Excerpt 3 (Ava's Story) (Ava's POV) I turned in the mirror, holding my shirt up so I could see my stomach from the side. I turned from front to side, trying to see a difference. I stood up a little straighter, and hunched over a little. “What on earth are you doing.” Balthazar appeared in the doorway of the bathroom. “I’m searching…” I said, and turned again, standing up straighter. Balthazar came up behind me, his hands sliding around my stomach. “You’re not going to see a bump for a couple months at least.” “Well why not. There’s two in there you said, I want to see them.” Balthazar tugged my shirt back down around my waist and kissed my head. “Not for a couple months more at least. Be patient.” “I hate being patient.” He grinned, and kissed my head again, “I know.” Steam was rising from the tub, bubbles popping over the top of the water. “Did you draw a bath for us?” he asked. At that exact moment Alandra came screeching in. She slid across the floor, then turned and bolted out of the room again, then she came back, sliding across the floor only this time she slid into the side of the tub and toppled head over heels into the water, fully clothed. She came up, spitting water out of her mouth and a mound of bubbles on her head. She screamed a giggle, and Shazza came sliding in next, having no traction over the tile floor, but she managed to leap up, and land in the tub along with Alandra. Water spilled over the rim and splashed across the floor in a wave. “Well..” I said, “It was for us.” Shazza barked, high pitched and whiney and splashed around with Alandra who was still fully clothed. “At least we wont have to wash her clothes,” Balthazar said. “And to think we have two more on the way…I think you’re going to have to install the Isle with a Diaper Depot.” “And I think you’re going to love every stinky minute of it.” “And I think since I’m breastfeeding you get Diaper Duty.” I lifted my shirt up again. Flat. Balthazar grabbed it and slid it back down. “A couple months, not minutes.” Storm and Lightning came in next and both of them jumped into the tub with Alandra and Shazza. Snow stayed in the door. My good girl. But Solomon came toddling through next on all fours, half hopping half running, his little wings flapping. He was getting stronger, but he was still a runt compared to the others. He ran into the side of the tub and started trying to jump up into the tub, flapping his wings and scratching at the marble. But he was just to small. Snow just watched the five ring circus from the door way and Balthazar went to Solomon and scooped the little guy up in his hands and helped him onto his shoulder where he curled under his hair, his tail wrapping around the back of his neck. “Alandra.” He said. She looked up at him, bubbles stuck to her nose and head, “Take of your clothes before you get in the tub.” She just grinned, and splashed him, and that got the wolves started again, and more water went flying. You’d think it was raining. Balthazar bent down and tried to peel Alandra’s shirt off but she battered him off. “NO CLOTHES. LEAVE THEM ALONE.” She dived under the water, and Balthazar held his hands up in surrender while trying to stay dry. It didn’t work. He turned to me. “Are you going to help?” he asked. “Nope.” (Balthazar's POV) *I sighed. Of course she wouldn’t. She got too much of a kick out of watching me argue with a two year old. I stalked across the floor, trying not to slip as I scooped her up in my arms and threw her over my shoulder. I carried her out of the bathroom and closed the door behind us, leaving Ala and the mutts to their demolition water games. I threw her onto the bed where she bounced and then snuggled back into the pillows. She picked her shirt up again and looked down at her stomach as I pulled Solomon off my shoulder and held him in my hands. He curled his tail around my palm and wrist, and rubbed his tiny head against my fingers. He was still so small. Surinya’s hatchings were almost more than twice his size now. He rubbed his scaled head against my thumb and cooed, a small plume of smoke rising from his nostrils. I could feel his heart beating, it was stronger than it had been, but it was still weak, and had a skip to it. “How is he?” Ava asked from the bed. She was curled up with a pillow tucked in her arms and under her chin. “He’s still weak. He’s to small.” I shook my head, and breathed energy into him. My palms glowed with it, and he turned his head around and around, his eyes closed, like he was sunbathing in the light. It warmed him and he opened his mouth and crowed and basked in that light, soaked it up. But his heart still had that skip; I could feel it. I looked to Ava as she curled up with more pillows under her and Snow lept up onto the bed beside her. At least she was white like the sheets. I didn’t understand how she could let animals up on the bed, but there you go, and there they were, in a big puppy pile. There was a thump from the bathroom, followed by a squeal, barks, whines, and splashes. Solomon wiggled free of my hands and he glided to the floor with his wings outstretched. He may not be able to fly, but he was getting better at falling gracefully from places like, the top of the shelves, the cupboards, my shoulder. He skittered on the floor and went about his usual exploration. He would get into something before the day was over, and probably shit in someone’s shoe. It had better not be mine. I went to the bed and didn’t bother trying to fight snow for space, I just crawled up on the other side of Ava and tunneled my fingers through her hair. “Do you want to go and fix something for Solomon? He likes your cooking better than mine.” She cringed her