Tina’s gaze traveled over him, almost clinical in its emotionless detachment before she gave him a curt nod of her own. Then she did something that almost had Harper sputtering in disbelief.
She opened her arms to him and approached him for a hug.
Very few things stunned Harper speechless, but this…shit.
David looked stunned, too. But when she stopped right in front of him, his expression softened the tiniest bit, and he opened his arms to his wife. Then…
Tina stepped into his arms and kneed him in the balls.
Harper let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God,” she said. “I thought you were going to hug the bastard!”
As David dropped to his knees, face turning purple, hands cupping his groin protectively, Tina gave his cheek a none-too-gentle pat and said in the most serene voice Harper had ever heard, “Good to see you again, too, dear.”
And with that, she winked at Harper, smoothed her pencil skirt, held her head high, and went to sit with Marina and Violet.
“Dude,” Benny said to Addy. “Your grandma is a rock star.”
Hell yeah, she was. Hell yeah.
Chapter Sixteen
It took less than ten minutes to determine which of them were children of science and magic, and which were just children of magic.
They all lined up in front of Gabriel, each taking his hand for no more than a split second.
“Magic and science,” he said to Riddick, even though they already knew that.
Seven got the same results, although Gabriel felt the need to hold onto her a second longer than he’d held onto Riddick and add, “And fucking magnificent,” before kissing her hand and releasing her.
“Stay away from my wife or I will rip you open and eat your liver,” Lucas growled at him as he grabbed Gabriel’s hand way harder than was strictly necessary.
“Charming,” Gabriel murmured. “Magic only.”
Lucas gave him the finger before moving on and wrapping a possessive arm around his wife’s shoulders. Seven merely rolled her eyes at both of them.
As expected, Quinn and Nikolai had no magic in their blood, and Hunter and Mischa had only magic in theirs. Violet was 100% human, and so was Annika, despite being part of Nikolai’s bloodline. None of them would be of any help when it came to closing the rift.
Then came Haven. “Hi,” she said, giving Gabriel a little wave.
He knelt down so that they were at eye level and said, “Hello, lovely. How are you today?”
“I’m good,” she chirped. “I wore my new dress.”
She gave him a little twirl so that he could appreciate how it flared. He looked suitably impressed. “Well, I wish I’d known this was a dress-up occasion. I would’ve worn something fancier to meet you, princess.”
“Oh, that’s OK,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing. You have the prettiest colors I’ve ever seen.”
He smiled at her, but glanced up at Harper, looking confused. “Your aura,” she explained. “She can see it.”
“How interesting,” he said. “What else can you see?”
Harper made a slicing motion across her throat. “Oh, you don’t want to go there. Trust me, don’t—”
“I know who you’re gonna marry,” Haven blurted out, then giggled.
Riddick face-palmed. “Baby, remember what we talked about? It’s not a good idea to tell people their futures.”
She pouted. “But, Daddy, he’s gonna marry Addy!”
All eyes in the room turned to Addy, who looked horrified in a way that only a thirteen-year-old girl can. “Oh my God!” she sputtered. “I so am not!”
“Are too!”
“Am not!”
Riddick hauled off and punched Gabriel in the arm. “Stay away from my kid.”
Gabriel rubbed his arm and scowled at him. “She’s a child! No one’s marrying anyone.” He glanced back down at Haven. “Sorry, princess, but I’m afraid you’re wrong about that.”
Haven’s lips thinned. Oh, boy, Harper thought. Haven was a sweet-natured kid. She hardly ever complained about anything or asked for anything. She was always grateful for what she received, and had never thrown a temper tantrum in her life. But the one thing she couldn’t stomach was being told she was wrong.
And part of the reason why she hated being told she was wrong? Because she never had been. Not once. Not yet, anyway.
Which meant that Haven had indeed seen one possible future in which Addy married Gabriel.
Interesting.
