Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Harry couldn’t take his eyes off of the pair of chartreuse eyes in his arms. He was seated on the couch in Jean-Claude’s arms holding his son. His lovely, beautiful baby boy, Rigel Edward Callahan-Potter. Rigel’s twin sister, Elara Jean Forrester-Potter, was being held by Micah, who in turn was being held by Edward on the other couch. The twins were born in early May on Rafael’s birthday. The man had laughed and said they were the best birthday gift a man turning forty-two could receive. All of them had agreed to ask Rafael to be their godfather, and Luna their godmother. Harry had his feet flat on the sofa, knees bent, and the baby was laying on his back on Harry’s thighs. He did not like being swaddled like a burrito unlike his sister. Rigel was the mover and shaker. Elara was the one more content that when she was awake she’d just stare.

They had gone back and forth over what names to use if the baby was a boy or girl. Harry wanted a name to link with the Black family naming tradition of using the name of things across the night skies. Micah had done research and ended up suggesting the name Rigel, for the blue supergiant sun in the Orion constellation. Edward had gone one step further and suggested Elara, one of Jupiter’s moons, for if it were a girl. At first Harry wasn’t sure, but Jean-Claude then pointed out that it was the same name as a Greek princess, daughter of King Orchomenus and giant Tityos according to legend.

“Still sore over your hair being pulled out?” Harry snickered when Jean-Claude had taken to quickly keeping his hair back in a low tail, which was strange to see him doing.

“My hair recovered, it went to a worthy cause of course.” Jean-Claude’s long piano finger ran across the top of Rigel’s forehead. They both still had that newborn smell, the smell had lasted on Alyse for a few weeks. “I do hope they do not capture Alyse’s fascination with pinching…” Lately, the one year old golden blonde girl, with Draco’s icy eyes, had discovered how funny it was to pinch. She’d gotten over biting not three weeks prior.

Micah laughed as Edward smirked. “Tactile motor skills are important.”

“Yes, says the man who doesn’t have the hair to grab. You cut it again,” said Micah, glaring behind him at Edward. He had shaved the sides of his blond hair, but the top was about an inch long. Not enough to curl in the way they liked it.

“Had to be done, Alpha. Not everyone can get away with such hair,” he tugged the brown braid that Micah had set his hair into. “Everyone here looks like they have come off the runway or out of a beauty salon. I don’t think I’d blend in well with that sort of style.”

Everyone laughed and Harry smirked. “Not our fault you have nice curls when you give it some length.”

Luna and Requiem were still living at the house at the moment. With the twins so young, Luna was staying on as a wet nurse until such a time that the twins would be fine with feeding from a bottle. Harry had pouted for a full day when he found out that Micah and Edward had known they were having twins before they were born. All of them had originally agreed that they would keep it as a surprise. Not only had the two known that Luna was carrying twins, but the fact that one, at least, was going to be a born wereleopard. Harry couldn’t wait for Elara to shift, he was curious what her coloring and pattern would be.

They didn’t know if Rigel had inherited anything from them as well. They wouldn’t know if either had inherited Harry’s magic for a month or two more. Harry wouldn’t be surprised if at least one did, he was rather strong magically. Even if neither got his magic, he was absolutely in love with them. Teddy was supposed to be returning that afternoon, having insisted on returning by floo. That was why the four men were waiting in the living room with the babies. Having the twins in the room with the fireplace and floo was a terrible idea; but waiting one room over was perfectly safe.

Requiem and Asher were taking over Jean-Claude’s duties so he could spend time with them as a family for the night. Being Master of the City, he wasn’t afforded a break or vacation, but considering their Community was more and more like family, everyone was more than happy to help each other. Peter was at Guilty Pleasures with Nathaniel. They had the house to themselves, which was rare and nice. At least Harry and his husbands had no end to the baby-sitters when needed. Wicked Truth were guarding the Circus with their plethora of weres coming and going, and Damian was with his girlfriend at Danse Macabre. So it was nearly empty, and because the house was fortified they didn’t need guards stationed around the property.

It’d been a whirlwind of a month when the twins were born. So much had happened in such a swift succession between the rising of the new Council in America with Jean-Claude at the helm and then Luna went into labor. It had been hilarious because when Hermione went into labor that woman had screamed loud enough to wake all of Menagerie Crossing and the dead in the graveyard. Everyone heard it.

Luna had just appeared by the bed, big wide eyes, and shook Edward’s shoulder. The man always slept on the end closest to the door. “They’re coming.” It was all she could get out. No one would have ever known she was in pain if it hadn’t been for Micah smelling it. Requiem had panicked because he hadn’t realized that she had walked out of their shared house at Menagerie Crossing, crossed the road, up the lane into the house, and then up the stairs as if she were taking a stroll, nevermind the fact that she had two watermelons about ready to come out of her.

No one ever said Luna Lovegood wasn’t unique.

Harry smiled when he heard the floo’s tell-tale shush sound go off. Teddy was finally home.

“In here, Pup.” Micah called out as he relaxed further against Edward, Elara fully supported in his arms. Edward’s arms were around Micah, one hand stroking her tufts of blonde hair. Rigel’s was just a fuzzy black mass on the top of his head.

Edward’s favorite part had been Elara’s eyes. He’d been outwardly delighted when he saw them settle. They matched Harry’s in color with the shape more close to Jean-Claude’s.

“Coming, coming! Can someone help with the trunk? It’s so big! Do we have new people living with us?”

Harry passed Rigel back to Jean-Claude after dropping a kiss to the baby’s forehead and hopped off the couch. He was really excited for Teddy to be home. Most of the spring and summer semester had revolved around sports and activities that saw him not coming home much on the weekends.

Harry swung into the room just off the living room with a smile, and noted that Teddy was slowly becoming all leg with his growth spurts. What was that school feeding his baby? He had gotten a bit taller, and Harry knew he was taller than Harry had been at that age. His hair tonight was a striking fire engine red that was braided down his back. His eyes with the almond uptilt had remained amber, and looked deeper than they had before. Either that or Harry had just missed him. He ignored the hissing kneazles in their cage as Teddy ran to him in that warm familiar hug.

“Got a surprise for you, Baby. Come into the other room. Leave your trunk for now.” Harry grinned. He waved his hand to let Snow and Cone out, and they went darting from the room like their tails had caught fire. He watched as they ran up the stairs to meet with Yang who had been waiting at the top. The fox had been curious and weary when the newborns had entered the house. She was still figuring out what she could and could no longer do with the babies. Luckily, the fox had mostly been staying out of reach of the babies.

“Oh? I love surprises, Parrain!” Teddy pulled back. His face was slowly maturing. He looked so much like Tonks with the heart-shape, but also he had Remus in his smile. Harry hugged him to his body and led him into the living room.

Teddy froze and then gasped when he saw the two babies. “There are two? They were born?!”

“Yep.”

“That’s what the new smell is.”

Harry agreed as he ran over. Micah moved from Edward’s arms to sit beside Jean-Claude so that the babies were side by side.

“Welcome home, buddy,” said Edward smirking.

“So cute! What are their names?” Teddy asked excitedly, coming to a stop before Micah and Jean-Claude. He looked down at both of them, eyes darting back and forth.

“Rigel Edward Callahan-Potter and Elara Jean Forrester-Potter.”

“Can I touch them?”

“Of course you can. They’re your brother and sister, silly.” Harry tugged at the red braid.

“I know, but I also read that babies need to get used to others or they can get sick.”

“I don’t think they will be getting sick from you, Pup,” said Micah. “Now, where are our hugs and kisses? You’re not too old to do that are you?”

Teddy grinned and proceeded to go around hugging and kissing each of them. He ended with Edward who pulled him onto his lap. “I have one better. Bring Elara, she likes the burrito hold and being cuddled.”

“Rigel will not accept being confined,” said Harry as Micah went back over, and carefully laid the baby in Teddy’s arms. Rigel loved laying on their chests, particularly the bare chests. He might not be a leopard, but he liked the smells and seemed to take comfort in it. It would be so much easier if he wasn’t constantly splaying his limbs all over the place.

Teddy was as gentle as he could be as he held the small weight of the infant. Edward curled an arm under his to help. Babies were surprisingly heavy if you hadn’t held one before. “She’s so cute. She smells like a leopard, but different.”

“How is it different?” Edward prompted.

Teddy screwed his face in thought. “Not sure.” He dipped his nose down and lightly touched her forehead. “Like all of you, but… different. I can’t explain it. What am I missing?”

“You’re warmer. She does smell like all of us,” said Edward. “Do you know why?”

“She is all of yours? Rigel too?”

“Yes, and they are also yours,” said Edward, and Teddy tilted his head as he thought this through.

“That’s amazing! I’m not the littlest one anymore. But why does she smell like a leopard? Is that because Papa was holding her?”

“No, you are not. Keep using that wolf nose of yours.”

“Do be careful with your words mon Petit Loup, you’ll make mon Amour cry.”

Harry scowled at Jean-Claude for pointing out the slight sadness he felt in his heart that Teddy was just not a baby anymore. “Jean, you didn’t have to say it out loud!” He placed his hands on his hips. “I do have to wonder what on earth they are feeding you though. Your legs are longer.” He poked the boy’s knee making Teddy giggle.

“I grew three inches,” said Teddy grinning. He then dropped his eyes to Elara, smelling her again and carefully nuzzling along her ear. Edward used one hand to rub at Teddy’s back and play with his braid. None of them wanted Teddy to ever think he was being replaced. Dr. Lillian had warned them about sibling rivalry. “She smells like a leopard because she is a leopard?” he realized and Edward nodded.

“Yes.”

“Oh wow, she’s a born leopard. What about Rigel?”

“No. He’s not. At least as far as we could tell when blood was drawn and tested,” said Micah.

“So cool, and when she’s old enough she can run with us!” said Teddy.

Harry went to get an early dinner started, knowing that Teddy was likely famished. The boy remained in the living room, but he had to hand over Elara as she became a bit too heavy for him. Harry could hear Teddy. He imagined the boy was shaking his arms because everyone was laughing.

“Sheesh, babies are heavy.”

“It’s more that you have to stay in that position when holding one, particularly newborns,” Edward told him. “Calcium buildup will happen to even the strongest man or woman. Now, tell me about this school. You better have been safe since you’ve not been coming over these last few months.”

Harry could only smile. His heart was set a flutter. He could not have predicted the happiness he would gain over the years, and to think Harry almost denied himself that chance with the way he had blown Jean-Claude off so much.

He couldn’t ever imagine doing that now.

He hummed and rummaged through the kitchen. He had some pork-chops on a marinade. It was one of Teddy’s favorite meals. He made a bit of extra knowing who and what was going to come home tonight famished. He’d also set a cheesecake last night. All he needed to do was add the toppings, but he often preferred to make several toppings and leave them a bowl for everyone to use at their own discretion. He laid out the cherry, strawberry, and blackberry toppings. No doubt Jean-Claude would be inching him closer to the blackberry even though cherry was his favorite.

He smiled when the man on his mind appeared seemingly from nowhere, and swooped around him, kissing him on the ear and along his cheek.

“You have given me such a lovely family, mon Amour.”

“We,” Harry corrected. “I often have to blink when I see our life, and wonder if it's real.”

“Oui, I do so many nights. Ever since you said yes to me.”

“I was just thinking that. I’m glad I did. All the other rubbish we can handle.” Harry turned to look up at the beautiful man.

His eyes were a deep sapphire and double lashed. His face was lovely with the way it towed the line between masculine and feminine, but eventually settled on the masculine side. His long curls were still held back by a ribbon. Tonight Jean-Claude was wearing a silk purple lace shirt that was open, revealing that perfectly white marble chest. Harry leaned in and kissed the cross burn above his nipple. His leather trousers were so tight that it was a good thing he didn’t have to breathe.

“As long as we are together, mon Amour. All of us can handle anything.”

“I think Rigel is going to be magical. For some reason I can feel something from him every so often. It’s still too early to tell for sure though.”

“Oui, I was thinking perhaps they are made as opposites. Some twins are like that. Not everyone is identical like our Stephen and Gregory.”

He was pulled into Jean-Claude’s arms as a passionate kiss stole his breath away. Jean-Claude was always stealing their breaths. He’d even done so with Edward more than the man cared to count. ‘Only in private, Toy. I can’t protect you if you’re stealing vital things from me.’ Yeah, Edward hadn’t changed, but damn if he wasn’t fun to try and eat. The fact that only three men in this world got to see him at his best had made them work extra hard to bring it out. Four if you counted Teddy. Peter got a bit of him, but not nearly as much. Ethan was trying.

“I better get to cooking,” Harry panted against Jean-Claude’s perfect lips. “Before I end up your meal.”

Jean-Claude pressed another kiss to his temple. “You will be using the blackberries, oui?”

“Both blackberry and cherry, yes.” Micah and Teddy loved strawberries. Edward liked his plain or with sourcream. Micah had shuddered when he’d first done this. He thought it was a crime to besmirch a good cheesecake with sourcream.

“Good. I am tired of apples.”

Harry snickered until he was outright laughing. He and Damian were constantly in a war over the foods they preferred Harry eating. Shockingly, those feuds could sometimes get ugly when he wasn’t around. Damian might have gotten a touch of arrogance due to his elevation in powers to master status. Harry had a feeling that this might be part of the ‘Potter arrogance’ shining through that Snape was so often spouting; even though Damian would be from his mother’s side if they were related.

Harry supposed that if he lived centuries on the same diet that all tasted the same and then suddenly started tasting something new or something from their human lives that was different and absolutely delicious, he too would be a vampire foodie. Damian had also discovered a liking for bananas. But those things rotted too quickly so having them in the house was rarer.

Ah well, made life interesting. He loved his family. All of them. Not just his husbands and many lovers. All of them had come together a few months ago when there had been a terrifying bomb scare that threatened the lives of more than their leopard husband. All of them had come out for the cause. Each one of them had stood in solidarity beside Harry and those inside with their lives on the line had trusted him and believed in him. All had been willing to die for him.

Well, that wasn’t going to happen, not on Harry’s watch. But still, knowing how they all felt through action was heartwarming. Harry couldn’t imagine doing anything else even if his plate tended to get more full to bursting than was healthy. He’d keep doing it because when you had something this good worth fighting for, you didn’t stop for anything. You kept going. You made it better. You lived, and in the last six years living had never been so great on the whole even when someone was trying to kill them.

The next morning, Micah left for a meeting with Noah in tow. Jean-Claude was just dropping off to sleep, and Edward had risen and was preparing to drive a few states over with Peter where an animalistic baby vampire nest had broken out when the Master of the City changed hands. Both were going to deal with it. Teddy was laying with his cute tush up against Harry in Edward’s place. It was obvious the young werewolf missed them and their scent. He’d slept there last night and kept cuddling into them with his nose. Never mind the small nip that Teddy would leave on Harry or Micah’s neck.

Harry couldn’t help but be concerned about Teddy being disconnected from them while in school. But the boy had promised he had two great were-friends at school. A fellow wolf and a wererat. However, Harry could tell that the boy had been overcompensating because he stuck by them all night long.

“You be good.” Edward stated as he fixed his belt on.

“What if I don’t want to be?” Harry asked, stifling a yawn as he sat up on his elbows. Teddy snuggled further into him. All that was left in bed was Jean-Claude, and he was often as still as death when sleeping. Jean-Claude wasn’t one to shift around in bed.

Edward smirked. “Do it and see what happens. If you get another threat like last time, you call or I’ll bust your ass.”

“Then I won’t call,” said Harry cheekily as Edward leaned in over the bed to kiss him only for Harry to have his messy hair fisted. “I’ve promised to go running today with the wererats. So I’m meeting them at the gates of Menagerie Crossing. Who knows what will happen then. Don’t forget to say goodbye to the twins before you leave. And leave a t-shirt we can use with your smell on it for each twin.” Logan had mentioned how important it was for were-babies to learn the smell of their parents. It made Harry sad that the same wasn’t done for Teddy as it wasn’t common knowledge in Britain.

“Already laid out, Little Raven.” He kissed Harry a bit softer and brushed one across Teddy’s temple. “Gotta go get Peter. He stayed at Nathaniel’s last night.”

He left the room carrying two shirts with him, and Harry flopped back down and blinked up at the ceiling. He didn’t flinch when Teddy turned over and nipped at his arm again. All in his sleep too. The kid was out of it. Harry could poke his cheek and he’d still be asleep. Instead, he ran a hand through the loose brown hair. It tended to revert to his natural color whenever the boy was asleep, but as soon as he started waking the color would change. He was letting it grow like all of the men in his life. It was currently settled on his shoulders. So rich and thick in its color. Beautiful.

Harry rolled over Teddy kissing him on the ear as he did before slipping out of the bed and preparing for the morning. A shower was pointless. He was going to get sweaty before long. He rummaged through the once-again expanded walk-in. It was now a full bedroom size but a closet. Most of Jean-Claude’s wardrobe had made it here. Of course there was plenty at the Circus and other places for quick changes. Everyone had them, but Jean-Claude was here now. Nowhere safer in the world. Nevermind the fact that Peter had made good on Harry’s plea for a prank and replaced every single frothy lace shirt with a sports jersey. Harry had never seen Jean-Claude pout so much, and getting Edward to laugh had been a bonus. Peter earned his prank money fair and square. Brilliant!

Each one had their own section, but somehow things often got mixed around. Laundry was often charted by who was there at the time. Harry had to have words with Nathaniel trying to play housekeeper. He did enough at the house he shared with Zane and all of the other leopard submissives. Micah and Harry were the closest in sizes so their clothes sometimes got mixed up. Harry’s clothing type was a lot like Jean-Claude’s and so once again mixups were often a thing. All of Micah’s clothes had to be tailored, so did Harry’s, because of their smallish sizes. Micah was bigger in the shoulders, more broad and then he went down in a perfect classic V like that of a swimmer. Not an inch of fat as it was all golden, tan, and entirely lickable.

Harry shrugged into a pair of running shorts. At least that was what they were called, but Jean-Claude was Jean-Claude. They were crimson red and had more in common with booty shorts, very little material below the ass, leaving Harry to tug on them. He had forgone a g-string because running in one was not fun. Thankfully the shorts were tight enough to keep him in place when he ran. He chucked on a black tank, and then grabbed some jogging socks and shoes.

Harry and Micah had tried to tell Jean-Claude that working out was not sexy in the slightest. No one needed to be looking their best. Shockingly, some vampires could be hearing impaired when it suited them. At least Harry’s hadn’t been bright pink. Micah had whacked Jean-Claude over the head when he tried that and Edward tossed them to the fox to play with.

Jean-Claude had pouted and insisted that the golden tan would look great with pink. It used to be a masculine color. Micah walked away singing, ‘lalala’ with his own ears plugged. All the while Edward laughed and kept cleaning whatever gun or knife was in front of him while Yang happily tore into them. They were soon little more than fabric scraps.

No end to the entertainment when you were married to three other men who had starkly different personalities and tastes.

He ran downstairs to see Edward leaning against the counter with coffee. “My coffee is no good,” he said, raking his ice blue eyes over Harry.

“Give me a minute,” said Harry.

“I’ll give you three,” said Edward. “Let me guess, the Toy went shopping for the summer?”

“Uh huh. Can you tell?” He didn’t bother yelping because he knew it was coming when the hand cracked down on his ass.

“Nice and bouncy. The Rats are going to have fun running behind you.”

Harry stuck out his tongue and redid the coffee. Harry knew that when Edward was heading out he ate on the road as it was quicker that way. For himself, he had a quick bite of fruit and toast.

Edward said not a word as he kissed Harry who had a mouth full of cherries. Harry was sure he had planned it. He planned everything. Harry bit him on the lower lip. “Go have fun, and bring Peter back alive.”

“Kid is getting good.”

“But not too good. You need to kick him in the arse so he doesn’t die.”

“May be true. He doesn’t have our sturdiness.”

“Bombs notwithstanding. I still don’t know how that would work.”

“Let’s not test it.” He ended up pouring the rest of the coffee into a tall thermos. He capped it, and headed out leaving Harry to snicker.

All of them had their own forms of routines, and it hadn’t been hard to work around them when the babies came into their lives. He finished his fruit and toast breakfast before heading out into the warm June morning.

A small sprinkling breeze ruffled the trees and Harry’s already overly messy hair. His hair could never be styled because, as Jean-Claude would say: it was as stubborn as the wearer of said head.

A syrup of yellow and orange sun streamed across St. Louis, keeping every vampire still and immobile except for a few. Jean-Claude was influenced very little by the sun now, choosing instead to sleep naturally during the day, dying only for a few hours at mid-day. He had confessed to his husbands that if he slept soundly enough, he would even dream. Damian was one of the rarer vampires who had the ability to walk in the day. It’d gotten stronger after he became Harry’s human servant and a master vampire. But he hated it. He loathed it, but it had been useful when they’d been in a pinch back in Seattle.

He made his way at a steady jog down the driveway. As there was never any traffic, he crossed the road easily, veering to the right where the gates of the Preternatural housing district lay hidden. From the road you could only see the tops of the houses and trees otherwise it was entirely cut-off. Clothing in Menagerie Crossing was always optional. Harry liked options.

He passed by the gate with a smile as the wolf on duty opened the gates at his wave. “Looking cute, Lupa!”

“Blame Jean-Claude!” Harry said back, making her giggle. “Working out isn’t supposed to be sexy.”

“Uh, have you not looked at who you’re running with?” she asked back and Harry’s grin widened.

“You have a point, Delia.” Indeed, next to the large fountain that greeted him was a set of men that made Harry look and feel like a shrimp. It was unfair to pick and choose who was the best looking, and that wasn’t the point of running, but Harry wasn’t blind.

All of them were tall and muscular, beautiful in regards to being masculine men rather than pretty and delicate like Harry, Micah, and oftentimes Jean-Claude. First he noticed Abraham. He had the darkest skin Harry had ever met. So much so that it was almost purple even though his wererat was blond. Interesting that. His hair was short, shaved on the sides in classic military fashion. His eyes were a deep brown. He had a good amount of muscle and strength in his arms and legs and of course his stomach. No fat. He was a former army ranger. He was wearing gray sweats and no shirt, his beautiful chest on display along with a tattooed cross over the left side of his muscled chest. He had another of a snake wrapped around his upper bicep and below it the day that he had been discharged. Good news, it had been honorable thanks to Rafael and Harry’s fast motions.

Beside him was Fredo, or Godofredo with Fredo for short. He too was dark skinned, not nearly as much as Abraham. He had longer hair and rougher features, but no less handsome. He was a bit younger. Lisandro was next. He had only moved into the neighborhood last month when his divorce was finalized. A nice three bedroom was perfect for him and the boys, and the kids loved Ann’s Playplace. Not only could Luca go with Sammy on their own without constantly being monitored, but there were surprisingly a lot of children in the subdivision. At least six or seven families with small kids. Lisandro was Latin American. He was tall, gorgeous, dark eyes with a hint of amber in them. His hair was long and black but had been braided back today. He wasn’t nearly as well muscled as Abraham, or Bram for short, but he was perfect. He had a triangular chin, and well sculpted features that made him the hit at his kids’ soccer games with the ladies.

But, Lisandro was not likely to be looking for anyone human ever again after his ex-wife. It could have been a long and lengthy trial, but Draco was the most crafty bastard Harry had ever met in his life. He had gone out and somehow procured pictures and video footage of Lisandro’s wife fucking her brother-in-law, and at risk of having them slapped on the internet and shown to her sister she had agreed to Lisandro having full custody with her having them on some weekends and some holidays. Lisandro didn’t want to cut her off completely. She was a good mother. She just sucked as a wife.

Lisandro had given up fun with anyone not a part of the Community. Lucky for him there were plenty in the Community happy to have sex with him, including Harry. Luca and Sammy were aware of the reasons behind the divorce, Lisandro finally coming out and telling them when the process started. Both were supportive of Lisandro having the freedom of sleeping with different lovers.

Lisandro liked women more than men, but Harry was his favorite male. Harry sure didn’t mind. He was not only a fine bodyguard, but a great lover. Then again, no one was a bad lover in this Community. Even Peter was becoming a rockstar at only nineteen. But then the kid did have Nathaniel, Ares, Harry, and Micah as a guide with a side of Jean-Claude and Edward.

Harry could not be more different to these three men. For one, he looked like a vampire compared to them. He was short for a man, and while he didn’t look feminine in the face, he was hardly masculine. He was more boyish with soft edges. He was slim through and through with more slim muscles rather than obvious ones. Once upon a time, Harry would have felt very self-conscious, but those days had passed and he smiled as he approached them.

“Good morning! Anyone else meeting us?”

“Ares wanted to, but he’s having issues lately with his Oba,” said Lisandro smirking. “Saw the kids off to summer camp this morning.” Lisandro curled an arm around Harry and pulled him close. Harry happily greeted the man with a kiss, softly sucking on the tongue that swept into his mouth.

“Socrates is too. It seems something has gotten shoved up Narcissus’ ass, and he’s not enjoying it,” said Fredo with a snort.

Ah, Narcissus. A source of silent contention in the Rodere.

Harry produced a bunch of water bottles for each of them from his mole skin pouch. He was the regular water boy as he handed them out. “I know Jean-Claude gets tired of hearing his constant complaints. I’m not sure how many more excuses we can use or come up with before we have to start being rude. I wonder if I should encourage Teddy to join us while he’s home this summer.”

“Is he faster than you?” Abraham asked with a smirk.

Harry had to always set the pace otherwise these men would outspeed him by miles. Sure he was faster with his beasts than the standard human, but he was still constrained by his beasts being metaphysical and not being able to have the closeness of those who shifted. “Yes, he’s very fast. How long are the boys in summer camp for?” He asked Lisandro.

“Three weeks.”

“I’ll let Teddy know. He’s fascinated with the twins right now, but I know that’s going to wear off,” Harry said grinning. Babies didn’t do too much in the first few months, especially for a kid. Teddy was at that age where he was old enough to walk too and from the Crossing without being constantly watched or walked over.

Harry could see a few of the weres were out and about. A couple were walking a child or two to the park nearby. Another was mowing his lawn, and there were a group of three playing with a sprinkler. Half of this was being done naked. No one cared. Luca and Sammy, not being weres themselves, were getting a crash course into their father’s Community and neither had complained as far as Harry knew. He doubted Lisandro’s ex-wife would approve if she knew.

When they started running, Harry realized he probably should have stretched before doing this. But he’d been distracted by Edward. He set the pace for the men, and they quickly moved in perfect rhythm. He might have borrowed some of Micah’s speed and energy because he knew he was going at a snail’s pace compared to the men.

“You’re going slower than usual, you should have stretched,” said Fredo.

“I know, I know. You can blame Edward.” Everyone snorted. “He needed coffee, and he’s gotten way too used to mine. He can barely tolerate his own swill anymore.”

“You do make good coffee,” Abraham agreed.

It was always painful running the first mile. Harry’s body screamed at the intense unwanted stretching. His heart was thudding into his throat, and he knew his pulse had gone out of control. His legs simply weren’t long enough, but he managed. Going a bit faster made the men laugh at him as the sweat began to pour off them.

“Shut up!” Harry huffed. “I’m getting there!”

“I bet I can go faster with you under my arm!” Abraham teased. Harry yelped when the man’s arm swooped around his waist and lifted him, and he began to run extra fast. His feet and arms were dangling thanks to the grip. He felt like a shirt or something.

“This isn't the point of exercise!” Harry cried out as the rats all ran faster and in perfect time.

“Sure it is. An extra weight for me.”

“Besides, if you collapse now you won’t make it to the fourth mile,” said Lisandro.

“Just enjoy the scenery,” said Fredo.

“My scenery is currently a pair of muscled legs and a crotch,” Harry pointed out, making them laugh. He raised his head to see where they were as they turned down the curving footpath. He could barely see anything as it was all a blur. Harry knew he’d be let down in a minute or two and they’d all slow the pace.

Harry was, if anything, still somehow human even if he was a cocktail of oddities. No amount of magic was going to make him faster than these men.

All of them were pouring sweat when Harry was let down. “Woah, vertigo!” All of them stopped, and smirked as they stretched out.

“Stretch!” Lisandro ordered. “You won’t be very good if you don’t stretch it out, Precious.” Ever since the whole bomb threat and scare, Lisandro had asked to be on his guard rotation more often. Apparently he had heard Harry’s words to Dev. Him and Bobby Lee both. He had apparently struck a cord with them.

“Okay, okay I’m stretching!” said Harry. He bent down to touch his toes, getting a round of laughter.

“Did Jean-Claude dress you?”

“Who else is going to put me in these damn things?” Harry grumbled as he stared at Lisandro from between his legs. He was upside down. “Least it isn’t the pink pair he tried to give Micah.”

Everyone roared with laughter as Harry came back up and began to move back and forth. He bent backwards as if to do a backbend. He wasn’t as good at that as Nathaniel, but he could manage. Nathaniel, Gregory, and Stephen had all taught him how to stretch his body out so that he could move and run easier. All of them being premiere dancers, those boys knew their stuff.

“Anyone burn them?” asked Fredo.

“Edward fed them to Yang.”

“Naturally,” said Abraham.

“By the way, Bobby Lee is usually here, where is he?” Harry asked.

“On assignment, Precious. He’ll be back in a few weeks.”

Harry nodded and didn’t bother to ask further. It was none of his business.

“Ready to start off again?” asked Abraham, making that movement with his neck that cracked it. Harry shuddered at the sound. Draco liked doing that.

“Yep! I’ll be faster this time,” said Harry, taking a long drink of his water. He placed it away and then began to run. He was much faster, still slower, but the pace didn’t kill the alpha men around him.

It was hard to keep up with them, but Harry didn’t mind trying, and even if he fell behind at least he had a good view.

Chapter Text

He was only ever in office three days out of a week. He only did raisings on four of those nights. Bert Vaughn, his boss, had not been happy with his cutting back on the hours. But Harry had a pretty damn good excuse these days. He had twins to take care of, and it wasn’t like Harry actually needed the money. To be honest, the only reason he was working at Animators was because he had to. His powers demanded it of him. If he didn’t there was a good chance that he’d raise things around him or end up raising half of St. Louis in the night without even knowing it. Magic and power were fickle things, and they begged to be used.

It was the middle of the day and he’d already seen four clients. Bert made sure to pack as much into his few days as possible. He wanted to squeeze every penny he could from Harry while he was here.

He stretched his arms into the air. He hadn’t been able to run with the boys this morning since he had work. Pity too, he’d heard Ethan had been with them. Yesterday, he had a planned outing with some of the wolves, and the night before that he had attended Jason’s dance classes. Not to dance for himself, but because Teddy wanted to join. So Harry and Micah had gone with him. Jean-Claude had gotten a whack on the head that night when he had hummed that maybe Teddy was a future star at Guilty Pleasures. Micah and Harry both got him for that, making the vampire hold them down and do very kinky sexy things to them while Edward listened on the phone.

He stood to refill his coffee when there was a knock at the door. It was Mary, their daytime receptionist. She opened it without him calling her in, which she had never done in all the years they’d been working together.

Harry turned, pot in his hand to look at the well aging woman. She’d finally let her hair go gray, and had embraced her glasses. She was a very proud grandma these days. She’d gotten to see the twins last week when Micah stopped in with them. Harry was still hearing the squealing subconsciously in his ears to this day.

But, instead of the tell-tale sweet smile that she was so known for, Mary was giving him that look that she gave their customers. It was sad, and set into a sympathetic expression.

“Are you okay, Mary?” Harry asked, placing the coffee down without refilling it.

She came in and closed the door quietly behind her. She hated loud slams that the others often did when they left their offices. Harry did too if he were being honest. Jamison and Bert were the two big ones who liked to slam their doors. It was a wonder the whole building didn’t shake.

“I didn’t want to tell you over the phone with all the clients listening,” she said.

“Tell me what?” Harry asked calmly.

“There’s a woman on line two, she says she’s your mother-in-law.”

Harry arched a brow and froze at the words. “Mother-in-law?” he repeated.

“Yes.”

The only one of the four of them who had parents left at all was Micah, and he hadn’t seen or spoken to his parents since he was eighteen or so. Unless someone’s mother was calling from one of his were lovers. He was pretty sure that Nicky’s mother was in jail or dead. Ethan’s mother pretty much abandoned him, Dev didn’t have a mother as far as he was aware. Domino had been adopted, and the list went on. Bloody Hell, there were too many men in his life sometimes. “Okay, uhm, what is her name?” Shit, that sounded bad. He didn’t even know their names! He wouldn’t be able to confirm or deny it.

“Morgan. Beatrice Morgan.”

Micah’s was Callahan, but he might have heard that his mother had gotten divorced at some point. He knew Micah’s father had been a cop, and now the sympathetic tone was rearing its ugly head.

“Okay, I’ll see if it's who I think it is,” said Harry wincing.

“She sounded really upset. She said that the father was hurt, maybe dying, and she thought he’d want to know about his dad before it was too late. The emotion was real, Harry.”

“I don’t doubt it.” It would have to be Micah’s mother. His father is or was a cop, but issues cropped up that had them not seeing each other for a long time. “Thank you, Mary. I’ll get it.”

Mary smiled. “Good, I think she’s being honest. You can’t fake that kind of emotion.”

“I never doubted you, Mary. You know that. Just a bit confused because I never met them.”

“Bad timing, huh?”

“You have no idea.” She left the room, and Harry went over to the phone.

He picked it up and hit the number two button. “Ms. Morgan? This is Harry Potter-Black.” He wouldn’t mention Micah unless she did, in case for some reason this was a crazy insane call or a reporter trying a new angle. He’d seen worse happen.

It seemed that the media were extremely interested in their lives. It started with Jean-Claude, but Harry had been in the news a lot lately and so had Micah. None of them shied away from their marriage. All of them refused to let anyone edit them down to conform to ‘normal’ society. A lot of interviews often delved off into their relationship instead of about the matter at hand. It seemed the celebrities of the day had nothing on Jean-Claude and his marriage to three men, two being Preternatural Marshals. He supposed that it was a revolutionary time in modern history and they were the juicy scoop of the year.

“Oh, thank God!” Her voice came out breathy and startled. “I only just realized when your secretary went to speak to you that you might not have recognized my last name. It’s been Beatrice Morgan since Mike was twelve.”

Mike? “Mike?”

“Oh, sorry, Micah. He didn’t like Micah when he was a little boy. He thought Mike was more grown up.” She was crying softly now. He could hear it in her voice. But her voice was still clear enough to understand.

He had not prepared for a call like this. “You told our receptionist that Micah’s father was hurt?” he phrased it as a question. He had no doubt now that she really was his mother. He could hear the intention in her voice, and he could just imagine Micah demanding to be called Mike.

“Yes, Rush, that’s my ex. His father was attacked by something. His deputy said it was a zombie, but the bite isn’t human. It’s like he’s infected with something from it.”

Harry started at that and leaned against his desk. “Zombies rarely attack people, especially without prompt, Ms. Morgan.”

“I know that!” she yelled. He heard her taking deep breaths, drawing her into a calm. “I’m sorry. When Mike left us he was so horrible, but Rush said he’d found out that Mike did it to protect all of us and that some of the people had their families hurt by these people.”

Chimera. Harry’s thoughts. “Yes, Ms. Morgan, it was a terrible time for Micah. I can’t speak for him completely, but the one responsible for making Micah runaway was considered a bogeyman in the were world. A real one.”

“That’s what Rush said,” she sniffed. “He wouldn’t go into details. He said it was a police matter. He was always doing that when we were married, drove me nuts, but he said that he’d found out enough to know that other wereanimals in that group had their families killed, and Mike had to convince them he hated us, or they would have hurt us. Do you know if that’s true? Does Mike want to see his father? Does he want to see any of us?” And there she went crying again.

Harry knew that Micah’s dad had been a cop, a Sheriff to be precise, as the memories of Micah speaking about them came to him. His mother was now telling him that somehow the father had found out more about Micah and his animal group than he had expected anyone with a basic badge, besides Harry, to know. Harry had to kill people to rescue Micah and the group. He hadn’t a warrant of execution at the time so it was murder. He couldn’t even ease her mind to tell her that the monster was gone without risking himself. He admitted to being a bit leery that Sheriff Callahan apparently knew more about it than he’d thought, but then he supposed any real parent who loved their child would, wouldn’t they? He was being selfish thinking that they wouldn’t use what resources they had to look into it.

“Ms Morgan, I do apologize. I wish I could give you more information about the - monster, but I would need Micah’s permission on that.” And then some. “But what I can tell you is sometimes hurting the ones you love to keep them safe comes at a price.”

“Price?”

“Shame. May I ask how you got my number?” Harry asked, trying to redirect the conversation.

She sniffled and then said in a voice that was full of hiccups. “We saw Mike in the news as the Head of the Coalition. We also saw him a couple months ago on Good Morning America. He’d told everyone that he’d been married. Your name is always beside his in most reports and interviews we see and hear about. I did not know that - polyamorous marriage was legal.”

“I am a wizard, Ms. Morgan. A full blooded wizard, so my world makes it legal whether anyone else wants to accept it or not.”

“Ah, yes, magical world. My best friend in elementary was considered a No-Maj born. We only just found that out last year. We had no idea there was a difference in witches and magic until she explained it to us.”

“Yes, ma’am. a big difference. May I ask why you did not contact Micah if you knew about the Coalition?”

“Tried calling once before and didn’t get through. I left a voicemail but didn’t hear back. He said really awful things to me last time we spoke, Mr. Potter-Black,”

“Harry please,” Harry said softly.

“Harry… I think I’d fall completely apart if he said that again to me with Rush hurt like this. Can you please tell him, and then if Mike wants to see us, to see Rush, before… in time… I mean… oh, God, I’m usually better than this, but it’s so terrible what’s happening to Rush, so hard to watch.”

“It’s alright, Ms. Morgan. May I please ask what is happening? I am an Animator myself, and maybe I’ve run across something that I can help you with or something.”

She let out a deep breath. “That’s very sweet of you, Harry… really. But, he’s rotting. He’s rotting alive and aware and the doctors can’t stop it. They have drugs that can slow it, but nothing slows it down much.”

Harry frowned. It sounded almost like something that Sabin had, but he had been a vampire from bad blood. “Sounds like something Preternatural has attacked Sheriff Callahan, and now he’s acquired a disease from it.”

“Yes.”

“Have they seen this before?”

“Yes, they say it's the first case outside the East Coast, but they’ve learned enough to slow it down. There’s no cure, though. I overheard a nurse call it the zombie disease, but she got in trouble for saying it. The older nurse said, ‘Don’t give it a name that the media will love.’ I heard doctors whispering that it’s just a matter of time before it hits the news.”

Harry shifted in his seat. “It would have to be something more than a zombie for this to be happening. Yes, zombies’ mouths are filthy as all get out, but they are not diseased, and simply a tetanus booster would prevent anything from spreading. Why are they calling it a zombie disease aside from the rotting?” He so desperately wanted to help her. He wanted to help Micah. For fuck’s sake, she was his mother in law, that meant something.

“You rot from the outside in, so you’re aware the whole time. Apparently it’s incredibly quick and they’ve only managed to prolong the life of one other person.” Her breath came out in a shudder.

Harry rolled what she said over in his mind. “Ms. Morgan, there are other questions I want to ask, but I don’t want to hurt you more with them.”

“Ask, just ask.”

“You said, prolong? For how long?”

“Five days.”

Bloody hell! Harry thought. He grabbed a pen and the black notebook on the edge of the desk. “Give me an address, phone numbers, and I’ll get a hold of Micah. I know this might not mean much coming from me, but I know in Micah’s heart he meant nothing that he said to you back then. What - was hurting other weres was something that had never been seen before. I don’t want to upset you more than you are, but one of the men in his group lost his entire family including his baby daughter over it. I don’t think Micah could have handled it if that happened to any of you because of him.” She was back to crying and he cringed. “I’m sorry,” Harry breathed. “I was probably out of line saying that.”

“N-no, thank you! Th-thank you so much for saying that to me. It’s horrible, but the truth is…”

“Important. If there is one bit of advice that an old Headmaster gave me was that the truth is always preferable to lies, even when the lies seem nice and sugar-coated.”

“You must have had a genius Headmaster then.”

“Too smart for his own good maybe, but yes. Genius is apt. Information please, luv.” He managed to calm her down enough to tell him.

“You really do know my son, so you can imagine the shock that came out. He was always the sweetest thing in the world.”

“Still is, Ms. Morgan, that has never changed.”

“And you - you are my son-in-law.”

“I hope you aren’t disappointed with me being a son-in-law rather than a daughter-in-law.”

“Mike’s heart was always so big. If he finds the perfect partner, male or female, then I’m happy. Or in this case three males.”

“Yes, three males who fell completely in love with him. I will do my best to bring Micah to you before time runs out.” Even if he had to drag his husband away from his fear.

“Thank you, Harry… please, call me Beatrice or Bea to my friends. Bring my son home, please.” She gave him lots of contact numbers and addresses.

“I will see you soon, Beatrice.” Harry hung up, and let out a deep shuddering breath of his own as he rubbed his hands up and down his legs.

He dreaded this next part more than anything. He didn’t bother with a phone. He moved from his desk to sit back in the chair and closed his eyes. He knew Mary wouldn’t let anyone bother him.

He sank deep inside his own mind and felt the three mental doors in front of him. He knocked on each of them and no surprise one by one they all opened allowing their minds to connect.

After the bomb scare in which Harry had to get into the minds of Micah and the weres, he had taken to studying legilimency and shield building hard so that the four of them always had a gateway access to each other, but at the same time had the privacy they needed from one another because even those who were married and shared everything deserved to have privacy every so often.

