Page 19 of Halfblood Deceived

Zeydan swallowed hard. Asking his third cousins for help was something he wanted to avoid. They had saved his arse once before. He owed them plenty. He wanted to prove himself capable of taking care of the gargoyle problem in this city that didn’t feel like his, but he wished it did after so many years of living a nomadic life. However, Zeydan couldn’t risk his family out of pride. They were safe in the manor, far away from the center of the city and the gargoyles’ reach. But for how long? And fuck, how had the gargoyles invaded the city so fast? Considering the surge in disappearances and deaths within the supernatural community, Zeydan calculated the stony bastards had arrived less than a year ago. And they had wreaked havoc in such a short time.

He needed to find the church the gargoyles were using as headquarters, their residences, and kill the warriors. And apparently, he couldn’t do it alone.

“I’ll call my cousin,” Zeydan promised.

Andreas let out a surreptitious sigh. “It’s for the best.”

Zeydan immediately felt guiltier. He had promised Andreas, Luce—Andreas’ 10-year-old child—and the others that he would protect them, and Hells, if that meant asking for help he would. For their sake, and Mari’s and everyone else in his household.

His stupid pride was a small price to pay.

The door opened, letting in… well, everyone but Mari.

Luce, Lex, Evan, and Gabby.

“Uncle Zeydan!” Luce cried, sprinting and jumping to hug Zeydan with enough strength to almost knock him back on the bed.

He held back a grunt of pain. “You’re getting stronger every day, little gremlin.”

“Be careful, Luce,” Andreas advised. “Uncle Zeydan is feeling sore because he’s been a fucking reckless idiot.”

Luce gasped, pulling back to meet Zeydan’s gaze with wide brown eyes. “Hadn’t we all agreed you would try to not be a fucking reckless idiot, Uncle Zeydan?” Her voice was so full of gravitas that Zeydan couldn’t help but smile along with everyone else, including Luce’s perpetually angry father.

Evan, Lex’s twin, nodded his blond head gravely. “We absolutely did, Luce. But you see, Uncle Zeydan’s fucking reckless idiot condition is incurable.”

Lex snorted. “I’ll have to agree.”

“Can you all stop calling me a fucking reckless idiot?” Zeydan asked with half-hearted indignation.

Luce carefully released Zeydan and sat beside him, hugging his arm. He tucked a lock of brown hair that had escaped her long braid behind a slightly pointed ear.

Gabby, her hand on her rounded belly, approached Zeydan and gave him a hug. “We might if you stopped being one.”

Zeydan huffed into Gabby’s shoulder, getting a lungful of her roses-vanilla-light musk scent.

She pulled back and regarded him with a critical eye. With long, curly braided hair, velvety dark skin, and blue eyes, Gabby looked more like a nymph than the fierce vampiress that she was. She had been one of the best warriors back in Ju-Long’s—Zeydan’s father’s—court. Back when they were little more than prisoners in that antiquated, brutal place.

“You had us worried, Your Grace,” Gabby said.

Zeydan groaned. “How many times have I asked you not to call me that?”

“This would be the one hundred and forty-seventh,” said Lex, her husband, amber eyes bright with amusement.

Gabby shrugged. “Old habits.” She sighed and placed a hand under her belly as she sat on the chair by Zeydan’s bed, and not for the first time, he felt commiseration for her. Vampire females’ pregnancy lasted sixteen months, and Gabby still had six more to go. He would slowly go mad if he was in her position.

“Can I get you anything, love?” Lex asked, barely resisting fussing, mostly because Gabby had threatened to kick his arse if he got too overbearing.

“Yes,” Gabby responded, rubbing her belly. “A body switch.”

Lex bit his lip not to grin. A wise, wise move. “Anything realistic?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I think I read somewhere it was possible for males to carry a baby,” Evan happily supplied, wiggling his blond eyebrows. “We just need to find a powerful fey sorceress.”

Lex went pale. “Er…”

Zeydan chuckled.

Gabby hummed. “Nah, this one’s mine. But if you ever want another, we are getting a fey sorceress.”

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