Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
SAWYER
Sawyer was excited to see Cern. After all, Cern had saved Salem, and he’d looked after Aurin for a good number of days. He’d known about Lusca, and he knew Hadeom. They had ties to each other now, and Sawyer was hopeful of finally getting some answers. He wanted to know about it all.
Of course Cern would give nothing away.
“Thought I could expect a visit,” he said, ambling out of his small house. He was so vastly different in his full human form than the hooved and horned version Salem had shown Tobin. That version was regal and majestic.
Human Cern was old and frail. Sawyer had to wonder if it was an act, or if age really did hinder his human form.
“You know, I told Aurin that honey mead was potent stuff,” Cern added. He took his unlit pipe from his mouth and gave them a smirk. “Probably should have warned them about the other stuff.”
“You mean the fertility ritual and procreation,” Ciaran prompted.
Cern smiled. “Something like that.”
Sawyer didn’t take his flippancy very well.
They had serious concerns for Aurin, and Salem as well, and Cern was smirking?
Sawyer let Ciaran take the lead while he tried to rein in his annoyance, but damn, he just got more annoyed and was quickly toeing the line of pissed off.
He was pissed off at Cern for being secretive. He was pissed off that Cern couldn’t help them with information, with guidance.
How long could they expect gestation to last?
He didn’t know.
What complications could Aurin expect?
He didn’t know.
What could he tell them about any-fucking-thing?
Not a single thing, apparently.
He’d then rambled on about wonderful news and how the mountain and the trees were so happy to hear, and how the wind was singing a happy song because it had been such an age since any new gods were born.
Whatever the fuck that meant.
Sawyer couldn’t even bring himself to smile politely.
“Something on your mind, Sawyer?” Cern asked, smug as if he already knew the answer. Hell, maybe he did.
“I have concerns,” Sawyer replied.
Cern nodded slowly and put his pipe back in his mouth. “You considered keeping this news from me,” Cern said, giving Sawyer a sly smile.
“Yes,” Sawyer replied. “To keep Aurin and Salem safe. But then I figured you’d know all about it anyway.
Like you’d known about Lusca, and like how you know my boss Hadeom well enough to have him on speed dial.
Wanna explain how that works?” Sawyer hadn’t meant to sound so snappy, or so ungrateful, but fuuuuuuck. He was sick of the cryptic shit.
Ciaran shot Sawyer a look, but Cern only seemed to find this all amusing. “Ah, you humans are such fickle creatures.”
Fickle...
The god of wild things just called him fickle.
Ciaran, for a change, was being the level-headed one. “We’re just concerned, that’s all. We’re worried about them. Both Aurin and Salem. We consider Salem part of our consortium.”
“They’ll make good fathers,” Cern said. “The gentle ones always do.”
Gentle one. He’d called Aurin that before.
He wasn’t wrong, exactly, but...
“We’ll keep a close eye on them,” Cern said. He didn’t specify who the we was that he was referring to, but Sawyer could guess he meant the faun folk. “They’ll be just fine.”
“And their offspring?” Ciaran asked.
Cern’s eyes sparkled with delight. “Oh, they’ll be just fine too.”
Sawyer had no idea what Cern could see. The future? Their fates? As ridiculous and as unlikely as that sounded, Sawyer had to concede it was possible.
And that just pissed him off too.
If Cern did know, if he could see, then why not help them by divulging the truth?
Sawyer was done with the bullshit games.
“Hadeom asked me for intel on Salem,” Sawyer said.
“Just so you know. If he doesn’t actually know where or what he is, or if he’s testing me, I don’t know.
Everything is top secret apparently.” He watched Cern for a reaction, and when there wasn’t one, Sawyer continued, “Given Salem’s kind have been hunted and all but eradicated, I will be telling Hadeom nothing.
Even if Hadeom is on our side, which I’m not entirely sure he is, I won’t do anything to jeopardise Salem’s safety. Especially now.”
“Ah, the good inspector,” Cern said.
And then nothing.
“Yeah, the good inspector,” Sawyer murmured.
“So, if or when he calls you—which I’m not even sure how that’s possible because there are no phone lines up here and the phone service here is non-existent, but that’s a conversation for a whole other day—please do us a favour and don’t mention Salem.
Or Aurin, or basically anything to do with everything.
That’d be great. Because, you know, I’m sure having direct descendants of the old gods in the Cove won’t attract the wrong kind of attention at all. ”
Cern stared at Sawyer, and the wind whipped around them, angry and biting.
