Gunnar pokes his head into the room. “Want me to try to give her a bottle?”
“No, I’m coming. It’s okay if she cries for a minute or two. The books say it’s good for her lungs.”
He rubs his hand over his forehead. “I know, I just want to help.” He and Grim both follow me into the parlor. Calix is trying to comfort Nyx, but she’s really wailing. Her little face is all red, and her tiny hands are balled into fists as she noses around on his chest looking for something to latch on to.
Calix looks at me with a helpless stare. “I’m sorry; she’s cranky.” I take her in my arms, and she quiets quickly, letting out little grunts instead.
I settle into a chair and get her set to nurse. Her eyes drop closed immediately and her body relaxes. I thought I would hate this—thought it would be weird to nurse her after only ever thinking about my breasts being for sexual pleasure—but it’s completely different from anything I could have ever imagined. Feeding her actually gives me great joy. Maybe it’s because my mom could never feed me and never even made an effort to try something other than a bottle—not that I can blame her for not knowing I needed sins to survive. But it still gives me immense satisfaction knowing I’m taking care of her.
Gunnar turns the TV on, and Calix hands me my phone. I smile at him gratefully. Without it, I would probably fall asleep. I jump when I hear my name shouted. “Damiana!”
“Oh, shit,” I whisper. “What do you think she’ll be madder about? Us killing Antonio or me not waiting for her to get back until I had Nyx?”
“Nyx,” all three of them say in unison.
I breathe a sigh of relief. “Oh, good, I couldn’t control that.”
“I cannot believe I had to hear that you had the baby from the crooked man!” She’s not even down the stairs and she’s screeching. “Where are you, you traitor?” She rounds the corner, her hands are on her hips, and she’s frowning, but the moment she sees me and the baby cradled against my chest, she stops dead in her tracks and her hands fall to her sides.
“Shush. I’m sorry, Aeson. Nyx had her own agenda.”
“Nyx, the goddess of night?” she says softly in awe.
“Come say hello, Aunty.” Aeson’s eyes jump to mine and she can’t hide her grin, but she fucking tries.
“At least you chose a decent name,” she mumbles instead, focusing on the ground as she walks over and grapples up the chair leg to sit on my shoulder. “Look at those cheeks,” she whispers in reverence. “I can’t believe I missed it. You were early,” she accuses, still staring at Nyx.
“A little, she was almost six pounds though, and she’s gaining weight fast. The doctor observed her for two days to make sure her lungs were good before they kicked us out.” I look over at Gunnar.
“What? Their rules are stupid,” he grouches.
“No weapons in the hospital isn’t a stupid rule, Kitten.”
“How else can you protect your child? Humans are weaklings and they don’t even allow them to have a weapon.” He shakes his head like he’s baffled. “I’m with Grim, next time we bring the doctor to us.” For a moment, I’m enamored by his use of Grim’s name until I realize what he said.
“Next time?” Nyx jumps and lets out a loud cry from my outburst. I rub the side of her head and shush her softly. Aeson scoots down until she’s sitting on my boob right in front of Nyx’s face. My little girl opens her eyes and stares up at my best friend. There’s no fear, no judgment, and there never will be. We will raise her not to fear the darkness or what may lurk there. But I will make sure she knows evil exists, and it’s rarely the creatures that look the part.
“Yes, next time.” Grim nods his head.
“Sure, that will happen, we’ll have all the babies.” I smile through the words then drop the grin and deadpan, “As soon as you’re the ones growing and birthing them.”
“We have time to convince her,” Calix remarks dismissively. I know he’s right—it probably won’t even be hard to persuade me—but I like to give them hell anyway.
Aeson brushes her tiny hand over Nyx’s cheek, and my baby girl closes her eyes again while she finishes eating. “Tell me what happened with the witch,” she coos softly to make sure she doesn’t disturb Nyx.
I wince, she already knows. Well, it’s not like it was a secret, but I wasn’t sure the news would get back to her because she was on a job. “It was Boogey, can you believe it?”
“I heard, the slime.” She settles herself on the arm of the chair where she can look at me and the baby.
“From what we’ve gathered, it’s been him the whole time. Boogey admitted to killing Antonio after he taught him how to perform the ritual, and from the number of bodies that were piled up near his safehouse, he’s been doing it for quite some time,” I inform her. “I know you wanted your pound of flesh. Sorry you weren’t there.”
“Shit happens. If I made it my goal to hunt down everyone who tried to kill me, I wouldn’t have time for much else,” she quips.
Gunnar gives me the ‘I told you so’ look. I make a face that I’m sure isn’t very flattering in return. He cracks a smile.
“So, this is what you guys do now, sit around like a bunch of house ninnies? Aeson looks around the room, so I do, too. All of the guys are relaxed, Calix even has a blanket draped over his lap. Gunnar is munching on a bag of candy, and none of them look repentant about how things have shifted. I can’t say I am, either. Not too long ago, I craved companionship. I lived for visitors. Now I still get to enjoy my guests, but I don’t have the crippling loneliness I always lived with before.
“Yes, I plan to get a dad bod,” Grim declares plainly. I snort.
