by Hadena James
“So what? We are going to have to stand guard around the child to make sure someone doesn’t resurrect a soul into it?” I frowned harder.
“I think it would be best,” he looked at me. “We’ll have to choose the guard carefully.”
“Make sure there are no vampires or anyone untrustworthy in it,” I nodded just as solemnly.
“I would suggest Lucifer, Levi, Mammon, Elijah and Olivia,” Sonnellion said.
In the five months since Sonnellion’s unexpected reappearance into the world, he had been working at restoring relationships with his brothers. And to some degree with the rest of his family. This was complicated by the fact that they were all still living at my house. We spent a lot of time together and got on each other’s nerves. Their houses were all still under construction. The hard winter had meant lots of building delays. There had been more snow in January then in the past two years put together. February had been just as rough. Now it was March and lead grey skies and below freezing temperatures were still a threat.
There had also been the hasty construction of a stable. My Uncle Levi, with the best of intentions, had indeed given me a unicorn for Christmas. I had named him Stargazer, because that seemed like the right sort of name for a unicorn. I was waiting for spring, real spring, to get horseback riding lessons, since I had never learned.
Chapter Two
With Sonnellion’s suggestion in mind, we all packed up. My mother, my father, my sister and the recommended uncles stayed. The rest headed back to my house.
I stared blankly at my car. The tire was flat. The rim was beyond damaged. And for some reason, I had gotten stranded as a result. After several minutes of standing in the cold, I meandered back into the waiting room I had vacated earlier.
“Bren?” My father asked as I walked back in.
“My car is in need of a tow truck and everyone just sort of left me, so I’m back,” I told him taking a seat next to my mom.
“It’ll be good for you,” Olivia smiled at me.
“Me or you?” I frowned at her.
“Both,” she answered quickly.
“Great,” I sighed.
“We are going to see if we can help them develop the soul,” Levi told me.
“How?” I looked at him suspiciously.
“By holding and cuddling the infant,” he looked at me like it was one of those stupid questions.
“Oh, does the infant have a name?”
“No, Rachel is holding off on naming him until we are sure he is going to live,” my mother spoke quietly.
“That seems silly. They will need something to put...” I stopped talking and looked at the floor. This was as close to a family tragedy as we had had in recent years, except maybe my Maturing.
I got up and went to see Rachel. She was in bed, her eyes closed. Thomas in a chair beside her.
“Is she sleeping?” I whispered.
“No,” Rachel answered back, “just thinking.”
“What are you going to name him?”
“Should I go ahead with that?” She turned, opened her eyes and looked at me.
“Yeah, I think you should. All babies need names. Hell, I named a unicorn.”
“I don’t think...” Thomas started.
“You’re right, all babies should have names. We agreed upon Trent Raymond Bevor.” Bevor was pronounced with the “v” sounding like a strange “sf”. It was also Thomas’s last name.
“Not naming him Strachan?” I gave her a wink.
“No, we’ll give him Thomas’s last name, our parents will understand. His might not.”
A last name in the world of Elders was chaotic to say the least. Our father didn’t have one. He had no need for one, like Cher. We had our mother’s last name. My brother Eli had one child already; the young girl carried our family last name. But her mother, Hannah, had two last names, neither of them Strachan.
“Girls get Strachan, boys get Bevor,” Thomas smiled at Rachel.
“Sounds like a plan. Our father and uncles intend to hand your wee one around cuddling and swooning over it for the next couple of hours. They should have his name,” I used it to excuse myself of their loving looks.
Most Elders were not happily mated. My parents are one of the few exceptions and apparently so were Rachel and Thomas. Eli loved Hannah, but it wasn’t romantic. Samuel loved Samantha, but again, not romantically. After a few dozen centuries together you either learn to love your mate at least as a friend or learn to hate them. Eli and Samuel had picked up on that from our uncles and had made friends with their mates.
“Trent Something Bevor,” I announced coming back into the waiting room.
“Huh?” Levi looked at me.
“The baby has a name, it is Trent Bevor, she told me his middle name, but I forgot it. Richard, Ricardo, Roland, Roy, I don’t know, it started with an ‘R’,” I told everyone.
“Trent,” my mother rolled the name over her tongue. “I can live with that.”
“Thomas says they are naming girls Strachan and boys Bevor.”
“Good plan,” Livi smiled at me. She was holding the infant. He was swaddled in a blue blanket with a green cap on his head. She passed him to me.
For a second, I didn’t know what to do with him. He was tiny and wrinkly and orange. His skin clashed with the cap, so I pulled it off, revealing his horns. They were already longer than mine by about an inch.
Baby Trent opened his eyes for a second. He had the same lighter colored irises that I had. It created an instant bond. It was a genetic fluke carried by me, Sonnellion and now, baby Trent, my nephew. I kissed the top of his head.
“Wow,” Mammon said. I looked, there it was, a soul. Not much of a soul to be sure, but a soul was a soul no matter how small, weak and tiny. It drifted for another second and entered Trent. He yawned as though it were exhausting.
“Problem solved,” Mammon announced.
“Put his cap back on,” my mother told me.
“It clashes with his skin,” I told her.
