Chapter Eight

Catcher

Day four and none of us were dead. In all consideration I figured that an accomplishment. It put me in a sunny disposition as I stretched from my bed and took in the light of the balcony curtain pulled back. It was a subtle light, since the sun wasn't as bright and bushy-tailed as I was yet. The bedside clock said 5:05 am and Cassie's shadow beyond the drapes said another sleepless night. I frowned and dropped my arms in my lap.

Day four and there were several things I was certain of today: Melee was going to make six pounds of bacon and call it lunch, the boys would break something in the rental house as they did daily, Mia did not sleep in her own bed last night (whoo-hoo, finally), and my new roomie wasn't homicidal by any one's standards. She also cleaned up nice, was playful and smart in the company of others, and when alone she stared out into the distance like a woman lost at sea. Like she did now.

I never heard her when she got up in the middle of the night. Even with a fading limp she was graceful enough to be silent to a wolf's ears, but not his scent. It was always just a little shift of flavor, but it usually woke me from my sleep. That deep bark and flower scent would sharpen as she passed my bed, then intermingle with the ocean smells as she tip-toed onto the deck. How strange that she could smell so good while Caliban smelled like murder and blood. It had to have been the peri in her masking the shadows.

It'd gotten to the point that I was sleeping through her routine, leaving her to her alone time. I contemplated doing the same now, ducking into the shower and pretending I didn't notice her curled over the railing, crying. Shit, she was crying. I couldn't smell the saline tears in the salty wet air, but I could smell her tortured sadness. I tossed the sheets off my legs; well, that decided that. I would leave her alone with her thoughts, but not with her tears.

I stepped out onto the balcony slowly. Letting her catch my presence, or hear my footsteps. I could see her wiping at her eyes and take in a deep breath. "Morning."

"Morning," I echoed and stepped up beside her at the railing. Her eyes weren't as puffy as I expected, considering the intensity of her sorrow. Of course, being as old as she was she probably had great practice holding things like tears in. She even managed to offer me an almost convincing smile. I shook my head and tapped a finger to her button nose. "Don't fake it. It's insulting."

The smiled dropped and she pressed her full lips together. "I'm fine." It wasn't an outright lie, but certainly an exaggeration.

"I know I'm something of a stranger, but you can still talk to me. I'm a good listener." We'd had a few nights to do so. Lying awake in bed with sleep eluding us. I'd told her about me and Raff. How we grew up together, side by side until grad school. I even told her how I got sick with Leukemia and my cousin saved me. I left out the part about me going wolf when Rafferty tinkered a little too close to my DNA and how we couldn't get me back to two legs. I left that out because I didn't think Rafferty would be pleased if I shared the very information the Kin was seeking to someone we'd only met on Monday. I didn't think Cassie would spill it, but it spared her nonetheless. Plausible deniability.

I knew she did the same. Because she never told me about her formative years, revealing only the entertaining ones about her and her best friend taking Greece, Rome, Africa, pretty much everywhere, by storm. It fascinated me all the same. History and culture combined with mayhem; I was jealous.

I'd heard stories in my travels in the Amazon. I was there to save the rain forest and the ozone and I ended up with enough supernatural gossip to write a textbook or two. That was, if the world of the written word wasn't run by humans who didn't know the difference between a manatee and a mermaid. Here's a hint, stay away from the water if it sings to you. I loved learning all the shit the world had to offer from the loose lipped in South America as much as I did from Cassie. Cultural differences to species histories they were all interesting –the human wars were kinda boring, but the feuds between the Evati and the Koskavik werewolves, and the fabled wars between the Auphe and the peris were surprisingly entertaining. And among them were tales of the Harbinger.

I first heard about the Harbinger's mythology in Venezuela. I turned a near tussle between my traveling companions and some local werewolves into drinks at the local 'bar' with a few surviving Evati. The old chaps could talk and I wished I hadn't drunk so much so I might remember more of it. I did remember the Harbinger though, since they told it like it was a warning or a legend to frighten their pups with. A creature with black claws, blood red eyes and wings spanning twenty feet wide. She was like a Valkyrie of the less accurate Norse lore. She came down upon them like a plague, murdering their blood and kin without reserve or reason.

