Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
“ S o now, will you marry me?” Cass sat by Tilly’s bedside in the hospital recovery room from which they could see cheery Halloween cutouts still hanging in the hall.
The glow of the morning sunrise gently touched her peaceful features while she admired their child resting in her arms. His infant son—Antoine, or Toinou as he liked to call him—was tightly wrapped in a butter-yellow swaddle blanket and sported a cute little orange knitted hat shaped like a pumpkin. The baby, having just fed, made a tiny cooing sound as he resettled in her embrace.
It was still quiet now, with just the three of them. Mom and baby were fine, and he’d be taking them home this afternoon.
People had been in and out all last night, from Mag and Nyssa, then Father Grégoire along with Ren and Rosalie—who’d promised to take care of mother and child as soon as they’d settled back in Briac Falls.
Val had phoned to tell him they were on their way to Montreal and Mom had even video-called, insisting to see her one and only grandchild. She would be there for the christening.
With all this family intrusion, there was nothing he wanted more now than making their union official. To cherish and protect her and their child for the rest of their eternal lives.
Because she, too, along with Toinou were now immortal, as had been confirmed by Death who had appeared to both of them as their last “visitor” in the wee hours of the night.
Tilly smiled and tilted her head, still having not answered his pressing question.
The landscape of Montreal could be seen out the window, with Mont-Royal’s astounding fall colors of reds and gold behind the steel skyscrapers and historic church steeples. The perfect, crisp cozy morning awakening his city.
To think that less than a week ago he had found her at the back exit of his concert, and she had revealed that he was about to be a father.
Euphoria filled his soul. He had so much love to give her and his child, he thought his heart could explode.
But doubt lingered. What if the abduction had made her want to change their initial plans? What if she now wanted to be far away from Montreal—perhaps with her godmothers in the Pacific Northwest—and take the baby with her? Her experiences here had likely made her want to run away from those awful memories.
“I never did reply to you the first time you asked me to marry you, did I?” She grinned at him, and a gleam appeared at the corner of her eye.
“No, you did not.” He was hopeful. “Or the second time.”
“You were joking when you asked.” She looked down at Toinou as she resettled him against her chest. With a tiny sigh, the newborn pressed his little cheek on the lacy white cloth of her nightgown and Cass felt a surge of protectiveness rise strong in him.
“No. I wasn’t,” he stated.
He’d been serious with his first offer and was now more determined than ever. He had canceled his show on the night of her abduction but would go all the way and quit everything for her and their child.
“You were only acting out of responsibility,” she protested, and he couldn’t tell if she truly believed this.
“I was. But I also meant it. Can I not do both?”
Of course, he’d first proposed out of responsibility toward her, he wasn’t a deadbeat. But deep in his heart, he had absolutely wanted her. Had since he’d met her. On that first night when they kissed in the dark of the Hyannis studio, in the excitement of the moment as the album was done, both thrilled at the quality of their product.
She was the first to truly accept him for who he was. And she kept him grounded, seeing right through his amiable facade. “I love you, Tilly. Loved you for a long time. I don’t want you to go out west with your banshee godmothers.”
He knew the old ladies wanted her close. And they did not know him. He had lost her once, they likely thought little of him. But he would win them over, he knew he’d have to.
In deep thought, Tilly gazed at Toinou with adoration, the baby now sleeping soundly, with dark eyelashes resting on rosy plump cheeks, a picture of peace and serenity.
Cass knew that he and Tilly were good together but—“I will be a good father,” he pleaded.
“You already are.” She reached over to stroke his jawline, and the softness of the gesture had his heart racing.
“How?”
“You saved his life.” Her gaze on him was filled with an inner glow.
“He will grow up with a big family here. Us, Uncle Griff, Tante Emme.” His family wasn’t perfect, but they’d had each other’s back for centuries.
“I know.”
“My notoriety is a problem.” He knew the limelight was a terrible place to raise a child.
“It can be.” She pursed her lips as her forehead crinkled.
“I’ll retire.” That was it. He was done. There was nothing more important for him than to make his newfound family happy.
