and was not allowed any contact with Maxsim or Echo or allowed to play with the other children for two days. She was sent to the big pool, where Cas, Tirrian, and I took turns supervising her punishment. Do you know what the little shit did? Well, she didn’t care one little bit and spent the whole time picking the gems off the wall of the gem cavern and hoarding them in a little coral rock cave she found in the reef. Tirrian was super proud of her hoarding, but I had to explain to them that the gems didn’t belong to either of them, and that Nik would be upset if he found his beautiful cave destroyed. Again, a tantrum ensued, both Hali’s and the dragon’s, but he calmed her by telling her he would help her start a hoard when we got to Fluxx and visited his family.
I was speechless, but he growled at me when I tried to intervene. Heaven save me from overprotective daddies. I can’t even imagine what he’s going to be like if we have a clutch of eggs for him. It’s a disaster in the making, but he assured me all of his babies would have their own hoards, so I felt a little mollified after that.
“Lila, honey, you look exhausted,” Mira, Caspian’s mother, says to me as I enter the space port from our ship.
She and Murphy insisted on greeting us. My grandpas are going to stay with the ship for now to look after my grandma, and Zeydan and Ghosie both decided to stay behind and assist, but they are on call if we need them. They think their presence may cause more chaos than we need, and I guess they aren’t wrong. A living, breathing god and a man who can turn you into a sex puppet with the brush of his fur probably aren’t the stealthiest teammates. Echo, for obvious reasons, is also staying behind. Nobody wanted to risk him in his delicate state, and he was happy to comply. I think he has plans to pump Zeydan and Ghosie for more personal information.
I debated whether or not to bring the children with us, but Mira and Murphy insisted they would look after them while we were attending to Silac’s family drama. Caspian and Nikos will stay as well, and I’m sure they will enjoy swimming in Cas’s home waters.
Before I can answer, her focus switches to the group behind me, and she gasps, putting her hand to her mouth as tears well in her eyes. I follow her gaze and smile at the sight. Caspian, Nikos, Xavier, Saxon, and Link all have a baby in their arms. There was a small argument over who would carry whom, but it was finally sorted. Tirrian is still frowning that he lost out, but he got plenty of time in the water, or that was Xavier’s argument. Brannock and Maxsim just look amused at the whole situation, while Silac is tense and ready to get this show on the road. He’s been surly, but deep down, I know he understands the need for the delay.
There’s a flurry of movement as Mira and Murphy crowd the guys while Caspian introduces the children to one set of grandparents. Mira cries openly as she swings Cordelia around in her arms, remarking on the beauty of all our babies.
“Good job, Lila. That should keep Mom and Dad off the rest of our backs for the next year or two at least. Just make sure there are plenty of visits.” I chuckle as Malik hip bumps me and swings his arm over my shoulders. He is planning on leaving with us once we take care of the basilisk problem. We had to mess up his previous plans, but he wasn’t upset. He knew what we were doing was important.
“You wait. I have a friend I’d like you to meet. You never know, your kraken might pull an act like Caspian’s, and you’ll be the one getting all the praise.” I smirk at him as he shudders, but I still have every intention of introducing him to Magenta. Last time I spoke to her, she was sad about Nixie, and things weren’t going all that well with Hale and Velorina. She informed me they decided to form a clan with Saxon’s brother, Xenos. I found that weird, because there was an air of hostility between the two groups, but I guess things can change quickly. It doesn’t look like they will be returning to the circus. When I talked about it with Saxon, he told me not to worry and said his aunt would find us another troupe, which was a huge relief to me.
“Not anytime soon, I can assure you,” he swears, but I see longing in his eyes as he strolls over and snatches Jack out of his father’s arms and lifts him in the air, telling him that he’s going to be his favorite uncle.
God, I can’t wait for every day to be like this one, when all of the drama is behind us.