Unfortunately, the Ina peri clan in the Guyana had a similar tale of a peri hatchling born Auphe that turned the moon red with the blood of the great Brakques army. And then there was Cassie: a half Auphe, half peri that had a contagious laugh and a knack for getting Hunter and Chase to pass out after story time. But I couldn't deny the suspicion. That I was standing before one of the most feared creatures, aside from the Auphe themselves. I never asked and she never mentioned. Every time I touched on something deeper than fleeting moments of fun and fancy of her life she steeled over. The only utterly personal thing I got out of her was when I asked her what her biggest regret was. Her answer? Leaving the love of her life. Tired and cliché, but when she said it I knew she genuinely meant it. Of all the death and destruction she might have faced, all she wished to change was losing love. Yeah, she was a stone cold killer all right...

Cassie literally took that long to respond to my comment. I stood silent beside her in the chilled morning air, thinking about all the funny stories we'd shared last night and the night before while she mulled over telling me something more significant, then. "Thanks, Catch, but I'm fine."

"Liar," I countered. "And 'Catch'?" She wrinkled her nose and ducked her head a little in apology. I just chuckled. "No, it's fine, just wasn't aware we were at the nickname stage. Does that me I can call you Cas?"

"No," she answered quickly and with enough force that I knew the reason was more than her just disliking it.

"How about cherub?" Seemed to fit; part 'angel descendant', round faced and cute as a button. Hardly the image painted from my storytelling travels.

"Just call me Cassie. That's a nickname anyway."

"What's your real name then?"

"Castiella."

I tilted my head. The Ina clan's stories weaved through my head. I remembered theirs in greater detail since alcohol didn't play as large a part. "As in Castiella of the Cheris clan?"

Her mahogany eyes widened just the slightest bit as a tell and then averted briefly. "No, just Castiella. I have no clan." By the Cheris clan's definition, I was sure. Peris were a proud race and pretty much the supernatural party poopers. They liked things orderly and just. The friends I made in the Ina clan constantly tried to force their views on sex and sins (or the severe lacking there of) down my throat. And Lord, I could only imagine what Robin Goodfellow and his peri boyfriend had to put up with regarding those moralistic differences.

"Right, my mistake." I let it go, for now. Whatever she had done in the past I had to assume had merit or at least some justification, survival most likely. The Ina clan didn't speak of Castiella, Harbinger, of the Cheris clan with pride. She was several steps lower than a flea on an Untouchable to them, considering she had slaughtered three clans by herself. To me, that just meant the Kin were in for a damn good smack down if they managed to find Rafferty out here. And hell, she had nothing to be ashamed of; who didn't do some crazy shit in the past? Being part Auphe, being touched by them, it was no wonder she had a moment or two of crazy. "Just let me know. You know, when you're ready to stop being so dramatic about being the Harbinger."

Cassie looked over at me. I laid the sarcasm on real thick so there was no way she would think me serious, especially since I was grinning at her. She let of a small laugh that was more a sigh and leaned her weight on her folded arms over the railing. "What gave me away?"

"The fact that I know some peri in the Ina Clan and the fact that I doubt there are many Auphe/peris out there."

"No others as far as I know," Cassie agreed. "I don't mean to be cryptic. There's just a lot of things...I just don't want to relive. Slaughtering three peri clans on nothing more than a whim and the convoluted notion that the Auphe were my family and I should obey them is one of those things."

I startled at that. So the Ina weren't lying. It really wasn't merited or justified. She was just misled by the first evil of the universe, which was still a fair reason. I touched my hand to her crown in comfort and knocked the bridge of my nose to her temple. "Noted, but again, if you want to talk..."

"I get it," Cassie giggled, nudging me back and turning from the railing. "IfI want to talk. I'll coming running right to you."

She slipped into our room and was already in the bathroom by the time I got my legs to follow to the threshold of the balcony. The Harbinger, Raff saved the Harbinger. That is one life debt that I was so goddamn pleased to have. Not that I was the manipulative type, but shit, she decimated the Evati she could easily send the Kin scattering and pissing themselves in fear.

I didn't tell Rafferty, figured it would come to light when needed, if ever needed. Though I did give him a lascivious grin when he slid open the balcony door next to mine and walked out of his room. He scowled at me in his usual asinine way, proving that -as he had said- getting laid didn't change his ass-holiness at all. That didn't stop me from teasing. "Morning, cuz. Good night?"

"Keep it up and I'll make you watch the kids today."

