A/N: Sorry I didn't update last week!! I had a catastrophic computer crash and my hard drive was deleted. Luckily, the files for this fic were on a different computer, and we managed to get everything else back (mostly). I'm also almost finished writing this fic. I'm in the middle of the big ending fight right now. Of course, it's all stream-of-consciousness right now, so I need to go back and edit. At least a little. At least do a spell-check. Heh. This chapter isn't well edited at all, since I didn't want to keep from posting it for yet another week, so I apologize in advance. Thank you soooo much, to those of you who review! They are greatly appreciated!

Xellos felt his insides grow cold as he looked into his son's eyes. Time stopped, the candlelight no longer flickering in Lina's ruby eyes, the air perfectly still. His lungs burst with the need for air, his joints ached with the burden of standing stationary, his mind reeling as his world silently shattered.

"Wolves?" he whispered, lips suddenly dry.

The world lurched as time returned to his soul, the candlelight once more throwing flickering shadows on the wall. The darkness leapt and twitched, as if eager. Lecia's eyes seemed like dark pools in the dim light, reflecting the flame in two sharp points. "Yes. I have been, too."

He saw Lina stiffen out of the corner of his eye. "It's nothing," she said, her voice edged. "We should just go to sleep."

Gorran scowled. "Why do the wolves in my dreams seem so dark?" he asked. "They're massive beasts, but they never come too near me, just always watch. They don't seem to mean me harm."

"I need to think about this," Xellos murmured, barely able to force the words out of his mouth.

"Xellos," Lina said, eyes burning. He could feel the turmoil of her emotions through the rings. He wished her feelings were not identical to his own. One of them needed to be impervious to the news, and it obviously was not going to be him.

Lecia's hand shot out and grabbed Lina's, holding it tightly. "Is it her, Mom?" she asked urgently, and her fingers flexed as Lina tried to pull away. "Is it Grandma?"

It was everything Xellos could do not to stagger backwards from the weight he felt pressing upon him from all sides. "It can't possibly be. Everything will be fine," he said, trying to keep his voice light.

"You can fool anyone but us," Gorran murmured. "Tell us what's wrong. We can help. We're not children anymore, Dad."

Xellos felt as if something inside him was going to unravel. His muscles felt weak and spasmodic. It seemed a small miracle he was still able to stand as his mind reeled. Why had he been so foolish as to think it was over, to think he was free?

"No," Lina muttered. "That's the thing, kids. You'll always be our children."

Lecia and Gorran looked at one another, eyebrows raised in an identical expression, even though Gorran towered over his sister. "And?"

"You're the only mortals in this world to also be part Monster," Lina explained, lips pressed into a tight line.

"And the only offspring of Lina Inverse, she who was touched by the Lord of Nightmares, mother of all things, destroyer of all things," Xellos added.

Gorran's large hand gripped Lecia's suddenly and gave it a squeeze as she scooted closer to his side. Their eyes were twin amethyst orbs of defiance. "We're not afraid," Lecia said.

"Nothing can separate us," Gorran affirmed.

"Lecia, love?" a voice sounded behind them. Xellos turned around to look into golden eyes. Val stepped out of the darkness and blinked at them all. "It's late, and you haven't come to bed yet."

"Would you do anything for me?" Xellos' daughter blurted, face set.

Val's eyes softened. "Of course I would. You're my life. You're my soul mate."

"Lecia," Lina said, her voice tender but also carrying a warning.

"And my family? Would you do anything for them?"

Val looked over Lina and Xellos, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "They're my family, too, you know," he sighed, his tall, muscular frame leaning against the wall. "I've grown up with them. For me, it goes without saying that I would do anything for them."

"And if I died?" Lecia pushed.

"Lecia," Lina growled, scowling.

Val's eyes hardened. "Then I die, too."

Xellos studied the dragon, able to feel the passion rolling off of the youngster with the edges of his perception. Val would defend them with his life without hesitation. Overcome with a mixture of fear and fondness, he suddenly reached out and caught up the younger male in an embrace.

"Mister Xellos?" Val asked, awkwardly patting Xellos' back.

"We'll be fine, don't you see?" Lecia said, gently prying Val out of Xellos' grip and entwining her fingers with his. "Nothing can defeat us, not as long as we're together."

"And not with how hard we've worked to become strong," Gorran added, his hand resting on Scundabran's pommel.

"Bah," Lina said. "You kids are nothing compared to me."

"Mom!" they both protested at once.

"You're just being silly, getting up all worked up about some dream, and then polishing it all off with some immature bravado," the sorceress said gruffly.

"Can't imagine where you got that from," Xellos added with a smile, earning him a slap on the arm from his wife. "She's right, though, time for bed."

Val swept Lecia up in his arms. "We're off, then," he said, and carried a giggling Lecia off into the darkness. Xellos had to quell the nausea that welled up inside of him at the thought of his daughter being with a man.

"Me, too," Gorran sighed, making a beeline for the Greywords quarters.

"No, you sleep in your room, by yourself," Xellos corrected.

"We weren't going to do anything," the young man muttered.

"You're such a prude," Lina sighed, but she was smiling.

"Yeah, you let Lecia sleep with her boyfriend, and they're not even married!"

"But Val can't get her pregnant, whereas you could get yourself in trouble with Kerra pretty easily," Lina pointed out.

