“I could have used you about twenty-five years ago,” Sethios remarked.
“You handled it mostly well,” Leela commented.
“A compliment?” Sethios smiled at her. “Thanks, Lee.”
“I said ‘mostly,’ ” she replied.
Elizabeth came back to life on a scream that made everyone flinch. Jayson’s crazed expression began to return, but Balthazar quickly pulled him back, telling him again to get into the bed and hold the girl.
“I’m never having kids,” Astasiya said out loud.
“My thoughts exactly,” Issac agreed.
I’m considering that a win, Sethios spoke into Caro’s mind. I’m not ready to be a grandfather.
You weren’t ready to be a father, either, she reminded him softly.
I’m still not ready, he muttered back to her. But the idea of my child having a child? Fuck, Caro. No. She’s still seven in my head.
Caro’s amusement touched his thoughts. Then hopefully she doesn’t have my genetics, because I defied all the odds by having two children in a single century. That’s absolutely not the norm but may run in my bloodline.
She uttered the words in that practical way of hers, the statements all underlined in realism. Which made them one hundred percent worse because she was right.
Shit. We need to talk to her about birth control. A conversation he couldn’t imagine ever having with his daughter. Actually, can I just kill Issac instead? That’ll be much easier, and far more enjoyable.
You can’t kill him. He loves her.
Then I’ll just castrate him. Problem solved. And still more enjoyable than a conversation about protection.
Caro giggled again, a sound he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed until he heard it today. It was almost enough to make him forget she was laughing at him. Almost.
This isn’t funny.
It’s very funny, she corrected. And there’s no such thing as birth control for a Seraphim. But if it really worries you, we can ask Leela about Astasiya’s fertility. She would be able to sense it.
She said it wouldn’t happen for another five hundred years, he grumbled.
She’s probably right. Unless she inherits my procreation cycle.
Sethios groaned. Stop saying that.
Just informing you of the obvious.
I don’t want to think about it.
You’re the one who started this discussion in my head, she murmured.
You were supposed to let me kill him, he argued.
Caro turned and pressed a palm to Sethios’s chest, her blue eyes sparkling with mirth. You don’t want to kill him. You like him.
I do not.
You do. She lifted onto her toes to press a kiss to his lips. He showed his loyalty in front of Osiris. I felt your response to that. He reminded you of yourself.
This bond is troubling, he replied, not really meaning it at all. I can’t keep anything from you.
I could go back to the reformation chamber, she offered. If you—