“Baby?” Micah’s words flowed through him and he shivered as his heart sank.

“Little Raven? Is this important?”

“Mon Amour? It is early yet. Are you not at work?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t have time to call or make things easy,” said Harry quietly.

That had everyone’s attention. He could feel them and exactly where they were. Jean-Claude sat up in their bed, the silk sheets that were aquamarine this week fell to his lap revealing his lovely bare chest. He always wore a fur robe to bed with it open.

Edward had pulled over on the side of the road. He could see the man just off the highway and sense Peter beside him.

But their Micah, their Alpha and Leopard King had stopped off for some late lunch with Noah at his favorite fast food restaurant.

“What’s wrong?” All of them asked suddenly.

A rock dropped into Harry’s stomach. “Micah, I just got a call from your mother, Beatrice.”

Everyone went still.

“My mother?”

“Yeah. Your father, Rush, is in the hospital. He’s dying. He has only about five days to live.”

“Oh, mon Chaton.”

Micah was intensely quiet.

Harry could hear and sense Edward telling Peter to start driving as he got out of the Hummer, and ran around to the passenger side. “We’ll turn around and meet you in Denver.”

“Wait - what? Why?” Micah asked, his voice suddenly high.

“I’m coming to meet you. I know that’s where your family lives, Alpha.”

“Baby, what did she say?” asked Micah softly.

Harry told him about the preternatural disease that his father had caught. He could feel everyone moving around and doing different things. Edward had gone still as Peter took the reins. “Your mother is pretty hysterical. She wants you to come home to see him at least one last time.”

“She was always pretty emotional. It kind of balanced Dad’s stoicism out,” he said flatly. “I can’t think, I feel sick.”

“Do you wish to see your father, mon Chaton? I am already making calls to make sure we have a clear way through.”

“We?” Micah asked in a choke.

“What do you think we meant, Alpha?”

“But…”

“Do you want to see her?” Harry asked quietly. “Him.”

“I do, but…”

“You need to stop running, Micah,” said Harry. “Her heart was broken when she was on the phone with me. You are the only one of us who still has parents alive. Chimera is gone. He can’t hurt anyone anymore.”

“Harry… Baby…”

“The time to stop running away is over. I’d like to someday bring our children to meet their grandmother. I never had one myself,” said Harry. He knew he was hitting low and using a fine guilt trip. But he had to. He had to get Micah to his father’s side or he’d regret it.

He could feel Micah shuddering through the links. His breathing was harsh. “Y-yes, I want that too. Hold on. Let me get to the bathroom.” Harry could feel his movements, telling Noah to stay put and rushing off to the bathroom to lock himself in. “How long does he have?”

“About five days, maybe. Teddy and I can come with you.”

“I’ll be some odd hours behind, but I’ll be there,” said Edward.

“I shall make arrangements for myself and our children.”

“Our children? You’re bringing the twins?” Micah’s voice had changed.

“Oui, of course. Nothing would settle the heart more than meeting grandchildren, non?”

“Micah… do you want to do this?” Harry asked.

“Yes. I just don’t know how,” Micah said in a voice that sounded almost childlike.

“That’s why we’re here, mon Chaton. You are our husband, and we shall take over from here. We shall get you to your father’s side at all costs,” said Jean-Claude.

“You guys are ridiculous,” Micah said breathlessly.

“Only because we love you, Leopard King,” said Harry. “Do you not want to show our twins and Teddy off?”

“God yes,” Micah whispered. “But can we go on such short notice?”

“Yes, I will get us through,” said Jean-Claude. “No matter what. But you and mon Amour go first. I shall start packing. Lots to do, I’ll have our jet ready to go, and then I shall borrow Draco’s jet.”

The ostentatious poncy Pureblood Prince had gone out and purchased himself a jet to celebrate his and Asher’s anniversary.

“I need to arrange for others to take care of business - oh God, I can’t think, what am I going to do?”

“Let me call Rafael,” said Harry.

“Yes, yes, Rafael. He’s always there…”

“Yep. Most dependable Godfather we’ll ever have,” said Harry proudly. “Just get back home, Noah gets to drive. If you can’t think, you can’t drive.”

“Right, yes, Noah.”

“I’ll get us the guards together. Lisandro’s children are at summer camp. So I’ll see if he wants to take a trip with us.”

“I need to check the area and the groups. Mon chaton are there wereleopards in your hometown?”

“Not anymore,” said Micah quietly. “Chimera killed all of them. But I know there are wolves left.”

It was no wonder Micah was still too scared to go back home or reconnect with his family. He could hear and feel Micah moving around. Noah had taken the keys to his new car. It was a simple silver sedan. A four door. Befitting of the head of a nonprofit organization. So practical and simple that was their Micah. He never asked for anything and always gave his best in everything he did.

“Edward, why are you coming home? You haven’t finished the hunt,” said Micah.

“You’re kidding right, Alpha?”

“No? I can’t think.”

“Obviously. Let us do the thinking. They’ll still be here when I come back, Alpha.”

“You never abandon a hunt.”

“I’m not abandoning it, but you are far more important. You are our husband. End of story.”

Harry could feel Micah shaking in the car. A golden hand had been placed over the side of his face as Noah drove them away from the restaurant. Harry could see the twinkling rings that sat on his fingers. All of them wore two at all times. It might have been more traditional for only the female to wear both rings, but all of them had decided when marrying they’d make their own tradition. Edward had been the one to give them their engagement rings from the old broken torc that Harry had owned. Jean-Claude had gotten them their actual marriage bands, and he had spent more time than necessary picking out the best of the best.

“I’m pulling out now so I can make some calls, unlike Jean, I can’t multitask,” said Harry.

“I’ll be here,” said Edward.

Good, Harry didn’t say aloud. Harry mentally kissed Micah on the forehead before he pulled out. Aware of his own tears because when you were linked like this it was impossible not to feel the overflow from each other. He closed all three doors and wiped his own face.

He called Rafael first.

“Mendoza here.”

“Rafael?”

“Harry,” his strict rough voice changed a notch to the tone of natural warmth, and Harry couldn’t help but smile. “How are you doing, Harry?”

“Could be better.”

“Tell me what’s going on. Let’s see if your favorite rat can help you.”

Harry chuckled weakly and told him everything. He left nothing out because why would he? It was Rafael. He was very important to all of them, including Edward. “I see, I am very sorry for Micah and what he is going through. I do know Lisandro has been itching to get away for a few days. Nearly pouted at me when I sent Bobby Lee on the mission out of the country instead of him.”

“Yeah, I heard that now that they are officially divorced, his ex is suddenly more in love with him than she’s ever been. I knew that would happen. Let Lisandro know that if he does want or need to take something out of state or country I’d be more than happy to host his boys with me for the duration.”

“Mon Amour?”

“Hold on, Rafael…”

“Yes, Jean?”

“The local wolves have requested that you not bring anyone in who could challenge them. If there is need of a funeral, then they will understand us bringing in our wolves to call, but until that sad necessity they would like none of our wolves, as a sign of good faith.”

“Does a twelve year old count?” he asked dryly.

“Non, and I won’t even mention him. If they are going to be that weak by refusing a child’s entrance then that is on them.”

Harry’s wolf stirred as she seemed to overhear that. He could feel the insult that was handed down to her. A snort inside of him let him know that his healed wolf did not appreciate the sleight. He stroked her metaphysically. Ever since she’d started healing, she had taken her pack a lot more seriously. Harry still had the munin, and he could now use it without a river flowing. “Rafael? No wolves, please. It seems the local pack doesn’t want them.” A good thing he had taken Jamil and those who needed it on an execution that he’d taken alone. SWAT still had his back a lot of the time. Hill insisted that he be put on their speed dial. He respected them immensely, but Harry still liked to work without them most of the time.

“Got it! I’ll make arrangements, Harry, and let Micah know that I shall take all further communications in the Coalition. I’ll forward the number to my phone after this call so he won’t have to worry about anything.”

“Is that okay? I know you’re currently two states over and very busy, Rafael.”

“It’s more than fine, Harry. You know that. I control that area of rats, so they won’t have a choice but to heed my authority.”

“It’s sometimes good to be King, Rafael.”

“Mm, indeed. You take care of Micah. I shall take care of the logistics. How is everyone getting there? Aren’t Edward and Peter out?”

“Micah, Teddy, and I are headed there on the jet first. Edward and Peter are turning around and meeting us there. Jean is bringing the twins and Luna later with Draco’s jet.”

“Okay, so you’re going to be split by necessity. I’m sure Noah will want to go with Micah as his guard. I’ll make sure that Delton can stay with your submissives while you're gone instead of just part of the week. If Lisandro can go then I only need to find you a few others and a few for Edward and Peter. All of them will be willing and agreeable should the ardeur get out of hand or any such specifics.”

“I’m not planning on the ardeur getting out of hand. Merlin, that’s the last thing I need when meeting in-laws.” He shuddered.

“You never do, Harry. You have to think these things through. You are unique.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Harry muttered. “Edward’s not going to like having a guard assigned to him, much.” He couldn’t help but laugh.

“He can deal. You know Ethan would probably be free, have you talked with him yet?”

“I haven’t spoken to anyone beyond you and my husbands yet, Rafael.” Harry chuckled.

“Right, well let me make calls for you. You go home and pack, leave figuring out your guard to me.”

“Thank you, Rafael. We’d be lost without you.”

“Same with us, Harry. You bring too much light in everyone’s life. Your husbands too, oddly enough.”

Harry couldn’t help but laugh softly as the two hung up. Rafael was the best man ever. Right up there with his husbands in that best category. After taking a moment to gather himself, Harry started putting his office to order. He wasn’t going to be coming in for a least a week and there was no reason to leave the space messy in his absence. He locked away any confidential documentation and shut the lights off on his way out. Without fully being aware of his surroundings, Harry took the elevator to the lobby and walked up to Mary.

“I can tell by the look on your face that it’s not good.”

“No, Mary, it isn’t. Micah’s father is dying and we’re dropping everything to go see him before he passes. Please cancel all my appointments or find others who can fit them in.” When it came to traveling, it always turned into a three ring Circus. So many logistics. So many little things to get through and the red tape could be a pain in his ruddy arse.

“How long do you think you’ll be out?”

“It’s hard to say. The doctors have given him five days, I don’t know what kind of arrangements or time for funeral will be needed. Best to mark me out for the rest of the month.”

“Of course, Harry. Please give Micah a giant hug from me. Should Craig and I find flowers to send on behalf of Animators?”

“That’s sweet, Mary. I’m sure Micah’s mother would love that. Here’s the address I was given.”

“Leave that with me then. Get yourself home safely.”

He was just hoisting himself into the BMW when Jean-Claude came through the links again.

“The master vampire of the area has forgone the usual politics and wishes our Micah well. In fact, he offered to put his people at our disposal for transportation and errands so that you could all concentrate on the family.”

Harry settled back and considered this. “That was very nice of him.”

“It was, oui, but keep in mind we are no longer just visiting masters from out of town. We are Councilmembers, and thus we are all owed allegiance and a certain deferential treatment.”

“Can we at least do politics when Micah isn’t around?” Harry knew there was a chance that politics were going to happen no matter what. But he’d rather Micah know nothing about them.

“Oui, it is why I am telling you now. I do not wish to use our first bit of travel as a test when we are under such terrible circumstances.” Harry knew that for Jean-Claude it was harder on him because he was the one doing the red-tape cutting, and that tape could be some of the toughest to bite through. “We must always be conscious of other masters and their egos. We do not wish to incite rebellion so soon.”

“I can play the politics, honestly in the end I might need it if only to keep my head on straight. Just not in front of Micah. We are making our own rules after all. We do not have to follow the Council from Europe. In fact, let’s not because it didn’t work out so well for them. It might have lasted a long time, but modern times are modern times.”

“Oui. I have asked them not to offer food, that we have provided our own. All I asked was for free travel through the town. I will let them know if they wish to move beneath the blanket of politics that they would best do so out of the eyes of the most bereaved.” Harry laughed at the not so subtle way he was responding. No doubt he’d been using his better than thou tone when making arrangements. Even a master vampire of six hundred plus years had difficulties switching from modern speak to politics.

“I’ll pretend I even understood that, Jean. I won’t be rude or spook them or incite anything.”

“Non, I never expected you would. You are not that type. You are so good at traversing my heady world without so much as a script. I shall leave things to you. You always leave a mark, and I’ve never seen a bad mark yet.”

“Have you spoken with Logan?”

“Non, I have not spoken with our Ulfric yet. Is there anything in particular he needs to know.”

“Just need to make sure RPIT knows that Edward, Peter, and I will all be out and unavailable. They’ll need to rely on Logan and Arlen Brice for anything preternatural that comes up.”

“I shall pass the message on to Logan next then. Safe drive home, mon Amour. I have started packing for you all. Mon Petit Loup is assisting.”

“Remember, we are potentially going to a funeral. So, can we cut out on the lots of skin showing?”

Jean-claude chuckled. “Oui, we are meeting in-laws. But we must have extras in case there is a meeting and you must go as my human servant on our behalf. I shall find something in between. Do not worry your pretty head. Please pick up food, I can feel your belly rumbling in my head.”

“That’s you, Jean.” Harry was not the only one who could sometimes get caught up in business and other things that he forgets sustenance.

“It is both of us. We need our energies to help our husband. Mon Petit Loup just reminded me of the soup and salad thing you put together last night. He will set some out for us.” Jean-Claude still didn’t understand why things like soup and salad could mean a full meal. To him it didn’t seem substantial enough, but Harry liked having a soup, salad, and fruit bar once a month or so to use up all the fresh foods before they went to waste. Nathaniel and Harry had good fun in competition on the variety of soups they could make. Preservation charms were all well and good until they wore off, and then the food is forgotten about.

Harry hung up, and soon drove out of the parking lot to join the rest of the busy-bodies trying to get home before darkness fell.

Harry spent the time driving and stuck in traffic to prepare himself. No doubt Micah would return sooner than him. His meeting hadn’t been in the heart of St. Louis where everyone worked, lived, and congregated. Micah would need all of their attention and all of their focus. Not to mention he was meeting in-laws.

How did Harry do that? He sat behind a silver Tahoe at one of the busiest intersections and mulled over meeting a mother in-law. It was not the right time, considering the circumstances. He sighed softly. He loved Micah more than life itself, but he had not been embellishing when he said that sometimes Micah could be a coward to Dr. Lillian. He meant that with all the love in his heart. But, if Harry had had to run from his family and cut ties and even be mean, you would bet that once the storm had blown over, he’d have turned around and gone back home. He’d have been willing to grovel and do everything he could to fix it.

If he had one more shot with Sirius, he’d have taken it. He left Britain because he truly didn't have any family left. He hadn’t considered the Weasley’s as ‘family’ because they didn’t consider him anything more than the boy-who-lived. He had also made it a point to Teddy that he wasn’t running away from him. He was just leaving to find a life. For himself, for Teddy. Something better than what they were getting in the old world that couldn’t seem to pull its head out of its arse.

Micah was the only one with parents still alive as far Harry knew. Edward’s had been slaughtered as a result of cartel issues gone wrong. Jean-Claude - well he was six hundred, nuff said about that, and though Belle Morte was technically an in-law, she didn’t count on the ‘mean something’ scale. She was a necessity.

He turned, following the creeping Tahoe in front of him. He was aware of the man behind him in a blue sedan yelling into a cellphone.

Idiot.

Elara and Rigel had a shot at having grandparents. Even if he had to lovingly kick Micah in the rear-end, he would damn well make sure that he made up with them. Come hell or highwater. He felt his mother at least deserved that much because on the phone, even if he didn’t know her, he could hear her despair and the love in her voice. She loved her son and that was what mattered most.

Chapter Text

It was amazing how much could get done while Harry was stuck in traffic. He and Micah boarded first so that Lisandro and Noah could load the jet with their luggage. Teddy was outside trying to help as they sat on the crushed blue velvet bench seating beneath the window. Micah hadn’t said much of anything. As soon as Harry had returned home, a bowl of soup, salad, and fruit had been put into his hands by Teddy. It was so odd to see the twelve year old not smiling and so very serious. Even more odd that he moved so sedately to help where he could.

Micah laid across the seat with his head in Harry’s lap. He hadn’t said too much. Just seemed at a loss at home. He did seem to cling to the twins a bit more before kissing each one of them, and Jean-Claude helped him prepare for leaving. Jean-Claude had almost everything worked out by the time they’d arrived home. Pete, the pilot, and Stewart, the co-pilot, had moved the moment they were called in.

Harry took his thick curly hair out of its ponytail, and carded his fingers through the curls. Micah’s fingers were gripping his thighs. His face was passive behind the dark sunglasses he chose to wear. Harry pulled them off and stuck them on his own head for the time being.

“I don’t know how to do this,” Micah whispered as he rubbed his nose into Harry’s thigh. Harry wasn’t sure what to say, and so he chose to say nothing and continued to stroke him. Micah raised his head and stared right at Harry. He smiled a bit, but it was sad and self-deprecating. It also held a bit of anger that he always tried to keep tightly wrapped. He sat up, turned, and buried his face into Harry’s hair. He was constantly smelling him and nuzzling against him.

“See your folks?”

“Yes.”

“I wish I could help. I’m sorry you have to go home like this.”

Micah made a noise. “You know it’s my fault,” he breathed as he gripped Harry’s shoulder now. A bit too tight. Micah looked small, but he was an alpha wereleopard, he had a grip that could rip through a car if he used it all. “I’m a coward, and this is the price I’m paying.”

Harry wished he could say different but couldn’t, and so instead he kissed Micah on the cheek, letting it linger longer as he spoke against the perfect flesh. “No matter what you are, Micah, Nimir-Raj, you are my King and I love you. We all love you.”

“How do I see them again, Harry?” he asked, not using his usual name for him. It was like he needed levity as he pulled back to look at Harry. He had quick micro-expressions like he couldn’t settle long enough before going blank. “How do I deal with my dad hurt… maybe dying? And the way I treated them…” He turned now and rested his head against the seat and the window. He was staring at Harry from a strange position. It was like he couldn’t get comfortable. He was a wounded cat and trying to get comfortable was hardly an option. “I can’t imagine losing a parent as early as you did…”

“I was only a baby when my parents died, and Sirius, I didn’t even know he had died when he died. You remember that curtain you saw when all hell broke loose?”

Micah nodded slowly. “Yeah, I didn’t understand what that was.”

“It was death. A gateway. He was literally pushed through it, and at the time I was fifteen and hadn’t realized what was happening. I can’t really relate to the prolonging feeling you must be experiencing. But I think this is why it’s so important for you to be here now. You grew up with both your parents until you were ready to go off to college. My aunt and uncle aren’t worth mentioning.”

“I’ve got a stepfather and half-brothers,” he said softly. “I wasn’t close with my mom’s second husband or my half-brothers.” he turned around then and slumped away from the window. His head slid onto Harry’s shoulder as he looked far off. He had brought his knees to his chest. Not something he normally did. He was a sit straight kind of man. He didn’t slouch. Harry was the sloucher of the four of them. Micah always looked so regal, Jean-Claude too. Edward just looked ready for action. Harry kissed at his temple once more to give him some contact. “I wasn’t close with my mom’s second family. I was on Dad’s side after the divorce. I loved my mom, but she left him. He never really found anyone else to love, just her, as if he could only love one person.”

On the phone to Harry it sounded to him like she loved her ex-husband. “You know, it really surprised me when she talked to me.”

Micah titled his head just enough to look at him. “What do you mean?”

“I expected a lot of things. But, despite her tears, she seemed… okay and fine with the fact that you are married to three men. I even asked her to try and distract from her pain if she was okay with son-in-laws rather than a daughter-in-law. She told me you had the biggest heart when you were younger, and I told her that had never changed. How old were you when they divorced?”

Micah was still staring at Harry, his expression unreadable. “Twelve.” He was searching Harry’s face as a lot of the weres did when they were talking to someone. It was a habit of theirs, to see everything. To contemplate every single lift of a cheek or crease in the eyes. It was like they were taking every single detail in a way that most humans wouldn’t do.

“Your eyes were originally brown right?”

“Yes,” he smiled. “They were my fathers, but I’m happy with my eyes now. Rigel has them.”

“Yes he does.”

“I didn’t think they’d be genetic.”

“Now they are. You look like your dad?”

“He’s a little taller. But we’re built alike. He knew to put me into gymnastics and martial arts as a kid, not peewee football. He loves watching the games, but he was always too small to play and he knew I would be too. So he didn’t put me through the frustration of it the way his own dad did.”

“Your grandfather?”

“Yeah, he’s taller, built like an ox. Dad and I are built like my grandma’s side of the family. My family has always been progressive. It’s why them divorcing was confusing. Both of them were on the same wavelength. They never tried to force us into the gender norms. They always let us choose our direction. Kind of like you did with Teddy when we first met. I think I connected with that. It was a slice of home that I didn’t know how much I missed.”

“I take it your grandfather wasn’t your favorite person?”

He shook his head weakly. “My dad and he had issues with my dad not being big enough for regular sports, though Dad went to college on a baseball scholarship. He was good enough for college, but he didn’t have the size for the power hitting you need in the majors and he knew it. Granddad Callahan played football and wrestled. He also muscled up better than we did. More like a wererat.” It was at that moment that Lisandro stepped onto the plane. He didn’t bother to interrupt Harry and Micah.

“I don’t think it’s just your grandfather’s issue. It seems like the older generation has that issue almost completely. A horrible stereotype, but what do you when it fits?” Harry said, thinking about Jason’s family.

Micah snorted. “Yes. A lot of arguments along that line over the years…” And then he trailed off and his face went from wistful to crumpled.

Harry curled around Micah and brought him closer until Micah flopped into his lap. Only Micah could do this considering both of them were slight enough to take each other’s natural weight.

“Ethan’s been delayed. He and Dev are having issues with Nilda,” said Lisandro softly, and Harry could see the regret of interrupting them.

“We’ve already had words with her master,” said Harry. “Does Jean-Claude need to set an example again?”

“Probably soon.” A beep came from his phone as Teddy appeared behind him. Lisandro smirked and moved so that Teddy could get to them. Harry held out his free arm as the boy hugged them and then flopped down beside him and kissed Micah on the nose. “Ah, they’re switching with Bram and both will fly out later. Bram is already here so that helps.”

“That’s fine. He’ll have a pack in his car for last minute assignments. Just remind Ethan not to let Nilda drown him in her world of crazy. She’s a werebear afterall, not his issue unless he’s there for Dev. Ethan’s a bit too sensitive still to be taking care of everyone else’s control issues.” Most of the wererats really liked Ethan. He was one of the hardest working men in their guard group. He was always the last to leave the gym and always the first to arrive. Nilda did not have the kindest master, and Jean-Claude, Edward, and Harry were constantly having to run interference. Nilda and her Master were a part of the Harlequin that they’d inherited. The Master was more close to the old guard, and Harry knew that if they’d had a choice they wouldn’t have chosen Jean-Claude and Harry. But if they didn’t choose them then the Council would be on their asses. The Traveler had made that loud and clear. It seemed that Nilda’s Master couldn’t resist the Traveler’s possessive control.

Micah gave Teddy a real smile that reached into his leopard eyes. “Love you, Pup.”

“Love you too, Papa.” Teddy kissed and nuzzled him.

Micah cupped the back of his head and responded back. Harry could feel the man relax beneath him. Good. Teddy was the perfect security blanket. It had worked with Jason, so why wouldn’t it work with Teddy’s Papa?

Abraham and Noah boarded, and soon enough they were taking off without more drama or delays.

Denver, Colorado was one of those places where June afternoons were really nice, but come nightfall it could get downright chilly. It was currently a low of forty something degrees. Harry knew they would be meeting Fredrico’s vampires on the ground. He would have to dress the part. He silently prayed to Death that they wouldn’t be starting politics so bloody early and with Micah at his side. But he wasn’t holding his breath. Some Preternaturals had no tact.

Teddy stayed back with Micah as the snuggler so that Harry could re-dress and freshen up for his part. Teddy was too young to worry about vampire politics. They were just over half way through their two and a half hour flight.

He had black leathers that were snug and tight fitting in all the right places with dark green stitching from the cuff to the hip. No skin was visible with how closely cross-stitched it was, thankfully. It was paired with a soft deep green sleeveless turtleneck that he folded beneath the torc so that the torc sat glowing in view. He then chose an open and partially tucked long sleeve collared shirt that was white. On the back was a black silhouette of all the weres that he had possession of; wolf, lion, rat, and tiger, and in the very center was a leopard, acknowledging his first and married connection. Jean-Claude was having wardrobes for all of them created to be who they were supposed to be in the political circle.

He grinned when Lisandro whistled while leaning against the door.

“I don’t think the toilet is going to attack me.”

“Can never be too sure, Precious. You planning for politics?”

“I’ve learned to always plan. I had hoped to wear a suit or something to meet the in-laws, but with unknown vampires waiting on the ground, I don’t doubt that the pomp and fromp will start the moment the wheels touch the runway.”

“You’re not wrong.” He slipped behind Harry and considered the back of the shirt. “I prefer the Rat.”

Harry grinned. “My only male,” he said proudly.

“Maybe you wished it to be male,” said Lisandro. “So it became male. All your others had been unintentional. Your Rat was more planned, even if you didn’t know it at the time.”

“Maybe. Or I already had Rafael’s strain from that one time with the ardeur, and when he did it a second time with real intention, it just stayed male.”

“I don’t think it matters in the end.”

“How’s Micah?”

“Teddy’s good.”

“Yes, he is. He’s my secret weapon. Always has been when you have to help with grief.”

Lisandro smirked and couldn’t resist trying to get into Harry’s back pockets. “Once again, glued shut nearly.”

Harry shook his head and rubbed his ass teasingly against Lisandro, who’s smirk turned into a grin as he took a copious amount of time feeling his ass up. Harry didn’t mind. “I have tried to remind Jean-Claude that humans need to breathe. It’s amazing how impaired these powerful vampires can be.”

“And you still haven’t put on your boots.”

“Gotta get some height. All you bloody giants,” he muttered as Lisandro pulled him around and nudged him onto the sink. Harry sat, and Lisandro helped him into the two inch heeled boots that were calf height. Lisandro propped Harry’s foot against his leg as he laced up the boots. “Not sure if this is proper in-law material,” he hummed.

“If they don’t love you, Harry, that’s on them,” said Lisandro as he switched Harry’s feet.

“I hope. I want to make things as easy as I can for Micah. He doesn’t need to be putting up with Preternatural malarky when he’s in such a crisis.”

All of the guards were wearing tight blood red t-shirts and relaxed jeans accompanying a leather jacket that hid their holsters and guns.

“How do I smell?” Harry asked once Lisandro had finished.

Lisandro looked contemplatively and then he stepped forward, hooking his forearms beneath Harry’s knees and drew him right against his crotch. Harry nibbled at the man’s collarbone as Lisandro’s nose and mouth took liberties, running across his ear and neck.

“You smell way too good,” Lisandro hissed with a snap of his teeth in his ear. “I can hear the rush of your blood and feel the pulse in your throat.” He dragged his mouth down, teeth grazing across his skin, causing everything inside of him to prickle as it threatened to come alive. “Jean-Claude told us before we left that we may be tested, shall we give them a test of our own? Remind them what you wield?” Lisandro growled, causing the hot heated beast tucked away in Harry to stir. “If they feel it right there on the surface, they might think twice.”

“You expect me to have this kind of control?” Harry moaned as his fingers ran up the tight red shirt. He didn’t dare to go beneath, fearing what the skin on skin would do to him. “I’m not that old…”

Lisandro chuckled hotly. “I believe in you, Precious.” He said before he drowned Harry with kisses. He’d fed earlier that morning before Wicked Truth had gone down for the day. It was thanks to their close proximity to the house, and being Harry’s pommes, that they could survive the morning hours about two hours before it took them under. Both had come back into the master inheritance that they’d lost. Harry hadn’t been able to feed from Micah because Jean-Claude had. It’d been a fun orgy.

He could feel his sexual monster on the edge, trying to rise up out of his throat, and then Lisandro pulled back leaving Harry panting and his cheeks flushed.

“Now you are Jean-Claude’s human servant,” he said, looking pleased with himself.

“You bastard,” Harry breathed. He playfully punched at Lisandro’s hard chest. He licked his lips, his crotch had swelled and in these tight leathers it wasn’t enjoyable. “I do hope Micah’s family doesn’t notice.”

“I think they will have other priorities, Precious. Come on, let’s get you back.”

“Ulgh, you are insufferable since your divorce!” He grumbled as he leaned into the heated contact of Lisandro’s body.

“Being back to myself has that perk.”

“Not to mention I know it feels good rubbing it into her face about what she lost.”

“Maybe a bit. Pride is a vicious thing sometimes, Precious.” Harry took that to mean more than the issue with his wife. He was thinking of Micah.

“Yeah, it is,” Harry agreed. “Thanks for coming as our guard.”

“Always be here.”

Micah actually smiled when he saw Harry and smelled his desires. “So soon?” he asked. He was holding Teddy in his arms on his lap.

“He’s just stirring me up. In case someone has any ideas of trying to play politics when we clearly said no politics.”

“Ah, makes sense.”

“Besides, how can I not? Have you not seen his pants, Micah?” asked Lisandro, turning Harry around.

“He’s beautiful,” said Micah, squeezing Teddy who cocked his head.

“Tight again, is my Parrain going to pass out before we get to where we are going?” Teddy asked cheekily, causing Harry to go a rare shade of red as everyone laughed.

“Someone needs to have words with your Pére, reminding him that for all intents and purposes I am human.”

“Breathing is an afterthought some of the time,” Abraham chuckled.

Harry kissed Micah and Teddy before he flopped down. “Almost there.”

“Good news about Colorado, it’s now earlier,” said Teddy. “More time in the night.”

“Should I dress-?” Micah asked. He was still in the lovely designer suit he’d been at his meeting with. Harry did help press out the wrinkles magically. He’d been slouching and shifting throughout the whole flight. He rebraided Micah’s hair for him, and smiled when Micah bit down on his neck lovingly.

“No. You are not to worry about a thing. Let me deal with everything related to politics. Got it?”

“Yes, Nimir-Ra.” Besides, he was meeting his cousin on the ground. He need not worry about preternatural anything right now. Noah was to stick to his side no matter what. Lisandro was going to be at Harry and Teddy’s side, and Abraham would be overseeing them all.

It was dark when they landed in Colorado, and so there wasn’t much that Harry could say about Denver yet. It was like every other city he’d visited. All lit up like electric stars that were scattered across the ground.

Abraham was the first to disembark from the plane once it had come to a full halt and the stairs descended. To anyone looking at him, he looked the very essence of a bodyguard. His face and all were on. A clear indication of what he was.

Next was Micah and Harry hand in hand, Noah and Lisandro at their backs. Cute little Teddy was in front of Lisandro, behind Harry, and was trying to look guard-like. He’d even donned on a red shirt for the occasion before leaving, nevermind the fact that the red shirt meant that the men were available for sex… Micah had actually grinned when he saw Teddy wearing it. His hair was plaited back in his natural brown shade. Lisandro had done it for him, reminding him that guards don’t stick out with bright colored hair.

There were two black SUVs waiting for them that came with a matching set of vampires along with a white SUV that had a very human woman leaning against it. She was built small and delicate like Micah with curly red hair trailing around her shoulders.

Harry didn’t have to see the color of her eyes or the shape of them to know who she was. Even in the dim runway lights he could see the similar bone structure though her red hair and freckles were a surprise addition.

She smiled pushing away from the SUV. She had on blue jeans, a polo shirt, and cowboy boots, which looked like something she wore every day with how worn they were.

Micah released Harry’s hand and went to her with a huge smile on his face. Noah followed just behind. He said. “Juliet.”

“Mike.”

For some reason, Harry felt jarred by them calling him Mike. Harry knew that this woman was Micah’s Uncle Steve’s daughter, and that cousin Richie had been Steve’s son, but both of them had died in the attack that had turned Micah into a wereleopard. Micah and Richie had both been only eighteen. Richie back from basic and about to ship out to an active-duty post and Micah back from a first year of college. They’d come home to have one last deer hunt with their fathers, but while they’d been hunting the doe they bagged, something else had been hunting them. Micah’s dad had been called away for a suspicious death or he’d have been on the hunt with them.

Harry tilted his head fractionally, taking his eyes off his husband and his cousin as one of the vampires began to glide over toward him. Or at least what he must have considered a glide. He was dressed in a black suit and white shirt; even the tie was black. It was Jean-Claude’s signature black and white, but somehow it didn’t work as well for this vampire. Maybe because it wasn’t a personalized style. Is this what the Council used to expect? If so, he’d have to set them right, they were not Europe. Maybe not now, but soon.

“Mr. Potter-Black I presume?” said the vampire, in a voice as bland and unimpressive as his clothes.

“Yes, it’s very nice to meet you,” said Harry, taking his hand and shaking it firmly. He gave the man a stunning smile, and he saw the effect of Lisandro playing around with him almost the moment they made contact.

He caught the real surprise on the vampire’s face. His eyes darted over Harry’s head to where their guards were standing. He hadn’t seemed to notice Teddy, which meant that he couldn’t have been long dead. He was about like Willie, twenty or thirty tops. So, Fredrico sends a small fry in case they were to use him as a snack or some fun? He thought, trying not to feel judgy toward someone he didn’t know. He had to remember that they were all used to the Council.

“My master and Kiss are at your disposal, Mr. Potter-Black.” he said with a courteous bow.

“That is unnecessary, Mr.-?”

“Alfredo.”

“Mr. Alfredo. I do appreciate you taking time out of your night to come and greet us at the airport.” He must have said something strange because his eyes continued to get wider. Harry wondered how much he could make them grow, and would they burst or pop out like on that movie Beetlejuice? Harry liked that movie a lot and the music. It was fun. “But I think we will probably be riding with my husband. Please don’t take that as a slight.”

“Sir?”

“I’d like for us to cut off pretenses for the moment, and at least wait until a more appropriate timing. I know what you are used to dealing with, and all the hoops you have to jump and climb through. If your Master wishes to play politics later we can do so. But for this night can we cut them from the itinerary? Please?” He thought if he added that please part to the end of his request then it would help. It never hurt to try.

Alfredo was staring at him, in the same way that some of Jean-Claude’s vampires did when he was on the verge of unleashing his ardeur or needing a feed. It was a look of hunger and he wasn’t trained enough to hide it. He only looked away when Lisandro and Abraham moved in close on each side of Harry.

Alfredo had to raise his eyes to see them better. Noah was at Micah’s side and Teddy was behind Abraham. “If that is your wish, Mr. Potter-Black.” He dipped his head down.

“Harry, please.”

“Then call me Alfie.”

How did he do that and not snicker? “I assure you if there is anything we need, we will not hesitate to call and request it. For now, we must play as normal as we can. You understand right, Alfie?”

“Normal?” The vampire couldn’t seem to help but laugh. A short, abrupt, and very human laugh. Yeah, he was very young. “Normal people do not have bodyguards. Normal people would not be given royal treatment by my master. You cannot be normal, Harry Potter-Black. You are the Equalizer and now you are the magical Queen to our dark King, Jean-Claude.”

“Another bloody feminine title,” Harry muttered, causing Teddy to snicker behind them. Even Micah’s lip twitched. He had gone over to Juliet so as not to drag her toward the vampires. Noah at his side. Harry could see her confusion from here. “You do realise that there are four of us men married together. It’s not just Jean-Claude and I.”

“It simply is, gender is hardly a necessity. You are a Necromancer and I don’t know what else. The list of your powers and titles are too long, and thanks to your request that we not be formal I do not have to list them all, but normal you will never be.”

“Yes, that is true, Alfie. But I need to play normal. So can we at least play?” he asked with a harder edge to his tone. He let his ardeur stir around him and the vampire took one step back. He was breathless and turned his eyes onto the ground. Harry could almost taste his fear and nerves. Harry wasn’t trying to be threatening at all. “I need stability right now, Alfie, not formalities. That is the best thing you can give me right now.”

“Is there a problem, Baby?” Micah asked, coming over leaving Juliet at the SUV. His voice was low enough so that it didn’t carry back to his cousin. Noah was right behind him, being looming and scary.

“Not a problem, Husband.”

Alfie bowed to Micah and said. “Mr. Callahan, I am sorry to meet you under such trying circumstances. My name is Alfie and my master has put me at your disposal throughout the evening hours.”

“Thank you, Alfie, I do appreciate it,” said Micah.

“We shall serve you in any capacity that you need, Harry,” said Alfie. “But if you are trying to play at normal, your power is not helping to play at anything.”

“That is on me, not you Alfie. It’s been a rough day. It’s hard to deal with all needs when things are topsy turvy right now.”

“We were told that you would not need sustenance. Is there a change to those plans?”

“Not at all, Alfie. As you can see I have brought more than enough, and I always thought it was quite a rude tradition myself.”

Alfie’s eyes widened. “That - is unexpected.”

“I am unexpected. I’m not even thirty, Alfie, and we are not Europe. A lot of things in Europe should not be promoted and passed forward into the modern era should it?”

“I cannot answer that.”

“I understand. You don’t have to. What I’m telling you is, you don’t have to impress me, and if you want to impress me I’d like for you to be yourself.”

“Mike, what are we doing?” asked Juliet, coming over now.

Micah quickly turned. “Juliet…”

“Who is riding with me?”

“Are you Papa’s cousin?” Teddy chose that perfect moment to slide around all the big men to approach Juliet, and Micah’s face broke out into a big real smile.

Juliet’s dark brown eyes widened when she saw Teddy standing there. “Papa?”

“Juliet, meet my son, Teddy, and also one of my husbands, Harry Potter-Black. My other two will be along soon, no doubt.”

“Are you one of those nice cousins or one of those jack asses?” asked Teddy boldly, causing the guards to snort and Harry to fold his lips to keep from smiling.

“Wha-?”

“You know because we’ve met them before. You remember Jason’s, Parrain. How his family were. All so stuck up and weird and rude! So, I’d like to know if you are one of those jack asses. I need to know how to act.”

Harry turned half his body to hide his face as he snickered. Even Alfie was trying to keep it cool. Micah hadn’t cared and just outright laughed.

“You have a son?” she asked wide-eyed.

“I do. I have more than that, but they’re home right now,” said Micah proudly. “To answer your question, Pup. We do have jack asses in the family. My father’s side are religious assholes. But he is not unless that’s changed over the years..”

“Mike!” Juliet gasped.

“Tell me it’s not true?” Micah challenged, his eyes narrowing.

“You were always the peacekeeper. You used to be more understated. You were always the perfect son until you weren’t. You’d get something you believed in and you would never back down, no matter what.” She sighed, and looked at Teddy then back at Micah.

Harry could see that Juliet was having a small war with herself. As if she was trying to reconcile the Micah of now to the Mike he used to be. Harry wanted to tell her he hadn’t changed. Just evolved, but he didn’t feel like this was his place.

“I’ve got a life, Juliet. I went out and found one somehow, and they can put up with me. I’m married to three men, and very happily at that. If that side of the family can’t handle it, that’s not on me,” said Micah coolly.

“You’re really going to start something, aren’t you?” She shook her head. “It’s not your fault of course, they’ve always been like that. Even when I was living with my boyfriend.”

In the end it was parsed out that Harry, Teddy, Micah, and Lisandro would ride with Juliet. The others would take Alfie up on one of the SUVs. Harry thanked him with a warm squeeze of a hand making the vampire visibly flush at the contact. Harry knew he was running warmer than usual, thanks to Lisandro.

Juliet seemed confused when all of their luggage fit so easily in one large suitcase. Lisandro kept that with them and placed it in Juliet’s car. Abraham and Noah drove in the other that Alfie had given them for their use during their stay. Lisandro was much better at blending in than Noah and Abraham were. Harry, Micah, and Teddy rode in the middle. Lisandro sat up front with Juliet.

Juliet was quiet for a moment as they drove out of the airport. She glanced in the rearview mirror at the SUV. Abraham was driving it. “Do I need to drive slow so your other guard won’t lose us?”

“You couldn’t lose Bram if you tried,” said Lisandro. He was using his ‘family’ voice. He didn’t sound very guard-like, but that was okay. They were supposed to blend in after all. “You won’t lose him by accident.”

“The roads are tricky after dark.”

“Juliet,” Micah said softly. “It’s fine. All our people know their jobs.” Micah was between Harry and Teddy, and had both their hands clasped in his to provide some grounding. He still had that far away look that was not usual.

Some of their other guards were taking a commercial flight in order to space out their arrival. Just in case this Fredrico had all eyes on Harry and his men.

“Nicky really wanted to come along,” said Teddy.

“He’ll likely be in the second group,” Micah said, squeezing him.

Juliet continued to talk as she drove. Harry found out that her and her husband ran a working farm. They had two kids. Most of his generation of cousins were either married or in the military and a lot of them had kids.

Micah nuzzled his nose into Harry’s ear. “We should have brought them.”

“They’re coming,” Harry promised with a touch to his cheek.

“Yes,” said Micah proudly. “I know, but I want them now.”

“You know Luna needed a bit more time to get away, and we can’t have them without her right now.”

“So, Teddy was it? You called Mike, Papa. How old are you?” Juliet asked as she drove down the highway.

“I’m twelve. Papa isn’t my birth father, but he did blood adopt me along with Parrain, Dad, and Pére. Then they all married and it became completely official.” Teddy piped up with a smile.

“It was always official, Pup. Never doubt that.” Micah kissed Teddy’s temple.