“That may be, but it’s there to protect the fontanel on his head.”
“Whatever that is,” I looked at her, eyebrows pulled together.
“It’s the soft spot on the top of his head,” my mother sighed at me.
“Oh, Demons have those?” I asked.
“All babies, even Demon babies have them,” she said to me.
“Oh,” since I hadn’t known that, I very carefully replaced the cap on the baby’s head. “It doesn’t look like much protection.”
“It provides more than you think and when you have children.” My mother stopped and looked at the floor.
“Uh huh,” I stood up.
“Bren, you know she.” My father started to say.
“Dad, it’s fine. Mom’s hormonal and pregnant. No big deal,” I told him. Being a barren Elder was like having leprosy or something worse.
“Bren, I’m sorry,” my mother had a tear on her cheek.
“Mom, really, a slip of the tongue. Don’t make it into a thing,” I told her in my most reassuring tone. It really wasn’t a big deal except to everyone but me.
“Go give him to Rachel,” Lucifer winked at me.
“Whatever you’re thinking is wrong,” I told him, but did as instructed.
“Rachel, Thomas, meet your son Trent whatever,” I handed him over to Rachel.
“Is he going...”
“Yes, he’ll be fine,” I assured her. “One minute he was just a blob of wrinkly skin, then there was a soul over him, now it’s in him. Of course, this just makes him a blob of wrinkly skin with a soul.”
“Thanks Bren,” Rachel took him from me.
“I didn’t do anything.” I told her. “I see souls only because of Anubis. Nothing I can do with them.”
“Not for that, silly, for getting me to the hospital, for holding my hand while I delivered, for bringing me my son, those things,” she grinned at me.
“Ah, gotcha,” I slipped quietly from the room as the two
of them began to make goo-goo noises over the baby.
My father was still beaming at me.
I frowned at him.
He smiled wider.
Chapter Three
“Stop,” I told Lucifer again. It had been two hours since Trent had been returned to his parents. He was now sleeping in another room. Rachel was sleeping in her room. Thomas had snuck downstairs for food. My hand had been healed.
“Stop what?” He asked innocently.
“Stop staring at me like I just performed a miracle. I didn’t,” I told him.
“You just bonded with a baby, that’s something of a miracle,” Levi giggled.
“I like kids; I just don’t like them for long periods of time.”
“You helped his soul form,” my father told me.
“No. I didn’t. I just kept you guys from referring to him as ‘the nameless one’. The soul formed all on its own. Souls are not in my repertoire.”
“She’s right,” Mammon jumped in to save me. “Luc may also be right too though. By forming a bond with the child, some feeling for it, it might have helped with the creation of the soul.”
“He has the same kind of eyes I do. Lighter pupils than his irises, it’s very hard not to love that in an infant, although it does make them look blind.”
“You looked blind at birth,” Mammon confirmed.
“Still do once in a while,” I smiled at my uncle.
“It does take some getting used to,” Levi admitted.
“Ok, so my sister and her newborn are fine. How do I get home? I’m hungry and tired,” I whined just a bit.
“Well, go to the cafeteria and get some food,” my mother scolded me. “We can arrange for you a ride while you eat. Someone will come by and get your car as well.”
I shrugged in response. Olivia grabbed my arm. We walked together down to the cafeteria. I occasionally frowned at her, wondering what she wanted from me.
It had taken some time, but I was finally used to my calorie requirements. I grabbed a cheeseburger, salad, coleslaw, a ham sandwich, a soda, a jug of milk, a slice of pie and a cup of ice cream. I had reached the point that if I didn’t have enough calories in a day, I felt weak and healing took longer.
“I know, you’re questioning the sudden attention,” Olivia said as we took a seat at a small table near the back.
“Yes, yes I am,” I admitted.
“I realized something at Christmas,” she started, “I think I want what you have. Not the four Overlords, good lord, one man is more than enough. But someone to be around, all the time. Someone to pay attention to me and vice-versa.”
“Yeah, this conversation isn’t strange or confusing at all.”
“I know, I’m not explaining it very well,” she frowned and picked at a cheeseburger. “Mom is expecting, Rachel just had hers, Eli and Hannah will have another one soon. I’m not mated. I’m not going to be popping out offspring any time soon. I’m like you, single. But I’m more alone than you. As horrid as it sounds, the last five months of my life have been the best I can remember since I left home.”
“You have the same condition as dad,” the light went on in my head.
“Maybe, at least a little, I don’t want to go home to a quiet apartment at night. I don’t want to fix dinner for one anymore. Do I have to move?”
“You mean if the apartment complex from hell is ever completed?” I raised an eyebrow and ate the slice of pie first.
“Yes, I mean, at least for a little while. I want to stay at your place, surrounded by friends and family. I hated going home to my empty apartment. The fact that a giant, evil demonoid creature from Pandora’s Box destroyed a huge chunk of my building was the best thing that ever happened to me. I know those were some of the worst days of your life, but for me; I got to be around people all the time again. I got to be around Elders and Witches and it was wonderful. I feel so much better when there is someone else at the house. Don’t get me wrong, I like slinking off to my bedroom for a half hour of me time, but I love the noise and the bustle. I love the chaos and company at your house. There is almost always someone there. Even when you guys aren’t, Alex and Marcus are wandering in and out. The other Overlords drop by. In any given day, there are twelve or more visitors. People coming by to see Fen or Gabe or Anubis. And when they aren’t home, they still hang out for half an hour or so. They sit down, they talk, and they enjoy a cup of coffee. It’s the greatest experience ever. It’s like being home with mom and dad.”