“Okay,” Ciaran said, taking Sawyer’s arm. “Thanks for your time, Cern. We appreciate it. We also appreciate you saving Salem and taking care of Aurin, but we’ll be off now.” He gave Sawyer a pointed glare as he dragged him back to the police cruiser.
Sawyer climbed in behind the wheel, grumbling as he started the engine and waiting for Ciaran to get in. Ciaran waved, but when Sawyer looked back at Cern, the old man was gone.
Just... not there.
Sawyer was still too mad to give that too much thought, because of course the old dick could disappear. Of course he could.
“Hey,” Ciaran said, smiling at Sawyer in a way that didn’t look entirely sane. “How about next time we don’t piss off the god of the wild things? Just a suggestion.”
The trees seemed to grab at the cruiser as they passed, twigs and leaves scraping and clawing, the wind furious.
“Christ,” Ciaran said, looking behind them as if they were trying to outrun the mountain.
“He can be pissed,” Sawyer said, not backing down. “He should be pissed. Because the whole cryptic schtick is bullshit. I’m sorry, but—”
“He can’t say, Sawyer,” Ciaran cried. “Apples, remember? The treaty. There are things he cannot say.”
Sawyer slammed on the brakes, the cruiser sliding to an abrupt stop. He stared at Ciaran. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
Fuck.
Now Sawyer was even more pissed. Mostly at himself, because fuck.
With a frustrated growl, he got out of the cruiser, the trees and wind and misty rain in a flurry of stinging rage around him.
He put both his arms out, his broken arm and hand aching like a bitch, and he yelled into the storm. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry!”
And just like that, the wind stopped, and the trees were calm again.
Sawyer nodded, because yep, that actually just happened.
Okay then.
He got back in the cruiser, ignoring Ciaran’s bewildered face, and began the drive back into town.
“I’m still mad,” Sawyer said, pouting—and possibly sulking.
“I can tell,” Ciaran said.
“And I’m sure he could tell us something.”
Ciaran’s only response was to sigh.
So they drove in silence for a while, the swoosh of the wiper blades a metronome to the beat of Sawyer’s guilt. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have opened my mouth. I’m just...”
“Worried?” Ciaran supplied.
“Scared,” he admitted quietly. “And I can’t do anything. Everyone else can help. They can go down to see them, check on them, and I can’t even get in the water,” he said, holding up his stupid broken arm. “You know, you were right.”
“About what?”
“Internal skeletons are stupid.”
Ciaran snorted. “I know, right?”
“External armour would be so much more practical. And waterproof. I could go in the water even with broken bones.”
Ciaran slid his hand over Sawyer’s thigh, giving him a squeeze. “They’ll be okay,” he said gently.
Sawyer nodded, and he tried to smile. “I can get those orders out for you,” he said. “If you... if you want to go down to spend some time with Aurin and Salem.”
“Sawyer,” he murmured.
“It’s fine,” he lied. “You have a business to run. We didn’t get that last shipment inventoried, and it’s not like I have much else to do.”
He was quiet while Sawyer pulled the cruiser to a stop at the police station, but he never took his hand from his thigh.
“Would you believe me if I said this town used to be so boring that nothing ever happened? And I mean nothing. We spent our entire days swimming, laughing.” Then he made a face.
“We used to have game days and fun competitions, but after the time Otis tried to kill Hendrix, we stopped that.”
If that was a tactic to get Sawyer to smile, it worked. Then, of course, Otis happened to walk out from behind the store carrying a giant rock.
Like, the size of his torso kind of giant.
“Jesus Christ,” Sawyer said.
Ciaran laughed. “Yeah. Now imagine trying to stop him when he’s pissed off.”
Sawyer didn’t have to imagine. It had been Otis who had ripped Lusca’s arm off, while Sawyer had shot her three times, and she hadn’t even flinched.
Or bled.
He still had to wonder about that...
Then Otis got to the edge of the pier, still holding the rock, and stepped into the water. Pania came out carrying a few smaller rocks that Sawyer was certain he couldn’t have lifted. Ciaran got out of the cruiser and headed over to her, and Sawyer hurried to follow.
“Hiya,” Pania said. “Did you see how strong my man is?”
“We did, yeah,” Ciaran said.
“Big, strong, and sexy,” she said, smiling at Sawyer as she kept walking. “Just how we like them, huh?”
Sawyer wasn’t sure what the appropriate answer to that was. “Sure.”
