Daeton's Journey (Wiccan-Were-Bear Book 10) (7 page)

Daeton threw the bone blade to Perseus and exploded into her shift, charging the wizard, who threw lightning bolts at her as she roared and bore down on him.  She slammed into the wizard, knocking him to the ground.  Ekho leapt from Perseus’s back as Urtals came from behind the wizard and lifted their clubs to harm Daeton.  Perseus shifted into his human form and dove into the melee.

The wizard struggled under Daeton.  Lightning crackled on her fur and the scent of burning fur and flesh was heavy.  She growled angrily but didn’t ease up, covering the man with her body and keeping him down.  She snapped her mighty jaws at him, tearing his flesh with her fangs.  Bones crunched and he screamed as she broke his wrists and the lightning ceased.

Perseus rose over them and lifted the blade high into the air.  “I send you to your maker with blood and bone,” he said.  A strange but familiar power filled him, ancient and strong.  As the wizard screamed in terror, Perseus drove the blade into his heart and twisted.  The wizard jerked with a sharp cry and then went still.  Acrid, black blood poured from the wound and Daeton shuffled away, her nose wrinkling.  The smoke disappeared, seeping into the ground like a curtain falling away.

Ekho joined them, staring down at the wizard.

“He looks like Urijah,” Ekho said.

“It can’t be him, though.  We saw Daeton kill him,” Perseus said, shaking his head.

“Well, whoever the fuck he is, he’s dead now.  Let’s just make doubly sure.”  Raising the sword, Ekho swung it down swiftly and cleaved off the man’s head.  It rolled away, coming to rest against the body of an Urtal.

Perseus looked around and found his dad, brothers, and the other Centaurs finishing off the last of the Urtals and Vehsi.  Dead bodies littered the street, but he didn’t see any Centaurs among them, and was thankful.  Next to him, Daeton rubbed her muzzle against his shoulder and growled softly.  He slid his arm around her thick neck and kissed her ear.

“I know, little bear.  You’re safe, our son is safe, and the danger to our lives is gone.”

She made a sound of agreement.

Ekho said, “Should we burn the bodies in the street or cart them into the settlement?”

Rysk and Tyrant joined them, along with Cosmo and Perseus’s brothers.  “Here,” Cosmo said, coming to stand with Perseus.  He rested his hand on his shoulder and said, “I’m proud of you, son.”

Perseus smiled at his dad.  “Thank you for standing with us.”

“I will always stand by your side.”

Someone brought Perseus a pair of trousers and boots, which he donned and began to work with the others to bring all the bodies into the center of the wide cobblestone street.  Daeton used her strength to tug bodies along with the others.  She was as determined to gather the dead as the rest of them were.

When the final body had been tossed onto the pile, Cosmo drenched them with accelerant made from the sap of
reluin
trees, and touched a torch to it.  Perseus, Ekho, and Daeton stood far enough away from the blaze that they could only feel a little heat.  Rysk and Tyrant were nearby, staring intently at the fire.

“Thank you for coming,” Perseus said to the males.  “I didn’t understand why you needed to be here, but I know now that whatever brought you here, it was for this very reason.  We’re in your debt.”

Tyrant shook his head.  “We owed a debt to your family for our part in her near-death.  That we could be here, in your time of need, to help keep Daeton and her young safe – that’s our repayment to you.”

“Whatever evil orchestrated bringing Daeton into the realm in the first place, it’s been put to rest,” Rysk said.

Daeton rumbled in agreement.

Although Perseus wanted to take Daeton home and tend to her burned flesh, she was adamant about not leaving.  He and Ekho sat with her on the cobblestone street for hours as the bodies burned until there was nothing but bones, the scent of charred flesh heavy in the air.

She walked slowly around the bones that were still smoking as if she were checking for signs of life.  Then she lifted her head and bellowed, and the sound was one of triumph.  The Centaurs raised their voices, too, and Perseus, Ekho, Rysk and Tyrant added their cry of victory to hers.

Daeton lumbered to them, and Ekho said, “Time to go home and rest, honey kitten.”

Her head hung wearily as they walked back to the settlement.  Instead of going to the home they shared with his parents, she went straight to the lake and submerged herself in the dark water.  When she rose, she was in her human form, the water sluicing from her body as she wrung out her hair.

Perseus and Ekho held their hands out to her and she joined them.  Perseus kissed her and looked over her body, checking for signs of injury.  The burn wounds had mostly healed with her shift and he knew she would shift again and heal completely.

“I want to sleep for about a year,” Daeton said as he and Ekho held her between them.

“Let’s go home, then,” Ekho said.