“Without actually having to deal with being an adult and living with mom and dad. So I was right, you are like dad.”
“Yeah, I know other Elders live with their parents for ages when they aren’t mated, but I can’t stand to be around their cooing and smooching all the time. But I need the people. Work helps, I mean I go in, I’m busy for ten hours and everything is good, but then I come home to my empty apartment and...” she sighed heavily and started picking at her salad.
“Are a lot of Demons codependent?”
“I don’t know. I just know that I seem to be. I guess I do get it from dad. At home, I don’t even eat like I need to. I skip meals and snacks, I can feel myself getting weaker in the evenings, but I don’t seem to want to do anything about it. Cooking for one is a pain in the ass and I don’t really like take-out, so I just don’t eat. What do you say, Bren?”
“Okie dokie,” I told my sister, unsure what I really thought of it. For a brief moment I also wondered what my Overlords would say about it.
“Really Bren? And you won’t tell anybody, right? I’d hate for mom or dad or Eli or Nick to know that I’m dysfunctional on my own.”
“Well, I can’t guarantee I won’t tell anyone, but you can stay. What could go wrong?” I shrugged.
Chapter Four
I tossed myself onto the couch. It had been exhausting getting home from the hospital. Thankfully, Olivia had stayed behind to help the happy couple. For the first time it dawned on me that we were going to have a newborn in the house. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Would it kick start some primeval need to breed?
All I could do was hope for the best and expect the worse. Soon, we would have three newborns in the house. If it did kick start that primeval need, I would just have to learn to ignore it.
My Overlords were clustered around the large TV in the room. Nick and Daniel were with them. I could tell from the tension and excitement that they were playing the Wii. What they were playing remained a mystery, as I couldn’t exactly see the screen. I officially had the worst seat in the house.
“Oh!” Daniel suddenly exclaimed. I frowned at him. He smiled back at me. I was beginning to think all I did was frown. I rubbed the frown away, replacing it with a general blank look.
Our house was a cluttered mess. Books and book-bags were strewn about the place. We had three children in junior high and high school, plus two in college. Not to mention the Angel had a tendency to hoard books anyway.
There were also little things. The living room had become a repository for ink pens; they seemed to appear from black holes to fill the available table spaces. There were still toys from Christmas crackers lying around. There were video game cases haphazardly sitting on the entertainment system. My brothers were gleefully leading the Overlords into the 21st century.
There was now a Wii, a PlayStation 3, and an Xbox 360 in the living room. They were all hooked up to the same TV. The Overlords had also run out after Christmas and bought their favorite gaming consoles for their bedroom and private den TVs. Video games seem to have temporarily replaced playing cards for them.
There was a noise from the TV that forced me to turn my neck to an odd angle. I had to see what they were playing. They were shooting at a bear, so I was guessing it was either Big Game Hunter or The Hunt. Daniel passed the gun to Anubis.
“Want a turn?” Anubis asked, noticing my sudden interest.
“Nope, I’m good,” I went back to reclining in the chair and yawned. They went back to hunting.
Eli and Hannah wandered into the room. Eli smiled and shook his head. Hannah did something similar. They took seats on the sofa behind the front couch. The problem with the gaming consoles was that rearranging of the furniture that had to take place. We now had two couches in front of the TV. One where you played and one where you waited your turn. I kept thinking extra TVs would eliminate some of the waiting, but they were all insistent that it remain as it was. They considered it bonding time.
I yawned again. Eli looked over at me.
“What?” I asked them.
“Are you really that tired?” Eli asked.
“Yes, I’m really that tired.”
“You’ve been up less than four hours.”
“Yes, but I was yanked out of bed to run my pregnant sister to the ER. She gave birth with me in the room. Which by the way, is an experience I hope never to repeat, then I had food in the cafeteria and stressed about my car. Now I am home and listening to you guys play video games,” I thought for a moment. “Oh yeah, and I had a long talk with Olivia. She’s like dad. So she is going to be staying here for a while when everyone moves out. Anybody know any single people we can introduce her to that will cling to her like Saran Wrap?”
“Livi knows everyone I know,” Eli said quickly.
“Me too,” Hannah added.
“There must be some Human or Elder that is codependent and would love to spend the next century with her,” I said.
“There is,” Nick didn’t bother to look up from the game, “but she refused him. Something about him being unsuitable because he was a Fey.”
“Was he a Leprechaun?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t see why he would be unsuitable. Beggars can’t be choosers. If someone is interested in her and willing to spend their days with her, she should jump on it, regardless of the breed.”
“I can’t believe you just called our sister a beggar,” Eli chuckled.
“Well, she begged me to let her stay here,” I said.
“Maybe he’s ugly,” Daniel offered.
