Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
All different tones. All different children.
Because Naasir, their primal chimera, had managed to do the impossible—he’d sired not a single child, but three at once. Triplets were so rare in angelkind that this birth would go down in history, talked about for centuries if not longer.
That wasn’t the only thing that made this birth momentous, of course. These were the only children ever born of a chimera and an angel. Not even Keir had any idea of the form the babes would take. Winged chimera? Born vampires who needed blood but could also process food and weren’t prey to bloodlust? Beings unique?
It was all an unknown.
The only certainty was that Naasir would love his cubs with primal joy. As would Dmitri.
“Dmitri.” A crying Naasir opened the door…and against his bare chest, he held three tiny babes with skin as brown as his own and wings so fine, they were translucent.
Dmitri touched a gentle finger to the head of each before Naasir handed the children over to the healers, for they had been born too young and would need a little extra care. They would, however, remain in the room with the new parents.
Naasir watched them like a hawk, while an exhausted Andromeda beamed from the bed, where Honor had already helped her become more comfortable, and the healers buzzed around, as excited for the births as the entirety of the Refuge.
* * *
* * *
Later, after things had settled, and Andromeda and the babies were sleeping, while Honor spoke with Jessamy and Keir in the corridor outside, Naasir turned from his babies to Dmitri and whispered, “I’m not a one-being anymore, Dmitri.” A rough tremor in his voice. “I have cubs like me.”
Dmitri looked down at the children, saw the faint ripple of stripes under the skin of one before it settled back to a smooth deep brown. “Not just one, but three.” He squeezed the other man’s nape. “At this rate, you’ll have a whole squadron by the time you’re done.”
Naasir looked down at his boys. All three of them. “Do you think they’ll fly?” he asked, curious and unworried. “I never flew and didn’t mind, but they have things that look like wings. Maybe they’ll want to fly and be sad they can’t.”
“They’ll fly,” Dmitri confirmed. “Their wings look so fragile because they were born early. I’ve seen it before.”
Naasir prowled to gently nuzzle his sleeping mate. Smiling in her rest, Andi turned toward him.
“They’re like both of us,” Naasir whispered proudly even as he stroked Andi’s hair, petting her in that way of his. “We made them together. Our cubs.”
42
A massive group of the senior Tower crew, including Elena and Raphael, crowded into Venom’s office to look at the three-dimensional images Dmitri had sent through of the newborn cubs. The images were so lifelike that it was tempting to reach across and try to gather up a tiny newborn in the hand.
“They look about the size of beans,” Illium said with a worried frown. “Is that normal?”
Aodhan spread his wing partially over his lover’s—only partially because there were too many people around the desk for any further movement. “They’re not quite that small. And yes, it’s normal—Indri was bigger, but he was full term and a single baby.”
“To have more than one child in a single pregnancy is rare among our kind,” Raphael added, “but I watched over one such pair during my time standing guard in the angelic nursery, and they were much smaller than the single births.”
Aodhan could well see the sire holding watch over their most vulnerable. Even during the period when he’d turned cold and heartless, he’d never once been anything but kind to children.
“Their wings.” Elena pressed her hand to her heart. “They’re so fine, almost invisible.”
“They’ll fill in,” Nisia reassured her. “I ministered to another child born with wings that undeveloped.” The healer glanced over at Illium. “Doesn’t seem to have stopped him.”
No, Aodhan thought, nothing could stop their Bluebell. “Is the Refuge in an uproar?”
“Complete chaos,” Venom confirmed, while Holly stood next to his chair with her hand on his nape and her face glowing with utter happiness; she and Naasir were tight. Not the same way Naasir was with the rest of the Seven. They had their own—very sibling-like—relationship.
“Dmitri called earlier,” Venom continued, “and he says that while people are being very good and giving mother and babes the peace they need, everyone’s bursting out of their skin and the gifts are piling up. One old one has declared it a harbinger of good luck for the next eon.”
“I wouldn’t argue with that,” Raphael said. “Children are a gift, and today we’ve been gifted three bright new lives.”
The archangel glanced at Ashwini. “What say you, Ash?”
The hunter with a gift for prophecy tucked her long dark hair behind her ear to reveal a dangling earring in reds and oranges. “That they’re babies,” she said sternly, hands on her hips. “No one should be dooming them with portents.”