Haven lifted her pointy little chin at him and said, “You just wait and see. It’ll happen when she’s a grown-up, because I’m never wrong.”
Then she offered him her hand and lifted a brow at him. It was a challenge. A lesser man might’ve backed down. A smarter man definitely would’ve backed down. But to his credit (and detriment), Gabriel took her hand.
“Magic and science,” he said after he’d released her.
Haven nodded. “I knew that.”
He gave her a bow before turning to Addy, who couldn’t even make eye contact with him as he took her hand.
“Magic and science,” he murmured.
Addy scurried away, rubbing her hand as if she could erase the memory of his touch. Poor kid. This was probably not the way any young girl wanted to remember the first time she met her future husband.
Harper vowed to keep a close eye on any interactions Gabriel and Addy had from this point going forward. Just because he’d passed the Tina test didn’t mean she was about to trust him with an impressionable teenager.
Lane was next. She looked up at Gabriel with a solemn expression, hands tucked under her armpits. He knelt again and smiled at her. Well, that answered her earlier question. He could smile rather than smirk. But Lane remained unmoved until he told her it was nice to meet her and held out his hand as a greeting.
The sincerity in his voice and in his easy smile must have swayed her, because she reached out and touched one fingertip to his hand, then yanked it back.
It must have been more than enough, because Gabriel said, “Magic and science.”
Hunter sat up straighter in his chair. “Really? You’re sure?”
“Very,” Gabriel said with a nod. “Lots of magic and science. She’s got more power than Riddick and Seven combined.”
“What does that mean?” Mischa asked Hunter.
Hunter’s brow furrowed. “It means we should do some additional digging into the orphanage’s background and where Lane came from,” he said quietly. “Is she a dhampyre?” he asked Gabriel.
“No. Her energy…isn’t like anything I’ve ever felt.”
Well. That was a bit of a showstopper, wasn’t it?
But that was a puzzle for a different day, they decided. After all, there was an interdimensional rift that needed to be closed.
It was then determined that Tina and Benny wouldn’t be of any help. They were both children of magic. Marina, however, much to everyone’s surprise, turned out to be a child of magic and science.
“But I’m as mundane as I can be,” she argued. “No powers, no nothing.”
“Maybe,” Gabriel said, “but there’s magic in your bloodline, and you’re pregnant by a man who is clearly a child of science. That makes you, for now, at least until you give birth, a child of magic and science.”
Quinn put a protective arm around his wife’s shoulders and frowned at Gabriel. “Can we do this without her? I don’t want to put any strain on her.”
Gabriel glanced at her hugely pregnant belly, then nodded. “There wouldn’t be any strain on her, but let’s not take any chances. She can sit this one out and we’ll just have to hope that the five children of magic and science we have are enough.”
Marina frowned at both of them. “I’m pregnant, not an invalid. If I can help, I want to.”
Some eye-arguing ensued between Marina and her husband. Harper was all too familiar with eye-arguing. When you know your spouse so well that you can have an entire dis
cussion using nothing more than your eyes and some pointed facial expressions, then you have officially reached the point in your marriage where you can eye-argue. Quinn and Marina seemed to be well versed in eye-arguing.
And it would appear that Quinn was losing. Not surprising. As far as Harper knew, no Petrocelli in the history of Petrocellis had ever lost an argument—verbal or nonverbal.
Harper took pity on the poor bastard and decided to step in. “Mare, hon, why don’t we just call you in if we need you? We’ll use you as our Hail Mary, OK?”
There was some grumbling on her part, and some gratitude from Quinn—expressed only with his eyes, of course—but Marina finally agreed to stay on the sidelines unless her involvement because absolutely necessary.
“Alrighty then,” Harper said, clapping her hands together once. “Let’s get this show on the road.” She turned to her father, who was quietly sulking in the corner with a bag of frozen peas on his crotch. Heh. “It’s time for you to earn your keep, old man. Tell us where the rift is so we can do the job you’ve failed miserably at so far.”
