Page 138 of Jay's Silence
“Them?” I asked.
“Twins,” Oliviarose said. “But the birth is slow. One is turned.”
I glided forward and pulled Gorm’s Pink Compact out of my pocket. Although the top looked normal, I’d spent an entire month etching a network of tiny runes on the bottom, altering the terms of the crazy god’s imprisonment. His power now protected instead of hurt, whether he liked it or not.
I knelt next to my friend. “I am. I promise they will grow up well looked after and far, far away from Marduk’s sight. But you cannot look for them, and you cannot know where they are. The moment you do, Marduk will find them.”
Pain filled Caoimhe’s face as another contraction bowed her body.
“I can’t wait. Marduk’s already on his way. The temple’s ancient magic is hiding you, but it will not last. Your babies need to come out now.” I rested my hand on her stomach. “May I?”
She nodded.
I closed my eyes and sunk my power into her stomach, forcing the turned baby to right itself and come out first. The air twitched unhappily as if I’d forced a change on the world it wasn’t prepared for. But what was done was done. On the next contraction, Caoimhe cried out and pushed. The second baby slipped into Oliviarose’s arms.
I stood back, giving Oliviarose and the new mom a minute to clean up the babies and say goodbye before stepping forward again. I fingered the compact. I hadn’t accounted for twins, but the raw magic of a god should still hide them both, at least until they could defend themselves.
I slipped the make-up accessory into the deep red blankets, swaddling the first twin. Although I couldn’t see any visiblechange, I felt their presence dim. A quick peek with my third eye showed me nothing but simple humans.
Exactly what they needed to be.
One at a time, I handed the chubby, healthy girls to Tyson and Rehan. Tyson’s entire face lit up, and he pulled the child close to his chest, making Tenzin a silent promise with just his gaze. Rehan smiled down at the girl like she was a gift. Which, I guess, all babies were. Even Lux and Og leaned in, though their interest in babies was far less.
Tears streamed down Caoimhe’s face. “I can’t see them.”
“You can’t,” I said firmly. “Marduk will be watching you and everyone you know for any hint of the girl. But I’ll be their mentor, and I’ll tell you every detail.”
Caoimhe tried to smile, but between the pain of birth and the pain of loss, she didn’t have it in her. I understood, and I still loved her for it. I focused on Tenzin. “Now that you’ve had your firstborn, Marduk can’t touch you or your family-to-be. Take her home and enjoy your life with the fire nymphs.”
Caoimhe lay back, exhausted, and Tenzin wrapped her in his arms. “We will.”
I backed away from them, Oliviarose with me.
“You know those girls are special,” Oliviarose brushed the bright red, still sticky hair off one of their foreheads.
“I will train them like they are,” I promised, signaling to my guys. We had to get moving. If Marduk physically saw the girls, the game would be up. He had to believe I stole the child and sacrificed it rather than see it under his control.
The move was petty and evil—everything Marduk expected of me.
I stepped through a portal to an altar in Russia I’d staged just for this event. A small group of my ‘worshipers’ watched me set one of the girls on a smooth table where I used good old-fashioned trickery to make her vanish in a ball of light.
One of my worshipers used a portal to send me to my home in the Swiss Alps, where I found my guys waiting with both healthy twins. Rehan jumped us three different Ley Lines over three different continents, only for me to portal us directly into the kitchen of a bar in Casper, Wyoming. Casper was one of the safest cities in the US. The supernatural population was small and tight knit. Most notably, one of the kindest, most caring human women I’d ever met wanted children her body would never conceive.
Marisol jumped out of her seat with her hands clasped in front of her. “Is this her?”
“Them,” I said. “Twins.”
Her demure plaid dress swung as she jumped with excitement. “My ma’s gonna be over the moon, two grandkids to fawn over instead of one.” The short, curly brunet held out her arms, and my mates handed over their precious cargo.
I’d interviewed Marisol extensively. The baby girls were in good hands. Even if something went wrong, I would never be far. I watched Marisol take the babies to her truck, her loving husband waiting with the engine running. Two more identical trucks pulled out at the same time. The vehicles were going on an all-expenses paid road trip just in case Marduk got this far.
Once the parking lot was empty, I draped myself over the bar. I trembled, finally letting myself react to my friend's pain and the terror of what I’d just done. But it needed to happen, and for better or worse, this was who I was. The woman who made hard decisions so the world changed, apparently.
But I wasn’t alone anymore.
“Fuck me, that was hard,” I mumbled. “Can I get a drink?”
Frank, a big, burly bear shifter, came out from the back. “It’s ten in the morning. I’m not even open.”