“Oh, heck no!” she exclaimed, surprising him with the passion in her statement. “Absolutely not. Your fame is a small problem we can deal with together.”
“For real?” He’d been sure she’d be relieved that he wanted to quit the touring and media courting.
“Yes.” She finally caught his gaze, and he saw nothing in hers but pure affection for him. He dared to hope for a bright future.
“My life goal was always to be independent,” she explained. “To rely on no one. And I just didn’t think I could remain so with your celebrity. That’s why I broke it off in Hyannis. But things have changed, Cass. Turned out it was my pregnancy, what I am, that was way more of a threat to our child than your fame.”
He nodded, taking in what she was saying.
“I have always sworn to do things on my own but if you hadn’t been there, he and I would both be dead.”
“I aim to serve.” He covered his overwhelming emotions with banter in his typical charmer persona. “I will do anything for you,” he added more seriously. “Both of you.”
“You do take your responsibilities genuinely,” she acknowledged. “I read you wrong at first.”
He hadn’t always been so careful. The ghost of his past returned to his memory. But it was time to let go of the guilt. He’d had centuries of making up for his recklessness.
“I do.” His smooth-talking posturing was gone. He could drop that act with her. “You know, there was once this great actress who worked with me, Augusta James. And she died on my watch.”
Tilly remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
“I was passed out drunk and she overdosed. Opium.” He dropped his head, ashamed. “That was a long time ago. 1782. I felt responsible for her death. And ever since she died that night, I’ve been obsessed with my bands, attending to all. And I thought Marjo was the best employee, with a kid of her own and all. I made a mistake.”
“She betrayed both of us.”
“She had understandable reasons,” he agreed, disturbed by his assistant’s choices. “But she should have come to me right away. I would have gotten her kid and her mom back.”
“Do you know what happened to her?” Tilly frowned. “Avery’s guy threw her out of the van.”
“Mag told me she was found unconscious on the side of the road. By some kids skateboarding in the area. She suffered a severe concussion and bruises. Along with a dislocated shoulder. She’s at the Notre Dame Hospital.”
“Will she recover?”
“Fully,” he informed her. “We could press charges if you want.”
“She did it for her son,” she said thoughtfully, peering down at their little one in her arms. She sighed and carefully passed the infant over to him. “I can see why she did it. She must have been terrified to lose him. Is he and the grandma ok?”
“Yes.” With reverence, he gently rearranged his tightly swaddled little boy high against his chest. “Mag sent some people over to check on them. The assholes had disappeared as soon as Avery made the call that he had you.”
“You’re keeping her on staff?”
“No way!” He kept his ire contained enough as to not wake his baby. “She freakin’ kidnapped you.”
“Right.” She seemed relieved as she reclined back on her pillows. “I just couldn’t face her again. Her sick kid, though. So sad.”
“She was willing to let you and Toinou die instead of seeking help. She’s lucky that she and her family are still alive.”
Without Marjo, Tilly would never have been at risk. He just couldn’t forget that. But all this no longer mattered.
“You know, I realized now,” he started, “all that band drama is just work. Our little one, you. You’re flesh and blood, that’s what’s important. We love each other.”
“We do. We’re a family.” She was beaming at him now and he knew deep inside that she wouldn’t leave him. She was here to stay.
“I know your parents left you behind,” he said. “It’s a kind of trauma that would always be with you.”
“To be honest, it’s probably why I was so scared of being with you in Hyannis. I couldn’t face being left, and I barely knew you then,” she explained. “I don’t hate my birth parents for abandoning me like that. Maybe that was the best they could do for me at the time. I have forgiven them. Now that I have my own child, I know deep down that my mother couldn’t hate me. She probably did what she thought was right. Her circumstances must have been horrific. And the past is the past. I nearly died last night. I’m all about the present now.”
“And the future.” He had so much love to give her. He just wanted to hear her say those words to him. “Our future.”
“I love you, Cass.” She sighed gently, finally saying out loud what he had yearned to hear for so long.
Her black hair fell in soft waves down on her lacy white nightgown. Her dark-blue eyes were filled with emotions. Right now, looking at him, like this, with her generous mouth slightly parted, she was the most beautiful woman in the world. “I know it deep in my heart. When I was lying there and fighting for my life, I kept thinking of the aftermath, you without us. It was breaking my heart.”
