"You're here and you don't send mindspeech?" Karzac was upset, I could tell. He and Grace folded in and Grace had the baby in her arms.
"This is Kevis," Grace handed the tiny baby to me. He had the cutest, chubby little face. One day he was going to look like his father.
"He has your nose and mouth," I smiled up at Karzac.
"He'll have Karzac's eyes, too," Grace agreed. Kevis was asleep at the moment, so his eyes were closed. I had to take her word on that.
"Honey, you deserved this," I rocked the baby gently. He slept in my arms.
* * *
Would I ever tell Kiarra and the others about the Khos'Mirai's clones and what might have happened? Probably not. They had enough to worry about for a while. Still, it makes me shiver at what could have happened if I hadn't had a little help. The Ra'Ak planned to gather uninfected humanoids and raise them like cattle on a few worlds so they'd have a food source. All while their Ra'Ak-enhanced army destroyed everything else. I doubt they'd informed their enhanced soldiers that they wouldn't live more than fifty years before they all died. The Ra'Ak would have everything to themselves if somebody didn't stop them.
I admit—I wouldn't have worked out a solution quickly enough if he hadn't come. It only took a nudge, but I'd sat there with that stupid tennis ball, staring at it until I looked past the surface. At all the things growing on it. Granted it was bacteria, but those were living organisms. Most of them were harmless. A few could be deadly if they encountered the right victim.
I'd removed the deadly ones—the Khos'Mirai clones. Now, the worlds represented by the tennis ball would have a chance. After all, the worlds had been pristine in the beginning. Before life was introduced. Life is messy. Not all of it is deadly. Sometimes those things have to take care of themselves, without interference. It's only when things get out of balance that they need a little help at times. A hand to touch the scales and restore the balance so we might see something close to normal, now and then.
* * *
My life settled into a routine after my visit with Kiarra. I went to Council meetings. I signed letters, took calls, played Queen. Our beach house was being built and it was going to be nice. Kifirin folded in occasionally. I met with the vampire who wanted to help build my university and library. He was old and had a lot of money. He wanted to put up half. I agreed to match his contribution. His one stipulation was that he be allowed to teach history courses or oversee that department. That was fine with me; after talking with him, I decided he'd be good at it. He was nice to look at, too. Dark-brown hair, gray eyes and tall. He was around six-two or so. Almost as tall as Tony or Drake and Drew. His name was Aryn and had all his papers in order. He came across as somewhat scholarly, but wouldn't be opposed to taking someone down if he were threatened. He was vampire, after all.
"I am looking forward to this stage in my life," he informed me over a glass of blood substitute mixed with wine. "Even though the Alliance worlds are quite tolerant toward our kind, it is a great relief to walk freely on the streets at any time and know I belong there."
"I know," I said, smiling at him. "And when we get this university built, it will be open to all vampires, taught by vampires and run by vampires. We may open it up to a few foreign students, but they'll be screened carefully."
"The library as well," Aryn's smile was wider, now. "Imagine all the books that our resident vampires have brought with them. I hope we can convince them to share at least parts of their collections, so that all may have access. Some of those volumes are ancient and the information may have been lost to others. We will have it again and we can transfer all of it into permanent storage. I will be handing over most of my collection as soon as the building is completed."
"That sounds like heaven," I sighed. "I just want to go through the stacks and smell them, one day."
"You will have that day and soon," Aryn promised. Yeah, he wasn't hard to look at. Not at all.
It took me a few days to realize that I hadn't seen Rolfe. I saw Giff every day and her baby pouch was quite large. When I asked her about Rolfe, she pouted.
"They came to get him—Wlodek and Charles. They wanted him to help fight those things—you know—those things."
"The Ra'Ak-enhanced humanoids?"
"They call them Rees," Giff was giving me the phonetic pronunciation. REH could sound like Ree easily enough. I smiled.
"Giff, this means he'll be able to walk in daylight now and eat dinner with you when he gets back," I said. "That's their gift to him, for helping out with this. You just have to be patient."
"I know. But father still has no memory of me and I miss him. We used to do everything together and I wanted him with me, when the child comes." She patted the baby sac carefully.
"Well, we're both in that boat," I told her, giving her a hug. There was a hole in my heart where Roff belonged. I saw him now and then, usually following Flavio when they attended Council meetings or came to the palace. He glanced my way often—in a curious way, I'm sure. Each time I was the one to look away—so I wouldn't weep.
* * *
My Falchani came back after two more months had passed. I'd missed them so much and we spent a few wild nights together. Nope, no details, but we were all happy afterward. An invitation was delivered, too, addressed to all my mates and me. It was for dinner and a reception at Gryphon Hall, to celebrate the destruction of the REHs.
* * *
"Gavin, stop grumbling," I swatted his ass as I passed him. He was already dressed in a suit and tie. My twins had taken him, Shadow, Erland and Garde shopping. They'd all come home with some very nice things. I was trying to dress myself—Giff and Rolfe were going, too, so Giff was having her own little tizzy about what to wear so the baby pouch would be nicely covered. Comesuli had eleven-month pregnancies—go figure. Of course, the babies did have full sets of teeth and could eat meat right out of the birthing sac, so there was that, I guess.
Kifirin showed up just as I was about to pull Gavin into the hall to join the others. Gavin hates parties, so this was a forced march for him. Kifirin folded all of us, this time.
All Saa Thalarr, Spawn Hunters and Healers were in Adam's huge ballroom, laughing, talking and drinking. As soon as my bunch showed (a few minutes late, of course) Kiarra called for our attention. She got us seated on chairs around the room first before going on to other things.
"I wanted all of you to come so you can meet our newest Spawn Hunters. They will be doing other things in between assignments, but they have already proven themselves admirably. First off, Jeral joined us."