“What happened to your birth father?” Juliet seemed like she was trying to find something normal to follow-up with.

“Remus died along with Teddy’s mother when Teddy was a few months old. As his godfather, I took shared custody with Teddy’s grandmother for a few years. I then took full custody when I finished settling in America.” Harry interjected.

“Oh. I’m sorry,” she winced. “Um… if you’re twelve you must be in middle school. How are you finding it?”

“Oh, I’m not going to a no-maj middle school. I just finished my first year at Ilvermorny. I’m a full blooded wizard like Parrain. I hope Rigel and Elara are too.”

“We won’t know for a few months, Teddy Bear. Magic doesn’t start showing until the second month at the earliest.”

“I can wait. Even if neither are, they’re perfect.” Micah swooped around Teddy and snuggled him.

“So are you, Pup.”

“Rigel and Elara?” Juliet looked back at them in the rearview mirror. “Who are they?”

“Our newborn twins. They’ll be arriving with the rest of the family.” Harry said proudly.

“You have babies? I didn’t realize one of your spouses was a woman. I thought you mentioned husbands.”

“Only husbands. A good friend acted as a surrogate for us.” Micah answered.

“That was kind of her.” Juliet stated.

“In the magical world there are a lot of ways to have children,” said Harry, reaching over Micah to run his fingers through the fringe of Teddy’s hair. “A lot of ways for children to become yours without the so-called normal. If you give the kids blood-tests it would show that they belong to all four of us. Equal parts in everything.”

Teddy beamed. “Yep! I can’t wait until they become more lively. Right now all they do is sleep or stare at things.”

“So did you.”

“Seems… you’ve done well for yourself, Mike,” said Juliet. “You have a whole family.”

“I do,” said Micah. “It’s incredible.” Micah turned and gave Harry a simple kiss.

Harry and Teddy did their best to pet some of the tension out of him on the way to the hospital. It kept rising. Slowly at first, but he was worked into a knee bouncing rhythm by the time they pulled in.

Abraham shadowed behind them as Lisandro’s eyes scanned the lot. “My job just got easier, what is with all the police?” he asked.

Juliet pulled into a parking space with a sheriff car on one side. Abraham had to drive past them as there were no other spots as far as the eye could see. “One of their own is inside,” Harry explained, and Lisandro nodded in understanding. “A lot of these marked cars are from towns far away though. There’s even one from Wyoming.”

“Dad’s been the county Sheriff for a long time,” said Micah. “He knows a lot of people. He was always even, balanced in everything. He never made enemies.”

“There’s a few officers we’ve met that could learn from that.” Harry chuckled, and he shivered when Micah suddenly drew him into his chest and kissed him out of nowhere.

For a brief long minute, Harry was breathless and could only give in. He brushed a hand to Micah’s cheek as the world vanished for a brief moment. He could feel the need and grief beneath his perfect pouty lips, and when he was pulled back Harry cleared his throat.

“And that was for?”

“Being you,” said Micah. “I know Dad would have loved you, Harry.” His voice went into that strangled dip as he controlled his emotions.

Juliet looked at them with a small hint of alarm. “You really are married, and to three men.”

Micah blinked and looked over at her. “Yes, what part of that did you not understand?”

“I thought you were just putting on… or it was a show.”

“Why would it be a show?” Lisandro asked coolly. “That would be disrespectful, and not only to Micah but also to Harry, Jean-Claude, and Edward.”

Juliet had the grace to look embarrassed. “And they don’t care that you are separate and kissing and stuff?”

“We’re married,” Micah reminded flatly. “Just get over it, Juliet.”

“I’m trying… just going to take time. I didn’t know you liked guys, Mike.”

“I’ve always been open, Juliet. Dad has always known that. Mom too, some of the time.”

Harry rubbed at Micah’s wrist. “Let’s get going and see your Dad.”

“Yes, please.” Harry could feel the rise in confidence, but Micah was still tense. The kiss he’d given Harry had given him an energy he hadn’t had before as they all climbed out. Abraham and Noah were already on each side of the car. Juliet flinched, having not noticed them until she turned to close her door.

“Geez, where did you come from?” Juliet squeaked, closing her door.

“My mom,” answered Abraham with a smirk.

Lisandro opened the door for Harry and Micah. It had been instinct now to wait on him. Harry and Micah got out. Teddy followed Micah out even though he could have gotten out on his side behind Juliet. It was all about solidarity.

Harry was ever so glad that they had chosen this lot for the first go around. Rafael was an ace at choosing men. He knew what they would likely be meeting. If one cop was in the hospital, all of them clamored around. So Rafael had sent men who smelled and acted like military and cops to other cops. Nicky and Dev would have made them nervous as hell unless they were Zeze and RPIT who were now very used to his men. Dolph had even made a comment about being kept out of trouble.

He let the men do the guarding as his mind wandered while they walked through the doors of the hospital. Teddy and Harry were holding hands with Micah as Juliet led the way. Noah was behind them, Abraham was next to Teddy and Lisandro by Harry.

One of the first to approach them was a Deputy Al Truman. He was a tall and thin man with rather large hands and feet. It reminded him of a human Hagrid, except less hairy and not as much girth. He wasn’t grace personified, but he didn’t seem to trip over his feet either.

He took off his cowboy hat with its official-looking band. In another part of the country it would have been a more typical Smokey Bear hat. Those big hands rubbed the brim over and over like a nervous habit of long duration. His brown hair was crushed by the hat but looked like it had some wave to it.

Pity, Harry thought. He’d come to love full heads of hair in the men around him. Micah was right, Edward would have to grow his out again. Just enough so they could run their fingers through it at least. Edward wasn’t the only one to love grabbing a handful of hair during sex. He wondered if the man would be unhappy if he used a bit of potion to help it along? Probably not if he knew about it ahead of time.

He smiled sadly first at Micah and then his eyes twinkled at Harry. “I hate that you’re coming home to this, Mike.”

Micah nodded. “Me, too, Al.” He turned to Harry and Teddy. “Al and I went to high school together.”

“Hello there, Officer Truman!” Teddy said cheerfully.

Al kept his smile. “Hello there, young man. I was best friends with Richie. We went through boot together.” He nodded as he looked at Harry. “You must be Harry Potter-Black. I’ve heard a lot about you.” His hand was strong and warm in Harry’s. It was also a whole lot bigger. “He’s quite a catch, Micah.”

“All of them are. You do know I’m married to two others right?”

“Yes. We saw you on the news and on TV plenty of times. Not many of us are surprised,” said Al. “Richie was fluid himself, the family would never forget it.”

Micah nodded and Harry looked at Micah to explain. “Richie was the first one to prove that gay doesn’t have a look. He sort of barreled right through the family dynamics. At least on my dad’s side. As I said, dad was always stoic and fluid.”

“Sounds like someone I’d have liked a lot,” said Harry cheerfully.

“Indeed, you would have, I have no doubt,” said Al. “He’d have probably flirted insatiably with you and then make Mike mad.”

Micah snorted. “He could have tried. Al, this is my son, Teddy.” Micah dropped Teddy’s hand and instead wrapped his arm around Teddy’s shoulders.

Al shook his hand too, and it was nice to see that he seemed to have no judgment or the same reaction that Juliet had. Harry knew it was likely shock more than anything else. She was likely grasping for anything normal, unfortunately for her their family was as far from normal as one could get. Harry noticed that Micah had become colder toward her since her reaction in the car.

Sergeant Michael Horton kept his Smokey Bear hat on; it went with his Colorado State trooper uniform. He was younger than all of them, except for of course Teddy. He was as tall as Abraham who stood like a rock behind them, hands clasped behind his back. His shoulders solid as a rock.

The hair that showed around his hat was a buzz-cut short. It was a classic military style. He wondered what flavor? Edward talked about identification of them, but to Harry it didn’t matter to him.

“Sheriff Callahan is a good man,” Horton said as he shook Micah’s hand.

“Thank you.”

Sergeant Ray Gonzales stepped into the silence. He was with the Boulder Police Department. He was just under six foot. He was built big like Nicky, but going soft around the edges. He looked like he was closing in on sixty.

He broke pretenses by hugging Micah tight. “Glad you came, Mike. It’ll mean a lot to Rush.”

“I wish I’d come sooner,” said Micah with a hand handed pat to the man’s arm. His other still clasped with Harry’s. It kept tightening with every sympathetic platitude.

He pulled back and looked at Harry and then smiled at Teddy who waved back at him. “I’ve known Mike since he was a baby. Al too, come to think of it. Rush and I are the old ones now.”

“I doubt that sir. Harry Potter-Black.” Harry extended his hand. “I know how you veterans work. Some of my favourite to work with. This is our son, Teddy.”

He greeted Teddy as he chortled and clasped his hand with Harry. “Heard a lot about you of course, Marshal Potter-Black. But you can’t be old enough to have done half of what we’ve heard.”

“You’d be surprised by how old I really am. Please, don’t listen to half of it. Unless it came from Micah. You know how the media can be.”

“We certainly do,” said Gonzales. “No matter the flavor or the case or what have you, you stick to it. Your credentials are more than good enough in our book.”

“Thank you, Sergeant.”

Another man, a plainclothes cop, offered his hand to Micah. “Detective Richman, Ricky. I work with Ray up in Boulder and I wish the younger officers were half as tough as him and Rush.”

“I never said we weren’t tough. I said we were old, but ya can’t judge a book by its cover. Some of the smallest have the biggest strength.” He winked down at Teddy who beamed up at him.

Detective Rickman shook Harry’s hand next. “Your reputation precedes you, Marshal Potter-Black. It’s taken a few of our fellow magical friends to explain to us exactly how things are possible.”

“Technical loophole, detective. Never forget them,” said Harry, shaking the man’s hand firm enough to impress him.

“I know Rudolph Storr. He’s a good man,” said Gonzales. “Says good things about you.”

That was surprising. “He has?” Harry asked, surprised. He couldn’t hide it no matter how hard he tried.

“Yep, said half his men wouldn’t be alive if it hadn’t been for you. Said they’d still be chasing some freak zombie around the city eating people.”

“Sir, he’s not here for a case,” said Rickman with a frown.

“You just don’t want the light taken from you, Rickman, but right now we could use all the help we could get,” said Gonzales, shortly. “It’s lucky that Mike here is married to two of the the top Preternatural Marshals, we would be idiots and poor excuse for law enforcement if we did not recognize what we have in our midst.”

Rickman’s mouth opened and then shut as he stepped back. “Whatever you say, Sarge.”

“Exactly, the time for posturing is at an end now, Detective Rickman.” Harry had a feeling that Gonzales did not approve of Rickman much if at all.

“But he is a Necromancer, right? He’s an undead expert,” said Horton, looking at Harry. “You are right? Are the rumors about that true?”

Harry opened his mouth to speak but then snapped it shut and looked at Micah. Harry had noticed through all of this, all the men’s eyes had flickered and their skin had gotten warmer. Each one of them had even looked better than they had been when they first approached. All were less gray and worried around the edges. Harry looked back at Lisandro who didn’t look away. Yeah.

He had not expected this kind of greeting. Honestly, he was so used to people being dicks to him that it never occurred to him that someone would be relatively decent.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You know killer zombies, you’re an expert? Everyone says you are,” said Horton.

Teddy let out a giggle getting everyone’s attention. “You’re going to have to be meaner to my Parrain for him to understand you, Officers.”

“What do you mean, son?” asked Gonzales.

“My Parrain has had to put up with assholes for a long time now because he looks pretty and loves a lot of people. So he’s a bit surprised that you are being respectable human beings.”

Harry and Micah couldn’t help but choke out some laughs. Juliet looked horrified at Teddy.

“Does he always speak his mind?” she asked wide-eyed.

“Yes,” Harry and Micah said simultaneously. “Our kids will never be one of those people whose voice goes unheard because someone thinks it should,” Harry followed up.

“Well, I don’t quite know how other departments do it, Potter-Black, but respect is the number one key, no matter the flavor of cop,” said Gonzales.

“I wish I met you before I met the others then, Sergeant Gonzales,” said Harry. “For now I am here for Micah, but later if you need me to look at something or even bounce what’s going on off me I would be happy to. But right now my focus is all on my husband.”

“It’s okay, Baby. You should take this opportunity,” said Micah softly. “I could use the distraction. Get my nerves under control,” he said before Juliet could say they were wasting time.

After a glance at Micah to make certain, Harry turned back to the cops. “Give me the basics?”

“We have killer zombies on our hands,” Gonzales told him.

“Zombies plural? More than one?”

“Yes sir,” said Horton, nodding.

“It’s not just one zombie. That’s what’s weird. It’s not the same one. I mean, Sheriff Callahan talks about a flesh-eating zombie they had back in the seventies here, but they trapped it in a house and burned it. End of problem.”

Harry frowned. “A flesh eater is incredibly rare; I’ve only seen a few of them. You don’t get herds of them, no matter what the movies and TV shows put out there.” Nevermind the fact that Harry had used mass amounts of zombies before. But power like his was incredibly rare.

“So it was just the same zombie-eating people when you had to deal with one, right?” Al asked.

“It was a special supped up zombie. One backed by concentrated vaudun,” said Harry. “You say this is more than one? Are you sure it's not the same one and its decaying progression is not throwing others off? Zombies decay the more they are above ground.”

“We’ve had three vastly different descriptions, and they never match,” said Deputy Al. “One man, one woman, and one child. We think they’re a family that disappeared in the mountains about a month ago.”

Harry shook his head. “I’ve never heard of a whole family being raised as zombies, and they wouldn’t rise on their own. Not possible. You might have a rogue animator or a strong vaudun practitioner who might have held a grudge against the family. But it would have to be a hell of a grudge to raise a whole family from the dead, and if they were murdered, then the raised zombies would seek out their murderer and kill them. It’s why we can’t used murder victims in a court of law as zombies. It doesn’t work.”

“You’re talking about the Emmett Rose debacle aren’t you?” asked Gonzales.

“Yes, sir.”

“But he had a heart-attack,” Horton pointed out.

“Yes, sir, but the dead interpret their own demise differently. For him the heart-attack just became the instrument and tool of murder. Were any of these people magically or psychically gifted?”

“Not that we know of, why?”

“Cause the zombie can change depending on the circumstances. From religion to whether they have magical gifts or not.” Harry then seemed to remember himself and shook his head. “I knew a voodoo priestess that when she spat, her saliva was poisonous.”

“Seriously?” Rickman’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, I never bothered with vaudun. It creeps me out. I don’t like the whole life for a life thing. I don’t even like fuzzy goats being involved if I can help it.” Several of the men laughed at him, despite the tense atmosphere. He turned to Micah who was staring right at him without moving. “I’m sorry, Micah. I’ll stop.”

“Shit, I am very sorry, Mike,” said Al desperately. “It’s just someone mentioned calling in the Preternatural Unit, and Marshal Potter-Black was mentioned specifically, before we knew he was with you. I’m sorry. I was being a cop. I’m just…”

“No,” said Micah, his voice going up as he tightened his hand on Harry. “Please, don’t stop. Just hearing you speaking so intently is helping me.”

“You sure? We need to get to your Dad. I need to be your husband, not a Marshal.”

“You can be all those things. I know you have questions. Please, ask them. Maybe if it helps...” Micah’s eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses, but Harry could imagine that they were faraway.

He turned back to Al. “Micah’s mom said that Sheriff Callahan had been bitten by something preternatural. What was it?”

“One of the flesh-eating zombies,” said Al.

“She said that it was contagious, that he was rotting. Are we saying that the people bitten by the zombies are turning into zombies?”

“No, they just rot and die.”

Harry frowned. “But zombies aren’t contagious.”

“These are.”

“How many?”

“Five, but we’ve had witnesses to the last three attacks, so we know what’s doing it now.”

“Now?”

“The first two died real quick, until Dr. Rogers found some cases back east that sounded similar. He used some of the information that they published about it and was able to slow down the spread in the vic before the Sheriff.”

Harry kept his face set to neutral. He had a lot of ideas rolling around, but he didn’t want to give Micah any hope. He had a sick feeling in his stomach that he knew what all this was about. If he was right, their problems would go beyond Micah’s father. He was going to need evidence of it before he proceeded any further with his thoughts. No need to panic anyone if this isn’t the case.

Bloody Hell.

So instead of responding to the police, Harry turned to Micah, and his shoulders seemed to have relaxed somewhat. “Let’s go see your Dad, Micah. I won’t stall anymore.”

“Stall all you want because I love watching you work.” Micah lightly kissed Harry’s cheek.

Al seemed to notice Harry’s sudden poker face, but didn’t draw attention to it.

“Are you ready?” asked Juliet, uncomfortably.

“Yes, let’s go,” said Micah.

Merlin, Harry hoped he was wrong. Al led them toward the elevators, and all Harry could think about was praying to Death that he was wrong, but why pray about something that he was so sure that he was right about?

Chapter Text

Lisandro, Abraham and Noah scowled as the elevator made its way further up the shaft.

“You don’t look happy,” said Al.

“Elevators are death traps,” said Noah, shifting his weight.

“It’s bad for guarding,” said Abraham. “We should have taken the stairwell.”

“Why do you need guards anyways?” asked Juliet with a puzzled expression.

“A lot of reasons,” said Micah. “None I wish to talk about right now.”

Teddy tilted his head back and forth. “Don’t worry, if things go bad, my Parrain will apparate us out of here, right, Parrain?”

“You know it.”

“Can you take more than one?” asked Lisandro.

“I don’t want to do that ever again.” Noah deadpanned.

Harry smirked. “Come now, Noah, you didn’t like the feeling of being stuffed into a straw with the other end closed?” He turned to Lisandro. “Pretty damn positive I can take all of you, and I’m sure MACUSA would accept an emergency if I had to make a sudden portkey.”

“A wha-?” But Juliet went unheard.

“Hell no!” Noah scoffed. “You’re teasing me again, Nimir-Ra. A wizard’s form of travel is so uncomfortable!”

“You should try going through the floo, Uncle Noah!” said Teddy cheerfully.

“No thank you, bud. You’re a better man than me,” he grunted with a half smile.

“Yes, I suppose that has to be true, Uncle Noah.”

Micah chuckled and Harry smiled prettily as Noah’s shoulders relaxed. “Least we have a way out,” said Abraham.

“I’m betting that grate would be easy to pull down,” said Lisandro, looking up at the mesh screen.

“I’m not a bad climber, Uncle Lis!”

Lisandro flashed him that very rare and ultra handsome smile that had Juliet blinking at him for a moment. “Perhaps you can teach that to my boys.”

“I’d love to!”

“There is that rock wall that some of the boys asked me to bring in,” said Harry. “I could always charm the floor to be anti-gravity so the kids, if they fell, would only float.”

“Then they’d never leave your house, Precious,” Lisandro grinned as the elevator dinged on their floor.

“You need all the excuses to be around after all, Lisandro,” said Micah smirking.

“Maybe I do.” Everyone, but the normal humans laughed, and Harry rolled his eyes.

“No one needs excuses to be at our house,” he said sweetly.

“No they don’t. All are welcome,” Micah kissed him on the temple.

Juliet and Al took them down a short hallway, and then turned as a half a dozen cops pushed away from the walls. All cops aware and in uniform, it was simply how they were trained. Edward was no different in that regard. Harry had never quite had that down. He was too unique, too much of a wildcard.

Harry could feel Micah stiffen beside him, because of the two people in the hallway who were anything but cops.

It was a man and a woman. The woman was wearing a black polyester pantsuit that had fit twenty pounds ago. The white button-down blouse with its little ruffled collar didn’t help. Her glasses were large and black framed so they dominated her face, and it reminded Harry of Professor Trelawney. Already that gave him a sour taste in his mouth. Her hair was shortish and going from brunette to a tired gray. She’d also brushed her curls out in an attempt to straighten them. It made Harry think of wool.

Harry didn’t have curly hair, but Micah and Jean-Claude did, and so did the twins, Stephen and Gregory. He had learned fast that you did not brush out curls, ever. It was worse than Harry’s static filled hair. The woman had to be over fifty, and Harry’s eyes narrowed when he saw a silver cross and a lapel pin in the shape of a crosier.

Shit! It was a Shepherd's Crook that was supposed to mean bishop or above is a guardian of his flock. The Shepherd’s Crook of the Flock had newly sprang up, and because it fell under Preternatural issues MACUSA had acted fast and swift.

Colorado was one of the last states along with Alaska to finally have it illegalized to be hunting lycanthropes without reason, and for it to be deemed a crime to do such a thing. It would take a while for them to catch up to the rest of the country in terms of ‘coming of age’ but he could already feel a fight about to brew. He was very tempted to use his magic here and now to stop it, but with so many officers, he would have to state his intentions before using it. At least he was armed with information should he need it.

“Aunt Bertie,” Juliet called out, and went toward the woman, who had flashed an unfriendly look past her to Micah and Harry.

It meant that the man beside her must be Uncle Jamie. On the plane Micah had started talking about the different members of the family they might encounter. Harry doubted he’d remember all the names, but it was better than nothing. The man was at least five foot nine, and he reminded Harry of Vernon Dursley with all the weight from his chest to his groin with only his legs being stubby and thinnish. The man was wearing glasses almost identical to the woman’s, but his suit fit better than hers, which probably meant he’d been at his present weight for longer. Both were wearing that silver pin.

Harry bent down and whispered to Teddy. “Go stand behind Abraham.”

Teddy looked at him and quickly did that very thing. Abraham gently touched his head as Al looked at him before he turned and straightened.

Juliet was trying to get ahead of them. “I thought you guys were down in the cafeteria making sure everyone got some dinner.”

“I don’t have time to deal with them,” Micah hissed, and Harry could feel the man’s beast rise from beneath his chest. Harry clasped their hands tighter and stroked the back of it to offer some calming.

Auntie Bertie said. “I told you we wanted to go with you to meet Mike at the airport, and you snuck off.”

“I didn’t sneak off, but I told you they had people with them and there wouldn’t be room for you both.”

“And how did you know there would be more people with him?”

Uncle Jamie was in front of them. “So, the prodigal son returns,” he began, but Harry moved too quick for him and placed his badge right up into Jamie’s face. He blinked in confusion.

“Preternatural Unit, Federal Marshal Harry Potter-Black. I advise you to step back otherwise I may or may not alert MACUSA officials to errant Shepherd's Flock in the area,” he smiled his sweetest smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

Juliet’s eyes widened and Micah couldn’t help but smile slightly as Jamie took a step back.

“Devil worshippers, all of you!” Aunt Bertie sneered as she covered the pin on her chest.

“Yeah, we are devil worshippers. Freedom of religion and all that rot. We like to fuck him at the dinner table as he sucks out our soul, and spreads his demony vibes all around.” He could hear some nearby snickering as Bertie and Jamie both curled into each other with wide terrified eyes. “You better back off, Devil knows what could get into you.”

“We do have Dev at home,” said Micah with a half smirk.

“Uh huh, and you so love watching what he can do, don’t you, Husband?”

“Definitely. It’s nice to see you again, Aunt Bertie, Uncle Jamie. Have you met my husband, Harry Potter-Black? My other two will be along shortly. Now if you will step aside then we can pretend we do not see each other. Otherwise, I am not holding my husband back from doing his job. He can take you away for all I care. I’m sure Mother would enjoy watching that.”

“How dare you!?” Bertie shrieked, and she tried to push her way toward them, but was suddenly blocked by a group of officers who’d come off the wall. “You would treat family like this, Mike? What have you become?”

“My own man, Aunt Bertie,” said Micah sharply. “And you are in my way.”

“Ma’am, you have been asked multiple times now to step away and do not cause a scene.”

“We’re family!”

“That does not give you the right to disturb the peace, ma’am, and Marshal Potter-Black is correct. If you claim to be part of a terrorist organization then we will have no choice but to call it in and have you removed.”

“You’re getting on us when they are the devil worshiping monsters?!” Uncle Jamie shouted.

“Ah, but we are not an organization that terrorizes others. We just terrorize ourselves and our own souls,” said Harry, not caring that he was staring at a big giant back. “You have nothing to do with them. So mind your own business or I will call it in, now. You call him family and then monster all in the same breath, how hypocritical of you. Doesn’t your God get all mad at things like hypocrisy?” he sneered, having to lean around the large officer to be seen. He wasn’t any of those things, but there was no talking to a radical. For him, being a good person should be more than enough. Harry wasn’t the best person out there, but Micah did not deserve that. He was the best person of them all, morally speaking, and using religion and God in such a way was wrong. Just plain wrong.

Both of them went still at the threat. MACUSA had taken some very strong stances in the last few weeks on these so-called guardians. A lot of them had come up missing, and no one knew what happened to them. Not even their families and there was nothing that could be done about it. They were even going after Human’s First and Humans Against Vampires where they could. But the Shepherd’s Flock was currently their priority.

As the two backed off, the man turned. “I’m Commander Walter Burke, Marshal Potter-Black. I am sorry to meet you and Mr. Callahan under the circumstances.”

“Me too, sir. Can you please remove them or shall I in a more permanent way?” He asked genially.

“You’re threatening us!” Aunt Bertie shrieked.

“No, promising you.” Harry pulled out his phone. “Your choice.”

Commander Burke let out a deep breath and said. “Deputy Gutterman, Corporal Price, escort these two downstairs to the family lounge. If they resist, charge them with assaulting an officer and then call the Aurors. Suspected terrorism will not be tolerated. You are leaving this boy alone to see his father, one way or another. It’s your choice whether you do it in the lounge or in the back of a police car, and then further to where you may never be seen again. I can do nothing once you are in their hands.”

They chose wisely and went with the nice police officers to the lounge. Harry had no doubt he’d meet them again.

Juliet was pale. “Y-you would really call them on our aunt and uncle? You’d let him, Mike?”

“It’s Micah, Juliet,” said Micah sharply. “I haven’t gone by Mike since I was a kid, and I will not interfere with my husband’s job.”

“And I will not stand for an organization that demonizes what it doesn’t understand. I don’t care who they are related to.”

Micah’s hand touched the small of his back as Burke turned to face him. Harry had to look up, up, up. Micah did too for that matter. “Geez, you’re all giants,” he muttered.

Burke’s lip twitched. “I guess that saying is true, big things come in small packages.”

“That’s more Micah’s territory, sir.”

Everyone in Harry’s entourage including Teddy started snickering, and Micah made a noise. “Baby, I don’t think that’s what he meant.”

“But it got you to smile, didn’t it?” Harry grinned as he cocked his head merrily at Micah.

“Yes, you do that well.”

Burke looked directly at Micah and said, “You’re the son of a good cop and married to two US Marshals, that makes you family, kid. Now, go see your father. I am sorry that you had to come home to this. All of this,” he said.

“Thank you sir.” Both shook hands firmly.

“Teddy, stay out here with everyone and guard our backs, okay?” Harry didn’t want him to see or smell the rotting if he could help it.

“Okay, Parrain. I’ll stay here. I’ve got a lot of education on what not to be when I grow up.”

“You sure do, Pup,” Micah agreed as Harry curled their fingers together once more, and Harry led the way to the door where Rush Callahan resided behind.

All smiles disappeared.

“You are the best man in the world.”

“One of four,” said Harry, smiling smugly.

“Yes; but right now, you are a rockstar,” Micah kissed his temple. “Thank you.”

“Forever, my King,” Harry stroked his cheek, and he could feel their beasts nuzzling into each other. Harry’s nipped Micah’s on the ear. It might not understand what was going on, but it understood pain and hurt. She knew how to take care of her mate.

Micah had told Harry that his father was about five foot six, but he looked smaller in the hospital bed. Then again, didn’t everyone? His hair was a deep dark red with brown undertones. His face held that slackness that only heavy drugs could give. His skin was a pasty pale, so that the few freckles he had stood out like brown ink spots, but underneath the much lighter skin tone and hair the bone structure was Micah’s. Harry and Micah were both delicate, but Micah had the same triangular chin. He looked almost identical to his father except for the lips. Micah’s were fuller, more kissable.

Micah’s father’s hair was almost as curly as Micah’s, though cut a lot shorter. His dad’s reddish auburn curls haloed around his face in a thick circle. His curl was looser than Micah’s, more like Jean-Claude’s curls.

Micah leaned into Harry as he stared. “That’s weird.”

“What is?” Harry asked, keeping his tone quiet.

“Mom used to help him with his hair, but once they divorced he cut it short because he couldn’t deal with the curls. I haven’t seen his hair like this since I was twelve. He must have a new girlfriend or something. I’ve never even met her.” Harry could hear the sorrow in his voice, the swallowing of his throat.

Harry wrapped an arm around Micah’s waist and rested his head on the man’s shoulder. To give the man as much of his touch and scent as he could. He took Micah’s sunglasses, removing them so that he could see his father better.

The room was dim, most of the light was from the glow of one single lamp from the bed. The drapes were drawn against the night. The small beep of the monitors letting the nurse’s station know Mr. Callahan was still alive seemed loud in the silence.

Teddy had snuck in and slipped his hand into Micah’s free hand. Of course, Harry couldn’t keep him out for long. Micah tugged him closer and snuggled into him.

“He has pretty curls like you, Papa.”

“Yes he does,” said Micah, trying not to choke. “God, thank you both for being here.”

“The others are getting here as fast as they can, too. Did you ever doubt us?”

“No,” Micah bit down on his lower lip and began to chew at it. “Not anymore. It’s hard to have doubt when you guys won’t let me.”

“Good.” He let go of Micah’s hand and began to rub at his back in soft circular motions.

“The fact that you two celebrate my eyes… and the fact that Rigel has them… it’s made me proud of myself, but I was a coward.”

“You’re not a coward, Papa. You just make bad decisions sometimes,” said Teddy, making Micah laugh quietly.

“I think he’s right,” said Harry. “You make bad decisions. Good thing you’re married to three smart men.”

Micah grinned, enough to show his teeth. “Beautiful men,” he corrected.

“Beautiful and smart men,” Harry kissed his cheek smoothly.

“Dad was always at our backs. It wasn’t so hard to give up mom after the divorce,” he confessed. “But Dad, I hated to do it, but I could not imagine Chimera…”

“He’s gone.”

“I know… Dad escaped it once, I didn’t want to bring it back around and now he’s dying. Harry… Baby, you can feel him… right? Can you tell me what you feel?”

Harry quickly darted his eyes back to Rush Callahan, and he focused his necromancy out to feel what was going on with him only to let out a shuddering gasp and pull out quickly.

“What is it?” Micah asked.

“I can’t explain it.” It reminded Harry of freeze dried ice rather than simply cold. It was a feeling that seemed to be closing slowly in on the man’s soul. It was like a reverse zombie or very slow zombism. He leaned closer, aware of the sweet and sour scent of rot beneath his nose as he got closer.

“Can you sense him - dying?”

Harry didn’t want to answer him so directly. “I can sense that he’s fighting,” he said softly. “His soul is untouched, and that’s a good sign. A body can heal with the right care. It hasn’t detached or threatened to hover on the edge.”

Micah drew Harry back into him and nuzzled into his wild hair. He was about to speak when there was a soft but authoritative knock on the door which opened seconds later.

A tall thin man entered in a long white coat. He flashed a professional smile as he came through, cheerful and empty of meaning.

“I’m Dr. Rogers; You must be Mike,” he held out his hand toward them and Micah shook it.

“Micah, I haven’t been Mike in over a decade,” he let go of the man's hand and looked back at his father as Dr. Rogers turned to Harry.

“Harry Potter-Black,” said Harry. “This is our son, Teddy.” Teddy only nodded, keeping close to Micah.

“You think it’s healthy for your child to be in here?” asked Dr. Rogers.

“I’m not leaving. I’m staying with Papa to help him,” said Teddy in a rather rare and sharp tone. It seemed the boy had picked up more in his first year than they anticipated. He was more authoritative, dominant, Harry noted.

“Teddy knows everything we do. We do not lie to him,” said Harry simply.

“My mother told Harry that it was only a matter of time. Is that true?”

“We’ve slowed the disease, but we have no way of curing it. I’m sorry.”

Micah nodded, looked at the floor, and then reached back for both their hands. Harry handed him his left hand as Teddy curled into him.

“How long?” Micah asked.

“I can’t answer for certain.”

“Guess.”

“Excuse me?” Rogers asked, surprised.

“Guess, give me an estimate.”

Rogers shook his head. “I’m not comfortable doing that.”

“All right, then tell me what you’re doing to treat my father.”

Rogers was much more comfortable discussing that. There had been a few cases on the Eastern Seaborn that were similar but not identical. “Those patients died within hours, but I used their protocols on our patients here and it slowed the spread of the… infection.”

“Is it an infection?” Micah asked.

“Yes.”

“What kind?”

“It’s close to necrotizing fasciitis, and we’ve treated it the same way, with removal of the necrotic tissue, massive antibiotics, and time in a hyperbaric chamber.”

“How much tissue have you removed?” Micah asked.

“As little as necessary.”

“That’s not an answer, that’s an evasion.” Micah was using his dominant, ‘answer me’ tone. Harry knew it well. He had been with Micah twice when he was doing Coalition work. The man also sometimes had to use it on their submissives.

Often enough Micah took a few guys with him. He chose Ares and Nicky a lot recently. He also sometimes chose Bobby Lee when he wasn’t out on a mission. Micah had confessed that a lot of the dominant females often wanted to try him out for size. But Micah would refuse, and one time when the dominant had pushed it, his leopard had simply killed her in one swift blow. Shocking the entire group he’d been seeing. It had been an accident because his leopard had been so insulted that it had reacted before Micah’s human brain could reign him in. Nicky went to take those roles instead. Nicky and Ares didn’t mind. Nicky despised women, but he liked hurting them so to him it was a win-win. Ares didn’t mind either. Harry didn’t want to know, but when Micah confessed to the ‘murderous’ accidents Jean-Claude had just chuckled and said, ‘You do not deserve to be anyone’s meat, mon Chaton. You are only ours of course.’

He broke out of his drifting thoughts when he heard. “Why not?” asked Micah.

“It won’t change anything, and it won’t help anything. It’s just an unnecessary visual for you.”

Micah shook his head. “I need to know what you’ve done to my father.”

“I haven’t done anything to him, except the best I could under the circumstances.”

Micah let out a slow, even breath, and Harry looked down at Teddy who raised his head and mouthed wound. Ah, Micah wanted to see it. “Where was the bite?” Harry asked, in hopes of distracting Micah’s ‘seek out’ sense. He could feel the leopard pacing inside of Micah. It was annoyed and impatient because Micah was. Micah was not usually the impatient one.

“His left arm.”

“Does he still have that arm?” Micah asked.

Dr. Rogers made a face. “Yes, but if we can’t get it stopped we may try amputation, though honestly I think it will just slow it down, not stop it.”

“Did you try amputation with any of the other victims?” Harry asked.

“Yes, but either we didn’t do it soon enough, or once the infection is in the body it hits the bloodstream almost immediately and that takes it throughout the body.”

“I have to see,” said Micah.

Dr. Rogers didn’t understand immediately, but Harry did. “Micah needs to see the wound, Dr,” said Harry clearly.

“Would you really not look if it were your father?” Micah asked, studying the doctor’s face. “I’m betting you would insist on it.”

“I’m a doctor. I would want to see it from a professional standpoint, to understand what was happening.”

“I’m not a doctor, and I’m hoping that what I’m imagining is worse than what you’ll show me, but either way I need to see.”

Rogers made a soft, exasperated sound. He got fresh rubber gloves out of a little box that was by the bedside and walked to the far side of the bed with its tented sheet. “Anything touching the wound site seems to be extremely painful, so we raised the sheet above it.”

“Like for a burn,” said Harry.

“For some burns, yes.” He unhooked the sheet from the metal framework and looked across the bed at them. “I honestly don’t recommend this.”

“Please, Dr. Rogers, I just need to see,” said Micah, his voice low and even. He had a death grip on their hands.

He looked quickly at Teddy whose face was unreadable. Merlin, Harry thought, he was growing up so quickly. He had such a maturity lining his amber eyes.

The doctor didn’t argue anymore as he pulled back the sheet enough for them to see the left arm and part of the chest. Harry couldn’t tell what the original bite had been like because flesh was missing from the outer part of the lower arm in a neat oval almost as big as both of his fists side by side. The wound placement let Harry know what had happened.

Sheriff Callahan had been attacked. He’d put his left arm up to defend himself and something had bitten him. Harry and Edward at one time had their own share of defensive wounds that had been healed over time thanks to magic and the Tetrumvirate. But nothing this deep. Even if he lived, Harry wasn’t sure if the arm would be workable - unless Draco could tailor skelegro to fit a Muggle.

Micah’s hand tensed around Harry’s and his eyes narrowed. But other than that he showed nothing. His stress sang down his arm into Harry’s hand, but it showed almost nowhere else. He knew Micah had questions. He could feel them struggling to reach his lips.

“The edges of the wound look darker than they should, and there’s discoloration in the wound itself; is that from the treatment?”

“Afraid not.”

“It’s starting to rot again,” said Micah, his voice soft and hollow.

“Yes, there are some bacteria in the mix that we’ve never seen before, and they’re not responding to antibiotics.”

“Have you tried healing potions from the magical world?” Harry asked.

Dr. Rogers raised his head. “Yes, we have. We’ve even tried the blood restoratives, but it hasn’t worked. Slowed the progress, but not worked completely. We can’t give him any more healing potions without risk of addiction.”

Harry merely nodded, knowing that healing potions were some of the safest for non-magicals, but it came at a cost. It was like dreamless sleep, too much and one could become a raging addict.

Harry’s eyes narrowed and he felt Micah nudge into him with his nose. Harry looked at the green-gold gaze. “Ask, Baby.”

“Ask what?” Harry asked.

“Anything you want to know.”

“Not as your husband, but as my job?”

“Everything you are, you are my husband. Including your job and that creative wildcard brain of yours,” said Micah staring at him. “I will never make the same mistake I made before,” he said, and Harry knew he was thinking of Philly. “I couldn’t do this without you, Baby. No way. Neither of you.”

“You don’t have to keep saying that, Papa. I know my Parrain is amazing,” said Teddy. “I won’t feel left out.”

Micah turned and kissed Teddy on the forehead. “Love you, Pup.”

“I love you too.”

Micah turned to the Doctor. “Do you know what attacked him?”

“We’re not sure.”

“They say a flesh-eating zombie.”

“Someone’s been talking.”

Harry arched a brow. “I am a Preternatural Marshal, under MACUSA. I am a bit confused why locals have the case when the law has changed.”

“Some haven’t caught the memo, Mr. Potter-Black,” said Dr. Rogers carefully. “The local police were worried you’d do just that and take the case away from them.”

Harry smiled. “They thought right and now I have evidence to do that. Can I, Micah?”

“Yesss,” Micah hissed out. “Because whatever is out there that did this to Dad, it’s still doing it.”

Harry already had his ideas, but he couldn’t voice them. “I’ll go see someone in the morgue. I have to make a call. Teddy, keep your Papa company.”

Harry kissed Micah on the cheek and headed out of the room. Juliet blinked when she saw him. “Lisandro,” he said simply as he turned on his heel to walk away from the fleet of cops and everyone else.

Lisandro was immediately at his back. “Precious?”

Harry led them as far down as he possibly could so that Micah’s hearing didn’t pick them up. He turned on a dime. “This looks like Morte D’Amour,” he whispered, staring right up into Lisandro’s eyes.

Lisandro didn’t blink. “He didn’t die in Atlanta?”

“Would you really trust a normal Marshal over Edward and me?”

“Hell no. This is a big deal, Precious.”

“I know, I don’t want to tell Micah until I have confirmation. But, it reminds me of when Shang-Da was attacked when the Council came calling. A representative of the Lover of Death tried to infect him. Now, I managed to cut it out and burn it away. Probably because it was instant and I reacted so fast. We need the cavalry here. I need to call MACUSA, but also Edward and update him on what to bring.”

“Damn straight. I’ll get on with Rom.” Both of them stepped away until Harry’s back was against the wall.

He dialed Edward’s number, not trusting their mind-link right now.

“Little Raven?”

“Morte d’Amour.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I think this is his work. I can’t see it any other way. All the markers tell me that this is what it is.”

“I thought he had died in Atlanta.”

“Did he?” Harry asked softly. “Did you or I confirm the death? Or anyone we trust?”

“No they did not. You really think he’s still alive after what happened?”

“I do. It’s a taint that is very familiar. You remember when Morte d’Amour acted through Payne or Jesse, one of the two. I can’t remember which.”

“You almost died over it.”

“But we beat it.”

“How’s his father?”

“Not good, definitely not good. His soul is hanging on, but the taint is drawing closer. I think if we can find and kill him we might be able to stop it, and then I might be able to get Draco to engineer and tailor some of our potions to work with Muggles.”

“How’s he holding up?”

“His control is epic, but if he doesn’t eat soon it’s not going to be. Lisandro is calling more men in.”

“Toy should be in the air soon. It’s about time, I think, we test out our little band of clowns. I’m almost there, Little Raven. Good thing we were in Wyoming. You and our son keep Alpha’s spirits up.”

“Will do, I’m calling MACUSA. We need the warrants, the PD have all gone lone ranger on us.”

“We expected this, Colorado and Alaska are the last to conform to the new laws. New Mexico struggled, but got kicked in the teeth for it. Are we going to have fun on this case?”

Harry couldn’t help but chuckle as he turned to face away from Lisandro. It was the one thing that Harry and Edward had in common that Micah would never understand. A human sort of bloodlust. “Chocolate and fire?”

“Hm, that could work. I do love your dark chocolates, Little Raven.”

“As much as you love me.”

“Close, but I still think you beat them out.”

