Chapter Eight
Kaitha walked into the dining room and said, “Can I get you anything, coffee, tea or water?”
The blonde one shook his head. “We are fine. You are her foster sister?”
Kaitha sighed. “I consider myself her sister, and we don’t make a distinction here, but I know she is very careful about it outside the house.
When we were in school, she got teased when it was common knowledge that she wasn’t blood.
Teased is a mild word for it. It was relentless, and my parents tried to step in, but it never reached the children.
They continued right through mage training.
She managed to hold the dark fae aspect at bay until she was out and away. ”
Solor frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that no one knew she was dark fae until she was a trained mage and out in the world. At that point, she got away from here as fast as she could.”
The brunette asked, “Why?”
“To start her life where no one knew her. She got EMT training, learned to drive an ambulance, and slid into her new career. She was good at it. Really good. She’s also insanely powerful and has fixed precognition that seems to be trained on her sisters.”
Solor blinked. “What do you mean, sisters? You mean you and the one she helped the night before last night, right?”
“No. She has one older sister. She’s a thrall, though. Nothing to do. Her grandfather sold her somewhere. She’s stuck.”
Demuel frowned. “It’s forbidden to sell fae.”
“She isn’t fae. She’s all mage blood.” Kaitha shrugged. “As far as I know. I have never met her.”
“Why not?”
“Because Nylora found her while she was travelling. They knew each other the moment they locked eyes.” She held up a hand and left, bringing back a picture of Nylora taken with a spectral-effect camera.
“Whoever she is, she takes an amazing image. I have never seen the physical and spectral captured so clearly before.”
Kaitha smiled when the brunette said, “Can we keep this?”
She chuckled. “Let me take a print. It’s a tricky procedure. It would be easier if she gave me her sister’s information, but we have to go through her master, and I am not up for that. Dark mages are creepy. Oh, I am Kaitha, by the way.”
They paused and got up, inclining their heads. “I am Solor. I fathered her child.”
“I am Demuel. I hope to father her second.”
“Hm. Well, she does want a huge family of her own. She’s never been fussy on the idea of who the father was.” Kaitha looked at the image of Nylora in business attire, standing with shadows and moonlight with pulsing halos around her.
“Nylora looks the same.”
“She won’t age until she wants to, and since she wasn’t able to have a proper family because my parents weren’t allowed to adopt her.
They wanted to, but because there was no clue as to her origins, and the traces they could detect led to families who didn’t want to claim her, she was marked as unadoptable.
They couldn’t let her attach to a family when she had her own bloodlines that may eventually claim her.
Of course, she didn’t explain her origin until after she was out of school. Then it all made sense.”
Solor said, “You will give us details?”
“Sure. She could have said no before she went to sleep. What do you want to know?”
Demuel asked, “Her parents?”
“Tricky. She was made by thirds. Her grandfather was a demon king who ordered his daughter to collect samples for an heir. When she had samples from the mages who had summoned her, her father ordered her to bear him a daughter. She went to her favourite lover, got two eggs from the witch, and went home to have the little girls.”
“Her mother is a succubus.”
“Yes, and now, king of their little area of the demon zone. Having the twins gave her the power boost she needed to kill her father. She occasionally sends messages through, but she is no blood relation to any of her children. She just wants to know how they are doing. There is no leverage. She made sure there wouldn’t be. ”
Solor said, “What about the third sibling. The eldest?”
“She was the experiment. She was dropped out of the demon zone the moment she was born. She got adopted, but when she went looking for her birth mother, she ended up in the demon zone, and her grandfather sold her to a dark mage. She has a career as a photographer, but she’s bound to him.
As I said, I don’t know her name, I haven’t met her. ”
Demuel snorted. “Demonborn but not demonblood. That makes sense now.”
Solor said, “She intended to go through the pregnancy on her own.”
“She did, but she has a village of friends to help her. She’s covered.”
He nodded.
“Now, gentlemen, I have a question for you.” She looked at each of them and said, “Which of you had the bright idea to fuck my sister to exhaustion and then leave her there?”
Solor cleared his throat. “It wasn’t premeditated. The ritual finished, your sister left, and the wave of fertility magic washed over us. We followed her back to her hotel, and she invited us up, and when she was down for the count, we left.”
Kaitha snorted. “Charming. I always used to tell her that she would find someone to hold her through the night, and the one chance she gets, you bail. Typical.”
Demuel frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Curse of the demonborn as she calls it. There is something unsettling about her, and it makes it hard for people to enjoy prolonged contact.”
Solor frowned. “So, she didn’t have a steady lover?”
“No. That’s a dark fae thing. She was willing to find someone, but when she got the job as a paramedic, she wasn’t going to fuck coworkers or XIA or anyone that would interfere with her. The ritual must have packed a helluva punch, or she would have attempted to put you guys down for the count.”
Solor nodded. “It did, or we would never have followed her to her hotel.”
Demuel smiled. “She had a scent trail a mile wide.”
“Ah. So, you knew she was receptive.”
Solor snorted, and his foot tapped. “Yes.”
“She changed after the last wave. She got something—I don’t know what—and after that, she got pregnant.
She was mortified when she told me. I invited her to move in permanently, but she said that a little support would be nice for now.
” Kaitha rubbed the back of her neck. “I want her to stay, I want her to feel that she has a place, but I know that she isn’t made that way.
She has to earn her way in the world.” She chuckled.
