15. Annani
ANNANI
"I'm leaving," Alena said. "I need to give E.T. a bath and dress him in something nice." She pulled out her phone. "Geraldine sent me this picture."
Annani took the phone and smiled. E.T. was adorable despite what he was wearing. "He outgrew this little shirt months ago. It rides up over his cute little tummy, and it makes me want to cover it with kisses."
"I know, right?" Alena took the phone and grinned at the photo of her son. "But I don't want him showing up like that to the family dinner. Orion is a wonderful daddy, but choosing what to dress our son in seems to exceed his parenting abilities."
Thanks to Orion, Alena could spend long hours by Annani's side without feeling guilty about abandoning her baby son to Ovidu's care.
But now that Khiann was awake and communicating, and Annani was no longer in panic mode, there was no more reason for Alena to stay away from her family for long hours each day.
The problem was telling her daughter that she was no longer needed without sounding ungrateful.
"You should get rid of all the outgrown clothing," Annani said. "Have Ovidu organize everything in matching sets so Orion knows what to pick up."
Alena put the phone in her skirt pocket. "Ovidu is not much better when it comes to dressing up little ones. He never developed the knack for that, which he should have after helping me raise fourteen children. I haven't had much time lately for anything, let alone closet organizing."
"I am sorry." Annani reached for her daughter's hand. "I appreciate the sacrifices you are making for me, and it means a lot to me that you are here. I know how difficult it is for you to be away from your little boy, and I think you should return to your family."
Alena leaned down and kissed Annani's cheek.
"I'm happy that I can do this for you, and don't worry about E.T.
and Orion. They are strengthening their father-son bond, and that's a good thing.
When I'm around, Orion defers to me because I'm the experienced parent, but if he doesn't learn to do things on his own, he's never going to, right? "
Annani nodded because she was too choked up to speak. How she wished Khiann could be the father of her children and develop bonds with them. But wishing something did not make it come true, and Khiann was not at all eager to even meet her children.
He was afraid of them.
Alena frowned. "Are you okay? Did I say something to upset you?"
"No. I just had a moment of self-pity. I wished Khiann could have been your father and formed bonds with all of you."
"I see." Alena chewed on her lower lip. "He still might. I mean, he can't be our biological father, but since our human fathers are all gone, he might become our father in spirit."
Annani smiled. "That is very kind of you to say, but can you imagine accepting a twenty-year-old as your adoptive father?"
"Maybe." Alena pursed her lips. "Is he the sagely type?"
"Not at all. That said, he was more mature at twenty than Kian was. Or maybe I just remember him that way because I was still a girl myself, and to me he seemed so much older and wiser."
Alena arched a brow. "Seriously? I can't imagine you looking up to anyone."
"Well, I might have exaggerated a little. I always believed I was right, and I was. When have I ever been wrong?"
"Never." Alena laughed. "I'm out of here, Mother. See you at dinner."
Annani glanced at the time displayed on the monitor behind Khiann's bed.
Sari's plane would be landing shortly, and the drive from the airport to the village would take about an hour.
At best, Sari and David would arrive around four in the afternoon, giving them just enough time to shower and change before dinner at Kian's house.
Annani would attend, of course, but she would not stay late. Now that Khiann was waking up more frequently and staying awake longer, she could not leave his side for more than two hours.
Would that be enough?
Probably not.
Family events usually lasted longer than that, and with Sari and David present after so long without a visit, the stories would run late into the night.
Her children would understand if she excused herself early, though. They all knew how difficult it was to stay away from a truelove mate in time of need.
She glanced at Khiann, willing him to wake up, and when he did not, she rose to her feet and went down the row of beds.
She started at the far end, the way she always did, with the guard Esag had possibly identified. He was awake now, which did not surprise her because he was awake more often than the other three.
"Good afternoon," she said. "In case you have forgotten who I am since the last time I introduced myself, I am Annani, daughter of Ahn and Nai. You are among friends, you are safe, and your name might be Adaluh."
Nothing moved in his face. He stared at her as if she was talking in a foreign language.
"Do not worry," she said, forcing a smile. "In time, you will remember and tell me your name yourself."
She went through the motions with the second, the third, and the fourth.
John Doe Number Four had begun making sounds again, and Julian had raised the back of his hospital bed to encourage him.
He was working his mouth with real determination, but what came out was still not a word in any language she had ever heard.
It was baby talk spoken in an adult voice, but at least he was capable of making sounds.
Khiann still could not do that.
Behind her, the machine beside his bed changed its rhythm, indicating that he was waking up, and her heart rate accelerated as it usually did when he returned to her.
She reached his bed right as his eyes started to open, and as they found her, the expression on his face was the best part of her day.
It was recognition, but not the kind she had been hoping for.
He recognized her as the female who sat by his side and told him stories, not the truelove mate who had been waiting for his return for thousands of years.
And yet, it seemed as if everything in him settled every time he saw her, as if everything in his world was good when his eyes found her, and that was enough.
"Good morning." She took his hand. "It is three-thirty in the afternoon, but I promised to call every waking a good morning."
He raised his eyebrows.
He had learned that only yesterday and was using it constantly now.
She loved it.
"Did you sleep well?"
One squeeze.
"Did you have good dreams?"
Two squeezes.
It was her turn to frown. "Did you dream at all?"
Two squeezes.
She let out a breath. "That is good. I was afraid you had a nightmare." She sat down in her chair with his hand still clutched in hers.
"Bridget asked me to run a test, so we will start with that. Do you remember the visitor you had yesterday?"
One squeeze.
Annani felt her glow intensify.
"Do you remember his name?"