“Get here soon, and let Peter know I love him.”

“He’s aware. He’s right at my side.”

“Good.” As the two hung up, Harry made a call to Bradley Bradford.

“Director Bradley Bradford.”

“Miss me?” Harry drawled as Lisandro smirked at Harry.

“You know I always miss my favorite Marshal.”

“Edward’s going to get jealous.”

“Nah, he knows exactly who the favorite is. What can I do for you?”

“It’s a pity I’m not calling for some social fun. You sitting down?”

“I am now. I have a feeling I’m not going to like what you’re going to tell me.”

“Not in the slightest,” and so he told Bradford everything. Everything he knew without leaving anything out.

“Motherfucker…” It was not often that Bradford cursed. “Colorado and Alaska have been fighting tooth and nail over the take over.”

“I have visual evidence on bodies, Bradford. I have reason to believe that Morte D’Amour is alive, the same one who attacked in Atlanta, Georgia.”

“I’d like to argue and say he is dead, but to be honest with you I wouldn’t believe it unless you or Edward told me personally for someone that strong.”

“You know we couldn’t get there as we were tied up elsewhere, Bradley. I think he’s able to hop bodies much like she could do. It would make a strange sort of sense.”

“I’ll get the ball rolling, Harry. If what you say is true with the evidence we don’t need much more to get a full warrant.”

“Please try to extend it to all involved. I hate the idea of going after innocent, I do, but we all know what these powerful monsters can do with weak minds.”

“Indeed, and to protect yourself we’ll make sure the warrant isn’t so specific and let you choose at your discretion.”

“I thank you, Bradley. I hate to be on a hunt right now, but maybe if I can execute this bastard then Micah’s father’s illness might stop progressing at the minimum.”

“Give Micah my regards, Harry.”

“I will, thanks.”

As the two hung up, Harry looked over to see Lisandro still talking on the phone. “We’re going to need fire and some clowns. Lots of it, Rom… yeah.”

He needed to get back to Micah and then see about the morgue. He would be taking this case, and nothing was going to stop him.

Chapter Text

Harry and Lisandro returned to the room. He trusted the man to update the others, and Harry would keep quiet until he had real confirmation of what he was sure he already knew. Harry figured that they should meet the rest of the family and make sure Micah would be ok with them and Teddy before he disappeared to check out the morgue. He wasn’t going to leave Micah without emotional support and just swan off to solve the mystery. His Nimir-Raj was more important than figuring out if he was correct in who was behind all this.

They were surprised to come upon the room and not see Abraham outside of the door. Noah was still there, but not the wererat. The only reason both guards wouldn’t be on the door was if one was in the room. Micah wouldn’t have headed somewhere else before Harry returned. Both entered the room to find a man had entered while they were gone. Abraham was stationed just next to the door, watching the room.

The man was five-nine with short curly hair. It was the same dark brown of Micah’s, but where Micah kept his long this man’s was cut almost military short. Harry left Lisandro by the door as he crossed to stand with Micah and Teddy. Now that he was facing the man, Harry could see that he had large gray-blue eyes, full lips and was a few shades darker than Micah. He was handsome but none of the soft delicacy of Micah, Rush, or Juliet.

“Beth always said you would come back. I always said you wouldn’t.” The man stated in a deep voice.

“She was always the hopeful one, Jerry. I’m glad that hasn’t changed.” Micah wrapped an arm around Harry as soon as he was close enough, never turning his attention from the man.

This must be his brother. Harry thought.

“Little sisters are like that, I guess,” Jerry responded. Harry could tell that Jerry was taking in the picture that they made. Micah wrapped around Harry and Teddy standing in front of them.

“I don’t know about all little sisters, but Beth was always kind.”

“Elara is going to be kind. I’ll make sure of it.” Teddy piped up with a smile. “She’s going to be the best little sister!”

“And you’ll be the best big brother, Pup.” Micah leaned forward and kissed the back of Teddy’s head.

“Why’d you come back, Mike?”

“To see Dad.”

“If he wasn’t good enough to see while he was… before he got hurt, then why the hell do you care now?” Harry could see the man was in pain. Even through the man’s military training, some of his emotions leaked through.

“Jerry…”

“What? You expected to come home like the prodigal son to show off your new family; and we’d all forgive and forget?”

“No, I didn’t expect you to forgive me. Yes my husband and son are here, and our other husbands and children are on their way, but I had to come back. I couldn’t keep running. I don’t expect anyone to forgive me.”

“Yes, you did. You thought you’d get your Hallmark moment where everyone cries and says nice things, and you get forgiven before he dies. That’s why you came home, to be forgiven. Well, if he wakes up and forgives you, remember, I won’t.”

“I’ll remember that,” Micah stated, voice low and even. His face was as blank as he could make it. That didn’t hide the pain from Harry, his leopard could feel that her mate was in pain and she didn’t know how to fix it. There wasn’t an enemy she could attack. All she could do was go over and curl around her Nimir-Raj. “You don’t need to do that, Baby.”

“Yes, I do, my King.” Harry’s leopard started grooming Micah’s. If she couldn’t fight the hurt away, she would clean it away.

“Are you going to introduce me to everyone?” Jerry asked after a few minutes of silence in the room.

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to be introduced.”

“I don’t hate them, big brother, only you.”

Well, that’s honest. Harry thought with a small smile.

“Baby, Pup, this is my brother, Jerry.” Micah squeezed Harry’s waist. “Jerry, this is one of my husbands, Preternatural Marshal Harry Potter-Black, and our oldest son, Teddy.”

“Oldest son?” Jerry had started forward to shake Harry’s hand when he paused in shock.

“I’m twelve. Big brother Peter is technically oldest, but he’s Dad’s ward. Rigel and Elara were just born and my official siblings. Alyse is a year old, she’s my godsister and distant cousin!” Teddy smiled widely at the man. “Is that right? She’s my godsister right?” He looked back at Harry for confirmation.

“That’s right. Since I’m her godfather and yours, that makes her your godsister.” Harry stepped around Teddy to finish closing the distance and shook Jerry’s hand.

“Getting yourself quite the big family.” Jerry stated, smiling back at Teddy. “Three husbands and five kids…”

“Three husbands and three kids.” Micah corrected. “Peter is Edward’s ward, he was never adopted by any of us, and as he is now nineteen he hardly needs us to parent him.” “Just fuck him,” Micah sent mentally to Harry as his leopard turned over so Harry’s could easily clean more of him. “Teddy was blood adopted by all of us when he was seven, officially making him our son; and Rigel and Elara are ours through a surrogate.”

“Alyse is the daughter of our good friends. Draco, one of her fathers, is a distant cousin of both Teddy and me.” Harry smiled. “We all wanted a large family and not all are related by blood.”

“And those two?” Jerry looked over at the doorway where Lisandro and Abraham were casually leaning.

“Lisandro and Abraham are here as our bodyguards.” Micah stated.

“Bodyguards? Since when does a trip to see family require bodyguards?”

“They have bodyguards no matter where they go.” Abraham spoke up blandly.

“And the one on the other side of the door?”

“Noah, another bodyguard.” Harry smiled, “one for each of us. While we’re both strong in our own rights, we shouldn’t be worried about that while here. So we have bodyguards to do that for us.” No one was going to mention the other reasons the bodyguards were there.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come home sooner and introduce everyone.” Micah brought the conversation back around to the issue.

“Why didn’t you?”

“I thought you’d hate me, so there didn’t seem to be much point.”

“Well, you’re right, I do hate you. You said terrible things to Mom and Dad.” Jerry’s eyes were shiny.

“I know I can’t explain it, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice.” Micah’s voice was becoming thick. Harry knew that Jerry wasn’t the only one holding back tears.

“Dad’s friends with a Fed. He said that he saw files about what would have happened to us if you hadn’t convinced some bad-guy shapeshifter that you hated us.”

Harry was again wondering where any Fed got that information. There were no written reports about Chimera’s actions in St. Louis, but that didn’t mean there weren’t reports about his activity elsewhere. Harry was now wondering how many unsolved murders were being attributed to attacks by Chimera for there to be some sort of report drawn up. Now wasn’t the time to ask, and it was likely that Jerry wouldn’t know any more. Harry would be interested in meeting this Fed and seeing how much they really knew.

“I saw him do terrible things to other families. I couldn’t let him do that to all of you. The only way I could guarantee that was to make him think that hurting you wouldn’t mean anything to me.”

“Well, you did a good job of making us think you hated us. Mom cried for weeks. Beth didn’t hear it, so she didn’t believe you had said any of it. She thought we were lying, because we thought you being a wereleopard made you too dangerous. For years she thought we’d kicked you out.”

“I don’t know if I could have said all I needed to say if Beth had been there.”

“I know you couldn’t have. No way could you have looked her in the face and been so… cruel. You were always her favorite brother even though you hunted and killed things with Dad. She hated that, but she still loved you more.”

“She didn’t love me more, Jerry; she loved me differently, that’s all. I’ve learned all about different love since settling in St. Louis. Baby is full of love for everyone in our extended family, loving them all in different ways. Showing the rest of us how to do the same.”

“You lying bastard.” Jerry’s voice betrayed his tears just before they slid down his face. His voice was choking on his tears as he spoke. “I hate you, you lying bastard.”

“I know.” Micah said, his own tears falling.

Harry had a moment to pull Teddy back against him before the two men moved forward. Suddenly, they were hugging. Clinging to each other and crying into the other’s shoulder. Harry could hear Jerry still calling Micah a lying bastard. They could all hear Micah responding with, “I love you, too.”

Harry rubbed Teddy’s shoulders as the young teen leaned back against him. A quick look over at the door showed that both guards agreed with what Harry was thinking. This family reunion was long overdue.

oOo

As both men pulled apart to start drying their tears, Harry magicked two handkerchiefs that he passed over. With Micah’s leopard no longer feeling as hurt as when his brother had first stepped into the room, Harry’s stopped licking his and instead just curled up against him as if preparing for a nap. Jerry led the way out of the hospital room and into the family waiting room. He was surprised that the cops had all seemed to move from the door. Harry wondered if this had something to do with MACUSA and getting a hold of the situation going on here. Lisandro, Noah, and Abraham took up new positions in the room. Two on the door and one at the far end facing the doorway. There was only one entrance to the room, so the three had it well covered.

The room had a few couches, chairs, a coffee table full of magazines, and a few paintings on the walls. Everything was done in colors that designers claimed were cheerful or soothing. However, combined as they were, neither goal was obtained. The space looked like hundreds of other human hospital waitings rooms across the country. It used to be that Harry would have to go and speak to families or police about the person who was in the other room or surgery about what happened. Now with the split in Units, the only reason Harry would be in waiting rooms was if it was one of theirs or Harry needed to speak to officers. This room wasn’t full of their Community, but it was filled with Micah’s family. Honestly, it was slightly intimidating for Harry to walk in and finally meet the only in-laws left alive.

Micah’s mom had the same big pale gray-blue eyes as Jerry and she looked like him. Her shoulder-length hair was the same tight curls as Jerry, but the color was paler brown. Not quite brown, not quite blonde. She looked more ethnic than her sister, but not by much. The light makeup she was wearing was perfect. If Harry hadn’t known that she was Micah’s mother from his description of her, Harry wouldn’t have put her over fifty. She was rather curvy and was wearing a nicely tailored suit that flattered her figure. She was beautiful. Jean-Claude would love her and her fashion sense.

She enveloped Micah in a hug as if he was the last solid thing in the world and she was hanging on for dear life. Teddy and Harry could hear snatches of what she was saying through her tears. “So glad you’re home… your dad will be so happy… love you…”

Finally they pulled apart and Micah stepped back, grabbing Teddy’s hand. He pulled the boy forward, resting his hands on Teddy's shoulders. “Mom, this is your grandson Teddy and my husband, Harry. I know you’ve spoken to Harry on the phone.”

“Thank you, thank you for bringing Mike home!” She pulled Harry into a hug. He sank into her hug, while the situation wasn’t the best he was going to enjoy the feeling of being hugged by a mother. Harry pulled back with a smile. “And did you say grandson? You have a son?”

“Hi, you’re Papa’s mom right? That makes you my grandma.” Teddy darted forward and pulled her into a hug before she could blink.

“Teddy is my godson,” Harry started, “Everyone blood adopted him when he was seven, five years ago, making him our oldest. Our twins, Elara and Rigel, were born in May. They’re on their way with Jean and our surrogate, Luna. She’s helping us until they no longer need to breastfeed. We also have Peter, Edward’s ward, who lives with us.”

“Quite the family…” She breathed as she leaned over and hugged Teddy back. “Three grandchildren…My God...”

“Surprise.” Micah said weakly. Harry grabbed his hand and kissed his cheek. He knew this was hard on the man.

“I’m so happy to meet you both. So glad you’re here. You said Jean was coming with the twins. Does that mean all of your husbands are coming? Will we meet everyone?” She asked as she pulled back from Teddy.

“Yes. Edward and Peter were on a job in Wyoming when you called Harry’s office. They’re probably only a few hours out now. They dropped the job and turned around. Jean-Claude is wrapping up a few last things and will be in tomorrow night. It’s hard for all of us to drop things right away and come, so he’s making sure everything is covered in our absence.” Micah replied.

A man came up behind Micah’s mom. He was tall, over six feet by a few inches. Completely bald with a shadow in a thin pale half-circle on his scalp to show that he had started shaving his head after he started going bald. His eyebrows were thick, nearly black, and arched over dark-rimmed glasses. He had bright, clear blue eyes. Harry noticed that he was wearing a dark suit, pale blue shirt, and dark tie. It fit his frame well and brought out his blue eyes and stark paleness of his skin. He was quite handsome. Harry wasn’t sure who the man was, but he really was starting to feel improperly dressed with his leathers. The man put his hands on Micah’s mom’s shoulders in a gesture that, though innocent, was very much the gesture of a couple. Harry felt Micah tense up next to him. Without a thought, Harry leaned against his Nimir-Raj and grabbed his upper arm with his free hand.

“So glad you could be here, Mike.” The man said as he held out his hand.

Micah paused before reaching out to take it. “I’m glad I could be here, too. Harry, this is Tyson Morgan, mom’s… husband.”

“Dr. Tyson Morgan. I teach at the college with Bea.”

“Harry Potter-Black, Preternatural Marshal.” Harry shook the man’s hand. He could tell that Micah was uncomfortable with the man’s relationship with his mother. Not because Tyson was a bad person, but because Micah had taken Rush’s side in the divorce.

“Sorry, guess I’m prouder than I should be of Dr. Morgan. Please call me Ty.”

“That’s alright. It’s easy to get caught up with titles. I have more than I know what to do with.” Harry smirked when Micah snorted. “Being a doctor is quite the accomplishment. What is your doctorate in?”

“American literature,” he said as Micah started looking around the room.

“Where’s Beth?” Micah asked.

“At home with the other kids.” Ty explained.

“Twain has to be what, fourteen now? Just older than Teddy.” Micah rubbed Teddy’s back. Both of them nodded.

“Yes, and Hawthorne is twelve, Teddy’s age.” Bea said.

“Cousins?” Teddy asked, looking excited.

“My younger half-brothers, your Uncles.” Micah corrected. Harry couldn’t help but feel slightly awkward at that. He didn’t know how he would manage having in-laws the same age as Teddy.

“Yes, Micah’s younger brothers. We have two more now; did you know that from our Facebook page?” Good Merlin, it was like they were the Weasleys.

Micah shook his head. “I only go online for business. Peter is the only one in the house with a social media presence. He helps me with Coalition announcements. Two more? Boys or girls?”

“One of each,” Bea smiled.

“How old?” Micah asked. Harry could tell his Nimir-Raj didn’t know what to do with that information.

“Frost is six and Fen is four.”

Micah looked past both of them to Jerry, only for Jerry to shrug at him. “There’s a lot of catching up for us all to do. You with the family, the family with you.” Jerry held up his left hand, properly showcasing his wedding band.

“To Kelsey? How long?” Micah asked.

“I did marry Kelsey after high school, that lasted about two years and didn’t really work from the start. This is to someone new. Janet is a nurse here at the hospital, we’re doing good.”

“I don’t even know what you do for a living.” Micah said sadly. Teddy squeezed Micah’s right arm and hugged him around his waist.

“It’s been a while, it’s understandable.” Bea said nicely.

“I work at a local engineering firm. I work with Janet’s brother, that’s how we met. So how long have the four of you been together? How long have you been married?” Jerry asked.

“We all married two years ago.” Harry smiled. “The four of us have been together since 2004.”

“We all started dating at different times. At first it was just Harry, Jean-Claude, and Edward. I joined a few months later. So all four of us for six years.” Micah squeezed Harry’s hand.

“Came into town and we didn’t let him go.” Harry leaned in and kissed Micah.

Jerry’s face didn’t seem to know what expression to have, but his mother beamed at them. Ty’s body language was relaxed, small bits of tension flowing out of him. Harry was confused by it, but didn’t pay too much attention to it. Instead, Harry focused on the sudden tension in Micah. His king had also seen the release of tension from Ty, which in turn sent his mind whirling in confusion at the act.

“Is Beth seeing anyone? I still see her as a kid, but she’s twenty-two now, right?” Micah turned the subject back on them.

“She just graduated with a double major in theology and philosophy.” Jerry said.

“Impressive.” Harry muttered.

“I wouldn't have thought of that for her.” Micah said.

“It took her awhile for her to find herself,” Bea said, “but she’s already been accepted into a master’s program next semester.”

A quiet commotion at the door caught Harry’s attention. He turned in Micah’s arm to look over his shoulder. Abraham was blocking the entry.

“Who are you and what gives you the right to question us?” A woman’s voice came. There were two of them trying to get past the wererat. Micah followed Harry’s gaze back.

“It’s alright, Bram, they’re my aunts.”

Harry personally didn’t blame Bram for being weary. After the whole Bertie and Jamie fiasco, relations or not, they all needed a screening. He began to wonder how many more families had a side of dysfunction? Here Harry thought it was only the Dursleys, but then again what did he really have to compare to? For him it was awkward, and he could feel that Teddy thought the same. Probably more so because he didn’t recognize any of these people’s smells and it made him uncomfortable. It was hard for him to see family when they didn’t smell anything like Micah or the others. It would already take him a while to settle around the new babies but at least they smelled like the four of them and Luna. Teddy had that rare maturity about him that most young kids didn’t have. He often thought long and hard about people before putting one foot in front of the other.

Abraham stepped back and allowed the two in. One woman had red curls that fell past her shoulders and was wearing work jeans, t-shirt, jacket, and boots. The other had her hair cut so short there was no curl left, a conservative skirt and jacket over a white blouse with a rounded collar, and sensible pumps. Despite the different clothes, both were almost mirror images of each other. They looked a bit like Micah, his dad, and Juliet, who was hurrying to catch up with them both. Coming behind Juliet was another female. She was in an ankle-length skirt and button-up blouse untucked over it, hair pulled back in a tight braid that couldn’t quite hide the tight curls she’d have if she let her hair go. She also had a pair of huge black-rimmed glasses that looked military issued.

Micah introduced Harry and Teddy to his Aunt Jody and Aunt Bobbie. Jody, the long-haired woman, ran a farm. Juliet, her husband, and their two kids lived in a second house on the property and helped run it. Bobbie was a lawyer and Juliet’s mom. Like Harry thought, they were Rush’s twin sisters. Harry pulled Teddy around to his side, stepping back enough to give the women room.

“I’m sorry Monty couldn’t be here when you arrived, Mike.” Bobbie stated as she gave him a hug and stepped back. She had a steadier gaze than Juliet. “Monty is my second husband; he’s a judge.”

“Congratulations, I remember Monty,” Micah said. ”He, Dad, and Uncle Steve were good friends.”

“He’s a good judge.” Bobbie smiled with warmth. She was proud of her husband.

“Well, Rex won’t be here. We divorced years ago. He’s living in California now in a condo where he doesn’t have to take care of anything but himself.” Jody said as she pulled Micah into a hug as well.

“I’m sorry, Aunt Jody.” Micah said, giving her another hug.

“It’s okay, Mike. I’ve never been happier.”

“I’m glad then.”

“Me, too,” she said, “and Juliet and her husband are a great help. Another generation who wants to stay on the farm.”

Bobbie gave a fake shudder. “No thank you, I am a city girl.” She grinned and took her sister’s hand. “I told you when I had Juliet that she was part yours; little did I know you’d make her a farmer.”

“Hey, it means we have a grandchild apiece.” Jody joked.

“That we do.” Bobbie smiled. Juliet smiled at both women. Harry had a moment to wonder if twins ran in the family.

“Esther, you remember Mike, don’t you?” Bea called to the woman that had drifted back towards the wall. Almost as if she didn’t want to be a part of the happy family moment.

“Hi, Mike.” She stepped away from the wall shortly, almost hesitantly.

“How are you doing, Essie?” Micah asked softly, as if there was something fragile with the girl.

“You and Beth are the only ones who still call me Essie.” She gave a shy smile.

“I go by Micah now. It’s what I prefer.” Micah said as he looked around at everyone. “Do you prefer Esther?”

“No, I always liked you calling me Essie,” she said quickly, looking up at Micah with big, startled gray-blue eyes.

“I forgot how much she had a crush on me.” Micah sent the thought to Harry. “Can’t believe she still does.”

“How did you know?”

“Smelled it on her when I was first changed and am smelling it now.”

“Mister popularity.” Harry hid a grin in Teddy’s hair.

“The only family I’m willing to do, Baby, is Peter.”

Esther’s eyes looked so much like Bea’s, that it was easy to see that she was a cousin on the maternal side of Micah’s family. She had to be Aunt Bertie and Uncle Jamie’s daughter. If Harry remembered correctly, she should be in her early twenties. Not a kid, but she seemed younger. Almost like Harry, looking younger than she was. He could only imagine with parents like that how much emotional and mental trauma she’d suffered over the years. Harry had no doubt that if he hadn’t been a full blooded wizard and hadn’t been whisked away from the Dursleys that he too would have been made of glass.

“Fucking hell…” Harry, Micah, and Teddy turned back at Lisandro’s curse. Ty also looked up and swore. Bea chastised him for cursing in front of kids. Harry was tempted to tell her that Teddy had heard a lot worse, but then realized she might have meant Esther.

“It’s your sister and her husband,” he responded.

“Shi… Shotgun! I can’t take much more of them today.” She said. Teddy blinked at her in shock.

“Shotgun? You should just say shit.” Teddy said to her.

“If you meet your great-grandparents you’ll understand why mom doesn’t cuss.” Micah ruffled Teddy’s hair.

“Yeah, but what was it you and Dad say? Say what you mean or nothing at all, and censorship is only a weapon and tool to control us.”

“Eat your words, Husband,” Harry breathed with a smile. All this time Harry had been going red and now it was Micah’s turn. “I guess they didn’t take my warning to heart.”

“Now, Bertie, it’s enough for one night, with Rush hurt like this. And you heard Mike’s husband.” It was Aunt Bertie and Uncle Jamie back again, with Al following along behind.

“Rush knows he’s outside God’s grace.” Jamie stated. “That husband doesn’t scare me.” It was as though they were coming away with renewed vigor. He saw Esther shiver slightly, fear rolling off her in much the same way it had him once upon a time.

“I should have called them in and let Bradley deal with them,” Harry muttered.

“They only want to save our souls, Baby…” Micah muttered sarcastically.

“They can save them by fucking off.”

“I know. You want to tell them that?” Micah grinned.

“I thought I had.”

Lisandro looked over at them “Do we let them in and make a call?”

Harry looked at Micah. “Well, husband?” He didn’t want to do anything to upset the balance, but these types of people were extremely dangerous. Micah knew that too. He’d come across a few of them during his Coalition work, and word had it Nicky had lost control and ate one once. Harry doubted it was one time.

“Let them in.” Micah said with a put upon sigh.

“And the call?” Abraham asked.

“Make it. They were given fair warning.” Harry said. The two nodded and stepped aside, allowing the couple in.

Al called into the room, “I’m sorry. I tried to stop them. Apparently, I’m not sinful enough to interest them.”

“You’re a good boy,” Bertie patted his arm.

“Sorry, Mike.” Al shrugged.

“Don’t apologize to him because you aren’t a sinner,” Jamie said.

“I don’t think that’s what he was apologizing for, Uncle Jamie.” Micah said. “Arresting family members is never fun.” Harry noted Lisandro stepping out with his phone out, likely calling Bradley to send in MACUSA.

“Leave the boy alone, Jamie,” Bobbie said. She sounded and looked just as disgusted with the situation as Harry.

“If you hadn’t interfered in the first place, Bobbie, there wouldn’t be any Coalition. Or any of that nonsense. Hundreds of people would have been saved from becoming monsters for them.” Bertie sneered.

“You know I’ve looked into your allegations, Bertie, and it’s paranoid nonsense.” Bobbie replied.

“We do not encourage people to become preternatural. We help families deal with members who are already shapeshifters.” Micah argued. “We counsel people after attacks, but in no way do we encourage anyone to become one. We aren’t like the Church of Eternal Life; we don’t recruit.”

“You and the vampires want everyone to be like you,” Bertie said.

“That’s unsubstantiated rumor,” Bobbie said.

“Not to mention why would we want to put up with you?” Harry sneered. “Vampires would destroy their own if they turned out like you.” Jamie and Bertie flinched at his tone.

“I don’t know where the rumors started,” Micah shook his head, “but I can tell you that they are lies. We help people deal with the trauma of attacks. The way I wish someone had helped me.” Teddy moved back into Micah. The man wrapped his arms around Teddy.

“Aren’t rumors just killer?” Harry asked. Micah knew he referred to how MACUSA would act once they arrived.

“A certain branch of religious conservatives have jumped on the bandwagon pretty strongly.” Micah looked at his aunt and uncle as he said this.

“The rest of them here will believe your lies, but we know that you’ve all deceived hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent humans.” Bertie turned on Bobbie and pointed an accusing finger at her. “Innocent lives that could have been saved from evil if you hadn’t gone against us.”

“You had no grounds to try to imprison Mike, sorry Micah, and a judge agreed with me,” Bobbie said.

“You tried to do what?” Harry took a step forward, aware that Noah had come closer. He was no longer staying on the far wall.

“Jamie and Bertie wanted me to turn myself into a government safe house when my tests came back positive for lycanthropy. Their church believed that all shapeshifters should be isolated like lepers. When I wouldn’t do it voluntarily, they tried to get me declared legally incompetent and be made my guardians. They claimed that the rest of the family was too emotionally overwrought to take care of me.” Micah rubbed along Teddy’s back as the boy turned and buried into his chest.

“Government safe houses are prisons.” Harry snarled. “Once you sign yourself in you can’t get out, no matter what they tell you to get you there. How fucking dare you. You better be glad that our other Marshal husband isn’t here to hear this. I’m considered the nice one.”

“Luckily, Aunt Bobbie backed me up in court.” Micah reached out and grabbed Harry’s hand, pulling him in close.

“Thank you, Aunt Bobbie. Thank you for keeping my husband out of that.” Harry said to the woman.

“They didn’t have any right to do it, or legal ground to stand on.” Bobbie waved away his thanks. “They had a judge who was a member of their church. Once I got him recused, everything was fine.”

“If the monster that had attacked Mike was in a safe house, then Steve and Richie would still be alive. Mike would still be a human, not an animal.” Bertie said, sounding righteous.

“Papa is not an animal!” Teddy snarled at her. “Don’t you dare call Papa an animal. You’re the animal.”

“Easy, Teddy Bear.” Harry whispered to the boy.

“That’s enough!” Bea said, face flushed and eyes paling to gray. She looked angry.

“Tell me that these are the craziest members of your family.” Harry sent to Micah.

“Last time I visited, yes, and if you have MACUSA take them away… no one will complain, except maybe Esther who is just a victim but doesn’t recognize it.” Both had noticed that Esther had pressed herself flat to the wall as if she was trying to become part of the paintings.

“Good.”

“You are all an abomination before the Lord!” Bertie shouted, she was so full of rage that she was shaking.

“You didn’t think that in high school,” Jody said, her voice bland and empty.

“We were friends once, before you became a pervert!”

“You liked my perversion just fine in high school and then we scared each other. I married the first man who would have me, and you started sleeping with any man who would have you.”

Micah’s mom, stepdad, Aunt Jody, and Aunt Bobbie seemed to have had enough. Esther made a somewhat squeaky sound in the corner as the fear rode her hard. Harry’s beasts couldn’t help but identify her as weak. He hadn’t meant to, but the way she was acting put her at ‘too weak to even bother with’. He could feel Teddy shivering beside him.

“What’s wrong baby?”

“Her fear,” Teddy whispered, eyes darting over to Esther. “I can taste it.”

“It’s okay to like it,” said Micah softly. “You have to accept it.”

“I know, but… she’s weak.”

“Yes.”

“But it isn’t her fault.” Teddy said.

“No.”

“But she is an adult, so now it is.” He sounded less sure.

“Exactly.”

“You are just a freak of a whore with that slut of a girlfriend of yours!” Bertie snarled.

“What’s she talking about?” Micah asked, slightly confused.

Juliet who heard. “Aunt Jody has been living with her girlfriend for years after the divorce.”

“Ah,” said Micah.

“You’re just a jealous ol’ hag these days Bertha. Get with the program. It’s the modern world, and everyone’s fucking each other!”

“You are despicable!” Jamie roared. “The Lord will deal with you in his own way.”

“Only because you can’t get it up, you fat ass! Not what you tried five years ago, is it Uncle Jamie?” Jody taunted, causing Bertie to roar and come after Jody only for Bobbie to step in the middle.

“Don’t you dare touch her,” Bobbie growled.

“It’s getting ugly fast,” Noah hissed.

“What do we do?” Abraham asked. “Family situations were not covered in the guard manual.”

“There’s a manual?” Harry asked, unable to hide a smile.

“Not what Nicky would say,” said Lisandro.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Uncle Lis. Nick would eat them,” Teddy said factually.

“Just wait,” said Harry. It would have to escalate further to have grounds of removal. Everything needed to be legal.

Esther somehow managed to scuttle off the wall. Harry tightened his hold on Teddy in case the lust of the anger and fear became a bit too much. He didn’t have such supreme control like the other men in the room yet. Harry was going to guess that this was probably the most rage and anger that Teddy had ever tasted since becoming a full werewolf. Most were drawn to it like they were drawn to food. She made her way hunched toward Harry and Micah.

“I’m so sorry, Mike,” she whispered piteously.

He patted her arm. “Micah, and it’s okay Essie. Your parents were never your fault.” She flashed him adoring blue eyes, and he didn’t bother to notice as he watched his mother and aunts fight. “Just know you aren’t going to save them this time.”

Something had been said, but Harry hadn’t quite heard what it was, nor did he care because Bertie was coming at Bea, claws out and hands in her hair. Bea retaliated, taking her perfect manicure and sinking it into the woman’s face.

“Beasts! All of you! You’re all beasts!” Jamie shouted. “All of you have the mark of the beast and you are damned to hell!”

“I’ll show you beasts, you son of a bitches! I’ve had enough of you!” Bea screamed. “You leave my kids out of your toxic preaching!”

As the sisters tumbled, Bobbie and Jody got caught in the middle, and Jamie was being held back by Ty who had pinned him to the wall. No amount of weight was going to see him off the wall. He must have known his wife well not to bother intervening.

That was when two loud sounds like a gunshot exploded through the room, making everyone freeze.

“Shit, I didn’t smell them,” Abraham hissed.

“You wouldn’t have, Bram. It’s okay,” Harry rubbed the wererat’s bare arm. He had moved closer as the fighting went on in case they had to intervene as guards.

A forceful amount of magic pushed all those who got caught in the fight apart. Bertie shrieked as she went flying into the wall. Bea had gone into Bobbie’s arms. Bertie’s wool like hair was tangled and the hat she’d been wearing had fallen off. She had a swollen eye and her face looked as though someone had made a scratching post. She had tufts of Bea’s hair in her fist. Her too tight pantsuit looked as if it had been ripped. No doubt her fat bottom couldn’t quite handle the strain.

Two plain and forgettable looking men in red and black matching robes stepped forward. The only indication that they were anything special was the wands in their hands, pointed at the previously fighting mass.

“Marshal Potter-Black?” said the one closest to Harry, Micah, and Teddy. He had a short dark-haired nondescript hairstyle that a million men in America had. His face was also the most bland. A very blend-in sort of look. His eyes on the other hand were a deep darkness that set in his head.

“Yes, sir?” Harry stepped forward as the room seemed to go silent.

He extended his hand for Harry. “Auror Jonathon Kershaw and this is my partner, Auror Phillip Goldstein.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Auror Kershaw and Goldstein.” Harry wondered if Phillip was any relation to Anthony Goldstein. “I apologize for the sudden call.”

“Not an issue, we were already in the area dealing with another incident. Please explain to me what happened.”

Bertie and Jamie opened their fat mouths as if to talk, but they found their voices had been muted. Bea and the others had as well.

“You will not speak until we are finished,” said Auror Goldstein plainly as he showed his credentials to the Muggles and then to Al who had been the most useless cop Harry had ever met. Sorry Micah, Harry thought.

Micah must have heard that. “He’s too close to the family. It’s hard to do your job when that happens.”

“Not for us.”

“No, Baby, not for you or Edward. It’s why I married you. You never stopped being who you are.”

Harry told them of the circumstances and his suspicion of the two being part of the Shepherd’s Flock. Bertie and Jamie were still screaming trying to get their words out only to come up dry.

“God, why couldn’t we do that so long ago?” Jody asked with a deep breath. “Can you imagine the peace and quiet?”

“Sir, Mrs. Morgan is innocent of any wrongdoing, can I release her from the silence? Not only was she verbally attacked but also physically assaulted and her children have all been threatened repeatedly as far as I understand.” Goldstein asked.

Kershaw flicked his wand to Bea, causing her to clear her throat.

“I would have reported it sooner, but with my husband’s father being so ill I did not want to add anymore stress to the situation.” Harry stated.

“Yes, Director Bradford is already making some moves on that front,” said Kershaw with a nod. “He mentioned it when he had us sent here for this. Mrs. Morgan, right?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Please tell me what happened in your own words. We will try and be swift so as not to cause you any more grief than is necessary,” he followed up.

Goldstein was already hoisting both Jamie and Bertie onto their feet. He had used his wand to conjure thick tight ropes to swirl behind their wrists. He was reading them their rights from where he stood in front of them both critically. His eye was on the pendant and he snapped a photograph of them for evidence. Both were still trying to speak and failing. No defense. Terrorism had no right of defense in the eyes of MACUSA after all. Radicals for either side could not be reasoned with, their minds would never change no matter what. They were a danger to not only themselves but the populace.

Bea had calmed down immensely; enough to tell Kershaw everything and then some. It seemed that she too had had enough of their abuse. Esther was silently crying in a corner, but hadn’t made a move to interfere.

“Right, we’ll get these two processed.” Kershaw said. “Are you the point of contact for any updates? You’re here for a family emergency. Is there someone else you’d like us to contact in your stead?”

“Lisandro will be a good person to contact if you can’t reach me directly.” Harry gestured to the wererat. Lisandro stepped forward with a business card ready.

“Very good.” Kershaw took the card. “We’ll be in touch.”

Goldstein approached Harry before they left. “I want to thank you, Mr Potter-Black, for your services in the magical world.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re not by any chance related to Anthony Goldstein in Britain, are you?”

“A cousin somewhere along the line, yes,” said Goldstein smirking. “Branched in two different directions during World War II.” The Grindelwald fiasco that he didn’t mention aloud. He turned to Bea. “I am terribly sorry about Mr. Callahan and the state he’s been put in.”

“You know him?”

“Yes ma’am. He’s often in contact with us when it comes to things he isn’t sure of. A very honorable man he is.”

“Th-thank you, sir.” He turned to Micah, shook his hand, and offered his sympathies. It wasn’t long before they activated their port-key and vanished, making several people jump in surprise.

“That went well,” Harry quipped dryly and Micah let out a laugh and threw his arms around Harry to draw him close into him.

“Goddammit, I love you, Baby,” he moaned with a nuzzle. Harry barely noticed Esther’s eyes dropping to the floor in despair. “Thank you.” Teddy turned and wrapped tightly around Micah.

“Where exactly did they go?” asked Jody quietly.

“As long as they aren’t near me, I don’t care where they are sent to,” said Bea as she tried to adjust her messy hair. She wiped at the corners of her eyes. “Maybe we should have done that years ago. I’m sorry Esther.”

“It’s fine…” she whimpered.

“I am so sorry, Harry, that you had to see our family at our worst. Please, accept my apologies.”

“It’s fine Bea, really.”

“And oh - all of that in front of my grandson!” She looked at him with soft eyes.

“It’s okay, I know what radicals are like, there is no fixing them.”

Bobbie tapped her fingers. “As far as I know the Magical Congress of the United States, or MACUSA for short, has a very low tolerance. I have tried to warn them time and time again that they were stepping into something that they could never get out of.”

“You know they have always been this way,” said Jody, crossing her arms. “Uncle Jamie was always the kind of man who’d hold a Bible in one hand and in the other masturbate to porn.”

“Jody! Not in front of a twelve year old!” Bea gasped.

“Don’t lecture her on my account,” said Teddy. “I know all about that stuff.”

Jody smirked. “He’s a lot like you, Mike, isn’t he?”

“All of us,” said Micah proudly. “We’ve raised him with pure honesty. We will never tell him lies, nor will we censor him or the world around him. He doesn’t deserve that no matter the age.”

“And now, I am going to be the police department’s worst nightmare,” Harry looked at Micah. “Is that okay?”

Micah looked at him. “You know something, don’t you?”

Harry didn’t drop his eyes. “Let me work it before I say a word.”

“You would anyway. I can’t stop you and I won’t.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Bea. “Is this about Rush? Do you know something, Harry?”

Harry turned and looked at the woman. “I don’t want to give you any sort of false promise or anything less than one hundred percent guarantee. You don’t deserve that. But, the way things like this work, there is a good chance if we can find what is going on and stop it, there’s a chance that whatever is eating Mr. Callahan might slow down or stop entirely.”

Her eyes widened. “Truly?”

“I can’t promise, please do not take that as a hope that I might not be able to deliver on.” He was nervous as everyone was staring at him now.

“How can you say this? We know nothing, Harry!” said Al coming over.

Harry turned with a hand on his hip. “That is because you know nothing about Preternaturals, Deputy Truman. I am very sorry to have to say this in front of the whole family, but I know for a damn fact that if you had reported this as Preternatural the first moment you saw it -” He went quiet and Al paled.

“Fuck…” He raked a hand through his hair and was gripping the hat in his hands. Harry had no doubt he might need a new one.

“Al!” Bea chastised.

“Sorry, Bea… but one of the last things Sheriff Callahan said was to get in touch with the Preternatural Unit. He said it at the beginning, and then before he-” He waved his hand. “No one listened. Most think you are nothing more than glorified killers with a badge.”

Harry laughed. “They are not wrong, Deputy Truman. You are a cop. You are put on the force to save and protect lives. The Preternatural Unit are often the ones who come in and take lives. We have never said differently and we are never going to. There is a reason there are only a handful of us after all. But for now, I have a date at the morgue. Micah-?”

“You do what you need. I’ll be here with Teddy.”

“I’ll be back.” He made to leave when Bea grabbed him out of nowhere in a forceful hug that was startling.

“Thank you!” she breathed into his hair.

“Don’t do that so soon, Mrs. Morgan.”

“Bea, please! And I’m thanking you for making my son smile and bringing him home.” She squeezed him extra tight to the point that Harry could kind of see where Micah got the grip from.

Ty had to pry her off.

“No thanks required, Bea. Micah means the world to us and then some.”

Chapter Text

Never once had Harry ever cared about the prides he hurt or the toes he stepped on to get his way when it came to something. Harry knew that one of his biggest flaws was never leaving well enough alone and always trying to fix something.

And this was no different.

If Micah’s father’s life hadn’t been on the line, Harry might have taken time to ease them in, might have gone through the usual standards of politics, and all that rot, but there wasn’t enough time. So like a bandage, he had no choice but to rip it off, nevermind the hairs and skin that would come with it.

Colorado and Alaska, there was a reason that both Bradley and Edward had talked about them. It was because they were the hardest and most difficult when it came to the matters of Preternatural law. Some may try and push the laws, but in the back of their minds every last one of them nearly thought that Preternaturals were all monsters in need of euthanization. Maybe Harry should look up some mass human killers in the Colorado area? It always paid to be armed. He knew that using these arguments and defenses often left the flawed police more angry than thankful. But Harry liked having a defense he could use should he need.

No matter how much they bitched, they couldn’t actually deny his presence. They could not send him away as much as they would want to. He was not a typical Fed. He didn’t have to be invited anywhere. He could waltz in and do what he wanted.

Dr. Rogers had been at a loss, and a lot of the ‘good and nice cops’ that he had met took exception that a young looking upstart had come blowing through. Rickman seemed the most furious, Gonzales on the other hand had held them all off and insisted on letting Harry do his job. Al backed him up. He was still shaken, and looking disturbed about the fact that Rush could have had a better chance of survival if they’d listened to him.

Harry did not care and it seemed like the Medical Examiner was on his side of the equation. Probably because they didn’t have to look and carve around the bodies that were laid out in her morgue.

Harry stared down at the first plastic-edged corpse. It was a female and he listened to the ME tell her medical story from a sheet of paper. She was partially rotted and it looked like it might still be going. “It’s accelerated, hasn’t it?”

“Yes. Of course there are many stages to decomp, but this is… advanced.”