nose, and turned to look up at me. “It’s not cooking, it’s mashed up meat and milk. Its cat barf.” “Well would you like to go and fix up your gourmet cat barf then?” She turned over and lay on her back so she could look up at me, while still clutching the pillow to her chest and stomach. She was wearing my shirt, and a pair of baggy jeans that were so big they barely hung to her hips. She had them tied to the side so they wouldn’t fall. They were probably Alex’s. “No.” she said. “Well do you want to go downstairs and read old books with me?” “No.” “Do you want to go clean the mess your mutts made? I think they ate the rest of your Lord of the Ring books.” “No.” “Do you want to go downstairs?” “No.” “Do you want to leave this room?” “Can we sneak off the balcony?” she asked. She actually looked hopeful. I sighed. Everyone was in some kid of mood today. Alex was off sulking somewhere, I wasn’t exactly sure why, yet. The dogs were eating everything. Alandra had been in the same clothes for three days and refused to take them off…even for the bath, and I could see Solomon chewing on the leg of the dresser from the corner of my eye. And Keary…I hadn’t seen him since he and Ava had their little ‘sibling altercation’ the night before. “Why are you avoiding your brother?” “Because.” Perfect, I thought. “Because why?” “Because.” “Can you give answers that consist of more than one word?” If this didn’t’ end, I would be the one in a cranky mood. “I told him Gabriel would bring Elaine back when he thought she was ready.” “And he’s not happy about it I take it?” I asked. I already knew the answer. “He wants to take her back to the courts. I think he wants to try and put everything back the way it was over two centuries ago, before Gabriel or I came into the picture.” I sighed. “You don’t think he blames you for all of this do you?” “Whynot? I do.” I sighed. “Don’t start. Its not your fault, or Gabriel’s, or anyone’s except Luthor. And we’ll make him pay. I don’t know how, I don’t’ know when, but we will. I promise.” I had a thought. “Why haven’t you gone to see your mother?” (Ava's POV) I blinked up at him. Why hadn’t I gone to see her? Good question. I reached out and took his hand in mine, and started massaging the muscles of his palm, trying to ease some of the tension. The wolves barked, Alandra squealed, and I heard her turn the water on in the tub. “I have seen her.” “No.” he said, “You saw her when we came back from hell, while we were still blind. But you haven’t gone back since we returned to the isle.” I looked up at him, and tried to figure out what he was getting at. His face told me nothing. It was just a careful blankness that hid everything but spoke volumes. But what those volumes were was still a mystery. But he stared down at me, and let the silence grow longer, and longer, and longer until I finally sighed, and tried not to scream in frustration. “I don’t even know her. I’ve never even seen her before. The only pictures I ever saw of her were paintings, and that was two centuries ago, remember, when we were at the courts, and we weren’t there long after I got pregnant with Alex.” I sighed and started massaging his hand again; I think to comfort me more than him. “And Keary is PMSing in a major way. Gabriel is unresponsive. And now we’ve got two more little people that are going to pop into the world any day now.” “That ‘any day’ is nine months away, I think we’ve got time to prepare.” Snow snuggled tighter against my other side, fighting for more attention. She put her head over my stomach and Balthazar had pity on her, and scratched her behind the ears until she grunted that doggy grunt of satisfaction. “Besides,” he said. “I think Gabriel is going to bring Elaine down here when it gets dark. He wants her to walk outside a bit, and breathe the fresh air. He thinks it’ll be more homely than the heavens, more natural to her. You and Keary both can go see her.” How did I get him to understand? It didn’t know what to do. I’d never met her, and she’d never met me. She might not even remember me after what she’d been through. And what if I just touched her, and she broke into a million pieces. Or worse. Although I didn’t know what could be worse. And I just knew that no matter how well behaved the two of them had been before now, Keary and Gabriel were going to be at each other’s throats. Keary wanted his mother back, wanted to whisk her away back to his hole in the ground home and put her on a shelf until she was better. Gabriel wanted his mate to be his true mate, and he wasn’t going to let her go either. It was a stalemate, and poor Elaine was stuck in the middle, and I knew they were going to turn to me to be a referee. And that was a job I was going to take. ‘Yes we’ll have to split the custody of my mother. Gabriel gets her every other weekend, and Keary can have her on Wednesday nights for poker and mother-son bonding.’ It was ridiculous. And now twins. (Balthazar's POV) Thoughts were flying across her face and her mind almost to fast for me to catch them. But I caught enough to know that she was conflicted between her father and brother, confused about her mother, and no doubt the hormones would be kicking in, it was the perfect opportunity for them to raise their ugly heads and make everything worse. I laid my hand over her stomach, feeling the #life of my two little ones. They were so small, tiny fluttering heartbeats, growing a little everyday. I smiled slightly, she wouldn’t have to worry about a baby bump for very long, she’d have one soon, and it would be huge. She was going to hate it. Shadows passed over the room from the windows as the sun sank into the horizon, and I felt Gabriel in my mind then. He didn’t speak to me, so much as simply show me that he had Elaine in his arms, and was stepping out onto the isle with her cradled against him. I slid my hand through Ava’s hair, getting her attention as her mind started to run off with her again, making things worse than they were. “Gabriel is just outside, with Elaine. You should come see her.” I pulled the pillow out of her arms and tossed it aside. I took her hands in mine and pulled her up out of the bed, turning her towards the balcony doors. “What about Alandra?” she asked, turning and trying to go to the bathroom. I grabbed her around the waist and tucked her under my arm, steering her to the doors. “Alandra is fine. Alex is just in the next room, she has four wolves to keep her safe, and we will be right outside. Nothing will happen. Stop running.” She tucked herself tighter against me, her arms curling around my waist as she buried her face against the crook of my arm. It wasn’t like her to be this insecure. I gently glided us down off the rail of the balcony to the soft grass below in the shade of the trees. Gabriel was just ahead of us, in the deep shadow of a large white tree. Its leaves were red, almost blood red. A Shire Tree. He set Elaine down, and she was tiny, Ava’s size, but thinner, gaunt and wasted away. She stood on her own two feet, engulfed in Gabriel’s cloak, his hands on her shoulders to steady her. Keary slid silently out of the tree’s beside us. He looked at me, and nodded. I nodded back, and turned to watch was Elaine looked around her. Her eyes held wonderment, but they would glaze over, like she wasn’t sure where she was, or like she simply wasn’t there, but then they would fill with #life again. She reached a hand out, and laid it gently against the white bark of the Shire Tree. Half the reason I’d built our home here was because of this tree. They held a magic of their own, an ancient magic, neither good or bad, but neutral. It gave beauty when needed, shelter when sought, even healing. Elaine touched it and a glint of light shone in her face, a spark of what she was. I could feel Gabriel’s joy, but also his agony. Agony that two centuries had passed where he thought her dead, when in truth she had been in so much pain. But I knew he would heal. They would both heal in time. But it would take just that, time. This family had a lot of mending to do. Keary stood silent and watched his mother with a sort of wonderment on his face. The wonder that small baby boys had for their mothers. Ava clung to my side and watched her as well. I could feel her happiness, but also confusion, and mostly nervousness. We had a lot of mending to do. (Adam's POV) - Ava's estranged son. I felt Gabriel as he passed from the realm of the heavens and onto the isle. I was already outside the home of my mother, and that bastard Balthazar. I’d heard tale of a woman who was supposedly my grandmother. My grandmother. How pathetic could that be? First Balthazar took me from my mother, never let me near my real father, and now I had a grandmother that I had never knew of, and an uncle as well. Bastards. All of them. I slid against the bark of the tree I was leaning on, melding into the shadows. Balthazar had filled me with his blood, his #life; I could hide from him, but not this close to him and his little family. The only reason I was able to stand here this close to them all was he simply wasn’t paying attention. They were all at the base of the white tree. My grandfather held the tiny woman against him, his hands on her, possessive. Balthazar and my mother came into view next, my mother tucked under his arm like a little child. Or maybe he just didn’t like to let his toys go to far. I didn’t know, I didn’t care. My ‘uncle’ slid out of the woods next like a shadow. They all stood around, and watched as the tiny woman Gabriel was hovering over reached out and touched the white tree. They all stared at her, fascinated, like a monkey riding a tricycle. Pathetic. Why should they all get to be a happy family? Why should Balthazar get to have all of them to himself, where he’d taken them all from me? He’d denied me everything. I slid the dagger out of my belt. The blade was dragon glass, hard as a rock; the hilt was a black bone of some kind. I’d found it here on the isle. I’d found it and it was mine. It had some kind of magic to it. I didn’t’ know what, but it felt good to hold it. I gripped the hilt of it and hefted it a little in my hand. Balthazar and Gabriel took everything from me. Why couldn’t I take it from them? I stepped out of the shadow of the tree’s and pulled my arm over my head. Everything moved in slow motion then, like I had all the time in the world. I brought my hand down, launching the blade at my ‘grandmother’ and it flew, straight and true, hurtling through the air right for the little bitches head. I saw Gabriel’s head whip up, and Balthazar’s head swing around to see me. But it was to late, the dagger was flying through the air. Faster than I could see, Gabriel tackled the woman, dragging her to the ground under him, a cry tearing through his lips. Balthazar had let go of my mother and started for me, but as let go of her and made those first steps, and Gabriel shoved the other woman to the ground, the blade whistled over his head, and buried itself to the hilt in Mother’s stomach before either of them could even react. Blood blossomed across her body and her eyes rolled back in her head, he body going limp and falling to the ground. Balthazar turned and caught her just before she hit the ground. I turned my gaze to find my ‘Uncle’ staring at me. He ignored them all and launched himself through the air towards me. I turned and ran.