She loved him. There were no doubts now. His pulse raced with excitement. She would accept his proposal.
“I would have killed them all.” A primal growl rumbled inside him at the thought of finding her dead. He had kept that part of himself in check, but the vampire in him couldn’t be ignored when thinking of anyone intent on harming her.
“And then what?” she asked. “What would you have done without us?”
“I won’t ever be thinking about that. I just can’t.” It was the certainty that he would find her alive that had kept him going. He would have died for her, fight Moloch to whatever end. As long as she and their infant were far from the battle and lived.
“I wonder what happened to those guys who ran out with us,” he wondered.
“I’m not sure,” she offered. “But they were scared. I don’t think they were ready to kill me. They hesitated. The one with the spell book was crushed to death by Moloch. And Avery, well…”
“You cursed him,” he said. “Death told me.”
“How can someone be so greedy and resentful that they’d kill a pregnant woman?” She shook her head.
“Entitled bastards.” Cass had no pity for the cowards who had abducted her.
“They were part of a larger college students’ group, the Second Sons. Any still around?”
“Disappeared,” he told her. “Madame Ioshta’s granddaughter was watching the campus. The whole organization was gone overnight. The frat house they used is empty. They packed up and dispersed.”
“Oh, thank god.”
“Madame Ioshta has her people keeping an eye for any of them popping back up, just in case. And so does Mag’s friend, Captain Akande. These three that Avery led were the most gullible, with their ideas of using dark magic to get their way. The others must have heard, got scared, and left.
“And Ambrus? I mean, I can’t believe our child has a hell demon for a grandpa.”
“And here we thought he wanted to hurt you, but he truly wanted to be there for his grandchild.” Cass pondered over why Ambrus had left so quickly. There were things he would have liked to ask him. “He did help save us. Griff is so mad at all this. You and I both actually talked to him. Griff fought side by side with him after centuries of searching the world over, desperately wanting to talk to him. One minute he was there then just before you screamed, he vanished.”
“I didn’t hurt Ambrus, did I?” Her forehead creased with worry.
“No. He was fine.” Cass was more concerned about Tilly at the time, but he remembered seeing the gentleman getting up, cane in hand, while looking at him and then at Griff. He had disappeared into thin air right before her banshee scream.
“Poor Griff,” she said. “He must be so frustrated. Has he really searched all his life for him?”
“It started sometime after our father—our adopted one—died,” Cass said. “Mom had left us shortly thereafter. We all took it hard, but I think that’s when Griff started to think about blood relatives. Mom didn’t want to think about Ambrus, and we all looked up to Papa Antoine, but Griff stayed obsessed.”
“And he’s a hell demon,” she shook her head. “Brother to the one who was summoned. Is Moloch dead, you think?”
“I just talked to Justin. He and Madame Ioshta think that you killed his corporeal form on our plane. His essence, his true self if you will, has likely just returned to hell.”
“And thank the heavens for that.” She shuddered and hugged herself tight. “You’ll be able to play in Munich now that the baby is born.”
“Munich, why?” He stared at her with surprise. His tour was the last thing on his mind. “It’s all canceled.”
“Really?”
He realized he hadn’t filled her in on what had transpired last night after he’d discovered her abduction. So much had happened in less than twenty-four hours.
“Hell, I canceled the Halloween show right then and there when you disappeared. Yes, fans were upset at first. But Karim told the media it was because of you going into early, emergency labor. They understood. Their tickets were refunded. And nothing truly bad happened. Nothing like what we experienced last night. I was being stupid putting my concerts before you.”
“So, what will you do, then?” she asked. “Another tour? Postpone it?”
“I think that it’s for us to decide those next steps together,” he told her.
“You’ll have to play eventually,” she countered. “You can’t ignore your fans.”
“You think?” He’d been so focused on the now, he couldn’t think past that.
“Absolutely. When you sang that night, at the gala, it was amazing. You can’t dim that light of yours for me and Toinou. You can have both,” she reassured him. “The music, the songs, it’s part of who you are, deep down. You should never give it up. Never.”