“Yes, I can see that,” said Harry.

“Is that all you can say, Marshal? Pointing out the obvious there,” Rickman sneered. Boy, he had changed colors fast. Harry had a feeling it had something to do with the credit. Some of these younger guys coming in wanted fame and glory. Edward had told Harry that he looked much better in the papers most of the time than anyone else. Not only was he young and pretty, something that the media soaked up like a sponge, but he was also affable and it showed.

“Is that all you can do is ask stupid questions?” Harry didn’t bother to look at him or those behind him.

He had quite the audience. There was Dr. Rogers and the ME, Dr. Shelley, who had been more than expected, but he also had Sergeant Gonzales, Rickman, his partner, Detective Conner, Commander Walter Burke, Deputy Al, and Deputy Gutterman. Good thing Al was senior officer while Rush was hurt. Harry couldn’t help but note that if they had two of their officers, how many were left on the force to protect and serve the town they lived in? It was a tiny town. Nowhere near as big as most cities that Harry had visited.

Dr. Shelley turned and gave them a sharp look. “Gentleman, you were allowed in to observe, not to breath down our necks. Now, everybody take two big steps back except for Dr. Rogers and Marshal Potter-Black,” she snapped as she pushed her glasses back up her nose. “This is my part of the crime, my domain, and you’re here because I let you be here. If you don’t give us some room to work, then I’ll clear it entirely, do you understand? Now step the fuck away from us!” Gonzales stepped back first, followed by the rest of them. Rickman was last. “Thank you. Marshal Potter-Black, now that we can move without bumping into people, do you have any questions?”

Rickman piped up once more. “We want to know what he sees that we didn’t. Not just information that you’ve already given us!”

Harry tilted his head. “I technically do not have to share a single morsel of information with any of you,” he said coldly, making Rickman’s face balloon up slightly. “But, because Mr. Callahan, my father-in-law, is currently upstairs near death and you are all rallying around him, I am letting you stay since he is one of yours. I do not have time to baby-sit you or take off the bandage slow enough to ease you into my presence. So get over the sting and shut the fuck up.”

“What did you-”

“That’s enough Ricky!” Dr. Shelley snapped. “Couldn’t have said it better myself, Marshal Potter-Black.”

“Ricky, back off. We’ve already been cited for not calling this in,” said Al, tiredly.

“What?”

“You heard me, MACUSA have come down hard on us, and all of our jobs are on the line right now. You need to plug it otherwise we’re all going to end up on traffic duty.”

“And there ain’t enough traffic in this town to keep you busy,” said Burke with a grunt.

“We’ve always handled our own just fine!” Rickman growled. “We don’t need him coming in and taking everything over like we’re incompetent!”

“Can you raise zombies?” Harry asked.

“Wha-? No!”

“I can,” Harry reminded. “It’s a talent that’s in your blood or it’s not. It’s not like the asshole gene that comes and goes when it wants to. You are making it more and more likely that when I do find out what’s going on, I’m not including you at all.”

“You have no right-”

“Yes, he does,” said Burke with a deep breath. “With the Preternatural Citizenry and Criminal Response Act that passed nationally last year, he has full rights to bring his own men in. He has full rights to deputize whomever he chooses to work with him. By God, Rickman, stop acting like you’re a two year old who had his cookie stolen by his sister! I don’t give a rat’s ass what he is or what he isn’t.”

“Not to mention that because of the MACUSA and Preternatural Protection Act that passed at the same time, you were all required to call in MACUSA as soon as the word zombie attack came into anyone’s mind.” Harry pointed out. Both laws were a bit of a mouthful to say but were put into place as soon as the shift in Marshal Units was passed. Edward had worked closely with MG&B and others to get them passed.

The first law was a brilliant piece created by Edward, Yen, Lorcan, Micah, and MG&B to ensure that Preternatural Marshals could deputize anyone they wanted when carrying out a warrant, could arrest anyone preternatural that was then taken into MACUSA custody until a court hearing could be completed, and gave all preternatural citizens full rights under US law, including the right to fair trial. The second law was created by Harry, Edward, MG&B, and Bradley to ensure that Preternatural Marshals fell under MACUSA jurisdiction, all crimes suspected of being preternatural fell to MACUSA, and made sure that only Preternatural Marshals could execute a warrant on a preternatural citizen unless the warrant was signed over with MACUSA approval.

Al was absolutely right when he said their jobs were on the line.

“But we already know it’s a fucking zombie! We just have to find and kill it.”

“And how did the zombie get there?” Harry asked. “How did the zombie infect others to the point of it killing them?”

“It's flesh-eating! Even I know that.”

“It’s not a flesh-eater. Flesh eaters don’t do this. Normal ones anyway. Yes, zombies are filthy and nasty, but they do not cause these kinds of wounds. They do not do that. Unless there is something stronger that backs it. Someone or something is out there raising these zombies to be like this. It’s not the zombie you want. It’s the person doing it.”

“Person?” asked Gonzales. “Now, I tried not to say anything, but I saw you look oddly earlier when you and Mike arrived together. Don’t think I didn’t miss it. Do you know something?”

“90% certainty with 10% room for error, Sergeant,” said Harry.

“That’s high odds.”

Harry turned away from them all to look at the bodies. “I’d have been more apt to ask permission as a courtesy and simply wait it out, but Micah doesn’t deserve that. I’d have gone through proper channels and not try to be a bastard about this.”

“You don’t think you can fix this do you?” asked Burke.

“I always try to fix things, Burke. It’s part of my winning flaws,” said Harry.

“Isn’t that an oxymoron?” asked Al.

“Yep. It depends on who you ask,” said Harry, checking the wounds. He had his gloves on, doubled as usual. “In most of my line of work I find that the typical databases that are public knowledge aren’t very useful. I’ve tried to have it updated to the best of our ability, but it sometimes falls under. Now normally vampires don’t eat their victims as they cannot swallow or digest food. Zombies bite like human beings, but these are not bites like a human. However, I wonder... I’ve never seen that before, is that a dead undead?” He was now talking to himself.

He went down the line from one body to the next. Of course, there wouldn’t be consistency because there was more than one weapon being used. The woman’s bite had been neater, but it had also been on her face. As if the zombie had tried to tear off her cheek. He asked both the ME and the Doctor about the woman.

Rogers spoke up as Harry focused on him. “The patient wouldn't sign off on the surgery to excise her wound. It was only after the patient realized that the disease was going to do more damage to her face than the surgery that she agreed to it, but it was too late. The disease had made its way to her brain and there was nothing we could do. I cut away as much of the infected tissue as I could, but when I realized that it wouldn't save her life, I did what I could to make her comfortable. Once this thing gets into a major organ that is needed to sustain life there isn't anything we can do, except pump them full of painkillers and make them comfortable until the end.”

Harry looked up at him. “Have you mentioned this to Micah? Is his father pumped up on meds? Has it reached a major organ system?” Harry did his best to remain calm. He didn’t want to think that there was nothing he could do to help his father in-law. Not until he had tried.

“No. Mr. Callahan wasn’t told when you left the room. The rest of the family knows. Because the disease is also incredibly painful and we can only slow it, not stop it, we make the patients as comfortable as possible. Thus he is on a bunch of drugs.”

“Do you know how long until it reaches a vital organ and then how long it takes to kill the organ?” Harry turned back to the bodies before him.

He nodded. “Rush was lucky it was an arm wound. I was able to take a lot of the flesh. I thought I'd gotten it all, honestly, but it's as if you can't cut fast enough to stay ahead of it. If we hadn't had the earlier patients to treat, so we knew to put him on massive full-spectrum antibiotics and use the hyperbaric chamber, it would have spread everywhere by now. We're learning more with every patient.”

“Why didn't you excise flesh from the man's shoulder wound?” Harry asked, moving on to another body. He couldn’t help but wonder if this had been a fresh attack if a strong enough vampire could have sucked it out the way Jean-Claude had been able to get most of the iron out of his blood.

“He was the first we found alive. The emergency room doctor tried treating it as less virulent than it turned out to be. In his defense, you see the mess that the wound was. The thing really tore at him, so it was treated as a regular zombie bite, since they carry their own types of infection. By the time the attending doctor called me in, it was simply too late. The infection had reached the man's heart and there was nothing we could do.”

“Are you saying that his heart was rotted away?” Harry checked for confirmation.

Dr Shelley answered that question. “Yes, it was quite decayed. I'd never seen anything like it. You can see that the flesh on most of the chest is clean and looks healthy, but when I did the autopsy the heart looked more like the area around the initial wound.”

“Why did his heart rot? Why her brain? Why didn't it eat the outer healthy flesh first?” Harry was slowly shifting his estimation from 90 percent towards 100 the more he learned. It sounded more and more like what decaying vampires could do. It was like the infection knew where it was going. Most infections spread like a spiderweb through the system. But this had a specific target in mind.

“We aren't a hundred percent certain,” Rogers said, “but we think that this infection enters the bloodstream through the bite and rides the blood into a major organ system and rots from both ends, so to speak.”

“So, bad luck about the face bite hitting the brain,” Harry observed.

“Yes,” Rogers said.

“And if you'd known to excise the shoulder wound on the man, then he might have been able to hold on longer,” Harry said.

“If he'd been a later victim instead of one of the first, I believe his odds would have been as good as the Sheriff's,” Rogers said.

Harry tried not to let his personal feelings cloud the situation. It was not the time for that. He was pretty sure he already knew enough, but it never hurt to know more. Every little detail that he could get. “Where are the earlier victims, the ones who died even faster than shoulder-wound here?”

Rogers and Shelley exchanged a look; it wasn't a look you see often between doctors, especially when one of them is a trauma surgeon and the other is a coroner. They didn't want to see the bodies again. Something about them bothered both doctors. Interesting.

“We'll have to go into the other area,” Shelley said.

“Other area?” Harry wondered where else they were holding the victims.

“Where we keep the bodies that are so decayed that we, well, we wouldn't want the smell to contaminate everything. No one would be able to work down here.”

“But Rush didn’t smell that bad. Are you saying some of them did?”

“Yes,” Shelley said. “That is one of the odd things about it; it doesn't seem to have the odor to match the putrefaction process. It's a small blessing for the patients and their families, but it is odd.”

Harry frowned down at the bodies. “But you put the other dead bodies in the area with the other stinky stuff; why?”

“The early bodies decayed more completely. The infection spread from the initial bite site to encompass fifty to eighty percent of the available flesh in just hours.”

“Hours?” Harry asked.

Both nodded.

“These victims all died within hours of being infected?” Harry asked for confirmation.

“The man did; we were able to prolong the woman's life for three days.”

“And you’ve given Rush five days. Did the early victims in the lockbox die from the infection hitting a major organ group?” Harry asked.

“No,” Rogers and Shelley said together. She motioned to him to speak first. He continued, “actually, the infection seemed to spread faster through the flesh until it hit a major organ. It's almost as if as the patient begins to die, the infection slows. It shouldn't, but it seems to, and I emphasize seems to, because we have far too small a sample set to be sure of much with this infection.”

“Understood, you're investigating the disease the way we investigate a crime,” Harry nodded to himself.

He nodded in tune. “Very much so. We are trying to be thorough. Everything we can learn from helps the next victim that shows up.”

“Let me guess, there is no set pattern?”

“What do you mean, pattern?”

“The neat bite is in the woman's face. The rough bite is a shoulder wound. There have been differing reports on the zombies doing the attacking. What I'm asking is, does one zombie bite on the arms and shoulders and the other one bite on the face, or was the bite placement just what they could grab? Do they have a bite location preference?”

“Two of the victims had facial wounds,” Burke said from the back.

“Three of them, including the sheriff, were shoulder, arm, or back wounds,” Al said.

“You said you had witnesses to some of the attacks. Did they report differences in how the zombies attacked?”

Al seemed to think about it and then glanced at the other officers. They all sort of shook their heads and shrugged. “The witness statements read like a horror movie,” Rickman said. “I don't mean they're horrible, but more like they're describing a scene from a movie.”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked. Rickman looked at the other men, and it was the first sign of insecurity he had shown.

Burke spoke up, “My guys were the first on the scene for one attack, and I know what the detective is saying. Zombies are the shambling dead, slow - relentless, but slow. One thing all the witnesses agree on is that these zombies are human-fast, at the very least and maybe a little faster, which is movie stuff, not reality.”

“The flesh-eating zombies I have dealt with and know of were more than human-fast,” Harry shared.

“Why does eating flesh make them faster?” Rickman asked.

“A few years ago there was a flesh-eating zombie that was unique. He was hundreds of years old, and the one who raised it lost control of it. He died in the process making the zombie run errant. Now, most zombies would have also gone back to the earth as a result of the magic used to hold the zombie vanishing, however this zombie was special. He had been something special in life.” What he didn’t say was that it had also been backed by Dominga Salvador, but he was keeping mum on that.

“Special?” asked Burke.

“Yes, not completely human.” Harry didn’t want to tell them that he’d been a Necromancer. He didn’t need any more issues. “He ran rampant, and the more and more flesh he ate the more of his memories from his life on earth came back to him. He became less of a typical zombie, but make no mistake he was a zombie. He ate through whole families before we managed to tie him down and get him.”

“What does this all mean then?” asked Al.

“In human terms, it means you have found the murder weapon. The zombies and the attack is a weapon.”

“Yes, yes, that’s what I suspected,” said Dr. Shelley nodding.

“And you didn’t inform us of this?” Rickman scowled.

“I didn’t have confirmation, Detective Rickman. I am not an expert in Preternatural anything, but I know my bodies. I know my wounds. It was savage, no doubt. But it also seems to me like it's being aimed.” Harry nodded at her.

“If this isn’t a flesh-eater what is it?” asked Burke. “You know, don’t you?”

Harry crossed his arms over his chest, and glanced at the rotting body. “I believe these zombies are more than human. I think these zombies are dead vampires.”

“Vampires are dead,” Rickman pointed out.

“No, Rickman, they are not. Undead, yes. But dead? No, they have souls, whether you want to believe it or not.”

“You believe in souls?”

“When you raise the dead you have to,” said Harry. “Normally, you wait three days before raising so that the soul can move on.”

“You religious?”

“Not one bit. But I’m not anti-religion either. I respect all unless it starts hurting innocent people, and then it's not a religion anymore,” said Harry sharply.

“Have you ever raised a vampire?” asked Al, smartly.

“Good question, and the answer is, hell no.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have no idea what it would do. On principle, any decent animator worth their career would never raise former animators, magically sensitive humans, humans with extra strong religious backgrounds, weres, or vampires. You also do not raise zombies that have been murdered because they will go after their attacker.”

“So we’re looking for a potential animator who can raise vampires as zombies?” Burke asked.

“You’re right on track.”

Gonzales turned and looked at Rickman. “Happy now? He gave us something we didn’t know, Rickman.” He looked rather satisfied, but then veterans weren’t so arrogant that they didn’t know how to ask for help. It seemed Rush meant more to him than a cop’s potential ego.

Rickman sneered. “Black magic, I hate this shit!” he said by way of answer.

“Just because you hate something doesn’t stop it from being useful or important.” Harry didn’t bother to correct him as he pulled off his gloves. He hoped Edward stopped somewhere for an arsenal because they were going to need it. He needed to get back and be a husband. “I have to get back and be a husband, but I will be requesting more information on this case soon enough. It’s your decision whether or not to cooperate. But keep in mind, if you don’t cooperate with me, I will not reciprocate. I’d be more than willing to keep you fully in the loop and involved.”

He would not be surprised if, like Belle Morte, Morte d’Amour had a second feeding ability. Perhaps his was cannibalism? He was the Lover of Death, and he would never forget when the master vampire had tried to turn his powers on them.

Harry turned to Dr. Rogers. “Is Micah going to be able to actually talk to his dad?”

“He’s in a medically induced coma. Normally, I’d bring him out of it pretty quickly, but the last patient to die seemed to go into shock when the drugs left her system. So I’m going to wean the Sheriff off more slowly and hope his body adjusts better.” Harry nodded solemnly, and glanced at the bodies one last time. “I’m sorry, Marshal. I will do everything I can to give your husband a chance to say good-bye to his father.”

“I appreciate that. In the meantime I’m going to do what I can. If there is one thing I’ve learned it's that if you find the power source behind these attacks and kill it, then you can at least halt whatever it is doing remotely.”

He got promises to have access to everyone's witness statements. Al went one better. “Deputy Gutterman was with Rush when he was attacked. You can hear his statement firsthand.”

“I would appreciate that. Is he here?”

He shook his head. “Gutter is out on another call. With the Sheriff and me out of rotation, there's not enough people on our force to keep Gutter at the hospital, too.”

Burke said, “I could send a couple of cars on extra patrols through your town if you need it, Al.”

“I really appreciate that, Commander. I may take you up on it, just depends on how... things go.”

He was surprised when Dr. Shelley offered her hand to him. “I do hope you can find something. You may be the last hope we have for a miracle.”

“Be realistic, there are no miracles,” Rickman sneered.

“Shut up, Rickman,” every cop snapped, including his partner making him jerk.

Harry shook the woman’s hand. “I don’t know if I can deliver. I can’t give any promises, but what I can promise is to find him.”

“Him?” asked Gonzales.

“It, him, her. A good chance is that it’s male.” He recovered quickly, and silently berated himself for the slipup. “I’ve learned in the Preternatural world that the lovely ladies tend to like to play with their victims more than the males. A lot of men get to the point, the ladies will drag it out for every ounce it’s worth.” That had some of them staring at him.

Dr. Shelley nodded. “Yes they do,” she agreed. “I’ve seen enough come through my doors.”

Lisandro was waiting on Harry in the hall just outside the doors when they all left the room. He leaned in and sniffed Harry and then shook his head. “You smell like corpses.”

“Yeah.”

“No, you really smell like a corpse. I’ve seen you raise the dead. Yours don’t smell,” said Lisandro. Every so often Lisandro will accompany him to his nightly raisings as a guard. “In fact, they smell like the scent you get from the funeral home. A mix of powder and staleness with too many mums.”

“That’s because my zombies don’t rot,” said Harry, aware of the men behind him. He swept a hand down his front and used just a bit of subtle magic to wipe the scent. If Lisandro could smell it, Micah and Teddy would be able to too. “Better?”

Lisandro shuffled closer and put his nose into Harry’s ear. “Yes.” Both of them turned for the stairwell instead of the elevator on instinct. Harry was well aware of the staring they received. “Do you think we can stop it?”

“Oh we’ll stop him, make no mistake, Lisandro. But, in time for Micah’s dad?” Harry grimaced. “At this stage? Honestly, Lisandro, I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I am one hundred percent that this has him all over it. You know what really pisses me off?” he asked once they were well ahead of the cops. “If they’d contacted the Preternatural Unit the moment this shit happened, we could have healed him.”

“You healed it before?”

“I was quick enough. It was during that horrible Council visit, remember?” Harry kept his voice soft and wispy in case they were overheard. Most of the men had taken the elevators.

Lisandro cringed. “Yes. I will never forget it.” Rafael had been skinned alive.

“Shang-Da was attacked by a representative. It was working its way through his skin. I was able to catch it in time to burn it out. I also think that a vampire could actually suck out the poison if they were strong enough. Jean did that to me when I was poisoned with iron during the Earthmover rubbish.”

“Looks like we’re going to be preparing for another war.”

“Sorry, Lisandro.”

“No, I’m glad to be here. It’s what I do. Luca and Sammy will understand.”

“I’ll get you back to them, I promise.”

“That’s my line. You are my mark after all. But you do make it hard to guard you at times.”

Harry grinned and swooped his arms around Lisandro who grunted and raked his fingers through Harry’s wild hair. “I’m sorry.” He kissed the man on the cheek.

“Sorry, he says and then kisses my cheek. You are a preciously annoying mark, and we Rodere will follow you endlessly.”

“Back at you.”

By the time Harry and Lisandro returned, some decisions had been reached. Aunt Jody and Aunt Bobbie were staying at the hospital with a bevy of policemen who would haunt the place until Rush Callahan either got to go home or didn’t. The doctors were starting to wean Rush from the drugs that were keeping him unconscious, but as Dr Rogers had said, they were going to do it slowly.

Everyone had been invited to go to Micah’s mother and stepfather’s house. It was close to the hospital and to the university where they both worked.

Micah started to protest, but Harry reached over and drew him closure. “Husband, we all need to eat soon.”

“I’m not hungry,” he responded automatically.

“Yes, Husband, you are,” said Harry patiently. “I know you hate to leave him now that you’re back, but it will take time for the drugs to wear off so he’s conscious. So let’s get everyone fed, and then you can come back, okay?” Micah wrapped his arms around Harry and pulled him close. “At least let your Nimir-Ra feed the Nimir-Raj okay?” he whispered into the man’s ear and kissed him.

Micah nodded and pulled back before kissing him again. “I’m sorry, Teddy. I didn’t think about you being hungry. How awful of me.”

“It’s okay, Papa.” said Teddy with a smile. “You take care of us all the time. It’s our turn to look after you.”

Micah cracked a smile, and dipped down and kissed Teddy. “Thank you. I need it.”

“Yes you do.” Teddy’s so serious face had Harry and his guards snickering and smirking.

Lisandro’s phone rang. “Talk to me,” he answered. “You’ve landed? Good. I’ll send Bram to get you.”

“Jean-Claude isn’t here already is he?” Micah asked.

Lisandro hung up. “No, but some guards caught a commercial flight. We figured the more spaced apart the better off we are.”

“Who is it?” asked Teddy cheerfully.

“Nick, Ares, Dev, and Ethan.”

“I thought Dev stayed back with Nilda?”

“Jean-Claude’s handling it. He can’t have one of his master’s acting that way when he’s trying to lead an example of the opposite,” he said carefully, aware that they are being listened to.

Harry scowled. “He shouldn’t have to. Looks like we’re going to have to do some of our own reinforcement.”

“Edward style?” Micah asked.

“No, Harry-style,” said Harry.

“But you're the nice one,” Noah pointed out.

“Yep.” Harry smiled benignly. “Edward would just finish it,” he said, keeping with the careful words.

“But you won’t,” Noah realized.

“Good,” said Abraham with a nod. “I’ll go get our boys.”

“Juliet, can you give me the GPS coordinates? That way I can text Bram?” asked Micah.

“Oh, uh, sure. What are you guys doing?” she asked, pulling up the map on her iPhone.

“Got some more friends arriving,” said Harry.

“Friends? You mean guards?”

“Both, they wouldn’t guard us if they didn’t love us, now would you?” Harry beamed.

“It wouldn’t be as easy, but we’d still do it if the price is right,” said Lisandro smirking. “Good thing you’re special, Precious!”

Juliet blinked and looked over at Micah quickly expecting to see him upset or annoyed, but he was actually smiling, despite the sour atmosphere. “How can you not love him?” said Micah.

“Now stop it with the compliments. You married me, that’s enough,” Harry whacked him lightly in the stomach.

“Never enough,” said Micah, pushing into his cheek with his nose.

“He’s our leader’s favorite person. We take care of him and his husbands like he’s our leader,” said Abraham, noticing her look. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“Can we switch, Lisandro? I’m not comfortable leaving them,” said Noah.

“I’m sure you can fit in my SUV, er Noah is it?”

“Yes ma’am,” said Noah with a nod.

“Alright, on my own,” said Abraham as he jingled the keys. “See you soon. No slacking while I’m gone, they are hard to guard.”

oOo

Juliet was driving them because part of their luggage was still in the back of her SUV. She was going to drop them off, and then go home to her own kids and husband. Lisandro was still in the front seat, and Teddy was sitting on Micah’s lap so that Noah could react should he need to on Micah’s other side. Harry was again behind Lisandro.

“If you need us to, we can go into the kitchen while you talk to your mother privately,” said Lisandro, though it would hardly be private considering they were weres.

“Thank you, Lisandro, but it’s hardly necessary, you know that,” said Micah. “I don’t know what I want. I can’t get past the fact that Mom sold the house five years ago. I’ve never seen the house we’re going to now.”

“Our home is the only real home I’ve ever known, unless you count the school,” said Harry. “I mean, I guess you could count the house I had as a baby. I saw it once.”

“A school?” Juliet couldn’t resist as she glanced back at them from the redlight they’d stopped at. “What happened to your house as a baby?”

“My parents were murdered when I was a year old, and when the magic went awol it blew half the house up. I lived with relatives that mimic your Aunt and Uncle.” Micah made a growling sound in the back of his throat. “And then I got taken to boarding school at eleven.”

“I’m so sorry, Harry,” said Juliet wide-eyed. “I wouldn’t have asked if I’d known!”

“It’s fine, Juliet. It’s been too long for it to upset me. My home is the one I have now with everyone.”

Micah squeezed his hand. “I love our house.”

“Me too!” Teddy chimed in.

“Car,” Lisandro said suddenly. “About to turn in front of us,” he quickly added, realizing that Juliet was hardly paying attention.

“What?” She turned back in time to swerve around the front end of the car that was pulling out. She got the car back under control and said, “Sorry.”

“No more looking back at us,” said Noah tightly. “Just drive okay?”

“Sorry, sorry! It’s just, that’s so sad.”

“Not really, and there’s a lot of sad for everyone to go around, but that’s not what is important anymore. A memory is only a memory after all.” Harry had no doubt that Juliet had probably lived the most sheltered and safe life imaginable.

“Yep, and knowing that my mum and dad died saving the world like my Parrain’s is what makes their deaths worthy,” said Teddy smartly.

Juliet was clutching the wheel, stunned. “Worthy?”

“Yes, death is nothing to be afraid of,” said Teddy. “It’s living that’s much harder.”

“Yes, Pup, it is,” said Micah, nuzzling into his ear. “Thank you, I needed to hear that again.”

Teddy turned his face to kiss Micah. “It’s harder on us living folks, but if you have enough people to love you, the sadness won’t take you.”

“A very wise child,” said Lisandro, smiling. “I hope my kids become half as smart as yours.”

“Luca and Sammy are real sweeties, Lisandro. They don’t have to become anything more than what they were born to be.”

“You talk like that around them, Luca’s going to try and steal you from your Husbands.” Everyone chuckled, and Harry reached around and tugged Lisandro’s braid.

“We can’t compete with such cuteness, Lisandro. Please don’t,” said Micah. His chin was resting on Teddy’s shoulder.

Juliet turned into a neighborhood of older, modest houses. Most of them were ranch-style with larger-than-normal yards for a suburban neighborhood. Some others had smaller yards, because they were tucked up against walls of rock. It reminded Harry of Scotland and how Hogsmeade hugged up against the mountain’s edge, except those homes and buildings were old.

“So weird to be in a neighborhood I’ve never seen and be on the way to Mom’s house,” Micah muttered.

“I guess that would be weird,” said Juliet as she turned into a cul-de-sac of larger houses.

“My own fault,” Micah finished.

“You did what you had to do,” said Noah.

“Protecting them from the crazy was your goal, and you did that,” said Lisandro. “Do not ever fear making sacrifices to protect those in your life.”

Juliet might have asked what crazy Lisandro was talking about as she parked in a driveway, but the door to the house opened, and Micah’s mom was framed in the light like an ad for some heartwarming film.

Juliet gasped. “How did they get behind us so fast?”

Harry and everyone turned to look back to see Abraham’s SUV pull in right behind them.

“He knows how to get behind someone from miles away,” said Lisandro. “Please wait and let the others get into position before we emerge,” he added carefully.

“No one is waiting to jump you at Aunt Bea’s house,” said Juliet incredulously.

“Probably not,” said Noah. “But it doesn’t hurt to be cautious.”

“Bodyguards are supposed to be paranoid,” said Harry. “We pay them for exactly that.”

“I wouldn’t have believed you needed them until I saw what Bertie and Jamie did,” said Juliet with a sigh.

Lisandro leaned around. “No one get out until someone has your door.”

“Me too?” Julie tasked.

“No, you aren’t our job,” he responded.

“Good,” she said, and reached for her door again.

“Not yet.”

“You said I could get out.”

“I said you didn’t have to wait for a guard to have your door, but I don’t want you opening your door yet.”

“Why not?”

“You’ll illuminate the inside of the car and make a target of everyone in here,” he replied succinctly. He said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, which had the woman stumped.

Her shoulders sagged and Harry could see her rethinking the world from a much scarier and more dangerous perspective. She turned in the darkened car and looked at Micah. “Is this how you have to live all the time?”

“Only when we’re not home,” said Micah. “You get used to it over time.”

She frowned at him when he said ‘home’ as in a home away from them. “Is - this why you didn’t want to come back? You thought you’d endanger everyone?”

“Partly, but now I have enough people to make the bad guys hesitate,” said Micah. “If they see Lisandro, Noah, and the others doing their job they will know I’m not unprotected. They’ll know that if they harm the family, it won’t be without repercussions,” Micah’s voice was very calm as he said it, so reasonable.

“Do you mean…” Juliet said, but Abraham was at her door making her flinch slightly. He was dark enough to blend in well with the area around them.

Harry beamed when he saw Nicky come around to his door. Dev was at Noah’s, and Ares was at the back of the SUV. He was more excited than he expected as the energy in his body jumped like it’d been shocked. His lioness was moving through him, rubbing against his surfaced leopard who had been awake and watching out for her mate. Now that she was mated, the lioness was quite willing and happy to mingle with all of Harry’s beasts. She was the most ‘sensual’ and sexually needy of them all.

All of their doors were opened for them at the same time. Harry couldn’t resist. “Nicky!” He was helped out of the SUV, and went right into the big muscular arms of Nicky. He was tall, hanging over almost all of them. He was so strong and buff. He had a slim waist, but the shirt he wore, which was guard-red, was tight across his chest. He could easily split out of it if it hadn’t been tailored to size. Harry could feel the controlled Rex energy flowing up and down his body like a warm flame. If they were in appropriate company, Harry would probably be in his pants already. Harry nuzzled him beneath the neck as that was as far as he could reach even with boots.

“I can’t do my job, Kitten, if you won’t let me.” He stroked Harry on the back of the neck, and then held out a large hand to Teddy who took it as they shuffled back.

“Hi, Uncle Nicky.”

“Got your back, Nicky,” said Ethan’s lovely pur-like voice that had Harry way more excited than he needed to be. Ethan was as beautiful as his soft kitten gray eyes. He had natural calico hair. Almost all white with silver/gray highlights and in the middle was a red stripe showing his most recent change was to red tiger, but it was the eyes that set him off. He was about Edward’s size and shape, but his face was younger, more boyish.

Micah stepped out. “Good to see you Nick, Ethan.”

Ethan didn’t even hesitate to bring Micah into an affectionate hug, and that was the first time he’d ever approached Micah for a touch and not the other way around. Ethan was one of those huggers that when he got the chance, he would encompass all of the person. You could feel all of him against you. Micah smiled into him and kissed him chastely. For all of a second, he had forgotten where they were and what they were doing with their band of family and lovers around them. All weres, no matter the flavor or dominant submissive type, loved and needed touch in some way. He was a mix of tigers, including golden. So he was kind of Harry’s ‘definitive’ tiger to call. Dev and him squabbled a lot about who was more important until someone stepped in and asked them not to do that to Harry. He had a needy handsome group that was for sure. All they were missing was Domino to complete his set.

Lisandro cleared his throat. “Focus, focus men. At least to the door.”

“Sorry, Lisandro,” both of them quipped sheepishly as Teddy giggled.

Dev was not to be left out. He was Harry’s golden tiger to call. He was tall, handsome, golden in skin, blue-hazel eyes, and his hair was a warm blond with brown undertones. He had a male’s statuesque frame like his brother Pride. His sister was just as tall and statuesque as him.

Ares was military handsome. He had short blond hair, shaved on the sides. A handsome hard face that did a lot to rock the worlds of Peter and Nathaniel. He was a hyena, but Harry would like to think he seemed to identify more with the wererats than he did the hyenas. Ares had confessed to Harry one night when he was guarding at a cemetery that he was not the fondest of Narcissus or the structure of the hyenas. No surprise, Ares was pure military and if he could have he would have stayed in the military. He’d been a scout sniper. Edward liked making use of his skills.

Juliet seemed completely stunned and confused by the reception of the men around them. She kept glancing left to right from one man to another as they all moved around the SUV to the front. Her normal had just been turned upside down. No doubt she saw Micah and Ethan kissing, and Harry being overly affectionate with Nicky.

Sorry, not sorry.

Micah’s mother had already opened the door, and was already walking down the steps part way toward them.

“So glad you’re here,” said Bea, breathily.

They entered the house in a circle of bodyguards, with Micah’s mother reaching out to lead him inside. The guards let Micah go forward to meet her with Noah planted at his side. Harry and Teddy held hands with Dev and Nicky on either side of them. Bram and Ethan were behind them and Lisandro was walking in tune just ahead of Harry. It wasn’t easy keeping track of all the guards. He simply trusted that they all knew what they were doing, and let them at it.

He kept rubbing his side against Nicky, not realizing that he was craving the contact. He raised his eyes to see Nicky staring at him hard with his one-eyed blue gaze. His blond hair was cut in a way so that it hid the blind eye. A triangle at the top, short and shaved in the back.

Abraham and Lisandro fell back on either side of the door just inside.

A mix of yellow orange light flooded from the great room. It was an open floor concept from the way the living/dining room flowed with the kitchen off to one side with only half-walls and bar stools around two sides.

Harry never did care for the open floor plan concept. Maybe because at one time all he had ever seen was a cupboard. But he liked having rooms that he could physically move from one place to another. He liked the fact that they had a couple of den’s back home because one of the dens housed all their big electronics and doubled as an entertainment room where most gathered. It used to be a ballroom, and some of the carved drawings and etchings on the ceiling proved that this was what it had been, but Harry had no bloody need for it. So it had become the main congregation that could house everyone at one time. The first floor den above the ground floor next to the library was more of a rest and relaxation sort of room. A bit smaller and well decorated thanks to Jean-Claude now. Harry wasn’t sure what that would technically be called.

Harry had little time to mimic the guards in perusal of everything when a young woman stepped in through the open doorway of a distant hallway. Her curly, dark auburn hair fell around her shoulders. She was maybe five foot four, slender and dainty much like Micah except for the top part of her body. It mimicked Micah’s well endowment below. An interesting spread of genetics, Harry couldn’t help but think.

Harry was going to guess that she had to be Beth. She walked across the room, face already starting to crumble into tears. Micah went to meet her halfway. She half-fell against him, wrapping her arms around his neck and started to sob. He held her, patting her back, trying to soothe her.

Harry could hear her saying. “I knew you’d come. Jerry said you wouldn’t, but I knew you would.”

Harry and Teddy ended up taking seats awkwardly on the beige wrap around sofa. Nicky had come to stand by him just a little out of his light so that he could see everything. Teddy chose to half sit and half stand between Harry’s legs on his lap.

That was when a small voice called out. “Bethy, are you all right?”

Beth pulled away, wiping at her eyes furiously, trying to hide the tears. She turned for the little boy in the hallway. Merlin, he was cute. Harry thought. He had a halo of golden curls that spilled around his head and that perfect skin tone that great genetics could give. His eyes were huge and shaped like Jerry’s and their mothers, but the color was a pale brown, much lighter than the dark brown of Beth’s eyes.

“I’m fine, Fen, just happy that my big brother is home,” she half laughed as she said it, still wiping tears away.

“But you don’t cry when you’re happy, Bethy,” he said her name like he couldn’t quite pronounce Beth, and wasn’t exactly saying Betty, but something in between. He walked further into the room in his footed pajamas trailing a stuffed toy in one hand.

Beth went and picked him up, cocking her hip to one side so he sat better as she carried him back. “Fen, this is my big brother, Mike. remember I told you about him?”

The little boy gave solemn eyes to Micah. “Are you my big brother, too?”

Before Micah could answer, there was a shrill little-girl scream from the hallway. Teddy snapped his hands to his ears at the high-pitch sound, uncomfortable. Harry squeezed him as the boy became tense. All of them looked up and the screams raced toward them in a Disney Princess nightgown. She had a long dark gold braid flying straight out behind as she ran shrieking toward them. An older boy with short brown hair was running after her yelling. “I am going to kill you!”

Bea snapped. “Hawthorne!”

Teddy was unusually tense, and Harry could feel the irritation blowing slowly through his young body. He kept his son pinned close as he didn’t have to look at his face to see the eyes naturally narrowing. “Tell me Alyse isn’t going to be that bad,” he breathed so the others didn’t hear.

“Sound dampeners,” Harry mouthed into his ear and he felt Teddy relax.

The little girl flung herself into her mother’s arms as Ty Morgan said. “Hawthorne, that is not how we talk to each other in this house.”

“She spilled Kool-Aid all over my backpack! She’s not even supposed to be in our room!”

“I did not!” the girl said, with her little arms around her mother’s neck and her face buried in Bea’s hair.

“Liar, I saw you. If I hadn’t had to save my homework, I’d have caught you before you hid behind Mom.” His face was flushed with rage. He looked like he had a permanent tan, and his hair was cut very short and old fashioned, like a 1950s boy cut. He looked about eleven or twelve years old.

Harry was thankful that Teddy’s hair was longer in that moment, and couldn’t help but rub his chin against his boy’s shoulder. He was going to guess that the kid would have no real say so in his hair. Teddy had full discretion on what he wanted to do with his hair. If he wanted it cut, Harry would do that for him. Hawthorne’s bright blue eyes glittered with anger. He was seriously pissed off.

Micah’s mom was stroking the girl’s long gold braid. “It’s okay, Frost. Did you spill Kool-Aid on Hawthorne’s backpack? Tell the truth; no one will be angry.”

Teddy turned and looked at Harry in the most bizarre fashion. Harry kissed his bottom lip in answering. He was getting a bit of a shock at how other parents dealt with their children. It didn’t seem to be going well.

Frost raised her face and looked behind at her brother. “Hawthorne is mad now.”

“You know you’re not allowed to drink or eat in the bedrooms,” said Bea.

Frost hung her head. “I’m sorry, Mommy. I forgot.”

“Apologize to Hawthorne,” Ty said.

She mumbled her apology.

“That’s it?” the boy demanded. “She spills shit all over my school backpack and some of my homework and gets off with an apology?” Harry thought Hawthorne kind of had a point.

“Don’t use vulgarisms,” Ty said automatically. “Frost is going to help you clean off the backpack, and we’ll think of something else suitable to remind her she’s not allowed to take food back to the bedrooms.”

Harry could hear Teddy thinking without actually being linked. ‘But it’s their bedroom…’

Hawthorne rolled his eyes. He looked over at them as if they’d just appeared before him. He was stunned seeing Teddy whose eyes never blinked as he held steady. Emotions flowed over Hawthorne’s face, and he finally settled on arrogant defiance. But his eyes were wary, almost nervous.

“Hawthorne, this is Teddy,” said Bea, seeing a quick out to a situation that could get further out of hand. “He’s one of your cousins,” she said proudly.

Hawthorne seemed to assess each one of them, and Harry noted he seemed to be eyeing the bodyguards briefly.

“What sport do you play?” Teddy asked.

Hawthorne blinked in surprise. “How do you know I play?”

“Probably football or some kind of martial arts, right?” asked Teddy. “You were sizing everyone up just now,” he pointed out.

Hawthorne could only stare as Micah smiled and backed away from Beth to touch Teddy on the head. “Teddy is into a bit of everything.”

“I like dancing and mixed martial arts. Also like running, too.”

“Football and jujitsu. Isn’t dancing for girls?”

“Nope,” said Teddy simply. “Dancing makes you faster and more limber. Not to mention the dance classes I take are all run by men.”

Hawthorne looked like he was seriously considering this. “You’re my cousin?”

“I think technically you’re my uncle, this is the first time I’ve met you.”

“I’m sorry, Teddy,” said Micah.

“It’s okay. I understand, Papa. My Parrain takes mixed martial arts,” said Teddy proudly.

“Need more than a headbutt for my size,” said Harry, making Nicky smirk from where he stood.

“Size?” Hawthorne asked. Teddy pulled off Harry who stood. “Oh, like the rest of the family mostly. They say I’m taller for most my age.”

Teddy and him were even in height.

“He trains with us,” said Ares, a rare smile on his hard face. It made him de-age about ten years.

“Really?” He then turned to Micah. “You’re Mike, aren’t you?”

“Micah, yes,” said Micah.

Hawthorne studied Micah’s face, and then nodded. “You look like Beth.”

“I know.”

“Do you work out with them?” Hawthorne asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because in my job my life doesn’t depend on fighting skills.” Liar, Harry thought, but Harry knew he was saying this for his mother’s sake.

“What’s your job?” Hawthorne asked Harry. Harry held out his badge that had been on a beaded chain around his neck. “US Preternatural Marshal. Are you here to help catch who hurt Rush?” he asked.

“I’m here in any capacity that Micah needs. I am his husband, but yes,” he said, not wanting to lie to a kid.

He then turned and looked at Nicky who was closest to Harry. “And who are you?”

“Nicky.” He held out his large hand. Hawthorne’s eyes went wide as he took it.

“Do you take martial arts with them?”

“Yes, but I’m more suited toward boxing and other avenues.”

“Like wrestling? You’re huge!”

Nicky smirked, his one eye glittering. “I can do wrestling. Not sure if the others want to.”

“Bring it on,” said Ares with a grunt.

“Hawthorne, I think that’s enough questions for right now,” said Bea. “Why don’t you show Teddy to your room while we grown ups talk. Fen and Frost can clean your backpack?”

Harry tried not to frown at her, Teddy stiffened in his arms. “No thank you, ma’am,” said Teddy before Hawthorne could react. “I need to stay here with Papa and Parrain. I am not leaving them.”

