CHAPTER 24
Two Years Later
Sampson
Priscilla bounces on my shoulder. I’ve got one hand wrapped around her small waist, holding her in place as I cut the ends of the stems she picks out by pointing, and place them in the vase I’m arranging.
I’ve got more down days than I used to, but everyone at MFD insists that new fathers need time with their babies.
Okay, so Priscilla is three years old, but she’s new to us. And she’s perfect. The moment the door opened at the group home and she came in holding the hand of the director, my heart cracked into two separate pieces. Nina holds one half. My little girl holds the other.
“When is Mommy coming back?” my daughter whines, then yawns. She hates naps, but she still needs them. Getting her down is more work than putting out raging flames.
“Soon. She just went into Charlotte to meet with her agent.”
“About the giant book?”
“About the book about giants, yeah. And guess what? She’s going to use me as her main character.
What do you think about that?” But my breath catches.
She can’t know what giants are, other than the fact that she feels sorry for the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk.
I think he reminds her of me, but anyway, I’m planting seeds.
One day, I’ll explain what I am, and on that day, I don’t want my species to be a complete shock to her.
“Oh. Then he’s a good giant. That’s okay, then. She usually writes about bad vampires.”
“How do you know that?”
Priscilla shrugs. “Nicholas told me at Auntie Mari’s birthday party.”
“Well, you’re right. This giant is good, and he loves his daughter very much.” In a swift move, I lean over and catch her up into the air before I begin to blow raspberries over her stomach.
She’s still dissolved into giggles and screams when the doorbell rings.
Instantly, I freeze and look daggers through the door.
Too bad ex-ray vision isn’t among my angelic gifts.
It’s why there’s a doorman downstairs now, paid for with far too many of my trust dollars, but worth every penny, except that Xy always manages to evade him, so I’m not sure what I’m paying for.
We’re going to have a discussion soon. I need my women protected when I’m off fighting fires.
Sure enough, Xy is on the other side of the door. He’s taken to haunting the place. “Hey, princess,” he says, hunkering down and addressing Priscilla. “Look what Uncle Xy brought you.” He extends his arm, a doll in his hand.
And my heart nearly stops dead when my daughter runs to him and plucks it from his hand. She’s so close to his evil. It could reach out and grab her down to the pits. I’ve warned him about talking to her, seeing her, even thinking about her, but he’s a sadistic bastard.
If he’s picturing her as roast over a fire, I’m truly going to kill him.
“Too small. I’d throw her back,” he says under his breath, reading my mind. He winks to let me know he’s toying with me.
Asshole. And that’s not a swear word. It’s a noun that is what he is.
“Say thank you and go play with her in your room, okay, sweetheart? Daddy needs to talk to Mr. Tull.”
Priscilla must sense something in my voice, or the still way I’m standing, ready to pounce, because she nods and runs off after saying the sweetest thank you ever to hit the airwaves.
“Cute. Make a nice appetizer, though,” Xy murmurs, watching her.
I’ve got him pushed against the door, his head locked under my arm and just at the cracking point before he even knows what’s going to happen.
“Easy,” he wheezes, holding up his hands to indicate he’s not going to fight me. “Messing. With. You. News. Came with. News.”
“If you ever, and I mean, ever, look at Priscilla—or Nina—no, scratch that—if you ever look at any human being in Mossburg again, as supper or otherwise, I’ll kill you. And I won’t feel a moment’s remorse, either.”
He starts to chuckle. “That’s my boy. Turning into a right find Neph, though it’s taking longer than it should. Nothing turns a man into a monster more than protecting the ones he loves. That’s your human weakness, but we’ll use it.”
“Xy…” I growl his name as a warning, but I also take his meaning.
The unhinged nature of the giants comes out in me every single time I sense the slightest threat to my family.
With a shove, I release him. “Say what you want to say, and get out of here. This is the last time I want to see your sorry ass in Mossburg, got me?” I wipe my hands on my jeans, trying to decontaminate them from touching him.
Slowly, he straightens, but there’s a hateful glint in his eyes. “You’re not my favorite person either, son. I come bearing a message from the Premier, your grandfather. The matter is simple. He’s had enough of your shilly-shallying. You either take the oath of allegiance, or you’re disowned.”
“Yes!” I pull my elbow to my upraised thigh in a victory gesture as elation fills me.
It’s what I’ve been waiting for. Ever since I learned how giants who don’t take the oath are expelled from card-carrying membership in Nephilim Anonymous, I’ve been actively pursuing ouster.
It’s taken years, but apparently, my grandfather is now at the breaking point.
Probably didn’t help that I started singing a church hymn at the last meeting. Those giants ran from the room like their hair was on fire.