That didn't help his case at all. I chuckled and winked at Mia as she stood in the balcony threshold in nothing but Raff's tee shirt, then I ducked into my room before my cousin could make a swipe at me. He was true to his threat, shoving Hunter and Chase on me while he and Mia went out on errands. Lovett and Meele abandoned me for grocery shopping, but at least Cassie stayed close by. I was better for it, since she was pretty good with them. We made sandcastles on the beach, then destroyed them. We had lunch that consisted of mac and cheese and grapes; there was a reason they went out for groceries. And I watched a little television while the boys (and Cassie) napped.

By evening, I was cooking dinner on the grill at the top terrace; despite the fact that I'd eat almost anything my cooking didn't follow the same lines. I was excellent from what our new pack told me; glad to know I hadn't lost my culinary expertise after so many years stuck in paws. Today was barbecue ribs and grilled vegetables. Only I marinated the ribs in my special curry pineapple sauce, which reeled in the pack to the grill nostrils flaring and salivating.

I grinned wide when I saw Mia and Rafferty coming through the sliding glass door without the children in tow. Craning my neck, I could see they were down at the beach again, this time dodging and weaving Melee in play as Cassie stood by near the surf. It was a nice picture, because leaving her with the kids, even with me around, meant Mia really trusted Cassie and Rafferty trusted her too. Just to trust her enough to leave any of us alone with her was amazing and then with the pups...

I was glad. I liked her. She had a calm tranquility about her with a snarky, no hold barred wit, and a dash of unabashed flirtation sprinkled in. Her gaze flickered up to me, obviously feeling my stare and I waved for her and the rest of the gang to head up.

"Don't get too attached, we're not keeping her," Rafferty teased in his gruff way as he sidled up beside me to sniff the food experimentally. "You're overcooking it."

"I am not," I argued and elbowed him away from the grill, snapping the thongs in his face. "I am a master of the grill; ask any of the fraternity boys from college. If you remember correctly my barbecue parties were infamous." Rafferty retreated to one of the Adirondack chairs that were place sporadically around every level of the beach house terraces. We'd shoved together all the mini tables and lined them with the benches we found down by the pool. Lovett was already at his seat, munching on potato chips; even for a wolf the guy had the metabolism of a cheetah on speed.

"What do you mean we aren't keeping her?" I asked warily. I knew it was a joke, but Raff normally didn't say something just to speak, he had a reason. Always.

"She's not going to stick around after she's healed. She has something pulling at her. Something she needs to do," Rafferty explained. "Or something like that." They were such mystic and clichéd words, but he said them with a flat tone and his hands interlocked casually over his stomach, which somehow made it more believable. And clairvoyance wasn't in his extensive list of abilities, so he had to have gotten that from sheer observation.

I flipped one set of ribs, mulling this over. I was always the more the merrier type. If someone added something to the group, anything, I wanted them around. Plus she was funny, smart, and darn cute...and yeah, so I was still rutting like a buck in spring after being figuratively neutered by my cousin's constant vigil over me and my four-legged condition over the past half a decade. I also seemed to like the dangerous ones, the wild cards. The ones were you didn't know if they were going to eat you alive in bed or attempt to in a more literal fashion. And Cassie was an enigma. A half peri, half Auphe was a hard thing to come by.

I glanced up when she hobbled up the porch steps to the top level balcony holding Hunter's hand as he courteously helped her up the stairs. Or tried to at least.

"Hey, Cassie!" I called. "May not be a cheese steak, but I have some ribs with your name on them."

Chase, aptly named, bolted up the stairs between his brother and new friend and Cassie didn't even flinch. She was already used to the pups' off the wall antics. Chase circled at the landing with his tail wagging, waiting for her follow. Their father had been Kin and bred with lower bloods, which meant strange deformities like Melee's legs and vocal cords. These two had the cutest mutations known to man. Their ears were pointed and fuzzy to either side of their head, human placement with human cartilage but the fuzz was all wolf. They both had tails, stubby things by comparison to a wolf tail, but still like adorable puffs of a rabbit tail. They're eyes were the amber of a wolf, ringed with black around them. Mia was 'too human' by her packs standards even if she could transform from human to wolf without anything to give away she was one or the other. Kinda like me and Raff. We were both a little on the scruffy side, but other than that we could pass for human with ease. And that was the problem; we acted more like humans than we did wolves.

