The walls feel like they’re closing in. I hadn’t thought beyond removing my father as a threat. He’s been larger than life for so long, it never occurred to me that there would be others baying for my blood if they got half a chance. I shudder. “It will never end, will it? We’ll be running forever.”
“Eh.” Wolf shrugs, totally relaxed. “We just need to kill your father, convert all his little followers to being your followers, and you’ll be set. Our enemies come after you, we’ll kill them. They send others, and we’ll kill them, too. Eventually, they’ll realize we’re too powerful to fuck with and don’t have any intention of repeating history and they’ll leave us alone.” He grins. “Except for the odd assassination attempt to keep us on our toes.”
“You are not making me feel better.” My voice comes out reedy. I press the heels of my hands to my eyes. “I thought it would be over after we kill my father.”
Malachi wraps his hands around my wrists and gently tugs them down. “When you have eternity, you’ll come to appreciate the little things that break up the monotony.”
It speaks volumes that they consider assassination attempts to be little things. “I could use a little monotony in my life.”
He gives my wrists a gentle squeeze. “You’ll have it.” He glances at Wolf and shrugs. “Besides, if it ever gets to be too much, we can always jump to a realm that’s never heard of seraphim. That would create other challenges, but it’s always an option.”
I lick my lips. I don’t know that I’m ready to abandon this realm, but the escape hatch option calms me all the same. “Are there many other realms? More than this one and Azazel’s?”
“No one’s ever tracked them properly, but there are at least dozens.”
Wolf laughs, sounding more like himself. “No one’s tracked them properly because they’ve died trying.” He flicks Malachi’s hair off his shoulder. “Might be a fun challenge in a couple hundred years when the baby bats are grown and have flown the nest.”
I blink. “Did you just call the…” I’m not quite able to call it a baby yet. It’s not a baby. It’s a cluster of cells. “Did you just call it a baby bat?”
“It’s as good a name as anything.”
A reluctant smile pulls at the edges of my lips. “You can’t even turn into a bat.”
“Rylan can.” Wolf makes a show of shuddering. “Freakish thing. Too big. Could probably carry you on its back if you wanted.”
I feel the man in question approaching. “I think he’s done with his call.”
“Spooky.”
I shoot a look at Wolf, though I can feel Malachi watching me. There’s a tension about him that makes me think he’ll lunge forward if I suddenly topple. It’s a strange thought, that he’ll always be there to catch me. I trust him. I do. But my need to stand on my own is nearly overpowering. “I’m fine, Malachi.”
“You’re shaking.”
I hate that he’s right. I lift my hand and study the tremors as Rylan closes the distance between us. He’s moving inhumanly fast, and I shouldn’t be able to track him so effectively as a result. The seraph bond is freakish.
Too much change. Too much information. Too little time.
Dealing with the long-term effects of the seraph bond will have to wait until we’re out of crisis mode, whenever that happens. If it ever happens. The thought depresses me. Instead of responding to Malachi’s question that isn’t a question, I twist to face the door as Rylan walks through.
His expression is a careful mask, giving away nothing. “I spoke with her.” He doesn’t make is wait, thankfully. He just sighs. “It’s…complicated.”
“Threat?” This from Malachi. He links his fingers through mine, tense enough that I can tell he wants to haul me back into his arms and wrap me up in himself. I’m not entirely opposed to the idea, but I just got done telling him that I need to stand on my own, so I can’t walk back on it now.
Rylan shrugs. “She didn’t start making threats, but that’s not how she operates. At this point, she’ll wait and see, and if she decides she needs to act, we’ll hear from her in a decade or so. She did give some interesting information.”
He moves, strangely stilted, and sinks onto the edge of the bed near me. “When seraphim became pregnant, they would retreat into their fortified locations for the duration. Based on when they’d go missing, it was estimated that the gestation cycle is similar to a vampire or human. Forty weeks, give or take.” He looks at me, dark eyes conflicted. “We don’t have information on what happens during that time. They would disappear with a retinue of vampire…servants…and reappear with a brand-new seraph baby. Most of the time, the vampires that went with them were never seen again.”