Moonlight: The Big Bad Wolf (Black Swan 4) (11 page)

Word spread like wildfire through Jefferson Unit that there were five pure vampire, unknowing authors of the plague and aliens from another dimension, being temporarily housed in the trainees' rec room. Naturally everyone wanted a glimpse, but access was restricted for the time being. It was fortunate that the room was down a short hallway, easily blocked off. One of the former teams of vampire hunters was assigned guard duty - not for the purpose of keeping the vampire in, because that would be impossible, but for the purpose of keeping curiosity seekers out.

It was late when the original dinner guests turned to leave.

"Does it no' matter to anyone else that we did no' get dinner?"

Storm grasped Ram by the shoulder affectionately. "Let's go to the lounge and see if they can rustle something up."

Everybody more or less fell in line behind them. Litha asked Elora about the baby.

"You can't leave without coming to see him. Are you staying tonight?"

"No. We'll pop home after dinner."

Elora smiled. "I keep forgetting. The ability to be anywhere almost instantly... Well, why ever sleep somewhere that's not your own bed?"

Litha leaned close and whispered conspiratorily, "Do you really have to ask that?"

Elora laughed loudly enough that Ram and Storm both turned around to see what their wives were finding so amusing. Elora gave them a too-precious look of innocence and hammed it up with a couple of big blinks. Litha wore an expression that said, "It's a complete mystery why she spontaneously breaks into hysteria at times."

When Ram and Storm turned around, Elora grasped Litha's forearm and made a motion with her head, signaling that they should let the others pass by. When they had lagged far behind the rest of the diners interruptus, Elora whispered, "You're showing!"

"I know."

"How is that possible?"

Litha shrugged. "Our baby has a unique heritage. We don't really know what to expect. My grandmother told me that, after my dad was born, he became an adult incubus in three days, complete with the sum of both parents' experiences stored in his memory. In detail." She chuckled under her breath. "Three years from now we could be taking her to preschool or planning a wedding."

Elora's brain seemed to stop working when she tried to grasp that. "Wow."

"I know. So. I guess we have to be flexible." She frowned a little. "And I'm not sure that's Storm's strong suit. The pregnancy is going a lot faster than... You know the only doctor they'll let me see is that quack they had treating you."

Elora nodded. "You can't just walk into any OB/GYN and say, 'Hey. This might be a little outside typical.'" She paused and Litha sighed. "It could turn out to be good. Shorter pregnancy preferable to longer pregnancy? Anytime."

"I guess so."

"What are you going to tell Storm's family? And the monks?"

"The monks are no problem because their sect is basically mystic. They'll be cool about it. Storm's family? I don't know. He said we're going to have to buy a story from Ram, that, 'Rammel is king at making shit up'."

"Okay. I'm going to choose to not think about that too hard, but I feel fairly certain that, for Storm, he would make shit up for free."

Litha gave Elora a full-throated, sexy laugh she'd never heard before. Over time, she'd grown more and more fond of Litha. She admired her poise and the serene calm she wore so naturally, not to mention that she was as multifaceted as a prism. She was a perfect match for somebody as complicated as Storm and, most importantly, she loved him the way he deserved to be loved.

"So moving on to a normal question. How's married life?"

Litha simply smiled like a person who was happy with her choices.

"That good?" Elora laughed softly. "Just what I wanted to hear. He looks happy." She glanced at Litha and smiled. "You, too."

"The vineyard is heavenly. Married life is heavenly. But Edinburgh is starting to feel like quicksand. Choking me, trying to drag me under. If they had their way, I'd be working for them round the clock like a robot."

Elora stopped and turned to face Litha with a look of concern. "Does Simon know you feel that way?"

Litha shook her head. "No. I haven't said anything."

Elora searched her face. "It's not selfish to want a life, Litha. You need to take a lesson from the boys on this one. They would say that if you don't stand up for yourself, then you get what you get, and that's the way it should be. Figure out your boundaries and then fight for them."

"Oh. Look who's talking. You have three of the strongest men in this world who would run, not walk, but run to stand up for you."

Elora's eyes sparkled. "I know it looks that way now, but I did have to stand up for myself in the beginning."

"What's goin' on?"

The women both jumped like they'd been caught doing something wrong. They'd been so lost in the conversation they hadn't noticed their husbands approaching.

Storm angled his head toward Ram. "What do you suppose they were up to that would make them jump like that?"

"Do no' know, but it will definitely be keepin' me awake."

"We're jumpy because we've spent an entire evening being stared at by vampire in an overtly sexual way," Elora lied smoothly. Litha didn't dare look at her or she'd give that away for sure.

"I see," said Ram. To Storm he said, "You might think that women who'd been made skittish by wicked horny biters would want to stick close to their males."

Storm slid his eyes to Rammel. "You would think so." As he looked back at Litha his face broke into a grin. "Fortunately for us these women are not like
any
others."

Ram grabbed Elora and pulled her in tight while bathing her in the light of one of his signature sexy smiles. "The talk about horny biters is downright arousin'. How 'bout skippin' dinner?"

"Come on. We'll eat fast."