"Thanks, Catch," Cassie said and limped up beside me. I couldn't stop my eyes from roving. She'd been borrowing Melee's sundresses and cinching them with belts, since the young wolf was a little healthier than Cassie's toothpick frame. She still looked good with her long hair, which encompassed nearly every shade of autumn save for the greens, in a side braid trailing over one breast. She just needed to run and eat with us for a few months and we would have her nice and toned. I knew running from the Auphe didn't provide good eating habits. "Need help?"

I shook my head, both in reply and to shake off the distraction my hormones led me down.

"Catcher," Lovett whined, head propped up with one hand and brown eyes hooded in irritation. "I'm dying here. Is it almost ready?" I jumped and quickly started pulling the ribs off the grill before I really did overcook them.

The table was a clatter of noise when we started digging in. Chase and Hunter regaling Cassie with their adventure with the sand crabs last night in great detail, while Mia and Rafferty discussed other matters softly down near Lovett. I tried to split my attention between the two, but eventually because bored with the pups and tuned in to my cousin's conversation.

"It seems to be secluded enough to remain. The house is certainly large enough," Mia was saying. I gathered they were talking about our current situation. I knew the rental was up on Saturday and we were running low on funds. We certainly had enough to continue for another few weeks, but soon a few of us would have to venture out for jobs. I liked the beach house well enough, but missed Yellowstone and its vast forests greatly.

"I don't think Catcher and I should stay in one location too long, but I certainly won't fault you and the others—" Raff stopped mid-sentence when Mia threw a potato chip at him, hitting him in the chest. It was a tired phrase, we all knew. Rafferty constantly implying that he and I should go on without the rest of the pack. He did it because he feared for their safety, but they were bonded to him now whether he liked it or not. I tried to contain my smirk, but knew it was poorly hidden.

"I vote for a road trip," I claimed. "Drive until we run out of gas and shack up in some motel fit for a slasher movie."

"You would," Lovett snorted, "but I do agree on the leaving part. These puny woodland areas have me itching for a real forest. We should go to Virginia."

"What do you think, Cassie?" I asked, startling her. The pups had finally ceased talking now that they were shoveling food into their mouths, so I knew she was at least half aware of our conversation. She straightened her back, looking between Rafferty and I like a scared doe.

"Well," she paused and put down her ribs. I was glad to see she was eating her hardy share. "I thank you all of everything, but..."

I frowned as she trailed off. "Wow, that sounded like goodbye."

"I don't mean to be ungrateful," she cast her eyes on Rafferty, wiping her hands on a napkin idly. "You saved my life, but the dangers of my life are not your burden. The Auphe were after me for a reason. I had something they wanted. So I sent it away, somewhere safe. I thought I was dying, I was...but I have to go get it back, before they find it."

The little picnic lulled to silence and all eyes were fixed on her. Cassie pushed her plate back and stood from the table with her head hung. "I'm sorry, I know that isn't an adequate explanation, but...excuse me."

"Cassie," I called, rising.

"Catcher," Rafferty admonished, forcing me to pause unconsciously. I watched her descend the stairs toward the lower porches, glaring at my cousin once she was out of sight. "Leave her be."

"Why?" I snapped. "What do you know? What do you know that you aren't saying? The poor thing is lost and alone, I don't want her to feel that way when she doesn't have to."

"She has a child," Rafferty answered with unpracticed calm. Okay, so that brought me to sit back down, rather hard too. "I noticed when healing her. I thought she might have lost it, but now I believe that child is the 'it' she needs to find. And I'm not going to stop her. The things the Auphe would do to that child if they got to it before she did...I wouldn't want to witness that for the life of me."

She asked if she was alone. When she first woke up, she asked me if she was alone and I'd thought she meant the Auphe. Maybe she did, because there was some relief when I said they weren't there, but she probably asked in hope that her child had managed to disappear as well. I knew Rafferty was implying, again, that my interest in her was moot, but where was the father...was the father even human? And how the hell did she even manage to have a kid when a peri/Auphe mix shouldn't really have the biological capability? I studied biology in college, it was my freakin' masters and I studied biology of humans, common animals, and the various 'other' column of species. I knewthe reproductive difficulties there, even if I didn't know the Auphes' means of reproducing very clearly. There weren't many texts covering evil incarnate in detail.

