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"Of course We want to raise this little guy But can you iine how hard it’ll be for Wraith to co up without hi questions? What do we tell him? That his father didn’t want hi fair to Wraith," Gem said quietly, and Tay and Runa stared like she’d just declared that Sheoul, with its dark, icy outer caverns and its molten lava core, was a primo vacation spot "Come on We don’t kno he’ll react He’s always been unpredictable"

"Yes, and that’s what you want around children," Tay said dryly

Geive hi hard on hi, and he’s been kind to ood fatherGe?"

"Father material?" Runa leaned forward and lowered her voice "Are you and Kynan… expecting?"

Ge?" She glanced over her shoulder, half afraid he’d walked up behind her

"But you want kids someday, don’t you?" Runa asked

"Yes, but…" But what? She did want the thehtening and squeezing until she could barely breathe She’d grown up a product of torlds, belonging to both and neither, and she swore she’d never put a child through that

Heck, it was dangerous to put a child through that Some demons, like Sensors, her adoptive parents’ species, existed for the sole purpose of hunting down pregnant hu the infants Other demon species made it their mission to destroy half breeds, just for sport

Gem herself had been marked for death and would have been destroyed had her parents not been desperate for a child when it became obvious that they couldn’t conceive Tayla had been spared only because Gem’s adoptive parents hadn’t sensed demon in her and had left Tayla with their human mother

She eyed Tayla and Runa, ashae that they didn’t share her problem Their children were--and would be--purebred Se?" Tayla asked "Do you think Kynan wouldn’t want kids with you?"

"I think it’s too early to even think about" But no, she didn’t think Kynan would want kids with her It had taken hi children with one? He’d probably castrate himself before he allowed that to happen

Runa thrust Wraith’s son into Gereat you are with the as she looked down into the tiny, scrunched face of the baby snuggled against her His little fingers grabbed hers, and she felt that tug again, low in her wouys, and sure enough, Kynan crouched next to her, a glass of soda in his hand

"I brought you a drink" He set the glass on the end table "So that’s Wraith’s hellspawn, huh? He’s cute--nothing like his father"

A sing in his eyes

"He’s a really good baby," Runa said "So yeah, nothing like Wraith"

Kynan’s s about Wraith’s dire situation "Can I hold him?"

Gem handed the infant to him, and she choked up--actually choked up, when he cradled the little guy to his chest and began to rock him He was father material, pure and simple Someday he’d want them, and what then? What would happen when he realized that Geood, and it was time to face the facts

She and Kynan could never have a future together

Dinner tasted like sawdust

Kynan mostly pushed his food around his plate as Eidolon listed all the things that had gone wrong with the hospital, including the fact that the patch they’d slapped on the Haven spell eakening With the hospital running on minimal staff, E and Shade had decided that, should the Haven spell fail again, they were going to shut down

But the worst of the news had come earlier, in private, when Shade and E had told hi they hadn’t told their wives

And still the bad news kept co in the underworld," Shade said "There’s been a call to arer than just an incursion, isn’t it?"

E rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thuher than Ky had ever seen hieddon for you, Recla so great himself, and Ky had to wonder if Runa, Tayla, and Ge their "Seuy who attacked Serena is a fallen angel He’s after her char"

Kynan was sick of hearing about fallen angels "What kind of necklace?"

"Wraith didn’t say But everything happened at the same time--Serena’s appearance on the scene and the underworld havoc It’s definitely connected"

"Have you asked Reaver about hioing to strike? I need to notify the Sigil, and the R-XR, if Runa hasn’t"