Page 72 of Monstrous Baby
“Everything’s okay.” She cupped my cheek, her palm over my auriculares. “No one’s hurt. We just need to clean up some glass.”
“Glass?”I tried to say but it came out like another croak.
From somewhere underneath my remiges, Kroktl laughed. “While a pteron’s mating call is low frequency, you blasted out enough intensity to shatter every window in the house.”
“I suppose it’s a good thing we’re moving anyway,” Axxol grumbled. “Fucking glass everywhere.”
I never thought I’d see our high and mighty alpha pushing a broom.
Laughing—which sounded more like caws in this form—I carefully lifted my wings, shaking glass off onto the floor and not the bed. Then I folded them out of the way so Kroktl could sit up, spitting a feather out of his mouth.
Which only made me laugh harder.
Natalie leaned against me, curling up against my chest. Beaming, she lifted her arm up so I could see my mark.
My laughter cut off into shaken awe. I’d marked the full length of her forearm, top and bottom, with double rows of iridescent emerald triangles.
“I want to see my mark on you.”
Immediately, feathers melted, the pteron sinking beneath my skin once more. Lightly, she traced a trembling finger over the matching emerald half-moons in my forearm. At her touch,my eyes rolled back in my head. Spasms rocked my body, and I sank back down to the mattress.
This time with her on top of me.
Laughing, she leaned down over me. Her hair tumbled down onto my chest. Her eyes bright with a million stars. “Now I have you right where I want you.”
“I love you,” I whispered.
She kissed the triangular part of my beak and then my lips. “I know.”
31
NATALIE
In less than twenty-four hours, the squad managed to move all our most crucial necessities to the new house overlooking Lake Atitlán. Our food stores—though of course they’d already arranged for food service from a nearby village—some of my favorite clothes, and most important of all, our huge bed.
I was a little nervous about living on an actual volcano with two more so close, but the views from every window in the sprawling ranch-style house were incredible. I couldn’t wait to explore some of the archeological sites in the area, and I planned to re-read my tattered, beloved copy ofPopol Vuhthat had somehow managed to survive without any further damage in my backpack despite how many times I’d lost it in the jungle.
The vegetation in the Sierra Madre highlands wasn’t as tropical but still lush and wild, at least to me. Coffee and avocado trees lined the lower slopes of the volcanoes, thriving on the rich acidic soil. At our elevation, tall pine and oak mixed with ferns and other bushes I couldn’t identify. If I ever got tired of looking at the lake—never—I could always step into the backyard for stunning views of the taller Volcán Atitlán.
Bonus, behind the house we had a rocky crevice that made for a tempting natural hot tub. The previous owners had chiseled and shaped some of the flatter rocks into built-in seats in the steamy water. Orchids spouted all around the pool with lush ferns and vines dangling like curtains into the water. My only complaint was the pool wasn’t big enough for all of us to enjoy at the same time. Lucky for me, Kroktl and Akylla had gone out to explore the new territory. Rizan circled overhead, mapping out any human activity. Lohr and Snryx were inside arguing over which cabinets to use for each type of food.
Leaving Axxol to play guard duty while I soaked.
Arms crossed, he glowered at me. He wasn’t mad. Grumpy asshole was his default personality.
“I heard that,” he growled.
One corner of my lips quirked but I didn’t acknowledge him. Eyes closed, head tipped back, I pretended to be asleep. Though shutting down my external senses made my internal changes more obvious. The squad’s red glow brightened on our private grid, lightning fast and responsive to my slightest query.
I could still see the glittering expanse of other networks like a clear, midnight sky filled with stars. Only instead of scattered and dim purple fragments sprinkled across the universe, an ultraviolet black hole spun around my squad’s grid.
Before we left the old house, I’d pulled all the surviving mrion fragments together so nothing had been left behind. Even trillions of cells compressed down to something I could hold in the palm of my hand. After brainstorming with the guys, we’d decided to contain the mrions in a decorative wooden box along with the Sirian crystal.
I wasn’t sure what we were going to do with it, either, but it was evidently worth more than all of Earth’s combined natural resources.
Holly sparked on my internal universe now like an amethyst chip against black velvet. Without opening my eyes, I could point directly toward her location on the other side of the house, further down the winding driveway that led to the village at the base of the volcano.
Over coffee before we jumped to the new location, she admitted being disappointed that the magic hadn’t happened for her yet. As if within minutes of contamination, she expected her very own dyni squad to pop out of the jungle.
