by Jacey Ward
“Oh, stop being an asshole and just go home to your wife,” Circe snapped furiously. “I still can’t believe you bonded to her without telling anyone.”
But despite all her posturing, Circe was grateful for all he had done for her friend, whether or not she agreed with their relationship.
“I liked you better when I thought you were sleeping with half of Manhattan,” Circe grumbled.
Evander chuckled, “No, you didn’t,” he replied with a wink. “Just think, we’re practically in-laws now.”
“Evander, you’re dancing on very thin ice right now,” Kalen muttered, leaning forward. “If you make one misstep…”
“You can’t make one misstep,” Circe interrupted. “You’ve more than fulfilled your quota – and now you’re bonded to one of my best friends, and she’s…oh gods, I can’t believe she’s actually-”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
“How did this happen?” Circe finally asked, exhaling. “I mean…how?”
Evander cast her a cocky half-smile.
“Well, when a male and a female love one another—”
“Cut the bullshit, Evander, that’s not what I’m asking and you know it,” Circe barked. “We all thought it was impossible…but it isn’t, is it?”
She looked helplessly at Kalen who shrugged.
“There’s no way to know how it will turn out, really,” Kalen replied quietly.
“But she must have some immortal blood if—”
“We’ve been down this road a dozen times, Circe,” Kalen said firmly. “We have to accept that we just won’t know. It’s a possibility that Cassie has an immortal line that she just doesn’t know about. But after everything she’s been through – is still going through, I don’t think we should introduce any new shocking ideas to her.”
Although the last eight months had taught him that Cassie was much stronger than he had given her credit for being, Evander still couldn’t ignore the fact that she was a gentle soul at heart.
What had happened in that basement had darkened her, even though it had been done to ensure her survival, but taking a life was never easy for anyone, mortal or otherwise.
It had taken some time for her to smile again after Analeigh’s death. Like he had promised, Evander had personally hunted down Damien and taken care of him. He would never be able to hurt anyone again.
“Are we done here then?” Evander asked, rising from his seat.
“For now,” Kalen agreed. The PI moved toward the door but Circe called out to him as he reached the threshold.
“Evander?”
“Hm?”
He turned his head to look over his shoulder. Circe offered him a lopsided smile.
“Congratulations. I can’t wait to meet him.”
Evander returned her grin.
“Me too.”
“You’re acting like a bloody fool!” Bethany snapped at her with affectionate exasperation. Just then, Evander sauntered into the office unseen. “Sit on your arse and don’t move!”
“I’m fine, Bethany!” Cassie protested. “Listen, I’m truly grateful for how you’ve taken care of me and helped me with…you know – questions, these past eight months, but I can’t sit around all day!”
“Oh, dear Lord, Evander! Would you tell your wife that she is not Mata Fucking Hari?” Bethany scowled when she saw him. “It is not good for the lad if she keeps running amok like this!”
“Cass, what did I tell you?” Evander chided her, moving toward her. Awkwardly, she struggled to rise from the swivel chair, her hand arched against her back as she grimaced.
“Why are you even at the office today, Cassie? I thought we agreed you were going to stay home and rest. Isn’t that what the books say to do?”
“Fuck the books,” she muttered under her breath, and Evander snickered in shock at her profanity.
“I was relaxing at home and then I remembered that Frank Millstone was going to be meeting with his mistress today and I—”
“And you’re not going to do surveillance,” Evander finished, laughing. “Cassie, get your things. I’m taking you home.”
His wife looked at him, a scowl forming on her lips.
“I’m pregnant, not useless,” she muttered and Evander threw up his hands.
“No one said you were useless,” he protested. “But you’re not going to do anyone any good if you go into labor in the middle of a sting, are you?”
“I’m not due for another month! Maybe you should go home and put your feet up while I go out and follow the cheating bastard,” she said like a petulant four-year-old.
“Cassandra…”
“Oh, all right!”
Exasperated, Cassie stormed into the inner office to retrieve her purse, leaving Bethany and Evander alone.
“How is she doing?” Bethany asked in a low voice, casting a worried look toward the half-opened door beyond. He shrugged with more nonchalance than he was feeling.
“So far so good,” he replied lightly. “Everything is going as it should.”
“Except that she’s pregnant,” Bethany pointed out baldly.
“Yes,” Evander grunted. “She’s an anomaly. She’s pregnant. Can we move on from here? I’m getting a little tired of rehashing this topic with everyone.”
“I’m just saying that once that baby is born, Evander, you have no idea what he’ll be like.”
“The ultrasounds are showing nothing unusual,” Evander growled, his eyes trained on the office door. “If the baby is a vampire, he’ll show no signs until he’s past his toddler years anyway. I have lots of time to worry about it.”
“You hope.”
“Bethany, I know it’s in your nature to play the devil’s advocate but I’m really not in the mood for this right now.”