“I wish we could go to our own home,” she said wistfully.

Perseus lifted her into his arms and she snuggled close.  “Just a couple more weeks and we’ll be ready to move in.”

“Good.  It can’t come soon enough.”

“I agree,” Ekho said.  “I love your parents, Perseus, but I’m looking forward to having a place of our own.”

“So anxious to get me all to yourselves?” Daeton said, her voice soft and teasing.

“You know it, honey kitten.”

Perseus chuckled as Daeton yawned and relaxed in his arms.  “You’re safe now, sweetheart.  You
and
our son.”

“You and Ekho are safe, too.  Thank you for trusting me to make the right choice for our future.”

Daeton was asleep before they crossed the threshold.  Perseus laid her down on the bed and Ekho climbed in next to her.  “I’m going to talk to my dad and the elders.  I’ll be back.”

“We’ll be here,” Ekho said, curling around Daeton and covering them both with a light blanket.

As he left, he thanked their lucky stars that Daeton was safe, and the threat against her was finally gone.  He’d heard the man tell Daeton that he was Urijah’s brother, so revenge must have been his motive, but it certainly hadn’t been worth his life.

After speaking to his dad and the elders about the events of the day, he watched his dad take the bone blade and swim to the center of the lake to return it to the depths.

“If we ever have need of it, we will know exactly where it is,” Barnabas said.

“Let’s hope that day never comes,” Perseus said.

Hurrying home to his mate, he stretched out next to her and closed his eyes, sending up a silent prayer of thanks to whoever – or whatever – had sent Daeton the vision that had helped them win the day.

She was his and Ekho’s forever, and the next chapter of their lives was beginning with a fresh slate.  Whatever the future held for them, he knew they would handle anything life could throw at them, because they were together.

Chapter 6

Ten Months Later

Daeton rubbed her belly and tried not to think about how much her back hurt as Elektra handed her another gift.  The baby shower, thrown by the wives in the settlement, was the day before her delivery date.  Daeton was excited and nervous.  She’d never had major surgery before, and although no one in the settlement seemed to consider the delivery of a Centaur baby through a C-section to be major surgery, Daeton
did. 
She wished, not for the first time, that her mom was there to hold her hand.  Ekho and Perseus wouldn’t let anything happen to her, or Cyrene, the herd midwife, but her nerves were out of control right now and no amount of reassurances from anyone were helping to settle them.

Daeton untied the ribbon and opened the fabric wrapping to reveal a beautiful top.  It was powder blue and made of soft yarn.  Daeton’s eyes stung with tears as she looked at her best friend, Perri.  “Thank you so much, it’s lovely.”

“It’s for tomorrow,” Perri said.  She reached over and undid one of the two ribbons that decorated the front of the knit, short-sleeved top, and pulled the panel to the side to reveal a conveniently placed slit.  “This is so you can feed your little one discreetly.”

Daeton retied the ribbon and brushed her tears away.  “Holy crap, I’m going to be a mom tomorrow.”

The wives all laughed.  All of them were mothers, and a few were pregnant again, some for the third and fourth time.  Elektra said that births in the herd happened in groups, as if the next generation wanted to be sure to be born in close proximity.

Daeton hugged Perri.  “I love it, it’s so pretty.”

Perri smiled and lifted the next gift from the pile.  Inside the fabric package was what looked like a big sock filled with beans.  Daeton smiled and looked at Desi, who had given it to her.  “It’s for your back,” Desi said.  “If you jiggle the beans back and forth a bit, they’ll heat up and it’ll soothe your aches.  It’s filled with
parli
beans.”

Daeton wiggled the sock back and forth a bit and then felt the soft surface, amazed at the heat.  She leaned forward in her seat and placed the sock on her lower back, leaning back and sighing in relief as heat spread over her aching muscles.  All the ladies laughed and Daeton smiled sheepishly.  “I love it, thank you so much.”

“I’m sorry it took so long to get it to you.  I had trouble getting enough beans for it and had to wait for a harvest.”

“Please don’t apologize, it’s an amazing gift.  All the gifts are,” Daeton said.

As the party continued, Daeton opened the remainder of her presents.  Everything from toys to outfits to blankets for the nest. Baby Centaurs slept in something called a nest, a circular bed with raised sides.  It was made of woven branches and rested on the floor in their bedroom.  Thick layers of blankets made the entire nest comfortable for the baby who, because of his horse body, couldn’t lay in a traditional cradle.  Centaurs grew quickly in the first few weeks of life.  Within a day, he would be able to hold his head up on his own.  Within a week he’d be walking.  He would be in his half-shifted form until age two, when he’d be able to shift into his human form.