I ignored my cousin, and left my seat. Someone else could clean up. I was attracted to her, sure, maybe only because she was exciting and new, but I wasn't following her because of that. I was following her because no one should be alone in the lost of a child. Either by death or any cause. Her bouts of daydreaming silence, suddenly made a lot more sense. Not to mention if she was facing the Auphe for as long as I saw in her eyes, then she was so used to being alone that insanity probably wasn't too far a neighbor and there was no way I was letting another half Auphe take that exit when they were on the right road already.

Rafferty and I grew up in a family setting as few of our friends did. Loving parents, loving uncles and aunts. Warm holiday meals and annual hunting trips; not the human kind with bags of deer piss and camouflage, but a bonding experience none the less. It was an environment that made me pity those who didn't have it, made me grateful I did, and made me want to share the experience anyway I could. Live with abandon, love as much as physically possible and more. It was hard for those who had to constantly gaze over their shoulder in fear to understand this concept and even more difficult for them to embrace it, even a fraction of it.

I found Cassie on the beach. Not too far down from the beach house, sitting in the sand so close to the water that it lapped at her feet. I flopped down beside her and leaned back on my arms. She didn't move away, but didn't really glance toward me either. So I let the waves talk to us for a little while, appreciating both the scenery of the sailboat skimming a mile out as well as the two bikini-clad girls attempting to boogie board.

"You haven't gotten laid in a while, have you?" Cassie asked, breaking the silence.

I smirked at the brazen comment. "You offering?" Cassie laughed, but I could see a little blush forming on her cheeks, either that or the sun was getting to her pale skin. "Come on," I motioned to the human girls. "You can't blame me. It's both arousing and entertaining."

On cue one of the girls fell off her board face first in the water, as an added bonus she nearly lost her top. Cassie shook her head, smiling, but didn't comment. I nudged her shoulder. "So back to the 'you offering' question."

"No, I'm not offering," she replied. It was a warm tone and she still grinned, but it was her final answer, I could tell that much. I sighed, well, it would have been fun as hell, but I wasn't going to press my luck with a creature that could literally disembowel me before I could give her a wink.

"I like kids, you know," I teased. Just because I accepted that we weren't going to be sharing a bed that night didn't mean I was going to stop having my fun. "I've been told I would make an excellent step-dad."

Cassie eyed me, that sultry little upturn of her mouth increasing just slightly. "Rafferty told you?" I nodded. She didn't question how he knew. I assumed it was because he'd been healing her for the last few days. One can learn a lot about a person from their insides, including when a womb had recently been stretched to carry another life. "Dante," she told me. "His name is Dante. And he's really a sweet thing. A little destructive, but who could blame him, considering his lineage. I had this toy for him. One of those boxes with cut outs. You know, star for a star block, circle for a circle?"

I nodded again, letting her talk. She had on this darling wistful smile that made my heart ache. It was beautiful and tragic, as was her scent. "Now, all the blocks were already chewed up from his teething, but when he started walking –his first steps actually– he just destroyed that box. Smashed it to pieces with his feet." Cassie laughed softly. "I'd been so happy to see him walking I didn't even have the heart to stop him when he picked up the blocks and chucked them in the toilet. How could I scold him? He was walking. And walking leads to running and he'll need to run."

I watched her eyes darken from light-hearted whimsy to remorse. Her voice did the same, deepening with tears that were forming in her throat. "I didn't know what to do. I'd been fighting to keep him from them for so long...I knew if I died they would..." She closed her eyes and bowed her head to her arms folded over her knees. "I sent him to his father. It was the only place I thought he might still be protected. I hope he made it…I gated through the claim."

I ran my hand over her back to comfort. I was relieved to hear that she senther son to the father. It meant the child wasn't conceived by the Auphe. I knew Castiella of the Cheris clan was conceived through rape, so I wouldn't put it past the malignant monsters to try the same on her. "I'm sure he's safe, Cassie. I'm sure what ever happened between you and his father, that man will protect his son by any means necessary."

"He didn't even know I was pregnant." Cassie finally looked over at me after her emotional confession; her eyes were wet. "He doesn't know Dante's his son."

I pressed my lips together. The wind shifted, pressing to our backs so I caught his scent before I noticed he was approaching. Cassie didn't even react to the shadow he cast over us. My cousin, ever the stoic voyeur. He didn't say anything, just walked in front of us with his feet in the water and his hands in the pockets of his shorts. Close enough to listen, but avoiding interrupting. I turned my attention back to Cassie. "You never told him?"