“Fine,” Bethany replied crisply. “Then keep your wife at home before her water breaks all over the office floor. We finally stopped getting the shitters in here, and I for one, am grateful.”
Evander snickered. It was true—their client roster had changed significantly since Cassie’s presence in the firm.
She had given up her modeling career without so much as a backward glance.
“It was a sign that things played out the way they did,” Cassie had told him once. “Analeigh always dragged me down, and even though I feel awful about what happened, I think that there was a reason for it all.”
“You are the eternal optimist,” Evander told her with affection. “Sure, I think it’s a good idea to take a break for a while.”
Cassie had looked at him.
“I’m not taking a break, Evander. I want to come and work with you for good.”
“Wait, what?” he asked. “Y-Cassie, you can’t just…”
He stopped speaking when he caught the look on her face.
“I just think that maybe you should take a breather before you leap back into anything.”
“You still don’t think I have what it takes to be in this line of work? I proved that I can take care of myself if needed.”
Evander was at a loss for words and in the end, he had no choice but to relent and permit her to join the firm, much to Bethany’s chagrin. “You’re going to have to tell her about all the other Deviant species if she’s working here, you know. There’s no way she won’t notice…things.”
It proved to be the motivation he needed to clean up his client list. In the past months, he no longer accepted commissions from other Deviants, or from men like John Crews who lured him into shady deals with the promise of big money. Even Kalen had released him from his services to the Corpus.
Then the news that Cassie was pregnant had stunned everyone. The overwhelming consensus was that the chances of a successful pregnancy were slim indeed. Yet there they were, eight months into it without so much as a hiccup in the gestation.
“Evander?” The weak cry from the direction of his office.
Bethany and Evander hurried toward the inner office where Cassie was doubled over the desk, h
er face pinched with pain.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded with alarm. “Is it the baby?”
She nodded, worry clouding her expression through the obvious cramps.
“Call the midwife,” Evander instructed Bethany urgently, casting her a warning look. The doula was a fairy who could be trusted.
“Have her meet us at the condo.”
“She should go to the hospital, Evander,” Bethany murmured. “It’s too early.”
Evander bit on his lower lip.
“No,” Cassie mumbled. “I want to go home. Call Victoria.”
Evander looked at Bethany who nodded reluctantly. He collected Cassie in his arms, hurrying her out of the building and into his car.
Epilogue
3 months later
“Evander?”
Bethany and Evander looked up from the file they were working on. Since the birth of his baby, Evander had moved most of the workings of the office into his home so he could spend as much time with Cassie and Van as possible. Life had been idyllic, and although he was happier than he had ever been, it was like he kept waiting for the “other shoe to drop”, so to speak. How could things be so perfect?
At the alarmed tone in Cassie’s voice, him and Bethany both hurried toward the staircase where Cass stared down at them from the interior balcony.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded with alarm. “Is it the baby?”
She nodded, worry clouding her expression.
“You need to get up here,” she whispered, her eyes wide with fear. “Something’s not right.”
“Call a doctor!” Evander barked at his assistant, his long legs striding toward the staircase but Cass’ voice rang out.
“No,” she called back. “Call Victoria.”
Evander looked at Bethany who grunted but nodded as he mounted the stairs two at a time.
“What happened?” he demanded. “What’s wrong.”
She paused and looked at him, clutching Van protectively to her chest.
“Evander…”
“What’s wrong, sunshine? You’re scaring me. Van looks okay – is he okay?”
“Is there anything you want to tell me?”
The question made his blood run cold.
“Cass, we’ve already talked about everything we need to discuss,” he told her urgently. “Why are you asking me this?”
“Are you sure there’s nothing else you want to tell me?”
His breath caught in his throat.
“Cass, you’re freaking me out,” he snapped. “What’s wrong?”
“I want you to tell me the truth,” she insisted. “You told me about you, about your…immortality, but is that everything?”
“Listen, love, there may be more that you don’t understand, but can we please just deal with Van right now? If something is wrong, there are…immortal doctors that I can call.”
“Fine, I think he’s okay, but his eyes are…doing something funny.” She gently turned the baby around so he was looking at his father.
A strange smile formed over Evander’s mouth and he gazed at his son with obvious shock and…pride. Again, Van’s eyes nictitated, the blue iris being covered by a black vertical blink.
“Well tough-guy,” he breathed, extending his arms to take the baby. “This explains so much.”
Cass’s worry had disappeared with Evander’s lack of panic. She passed the baby to him and Evander exhaled, drawing his son into his arms.
“This doesn’t explain anything to me!” Cass protested. “Why are his eyes doing that?!”
He raised his head and smiled warmly at Cass, his heart thudding wildly in his chest.
“Because he’s a dragon,” he confessed.
“Um…what?”
He shook his head, kissing the top of Van’s crown with affection.
“That explains how you became pregnant,” he told her softly. “I thought you were an anomaly, but I must be half dragon. My father must have been a dragon!”