As the party waned, Daeton’s bear grew restless.  It was the night of the full moon and she hadn’t been able to shift in several months.  She missed communing with nature, traipsing through the woods with her mates, and hunting.  When her mates showed up at the end of the party to help her carry her gifts to their home, she told them she wanted to go for a walk in the woods.

“Really, sweetheart?” Perseus asked, his arms laden with gifts.

“Yes.  My bear needs some forest time.”

“You’ll be able to shift after you have Adi, though,” Ekho said.  “That’s tomorrow.”

They’d taken to calling the baby Adi as a nickname.  She felt like the last few months had sped by, and she couldn’t really explain her needs to her mates, because they didn’t experience them.

“You don’t get my need to shift because you can just go hunt without shifting.  It’s different for me.”

“I didn’t say I was against it, honey kitten, I was just curious.  I know it’s not the same for me because I can’t shift, but I do understand feeling twitchy about needing to be outside.  Let’s put this stuff away and go for a walk.”

She hooked her arm through his and smiled.  “Thanks.”

After depositing the gifts in their home, she put on sturdier shoes to protect her feet from the brambles and rough terrain of the woods and slipped on a jacket.  Although it never got really cold in Cholas, it was their cool season and when the sun began to set, the temperature dropped.  Now, as evening approached, she could feel a chill in the air and her bear relished it.

She had no idea what time of year it was in the Mortal Realm.  She wondered if she was feeling twitchy not only because of her nervousness surrounding the birth of her son, but because her bear wanted to den-in.  In the winter months, bears would stay in the den, leaving infrequently.  Her family lived underground, in a mini city outfitted with electricity and running water, self-contained farms, and everything that a bear could want for his or her family.

She couldn’t make a den for her family here.  The settlement was always busy.  There wasn’t a slow time, where everything shut down and activity slowed.  If it wasn’t harvest time for the settlement’s many fruit and vegetable farms, it was planting time.  Animals needed tending.  Homes and furniture needed to be built or repaired.  She’d created a little business for herself of specialty clothing, using her skills in embroidery to create beautiful tops and skirts for the wives in the settlement, and occasionally selling them in the market in Cholas.  She’d made a special blanket for Adi, from yarn she’d spun from the wool of sheep-like creatures called
caulilis
.  She’d dyed the wool a light blue, and then used navy dyed wool to embroider his name in one corner.

“What’s troubling you?” Perseus asked as he held her hand.  Ekho had taken her other hand and she walked between them.

“I miss my family.  Maybe more right now because Adi’s going to be born tomorrow.  I never thought my mom wouldn’t at least be a phone call away.”

“We get to go to the Mortal Realm soon,” Ekho reminded her.

“The time difference is so strange.  It hasn’t been long for us, but so much can happen in ten years for them.”  She shook her head and squeezed their hands.  “Don’t mind me, okay?  I’m all out of sorts from the baby, I’m really fine.  We get to be parents tomorrow.  I should be happy, not all moody and bummed out.”  She stopped walking and looked around them at the woods.  The trees were tall and thick, their leaves rustling in the breeze.  “I love the woods here. I love this realm because it brought me into your lives.”

Her husbands smiled at her and kissed her, holding her close between them while the breeze moved the leaves in what sounded like a joyful song.  Soon, she’d have her baby boy in her arms, and someday, when he was older, she’d get to go hunting with him.  She really couldn’t wait.

* * * * *

Daeton rolled to her back and stared at the ceiling.  Her husbands slept soundly on either side of her, but she couldn’t get comfortable.  Her bones were aching and the large swell of her stomach made just about every position uncomfortable.  Her bear growled anxiously, so Daeton sat up slowly and wiggled off the end of the bed.  Her mates still slept, not waking at her movements, and she tiptoed to the dresser and opened a drawer, lifting a sundress from inside.  After dressing and using the bathroom, she walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of
tula
, which was very similar to lemonade.

Through the window over the kitchen sink, she could see the night sky.  In the distance she saw a very faint bit of light and knew that dawn was coming.  In a few hours, she’d be able to hold Adi in her arms for the first time.  As she sipped
tula
, she wondered again if Adi would be able to shift into a bear as well.  Centaur children always seemed to take after their dads, at least as far as their shifting abilities went, but Adi would be half bear, too.  It was entirely possible that the sweet little Centaur boy she’d seen in her vision all those months ago would one day be able to turn into a bear, maybe even the silver furred coloring of her own shift.

