Faith (Soul Savers Book 7) (47 page)

I picked her up and
walked outside, where Tristan sat on the patio chair holding a quiet
Brielle. Her tiny fists waved in the air as he leaned his face down
to snuggle against her neck. Damn. My ovaries exploded for the
millionth time. How was I so lucky?

I sat down in the chair
across from him, rested my ankles on his thighs and pulled the crying
Elliana to my breast. She latched on hungrily. When she was done, we
traded babies, and the whole time, we talked about Dorian’s
visit.

“I wish you could
have seen him,” I said. “He’s changed so much
already. And I guess not all for the bad.”

Tristan gave me a
guilty smile. “I have seen him.”

I straightened up.
“
What?
When?”

“A while ago,
when I came here to see if we could make this place safe for you and
the babies. He stopped by, but he’d made me promise not to tell
you.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“He wanted to
surprise you.” He paused as he rearranged Brielle to burp her.
“And I think he might have needed more time. He’s the
most powerful being in this world, possibly more than you and me
combined, and the most courageous soul I know, Lex. But I’m
telling you, he was scared to death to see his mom again.”

My frown deepened as I
considered this. And then I laughed as a sense of relief washed over
me. “He’s going to be okay, isn’t he?”

“I think so. We
will always hope. We may not like it, but he’s serving his
purpose. Doing what he needs to do. All we can do is love him
unconditionally and be there for him when he needs us.”

I nodded as my heart
swelled with the love I had for all of my children. Then I chuckled
again. “I guess Mom and Rina had been right all along about
him. The Angels had always known.”

“Which is how we
know Dorian is serving God’s will. We just have to have faith
that his soul will survive the tests he’s being given.”
He paused as he gazed out at the sunset. “I fully believe he
will. He’s strong and brave. He’ll lead them the way they
need to be led while the world restores itself.”

I watched the sun
hovering over the distant edge of the water, casting gorgeous pink
and orange strokes over the clouds and the sea’s surface. And I
remembered what Tristan had once told me about his love of
sunsets—how they marked the close of another day that had never
been promised, how they meant somewhere else in the world a new day
was dawning. I smiled inside, appreciating his words more than ever.

He lifted my hand and
pulled me up, out of the chair. He guided me onto the free side of
his lap. With Brielle in his other arm and Elliana in mine, I leaned
against his shoulder.

“This is our
future,” he murmured. “Our beautiful little family.
They’ll grow up one day, too, and fly the coop, you know.”

A calming and warm
sensation of peace settled over me as I melted against him, knowing
that future would come, but seeing the hope in it. Hope that I’d
believed in my heart not too long ago had been completely lost. Yet
here we were, the future literally in our hands.

I smiled, tilted my
head back, and kissed his cheek. “And then it will be just us
in our empty nest. You and me together, forever.”

“And always.
Don’t forget always.”

“Never,” I
whispered as he leaned down and pressed his mouth against mine.

I jolted
awake at the scream of my baby. No, make that both babies, crying
like I’d never heard them before. Tristan sat up next to me,
both of us blinking against the light of early morning, before he
bolted out of bed and blurred to my side, where the bassinet sat.
Both Brielle and Elliana kicked their little legs and waved their
tiny fists, their faces red, almost purple as they screamed.

“What’s
wrong with them?” I snatched Brielle up, and Tristan picked up
Elliana, but both babies continued to wail, as though something
caused them intense pain.

I tried to feed them,
but neither had any interest. When we lay them down to change their
diapers, they only screamed harder. Their voices quickly grew hoarse
as they coughed intermittently between howls. They had no tears, but
I did.

“I don’t
know what to do,” I cried as I looked at Tristan, begging that
he knew, but he shook his head.

We sat on the bed, up
against the headboard, trying to soothe them. Sasha bounced around
frantically, also disturbed by their cries.

“Do you think
it’s colic?” I asked. Even if it was, I had no idea how
to make them feel better. I hated this part of parenthood—the
part where you wished like hell that you could take their pain away
and make it your own to relieve their suffering.

“Maybe it’s
gas.” Tristan turned Elliana over to lay on her stomach over
his forearm. She immediately stopped crying as she inhaled ragged
breaths and shuddered as they came out. He patted his hand on her
back to burp her, but she broke into screams again. His hand froze in
midair, and he let her lay there, her arms and legs dangling over his
thick forearm.

I lay Brielle on her
belly over my leg in a similar position, and her cries diminished
into hiccups. Tristan and I looked at each other, bewildered. My
heart had finally settled down when they both began screaming again,
even louder than before. Their little backs quivered and arched.
Their fists beat at the air. I thought I heard the sound of paper
crinkling and ripping between their sobs.

Then at the exact same
time, feathers sprang out of their shoulder blades.

I practically jumped
out of my skin. “Oh my gosh! They have wings!”

Instantly, they both
quieted, and then even cooed.

As the lavender-colored
wings began to uncurl, a laugh popped out of my mouth. Relief flooded
me as the girls squeaked and sighed, happy again. We turned them over
and held them out in front of us, both of our mouths gaping. Their
wings opened behind their backs with a wingspan of about a foot.

They both gave us a
smile. Their first real smiles.

“What does it
mean?” I wondered. “How …?”

Tristan studied the
babies, as perplexed as I was. “No. Idea.”

“It means the
world has changed.”

The familiar voice came
from outside, on the lanai. With Brielle still in my hands, I sprang
from the bed and ran for the sliding door. I swished it open and
grinned at the sight in front of me.

“Mom! You came!”

She smiled back at me
and wrapped her arms around me, with Brielle between us. When the
baby squirmed, she pulled back and took her from me. The love and joy
in her eyes as she studied her granddaughter made my heart balloon.