“I left you at the gala,” he grumbled. “I left you alone at the baby store. All I could think of when I lost you was that I left you to sort out a stupid band problem.”
He had failed in so many ways. His brothers were the protectors. Not him.
Val had supported them all his whole life, looked after the cursed vampires Emme and her legacy made over the centuries. Ren had protected the alphas of the Domaine-Lassalle for nearly as long, after he’d been rescued by their ancestor. And Justin, he had looked after Emme ever since she’d been turned by a spell gone wrong. Mag looked after his neighborhood and had recently destroyed a vile ring of child traffickers. Even Griff had helped taking down monsters while searching for their father all over the world. But Cass hadn’t done much of anything similar.
“It wasn’t a stupid problem,” she said. “You needed to take care of things. I should have been perfectly safe. It was those evil Second Sons that are to blame. Not you.”
“Maybe.” He wasn’t convinced.
“And whatever happened backstage with your bassist?” she asked. “The one who was threatening you. Or was that a ploy to get me alone?”
“No, that really happened.” He raised a brow at remembering it all. He hadn’t had a choice. He had to take care of the problem at the time. But it had almost cost her life. “He came at me with a knife. I disarmed him and fired him on the spot.
“Really?”
“Yeah. He’ll probably sue but Karim will take care of that. He has no case.”
“And the band is okay with the tour’s cancelation?”
“Aside from Karim, they all think you were abducted by some crazy fans but that’s trauma enough without the demon. They understand. They’ll all be home for the holidays. Hervé’s wife is thrilled. We gave a huge bonus to the rest of the staff.” Still unable to shake the guilt he held inside him, he settled a soft gaze on her. “I still can’t get past the fact that I left you there all alone.”
“Nonsense.” She looked back at him tenderly. “You had to go deal with it. That Osh guy, he could have hurt someone.
“You know, my whole life,” she continued with a pensive expression, “I never felt quite safe. But I do now. You came for me. You found me. And you faced a demon to protect us.”
“In the end though, you’re the one who killed Moloch.” He was so terribly proud of her.
“With Madame Ioshta’s coaching.” She stretched her legs under the bed sheet and leaned her head on his shoulder as he gently rocked the baby in his arms. He still didn’t know how he could keep such a fragile being safe. “She helped because of you. You went to her. You knew what to do to find me.”
“And you found your own banshee voice.”
“Yep,” she agreed. “Death is quite proud.”
“Will Toinou also see Death?” He rearranged the blanket a little more around his son while wondering what that also meant for him. “Can he be a male banshee?”
“He’s half banshee and half immortal. A very special child.” Delight and pride could be heard in her voice. “The godmothers are so excited.”
“So is my mom,” Cass informed her. “She’ll do everything to try and train him in the magical craft.”
“Speaking of your mother, I meant to give you this.” Tilly reached over to the night table before opening her palm to show him his Celtic cross nestled in the center of her hand. “We can’t have Cass St-Amand without his silver cross.”
She passed him the pendant over their sleepy infant. “It kept me sane during the abduction. I prayed that you would find me.”
“It’s a strong talisman,” Cass said in all seriousness. The reason he’d been able to find her was because she had been wearing it the whole time of her captivity. “I’ll keep it for our boy when he’s old enough to wear it.”
“He won’t need it.” She beamed at him. “You’ll be there with us.”
“ We’ll be there for him. And in Briac Falls?” He hoped she intended to stay with him forever. “I meant it about building you a recording studio there.”
“In Briac Falls, sure,” she agreed. “But in New York, LA, wherever you have homes.”
He was ecstatic that she wanted to be with him, even if she still hadn’t answered his proposal. “I will never leave you behind, Tilly,” he promised.
“Sometimes you may have to, Cass,” she said. It was something, that wisdom of hers. “But it’s okay to be apart occasionally. If we can survive through a demon uprising, we can make this work. I truly believe it.”
“So, you are marrying me, right?” His heart battled hard against his chest bone as he waited for her answer.
She smiled, her eyes filled with the deepest love. “Absolutely.”