Two squeezes.
"His name is Esag," she said. "He used to be your best friend, and his hair is red. He told you stories from your youth. Well, his youth. You are technically the same age you were before entering stasis. Do you remember how old you are?"
Two squeezes.
"You are twenty, plus about five thousand years, but since you were in stasis through all that time, your actual lived years are only twenty. Do you understand?"
Two squeezes.
Annani sighed. "I know it is difficult to comprehend, but I do not doubt that you will. It will just take time."
One squeeze, and the ghost of a smile that looked more like a grimace but was beautiful to her nonetheless.
Which made her hesitate to ask her next question, but she needed to know.
"Do you remember me mentioning my son wanting to visit you?"
Two squeezes.
Annani released a relieved breath, but she was worried. On the one hand, she was glad he did not remember his earlier reaction to the idea of Kian visiting, but on the other hand, it was concerning that he had forgotten something that had been very emotional for him just a day before.
"Never mind about that." She smiled. "What I wanted to tell you is that my daughter Sari is arriving today.
She is my fourth, younger than Kian but older than Amanda.
She lives in a place called Scotland, which, during your time, was simply labeled the North Lands.
" Annani rubbed her finger over the ring on his thumb.
"She is using a flying machine to come see you.
Do you remember those? The humans used to call them sky chariots. "
He frowned, then squeezed her hand once.
Annani gasped. "I did not expect you to remember that.
I had my own small flyer that I used to visit you on your journey.
You were always worried that something would happen to me and I would fall out of the sky.
I thought that it was so silly of you because those machines were infallible, but I was wrong.
Nothing happened to mine, but supposedly that was how Mortdh met his end.
" She waved a hand. "But I digress. Sari is coming to see you because she knows how important you are to me. "
He did not squeeze her hand, but then she had not asked him anything.
"She will come tomorrow. Today the family is meeting at Kian and Syssi's home to welcome Sari and her mate, so I will not be here for a few hours. Chances are that you will not wake up during that time, but if you do, I do not want you to worry. The medical staff will be here to take care of you."
His fingers remained loose over her hand, which was an answer of its own. She took it to mean he did not know how he felt about Sari's visit, or that he did not care one way or another.
Perhaps Esag's visit had shown him that it was not so bad to meet new people, or in Esag's case, someone he had known but did not remember.
Khiann had not said no to Sari's visit, and that was a win she was even happier about than if he had said yes to Kian. Sari was traveling halfway around the world to see him, and she was not going to stay long.
Annani decided to change the subject before he had a chance to start panicking over the visit and squeezing her fingers twice.
"Look at this." She lifted his hand a little so he could see the band around his thumb and not just feel it there.
"It has not dulled in all the time you were in stasis.
Even gold would have dulled or thinned where it rubbed against your finger, and after a few hundred years the wear would have shown.
But this is not gold." She turned it around his thumb.
"It is an alloy that does not tarnish, does not wear, and cannot be cut.
The truth is that I do not know what is in it.
The smith would not reveal his secret technique, and we did not press because we both suspected that it was an alloy from the planet of the gods. "
His eyes widened.
She smiled. "That is another story I shall save for another time. Your father told you things, and you told me." She pulled the ring from his thumb and tilted it toward the light so he could see the inscription.
The letters were as sharp as the day they had been engraved.
"For eternity and beyond." She read them to him. "That is what it says."
She turned to look at him, but he was not looking at the words carved into the mystery alloy. He was looking at the ceiling.
"It is a very solemn promise." Annani put the ring back on his thumb. "It was made by people who believed in it wholeheartedly."
She should tell him what he was to her. What she was to him.
She had told him that more than once, but it had been while he had been asleep, and that first time he had woken up and she had still hoped the Fates had been merciful and he would remember her.
She did not want to say those words again and see him not comprehend the meaning.
When he was stronger. When he could ask her what it meant. When it could be a conversation instead of a proclamation.
Khiann stayed awake for almost a whole hour listening to her stories, which was a new record, and when his eyelids began to droop, Annani patted his hand.
"I have to leave soon," she said, and his eyes popped open.
"Alena has already gone home to get ready, but Julian and the nurse will be here, and Bridget will come if there is a need for her.
You also have your guards with you. They are quite useless in the state they are in, and they are mostly a silent company, but they are here, and you are not alone even when I leave.
" She smiled. "Perhaps a miracle will occur while I am gone and one of them will remember his own name. "
One squeeze, and that smile that looked more like a grimace.
"I wish you were coming with me. If you remembered who you were, you would have enjoyed the big, noisy family dinner. But as you are now, you would hate it because there are too many people, and the children are loud."
She meant to stop there, but talking about her grandchildren was one of her favorite topics.
"Allegra is Kian and Syssi's daughter, and she is only nineteen months old, but she talks like a girl three times her age.
Evie is Amanda and Dalhu's, and she is fifteen months.
She has much less to say than Allegra, but she is just as intelligent.
She is just not as assertive, which is funny because Amanda is very assertive and Syssi is very shy.
The daughters turned out to be their mothers' opposites.
Evander Tellesious, or E.T. for short, is Alena and Orion's little boy, and he is adorable. "
She paused to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat. "You will like them when you get to know them. I am sure of that."
Khiann was losing the battle with his eyelids, which were beginning to droop again.
Annani rose to her feet, leaned over the bed, and kissed his forehead. "I am going now. Will you be all right until I return?"
He smiled at her, the crooked half of a smile, and squeezed her hand once.
"Then I shall see you later tonight."
She let go of his hand and set it down on the blanket, then straightened her gown and made herself walk out the doors.