Page 17 of Spectacle

I stand up quickly and feel myself blush. Of course I smell like sex and debauchery. Thank goodness the children don’t know what that is yet. “Ah, yup, okay, and someone grab some blankets to sit on as well please,” I call over my shoulder as I hurry toward our shared bathroom. I stop in my closet to grab some clothes and strip off my dress, which I throw in the laundry basket. I prefer not to lose clothes when I shift.

The claws on my toes clack on the bathroom floor as I look from the shower to the bath. I know it would be quicker to shower, but I really feel like floating around in the tub, so I change back to OG Lila and put my clothes and towel on a nearby bench before stepping down into the tub. This bath is one of the best things about my suite. It’s large enough to fit all of my mates if we wanted to. I duck down, allowing the water to wash over me.

Unlike the small pool we now have in the suite for my aquatic family members, this one is not deep. I can stand, and the water is chest level. It’s also hot, unlike the other pool. Bathing products sit on a little shelf at the side, including salts, oils, bath bombs, and bubble bath choice which have multiplied since the children enjoy them so much, as well as various body and hair products. The bath is self-cleaning, much like a swimming pool but without the chlorine. As far as I’m concerned, it’s magic. I don’t need to know how it works, just that it does. The water will filter out when I’m done, get scrubbed of the dirt, and then refill automatically. It only takes a few moments, and it’s amazing.

I decide to test out my abilities while I’m underwater, just to make sure teleporting in cat form wasn’t a fluke. I picture my mer form and the gills that appear in my neck. I focus on that and let the magic of the mimic activate. Lashes of pain tear through my neck, but as soon as the pain stops, I take a deep breath of air, and instead of choking on water, I can breathe normally. Holy crap. I just confirmed what we suspected—I can partially shift and use other forms’ powers without needing to be in that form. I situate myself on the bottom of the pool and close my eyes, pondering this discovery. Oshan had informed me that I shouldn’t attempt it because I could get stuck or splice myself, but that was as easy as breathing apart from the slash of pain. It’s a small discomfort in the grand scheme of things, and it felt like it took a lot less power than to change forms. It could come in handy when I’m down on the old sexual juices. I wrinkle my nose. Okay, maybe I won’t use that turn of phrase, but when power is limited, then a partial shift works. I’ll have to do some more experimentation, but I might keep this to myself for now. I don’t want to stress my mates out if I don’t have to.

I spend a good ten minutes at the bottom of the pool, just letting the quiet wash over me. Silence will be in short supply for the immediate future, so I need to take it where I can get it. That’s why Echo and Maxsim have that little cave in the lightning cat quarters. It’s somewhere to escape to if they need a moment. I fully support that, and I need to come up with something for the others. Caspian and Nikos have the pool, but with five out of our seven children having water shifting capabilities, that’s just not going to be the escape they think it is. With the other two being able to cope with the frigid temperature in the lightning cat quarters, it won’t be long until that is out as well. I’m going to ask for a small suite on the other levels with a few rooms, just so that my mates have someplace to go in the future. Even Link’s library was moved to our newly renovated suite, so he no longer has that to escape to. As soundproof as the rooms are, it doesn’t stop the children from barging in, and he loves to encourage their love of books. I’ve found the four of them in there a few times, reading fairy tales and snuggling by the fire.

I push off the bottom of the tub and stand up, letting the gills recede, then I quickly wash my body and hair, feeling rejuvenated and ready for our picnic. I hope we have some balls or a frisbee or something we can throw around as well. I also hope the orchard has some fruit hanging on the trees. It would be fun to teach the kids to pick them. Even if they are not tall enough to reach the branches, I’m sure the daddies will help.

Using the steps, I exit the bath, dry myself, and get dressed, ready to take a break from our worries to spend some quality time with our family.

CHAPTER TEN

Link

While the rest of the family gets ready for our day out, I make my way to the med bay. I want to ask Zeydan to come with us, since it’s time to get to know him better, and I want to encourage the grandpas to either rest or join us too. They are looking more and more broken the longer Liliana stays unconscious. It was different before, because they weren’t sure if she was still alive, so they had gotten on with their lives as much as they could in the aftermath of her disappearance and their son and his wife’s deaths. Now, though, knowing she’s alive and was tortured repeatedly, it’s weighing them down. If she doesn’t wake up from the coma she’s in, I’m not sure the three of them will survive it. They will probably lose the will to live and pass over so they can be with her.

I’m pretty sure that would destroy Lila. Physically, we could keep her alive, but she has such a big heart, it would break if she lost her grandpas, and I’m not sure anything could fill that void. Sure, Xavier’s and Cas’s parents love her, and Tirrian’s parents will as well. My mother will see her as a commodity to exploit, so I plan to keep her far away from them. Saxon’s parents were killed in battle many years ago, but his aunt, the queen, will dote on her, as will his female cousins. Actually, scratch that, we may need to keep them far away from Lila too. They are known for being mischievous, and I don’t want them leading her astray. Echo’s and Maxsim’s families conspired to force a mating, so they are very happy having Lila as their daughter-in-law. Nikos’s dad is a non-issue, but I’m not so sure about his mom. She’s supposed to be benevolent, but there’s only so much tyranny a person can be subjected to before they turn cold and bitter. Her position as Queen of Aquilia bears watching, and I don’t really want Lila to have anything to do with her until she proves what kind of ruler she is going to be.

