Phoebe turned back toward Cassandra. “So what did you want when you came to see me?”
“I’ve been putting together a memory box for the baby. Notes and pictures from me. Little mementoes to tell him about our people and family after I’m gone, and I was wondering if you would mind putting something in there from you.”
“Why do you need something like that when we’ll be more than happy to tell him anything he wants to know?”
Cassandra hesitated as if there were something she didn’t want to tell her. She glanced to Sasquatch before she answered. “He can’t grow up here, Phee. He’ll have to be with Wulf in the human world.”
Phoebe ground her teeth at that. Of course. Leave it to Cassie to be prejudiced against her own people. “Why can’t he grow up here? We can protect him just as well as Wulf. Probably more so.” At least they wouldn’t hate him for being part Apollite.
Wulf glanced up as Chris dealt him a hand of cards. “What if he’s more human than even Cassandra is? Would he be safe here?”
Phoebe hesitated. He should be, but … There were some Apollites who had a lot of problems with humans. Even as long as she’d been here, she still had trouble with a few once they learned her father was human.
And she was grateful that at least they didn’t tie each other to stakes anymore and set fire to them.
At least not often.
Wulf gave Phoebe a meaningful stare. “I can protect him and his children a lot easier than you can. I think the temptation of having a human soul here would be way too much for some of your people to handle. Especially given how much they hate Dark-Hunters. What a coup—kill my son, get a human soul, and get revenge on the very thing all of you despise most.”
Phoebe nodded. “I suppose you’re right.” She took Cassandra’s hand. “Yes, I would like to add some things to the box for him.”
And Phoebe knew exactly what she wanted her nephew to have.
So after she wrote her note, she excused herself and went to get her present for Cassandra’s box.
She returned to her sister’s apartment a short time later with the book.
Cassandra looked up with a frown as Phoebe slid it into the keepsake box Cassie still had out on the couch next to her. “What’s this?”
Phoebe gave her a wicked grin. “It’s a book of Apollite fairy tales. Remember the one Mom used to read to us when we were kids? Donita sells them in her shop, so I went just now and bought one for the baby.”
With suspicious eyes, Wulf picked the book up and flipped through it. “Hey, Chris?” He handed it to his Squire. “You read Greek, right?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s in here?”
Chris started reading silently, then burst out laughing. Hard. “I don’t know if you want the baby to see this if you’re the one raising him.”
“Let me guess?” Wulf glared at Phoebe. “He’ll have nightmares that Daddy is going to hunt him down and rip his head off?”
“Pretty much. I’m particularly fond of the one called ‘Acheron the Great Evil.’” Chris paused as he turned to another story. “Oh wait … You’ll love this one. They’ve got the story of the nasty Nordic Dark-Hunter. Remember the story with the witch and the oven? This one features you with a furnace.”
“Phoebe!” Sasquatch’s glare turned to murder.
She blinked innocently. “What? That’s our heritage. It’s not like you guys don’t swap stories on Andy the Evil Apollite or Daniel the Killer Daimon. You know I see human movies and read their books too. They’re not exactly nice to my people.”
Wulf scoffed. “Yeah well, your people happen to be soul-sucking demons.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Phoebe cocked her head with attitude. “You ever met a banker or a lawyer? Tell me who’s worse, my Urian or one of them? At least we need the food. They do it just for profit margins.”
Cassandra laughed at their bantering, then took the book from Chris’s hands. “I appreciate the thought, Phee, but could we find a book that doesn’t paint the Dark-Hunters as Satan?”
“I don’t think one exists. Or if it does, I’ve never seen it.”
“Great.” Sasquatch picked up another card. “Just great. My poor son’s going to have nightmares all of his childhood.”
“Trust me,” Chris said as he upped his bet against Wulf. “That book’s going to be the least of your kid’s problems with you as his father.”
Cassie frowned. “What do you mean?”
Chris put his cards down and met her gaze. “You do know that as a small child, they actually carried me around on a pillow? I had a custom-made helmet that I had to wear until I was four.”
Sasquatch scratched at his beard. “That’s because you banged your head every time you got angry. I was afraid you were going to get brain damage from it.”
Chris snorted. “The brain is fine. It’s my ego and social life that’s in the toilet. I shudder at what you’re going to do to that poor kid.” He dropped his voice and imitated Wulf’s lilting Norse accent. “Don’t move, you might get bruised. Oops, a sneeze, better call in specialists from Belgium. Headache? Odin forbid, it might be a tumor. Quick, rush him for a CAT scan.”
Wulf shoved his shoulder playfully. “And yet you live.”
“Ever the better to procreate for you.” Chris met Cassandra’s gaze. “It’s a hell of a life.” Then Chris dropped his gaze as if he was thinking about that for a minute. “But there are worse ones out there.”
He was right about that. Phoebe sighed as she wondered about Urian and what he was doing.
*
Katra waited outside Urian’s bedroom until Davyn came outside to meet her. “Is he all right?”
“He will be, but that was very close.”
She let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I’ve never seen him like that. Didn’t know he could get weak.”
“Me neither.”
She glanced to the closed door. “Do I want to know what you did to fix him?”
With grim expression, Davyn shook his head. “You wouldn’t approve.”
“Pardon the pun. Sucks to be a Daimon.”
“You have no idea. Believe me, it’s not something we enjoy. There’s not a one of us who wouldn’t give our souls to change it.”
Kat saw the truth in his dark eyes. And oddly enough, she saw Davyn’s gentle soul, and his guilt. “I’m sorry.”
“No, Kat. That’s an empty sentiment. You really don’t get what your uncle did to us.”
“Pardon?”
“I know who and what you are. Urian doesn’t.”
Panic filled her. “How?”
Davyn laughed. “I see and hear a lot more than anyone credits me with. And I’m not as dumb as everyone thinks. I’ve seen Artemis. You look just like her. Right down to the eye color. Given that, I figure you have to be related to Apollymi’s son in order for her to tolerate you to live. Never mind come and go here, whenever you like.”
Katra’s jaw dropped. “You’ve never told him?”
“Of secret things I am silence.”
“The Bhagavad Gita?”
Davyn shrugged. “I read a lot of things.”
The door behind him opened to show Urian looking a lot better. His deep tawny skin had a healthy glow. His eyes were bright and for once he wore his long blond hair down around his shoulders. She would give Phoebe credit. Her husband was extremely gorgeous.
Dressed black on black, there wasn’t much difference between Urian and a Dark-Hunter.
“You look like you ate someone who agreed with you.”
Urian wasn’t amused with her joke. “Ha, ha, Katra. Do you have any real reason to be here? Or are you just wanting to piss me off?”
“I was making sure you lived. Sorry I cared.”
“I’m not sorry you cared. I am sorry you feel the need to nettle.” Sighing, he met Davyn’s gaze. “Thank you, brother.”
“You know I love you.”
“You, too.”
“Aw!” Kat threw herself against them both and hugged them close. “It’s a Daimon love fest!”
Urian screwed his face up. “Gah! I’m getting Olympian cooties. Someone call an exterminator! Better yet, a Charonte!”
Snorting, Kat pulled away. “Fine. I’m heading back. See you later.”
Urian took a minute to talk to Davyn. “I got rid of the body.”
“Thanks.”