Chapter Thirty-Six
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A SOFT CHIMING NOISE came from the great room while the cambions were getting breakfast ready. Xan raced to the desk to check her computer screen. “It’s happening!” she called out in glee and sat down on her chair.
Her family came running to see what was going on. Amaros beat them all and loomed beside her. “What’s happening?” he demanded.
“The water is back on and buildings are already flooding,” the cambion said in glee. She pointed at a rivulet flowing from beneath the door of a store.
A human spotted it and panicked. He fled to the Empire State Building a short distance away.
“How did you set up the computer to alert you that some of the buildings are flooding?” Zoe asked.
Her hand was on her barely rounded belly.
It seemed cambions’ babies grew faster than normal.
Amaros moved aside so the others could watch the monitor.
He put his arm around his mate to hold her to his side.
“I could explain it to you, but you just wouldn’t get it,” Xanthia said, then snickered.
“Why didn’t the idiot just turn the water off?” Vic asked. It was killing her to curb her fake swearing, but she was making a valiant effort.
“Not everyone is as smart as you, my beautiful mate,” Cam said.
“I’m going to skip training and compile videos of all the mayhem that’s about to unfold,” the computer genius said.
Vic opened her mouth to complain, then shut it again. They all needed a diversion from the monotony of training every day. “I wish we had popcorn,” she said instead.
“Look!” Grace said when the screen changed to a different camera. “There’s your dad, Xan!”
They all watched as Xathan raced into a building.
Xan tilted the camera up until they saw water leaking from one of the upper apartments. “This is already getting good,” she said in anticipation.
Her sire exited from the building a short while later. The cambions all shrieked with laughter at the surly look on his face as he squeezed water from his dripping sleeve.
“He didn’t even take his jacket off before unplugging the bathtub!” Tori crowed, correctly assuming that was what had drenched his arm.
“I can’t wait to see the movie of disasters in Manhattan later,” Zoe said with a grin. “Let’s eat, girls,” she said to the others. “Semi will bring you your breakfast, Xan,” she added.
Semiaza nodded his agreement and followed the females into the kitchen. He took a seat at the table to wait, since he knew he’d just be in their way.
“The survivors will be happy to have the water back on,” Wynter said. “GG will be ecstatic. She’ll be able to wash her hair again.”
“Is she still spraying it with gold hairspray?” Victoria asked facetiously.
“Nope. She ran out,” Wyn said.
“That must have been a blow to her ego,” the ex-wrestler said in fake sympathy. “GG’s known far and wide for her vanity.”
Wynter turned on her trainer with a hard expression. “GG’s not the same person she used to be, Vic,” she said hotly. “You need to get over your petty jealousy of her.”
“You think I’m jealous of her?” Vic asked incredulously. “It was the other way around, sister. GG’s the one who hated me. She knew I was a threat to her and she did her best to humiliate me whenever we had to work together.”
“That’s in the past,” Wynter said, waving her hand dismissively. “We’ve all changed now, including you. What’s the point of holding onto a grudge against one of our allies?”
“She might be your ally, but she’s still my nemesis,” Vic said stubbornly. “You don’t know what she was like. She put me through hell and she cheated during our last fight.”
Wyn threw her hands up, tired of the argument. There was nothing she could say to get her tall, dark and surly friend to let her grudge go. “GG saved my life,” she said. “I’d still be stuck in Rahab’s lair and Tolas would still be in his cell if it wasn’t for my best friend.”
Victoria rolled her eyes. “She didn’t heal you so you could regain your powers. Bonding with Berit is what fixed you. You’re an idiot if you think GG is a saint.”
“Vic,” Zoe said in a quiet tone. “Wynter was dying when Berit found her. GG nursed her back from the brink of death. Fate placed them in the same location for a reason. GG might have been your enemy once, but she deserves a second chance.”
Cam’s head snapped up when he sensed his mate’s mood turn dark. He knew she was about to say something she would regret forever. Jac stumbled when he threw a punch at an opponent who’d just teleported away.
Vic pointed at their matriarch and opened her mouth to issue a rage-fueled tirade.
Camriel suddenly appeared in front of her.
Wrapping his arms around his mate, he teleported them both to the nearby resort.
“What did you do that for?” the cambion shouted.
“Are you on Wynter’s side like everyone else? ”
The knight refused to let his female go when she tried to shove him away.
“I know you hate GG, my gloriously furious mate,” he said, hugging her tightly.
“She was a horrible person who said nasty things to you. She made you feel like a loser and made you think you weren’t smart enough or pretty enough to be the star you were destined to become. ”
Vic stopped struggling to free herself and collapsed against him, driven to tears. “She doesn’t deserve a second chance like everyone thinks she does,” she sobbed. “There’s nothing GG could do to redeem herself.”
“Not even saving one of your sisters’ lives?
” he asked, glad when she put her arms around him in return.
He let her sob for a while before he spoke again.
“What if it was Grace who was starving and dying from thirst in that holding cell?” he murmured.
“Would you be grateful to GG for nursing her back to health, or would you still hate her fudging guts?”
Vic took a shuddering breath as her tears finally ended. “I’d be grateful, of course,” she said grudgingly. “But I’d still hate her guts.”
Cam chuckled and patted her on her admirably muscular back. “Dry your eyes and let’s go home.”
She took a tissue out of her pocket to dry her eyes and blow her nose. “I’m ready,” she said grimly.
“You’re just in time,” Grace said when the mated couple reappeared. “Breakfast is ready,” the teen said brightly, pretending nothing had happened.
Vic and Cam followed her into the dining room as the kid carried a huge thermos of coffee inside. The pro-wrestler strode around the table and came to a stop next to Wynter’s chair. “I’m sorry, Wyn,” she said. “You get a free shot for the things I said.”
“Okay,” the water wielder said and stood up. Her fist shot out and connected with Victoria’s nose. Blood gushed from both nostrils and her trainer howled in pain.
“Damn it!” Cam said, hand flying to his own nose. The agony was muted and was already fading as his mate healed.
“Fudging hell!” Vic exclaimed. “That hurt, you cork sucking mother fudger!”
“There goes her no almost-swearing record,” Tor said in amusement.
“She was doing so well, too,” Grace added sadly. “Take a seat and chow down before your food goes cold,” she ordered.
Vic glowered at Wynter, who’d taken a seat and was pouring herself some coffee. “It’s your fault it hurt so much,” Wyn said in self-defense. “You’ve been training me too well.”
Camriel hovered next to his mate, waiting for her to explode again.
He relaxed when she snickered. “I had that coming,” Victoria said, patting him on the butt.
“It’s okay, I’m fine now,” she said, using a tissue to wipe the blood from her face.
“I’m still not on team GG,” she announced as she took her seat to eat her second breakfast of the day.
“We know,” Zoe said. “You don’t need to be best friends with her. Just try not to start fights with Wyn just because she and GG are besties.”
Vic muttered something beneath her breath, but grudgingly nodded.
Cam sat down beside her as the rest of the males filed into the room.
They’d wisely stayed out of the females’ drama.
Kochab had woken early when he’d felt their tension.
He would fill Qiana in once she woke up.
She liked to be kept in the loop whenever she missed something.