I know nothing about Ghosie’s or Brannock’s backgrounds, and Silac’s parents are a wildcard too. He’s going to renege on the arranged marriage, which is going to cause some issues, but Lila will be responsible for rescuing them from the basilisks, and she can also assure the naga line will continue, so we will have to wait and see what happens there as well. In all, there’s no shortage of family, but it’s not the same as your own blood.

When I get to the med bay, Zeydan is there with his seat pulled up on one side of Liliana’s bed, and John is on the other side. He still hasn’t completely recovered from his ordeal, but there’s a strength in the set of his shoulders that wasn’t there before. Maybe I was wrong, and they will get through the loss of their wife if the worst were to happen.

“Good morning,” I call to them as I step up to the monitors to see if anything changed overnight. My alarms didn’t alert me to anything major, but I purse my lips and hold back my exclamation of surprise. Her brain activity has increased, almost doubled overnight. I release a rush of breath as relief washes over me. This is a good sign. It means she is healing. It’s not enough for her to wake up anytime soon, but it’s a step in the right direction.

I move over to her and pick up my light pen, opening first one eye and looking for pupil reactivity, and then the second, pleased at what I’m seeing. When Lila first healed her body, I had done the same test and had no reaction. I worried that she was brain dead, but before I left last night, I did the same test again, and there was a slight reaction, which gave me hope. Today’s reaction is even more significant.

I move to the base of her bed and do a reflex test, running a tool over the soles of her feet, and unlike before when there was no reaction, there is a very visible flinch this time. Both Zeydan and John stand up and look between me and the woman they both love. I’m hoping that Zeydan’s love is platonic and that of a sibling, because killing a god won’t be easy.

“Link?” John sounds hopeful, but he is holding himself back.

I return the tool and penlight to the tray on the cart nearby, and then I turn back to face them. “I’ll be honest, when Lila first healed her, I really didn’t have much hope that Liliana was going to come back to us at all, let alone in one piece.” John’s mouth falls open in surprise, but Zeydan just nods like he knew all along. I guess he may have. He is a god, so I’m sure he can read minds. “But I am now very hopeful she will wake up. Whether her mind is intact when she does will be anyone’s guess. You need to be prepared that she may not be the same person she was before she went missing. Her mind may have fractured, and she may not know you, remember what happened, or even be able to communicate.”

Tears well in John’s eyes, but he nods. “Yes, my brothers and I have discussed the possibility, but it doesn’t matter. She is our wife, and we will care for her in whatever capacity she needs.”

“I sense she is still in there,” Zeydan announces calmly, picking up Liliana’s hand and closing his eyes. A green glow encompasses him and Liliana, and both John and I wait for him to finish whatever he is doing. I doubt it’s hurting her, since he has had plenty of opportunities to try in the past. It’s a tense few moments, but the glow fades away and he opens his eyes and nods.

“She is still in there. I can hear her. She is fighting to return to us. I tried to help her by giving her something to focus on and move toward. Hopefully it will be enough, but it’s something she has to do on her own. It seems like her mind retreated to protect her from the torture, but it built such impenetrable walls, she’s having trouble tearing them down.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” John doesn’t sound mad, just curious.

“I got no response earlier, and like the doctor, I did not want you to lose hope.” Zeydan delivers the news without emotion. I hope that’s not what he’s going to be like with Lila, because that is not going to fly. Saxon told me he had been alone for a long time, since the goddesses of life and death disappeared. The four elemental gods went their own ways. Hopefully we can coax this unemotional man out of his shell. Spending time with the family will help.

“But you feel differently now?” John pushes.

“Yes. For the first time since she went missing, I believe I will be able to talk to my sister and find out why.”

“But not blood sister, right?” John picks up Liliana’s hand and gently strokes a finger over the back of it. “Because I heard that you believe our granddaughter is your mate, and I know gods probably have a different concept of incest, as do one or two other species, but Skarrians frown on that sort of thing…” He trails off, but I can see he’s waiting for a response.

Zeydan’s mouth kicks up on one side. “There is no blood tying Lilessa and me together. We weren’t born so much as willed into existence. Lila is not going to be mating with a blood relative if she and I seal our mating bond.”

“How do you do that?” I ask, not wanting to miss the opportunity to gather more knowledge so Lila can be properly informed.

“She and I will complete the bond while I am in my godly form,” Zeydan replies, and I arch an eyebrow.

“And what form would that be?” I ask him, and before my very eyes, he grows taller and wider, and his face elongates, shifting to a fox-like countenance with his body remaining mostly the same. He looks very much like an Egyptian god from Earth’s history. I wonder if they ever messed around on Earth in the past.

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