I start chuckling at the memory.
“Don’t you have any loyalty to your Kind?” Xy hisses.
“I have loyalty to my family, my friends, and the people who raised me. Look, I’ve told all of you for years: I’m not going to be part of your plot to retake ownership of the earth.
I’m not going to seed baby giants to die in your uprising.
In fact, I’m going out of my way to make sure everything I do sits well with your enemy, so that means that I’ll be the biggest thorn in your ass that you’ve ever felt if any of you start anything.
Because I’m watching. I’m not part of you—never will be—but I’m watching. ”
Xy hisses again and backs up.
Which would be funny if he weren’t so demented.
“Look, your plans are messed up and stupid, not to mention evil. If any of you had two brain cells to rub together, you’d realize that integrating by following the rules of society is a much better idea than hiding out in caves and plotting world domination.
And seriously, I don’t know how much plainer I can be about what I think. I really don’t.”
He grunts. “If your mother were still alive…”
“But she’s not, is she?” I interrupt him, in no mood to listen to more of his nonsense.
“Her own father killed her for her betrayal in sending me away. But you know what? I honor her. I honor her sacrifice for me, and I’m going to follow along with what she wanted: me, away from all of you.
Now, if you don’t mind, I have a story to read to my daughter.
Tell the others I want no part of their machinations, and if I see any of you in Mossburg again, I’ll use my angelic powers to smite you all into coal dust.”
Xy’s eyes widen. “You’ve found your powers?”
“Exactly where I last left them. You don’t want to tangle with me. None of you do.”
I’m full of empty threats. I don’t have any gifts, except maybe that I know a good thing when I see it, like my life with Nina and Priscilla.
But the other giants keep watching me like gloomy sentinels, waiting for me to exhibit angelic powers.
The first Nephilim were apparently gifted with telekinesis, telepathy, invisibility, and portal-jumping, among other talents.
I don’t know why I can’t do any of that, but since I don’t care, it doesn’t really matter.
“You’re so ungrateful.” But he says the words quietly.
My race fears me, even my loathsome grandfather, which is good. They’ll leave me alone. Outside of the actual Watchers, who remain imprisoned because no one can figure out how to break their supernatural binding, I’m supposed to be the most powerful weapon in their army.
See? It’s funny that I’m completely unusable. Nina put that into her book. There’s so much truth in her current fiction that it would make her readers’ heads spin if they knew about it.
“Good. Glad we understand each other.” I clap Xy on the back and lead him to the door before shoving him through. “This will be the last time we see each other, understand?”
He doesn’t bother to answer me. He simply stalks away.
Two hours later, I’m awakened from my nap with a kiss. Nina leans over me, smiling. “Hi, big guy,” she whispers. Her glance skims over the queen-size bed onto which I don’t really fit, to Priscilla, who clutches her doll, fast asleep in the crook of my arm. She’ll wake soon, but not yet. I hope.
As quietly as I can, I slip from her bed and out the door with Nina into our bedroom. “Good meeting?” I ask, after giving her a proper kiss hello.
She makes a rude noise. “Idiot agent thinks the whole idea of a giant clan getting set to overthrow the world is too outlandish. Gloria wants me to tame down some of the darkness, not to mention the advanced technology that they hold.”
“Yeah, that could be a problem.”
But after I tell her all about my conversation with Xy, she relaxes and hugs me tight around my legs. “So, you’re really all mine again? No more threat of them taking you by force?”
“There’s always the threat.” I promised to be honest with her, so I will be, no matter how much I hate what I’m saying. “But I think that they’ll leave us alone for the moment. However,” I add, “I’m not all yours.”
“You’re not?” She leans back to stare up at me.
I shake my head. “I’m afraid I’ve given half my heart to a very, very small person. I hope you don’t mind sharing?”
She jumps straight up, and I catch her. Wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist, she kisses my lips. When she finishes, she says, “I don’t mind at all. In fact, I’d even accept a third of your heart.”
“You want to adopt another?” I’m surprised. I thought she was as happy as I am.
“Well, there’s a little boy in the Charlotte Children’s Home.
Mrs. Dawkins called and asked after Priscilla, and when she heard how well she’s adjusted, she texted me a photo, along with a description of a five-year-old boy who’s been ratcheting around the system.
Lucas. He’s got some issues that will take a little adjustment, but when you see his picture… ”
And just like that, I know I’m about to be a father to a son.
I may not have much of an afterlife to look forward to, but the rest of my days promise to be pure bliss, not because of what I was born, but because of what the people I’ve loved have helped me become. And no amount of gratitude will ever be enough.
THE END