It hadn’t occurred to him once that his absent sire could have been such a thing. They were such a rare breed and Evander had certainly never exhibited signs of shifting into a dragon – but if Van was showing early indications…
“What the hell does that mean?” Cass demanded, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“I didn’t know,” he told her. “I swear.”
Their eyes locked and he exhaled.
“But, dragons?! What else is out there that I don’t know about? Fairies? Werewolves??”
“This doesn’t change anything, sunshine,” Evander said quietly. “And yes, as a matter of fact, there are fairies and werewolves too.”
He chuckled softly at her wide-eyed stare. “I can tell you all about the rest of the Devi – other beings later. For now, we’re just going to enjoy raising our son…and watching for what kind of…talents he develops as he gets older.”
Cassandra eyed him warily, too overcome by the impossibility of it all to even be shaken any more. “Talents? Like what kind of talents are we talking about here?”
“Well,” he hesitated, trying to remember the tales he had heard of dragon powers. “They’ve been known to teleport, shapeshift – ”
He paused at her gasp, hesitant to shock her any further. She really had been forced to accept so many crazy realities in a shockingly short period of time. Deciding to get it all over with quickly, like tearing off a bandage, he quickly added. “And sometimes, I think they really can…um, breath fire.”
“Oh, god help me,” she breathed.
Evander embraced the two of them tightly. “Don’t worry, sunshine. I promise that in my world – our world now, these things are…well, normal.”
Van cooed again and Cass kissed him softly on his forehead, squeezing him tightly in the safe embrace of her arms. “Promise me he’ll be okay, Evander. You need to promise me that this is all okay. I was so worried for him!”
“I promise you, love. He is going to be fine.”
He nuzzled her ear, whispering softly, “And since we’re talking about different…immortalities, I want to talk to you about something else.”
She leaned back, peering at him warily. “What exactly do you need to tell me now? Please say you’re not going to try and tell me that our future children have a chance of being gnomes or something, are you? I really don’t know if I can take another mythological species right now.”
“Not exactly. I wanted to talk to you about you… Becoming an immortal.”
She gasped, shocked at the idea. “Is that – really…possible?”
“I think that we’ve proven that anything is possible with us, sunshine.”
Check out this collaborative work between Chloe Fischer and Jacey Ward!
Four brothers with superpowers, separated at birth…
A soldier, an assassin, a thief, and …an accountant?
Ryder, the soldier - finds Paige but can he keep her?
Xavier, the thief - finds Danica but can her trust her?
Xander, the assassin - finds Ashtyn, will he kill her?
Aiden…the holder of the baddest superpower of all.
To Read a preview of Book 2 in the HARD Series, see below for the beginning of Xavier’s story in Hard Time.
A thief up against a con artist - who will come out on top?
PREVIEW OF HARD TIME, BY CHLOE FISCHER AND JACEY WARD
Oh my God. I am so fucked, he realized.
A knock on his window caused him to jerk back. He looked up, expecting to see a police officer.
Instead, a stunningly beautiful woman peered in at him, her grey eyes lit with concern.
Embarrassment colored his face as he rolled down the window, struggling to breathe normally.
“Are you all right?”
He nodded quickly, averting his eyes.
“Have you been in an accident?” she asked, her brow knit. He shook his head, hesitant to speak. He worried that whatever came out of his mouth wou
ld just get him in even deeper.
“Are you hurt? Do you need me to call 9-1-1?”
“No!”
It was the first word he had spoken and it came out much too forcefully.
She stepped back from the car, her eyes narrowing.
“Then may I ask you what you’re doing outside of my house?” she asked coldly, folding her arms over her chest.
Xavier lifted his head, taking in his surroundings.
Shock wracked his body as he recognized the neighborhood.
“I – I’m not sure,” he mumbled, glancing back at the woman. “I wasn’t feeling well and needed to pull over.”
She eyed him suspiciously.
“Have you been drinking?”
Xave shook his head, scowling at her. Although at least that would explain his behavior, he thought wryly.
Her eyes softened slightly.
“Are you having a bad night?” she asked and there was a gentleness in her tone which Xave detected.
“To put it mildly,” he grimaced.
“Come inside,” she said suddenly and he stared at her, dumbfounded.
“Are you crazy? It’s almost five o’clock in the morning and I’m some random guy parked outside your house. You’re going to invite me in?”
She shrugged nonchalantly.
“I have a good sense for people,” she replied. “Anyway, you’re not really a random guy, are you?”
He gazed at her uncomprehendingly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you’ve been standing outside my house almost every day for the past three weeks.”
Xavier began to deny her allegation, but she held up her hand.
“No need to deny it. I’ve seen you almost every day now.”
He didn’t know how to answer her since he wasn’t even sure yet why he was drawn to her. Or maybe it was this house?
“Don’t you think that there’s a reason that you’re here right now?” she asked quietly. “Don’t you wonder if you were brought here? By…something?”