Chapter Seventeen
The rift was far less dramatic than what Harper had pictured in her head.
For some reason, she was expecting a giant, sucking black hole like on Star Trek, or maybe a giant, colorful arch like on Stargate. But the actual rift never would’ve made it onto anyone’s TV screens. It was far too boring for that.
First of all, it was in an old barn about ten minutes away from the base. Who ever heard of an interdimensional rift popping up in a decrepit building that smelled like moldy hay and horse crap?
Second of all, there wasn’t much to it at all. It was basically a six-foot-long, glowing yellow ribbon that sort of hovered and pulsated in midair a few feet above an old feed bin. It kind of reminded Harper of the string of fairy lights Haven made Riddick hang above her bed at home.
Behind her, Benny put his hands on his hips and said, “Well, this is nothing like Stargate.”
“Right? So disappointing.”
Gabriel stopped next to Harper and said, “The fact that it opens up wide enough to let demons walk through one dimension into this one isn’t impressive enough for you?”
She shrugged. “I’m just saying it doesn’t look like much. It could be…bigger or more colorful or something.”
From his position by the door with Marina, Quinn asked, “Hey, if it were to open up, it couldn’t suck us in, could it?”
“No,” Gabriel said. “It’s an exit-only portal.”
Benny snickered. “Huh. That’s just what Angela said that time I asked her to—”
“If you finish that sentence,” Riddick interrupted with a disgusted growl, “I swear to Jesus I will beat you unconscious.”
“Can we get this show on the road?” Marina asked from the doorway, shuffling from one foot to the other. “I only have about five minutes before the baby’s going to start kicking me in the bladder again.”
“Yeah, OK,” Harper said, “Marina, Quinn, you guys stand outside unless I yell for you. Benny, you stand watch at the back. Nikolai, if you can find roof access, get up there and make sure nothing comes our way while we’re doing this thing. That especially includes my father and any of his men. Hunter, Mischa, I’d prefer you stay in here to get the kids out if something goes wrong and this barn starts falling apart. But stay in the back. I don’t want either of you anywhere near the flames.”
Since fire was one of the few things on the planet that could actually harm them, they seemed perfectly willing to take her order and went to stand in the back corners of the barn while everyone else headed to their positions.
“Gabriel,” she said, “will this work if we do it like a chain—a single-file line—with the kids in the back? I want them as far away from the fire as we can get them.”
“Yes. Have Haven and Lane stand in the back, holding hands. Addy can take Lane’s hand. Seven can take Addy’s hand. You’re only a child of magic, but if you want to be here and take Seven’s hand, you can. Riddick can take your hand and mine.”
Everyone lined up in their assigned spots and clutched hands. But after a second, just as Gabriel lifted his free hand, Harper let go of Riddick’s hand and said, “Wait!”
Gabriel lowered his hand and turned to her and shot her a what-the-fuck look. She ignored him. Turning to Hunter, she said, “I mean it. If it looks like there’s even a chance of anything going sideways, you get these kids out of here, OK?”
He gave her a slight bow. “You have my word.”
Then she looked around Seven to Addy. “And if anything happens to us, you go find Tina, understood? She’ll take care of you. So will Hunter and Mischa. You’ll never be alone again. I promise you that.”
Addy’s eyes looked suspiciously shiny and her bottom lip wobbled a little, but in true teenager form, she merely sniffed, shrugged, and muttered, “Fine. Whatever. Dramatic much?”
“Haven, I love you, baby. You know that, right? Mommy loves you.”
“Oh, look!” Haven blurted. “My dress has pockets! I never even saw those before!” She stuck her free hand in her pocket and grinned like she’d just found buried treasure.
Harper blinked at her before glancing at Lane and telling her she loved her in ASL. Lane looked confused—either by her declaration or by the weird timing of it she couldn’t be sure—before she signed back that she loved Harper, too.