"And don't expect Zel and Amelia to be gentle with you if you do," Xellos added. "It would be unjust if you fathered a child on their innocent daughter before you were married. Besides, I know you want to wait until everything's proper before you lose your virginity."

"Dad!" Gorran growled, blushing furiously.

"Xellos, don't bring that up. You know how sensitive he is about it!"

"Shut up, Mom!" the young man grated, narrowing his eyes.

"Oh, you shut up. I mastered the art of being pissed a long time ago."

"And with that, you should go to bed," Xellos said, and quickly embraced his son. "I'm proud of you," he whispered in Gorran's ear. "You've become the type of man all men should be."

"Except he can't cook worth a damn," Lina chuckled, and stood on tiptoe to kiss Gorran on the cheek. "Off with you."

Gorran rubbed slightly at the spot she had kissed, still blushing, and moved off down the hallway, muttering to himself. Lina slipped her hand into Xellos' as they watched him, her head leaning against his arm. "Do you think we distracted them well enough?" she whispered.

"We can only hope," he replied, squeezing her hand tightly. The darkness in his heart still boiled with cold, and as the moments passed it was becoming no easier to bear it. He trudged up the stairs behind Lina, lost in his dark thoughts, and was startled when she shoved him up against the door, hands tearing at his clothes.

"We might only have this night, if their dreams are already showing them such things," she growled, tossing his shirt aside as her fingers moved hungrily across his skin.

He nodded once, then gave in to abandon, disrobing her as surely as she had done to him. They flung themselves at the bed, immediately intertwined, and he rolled her underneath him, running his fingers through her hair of silken fire. "I have loved you every day since I realized I was capable of such a thing," he whispered, gazing down at her pale skin, her ruby eyes large and dark in the moonlight. A tear welled up in her eye and rolled down her cheek, and she embraced him with such passionate desperation that he forgot all else.

The night was very long. Lovemaking with Lina had been tinged with panic, although it had so exhausted her that she gently snored away on his shoulder. His fingers were laced with one another, keeping her safely within the enclosure of his arms while she slept. Xellos simply stared at the dark ceiling, mind racing with fearful thoughts.

The wolves in the dreams of his children meant that Xellas was watching them. His former mistress wouldn't be watching them unless something interesting was about to happen. The only thing that mattered to his mistress was power, which meant that the power of his offspring was about to be tested. Combine that fact with the certainty that Dolphin and Dynast were still after his skin, and he had a terrible mess on his hands. His family was in danger, and there was nothing he could do but wait.

As he watched the shadows play across the ceiling he silently commended his son for gathering all of their family's friends together. Of course, the news was good, but the danger they faced was so much greater. It made Xellos' blood run cold to think that the dreams his son had announced that evening might never come to pass.

It surprised him to realize that somehow the people he had met when he was an immortal had become his friends. Not just Lina's friends, or Lecia's friends, but his own friends. He had something besides his family to protect. Pausing a moment, he silently observed himself, listening and feeling the processes of his mortal form, and realized it had been quite some time since he had been able to feel the slow death of his body. Death was swallowed up by love and life, and if he hadn't wanted so dearly to spend every moment possible with Lina and his children, he would not have feared death. He had experienced things worse than death.

A jerking of his body woke him around dawn. Sleep had somehow found him, if only for a short while. Sliding his arm out from underneath Lina, he shook it awake and grimaced as the blood returned painfully to his hand. He ran his fingers through his dark, silver-streaked hair and glanced around the room. Sometime during the night he had decided that Xellas had intended, in part, that the dreams she sent his children should act as a warning to him as well. She was giving him time. He didn't know why, and he dreaded the answer, but he knew it was so. Reaching underneath the bed, he pulled out his satchel and began to load it with supplies.

He had started in on packing their clothes when Lina stirred with a groan, her flaming red hair tangled across her face as she lifted her head and propped herself up on an elbow. A smile crossed his face; he had often seen Gorran and Lecia make the same expression upon wakening. Oh, how the fabric of his existence was woven with this woman!

"What's happening?" she asked, sliding from the bed and wobbling over to her robe.

"I'm packing."

"You're not going anywhere without me," she growled, pushing her hair out of her face.

He held up the pack and let her see what was inside.

"Oh," she muttered, pulling the robe around her more tightly.

"I know better than to run off without you," he smiled.

"Took you long enough," she grunted, and stumbled off to the bathroom.

He had finished by the time she returned. "We need to get out of here as soon as possible."

The skin beneath her eyes was puffy, the only thing about her face that showed her age, and he knew even that would disappear as she emerged into full wakefulness. "Did you figure something out in the night?"

He shrugged, tying the pack closed. "No, only that they're coming for us, and they're coming for us now. We must either leave or risk great loss of life to this town."

"No way, this is our home! We can't let it be destroyed!"

Xellos reached out and took her hand. "You're right, we can't. That's why we'll leave for a more remote area."

"Damn," Lina snarled, beginning to dress. "What about the others?"

"We'll have to leave a note. That way they'll get out, and they can't follow us."

She paused, her features tightening as her ruby eyes flickered with something he wasn't used to seeing in her face: fear. "I hope they find a safe place."

Xellos nodded. "This will be very, very bad, beloved. This will be the end."