“But people like her. Leo Wicks is going to throw her a baby shower. She doesn’t need to earn her way; she already has, but she can’t see the finish line.
When the baby is born, she is going to try and earn its love, and that is going to break my heart. ”
Solor cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
Demuel frowned. “I think I know. She has never had a place or stability, and she has, in fact, caused instability in where she lived and what she did for a living. She lives with constant uncertainty, and she can’t imagine a world where life isn’t a struggle. What about her sister?”
Kaitha groaned. “Oh, that. Well, her grandfather wanted to eat one of the babies, and Isocar is made of two magics. Their mother helped Nylora age up until she could carry the baby, and then she sent them through a portal to this world, in the middle of winter, with no proper clothing. Freezing, Nylora went to a mage’s house on Anchor Lane and gave her the baby and then walked off.
Her mission was finished. An agent was called for her, drove her to the city, and got social workers involved.
She was placed with my parents a few days later.
I came along when she was fifteen or so. ”
She sighed. “When I got engaged a few months ago, she started mentioning getting her own place so that my fiancée and I wouldn’t be uncomfortable.”
Solor asked softly, “Does she have the resources for that?”
“No idea. She and I never discuss finances. It reminds both of us that she wasn’t in the will. I still don’t know how that happened.”
Solor asked, “Do you think it’s a girl or a boy?”
“It’s a Bump. That’s all I need to know. It makes her happy when I call it that, and the soft smile on her face as she pats it makes me want to cry.”
Demuel said, “What if we ask her to move to Solor’s place?”
“Be extremely specific.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“If you ask her to move out of my place, she might end up anywhere in the city. If you ask her to move in with you, she might camp out in the living space. Be specific. I cannot stress that enough. Also, be prepared to see me daily. She’s high risk because she’s dark fae, and I hope she would have enough sense to call if she starts bleeding, but if she’s saving a life, I don’t know if she would pay attention to her body. ”
Demuel muttered, “Kevlar corset for one. She and Bump need protection.”
“She was going to have to switch up the style anyway. Her breasts are growing, and she needs a bit more support. I am going to make that call today.”
“I will get some stab-resistant fabric, just let me know where to send it,” Solor said softly. “She has to feel the time is right for her to leave active duty, but there are things in the works to make her job a little safer.”
Kaitha paused, “What did you do?”
Demuel chuckled. “The thing he is third best at. He filed a lot of paperwork and threatened to bring the press in on the ways that first responders are treated and what they risk on a daily basis.”
“Oh, shit. Does Nylora know?”
“No. Hell no. If they get anything in position, it will kick in tonight.”
“So soon?”
Demuel snorted. “He wrote a very sternly written letter, including a whole bunch of images of Nylora all clawed up. I sent clips from my body cam when the werewolf was coming for her.”
“Yeah, that nearly turned my hair white. Seeing her all carved up was worse,” Solor muttered.
“It’s horrifying when she comes home like that. She heals in hours, but she’s come in with skin not where it’s supposed to be, and she can’t use her dark fae seeming. It freaks the administration out.”
The two guys nodded.
Kaitha said, “Where do you live? I need to plug the address into my GPS so that I can find her if she goes missing.”
Solor told her, and she punched it into her phone then paused then laughed. “You live across the street from Jennor and his group. That is too funny.”
“How do you know where the minotaur mansion is?”
“Nylora went there before her shift, and she always gives me the addresses of where she is going, especially if it is new. My parents died in an accident, and I didn’t know for two days because it was across the country.
Nylora has decided that she will never make me feel that again.
If she dies, I will know within hours. Morbid but comforting. ”
Solor paused. “That is... considerate of her.”
“Oh, she’s very considerate. She’s also someone alone in the world with part of her soul wailing like a child.
It’s a lot. I am used to it. I welcome it, and Jacqueline has accepted that she will be part of our lives and has made an effort to get used to her.
It’s worked out pretty well so far. Once you understand the depths of the abandonment she has been treated to over and over, the understanding comes pretty quick.
” Kaitha said softly, “If you want to be involved with Bump’s life, she will do it happily, but if you screw her over, she will break.
Don’t play with her. She doesn’t know the rules. ”
Solor paused and nodded. “Thank you for being so candid.”
“I am doing this because she can’t. Not won’t. Can’t. It’s part of her first responder training. Defending herself is a tricky proposition, and this would qualify.”
She saw the fatigue that was creeping in on them. “Right, well, you two should head home. You are still on tonight?”
They both nodded.
Solor said, “If I asked you to take her to my place today instead of driving her to work, would you?”
“And why doesn’t she drive herself?”
“Yes, I can, and she is so tired from driving her rig that her arms don’t work right after a shift. She recovers after rest, but it is hard on her. Skip likes the computer, so he reads, and she drives.”
“Hm. I will add that to my report before I crash. Thank you for mentioning it. She and Skip are a tight team?”
“They are. Don’t try to mess with that. It’s hard to find folks who like working with dark fae.”
Demuel blinked. “Right. Well, we are going to get going. Thank you for the hospitality and the information. We will put it to good use.”
“Good. So, decide if you want her or the baby.”
Solor smiled. “I will be getting both.”
“That’s the right answer.” Kaitha watched them leave.
She looked at the listening orb that had recorded their conversation and knew that Nylora would listen to the matching one when she woke up.
She hoped that Solor’s campaign made a positive difference for the first responders.
The folk who helped and healed should not be in the line of fire.