Tristan cleared his
throat from behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder at him.
Oh.
Oops.
He wore nothing but boxer briefs under the sheet. I rushed
over to retrieve Elliana from him, then ushered Mom outside.

“Mom, meet
Brielle and Elliana. Baby girls, meet your Mimi.”

“Brielle and
Elliana,” Mom echoed softly as she held them both.

I grimaced and
squirmed. “I know the Angels gave me the name Gabriella. I did
hear the whisper in my mind. But they only gave me the one name …
and it was … I don’t know … we wanted to make it
ours, too. For both of them. Did you know Heather and Charlotte had
the same middle name? Ann? And the girls’ middle names are for
you and Rina, which is tradition. I mean, for you anyway, but we
didn’t know ….”

I babbled away,
sounding like Blossom. Mom never tore her eyes from the girls when
she finally interrupted me. “Their names are approved, Alexis.”

I blew out a breath of
relief.

“The Angels are
very pleased.” Rina’s voice came from behind me, and I
spun around to hug her. “Sorry I was delayed. Let me see.”

She pushed past me and
reached out for Elliana. I thought for a moment Mom was going to
fight her with the look she gave her own mother, but she must have
realized there were plenty of babies to go around.

“I’m so
glad you both came to meet them,” I said, clapping my hands
together under my chin. “They’re beautiful, aren’t
they?”

“Of course they
are,” Rina agreed. “They are yours, yes?”

I beamed with so much
pride, my heart should have exploded.

“Your wings are
so tiny and adorable,” Mom spoke in baby talk to Brielle.

“About that …”
I started, and as the realization that my babies had wings slammed
into me, the questions bubbled forth with no filter. “How do
they have freaking wings? How on earth can we possibly hide them? I
mean, they’re too little to do it themselves, right? Do you
know how hard it’ll be to take care of them with those? What in
the hell do they
mean
?”

Tristan came out at the
moment my last question spewed, wearing pajama bottoms and nothing
else. I promptly became distracted as my crazy hormones nearly gained
control of my senses, and I came very close to kicking Mom and Rina
out with the babies so I could jump his bones right there and then. I
forced my eyes away from the perfection of his chest and abs to glare
at Mom and Rina. They seemed to ignore me, their full attention on
the babies. I knew they were cute and all, of course I did, but
seriously!

“Mom? Rina?”

“You do not need
these yet, little one,” Rina murmured, her only answer as her
hand swept over Elliana’s back. The baby’s wings
disappeared. Mom did the same to Brielle, and Rina finally glanced up
at me. “They still possess them, but they will not need them
for a while. They have been hidden until the time comes.”

“Thank you,”
I breathed as I sank into one of the chairs. Sasha trotted across the
patio and jumped into my lap. “But what do they mean? What do
ours mean? We’re not Angels ….”

Tristan came over to
stand behind me, his hands gripping the back of my chair as he leaned
on it. We’d both been dying to learn the answer. Mom and Rina,
each with a cooing baby in their arms, turned to face us.

“As I said, the
world has changed,” Mom repeated. “It went through
massive destruction, but now it is time for its rebirth.”

“Satan and the
Demons have been imprisoned where they belong,” Rina added.
“Humanity will continue for many more centuries, perhaps
millennia, to come. However, there is an imbalance now, and it will
take time for balance to be restored. You and your descendants will
ensure that happens.”

I stared at them with
an arched brow. “I thought our war was over.”

Mom smiled at Brielle.
“It is, honey. As much as it can be. Evil and good will always
be at odds. It’s their very nature. It’s the nature of
this entire physical world and the souls that live on it. There will
always be strife. There will always be the good and the bad and every
shade between. And that is okay. That is how it’s meant to be.
You cannot have one without the other.”

“Daemoni still
exist and always will.” I sighed. “I get that. I also
get, as much as I hate it, that Dorian must be the one to lead them.”

Rina nodded. “Dorian
will be a good leader for them as they recover and rebuild.”

“Recover and
rebuild
?” I asked in disbelief. “Why would we want
that?”

“Because there
is a gross imbalance,” Rina said matter-of-factly as she
stroked a finger over Elli’s cheek.

“What?” I
demanded. “Isn’t that good? We finally outnumber them for
once.”

Tristan leaned harder
on my chair. “A huge imbalance to one side, like this, leads to
power struggles. The Daemoni will want to grow again, to regain their
power. If Dorian doesn’t allow that, they’ll fight him
for control. If he loses, we have Edmund or Victor or some other
threat to contend with. If Dorian keeps them in control, however,
growing their numbers naturally, he’ll better be able to
maintain his position. And once there is balance again, they will
feel less threatened by us. We’ll return to where we were
several years ago. Co-existing while we try to help as many as they
try to hurt.”

“Exactly,”
Rina agreed.

“Hold on,”
I said. “Grow their numbers naturally? You mean, we
allow
them to turn Normans?”

“Their Weres and
mages can reproduce,” Tristan reminded me. “With our
numbers protecting the Normans, they won’t try to turn or
infect any unless they stumble upon someone dying anyway. It will be
a very slow growth.”

Well, that made me feel
a little better. We had enough to deal with in this new world. We
didn’t need to worry about the Daemoni, too.

“Do not become
complacent, though,” Rina warned. “Demons still roam this
world in human form. They are a major threat. They must be found and
sent back to Hell.”

I stared at her with my
mouth partly open. I’d forgotten about the Demons in human
bodies, who hadn’t been sucked back into Hell with the others.
Frustration grew within me, making me antsy. We’d only had a
few months of rest, a few months to mourn our losses and celebrate
our victory, and it already sounded like they were asking us to
prepare to fight again. I squirmed in my seat.