I kicked off my shoes and lay down. “You’re the reason the hormones are going haywire, though.”
“Hardly the only reason,” he said, the amusement stronger. “It does, after all, take two to make a life, whether in this world or in mine.”
“Yeah, but you could have warned me your rockets were such fertile little buggers.”
The amusement faded from him. “Do you regret it? The pregnancy, that is?”
I shot him a surprised look. “Hell, no. I’ve always wanted kids. I could have done with the time to get to know you better, but aside from that, no regrets.”
“Ah. Good.” His relief ran through me, bright and shiny—an indication of just how important my answer had been to him.
“Azriel, you can read my mind. Surely you knew that whatever else I might regret, the pregnancy wasn’t one of them.”
“One of the side effects of sharing my life force with you is your ability to now shield some portions of your thoughts from me.” He gave me a lopsided smile. “Your feeling on the pregnancy was one such thought.”
I frowned. “I wasn’t doing it intentionally.”
“Perhaps not, but it was nevertheless a source of tension for me.”
“Well, you should have just asked. It’s not like you haven’t been vocal about all sorts of other things.”
“But if I had, I might have received an answer I did not desire. I would rather face ten hordes of demons than the knowledge that you did not want our child.”
“You, reaper, are an idiot.” I rose, walked across, and hugged him as fiercely as Tao had me only moments before. Then I stepped back and gave him a somewhat stern look. “The thing is, I not only want this child, but lots of little brothers and sisters for him as well. You’d better start preparing, reaper, because you have a lot of work ahead of you.”
“A task I look forward to.” He tapped my nose lightly. “And now, you should do what we came here to do.” And let us hope that Markel still watches, not Janice Myer.
Because if it was Janice, I might have to kill her, as I had Nick Krogan. Just thinking about the possibility had my stomach turning over.
I returned to the sofa, got comfortable, then closed my eyes. In very short time, I was back on the fields. The fates were with us for a change—Markel was our watcher.
He smiled and gave me a somewhat formal bow as I appeared. I take it you have come here because of Hunter’s recent actions.
So you know about Jack’s disappearance?
I am charged with following you astrally, remember. I heard your conversation with your uncle.
Ah. Bugger. Does that mean you haven’t heard anything else on the grapevine?
The event is only recent, so no. He paused. I would doubt if even Harry has more knowledge of it, as I would imagine the murder of her brother is something Hunter wouldn’t advertise. It would set off too many alarms within the council.
I snorted softly. And her recent behavior hasn’t been enough to do that?
He half smiled. Well, no, because she is a very old vampire, and old vampires tend to have peaks and troughs when it comes to behavior.
So they’re viewing her whole “I will take the keys from hell and rule you all” as nothing more than one of those troughs? Because you and I know it’s a lot more than that.
He nodded. But not all the councillors feel that way; otherwise, Harry would not have contacted you.
He contacted me because he wanted me to fight Hunter for him, I retorted. It had nothing to do with the council’s desires and everything to do with his own.
Not just his, Markel said, a slight hint of censure in his mental tones, but for the good of all. You’ve seen what she has become. Do you honestly think someone who would kill her own brother—who also happened to be the one person who has had any sort of influence over her in recent years—should be allowed to remain in control, be it on the council or at the Directorate?
No, I don’t, but I also think it’s a bit rich to expect me to do what you, Stanford, and a whole other bunch of very old vampires fear to.
Sometimes, life isn’t fair. I would have thought you’d have learned that after all that has happened recently.
Oh, I’d learned it, all right—that didn’t mean I had to be happy about it. Is there any way we can uncover whether Jack is alive or not?