“It will take a while before Teddy is comfortable around new groups of people,” Harry said, rubbing his shoulders as they sat back down. “For now he’s fine being with us.”

Micah nodded. “Yes, need our Teddy Bear close.”

Bea looked stricken, like she hadn’t wanted to talk with him in the room. “Alright then,” she said with a forced smile. “Hawthorne, take Fen and Frost back to the bedroom, please.”

Hawthorne frowned at her. “Fine. I’ll take them with me. Come on, brats. I’ll supervise while you clean up the Kool-Aid.”

Bea set the little girl on the ground. Frost turned to face them, her hands on hips, elbows out defiantly. Harry saw in that moment with the way her triangular face was jutted out that she looked like she could have been Micah’s daughter.

“I am not a brat!” she said, stomping her foot.

“Are too.”

“Are not!”

“Go with your brother and clean up the mess you made,” said Ty patiently.

Micah noticed it, he had actually gone pale when he looked at Ty’s bright blue eyes and Bea’s blue-gray ones. Somehow, Fen’s golden-brown eyes didn’t seem so obvious at first, but these were Micah’s original eyes and Beth’s staring back out of a face that didn’t look like their mother or her new husband.

Interesting.

“I’ll go with them and make sure they don’t kill each other,” said Beth. “I’m glad you’re home.” she said, and carried Fen off after Hawthorne and Frost.

Fen called back over Beth’s shoulder, his arms wrapped around her neck. “Are you my big brother, too?”

Micah turned to look at his mother as he answered the little boy. “Yes, I think I am.”

Bea Morgan reached for her husband’s hand and looked way too guilty for a full grown adult.

“Looks like things have gotten interesting. I am so not leaving,” whistled Teddy, quiet enough for the room of adults to hear.

Most of the guards snickered and Harry squeezed him tight. He had the world’s best child.

Chapter Text

“Mom, Ty, what is going on?” asked Micah.

Ty stood there straight and tall with an almost defiant look on his face. Bea clung to his hand and looked beseechingly at her son. “It just sort of happened.”

“Frost isn’t Ty’s is she?”

“She is my daughter,” said Ty. “But biologically probably not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mike, please don’t be mad. I thought you’d be better than Jerry about it, because you have three husbands,” her voice sounded apologetic and not sure of itself at all.

The doorbell sounded, and Bea went for it as if to have an excuse to be away from Micah. Bram shadowed her to the door without anyone telling him to. Micah was still trying to deal with the last few minutes. His father hadn’t been the heartbroken abandoned spouse that he thought he was. Instead, he had been at least sleeping with the ex-wife part time. There was an implication of so much more.

It was Jerry at the door. “You guys never lock the door until bedtime. What’s up?”

“I didn’t lock it,” said Bea.

“We did,” said Bram.

Jerry looked up at the taller man. “Why?”

“A locked door gives us a few more seconds to react.”

“React to what?” Jerry asked.

“Anything.”

Jerry shook his head, and looked past everyone to Micah, who was looking at his brother now. “The look on your face; you met Frost?”

“Yes,” said Micah in a voice that was almost strangled with tension.

“Surprise!” Jerry said, arms wide in a ta-da motion.

“You could have warned me,” said Micah darkly.

Jerry shook his head, looking way too fucking smug. “Oh no, wouldn’t dream of it. This isn’t my explanation to give. I wouldn’t even try.” Bram closed and locked the door back, and then stood beside it in case anyone else came calling.

“Be nice, Jerry,” Bea said with a frown.

“Why? I didn’t know until Frost was three. I can’t believe I was so stupid.”

“Jerry…”

“No, mom. Just explain it to Mike. I’m still working through my own issues on this one.” He moved until he was in front of Micah. “We both felt sorry for Dad, remember. We were so mad at Mom for leaving him for the professor here, and all the time they were still seeing each other, still a couple.”

Oh the lies, Harry wanted to whisper to Teddy but everyone was too close to them so suddenly so he couldn’t chance it traveling. He squeezed Teddy instead as if to say, ‘watch the adults closely, this is what happens when you lie to family.’

“That’s not true,” Bea insisted. “At first it was everything you thought it was. I loved Rush, but I couldn’t live with him anymore. I met Ty while we were separated. Rush could have dated too, but he chose not to.”

“How selfish of you,” Micah sneered, causing Bea to flinch and Ty to frown. “Just an excuse because you knew he was waiting for you to come to your senses and come home, or let him come back home.” Everyone could hear the resentment in his voice.

“You are thirty years old, Micah David Callahan, too old to believe I can fix something that broke when you were twelve.”

“I know cheating is never the answer,” said Micah, coldly.

Jerry looked at him confused for a moment as Bea looked back at Ty and he moved to take her hand again. “She never stopped loving Rush, and by the time you left for good he was spending more and more time over here with us and the boys.”

“I remember Twain’s fourth birthday party. I was so proud of all of you for being grown up enough to give the younger kids such a family occasion,” he said, voice still cold and distant.

“Yeah, but what you and I didn’t know was that Dad was sleeping over.”

“That long ago?”

Jerry nodded.

“You want to tell this story?” Bea asked Jerry.

“Nope.” he said, flopping down on the nearest couch.

“Then stop interrupting.” She sighed. “And I don’t feel comfortable talking about this with Teddy in the room.”

“He’s not leaving,” said Harry and Micah simultaneously.

“Nope, I have a lot to learn about what not to do, and you’re providing perfect examples,” said Teddy, causing shock to run through Bea and Ty, and for Jerry to burst out laughing.

Bea frowned. “Some things children don’t need to hear.”

“That has passed long ago, Mom, and from the way I see it you spent your life lying to your own kids,” said Micah, causing her to flinch harshly.

“Mike…”

“It’s Micah, Ty,” Micah bit out with a hint of a snarl. “So don’t you dare think that I would ever lie to my son or any children I have.”

Jerry’s face dropped its amusement. “Maybe I asked for your reaction too quickly…”

“Okay, okay. Let’s all calm down and sit and we will talk about this,” said Bea taking shuddering breaths. “Please!”

“Nicky, can you go find crackers or something?” said Harry suddenly.

“You’re hungry?’ asked Bea.

“No, but - he needs to eat something. So can he rummage through your kitchen?”

“Go right ahead,” said Bea.

Harry gently pulled Micah back to him who sat down. His eyes had gone narrow behind their glasses.

“Can you take off the glasses yet, little brother?” asked Jerry.

“I didn’t want to startle anyone,” said Micah, and he reached up and removed them causing a series of gasps when they saw Micah’s leopard eyes.

“What happened to your eyes?” Jerry asked, leaning forward.

Micah didn’t seem to know how to answer and so Harry did. “When a person is forced into their animal form for too long a time there’s a chance they won’t come back at all, and if they do they can sometimes bring their creature out with them. Micah’s eyes are stuck like that because of the monster that he kept away from all of you.”

“Did you have to tell them that, Harry?”

“Yes, Husband, I did. You know that some of the markers of a shifter losing control is their eyes changing. Colorado is one of the last along with Alaska to finally declare it inhumane to simply shoot lycanthropes on sight.”

Micah inclined his head. “You’re right of course. Let’s get back to the issue at hand. Not my eyes.” He turned to look at his mother and Ty. Bea looked like she was about to cry just looking at them. “I like my eyes more and more these days. I’m not ashamed of them. I’m proud of them.” Harry could see he was working extra hard to keep his control.

Everyone sat down in various parts of the room. Jerry had moved to sit on the armchair so that he could face both Harry and Micah. He was smirking, looking thoroughly amused.

“Jerry,” Ty said, frowning. “This isn’t a show for your entertainment.”

Jerry snorted. “I just want to see one of my siblings learn about all of this the way I did, that’s all.”

“Beth knew sooner?” Micah asked.

“She was only twelve, ten years ago. She lived with Mom. When I asked her after I found out why she hadn’t told me, do you know what she said?”

“No.”

“She liked having Dad here in the mornings and everyone having coffee together. She said it felt like home. You and I lost everything we thought was safe, but little sister got a second bite at the apple.”

Micah frowned. “I don’t resent them, I’m pissed at the lies.” He reached over and took Teddy’s hand in his and squeezed it unconsciously. “And the way we thought Dad was miserable, but all this time… you couldn’t even be honest with us about it.”

“You were kids!” said Bea.

“So what? It’d have been easier to know Dad was happy again. But you all just banged on like our feelings didn’t matter. You lied to us. You fucking lied.”

“Mike!”

“It’s Micah,” Micah bit out strongly.

The small white hairs on Harry’s arms began to rise, and he quickly placed a hand on Micah’s shoulder. Just in time, Nicky returned with a box of Cheez-Its.

Harry grabbed them and quickly opened them. He handed a few to Teddy and to Micah who frowned at them. “Please? We have a little one here, you really want your energy to go into him?”

Micah grimaced as he noticed that Teddy’s eyes were on the verge of changing colors. “Shit.” He grabbed a handful and popped them into his mouth and crunched down on them. “Sorry, Pup.”

“S’okay, it’s not all from you,” said Teddy, taking a couple for himself. Harry sat them between Micah and him for easy reach.

“We were all on his side about the divorce,” said Jerry bitterly. “And all this time they were shacking up. He let me be all sympathetic and it was all a lie,” he encouraged.

“It wasn’t a lie,” Ty interjected.

Micah just stared at him. “You’re lying now. Keep in mind, weres can smell lies.”

“That isn’t fair, Mike - Micah,” Bea shuddered. “Can you give us a moment to explain without jumping to conclusions?”

“Explain. Go ahead. I’m ready for it. Explain the lies you’ve lived because you’re too ashamed to be yourself or be anything but perfect.”

Jerry’s smile was suddenly lost. “This isn’t so enjoyable anymore, ouch, Mik- Micah.”

Bea’s eyes began to widen as tears lined the edges of them. She was trying hard not to fall apart. “You have Harry and your other two husbands, and I have Ty and Rush.”

“And we couldn’t have known this before?” Micah asked.

“You were too young.”

“Right, Teddy, how old were you when you learned we were all together?” asked Micah, sharply.

“Uhm, young. Dad was always around, he would come and go. But Pére was first, then Dad, and then you hopped into his bed one day, and you never left. I’m glad you never left, Papa. I was six then. As soon as Parrain knew what was going on, I knew.”

Harry chuckled softly, ignoring the shocked expressions from everyone in the room that weren’t guards. “Baby, I think you knew before I knew.” he stroked down Teddy’s back with both hands.

“Yeah, you were all kinds of confused back then, Parrain.” Teddy frowned. “I don’t think I could have forgiven them if they deceived me like that. I know I won’t be able to if they try to deceive the twins with the whole truth. I hope Papa is a better person than I am.”

“You are the better man, Pup. You never doubt that,” said Micah, kissing him on the head. He took a few more crackers if only to distract himself. “Don’t worry, the twins will grow like you did, in full knowledge of who is with who. Even if it can be confusing at times.”

“Nothing is confusing, Papa, so long as everyone loves each other and wants to be together. That’s what I think anyway.”

“You think smartly.” Micah ruffled his head.

Jerry made a noise. “I have only one wife, I don’t have two.”

“Families are all different, and it would have been better if we’d known earlier,” said Micah darkly. “I will never lie to my children, neither will Harry nor my other two husbands. Lies are not protection.”

“Lies are weapons,” said Harry.

“Jerry barely has enough social skills for one,” Beth said, as she walked in from the hallway. Probably perfect timing. Harry had no idea what was about to be said by Bea and Ty who had the decency to look ashamed. “I’ve got Twain reading the kids a story,” she told Bea.

“Good.”

Beth sat down on the arm of Jerry’s chair. It was quickly filling fast with everybody inside. Lisandro and Bram were still by the door. Nicky had resumed his usual posture. He hung over everyone like some sort of beacon, and then there was Ethan who was at the dining table. His back was to them because he was keeping his eye on the back door where the kitchen area was. Dev, Dev, Harry couldn’t see Dev. He was somewhere.

“All of us began because we were drawn to Harry,” said Micah as he used his tongue to try and work the cracker out of his teeth. Yeah, Harry did not approve of crackers, especially cheesy ones when you had to talk. “He had something that all of us desired more than anything, and it’s through him that I fell in love with Jean-Claude and Ted Forrester. It was probably the easiest decision I ever made.”

“Ted?” Bea asked, “I thought your husband was named Edward?”

“Only we call him Edward,” said Harry. “He’s Ted to the rest of the world. But I’ve always known him as Edward. He was my teacher and mentor when I hopped over the pond. I didn’t know we had potential for anything more until it was spelled out for me.”

Micah chuckled. “And even then it took him booting you out the barn to get the memo. Do you know Jean-Claude is still sulky about you taking John Burke to the theater?”

“What were you thinking with that choice, Kitten?” Nicky couldn’t help but ask.

Harry scoffed. “Come on! Give me a break. Not you too, Nicky! These guys were my first real bloody relationship! I didn’t even understand what I was doing or what you were doing. I didn’t get it!”

“Me walking out naked should have been a clue,” said Micah smiling. Bea’s face flushed and Jerry and Beth’s eyes went super wide.

“I couldn’t ask you at the time. Remember? You were on house arrest.”

“House arrest?” Jerry asked.

“Not the law kind,” said Harry. “Micah and those he was protecting had heard about me through the papers. Jean-Claude had just become Master of the City. Rumors of his strength were rising fast. He was inviting various people to his lands so he could form his own Kiss. He was opening his doors. Something most Masters don’t tend to do. He wanted more than his wolves.”

Micah nodded. “I thought maybe he could help me. We could strike a deal. I left my Pard behind to try and find us some help.”

“By that time, the big bad had taken us over,” said Noah, speaking up for the first time. “Our former Leader let him after what was done to his family. He was never the same after that.” Jerry’s eyes had gone round and Beth was clutching his arm. “Micah was the only one who stood up to him. Since he didn’t have to worry about your guys’ safety, he had nothing to lose but to go at him full-stop. He had the guy chasing him to keep eyes off of us for a long time.”

“I ran in the other direction as I hid my Pard away from me. He didn’t know I was going to Jean-Claude. A lot of people were wary of him, but I liked what I read about Harry here, and I knew they were friendly and connected. It became way more than that very quickly.”

“Yep,” said Harry, not wanting to go too into detail. “Still didn’t get it.”

Teddy snickered. “Parrain was so innocent! He blushed at everything. He doesn’t do that much anymore, but we have Peter now to make blush so that’s fine.”

Micah laughed. “Yeah we do. Harry impressed me when he stood up to a master vampire. His power was breathtaking, and I thought we could be free. But, the more I stayed the more I realized I didn’t want him coming to Harry’s step. Especially with Teddy,” Micah said, his voice filled with a lot of pain.

“It all worked out,” said Harry, being careful with his words. “Jean-Claude, Micah, and Edward are each others just as much as mine, and there’s more where that came from.” He looked from Ethan to Nicky. “We’re a huge family.”

Micah chuckled. “Great end to a story that could have been bad.”

“Yeah well, details are unnecessary.”

Dev chose that moment to come back in with a large plate of sandwiches that were cut into triangles for everyone.

“I wondered where you had gone to.” Harry reached a hand out to run along the man when he was close enough.

“Putting my knife skills to work,” said Dev, flashing that lazy cat-like grin. He sat it down on the coffee table, and handed three to Harry, Teddy, and Micah first.

“That’s very kind of you, what is your name?” asked Bea.

“Just call me Dev,” said Dev. He left the room and returned with a jug of what looked like lemonade, which he had passed around, and soon everyone had a sandwich for themselves and something to drink.

“Thanks Dev.” Teddy muttered around his giant bite. “I really needed meat.”

“That’s why we are your guards.” Dev smiled at Teddy before he took up a spot next to Nicky.

“What do you mean?” Beth asked as she nibbled at her sandwich triangle.

“As guards we need to be aware of everything, including their body’s needs at times.” Ethan answered as he switched places with Ares. His movement seemed to be a signal as all the guards shifted places. None of them would be in the same position for a long time. It was their way of ensuring that something wasn’t missed by glazed eyes. Harry noticed that Beth was gazing at Ethan appreciatively.

“Did that help, Baby?” Harry asked, glancing at Teddy’s eyes. They still had a little glow to them, but much less than before.

“A little.” Teddy confessed. “How are yours?”

“I’m good. The sandwiches really help. Would have been good to eat a small snack on the plane but Lisandro wasn’t playing ball.” Harry huffed.

“Well I’m glad that Dev found something in the kitchen that he could throw together.” Bea smiled as if everything was solved and fine. Harry knew it was a thin veil and Micah won’t be distracted with the roast beef sandwich for long.

“All of you should make sure to grab a sandwich as well.” Ty offered.

“Not on shift in an unknown area, sir.” Lisandro stated. “We will eat later.” If Harry had had the time he would have made sandwiches and foods for everyone before leaving.

“You’re not in an unknown area. You’re in our home, Micah’s home.” Bea protested. “Surely you could eat a sandwich triangle.”

“This isn’t my home.” Micah stated. “You sold the home we grew up in. My home is in St. Louis with my husbands, kids, and community.” Harry reached an arm around Micah and kissed his shoulder.

“I don’t understand how this is so hard for you.” Bea said. Harry could tell she was struggling to understand but just didn’t. “You’re married to three people. The way you all met shows that you joined a relationship already occurring. How is that so different from us?”

“Bea and I were starting to have problems. Like she and Rush had problems. Something was missing, some piece. Rush helped us find that missing piece.” Ty said, grabbing Bea’s hand.

“There’s nothing wrong with having multiple pieces for a puzzle to work. If any of us had that issue, we would be hypocrites,” Harry started. “I think the problem is the fact you weren’t honest with your children when you were finding that out. The difference between our two groups is that we have never lied to Teddy or Peter, nor will we lie to our twins Rigel and Elara as they grow up. There is nothing shameful about our family dynamics.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew our grandparents,” said Beth.

“I would still say that because at the end of the day outsiders don’t matter,” said Harry. “You will never be happy if you let others rule over you and your life.”

“You sound like you speak from experience,” said Ty.

“Seventeen years of it,” said Harry.

“I loved Rush, but we couldn’t live together. Not just us. I fell in love with Ty, but I missed Rush.” she wrapped both of her smaller hands around his one larger hand, and smiled up at him.

“Harry was our glue, but we all easily became one,” said Micah proudly. “He’s still the glue for most things though, without him a lot of things would unstick.”

“That makes no sense to me,” Harry arched a brow.

“Of course it doesn’t.” He stared right at Harry. “Our life isn’t like that. We were all perfectly fine with Harry before we all came together,” he shrugged. “But coming together made it even more perfect. We didn’t choose each other because of a missing piece, we chose each other because we fell in love with each other when we fell in love with Harry. Honestly, it could have happened to anyone if they’d met him at the right time.”

“Now you’re making me embarrassed,” Harry huffed, and Micah grinned.

“About time you go red, and Edward’s going to kill me that he’s not here to see it.”

“We’ve angered a lot of people in the family as a consequence,” said Bea softly. “You’ve met everybody from Rush’s and my family who are coming to the hospital now. His parents will come, but only if Ty isn’t there. They’ll tolerate me, but not him.”

“Ah, I’m not surprised. Grandma and Grandpa were never exactly the open type.”

Beth snorted. “Understatement.”

“I’ll bet they had a don’t ask and don’t tell issue going on, and then they caught one or more of you, and it went downhill from there. Either that or they saw Frost.”

“They saw us holding hands in public,” said Ty.

“You were doing more than that.” Micah lifted Harry’s hands and kissed the back of his knuckles.

Ty’s eyes widened. “Yeah, exactly that.”

“Rush is their son,” said Bea. “But they feel like he’s outside of God’s grace now. He loves living here with all of us, but he still believes a lot of what he was raised to believe. It’s really hurt him to love us all here.”

Harry wanted to say that it was Rush’s fault then, but he refrained. Micah squeezed Harry’s hand as if he was thinking the same thing. “I tend to think that God doesn’t mind a bit of extra love, no matter where it comes from. It’s hate that he minds. Not that I’m an expert. Love is love and hate is hate.”

“True enough,” Jerry agreed. “I’ve never seen dad this happy.”

“He wasn’t just keeping his home address at the cabin to get around his parents,” said Ty. “It’s also because as sheriff he has to live in town to serve.”

“Yeah, if he lives in Boulder he can’t be sheriff.”

“He loves his job,” said Jerry.

“Have you had any issues like that?” asked Bea.

“No, but then like I said. No one is welcome in our home if they don’t accept us. It’s easier for me because I didn’t have parents or anyone to look down their noses at me, I guess. If it ever came down to choosing between my husbands and my life or job, the job can go. But the good thing is my world is very okay with polyamory. So much that we can marry and it’s all legal and no one has a choice but to accept it.”

“Yep. A perfect workaround,” said Micah. “But even then, I know how you are, Harry. You’re worse than me with a cause. You’d steamroll right over them.”

“Yes, typically that’s what I tend to do. I find it insulting to hide in shame. I find it an insult to our lovers and husbands to hide away in shame. It’s like saying a part of them is wrong. When there is nothing wrong with them at all.”

Bea flinched at this. “You have a strong head on your shoulders. It was difficult for us to have to sit down and tell Twain why we all use the same room at night.”

“I bet he asked outright. He was always a serious kid even at four,” said Micah.

“He’ll ask anything if he wants to know. He’s like a walking social disaster,” Beth said.

“Sounds smart,” said Harry, squeezing Teddy. “Not a social disaster at all, that’s kind of rude to say about a child who only wants the truth.” Beth frowned at Harry when he said this to her.

“And you haven’t told the others, I’m guessing?” Micah asked.

“Hawthorne knows we have one bedroom, but he won’t ask outright. He’ll just accept it and not ask any questions that he doesn’t want to know the answer to,” said Ty delicately.

Micah frowned in disapproval, and Teddy made a noise in the back of his throat. He shoved his nose into the lemonade as if he was trying to hide a bad smell. “Don’t expect to pull that shit with my son around. It’s honesty or you keep your mouth shut.”

Bea gasped, and Beth blinked. “Mike?”

“Please call me, Micah, Beth,” he said more gently toward her.

“Seems your anger is different to my own,” said Jerry. “Always was really. You always looked in all directions. It’s why you and Richie were so close…”

“You mentioned you had two younger ones?” asked Bea, trying to change the subject as she rubbed at her knee. She was fishing for something normal to talk about.

“Rigel and Elara. Both barely over a month old,” said Micah.

“And whose are they biologically?” asked Jerry.

“They are a mix of all four of us. Harry, myself, Edward, and Jean-Claude,” Micah said succinctly.

Everyone blinked in real confusion.

“But you had a surrogate right?” asked Bea.

“Yes, but just because she held our babies doesn’t mean they are hers,” said Harry. “She is their godmother. There isn’t a spec of her DNA in our children. It’s all our DNA. The magical world is amazing at being able to fuse families together in such a way.” It wouldn’t have been a bad thing if they did have Luna’s DNA, but she had been specific about giving Harry his ‘perfect family’ with his husbands. If the DNA had been kept, he’d have been just as happy.

“So if there is a DNA test to find out who the father is-?” Beth asked.

“All four of us would show up. Equal parts of each other,” said Harry with a smile. “Same with Teddy with the added addition of his mother and biological father.” He wrapped his arms around Teddy’s neck and drew him into his chest. He had eaten three triangle sandwiches by now. Harry knew he was still hungry, but was trying to be respectable. Micah reached for a fourth and handed it to Teddy who took it with a soft thanks.

“Seems we both missed the big issue in the end, but at least you’ve been gone for ten years. This was all happening under my nose,” Jerry scowled.

“The divorce kept you pretty occupied, big brother,” said Beth.

Micah’s face went neutral. “I’m sorry that you and Kelsey didn’t work out.”

“You never liked her,” said Jerry.

“True, but doesn’t mean I’m still not sorry.”

“Why didn’t you like her?” he asked.

“It’s old news,” Micah shrugged, “and you divorced her, so it doesn’t matter.”

Jerry looked down at his clasped hands, let out a long breath and asked. “Did she try to sleep with you?”

“It was a long time ago,” he said.

Jerry shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were in love with her. I didn’t think she’d do that to anyone else. She was a bit drunk. I don’t like drunk people,” said Micah crossly.

“No,” Jerry shook his head. “Even a little drunk, your fiancee does not proposition your brother.”

“You asked me like I wasn’t the only one she tried to sleep with. I honestly thought that she wouldn’t go for anyone else.”

“Why?” Jerry asked.

“Do we have to talk about this in front of Teddy?” asked Bea quietly.

“Keep talking,” said Teddy with a shrug. “I’m not an idiot.”

“We never said you were, Teddy,” said Ty gently.

“You treat kids like they are stupid because you’re adults, but you don’t realize that a lot of adults are very stupid themselves.”

Jerry burst out laughing, and so did half the guards. Dev had doubled over and Nicky had to prop him up.

“Fuck, Harry, I love your kid! I hope Rigel and Elara are just as feisty!” Dev wheezed, reaching out an arm to nudge Teddy’s shoulder.

Jerry crossed his arms. “I like you a lot, Teddy.”

“Good. So keep talking. I’d like to hear this story,” said Teddy.

Micah smirked. “She had a particular fetish,” he said lamely to Jerry.

“Yes,” said Jerry.

Harry looked at him. “She was a fur-fucker?”

Bea cringed. “Gosh, that’s a horrible name!”

“That’s the way it is, Bea,” said Harry. “It’s like a badge bunnies for cops.” Her face screwed up in disgust.

“Yep. You’re right. She was,” said Jerry bitterly. “She’s actually living with the local pack and getting all the furry attention she wants now. I don’t really understand. I was furious. She wanted me to join the team with her. But I couldn’t stomach the idea of seeing her with other men or even women. So I was really pissed when Dad became a couple with Mom and Ty.”

“Jerry!” Bea said, as if he’d said something rude.

“Are you ashamed of it?”

“No.”

“No.”

“You act like it,” said Micah. “So you need to own it or not. You can’t go halfway or it won’t work.”

“How long have you guys been together?” Jerry asked.

“Since the day I met him,” said Micah. “He was with Jean-Claude and Edward at the time.”

“And it didn’t bother you?”

“No,” said Micah. “At the time it was Jean-Claude and Harry and then Edward and Harry. And then it was Jean-Claude, Harry, and I, and slowly Edward came around, and we went from... buddies,” he barely refrained from saying fuck buddies, “to trusted friends, to best friends, and then one day we were lovers and hadn’t realized that we were lovers with each other. Polyamory has its own set of parameters, and every relationship is different. Not everyone can accept that.”

Harry nodded, thinking of Marcus. “Not everyone is cut out for it, and that’s okay.”

“Our vow was to never take women to our bed or relationship, not an issue with the four of us,” said Micah smirking. There were a few more, considering that Harry and them were well established now. Harry had no plans on taking anyone other than who they had now to their beds or floors or wherever.

“Wait, you said never take a woman to bed or into your relationship? Are you in more of a relationship than with the four of you?” asked Beth in shock.

“Yes,” both answered.

“How does that work?” Jerry asked wildly.

“It works well,” said Micah.

“Extremely well.” The ardeur was none of their business, and besides just mentioning it would make Harry’s relationships with others less personal.

“I do love my extra Uncles.” Teddy grinned, winking at Ethan who winked back.

“It works for us. I’m only officially seeing one other, but I occasionally join in fun that’s happening if everyone agrees. I love and care about everyone in our family, whether they are my lover or the lover of one of my husbands,” said Micah. “Because I know that if I hadn’t come along first, someone else would be sitting right here claiming to be Harry’s husband. Also claiming to be Edward’s husband and Jean-Claude’s husband. It was perfect timing.”

Harry nudged him. “You’re silly and you think far too much. It’s taken me a long time to understand things, and still it goes over my head.”

“Not hard to do,” said Nicky, smirking.

“And you don’t get jealous?” asked Jerry. “It can’t be that perfect.”

“Not anymore, and not in the way you think,” said Micah.

“What do you mean not in the way we think?”

“It’s complicated,” said Micah.

“You’re talking of Marcus,” Ethan piped in.

Harry nodded. “That didn’t work out well. It was our first foray into adding someone else, and it backfired. Most of it had to do with my age in the end. He was embarrassed of me.”

“How old are you?” Jerry asked for clarification.

“Almost thirty.”

“Same age as Mike. You don’t look it.”

“Yep. Marcus was in his 40s, and he looked it. A big source of contention, and it eventually imploded on us. He was one of those who probably wouldn’t work with polyamory as a whole in the long run.”

“We ended up disapproving of Marcus for a few reasons. It made some sense at first, it was a good fit for a period of time, but there were more and more issues as it continued. Like how he ignored Harry thinking that just because we were there he didn’t have to do anything,” said Micah. “Or the way he treated Harry at times as if he was an afterthought, and then he believed that Harry should do what he wanted any given second. Not to mention he often tried to take over some aspects of raising Teddy that fell to me. Just because Harry was with us did not mean Marcus could ignore Harry.”

“It’s not all his fault. I didn’t count on him enough, Micah. At the time I didn’t realize I was supposed to speak up. I’ve learned my lesson.” He scowled when he saw the disbelief on all his guards, and Teddy started giggling. “Sometimes.”

A few of the guards snorted Micah just looked at him. “You have to be read and prompted before you come out with things a lot of the time.”

“It’s not that I try to be difficult. I try to make things easier.”

“But then you make them harder on yourself,” said Nicky. “So we have to decipher you, and that isn’t easy.”

“I’m impressed though, Peter, our youngest seems to read you quite handily. I bet it‘s Edward’s doing,” said Micah fondly. “He was the first one who could decipher every single thing from Baby. Now that is something I was jealous over. Edward could read him, I could not.”

“You do a good job now.”

“Yes, I do.”

“I knew also Edward longer, Husband. Way before he was a lover or even a thought of one.” Micah kissed him on the forehead.

“You’re just special, Baby. You know that.”

“Oh he’s special alright,” Dev chuckled.

Harry’s face turned colors and he buried his nose into the back of Teddy’s head. “Shush.”

“Watch your words with Kitten. This isn’t the place to enjoy the rush.” Nicky breathed out, quiet enough that only the weres and Harry caught it. “Save it for whatever hotel we get.”

And for a few minutes there they had completely forgotten that Micah’s family were sitting in front of them and listening.

It was true, he was starting to feel a bit warmer than he should. He was with Wicked Truth early that morning the last time he ate something.

“So how many are in your relationship?” Beth asked.

“Too many to count.” Harry tried to laugh it off.

“Come now, Baby. Shouldn’t be too hard…” Micah grinned. “The four of us, Rex, Rom, Kid, King, Enforcer One and Two, the Warriors…”

“Enough Micah!” Harry burned brightly. It didn’t matter that Micah was using titles to refer to his lovers and had only mentioned the most recent recurring ones.

“How do you do it? So many…? You look like you’ve been together for twenty years or more,” said Bea in shock.

“Just do.”

“It works. You don’t fix what isn’t broken,” said Harry. “Also, you don’t let other people push their beliefs or their opinions upon you. If Micah or one of our other husbands has an issue we talk about it. Same with each of our lovers. We talk. Always. Or try to anyway.”

“Do you have to worry about competition?” asked Jerry.

Nicky gave a cough that sounded more like a laugh. Micah tilted his head and glared at the man. Harry didn’t miss the look that passed between Dev and Ethan either.

“It depends.”

“Like who is better?”

“Nah, that isn’t a big deal,” Harry laughed. “At least for me it isn’t. If I’m no good, they will tell me or show me what I’m doing wrong. I expect them to. I assure you that won’t hurt my feelings.”

Micah grinned. “I think Jean-Claude took over that part quite well.”

“You did too. Jean isn’t exactly…” He was thinking large. Micah’s grin somehow got more mischievous.

“Huge?” Teddy fluttered his eyes knowing exactly what Harry was trying to avoid saying.

“Anyway… the point is about talking to each other, and listening. Listening is bigger than talking.” He pressed a hand to Teddy’s cheek who stuck out his tongue. “Sometimes you don’t have to talk to have someone listening.”

“Not that we don’t slip up, but Baby is the best at it because polyamory is kind of what he’s always known,” said Micah. “So he doesn’t see monogamy as a base layer.”

“I thought that was a joke!” Dev squawked from nowhere.

“What?” Harry asked, turning to look at the tiger.

“That you were a virgin before Jean-Claude!”

“Shut up, Dev,” Harry grumbled.

“Oh no! That’s too good! I thought he was blowing hot air when he was saying it.”

“Who was he saying this to?”

“My sister. She offered to be your… backup to Wicked Truth. Jean-Claude said no. He asked her to respect your wishes so that you don’t have to be mean about it. She thinks if she can get you to herself then she can make you hers or the other way round,” he said thinking of the whole bond thing. “He told her that you could never be monogamous and to get those dreams out of her head.” Harry’s facial expression was enough that even the humans in the room could tell he was horrified and a bit disgusted. Micah’s eyes had narrowed, and he squeezed Harry’s hand a bit too hard.

“I really don’t want to get into it with your sister, Dev. I like you way too much,” said Micah quietly.

“She does it to herself, sadly. And they say she is the Good Angel of the bunch,” Dev snarked.

“And even if he was, she would not be on the table,” said Nicky. “Pushy women,” he hissed under his breath.

“Tell me she didn’t do that in front of Jamil,” he said delicately.

Dev snorted. “Good news, no. Jamil was with you at the time.”

Ah, it must have been when he was dealing with a rogue vampire that crossed into their territory and seemed to have a penchant for little old ladies.

“Another lover?” asked Jerry laughing at the absurdity of it.

“Oh no, Jamil is not a lover. He’s very straight,” said Harry. “He’s a guard,” he added. “Thinking about it, do you suppose...” He looked at Micah. “Could the Ulfric be fucking Kelsey along with others in the pack and them not wanting to chance losing the fur fucker?”

“Maybe.” “Might have,” said Micah out loud. “Pard and Packs run similarly at times. I could kill her in a rite of conquest for betrayal.”

Harry knew this. He’d had to deal with this a few times himself.

“Not that I would, she wasn’t exactly special or anything. Just… creepy.”

“You two have that look that tells us you’re silently talking to each other,” Jerry pointed out. “That couple-y shared thoughts look.”

“You have no idea how true that is…” muttered one of the guards, Harry was sure it was Dev. Such a chatterbox.

Harry wasn’t too sure, but he thought that maybe this candid conversation was just what Micah needed. His shoulders had relaxed and the leopard inside was now calm. “We need something more substantial before going back to the hospital. Everyone.” He looked at the guards too.

“As you say, Precious,” said Lisandro with a smirk.

Chapter Text

It was after midnight when they went back to the hospital. Bea had suggested that Teddy stay over if he was too tired. But they had declined. No doubt, he’d be heading to their hotel with a couple of guards. Teddy would never be able to sleep in a strange house away from them. Harry still remembered his first few nights at Ilvermorny. His head was in a fire at nine o’ clock, and everyone had to send clothes and items through that smelled like them. It’d taken two bedtime stories and a promise of the weekend coming up before Teddy could settle.

All of them had slept in the front room those first few nights, and someone had to be in the living room to answer because Teddy was constantly calling for them in-between classes.

Harry knew he had to feed the ardeur sometime soon, but there was simply not enough time. Micah had returned to his solemn self, and Harry could not put that on his shoulders right now.

Ethan was sitting by the wall just outside of the room, one arm around Teddy who used him as a pillow to curl up against. Nicky remained at his side as the other guards moved up and down the hall in various positions.

Micah’s father had awoken from the heavy drugs he was under. He raised one good hand outside the blanket, and Micah instantly took it. He held his father’s arm against his chest as if clasping him to his heart.

“Mike,” he said in a voice that was still thick with the last of the drugs they’d cleared out of his system so he could talk to his son.

“I’m so sorry, Dad,” Micah whispered.

“For what?”

“You know I love you, Mom, Beth, Jerry… and all the kids.”

A look passed over his dad’s face. He blinked the eyes that were so much like Micah’s except they were brown. “You know?”

Micah nodded. “Once I saw Frost, Mom and Ty had to tell me.”

His dad smiled; it was a good one full of love and happiness, even then in such a horrible situation. “We didn’t plan on her looking so much like my side.”

Micah hugged his father’s arm tighter to him, nodding a little too rapidly as if he didn’t trust his voice. Harry stood a little ways back to give him some privacy. He would have waited outside except Micah needed him there. His mother had gone to wait in the hall.

“You aren’t upset about your mom and Ty and…” he swallowed, closed his eyes, and let out a shaky breath. “Everything.”

“No.”

“Jerry’s still mad.”

“He’s always mad.” His father smiled and gave a little nod, but a spasm passed over his face. The price of this talk was the painkillers being almost out of his system. “Let me get a nurse; you’re hurting.”

He swallowed hard again, and let out a shaky breath. “No, the painkillers put me out, and I don’t want to miss this.”

“Okay,” Micah said. His voice was a bit thick, but he wasn’t crying. He would be strong for his father because that was who Micah was.

“Who is this?” he asked, and he was looking at Harry now.

Micah smiled, and held out his spare hand. “This is one of three loves of my life, Dad. This is Harry. My other two are on their way.”

Harry came forward and smiled. “Hello sir.”

His brown eyes looked more clear. “Preternatural Marshal Harry Potter-Black,” he said.

“Yes sir. His other husbands are Preternatural Marshal Ted Forrester, and then we have Jean-Claude,” Harry said, not daring to forget their most elegant husband.

“Husbands, married. Yes, I heard on the news…”

“I’m so sorry, Dad.” Micah looked like he was about to crumble.

“No, happy. Very happy.”

“You have three grandkids.”

“Bad timing,” said Rush in a strangle. He grimaced as the pain surged through him.

“Let me get the nurse,” Micah let go of Harry’s hand.

“No!” And he gripped Micah hard enough to cord the muscle along his forearm. He looked up at his son with a fierceness on his face. “No,” he said again.

“Okay, okay,” Micah said softly. He put his hand back on his father’s arm so that he was touching him as much as he could.

“How did you find out I was here?”

“Mom called, Baby - I mean Harry.”

Rush looked at Harry, and he’d seen that look before. It was a famous cop look. It was intense and strong. A look that hides most emotions but weighs you, measures you, and sees more than most people. Edward had a similar look, but it had no feeling in his gaze. “You must be of strong character, Harry Potter-Black. I tried to call ya in earlier ya know?”

“I heard sir. I am sorry I didn’t know sooner,” said Harry.

“Could you have stopped it?” Rush asked.

“That’s the question that we can’t answer now, Mr. Callahan.”

“Rush. Call me Rush. You’re my son-in-law.”

“You have two more,” said Harry. “Call me Harry.”

“He’s the mother of us all,” said Micah, and then he laughed throatily. Harry knew why he was laughing because that’s what the Harlequin was now calling him. The new mother of all. “He is no woman, but he is a mother, Dad.”

“He took care of you?”

“Yes,” said Micah emphatically. “He is the link. Like mom is your link to Ty.”

“I see… good. And the others? Another Marshal?”

“Ted Forrester.”

“Second top Marshal in the United States,” said Rush.

Harry nodded. “Yes.”

“Protection. You went out for protection.”

“I did. Mom said that you knew why I had to be so horrible to all of you ten years ago.”

Rush moved his eyes back to his son. “I saw some of the photos of what Chimera had done to other families. I understood then why you’d done it.” Harry bit down on his lower lip. Rush caught it. “Ask.”

“What pictures?”

“He slaughtered and tortured his way across the country before his group got to St. Louis. The Feds had a file on his crimes; they just didn’t know who or what, was doing it for a long time.” His body shuddered on the bed, and he gripped Micah’s hand hard, not out of affection, but out of pain. “No nurse, not yet,” he told his son breathlessly.

“I don’t want to use your time talking about police work, Rush,” said Harry leaning forward, careful as he was not to touch the man.

“You want to know why someone from the federal branch showed me the file? MACUSA didn’t like what they were doing when they found out.” Maybe that was the tip of the iceberg that MACUSA needed.

“Yes, I do want to know.”

“Yes,” said Micah.

He looked at both of them with that cop expression. He turned back to Harry. His personality shining clear in his eyes. “Does the name Van Cleef mean anything to you, Harry?”

Harry went utterly still. His face turned slack and empty. His eyes emptied completely. Micah frowned, “Baby?”

Harry didn’t know much. All he knew was that Van Cleef had been responsible for helping to train Edward in covert operations after the regular military and had trained him in special ops. There were also two other men that Harry knew had been associated with him: Bernardo Spotted-Horse and Otto Jeffries aka Olaf. They were both Marshals too.

Harry honestly didn’t know much beyond that. He had never pressed Edward and never would. He knew that the government was very secretive about it, and that the three had been trained by this Cleef. Riker and his men had also been part of Cleef’s group; those men were dead.

Harry had been quiet too long. Rush said, “I see it does. Your cop face would be worrying if you weren’t so pretty, Harry. I bet you get it from your other husband.” Micah was looking from one to the other.

“What does that name mean to you, Rush?” he asked instead.

“I’ve worked with Van Cleef’s people,” said Rush.

It was shocking to know that Rush knew people as dangerous as Harry did. “Why did they show you the file, and why did they have a file on Chimera and his people?”

“The military has been interested in trying to harness tame shapeshifters for a long time. Chimera interested them.”

“Did the military know what he was doing?” Micah asked.

“Not at first. They were organizing a hunt for him and his people about the time he got to St. Louis. They were going to try and capture him. His DNA on his victims showed he was a panwere. They wanted to study him.”

“Study him,” Micah said. His voice held disbelief and the beginnings of anger.