Elora made a point of calling Litha almost every day after that because she was concerned about the pregnancy and knew that Litha, whose relatives consisted of an incubus and seven monks, had no women to confide in. Storm's girl was a new case study for The Order's annals and the delivery of a mostly demon hybrid was an event. Elora didn't want the woman to get lost in the shuffle.

With each passing day that she called to ask for a report, she felt closer to Litha, and as she became more fond, she realized how much she'd missed female companionship - her cousin,
Madelayne, and even her younger sisters. Litha managed to couch her concerns and physical complaints in an entertaining dry wit so that Elora was never sure which of them benefitted most from their talks.

***

CHAPTER _6

The next morning Elora woke to her phone buzzing on the bedside table. She looked around. Ram must have gotten up with the baby. She heard voices in the next room and knew that nanny had already arrived. She tilted the phone to look at the caller ID.
Love Bites.
He'd changed it from
White Fang
when he was cured. The first time.

"Hey. Did you get a plane?"

"I did."

"Good. When will you be here?"

"Two minutes. I'm stepping off the sixth floor elevator and coming down your hallway."

Elora sat straight up. "I haven't brushed my teeth yet."

Baka chuckled. "Well, in that case, I guess I'll just have to find something to occupy myself until your breath smells good enough to give me a briefing. Something like say, I don't know, holding a baby?"

"If I keep letting you near him, he might get the idea that I think you're okay. By the way, thank you for taking Song to the reception and looking out for her."

"You're welcome."

"And whatever you do, please,
please
, don't tell Ram."

"Elora..."

"Thanks. Love you." She hung up before he could finish his thought and peeked out the bedroom door. "Ram. Baka will be at the door in one minute. I told him he could hold Helm while I get ready, then we'll take him to breakfast and do a briefing."

"He'd better have his briefs on already."

She laughed at him and shook her head, not because that was funny, but because Ram was of the opinion that, if a joke was good once, it grew better with age and would kill on the hundredth telling.

When Ram opened the door for Baka, Blackie growled and showed how big he was by making his ruff stand straight up.

Baka chuckled. "Still not a fan, I see."

Blackie whined in protest when Ram confined him to the bedroom with his mistress. Before they left the apartment Elora called Sol. "Just keeping you in the loop. Baka's here. We were thinking we'd do a breakfast briefing downstairs. Do you want to join us?"

"You know what I know. Spell it out then stop by my office before you take him to meet the vamps."

"Okay. See you later."

Next she texted Glen.
where are you?

visiting vamps.

?? ok taking baka to breakfast brief then coming there

TEXT me when ur on the way

ok why?

There was no reply.

Over an "Eggie Spinach Benedictine" skillet for two, Ram and Elora relayed every detail they could remember about the events of the previous night which were extraordinary even by The Order's standards. Baka was quiet as he took it all in. It was easy to see his mind was busy processing through the logical ramifications of what such a fortuitous development could mean for the success of his Vampire Inversion project.

"If they're willing to help, it could shorten the time-table. By years. Possibly." He appeared calm, but Elora could tell that Baka could barely contain his excitement.

"I thought you'd be pleased and I'll bet you're eager to get a look at them. If you're ready, Sol wanted us to stop by his office on the way down to meeting your new recruits."

"Recruits? Let's don't get ahead of ourselves."

"Positive thinking. Never hurts."

"No indeed."

Sol's welcome to Baka was as warm as it ever got with him. The Sovereign said hello and shook hands, then instructed Baka to let him know if the Lady Laiken wasn't seeing to his needs. Ram, Elora, and Baka each had their own internal reaction to the way that thought was phrased. It never seemed to cross Sol's mind that innuendo might be inferred so they ignored it.

On the way to the former trainees' rec room, at the last minute, Elora remembered that Glen had asked her to text.

Almost there.

Just as they were at the door Glen came rushing out and held his arms across the entrance with the door to his back, blocking their way.

"Hold on. There's something I have to tell you."

"Move aside, Catch." Ram stepped forward with his authority face on.

"You sure? 'Cause it's horror night at the frat house in there."

Elora frowned. It was out of character for Glen to hesitate when Ram gave him an order. Odd behavior and an even odder thing to say. Horror night at the frat house?

"Now." Ram said it quietly and firmly.

Glen moved out of the way.

When the door swung open, Ram, Elora, and Baka stood in place staring with mouths open.

Finally Ram said, "Great Paddy."

Elora turned on Glen like it was his fault. "Glendennon. What the...?"

Glen held his hands up, palms outward, like he was fending off an attack. "Tried to tell you."

The place looked like it had been hit by a hurricane. The pool table balls had apparently been used for high velocity dodge ball. Some of them were lodged in the plaster amid scores of holes that had been gouged in the walls. The extra large TV monitor and the wall on which it was hung were untouched and pristine. The vampire had, apparently, carefully avoided interfering with the entertainment unit which was currently playing
Animal House
at a near-deafening volume.

Javier and two of the other vamps had pulled white sheets off their beds and fashioned togas, which they were now wearing over what appeared to be well-proportioned, but entirely naked bodies.

One of them, who was jumping up and down on one of the cots stopped long enough to throw his head back and wail, "Now. Waiiiiiiit a minute," at the ceiling. The fact that he delivered a pitch perfect imitation of the memorable lyric from "Shout" made the moment either more surreal or less appalling. Elora couldn't decide which.