"I didn't even know until I was six months along in Tumulus. I should have known, but it wasn't supposed to be possible. Then I was running, because it was the Auphe that told me. They knew before I did. And then I had him and they were alwaysthere. It took everything to keep us a step ahead."

"I wasn't scolding you, Cassie," I assured her, tugging at the loose piece of blond hair near her nape. "I can only imagine what you've been through, no...I can't even claim that. But, listen, Dante's probably fine. I'm sure his father will protect him valiantly. Even if he doesn't know Dante's his son, he can't be the type to abandon a child –I just can't see you putting up with that."

"I know he'll protect him, that isn't," she closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm just a little nervous about seeing him again. In his eyes, I left him, I lied to him, and I abandoned my son. I don't blame him for hating me." She pressed her toes into the wet sand, the little bit of foam from the water, sticking to the tops of her feet and proving that as pale as she was she could be paler. "I knew I was alone in this."

"Not anymore," I told her. I caught her eyes and held them. "We are a pack of outcasts and lost pups, we have room in the car for a crazy halfbreed."

The fact that Rafferty wasn't stopping me –wasn't glancing back in warning, or glaring, or clearing his throat, or smacking me upside the head– meant that he agreed. Or at least he was letting me do what I wanted. "We're leaving anyway. Let us take you where you need to go. I'll walk right up to him with you and if he's an asshole I'll break his arm with my teeth."

Cassie snickered, a faint sound. "I can't ask you to do that. The Kin are much too centralized in New York City. It's a risk for you and your cousin." So she finally deduced it was Rafferty and I on the run from the Kin and not the whole pack. Or maybe she just never said anything until now.

"Then we'll drop you off," Rafferty chimed in. He looked over his shoulder, all arched back and regal looking despite the overgrown ginger scruff on his jaw. "There are some friends in New York we've been meaning to visit anyway."

I grinned and nudged my shoulder to Cassie's again, prospective excitement bubbling at just the thought of introducing her to Niko and Cal. And that half Auphe brat thought he was so special. "Oh man, the Leandros brothers are going to be floored meeting you."

Her smile dropped. "I'm sorry, what?"

I rewound my statement in my head at her breathy exclamation, but could only figure she was insulted by the implication that I was showing off her linage in a derogatory way. "I didn't mean—"

"Holy shit," she said rather forcefully and stood up. She lost balance in the sand a little, catching my extended hand to steady herself as she kept on with a flabbergasted laugh. "I can't believe it." She looked to Rafferty, back down the me, then up to my cousin again. "I never believed in fate, until this moment."

I pushed up onto my feet, making sure to keep hold of her arm to assure she wouldn't fall due to either her leg or shock. "What's going on, Cassie?"

"Caliban," she said to me. "Caliban is the father of my son."

I stared, my turn to be shocked. Rafferty let off a short snort and shook his head, muttering something about 'should've guessed'. Well, I didn't guess. I wouldn't in a million years guess. "Caliban...is the father." She nodded, a little more meekly this time. "Why does he always get the hot ones?"

She blinked in confusion, having no way of knowing that I'd been after Cal's previous fuck buddy while we were on the road trip from hell. What could I say? White wolf, adorable angel; Cal had good tastes. Something seemed to click in Cassie's head and she gave me a pitying sneer. "Oh, Catcher, no. Delilah?" she asked with disdain.

Somehow I wasn't surprised she knew the Kin female. I shrugged. "I have a thing for white fur and you have to admit she's hot."

Cassie rolled her eyes. "And a homicidal bitch."

"Apparently that's my type."

Full mouth parting in insult, Cassie smacked my arm in good humor. "Asshole."

I slung my arm around her shoulders, partially to help her through the sand on her bad leg and also because she smelled fucking good. Barely a trace of Auphe; I really liked that that nature-laden floral smell most peris had. "Come on, you can help us pack up." Because I knew Rafferty would have us leaving tomorrow. He'd made up his mind. We were helping Cassie. And the fact that our little Cal was her baby daddy cinched it. Damn, when the Leandros brothers got into trouble, they really fucked things up.

"So Caliban's a dad..."

"I know, scary right? Thank God Niko's there."

I laughed, but honestly it was true. And I was glad I didn't lie to her. Her son would be safe. No doubt in my mind about that now. "So…how exactly are you even able to have kids?"