“I didn’t know until this year,” he closed his eyes, and took a shuddering breath. Sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead. “Harry, you interest them.”

“I know,” said Harry, and Micah raised his head sharply.

“What?”

“Remember the whole Van Anders ordeal? People were brought in to watch me for my raising abilities. I’ll bet my own teeth that it was him.”

“It’s more than that, Harry. I have followed you in the papers and media since I discovered you were linked to my boy. You are a panwere too, sort of,” Rush wheezed as he opened his eyes. “The fact that you don’t change shape makes them even more interested in you.”

“Are you warning us?” Micah asked.

“They may come to you and try to blackmail you into helping them.”

“Blackmail me with what?” Harry thought he knew. But he wanted to hear it.

“Chimera and his people arrived in St. Louis, we know that, but they never left.” He was looking steadily at Harry who kept his blank mask on his face. “Men like Chimera, groups like his, don’t just vanish, Harry. But it was your bloodwork hitting the government grapevine that clinched it.”

“I do not know what you are talking about,” said Harry.

“You killed him. You did it up close and personal enough for him to put his claws or teeth into you. Strains of lycanthropy have DNA just like viruses. They know you’re carrying some of his DNA inside you, but you have even more control. You have the military’s dream of being faster, stronger, harder to kill, better at killing, and you never lose human shape.”

“That’s not due to being a panwere,” said Harry.

“Then what is it?”

“I’m the first Necromancer in a lot of centuries who has been able to flourish in his powers. Most Necromancers don’t make it without being killed or driven insane. My powers are so natural that I don’t need black magic or any of that other rubbish. And my connection to Jean-Claude makes it so that modern strains of lycanthropy don’t let me shift.”

“So without the vampire marks ahead of time, it won’t work?”

“It may only work for me. I’m not sure it's duplicable at all. I’m very unique due to my magical circumstances.”

“Yes, Harry James Potter, the boy-who-lived.”

Micah blinked. “How do you know that?”

“Your aunt was a witch on my side. No one talked about it.”

“You mean, Aunt Rosa? The one Grandpa and Grandma don’t talk about?” Micah asked. “I met her before. Once.”

“Yes. She contacted me when she saw your name connected to his for the first time. She sent me moving papers from Britain. You are the defeater of a Dark Lord, and no one understands how you were able to do it.”

“Magic plus magic equals more magic, Rush. It’s the easiest to explain,” said Harry. “I’ve always been an anomaly.”

“But you were a baby.”

“Yes. Corruption touched the purest form of humanity,” said Harry. “And I am what you get.”

“If I don’t wake up again, tell Gonzales what you told me. He’ll be able to get it where it needs to go. Don’t admit anything; just tell him that your control is based on your ties to the Master of St. Louis. Tell them it’s not doable.”

“What’s not?” asked Micah.

“Making more of him.”

Harry kept his face as slack as he could. Had Edward known? He wasn’t entirely sure, and he really didn’t want to touch on something he wasn’t supposed to talk about.

“Do you love him, Mike?”

“With every bit of me,” said Micah. “All three of my husbands mean the world to me. I have two sons and a daughter.”

“Names?”

“Teddy, Rigel, and Elara. Rigel and Elara were just born. Twins.”

“Your family has a twin thing doesn’t it?” Harry couldn’t help but tease. Rush’s forehead wrinkles and a small smile twitched at the corner of his mouth.

Micah grinned. “Yes.”

Rush let out a laugh, and it ended in him writhing on the bed and then making a pain sound. “Mom and dad are starting to question what they did wrong because two of their kids are living in unnatural sin.” He laughed again, but it was a harsh sound. “Are Bea and Ty here?”

“Just outside.”

He looked up at Micah, but his eyes had that fever shine to them, his face glistening with sweat. “I love you, son.”

“I love you too, Dad.”

Rush looked at Harry. “You take good care of him for me, Harry.”

“Forever, Rush.”

“Good.” Rush nodded too rapidly and too often. His hand convulsed around Micah’s and then he said. “Send them in. If I don’t talk to you again, know I love you and I know that you are good and strong and I’m so happy you have found the ones who love you back. That’s more than most people ever get.”

Micah used one hand to touch his father’s head. “I love you, Dad.” He turned to Harry. “Get my mom and Ty.”

oOo

Ethan and Nicky had moved Teddy to the waiting room. He was fast asleep sprawled out on both of them. His face was buried in Ethan’s chest. Micah had come out after Ty and Bea had gone into the room. He was sitting on the small couch staring off into space, clutching Harry’s hand.

Dev, Ares, Bram, Noah, and Lisandro were scattered around the room trying to look harmless and failing. Ares and Bram had gotten the police talking. Dev had managed to get some of them to laugh a bit.

Nicky was being an extra cushion for Teddy’s steadily growing legs. Harry had removed the arm rests with his magic so that he could lay comfortably. He had a blanket over his body. Nicky didn’t bother trying to socialize because he expected anyone with a badge to dislike him. Micah had kept his sunglasses on. Not just because of his eyes, but to also hide the tears.

Harry had one of those moments where he was questioning a lot of things, but had no true thought in his mind. He felt like he was on the outside looking in. But even if he had a hollow sensation, he felt him before he saw him.

He could hear the stir outside, and he was rising the second the two walked into the room. Micah hadn’t moved.

“Edward!” Everyone turned, and a few police officers flinched cause they hadn’t noticed him. “Peter!”

Harry was already crossing over to the two men standing side by side. It seemed that Edward had dressed for the occasion. He was in a dark blue silk button down that was tucked into wonderfully relaxed black jeans with a black leather belt. Merlin, he couldn’t have looked more perfect right now.

“Little Raven.” He grabbed Harry by the back of the neck and pulled him in for a harsh kiss as he was hugged.

Peter went over to Micah who raised his hidden eyes. He took Harry’s seat and Micah said not a word, instead shifted and rested his head on Peter’s shoulder.

Edward turned to look at him. “How’s he doing?”

Harry looked at him. “It’s bad,” he mouthed. “Greet him and then we talk.”

Edward gently touched Teddy on the cheek, and nodded to Nicky and Ethan before turning Micah. “Alpha?” His hands pressed to the other armrest.

“Hi, Gardien,” said Micah, turning and letting the man kiss him. Edward’s eyes were cold, but they were steady. He was Edward, not Ted right now. “Glad you’re you.”

“I bet you are, Alpha. Peter, you’re on him this time,” said Edward.

“Yes sir.”

Peter laced his fingers with Harry’s and squeezed it. He was tall, easily going over Edward’s height by an inch or two. He was thin, Harry thin, but he had great muscle definition in his body. It showed beneath the white tank and relaxed blue jeans. His chestnut brown hair was pulled back to the nape of his neck. It was loose tied and Harry fanned his fingers through it as Peter raised his face. He didn’t bother to ask any questions. Just staring at Harry who dipped down and kissed him on the lips. Ignoring the draws of shock around them.

“I love you both,” he said softly.

“We love you too.”

Edward was speaking to Micah, and soon the two had a rather passionate kiss that left the Leopard King a lot less solemn and forlorn. He then raised his cold eyes to Harry. “Hall?”

“Yes.”

“Go to work,” said Micah, swatting him. “I’ll use Peter. He’s taller.” He snuggled down and Peter circled an arm around him.

Edward gave Harry that look before the two turned and made their way outside. “I’m late because I had to do some shopping,” he told Harry.

“Good, but there’s something I need to ask you. It’s very important, and I want it to wait, but it's got me spooked.”

Edward turned to face him. “What is it, Little Raven?”

“Did you know Van Cleef is interested in me?” Harry asked once they were far enough away.

Edward’s face was unreadable. “How do you know this?” he asked carefully.

“Rush told me. Apparently, they were planning to blackmail me so they could study me for my talents.”

“How would they blackmail you?” he asked slowly.

“Chimera. Did you know they were looking at him?”

Edward kept level. “Yes,” he answered.

“Did you know they were looking at me?”

“I had an idea,” said Edward, carefully.

“Why are you answering my questions?” Harry asked, suddenly.

“You asked. You asked me. You never ask me anything about that. You know there are things I can’t answer.”

“I know.”

“But this isn’t about me,” said Edward. “It’s about you.”

“How did you know they were interested in me?”

“I didn’t know for sure,” said Edward. “But I had a pretty good idea that they would be. After the Van Anders debacle.”

“That was a Van Cleef group right?”

Edward didn’t nod or shake his head. His eyes were unreadable, but Harry could read it anyway. “Probably the best accident you ever had, Little Raven.” He meant when Harry fucked Harlan by accident. “You don’t have to worry, I won’t let them touch you.”

“What about you?” Harry asked.

“Sorry. Can’t talk about me.”

“I know you can’t. I don’t expect you to, Edward. Just feel like I’m out of my body right now. This is much different to Jason. I mean, Micah’s got good parents, you know? Decent ones by my standards. Kind of like those rare ones who are great, so I hate seeing him like this.”

He shivered when Edward’s fingers took hold of his chin and began to turn it left and right. “That is because you are pale, Little Raven. You have yet to feed tonight.” He trailed his palm up Harry’s cheek.

Harry curled his arms around Edward’s neck, and the man gripped him tight as he buried his nose into his shoulder. “I don’t know how to fix this…” he whispered.

“Normally, I would tell you that you are dreaming and that not everything is fixable,” said Edward coolly as he swept a hand down Harry’s back, and got a hum of pleasure in reward. “However, I have been around you for far too long.” He pulled back and pressed his forehead to Harry’s. “We will take care of Alpha. All of us.”

“I know. I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too. I can’t offer what you can. I never will be able to.”

“Just your presence, that look in your eyes. We want you to offer Edward. That is all.”

“No look. It’s blank.”

“Sometimes people need blank, Edward. Real blank. Not fake blank. Real.” Both turned when Micah was suddenly standing there. Edward drew him in too without a word, and the three of them stood like that for a long time, arms wrapped tight around each other.

“We need one more,” said Harry.

“Naturally. Toy is on his way.” He tugged at the back of Micah’s braid. “Let me see your eyes.”

Harry reached over for Micah to pull the glasses down. Edward stared at them. “Why?”

“Elara’s eyes. Gonna have to remember what to look for when she starts crying.”

Micah let out a choked laugh. “You fucking… bastard.” He nibbled down on Edward’s neck as he buried his face into him.

He pulled Micah back up to see him better. “I never said different.” He kissed Micah hard, and Harry sighed as he languidly rolled his head to watch them.

“I love you,” Micah whispered.

“Yes, you damn well better because I have to love you, Alpha-”

“Mike!”

“Mike?”

“Like Ted,” Harry growled under his breath.

Micah shoved the glasses back onto his eyes, and turned. “Hello mom.”

“Is this a bad time?” Edward wondered quietly to Harry.

Harry snickered. “Not like you’d think. Seems polyamory runs in the family,” he whispered.

“Interesting.”

“Mom. Ty.” Both of them looked a bit on the gray side. Bea had been crying a bit too hard. Her eyes were puffy and red. She was holding Ty’s hand like a lifeline.

“Alpha, you should introduce me.” He kept his hold on both of them as Micah shuffled to the side. Once they were standing all three together in Edward’s arms, Micah started talking.

“Mom, this is our husband, Ted Forrester. Edward, this is my mom, Bea Morgan and Ty Morgan is her husband.”

Edward smoothly let go of Harry and Micah and stepped forward. “It’s nice to meet you finally.” He shook their hands firmly, and put on his best Ted smile. He more than likely shot emotion into his baby blues making them sparkle in a way that Edward would never do.

Harry and Micah exchanged a look.

“You too. You are the third husband?” Bea asked for clarification.

“Yes I am. Our last one is on his way. It takes a lot of maneuvering to travel when so many guards and logistics need doing. I do apologize for my late arrival. I was working another case. Good thing it wasn’t too far away. Plus he has the twins with him.”

“How fast did you drive, Gardien?” Micah asked.

“Fast enough, and Peter drove most of it. Kid needs the experience.” He managed to get Bea and Ty talking, and looking a little less gray.

Harry grudgingly confessed that Ted was charming, and with his southern style accent, Colorado probably wouldn’t be able to help but accept him much more easily. Harry admitted that maybe once upon a time this was Edward’s accent, but knowing who he was he’d probably worked hard to lose it. So it was sexy and a real aspect of him as a result of it. Just with it associated with a persona he created that wasn’t really him tended to give Harry a bad aftertaste.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Forrester,” said Ty.

“Ted, please,” said Edward.

As they all headed back into the family waiting room, Edward kept them talking, and both of them had gotten much more animated. Peter, who had been speaking with Ares, turned to them.

Bea smiled at Peter. “And you must be Peter? Right?”

“Peter Forrester, ma’am,” he said politely as he shook her hand.

“I’m Bea Morgan, and this is my husband Ty Morgan. I’m Micah’s mother.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m sorry about the bad timing,” he said, and it sounded like he meant it. Peter looked back at Teddy. “At least he looks comfortable.”

“Kids can sleep anywhere so long as they have the right smell,” said Harry, smiling at Nicky and Ethan.

“Oh, he really should have a bed to sleep in,” said Bea softly.

“We’ll be taking him to the hotel soon, once the rest get into town,” said Harry, glancing quickly at Edward who nodded.

“Definitely.”

Before anything else could be said, Al came over to them. “Marshal Potter-Black?”

“Yes, Deputy Truman?” Harry asked, turning in a pivot. A couple of police officers were behind him. His face was unusually serious. “What happened?” he asked, noticing the change.

“Remember the hiker that Gutterman and the rest were looking for?”

“I remember you saying something about other police business,” said Harry.

“The hiker went missing two days ago; this is number three, so we called for volunteers who knew the mountains in that area to help the police with the search.”

Harry nodded. “I’d think that’s standard in a wilderness area. You don’t want more civilians getting lost.”

“Exactly, so everyone we took out with us knows what they’re doing. The two men who are missing now, honestly, I’d trust them in a wilderness survival emergency more than most police I know. They are both high-priced hunting guides and can do serious hike-in and hike-out camps with pretty inexperienced hunters.”

“Good teachers then,” said Edward as Al turned and nodded.

“Yes, sir. You are Marshal Forrester?”

“I am. Deputy Truman?”

“Al Truman. I went to school with Mike here, I was Richie’s best friend.”

Edward would remember Richie’s name. “Sorry for the loss,” he said, curving his accent enough to impress the men. Yeah, he was good at that.

“Me too.”

“What happened to them?” Harry asked.

“They are missing.”

Micah was roused from the silent watching. “Who is it?”

“Henry Crawford and Little Henry.”

“They’re some of the best in the area, or were ten years ago,” said Micah.

“Henry senior is nearly sixty-five, but he can still hike farther with more in a pack than anyone on our force except your dad, and that includes me. Little Henry is just scarier and quieter than he was, but I’d trust both men in any emergency outside a city.”

“Is Little Henry still an EMT?”

“Yeah.”

“I wish I could help, Al, but I can’t leave the hospital. I’m sorry.”

“I wasn’t asking you to, Mike. I was asking Marshal Potter-Black, and I guess I’m now asking Marshal Forrester.” He looked at Edward who nodded.

“I’d be happy to lend a hand, Deputy Truman.”

“If that is okay with you?” Al looked at Micah, who blinked.

“It’s their job,” said Micah.

“It’s more than that Alpha,” said Edward. “You need us right now.”

“I do, but I need you more doing your job, Gardien,” he said softly.

“You are one of my jobs,” said Edward seriously. Micah’s cheeks actually flushed at that.

“The only reason you're telling me and asking me to help is because you’re forced to right?”

“Part of it,” Al confessed. “The top brass are nervous, MACUSA is buzzing around, and one more strike…” He went quiet.

“Is this the same place that the earlier people have gone missing?” Harry asked, changing tune. “You can’t risk more civilians going out there tonight.”

“Exactly.”

“Something really bad has to be out there for them to be missing.” Micah hunched forward. Harry caught him quickly and eased him back down into the chair. Peter was at his side as Micah rested his elbow on his knees.

“How long have they been missing?” Harry asked.

“Three hours. Normally, we wouldn’t think anything of it, but one minute Henry and Little Henry were within shouting distance and some of the other searchers and the next thing they were just gone.” Al stared at Harry. “And what you said in the morgue got us thinking…”

“Oh no, is it going to end up like Rush?” asked Bea with a gasp.

“I am hoping not,” said Al, cringing. “I’m sorry. I should not have brought this out in front of you.”

“It’s okay. Come on, Bea, let’s get some rest over here.” Ty encouraged her.

Edward looked at Harry. “What did you say?”

“Vampire zombies.”

Edward did not react to that, but Harry just knew that a whir of excitement had gone off. A hunt, the idea of a hunt. He couldn’t help it. It was in his veins. “You can fill me in later.”

“I will.” Harry turned back to Al who was looking from one to the other.

“You just did that couple thing didn’t you?” Al asked, laughing.

“Something like that,” said Harry with a small smile. “Did you find anything to let you know where they were last?” he asked, changing the subject.

“It is pitch-black up in the mountains. We can’t see shit, and the only tracking dogs are scattered looking for a missing kid and an elderly man who wandered away from his home. Kid is three, man has Alzheimers, and you know how cold it gets at night here.”

“If they don’t find shelter they’ll die by morning,” said Micah softly.

“Our missing hikers are both adults in good health with some wilderness experience. The Henrys could make shelter and survive a night easily.”

“Did you have dogs searching for the hiker earlier?”

“One, but it was like its nose went dead. The dog handler had a word for it: nose-deaf. The dog seemed totally confused, as if it didn’t know what the hell it was smelling. He said he’d never seen a dog behave like that.”

“Did it act afraid?” Harry asked.

“Why?”

“Some dogs won’t track preternatural things, not without special training. They act afraid or just refuse to track. Either that or its smelling death all around him and doesn’t know where to look.”

Al paled. “You’re kidding me?”

“No. You need Trollhunds or dogs that have been bred with the line of a Trollhund,” said Harry. “Also if these are vampire zombies, they could be running circles. I’ve never heard of it before, Edward. News to me.”

“You think it could be vampire zombies?”

“Almost positive. It's why I think d’Amour is written all over this.”

“I never doubt you, Little Raven. We need in on this hunt.”

“Good thing I have carte blanche, hm?”

“It wasn’t afraid. It seemed to get the scent at first, but then it hit a clearing and just kept circling. The handler let it take the scent again from a bag of personal effects we had, but it just couldn’t pick it out again. Damndest thing I ever saw with a good dog like that.”

“We could follow the scent,” said Harry.

“Come again?”

“We have men here who could follow the scent, and not get spooked.”

Al blinked when their bodyguards were suddenly at their back. “What do you mean?” he asked slowly and carefully.

“I mean exactly what I meant. You need a dog with a good scent right?”

“Does it have to be a dog? Lions smell pretty damn good.” Nicky spoke up from next to Harry.

“Hey, aren’t you Teddy’s cuddle buddy?”

“We switched,” said Nicky, jabbing his thumb behind him.

Harry looked and smiled when he saw that Noah had taken over. “So cute, where is my camera?”

“You have a hundred of him sleeping on one of us already,” said Noah. But he was smiling despite what he was saying.

“Doesn’t hurt to have more, have you seen his legs, Noah?” Harry asked. “Ilvermorny keeps growing them!” He huffed.

“At this rate he’s going to out-pace you,” Peter quipped.

“Hush!” Harry sulked. “He’ll never outpace me and he’ll always be a Teddy Bear.”

“Even at fifty?”

“Damn straight.”

Micah managed to find a laugh, and Al had this strange look on his face. “Wait, are you telling me that your guards are-?”

“Preternatural, yes, what did you expect from a Coalition Leader to have as guards?” Harry asked.

“All of you?” Al turned from one to the other, and got a series of nods.

“And none of them are civilians when they are with us,” said Harry. “All know in a moment's notice they are to be deputized at our discretion. Director Bradford is already aware of them and who they are. Ares is ex-special forces. Bram is an ex-cop, and Nicky is definitely not a civilian. If this falls under Preternatural, they would be perfect. They do not spook, and are more likely to get us out alive and without getting turned around.”

Al looked as though he were seriously debating it. Not that he had much choice. Harry could just steamroll, but he’d rather not.

“It’s a good shot to find your men alive, Deputy. I’d take what you can get right now,” encouraged Edward in his best Ted voice. “No time for pride when there are lives on the line.”

Or rather a hunt on the line, Harry thought.

“Hey, I’m a one man Pride, Ted,” Nicky grunted.

“That you are, Nick.”

“Not to mention they are much harder to hurt than any police officer.”

“Can you talk in cat form?” Al asked.

Nicky smirked. “Not exactly, but Kitten here can sense me pretty damn well, can’t you?”

Harry nodded. “I can, and if I can’t I know they can translate for me. Ares and Bram are best in human form being former scouts and all that. But, do you mind wearing a leash, Nicky?” he asked with a wince.

Nicky smirked. “Not a big deal. I’m a big enough cat to handle it.”

“You sure?” Harry didn’t want to insult his Rex by thinking he should be leashed and collared.

“Why would he need a leash?” asked Al.

“Everyone’s going to be spooked enough, I don’t want to take any chances,” said Harry, otherwise the entire police force could rot in hell for all Harry cared. He did not say that. Micah would not approve.

“What about me? I could help,” said Dev.

“I want you here on Teddy and Micah,” said Harry stroking Dev’s arm. “I need you here on them.”

“We’ll need to prepare then,” said Edward.

“Weapons, weapons, weapons,” Harry quipped.

“Indeed.” He was trying to hold in the Edward around the cops, and keep his Ted act up. Once in the woods, he could drop it easier. Everyone would be too high alert.

Al agreed to the plan, not that he truly had a choice, but Harry didn’t want to disrupt his delusion. It would make things easier after all. Ares, Bram, and Nicky would be with them. Everyone else was staying back. Peter didn’t argue as he planted himself by Micah’s side and laced their fingers together. He had no doubt that it was going to be a very long night.

But maybe the chance at killing something would alleviate the stress that Harry had been under. Hey, no one ever said that he was the most sane of the family. That fell on Micah or Teddy, who were currently indisposed.

Harry and Edward took turns giving him a kiss, and then Harry kissed Peter, not caring who saw them.

“You take care of him.”

“Promise.”

Chapter Text

Harry compartmentalized Micah and his father away. He locked it up tight behind some of his mental shields, and almost immediately a cool wash of relief flowed through him.

Edward’s Hummer easily fit all that were going. Lisandro had been nervous about leaving Harry down a guard since Nicky was going to be transformed, but he trusted Ares and Bram; and of course there was Edward. Harry was sure that the only reason Lisandro agreed to stay behind with Micah was because of Edward being there. The man took his position as Harry’s head guard seriously.

Harry had taken a couple of innocuous items, and transfigured them into a leash and a collar while he sat on Nicky’s lap in the passenger’s seat. Bram and Ares were in the back as Edward followed Al’s SUV out of the hospital parking lot.

“Spikes?” Nicky grinned as he used one arm to play seat-belt around Harry’s small waist.

“Least let you look badass. I’m sorry I’m putting you in this.”

“Not a big deal. I don’t want to be shot either,” said Nicky. “Just because I have one working eye doesn’t mean I can’t smell.”

“Besides, even with one eye your night vision would be ten times better than any of the officers,” said Bram.

“Do you think this will fit?” Harry asked.

“Should, you can adjust it on me if needed,” said Nicky, running the back of his knuckles along Harry’s cheek and down his neck.

Edward wanted to know everything, and so Harry told him what he’d found at the morgue, and what he had deduced from the rotting bite wounds.

“If it’s by chance not Morte d’Amour, it is someone from his line. Someone close, and someone old. He might or might not have been a Necromancer in his human life. Maybe he’s able to use that power as a vampire. Not sure how that would work to be honest.”

“Rotters, as far as the Toy knows, have their own set of rules,” said Edward.

“We’re not going to end up trying to eat each other again are we?” asked Bram a bit nervously.

“If it came to that, I’ll release my ardeur. Is that okay?” Harry asked looking back at them.

“I’d rather an orgy than a slaughter of friends,” said Ares seriously. “Not sure how the cops are going to take it.”

“That’s what memory charms are for,” said Harry with a shrug. “I’d rather not do that, but right now I just don’t care enough to feel bad about it.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re excited? I’m not, we have to guard your pretty ass,” Bram reminded.

Edward spared him a glance, keeping one eye on the road because the backroads they were being led to were rutted, winding, curvy, and all sorts of things that made the Hummer the perfect option for driving. “He needs it like we all need it, Bram. He’s just sweeter about it and hides it.”

“Why hide?” asked Nicky, slipping his fingers beneath Harry’s turtleneck and making him shiver as he reclined back against the man. Merlin, he felt so good.

“Not everyone can show their sociopath, Nick, you know that,” said Edward.

“Harry isn’t a sociopath,” said Ares.

“No, but there’s a side of him that will always need the fight,” said Edward.

Harry nodded. “I need it like Nathaniel needs you and Peter to control him. I don’t go looking for it as much as I used to. But to say I don’t need the rush or the thrill with my life on the line would be a lie. I’ve been fighting since I was eleven, and now it's ingrained in me.”

“It’s quite interesting to note that your magical world isn’t too far away from the shifter world,” said Bram.

“It’s not. We have vampires, lycanthropes, and so much more in the world. I grew up with the normal of the normal, those relatives of Micah’s were not too different from my Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. I just didn’t have the sweet meek cousin that he did. So when the first person came to get me I was very surprised, he was a half-giant. I was introduced to preternatural very early, and then we have Remus. He was the only Defense teacher I had who didn’t try to kill me. Technically.”

“Technically?” asked Ares.

“He was a werewolf. In hiding of course. But he lost control at the end of the year due to him and my godfather discovering the real traitor amongst them. It wasn’t his fault. So I don’t count it. But every other teacher has tried to kill me at some point.”

“Rage is a common ailment, even Alpha’s can lose it,” said Nicky leaving trailing tickle sensations along Harry’s skin.

“More like, he was a pitiful excuse of a werewolf. He killed the wolf every month.”

“Kill it?” Ares asked.

“Wolfsbane Potion. He would take it so that he only shifted into a weak garden variety wolf. It killed the were in the wolf.”

Bram’s eyes went round. “Shit, they can do that?”

“Yeah, but it’s not healthy. It’ll ruin your organs after a time. Age you fast.”

“You’re effectively killing yourself every month,” said Edward.

“Mhmm.”

“What would you be, Edward? If you had to shift and had the option?” Ares asked.

“Interesting question. I’m not entirely sure, perhaps a leopard or a lion since they often migrate away from their groups at times to seek independence. Perhaps a wolf too. I’d say hyena with how vicious I know they are, but I’m unimpressed by every hyena except two.”

Ares snorted. “Do not chart Narcissus’ Cackle by real and old-world. I hated being a werehyena at first.”

“Why?” asked Bram.

“I mean, if I had to be attacked by an enemy shapeshifter, why couldn’t it have been something with a cooler reputation, like a lion or a leopard? Big cats and wolves, now that’s sexy.” He laughed, but not like he was actually pleased, more self-deprecating. Harry looked back at the handsome man.

“Are you saying you’d have hated it less if you’d been a different animal?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, at first.”

“And now?”

Ares looked at Harry. “It depends.” As a car passed on the road, Ares’ eyes were illuminated. “I’m a hyena. It’s a rougher, more violent world than any other shapeshifter society. We earn our stripes, no pun intended for my stripey brethren. No one, not even the lions, demands the level of toughness that hyena society does. There are many clans of us, but the few that do exist in this country rule whatever city they’re in if they go old-school.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means the different animal groups would have wars,” said Nicky. “What you and Jean-Claude, Micah, and Rafael have done is a radical change. It’s why Coalition work can be pretty nasty at times.”

“You know how it is, Little Raven, with no law and order, and the bloodlusting aggression not directed in the right way…”

Nicky nodded in time to Edward’s words. “Wereanimals were made legal before vampires were,” he said. “You missed the old days when we were able to go into a city and just destroy everything in our path. As long as there weren’t any bodies for the cops to find, people just disappeared and my pride and I got paid, and then we moved on. Other animal groups hired us to take out their rivals, and we did it without mercy.”

“Naturally,” said Harry. “Survival of the fittest.”

“Exactly,” said Ares.

Bram grunted. “It’s harder for us ex-cops and military at times, and yet at the same time it's easier. It’s a real head-fuck because your priorities change with the culture. An ex-cop’s duty is to protect and serve. It’s to save lives.”

“And in the were culture it is survival,” Harry followed up.

“You get it. It’s shocking how well you understand,” said Bram.

“I don’t claim to understand anything or everything. Half the time I just move through things on instinct.”

“Impossible instincts,” said Edward as he took a rather nasty curve. Harry had a feeling he’d been here before.

“And he had these instincts before his beasts?” asked Ares.

“Yes, he did.”

Harry shrugged. “I’ve learned over the years that if I ignore my gut instinct, nine times out of ten I end up screwed in the worst of ways.”

“You also have a good feel for who is trustworthy and who isn’t,” said Bram. “Nicky isn’t too different from Haven.”

“I’m really not,” Nicky agreed.

“I don’t know why you two are different to me. I’d like to think Haven was more psycho than socio.”

“We all can be psycho, Harry. It’s finding a place to direct it in the right way,” Ares explained. “Every last person on this earth no matter its species has a penchant and need for violence. Most can control it, some cannot. Some can hone it and use it as an asset.”

“Everyone has a price,” Harry sing-songed Edward’s words as the man smirked. He squirmed when Nicky’s hands slid over him and his lioness stirred. “Nicky…” he finished with a whine.

“I’ll never tire of stirring him up,” said Nicky, swiping down the leather of his thighs and back up to his raised turtleneck.

“If you are not careful you are going to unleash his ardeur too early,” Edward warned with a smirk. “He needs to feed soon.”

“My control is better than that, Husband. I’ll be fine at least until after this is over.” he squirmed when Nicky bit down on his neck. He had tugged the collar to expose Harry’s skin. “I haven’t even seen our hotel yet. Lisandro got me going earlier too in case I needed to use the power to bypass politics.”

“Lisandro got you going because he can’t resist you,” Bram laughed. “He’s had you now, and he’s sucked in.”

Harry pouted. “I love Lisandro, and I’m going to eat his kids one of these days.” Ares and Bram laughed.

“I’d prefer to eat you,” Nicky growled as his liberal touches started a small brewing fire in the pit of Harry’s stomach. His lioness was thoroughly enjoying the attention, but all too soon it had to end because they came to a complete stop in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.

“Damn you,” Harry hissed as he shifted and tried to control the budding erection. He was tingling all over.

Nicky squeezed him extra hard. “That’s your punishment for leashing your Rex.”

“So we all get punished by getting horny because Harry smells so good?” Bram asked darkly.

“Just think of it as a test, Bram,” said Ares smirking. “I bet you’d be a lot of fun tied up.”

Harry twitched and Edward grinned. “He ain’t bad, Ares.” He reached over and hooked a finger through the metal ring of the cuff and brought it up. “Why do you think these were installed.”

“Nice! I bet you and Nathaniel would be a lot to handle.”

“He doesn’t listen to orders well,” said Nicky.

“I can make him,” said Ares, his voice dropping low and dark, and it made Harry swallow thickly as the arousal threatened to spill out of him. Focus, Harry, Focus! Edward’s cold laugh wasn’t helping so he scanned his surroundings. There was nothing but trees on either side of the rutted road, and beyond it Harry knew that all they would see was a wall of rock. It would go straight upwards toward the sky. It was like the whole area had been carved out in the middle of a mountain.

“Okay, focus. We have things we might have to kill.”

“Let’s have fun then,” said Edward, and everyone in the car could feel that cold socio thrill.

Harry did not have to worry about the chill as he stumbled his way out of the Hummer and Nicky climbed out after him. Even Harry’s night-vision was having issues. Only the red tail-lights and Edward’s Hummer lights illuminated Al who had gotten out of his SUV. Al gave Harry a look of disapproval, and he wondered why?

Harry knew that if the road was dark, the forest ahead was going to be black with not a speck of gray in sight. He wasn’t the only one to think this as Ares came around to stand behind him.

“It’s going to be damn dark beneath the trees.”

“You have better night vision than me.”

“Better, but in human form not that much better.”

“You can be the kitty on the leash, then,” Nicky said.

“Hyenas aren’t cats.”

“You’re more closely related to cats than dogs,” said Harry smiling.

He glanced down at Harry. His face showed surprise and Harry could only tell by the illumination. “Most people think we’re related to dogs.”

“More closely related to mongoose, meerkats, and civets isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. How do you know that?”

“Luna, and my own Care of Magical Creatures classes at school. Besides, I thought it was a good idea since we’re all working together to study up as much as I can about hyenas since they are the second or third largest group in St. Louis. Not to mention you’re sleeping with my leopard and boyfriend. Got to know something about you.”

“Why do I believe you truly studied it for our benefit and not as an enemy?” Ares asked.

“No one’s an enemy unless they make themselves one, Ares. Edward does the enemy surveying for us. I just push ahead. Besides, if you’re hurt, how do I heal you if I don’t know you?”

Ares just stared down at him. “You’re a strange person, Harry Potter-Black.”

“Thank you.”

Edward only smirked. He was at the back of the Hummer and was fishing around. “Let’s gear up.”

The forest they were about to trek through was a famous one called the Arapaho National Forest. The air smelled like pine, with the ghostly paleness of aspens scattered throughout the darkness of the evergreens. The air hadn’t felt that thin down in Boulder, but up there it did. It was probably no wonder the roads were old and more rutted. Harry couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to pave such a place.

Harry and Edward donned their red Marshal jackets that were longer and more sweeping than the typical blue jackets.

Al was being trailed by several officers behind him. “Didn’t have any issues with the mountains?”

“Not at all,” said Edward, double checking his AR before passing it over to Ares.

One of them following Al was a Ranger named Becker. She was already annoying with all her questions, and then there were Travers and Horton. None of them were comfortable even if Al had cleared it.

Becker gasped when she saw the back of the Hummer, and the humongous arsenal that they had. “That can’t be legal!”

“It’s very legal,” said Edward, not even bothering to look at her as he pocketed a few items.

“We are not allowed to go anywhere without our kit.” Harry stated.

“And this is your kit?” asked State Trooper Travers as he stared at some of the weapons. “Some of those are military issue…”

“It’s one of our kits.”

“One?” Horton said.

“Considering we’re both Preternatural Marshals, yes.”

“Everyone knows that werewolves have to eat fresh killed meat as soon as they shapeshift. None of us want to be that fresh of a kill,” Ranger Becker interrupted, causing Harry to look up at her as though she were an idiot. She was as tall as Ares and Nicky.

“You’ve been reading the wrong articles then, Ranger Becker. It’s a fallacy, and only those who have never shapeshifted or are new to shapeshifting require meat, and not every werecreature is a werewolf, I don’t care if you’re using it for slang or whatnot. That’s like calling all cops men.”

“Is that for my benefit?” she snarled.

“Nope. Stating a fact,” said Harry. “You don’t want to be called a man, so don’t call my men werewolves when not one of them is a werewolf.”

“Besides, we have official jurisdiction now since this falls under preternatural crimes,” said Edward handing over a familiar thin folder to Harry. “I saw it glow earlier. I think it belongs to you, Little Raven.”

“And I want to find Little Henry and Henry,” said Al before anyone could argue or make a bit of a stink about it. “I don’t fucking care what we have to use so long as I find them, and hopefully alive!”

“I do too, Al, but is this really the way to do that?” Travers frowned.

“We don’t have a choice!” Al snapped, and it was the first time he sounded angry.

Harry opened the folder and inside was a warrant. “I think this will shut you all up, and if not... It’s not my problem.” He handed Al the warrant to read.

All the cops shuffled to read over it.

“Warrant of Execution? We’re on a search and rescue, not a warrant of execution,” said Travers harshly.

“We are on a hunt,” said Harry. “An official one. That means tonight if we have to shoot and kill then we can do it without inquiries hanging over our heads. You say this is where some of the victims were last, right? It’s near where Rush was attacked, right?”

“Yes…”

“That means we’re on a hunt. Are you telling me nothing is in those woods if these experienced men you know so well have gone missing?” asked Edward, interjecting smoothly. “You said they vanished as if something dropped in, grabbed them, and were gone. It’s a hunt.”

“You don’t expect them to be alive,” said Travers.

“Not in our job description, Trooper,” said Edward in his best Ted accent. “Each one of these fine men and their assets have been approved and cleared by Director Bradley Bradford and MACUSA. All of their backgrounds are on file at your local marshal office should you wish to peruse them at your leisure.” Harry had no doubt that they’d had to alter or fudge Nicky’s files and background. No way would there be one on him otherwise.

“I’ve used weres to hunt before. So I know what I’m doing. Nicky will transform, and he will be collared and leashed.”

“Why are you leashing him if he’s safe?” asked Becker.

“So you don’t shoot him; because if something happens to him while my hand is on this leash then I guarantee that whatever is attacking the good citizens of Boulder will be the least of your worries.” Harry pushed his magic and energy through, and he was pleased to see that Becker, Travers, and Horton took a step back.

“Is that a threat?” Travers bit out.

“Promise, Trooper. I don’t do threats. I’m way too small to be taken seriously, so I make promises.”

“And he’s never broken one,” said Edward cheerfully.

Al looked right at Harry. “You have an idea what’s going on don’t you? You know, don’t you?”

“Earlier it was 90% certainty with 10 percent room for error. I’m now up to 95% certainty with 5% room for error. Problem is we don’t have time to go into long details that you’re going to have a million questions about. All I can say is look up at what happened to Atlanta.” He then stepped back and looked at Nicky. “You ready for this?”

“Hell yeah, gotta strip first.” He was already shrugging out of his leather jacket and Becker flinched when she saw him, her eyes getting big and round.

“Now?!” she couldn’t hide the squeak in her voice.

“You can wait over there,” Harry encouraged. “He’s not ruining his clothes for your sensibilities and hangups.”

Not surprisingly all of them backed away as Nicky continued to strip down. Harry enjoyed the scene in front of him.

“Not now, Little Raven,” Edward teased.

“Hush, I’m admiring.” And he wasn’t surprised that the muscled physique had Becker’s attention. Yeah, not a strip of fat on this man. All the other men were looking a bit out of sorts. They were probably thinking in the back of their minds about how they should probably hit the gym if they survived the night. His men had a tendency to make alpha human men very self-conscious of themselves.

“Admire away, Kitten, but you might want to step back or I’m going to get you wet,” Nicky smirked viciously and Harry couldn’t help but snicker as he took a couple steps further back. Al and the others had gone to stand at the front of the Hummer. He’d gotten good lessons from the men who danced at Guilty Pleasures on how to get out of his shirts without ripping them, and so he did, causing all the tension in his muscles to rise and move. Harry’s eyes happily darted up and down, following the shift of each solid muscle. If only he could reach out and touch… but if he did that then the police were all going to get an unexpected show. His skin was buzzing as he watched his Rex reach for the blackened belt buckle. It had to be one of his favorite parts of his men stripping down. He didn’t often magically relieve them of their pants when they were about to have sex unless it was a quickie. He liked watching the whole thing. Jean-Claude was right that clothes coming off could be its own foreplay. He didn’t hear Ares and Bram snickering or whatever Edward said to them. Nope, he was staring hard at Nicky and so was his lioness.

More weapons were passed during this time, Harry fore-went the vest, but Edward strapped his on this time. Not because he wanted the protection, but because it would be expected of him. Harry was the anomaly, Ted Forrester wasn’t. At least in the eyes of normal officers. Bram and Ares were taking liberties with Edward’s gear, picking out what they thought would be useful. Harry had a Mossberg 500 Bantam. He didn’t like shotguns, but he would play muggle at the start. However, if things got bad he’d drop and use his magic.

“Need help?” Harry asked, stepping forward only for Edward to cup his elbow and pull him back.

“Now, Little Raven. Hunt first, fuck later,” he hissed running his hand up to grip the back of Harry’s neck where the tattoo lay. “Especially where I can watch.”

“I just want to help,” pouted Harry, batting his big green eyes.

“I ain’t that impressive, not like Ares’ Nathaniel,” said Nicky. But Harry could feel how proud he was that Harry’s eyes were all on him. He was after all a Rex.

“I fuck you, not Ares’ Nathaniel,” Harry reminded.

“I like them thin,” Ares bit out. “It’s my type.”

“Is Harry your type?” Bram teased.

“Fuck he is, but he won’t let me have him. I can flirt and tease, but I can’t fuck him!”

“Because I don’t want the strings of your Oba attached to me,” Harry remarked dryly. “Sorry, dear.”

“No one wants his Oba,” Bram followed up.

“Such is the life,” Ares grumbled.

Nicky tossed his clothes into the back, and Harry thought he was prepared, he’d seen them all shifting many times before. But this time, it was different. Maybe because he was used to Nicky’s werelion-man and not the absolute purity of a lion form from such a strong Rex. Not outside of the full moon.

It was a wash of energy so strong that it hit him like a heatwave as if he’d opened the door to all four of his kitchen ovens. Harry’s skin began to ripple and his lioness began to sinuously move through his body. Harry was rocked back on the balls of his heels feeling the wash of heat, energy and power that swept over him. His body had this urge to curl or gravitate closer. His lioness was pacing with an eagerness that he felt deep into his stomach.

Nicky’s beast swelled inside of him as a golden blanket of downy fur raced across the breaking pale flesh. He didn’t explode or leak like Travis and Noel had when Harry had to give over his lioness to them.