Her stomach tightened for a long moment and made her breath catch in her throat.  When the strange tightening passed, she took another drink of
tula
.  Her stomach tightened a second time and the cup clattered into the sink as she lost her hold on it.  Wetness seeped down her leg.  Alarm filled her as her knees weakened.  She grabbed hold of the counter so she didn’t fall, pain shooting through her.  Clutching her stomach, she screamed for Perseus and Ekho.  In moments they were at her side, each supporting her as they helped her stand.

“Grab her bag,” Ekho said, lifting her into his arms.

Perseus darted to the bedroom to get the bag she’d packed a week ago and met her and Ekho at the front door.  She groaned as her womb tightened and Adi kicked her, his hooves scraping her.

“We’ve got you, honey kitten,” Ekho said, his hands tightening on her as they raced to Cyrene’s home.  Perseus shoved the door open and it cracked against the wall.  He bellowed for the midwife as Daeton’s whole world narrowed down to the pain in her stomach.

Cyrene ran into the front room, took one look at Daeton, and said, “Onto the table, swiftly!”

Ekho followed her quickly as they moved through the house into the birthing room.  Perseus cranked the head of the bed down as Ekho laid her on the padded top.  Daeton grabbed Ekho’s and Perseus’s hands as Cyrene lifted Daeton’s skirt to expose her rounded belly.  As her hands moved over her stomach, the baby moved and dug his hooves into her sharply.  Daeton cried out, tears springing to her eyes at the pain.  “He’s trying to cut me in half!”

Perseus and Ekho snarled in worry.  “Cyrene?” Perseus said.

“He’s trying to come out on his own.  We have to work fast or he will tear her body apart as the contractions squeeze him.”

For a moment, everything quieted inside Daeton and even her wiggling baby stayed still.  She inhaled slowly and closed her eyes.

“Ekho?”

“Yes, honey kitten?”  He leaned over and kissed her forehead.

“Can you find someone to get Perri?  She’s supposed to be here with me.”

He nodded and disappeared as Perseus and Cyrene spoke quietly at the foot of the bed.  Another contraction tightened through her and Daeton tried not to sob, but each tightening of her womb made Adi strike out with his hooves.  The pain was greater than anything she’d ever experienced.

Perseus moved to the head of the bed and cupped her face.  “Cyrene’s getting everything ready and then I’ll take the pain away.  Hold on for a minute longer, okay?”

She nodded and wiped under her eyes with a sniffle.  Ekho returned and joined her and Perseus, picking up her hand and kissing the top.  He said that he’d dispatched one of the patrol guards to get Perri.  As Cyrene busied herself with her tools, Daeton called on her bear for comfort and strength.

Perri appeared a few minutes later.  Perseus kissed Daeton and whispered his love for her, then moved to the foot of the bed to join Cyrene.

Perri found Daeton’s bag in the corner and opened it, drawing out the nursing top she’d made.  With a little help from Ekho, Daeton changed from the dress into the top.  Cyrene laid a soft blanket over the lower half of Daeton’s body and moved to a sink to wash her hands thoroughly.

“I’m going to take your pain away now, sweetheart,” Perseus said gruffly.  “Are you ready?”

“Definitely,” Daeton said.

She was scared, but knowing that his movements would make the pain of her contractions and her son’s hooves go away, she wanted nothing more than for him to do what he’d been trained to do.

Perseus moved between her legs and slid his hands around to her back.  His brows were drawn in concentration, his face as serious as she’d ever seen.  With a snapping motion from his hands, a crack filled the air and everything went numb from her ribs down to her toes.  Daeton relaxed with a sigh and squeezed Ekho’s hand.

“That’s much better,” she said.

Perri chuckled as she rubbed Daeton’s shoulder.  “It’s heavenly.  So tell me about your little boy’s name?”

“Are you trying to distract me?” Daeton asked.

“Busted.  It’s helpful to talk about other things so you don’t focus on what’s happening.”

“Okay.  Well, my dad’s name is Adriel.  Since we settled on the name, we’ve been calling him Adi for short.”

“I love that name.  I hope our boys will be great friends.”

Daeton smiled at her best friend.  “I know they will be.”

Perri and Perseus switched places and he took Daeton’s hand.  “Ready to meet our son?”

She nodded, inhaling slowly as her nerves threatened to return.  Perri laid several blankets over Daeton’s chest.  Daeton felt pressure on her stomach as Cyrene leaned over her.  She didn’t want to see what the midwife was doing, so she looked at her husbands, who watched the proceedings intently.  She could smell the metallic tang of blood.  She felt pressure in the center of her body, a strange pulling and twisting, and she closed her eyes and squeezed her husbands’ hands.