Finally, she grabbed Seven’s arm and said, “I’ve only known you for a few years, but you’re my sister, every bit as much as Marina is. I love you, too, you know that?”
Seven frowned at her and pulled her arm out of Harper’s reach. “You’re being weird. Stop it.”
It was then that Riddick grabbed her arms and turned her around to face him. “Sunshine, what the hell is going on? Why are you giving everyone a death speech?”
She swallowed hard as tears sprang to her eyes. “If this all goes wrong, it’s my fault,” she whispered. “Everyone is here because I asked them to be. I put children—our children-in front of a tear between dimensions and I’m trusting our safety to a demon I just met based on my mom’s assurance that he ‘seems like he’s on our side’. What if something happens? What if I’m wrong? What if—?”
He stopped her nervous flow of words by yanking her into him and kissing her hard. He seemed to be putting every ounce of his love for her into that kiss, and the power of it weakened her knees and had her sagging against him.
When he pulled back and rested his forehead on hers, he asked, “Do you think we’re doing the right thing? Do you have a good feeling about this plan?”
She thought about it for a second, then nodded. “I do. I’ve just…I’ve never had this much to lose before. Not ever. Just about everyone I love in this world is here and the thought of something happening to any of you…”
He leaned back and bent his knees a little so that they were on eye level and she was forced to look directly at him. “Do you know why we’re all here on a hunch from you that this is the right thing to do? Because a hunch from Harper Hall is better than dead-on-balls-accurate facts from anyone else in this world. We trust you because you’re right way more than you’ve ever been wrong, and because your heart is always in the right place. If you think this is the best course of action, then so do we. And when we’re all together? There’s no fucking way we’re going to lose.”
Just when she thought she couldn’t love this man any more than she already did, he goes and says something like that. Was he trying to make her bawl like a baby?
Harper grabbed his shirt and yanked him closer so that she could kiss the crap out of him. When she pulled back, she said, “You know, for a guy who doesn’t ever say much, you sure do a good job of talking me down off the ledge.”
He brushed a loose curl off her forehead and grinned down at her. “Did it work? Are you ready to kick ass now?”
She squared her shoulders and grinned back at him. “Fuckin’-A right, I am.”
“Excell
ent,” Gabriel said in the drollest of droll tones. “Your faith in my ability to not get us all killed is inspiring. Truly.”
“Oh, suck it, Sparky,” she muttered as everyone clasped hands again. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
“As milady demands,” he said as flames danced in his eyes.
Actual. Literal. Flames. In his eyes.
It was a little terrifying. So Harper did what she always did in times of tension.
“Hey, Addy, your husband is all kinds of freaky.”
“Oh, my God!” she hissed, turning at least five different shades of red. “Stop saying that!”
“Addy and Gabriel, sittin’ in a tree,” Haven sang. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes—”
Riddick sighed. “You just couldn’t resist, could you?”
“You only torment the ones you love,” Harper said. “Especially in this family.”
Chapter Eighteen
Half an hour later, Harper was sweating so much she felt like she’d run a marathon. Well, she assumed this is what she’d feel like if she’d run a marathon. It wasn’t like she’d ever been much a runner. She could walk a pretty impressive clip when Dingo’s Doughnuts did their first-ten-customers-through-the-door-get-a-free-apple-fritter event, though.
Harper gave herself a sharp mental slap across the face. That so wasn’t the point right now.
The point was that they were in an old, smelly barn with a demon who was channeling their power into hellfire that he was shooting into the rift between dimensions with his hands.
At what point had this wack-a-doo, crazy-pants nonsense become her life?
She laid her forehead on the back of Riddick’s shoulder. “It’s a million degrees in here,” she muttered.
“It’s hellfire, babe. What did you expect?”
Honestly? She figured they’d either be done by now and the rift would be fixed, or they’d all be dead. She hadn’t really considered the possibility that they’d be standing here all night.
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