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Usually, I consider myself a good judge of character. I could always sense a volatility and woundedness in Abaddon. I’m horrified and saddened by what he has done today, but… well, I haven’t known him all that long.
Thing has a similar history of violent trauma, and I should be careful with him. But I sense his desire to nurture and protect is genuine.
For now, I’ll work with what I’m given and go forward less naïve, with eyes open wider. Maybe a little less hopeful.
Unconsciously, I bring my hand back to my stomach. Thing calling it a kit hasn’t made me feel much better.
I never even thought about getting pregnant. I just assumed because we were obviously different… species, that we couldn’t… well, you know.
You know what they say when you assume things, idiot. It just makes an ass out of u and me.
Yeah, yeah. Cause now’s the time for jokes.
I squeeze my eyes shut, but just for a moment. Because before I quite realize what’s going on, I’m being swept off my feet.
I snap open my eyes, ready to yell at Abaddon to keep his grubby paws off me.
But it’s Thing.
He’s lifted me in his middle pair of arms and raised me high into the air as he starts loping on his legs and bottom set of knuckles toward the still-open door and the freedom that awaits beyond.
“Thing!” Abaddon calls out.
Thing’s body vibrates as he turns around to look behind us. “What?” he barks.
Silence for a moment, followed by a, “Thank you, brother.”
Thing lets out a noncommittal grunt then lopes with me in his arms out the door and up the stairwell.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
HANNAH
Thing chooses the second story for his floor.
And it’s quickly apparent he does need the entire floor. I can’t imagine how he lived being locked in one place for… I shudder… however many years he’s been down there because now that he’s free, he’s a whirl of non-stop movement. He doesn’t just want one bedroom. He wants all the bedrooms.
Remus has followed us, hanging back and watching his brother with that uncanny Cheshire’s cat grin of his. Abaddon remains absent, and I’m grateful. I stay near Thing, following him from room to room, chattering and encouraging him if only so I don’t have to think about the state of my own life.
After a few hours of bounding around, Thing finally turns toward his brother.
“Why are you still here?” Thing asks Remus. Like Abaddon, when I first arrived, his speech has grown more and more confident and expansive the more he’s practiced with me the past few hours. As if he’s remembering how to communicate. “You swore if ever free you never look back. Leaving us in your dust.”
Remus grins that uncanny grin that shows all his teeth. “It’s suddenly gotten interesting here.”
He flicks his gaze past Thing so it lands on me. The hairs on my arm prick up. Despite my humanitarian efforts here, I’m not an idiot. Well, okay, considering I’m voluntarily standing in a castle full of monsters with some sort of monster-hybrid baby in my belly, maybe that’s debatable. But even I can sense the predator in Remus’s eyes. Thing obviously can, too, because he steps between Remus and me, and a low rattle comes from his throat.
Remus’s grin sharpens, and he runs his tongue along his incisors which seem just a tad too sharp for my peace of mind. They don’t have any kind of vampiric thing going in addition to all the… wings and teeth and claws stuff, right?
Maybe Thing will be a little more direct about where it is they all come from. I mean, obviously I’ve gleaned from Abaddon there is some mysterious father involved, but who was he, and what really happened that brought them all here?
I might have been fine with nebulous information before but dear God, now—
I bring my hand to my stomach again. I need concrete answers now. For one, is this pregnancy something I can even survive?
“Has this ever happened before?” My voice is sharp and high-pitched, bouncing off the cobblestones.
Thing swings back around from where he’s facing off with Remus, eyes wide. Remus’s eyes are wide, too, but whereas Thing looks cautious and unsure, Remus exudes excitement.
“Never,” Remus answers. “We didn’t think it was possible.”
Great. I swallow hard. “Why not?”
Remus sidesteps Thing in a single fluid motion, and comes right up into my face, startling me to step backward. Behind him, his tail sweeps back and forth. Remus obviously either doesn’t know or care about personal space because he crowds up in my face, as if he wants to examine me from close, like one might an animal at a zoo, or a specimen in a lab.
“It’s truly magnificent,” Remus says, about an inch away from my face as he stares at my nose, then shifts to look at my mouth. He reaches out and pries up my lip to examine my teeth.