“Can I ask what the rocks are for?” Ciaran asked.
“We’re making a little cave for Aurin and Salem,” she replied, still walking, still smiling. “A baby nest for them to feel safe in.” She got to the pier. “It’s almost done. Come down and have a look.”
Then she simply stepped off the pier and sank into the water.
Where Sawyer couldn’t go.
Ciaran winced, clearly torn. And Sawyer could feel his anguish and need to check in with Aurin and Salem warring with the need to stay with Sawyer.
Knowing he was the cause of Ciaran’s conflict was sobering. He felt immediately guilty.
“Hey,” Ciaran said gently, taking his hand. “What’s the guilt for?”
“No, it’s okay. You should go see them,” Sawyer said. “You’re their leader. You need to be down there. Realising that was a bit of a reality check for me, that’s all.” He sighed, and with half a smile, he leaned in and kissed Ciaran. “Go. I’ll be right here.”
“I know you want to help,” Ciaran murmured.
“I’ll stay on watch,” he replied, trying to feel way more chipper than he actually did.
Which, of course, Ciaran saw right through.
Sawyer sighed again and took Ciaran’s other hand so he was holding both.
“It’s okay. I’m fine, I promise. You go be the best leader you can be, and then later tonight, you can be the best sex fiend. For hours. And hours.”
Ciaran laughed.
“And hours,” Sawyer added, feeling so much better now that Ciaran was smiling.
“Sex fiend, huh?” he murmured.
“The very worst offender.”
“Worst?”
“When I say worst, I mean best.” He dropped Ciaran’s hands so he could smack him on the arse. “Go. The sooner you go, the sooner the fiending can begin.”
Ciaran chuckled as he peeled off his shirt and toed out of his boots. Pulling off socks wasn’t exactly a sexy thing to do, but neither was the twenty loads of washing cephamorphs had to do with all the diving into water fully dressed they did. Don’t even get Sawyer started on the ruined shoes....
It really was no wonder they went around wearing nothing but board shorts most of the time.
So Sawyer found himself alone on the pier, folding Ciaran’s clothes, feeling a bit sorry for himself. Sorry that he wasn’t a cephamorph, sorry he couldn’t do more to help Aurin and Salem. And he was kinda still pissed at Cern.
Treaty or not, he could have said something.
He could have said something like “Oh, so I hear the weather is gonna be nice in four weeks” so they’d know the incubation or gestation period.
He could have said the straight-up truth, like, “So there’s never been an instance in the history of ever where a cephamorph and a half god have babies after copulating at a fertility soiree for the supernatural forest folk, so your guess is as good as mine. ”
He could have said that.
That wouldn’t have broken any treaty rules, surely.
Sawyer sat his arse down on the pier, dangling his feet while looking out into the misty cove, feeling all kinds of frustrated. The water was dark again, perhaps even darker than before, now that Salem was back. Now that Salem was in protective-partner-soon-to-be-dad mode.
Sawyer tried to imagine Tenebrae with kids running around.
He had no clue how many to expect. One? A dozen? Or one hundred?
Octopuses had a hundred or so eggs and hatchlings, so it might be possible? Even if cephamorphs weren't technically octopuses. Sawyer had to wonder... could they honestly have one hundred babies? One hundred freaking toddlers who become teens, and dear god—
His phone buzzed in his pocket, startling him out of his wayward thoughts. Probably just as well, he thought. Until he saw the name on screen.
Fuck.
For a split second, he considered not answering. But he knew he had to....
“Inspector Hadeom,” Sawyer said.
“Ah, nice of you to answer this time.”
“I answered last time too,” Sawyer replied, then immediately wished he hadn’t.
By the time the phone call was done, by the time he finally hit the End Call button, he wished he hadn’t answered at all.
He considered lobbing his phone into the cove.
He considered lobbing himself into the cove.
“Motherfucker,” he mumbled just as a splash sounded beneath him, and a human Ciaran hauled himself out of the water.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “I felt you going through it right now. What happened?”
Ah, yes. The no-hiding-any-emotions part of the bond.
Sawyer sighed, long and loud. “How’s the cave coming along?” he asked.
“It’s fine,” Ciaran replied. “It’s great, actually. Aurin and Salem are much happier in there. Well-hidden, tiny opening so no predators can...” He narrowed his eyes. “Sawyer, what is it?”
He held up his phone as if it was answer enough. “Just spoke to Hadeom.”
“And?”
“And he’ll be here tomorrow.”