He was absolutely breathtaking. He had deep dark brown and auburn swirls of mane fur around his head. It was so elegant and reminded Harry of a reverse sunflower with how dark and textured it was. His face was grand, a stately King Lion as he stood on all fours with paws as big as Harry’s head. His tail was long and winding with a matching tuft at the end. He let out a low roar, and his lioness made a near leap to try and get at him. She was rolling through him and trying to lure him into her path with her own energy before he could control it.

“Harry…”

“Little Raven…”

Harry was breathing harder as he stepped away from Edward and dropped on his knees in front of Nicky. One eye was covered by his fur, but the other stared back at him. An amber orange shade.

Nicky let out a growling purr and his nose butted Harry in the face, and the energy from the purr had his own lioness reacting back. It thrummed along the air and spilled through his body until Harry was purring back with a soft hum.

Nicky shook his fur and the mane that gathered around him seemed like a separate entity as it went in the opposite direction he was shaking. He was kneading the ground with his large handsome paws.

It was only when Ares stepped up with his knees to Harry’s back that Nicky let out a vicious snarl of warning. “Cool it, Nick. I know you’re feeling his heat. I’m not touching your mate.”

Nicky seemed to glare at him through the beast's eyes. Harry tilted his head up to look at Ares. “What?” Harry asked breathlessly.

“As soon as he started shifting your heat started rising to match his,” said Ares.

“For a second there we thought you were going to shift too,” said Bram.

“I feel fine. A bit horny, but I’m fine,” said Harry, blinking at them. He then let out a squeak when Nicky decided to pounce on him, and a rubbery wet tongue began to lick, flick, and loll across his face and neck. “Gahh! Nicky!” His hands sank into the lovely fur of Nicky’s mane. He smelled more clean than the sharp leopard scent.

That was when Al and the other police officers moved forward. Harry was outright giggling now as Nicky continued to lick on him.

“What’s going on?” Al asked. He gasped and drew back when he saw Nicky. Becker, Horton, and Travers gawked at the large pony size stately lion.

“Nickyyy!” Harry whined, and he shuddered when Nicky’s energy and body heat pushed itself into him making his lioness metaphysically reach out to Nicky. Oh Merlin, he had to stop or he was going to burn up at this rate. It didn’t help when Nicky settled down on him, pinning him to the ground.

“Give it a minute,” said Ares carefully. He looked at Edward. “Has he done this with Micah?”

“Multiple times,” said Edward. “I think this is the first time that Little Raven has seen Nick as an actual lion and not an actual were or half-half form.”

“Makes sense,” said Bram.

“What are you talking about? Is this even safe?” Al said.

“He’s fine. He’s safer than all of us, Nick would never hurt him,” said Edward. It would mean a lot if Edward said something like that. So sure as he was because he’d be the first one to do something should Harry ever be in danger.

Harry snuggled Nicky and promised that Nicky could fuck him like this later in a soft voice so that only he and perhaps Ares who was closest could hear.

Nicky pulled back and shook his mane. Becker was gawking at him as Nicky looked from one to the other and then back at Harry who snickered and sat up. “Ulgh, you slobbered on me!” Harry grumbled using the sleeve of the red jacket to wipe it off. “Silly kitty.” Harry wrapped his arms around Nicky and kissed his muzzle. “Love you,” he whispered into his fluff. Nicky made a lion-like noise cross between a purr and a growl of content.

Edward helped Harry get back up and handed him the collar. “I think you made it too small, Little Raven.” Harry looked at it, at Nicky, and ran his hand along the collar. It slowly grew as Harry looked at the lion and estimated the new size needed. Once it was large enough he bent over and wrapped it around the lion’s neck.

“Remember when Teddy wanted a life size lion statue when we were in London?” Harry asked with a smile.

“I do. What are you thinking?” Edward responded as he kept an eye on the officers looking at Nicky.

“I don’t think Teddy’s seen Nicky like this. Think we can take him home like this?” Harry couldn’t help but bury his hands in Nicky’s mane.

“Now who is spoiling him?” Edward said, smirking.

“Me, that’s who,” said Harry shamelessly. He made sure the collar was snapped in place and wasn’t too tight. He might have spent a bit of extra time touching. It felt so good to do so, like a heat breathing down his skin on the coldest winter’s day.

Bram’s eyes dilated and Ares took in a sharp breath. “Harry… please pull away,” he hissed between his teeth as Edward responded to a question from Al and the officers.

“Why?” Harry asked in confusion.

Ares slipped closer and bent his head down as Nicky growled lowly up at him. “Every time you touch him your energy flares and your heat rises. You have a fever, do you not realize that?” He raised a hand as if to touch Harry’s forehead only for Nicky to push between them. “I’m not touching him, Nick. Just showing an example.” He kept his palm an inch or two from Harry’s face. “What is it about you? You are not a female,” Ares wondered quietly.

“No, very male,” said Harry, matching his tone. “I don’t know. I guess it's my beasts’ way of giving them what they need.”

“What they need?”

“I can’t shift, Ares, that means I should be lacking the necessary things that a shapeshifter needs, but I guess whatever is in me overcompensates to make sure they don’t lack. Micah rolls through me all the time even as a human. We’re always touching and passing back and forth. Our leopards are always aware of each other and often metaphysically interact. They even fuck when Micah and I have sex. We can feel it as a physical sensation. Nicky and I have done something similar, our lions greeting each other, but only when we have sex.”

“So your beasts are constantly reacting to each mate you have? But not your animals to call,” Ares asked quietly. “Shit, I wish you hadn’t told me that.”

“Why?”

Before Ares could answer Al approached. “Is everything alright? Is he safe?”

“Like hell is he safe!” Becker squawked.

“Then you can back off and go away.” Harry snapped at her. “Even if he wanted to eat someone, he won’t be eating you.” He might tear into her. But he would probably spit her out just out of spite. “He is perfectly safe as Nicky is a very experienced shapeshifter. Ares was just helping me to make sure the collar was fit right and not too tight,” he lied perfectly.

The rest of the police returned and a few stepped forward asking if they could pet him, as if he were a big dog. After a moment of thought Harry nodded, he knew the act gave him a leg up with most of the locals. There were some that wouldn’t come close, let alone touch the huge lion, but he could tell they were reassessing everything they knew. Al brought over a jacket and used rag found in the Crawfords’ truck, letting Nicky smell them to pick up the scent to follow.

Harry rolled his eyes when he saw Becker mouth something to herself. All he saw was something related to spikes. It didn’t matter, if she tried anything Harry knew that Edward or the guards would take care of it discreetly.

Once Nicky had a good handle on the scent he lifted his head and smelled the wind. Soon he was nudging Harry towards the trees. Edward quickly clipped the leash onto the collar and passed it to Harry. “Let’s go. Bram and Ares, on Harry’s six.” Edward ordered the group to move out as Nicky started pulling ahead on the lead. Soon Harry was running in the woods, his guards and Edward easily keeping up. Turns out running with the wererats on a semi-daily basis was beneficial for something after all.

Nicky knew how fast Harry could run and was doing his best to only speed along at a pace that Harry and Edward could match. Both were faster than the normal humans, the officers were lagging behind.

Harry could feel all his men on either side of him. Edward was keeping good stride. Even Ares, who he wasn’t metaphysically tied to, he could sense at his back.

They heard yelling behind them and Harry had to slow down. Nicky did well to match his speed as Harry turned his head enough to see that Al and the other police hadn’t made it into the thickest part of the trees yet. It was so dark, that he had no doubt that for them it was pitch black. He knew Nicky wanted to continue at the speed he had been at, but that he also wasn’t going to pull Harry along and possibly injure his Regina.

For Harry it was a haze like fog. His own eyes were creating their own source of light. Harry opened up his five senses to the smells that blanketed the forest. His lioness had decided to come out to play and lend her assistance to him for the first time. His eyes focused a bit better, and he noted what smelled like a mouse or a squirrel running near a tree. If Harry were being honest, he thought it was kind of mouthwatering. He could only imagine what Nicky was sensing because to Harry the smell of the pines were so strong.

He realized that his lioness had connected to Nicky much like it had with Micah, and so he could see, sense, and taste everything that was going on around him. If he was more human, he’d probably end up with one hell of a migraine.

Harry had always prided himself on accepting his beasts. But he hadn’t ever been too sure if they accepted him. Did they resent him because they couldn’t come out? A few times he’d say yeah, but at this moment he was so in tune with them that he longed to be one. Sadly he knew he would never truly shift.

“God they’re so loud,” Ares hissed who was standing a little to the side of them.

Harry could only nod. Even Edward, who was the only real human of them all, was as silent as a mouse.

“Getting closer,” said Bram, keeping his back to them. Nicky was sniffing around, moving his mane and shaking it every so often. The spikes of the collar barely poked out beyond the length of the hairs.

Al took a deep breath as he made it to them. “I’ve never seen anything move like you guys did!”

“Sorry you had to wait so long for the rest of mere humans to catch up,” Travers grumbled.

“We are human,” said Edward. “At least Little Raven and I are.”

“Bull shit,” Travers panted.

“What was that?” Edward asked, his voice leaked out some Edward rather than Ted, and even in the still of the night Travers had noticed it.

“Nothing…”

“I spend my days as a mere human running with these men around me,” said Harry proudly. “I’m not nearly as fast as them. We weren’t running at full speed, they were matching my max speed. I’ll never have their legs.”

“You’re fucking kidding me?” Travers growled.

“Nope.”

“He makes a good weight when we need him to,” said Bram, smirking. “Sometimes he sits on Nicky’s back as he does push ups.”

“You’ve used me as an arm weight while running,” Harry added as Nicky’s tongue licked at his fingers. Harry stroked a finger up his wet nose and between his eyes.

“What the fuck are you then if you claim to be human?’

“I’m a wizard, and many other things. Sadly, I can’t shift. I’m sure you know about my bloodwork, the whole world seems to,” said Harry shrugging.

“Sadly? Isn’t that a good thing?” Horton said who was heaving. He had his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath, nearly failing over.

“I’d be proud to be one, but since I’m not I’ll use what gifts I’ve been given to do my job. I don’t care who approves of it or not. You don’t waste talent, no matter its form. I have the talent.”

“You’re a cocky shit.”

“He’s honest,” said Bram. “Besides, if the day came that he shifted, a whole lot of Communities would be sad as fuck because they didn’t get him.”

A few of the other officers finally reached them, Travers looked part angry and part annoyed. “Just how old are you?”

“Almost thirty.”

“Bullshit!”

“Is that the only thing you can come up with?” Edward asked flatly.

“He ain’t thirty! No fucking way.”

“I’ll be thirty in July,” said Harry.

Before anyone could make another comment about his young looking age Edward cut in. “Are you ready?”

Travers shook his head as if to clear the cobwebs. “Yes, let’s find my friends.”

“Then stop delaying with questions you technically have the answers to, Trooper.”

Harry didn’t have to turn around and see him to know that the man had gone red in the face. Harry could smell the blood rising and resisted cackling as they started once more at a quaint jog. Honestly, if they were all alone, just them in the forest, they’d probably have a whole lot more fun. But as such... Nicky did a graceful half-circle before taking off in the direction that the scent took him. He could hear Travers and others behind them groaning.

Chapter Text

The body was lying in a grove of aspens so that the bare white trunks rose around the dead man like tombstones marking his grave. A rather novel place to leave a body, and Harry had no doubt that it was a stage. Just for them. No dead body was nice to look at, but this… this was pretty bad on a high scale.

At first, it was hard for human eyes to make out what they were seeing, but when they did that was all they could see. Harry adjusted much quicker than the officers who caught up to them. Edward wasn’t looking at the body so much as the surroundings with Bram and Ares circling the clearing.

Harry had handed Nicky’s leash to Edward, knowing that Nicky wouldn’t want Ares or Bram to hold the leash on principle. It was nothing against them, but inherent animal instincts. Nicky was a dominant. If the leash was held by Ares or Bram, he’d be conceding that he wasn’t as dominant as them and then his beast would get mad and angry even if the human part was okay with it. However, since Edward was Harry’s husband the beast would recognize the connection.

Harry gazed down at what was left of one of the missing men. From the build and size of the body it was clearly male. The clothes were disarranged as if someone had redressed him after he was dead, or because they’d only moved the clothes enough to get to his flesh. Either way, zombies didn’t do that. Ghouls didn’t do that. Wereanimals could do it, but why when they’d just eat the evidence? Vampires could redress a corpse, and they might if one of them had a natural penchant for modesty. Requiem was one such vampire who had to be the most modest master he’d ever seen in his life.

Chunks had been taken out of the flesh. Harry could count at least ten fresh marks with two distinct patterns, maybe more.

The worst part about the whole thing was the face. It wasn’t there anymore. Whatever had attacked and eaten this man had gone straight for the face, eating him and disfiguring him until there wasn’t anything to call a face. The techs would be arriving soon with their floodlights.

Nicky was sitting calmly on his haunches beside Edward. He wasn’t looking at the body so much as he was staring at Harry. Intently.

Ares stood at Harry’s left because Al was at his right. A lot of the other officers had taken any job in the area that would keep them away from the crime scene, and farther from the body. Harry knew that Ares and Bram were judging these men and women, and judging them harshly. Ares had a classic Marine face going on. He was stiff, tall, and watchful. His eyes glinting as they darted back and forth. He was so calm. Bram was moving in a circle.

“Oh, my God,” one of the younger officers said in a breathy voice when he dared to look at it. He looked like he was convulsing as Al put his flashlight on his face.

“You okay, Bush?”

“Go over there!” Harry insisted, pointing to the tree brush. “Don’t throw up on the crime scene!”

He stumbled toward the dark edge of the trees, but started throwing up before he made it. “How did you know?”

“I see a lot of bad stuff,” said Harry flatly.

“If you work Preternatural, that’s all you see is bad stuff,” said Edward, and maybe just maybe there was a hint of mocking in his tone. It was layered and hidden by copious amounts of Ted, but Harry heard it. “We always come in at the end, deputy.”

Someone else started throwing up on the other side of the clearing, and the sharp smell of vomit joined with the smell of drying blood. The body had been fresh enough to smell much like an outhouse. Combined with them throwing up, well, he could see Al going a bit pale and swallowing convulsively.

Harry looked at Edward who met his gaze.

“Incoming,” Ares hissed too quiet for Al to hear, but the rest of them caught.

Travers started yelling across the clearing. “You’re supposed to be some hotshot expert. What killed Crawford, and where the fuck is Little Henry?!”

Harry blandly looked at the big man where he stood in the near dark, hands in fists at his side. He was trying to be enraged, but there was a flinching around his eyes that said the anger might be hiding other emotions. He didn’t bother to answer Travers and looked over at Al and Horton who had now joined him. “Could this be your missing hiker?”

“He wasn’t this tall,” said Al.

“Okay, how do we know which Crawford this is?”

“Little Henry has shoulder length hair. His dad is almost bald.”

Harry looked down at the corpse. Even through the blood it was obvious the head was almost bald. “Okay, this is Henry senior then.”

“Looks that way,” said Horton vacantly.

“Why did they eat his face?” Al asked, and it was the kind of question that senior officers don’t typically ask because it's a rookie question.

“One of the corpses in the morgue had its face attacked,” Harry said softly.

“That was one bite. This is… this is not just one bite.”

“No, it’s not.”

“I haven’t seen all of the bodies in the morgue.”

Harry saw Travers moving his way out of the corner of his eye. Ares moved a bit ahead, so the taller man would have to come through him. Harry didn’t bother to stop him.

“What? You fucking him too or something?” Travers sneered.

“I only wish,” said Ares, to the shock of Travers.

“Well, hotshot! Are you going to dazzle us?” He sneered. He was half shouting, but his voice was thick with unshed tears. He was trying to get around Ares who remained still as a statue, watchful, ready.

“He was not killed here. He was placed here. He was re-dressed, and likely killed by a mixed group of rotting vampires and zombies,” Harry said in swift succession.

“Rotting vampires?” Al asked.

“Yes, that’s why I have the warrant of execution. What Rush and the other victims seemed to be encountering are vampires that can rot and potentially zombies that have the same function. This is going to sound ridiculous, but I do believe we have a vampire necromancer on our hands,” he said calmly.

“You said Atlanta?” Horton said. “I remember what happened, but they killed the guy.”

“No, they killed the Master of the City who was being controlled by his fountainhead.”

“Fountainhead?” Al asked, needing the distraction.

“A fountainhead is the ‘father or mother’ of a vampire’s bloodline. Rotters come from a very old and ancient line, which means the rules of the modern vampirism and preternatural do not apply. Some of these ancient fountainheads have other abilities. A rotter can rot the flesh from his or her own bones and turn it into a swampy goo to attack others. It can get inside their skin and destroy you in minutes.” He had everyone stopping and listening, freezing. “And then the vampire can fuse itself back together again as if it never happened. They are the one vampire that most other vampires are terrified of, and they never speak of them. It’s rare. Like heterochromia rare.”

“Can vampires be Necromancers?” asked Horton.

“I would have told you no, if you’d asked me this a year ago,” said Harry. “However, like I said, the ancient lines change what we know about preternatural. Usually if a human crosses over to a vampire they don’t typically keep their human abilities if they were sensitive or psychic or had magic. At least not strongly. But I have seen in the rare case of a rotting vampire possessing pyrokinetic abilities.”

“And that should have been impossible because fire is the only known substance to destroy a Rotting vampire completely, and even then I’d take its ashes and dump them into different bodies of water,” said Edward with a nod as they both remembered Warrick.

“Atlanta got out of hand super fast. All twenty-five techs died, and two entire streets full of people perished before MACUSA came in with their trollhunds and destroyed him.”

“Why weren’t you there?” asked Horton.

“I was dealing with a bigger issue at the time,” Harry told him easily. “Finnegan asked me to look at some video he had shot because he wanted a reason for what had happened in the Master of the City’s cave.”

“Morgan, the idiot that he was, didn’t listen to reason when we told him to torch the place,” said Edward.

“The ancient master vampire that is likely responsible for this is called Morte d’Amour, also known as the Lover of Death,” said Harry softly. “And there is a good chance that he may or may not have the ability to take energy from consuming flesh, much like blood.”

“Vampires don’t eat flesh.”

“I know, but like I said with ancients, don’t look at the rules. Some old lines can feed themselves in other ways besides blood. Oftentimes they take servants and drain their energy or some form. I knew one who could feed on rage. It fed him just like he was getting blood in his system. It made him stronger, faster, and more powerful.”

“And what happened to this vampire?” asked Horton.

“I think he’s still in a cross-wired coffin.”

“Cross-wired-?”

“It is completely legal for Masters of the City to take care and control their own flock,” said Edward before someone could try and cry foul at abuse.

“Why hasn’t the Master of this City done anything?”

Harry snorted. “Fredrico?”

“You know him? Of course you do, you’re probably fucking him too!” Travers sneered.

“Sorry, I can’t say that I have. I haven’t met him yet personally, but if he’s as handsome as my husband claims him to be and a decent bloke... Who knows?” Harry said, causing Travers’ eyes to widen. “I’m equal opportunity after all, and we’re always looking for allies aren’t we, honey?” Harry smiled at Edward who nodded.

“Sure are, Little Raven.”

Al was looking back and forth. “And Mike is okay with this?”

“Ask him, Al. Anyway… back to the important thing before Travers decides to ask who I am fucking, which is kind of on the faux pas side. But I’m letting it go. I am a man after all. Go ahead, swing it at me. I can swing back. Fredrico is considered a weaker master vampire as far as Masters of the Cities go. No way he would have the strength or power. He doesn’t even have an animal to call, which for a Master of the City is rare and it cuts his powers in half.”

“Could yours?” asked Al, and Harry thought it was a good question.

“Yes,” said Harry and Edward. Harry looked at Travers. “I’m sorry about your friend, Travers. But you need to stop picking on people like a bully. It’s going to get you in trouble, and then where would you be? If you want to find your last friend, straighten up and stop letting your emotions get the better of you!” Travers took deep shuddering breaths, a hand over his face as though he were tired. “You do know I did not have to do any of this. I could have ignored the whole situation even though I am a Preternatural Marshal. I was here in the capacity of a husband who has a sick father in-law. I could have said no to helping you. I even risked letting you guys know that we have weres as guards; here in Colorado of all places! What other branch of service is going to pull out all the stops to help you in this way, Travers?”

Travers’ shoulders were tense, and then they loosened as he let go and stared at the ground. A lost look in his eyes. “Little Henry was my best friend. But he changed when he got out of the military. He was different.”

“The Military does that to people,” said Ares.

“Yeah, well he didn’t like people so much anymore. I think that’s why he went into business with his dad. Fewer people and a lot of time out here; they both loved being out in the woods, on the mountain. I’m a big guy and so was he. We either had to be friends or we’d kill each other.”

“Then let us work the scene, Travers. I’m not asking for your trust on anything or any of that. I’m not saying I’m all knowing. But you want this stopped right?”

“Yah, yah I do! We all do. I want Rush better…”

“And Merlin knows so do I! I hate sounding like a conceited dick, but Edward and I have the highest record of kills in the United States,” Harry pointed out. “Not counting before everything became so legal. Use us as a resource, Travers.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right. I - I am sorry.” Travers swallowed. “I’m sorry for Mike too. Rush is a good man, all of them are!”

“Then let us do what we need to do,” said Harry softly. “I got us a warrant very early and on scant evidence with my reputation on the line. I didn’t do it for you, Travers, but I did do it for Rush Callahan. Just know that if I am wrong, then I can be in big trouble.”

“Why did you go ahead for the warrant?” asked Al.

Harry looked at him. “Have you ever been ambushed, and realized if you’re not careful you can be called to task for every little thing? I got this warrant that in the case we are attacked, we can strike back with our fullest powers. For all we know, Mr. Crawford Senior here was planted for us.”

He had all of the cops suddenly quiet and in deep thought on that one. Ares frowned and looked down at Harry. “You think that’s possible?”

“Anything is possible, Ares. Why is he laid out like this? Why is he redressed? Why isn’t Little Henry with him?”

“All questions that we need answers to,” said Edward.

“How do you know about all this stuff? Ancient vampire stuff?” asked Horton.

“It’s what we do. I’m a wizard myself. I don’t judge a person by their species. I judge them by the individual. That’s like if I judged you based on Ted Bundy or-” He was coming up dry these days. He hadn’t had time to look up Colorado’s finest in human monsters yet.

“Scott Lee Kimball,” said Edward.

“Every group has its assholes, every group has its monsters. Our job is to sometimes think like that.”

“How do you know when you’ve gone too far?” Al asked softly.

“When one of my men kicks me in the ass,” said Harry, causing a few people to snort despite the situation. “Isn’t that why everyone is married with kids or trying to be? Someone pulls you back from the edge. Micah is usually the one who does that for a lot of us.”

Al’s eyes softened. “Yeah, he’s always been the kind to think of others rather than himself.”

“Yes, and now it's our turn to think about him, and his father. So let's stop this. We can’t be fighting amongst each other when we have monsters breathing down our necks.”

“I’m sorry,” Travers whispered.

“I know. Don’t worry, I’m a man despite how young I look. I can take it,” said Harry calmly.

It was at that point that Nicky let out a growl and nudged at Edward.

“What is it, Nick?” Edward asked.

Nicky moved his head as if looking behind him. Harry moved around Al and Ares to look him in the eyes. “You smelling something?” Harry took the leash from Edward’s hand.

“It’s tracks,” said Bram as he and Ares stepped forward to touch the brush of the grounds. Ares knelt down, and pulled a small flashlight from one of the pockets on his vest. He shined it onto the ground. It had a stronger central beam than Al’s flashlight.

Nicky let out a growl.

“He’s smelling faint blood that isn’t Henry Senior,”

“There are tracks all over here,” said Horton.

“It’s a popular camping and hiking area,” Al added.

“Barefoot?” Ares asked.

“No,” both said at the same time.

Ares walked slowly away from the body, inching himself backwards and going into the crowd periodically as he moved back toward them.

“The barefoot print is paired with one that looks like boots. The impression is heavier coming into the clearing and lighter going out.”

“You think they carried the body in?” Edward said, stepping around to follow Ares.

Ares nodded.

“Can you track them?” Horton asked.

“The prints are less clear in the trees. There’s more dirt here. I can tell you the direction they came and went, but it’s going to be almost impossible on this surface in the dark.” He shined the light on Nicky who was glaring at him. “I see the way you’re looking at me. You’ve been after me since you shifted.” Nicky glared harder at him. “Fine, if you think you’re so smart, lead on, kitty!”

Nicky growled, and ruffled himself up stately-like as he started leading Harry.

“Prideful bastard,” Ares grunted. “He would have to get a strong whiff of the scene, and if we can track it…”

Nicky had done exactly that before he could finish. He gave Ares one last beastly look making Bram snickered.

“Looks like you’re on the Rex’s shit list,” Bram teased.

Ares shook his head. “It isn’t my fault. I’ll run beside you, Harry.”

“Do not let him out of your sight!” Edward growled.

“You got it boss,” said Ares with a sharp nod.

“Why doesn’t he just take the leash?” Al asked.

“Because Ares is a dominant and so is Nicky,” said Edward. “If Ares holds his leash that means he acknowledges that Ares is the dominant. His human side will be fine with that. He doesn’t care, but he’s not in human form.”

“But, Harry can-?”

“Little Raven is special, that’s why. Come on, or we’ll lose them.”

Nicky picked up speed and Ares ran at his side. Al was cursing again about the speed. Bram slowed down purposely to lead them. Nicky and Ares worked with Harry who kept tight hold of the leash.

It was amazing, even Edward spared Ares a look as though he was impressed. Nicky tracked and Ares found actual tracks periodically, or branches broken and moss disturbed. Harry did well keeping up with them.

Ares was every bit the scout sniper and ex-Marine that his background showed. “Doing well to keep up?”

“Yup,” said Harry, taking a big gulp of air. “All that running with you boys has really helped.”

They slowed down to a more stroll-like quality, Ares keeping close as he bent down, brushed the ground, and moved on. He would glance in the direction of a tree every so often, notice a mark and keep moving on.

Harry honestly would not have known what to do. He looked over at Edward who appeared on the right side of him, ready and waiting. Ares was trying to gauge a number of how many zombies or vampires they’d be running into.

“Issue is we can’t burn them here,” Edward hissed low. “Colorado, particularly this area, has seen a very dry spring. Unusually so. Good for tracking, bad for containing fire.”

“Then you’re going to have to get dirty, husband,” Harry purred, ignoring Al’s quick glance at them.

Edward grinned and threw an arm around Harry’s neck. “You sweet thang, you say such provocative things!” He used his Ted voice. So southern and complimentary. Almost happy and lilt, and it made Harry cover up a snicker. “You going to take the kitty for a ride later?”

“Told him I would, you watching?”

“We all might.”

“Fun. You do know what’s even more fun, Husband?” Harry kissed Edward’s cheek.

“Yes,” said Edward, keeping his eyes forward. “We’re walking into a trap.”

“Yep.”

“Good. I did miss out on the nest in Wyoming.”

“You’ll get back to it. You always do.”

“Nah, I sent Bernardo. He could use it. He’s been guarding a small wolfpack in the north east, and finally finished off the last of the werebears that kept trying to slaughter them.”

“Werebears? That’s unusual.”

“Yes it is.”

Werebears were typically the peaceful and stay-out-of-trouble types. He supposed it all depended on who was the leader in the end.

Just as they picked up on the pace once more, Harry felt them before he saw them. A familiar and eager coldness swept across his skin like it was a wind.

“To the left!” He siad it just before screams began.

They had made it into a meadowlike clearing only for the trees to start moving and bending. Zombies folded themselves out of the woodwork, moving like cats and leaping like dogs. Cops were either running or being jumped on.

Edward was already shooting before the cops could catch their breaths. Bram was ducking and using a magnum to take out the nearest head of a zombie that got a bit too close. Harry drew up his AR rifle noting an officer in a Boulder PD uniform with a zombie on his back.

Harry didn’t think. He was further than he would have liked, but running wasn’t all that he’d been doing with the wererats. He sighted down the scope, snugging the butt to his shoulder, and he fired as his blood rushed in that scary thrill-like glory that Harry tried to pretend he didn’t have. The officer startled at Harry’s shot. He turned so he could face the headless zombie, and stared at Harry for a brief second. Enough time for Harry to blast the next one.

Edward had pulled a gun and had a lethal sharp machete in the other hand. He was cutting and shooting his way through.

Bad time to be staring, Harry thought, swinging around and getting another.

Nicky rushed two that had come at Ares who ducked, swung around, and pointed a magnum point blank at one that was within arms reach. He blasted its head apart.

“Go for the heads!” Harry roared at the police. “Don’t let them bite you!” Even without a head the zombies kept coming. Harry pushed away from the tree he was against and was running again.

A mound of zombies were crouched on the ground near the only building visible near the middle of the clearing. The zombies were eating at someone, and Harry could only pray to Death that it wasn’t his men. He’d lost sight of Nicky and Ares. His heart thumped into his throat as he swung around and shot two more.

Edward had pieces of zombies lying around him, and before one zombie could take a huge chunk out of Al’s back he threw the machete at a perfect angle causing it to take the zombie’s head completely starting at the neck.

The zombie that Harry had beheaded jumped onto the back of that same officer from earlier. The zombie was twice his size and drove him to his knees. The officer yelled out. He kept firing point-blank at the other zombie looming in front of him. Unfortunately, he was firing into the middle body mass. If it had been a vampire he might have damaged the heart enough to kill it, but the bullets weren’t doing more than make the zombie stumble. The zombie on his back was ramming its bloody stump into the back of the officer’s head as if it didn’t realize it didn’t have a mouth anymore, and was still trying to eat him. The officer was screaming as the zombie that still had a mouth leaned down, as his gun clicked empty.

“Guard your eyes!” Harry shouted, but didn’t have time to wait and make sure he heard because he fired the AR almost point-blank into its head. It exploded in a shower of blood, brains, and bone fragments.

The officer was on all fours, blood covering his hair, and he was yelling. “Get it off me, Get it off!”

Harry wasn’t sure if he was talking about the brains and blood or the zombie. But decided that the bigger problem was the zombie. He reached into his charmed pockets, pulled a long thin curved sword, and he cut through the air against the zombie’s shoulder where the arm attaches to the torso. He sliced through it quick and clean, rocking the zombie backwards. He then shoved his sword into its mouth as it rocked back and he twisted as he flung his magic through the metal. “Incendio!” Flames rushed up the sword and made perfect contact, causing it to flail and stumble backwards onto its back as it burned up.

The officer was shoving at the air as if the zombies were spiders and he didn’t want them to touch him. Harry grabbed him by the arm and helped him get to his feet.

Harry recognized him as Officer Bush, who had thrown up at the first crime scene. His eyes were huge, his breathing so rapid he was going to hyperventilate if he didn’t stop. “Bush, Bush, can you hear me?” Harry shook him until he was sure that he was focused. “Slow your breathing down, Officer Bush,” Harry sent a pulse of his own magic through the man to give him some calm. He nodded a bit rapidly, but the look in his eyes relaxed. “Are you out of ammo?”

“It didn’t do any good. It didn’t stop them.”

“Shoot the head.”

“You shot their heads and they didn’t die, they’re supposed to die if you take their heads.”

“No, that’s just in the movies. You need fire, but I can’t risk a blaze in this dry brush. I only have this sword and even that’s dangerous - to us!” Bush stared at the blazing sword, but he wasn’t really seeing it.

“How do we kill them then?” he asked, clutching Harry’s arms.

“Best thing to do is take out its mobility. Head first, legs second, arms third. If it’s only got a torso it can’t do shit.”

Bush nodded his head furiously. “Okay, Okay I can do this.”

“Shoot for the mouth first, then legs, then arms. Repeat that back to me.”

“Mouth, legs, arms,” he repeated, and he kept repeating it as he stopped shaking and heaving and began to reload.

“Yes sir. You do that and they can’t attack. You can’t move with only a torso now can you?”

“No, you can’t… thank you, Marshal Potter-Black.”

“Stay with me, and remember what I said.”

“Right behind you.”

Harry used his sword with a burst of flames to slice through the mound of zombies that had been on top of Ranger Becker. She’d shot off their faces with a shotgun and wasn’t bitten as far as Harry could tell. Her partner was dead, his throat ripped out, eyes glazed at the starlight. The head of the zombie who’d killed him was still eating his throat, even though the bits of him were falling straight out of the neck, because the body was gone, lost somewhere in the clearing. The neck had been shot through, spine severed, but that hadn’t saved him.

“PETE!” Becker screamed.

“He’s gone, move!” Bush helped get her moving.

That was when Harry heard a Lion’s screeching roar over the sound of gunfire. Harry jolted as though he’d been shocked. Harry traded the sword for his shotgun. “NICKY!”

They had a circle of officers with them now, all facing outward, guarding their share of the field. Harry had fought their way around the edge of the building.

He spotted his gorgeous men with their backs against the bare rock of the mountain that loomed above them. Edward, Ares, and Bram were shooting smoothly. Nicky had gone for the legs to make them drop as heads and mouths were being taken.

Al, Trooper Horton, and Travers were with them, though one of Travers’ arms was hanging useless and bloody. It seemed to be the only injury they had.

Harry continued to shoot and kill his way through, and used magic to reload every time. Edward was covered from head to toe in blood and muck. He, Ares, and Bram were still firing, the others looked like they were out.

“How much ammo do you have?!” Horton shouted at one point. Every time one of them took down a zombie, Nicky would jump on them to tear it apart.

That was when Harry felt the stronger wind of ice blow across his skin, and his eyes narrowed. “Edward, the vampires…”

Edward moved in a flash as Bush swirled around. “Where?”

The door to the building opened and it wasn’t vampires, it was more zombies, and Little Henry Crawford towering above them.

Little Henry was nude. He had no bites, but the only mark on him was dried blood all over his groin. His hair fell unbound around his shoulders. His face was traced with the dark edge of a beard and mustache.

“Careful, those aren’t zombies,” Harry warned.

“They look like zombies,” gasped Becker as she stared at Little Henry.

“No, they’re not, they are vampires,” said Harry shortly.

Someone shined their light on Little Henry’s face. His brown eyes were empty as if there was no one home. He could be in shock or something even worse, but blood on the groin tended to get the shock value high.

“Jesus!” Two men gasped.

Travers called. “Henry, Henry, it’s me, Hank!”

Henry never blinked.

“He’s been rolled, Travers, those things that look like zombies are actually vampires. We need to kill the vampires to stop the rolling.”

Harry, Edward, Ares, and Bram all started firing before the police as the ‘zombies’ moved in a blur of speed so fast that the police didn’t see them.

Several fell to the ground with their heads blown off, way too much blood for an actual zombie. That left three of them to appear like magic in front of the police.

One grabbed Becker and she screamed, but she also shot it through the chest. Her shotgun sounded like an explosion that left Harry’s ear ringing. The vampire fell to the ground with a hole where its heart should have been.

Guns exploded all around them, and Harry had to shove Bush to one side to see Ares on the ground with one of the rotting vampires on top of him. Bram was there grabbing it barehanded to pry it off Ares. Travers had the last one on top of him. Edward point-blank shot it in the face as Nicky slashed another across the chest.

Edward pulled the vampire off Ares next with an arm around its neck and one arm pinned behind its back. If he had shot too close, he’d have taken Ares too.

“Move your head!” Harry ordered, and Edward did just in time because Harry fired a shot from where he stood across the clearing taking out its head.

The vampire that had been on Travers raised a hand that was rotted enough for bone to gleam in the flashlights. It touched its face and only then did Harry realize it was a woman. She turned and held out her hand toward them. It was beseeching them or rather Harry, but he snorted and raised his gun.

Bush said. “Don’t hurt her anymore!”

Harry glared back at him and his face was growing slack like Henry’s. “So beautiful,” he said, staring at the rotting corpse.

Harry on instinct hit him in the face with the stock of his shotgun, and Becker put her shotgun to the back of Harry’s head. “Can’t you see how beautiful she is? We have to help her!” Her voice sounded dreamly, like she was half asleep.

“I don’t think so!” Edward moved like a great force before anyone noticed, and he knocked her out flat with a single hand to the back of her neck, and that was when the cross strung around Al’s neck began to flare white-hot along with all the others.

Both Becker and Bush came to in a series of gasps as the bright light arced its way through the starry night.

Harry took aim at the rotting vampire, but she was gone. Harry stepped away from the officers, and those bright ass symbols to try and see where she had gone. Harry caught a glimpse of her racing into the trees back the way they’d come. Harry started toward her, but Little Henry collapsed, and Harry, who was closest, caught him without thinking about it. He was conscious and muttering. “Beautiful, she’s so beautiful.” Then he passed out, and Harry was suddenly holding the full body weight of someone who outweighed him by a good two to three hundred pounds. Harry groaned at the weight that strained him.

There was a cackling, growling sound that raised the hairs on the back of his neck. He glanced in the direction of the sound. Ares’ body was a tangle of limbs and flowing fur, golden and spotted in the flashlights that were shining on him. Harry assumed he was shapeshifting so his wounds would heal. A spotted hyena the size of a pony stood shakily to its feet and then did that all-over body shake like a dog getting out of water. He then raced across the clearing toward the trees.

“No, Ares!” Harry moved without thinking. Nicky streaked past Harry just as fast, and both of them were running at a speed Harry could not meet. A blur of golden furs were vanishing around the edge of the building. “Nicky!”

Harry stopped long enough to pull out cuffs. “These are strong enough to hold a vampire.”

“Can’t we kill her?” Al asked.

“Yes, but first I want to question her!” That he even had to say that was annoying.

“You want the King, not the pawns, Deputy,” Edward explained swiftly.

“She’s a vampire, she’s not a pawn!” Becker argued.

“She’s small fry. Newbie. Someone bigger has her chain.”

“Harry, don’t go out there, it’s a trap!” Al managed to shout.

“I know, I don’t care!” Harry shouted back at them as Edward and Bram moved in perfect time with Harry.

Harry cringed when he heard his Lion shriek, and the hyena gave an unnerving call that he’d never heard before. It raked down his back like sharp nails. He ran as though he were running for his life, ignoring the punishing slap of tree branches. Harry dropped his shields enough to sense Nicky up ahead. He dropped them further to sense the vampire, and there she was. She brewed like a cold and weak fire as Nicky’s heat pulsed in his throat.

Harry sensed another vampire near them. A second behind and neither of the shapeshifters would know it before it was too late.

Harry found an incredible amount of speed having connected to Nicky, he even outpaced Edward as Bram managed to get even with him.

“You need to do this while we run together!”

Harry’s vision was spotted with gray-and-white starbursts, and his breath strangled into his throat. His chest was tighter than it had ever been, but he could feel them close. He saw the dull gold of the hyena first, and then the brighter gold beside him moved.

The vampire was in front of them, standing with her back to a huge dark tree. They had run her down and bayed at her like a pair of hounds.

“There’s a second vamp, I feel it,” Harry came to a stop, and then he used his gun to smash the woman in the face, his fury pumping through him like a raging fire about to explode. She let out an unearthly scream.

Both Nicky and Ares used their keen sense of smell and eyes as Bram circled around. Harry was the only one who was working through a near heart-attack, but it didn’t stop them.

The vampire was whimpering beneath him. She was terrified, but he didn’t care. She almost killed the men in his life, and if she’d hurt either of them - ooh, Harry was furious. She tried to stare at him with her big bulbous eyes. Her long dark hair suddenly looked like it moved in the breeze. But Harry knew it was a vampire trick. It’s not how she really looked.

Harry smacked her again causing her to shriek. “No, don’t hurt me!” She pleaded, but Harry pinned her and shoved his forearm beneath her throat.

“Then cut it out! One more trick and I will rip you to shreds and feed you to whatever would have you!”

“No, no! Please! He made me! He made us!”

Edward had finally arrived. His breathing a bit deeper and sharper, but nowhere near as pounding. He probably knew to pace himself unlike Harry. There were flashlights swinging through the trees. Some of the police were running toward them.

“He’s manhandling a vampire…” gasped someone in the crowd of cops.

“You hurt, Marshal?” Bush asked, taking deep breaths.

“No sir, I’m not,” said Harry. Everyone’s gun was aimed at the vampire.

Ares and Nicky growled from beside him causing the vampire to flinch as she looked at the two of them and then at Harry with wide scared eyes. Someone had put a flashlight on her face like a spotlight so that they could see that one of her eyes was clear and brown and very alive, but the other had that white film that happened after death.

Between Nicky, Ares, and Harry her face had been busted open, but the wound wasn’t bleeding much like the flesh had been dead for so long there was no blood to find. The wounds on her chest had bled a lot.

“Please don’t hurt me.”

“Why shouldn’t I? Why shouldn’t I let my boys do to you what you did to Henry Senior?” Harry snarled at her.

She flinched and ducked her head. “I had no choice,” she whimpered. “I didn’t want to hurt him. I’d finally gotten strong enough to cloud their mind, and make them see me as beautiful. I wasn’t done with the first man, but he made us hurt him. He made us hurt him in front of the other man.”

“You killed the father and made the son watch,” said Edward, coming around. His face was twisted with such rage and hatred that it brewed like an icy sort of fire.

“I didn’t want to…”

“No one held a gun to your head,” Becker snapped.

“Worse,” she whispered. “So much worse.”

“Morte d’Amour worse?” Harry asked and the woman let out a ear splitting shriek.

“Ahhh! Please!”

“Is he a Necromancer? Is he alive? How is he alive?” Harry roared.

“Please, no! Please!”

“Tell me now and I’ll kill you quick, don’t tell me, and I’ll destroy you slowly, ending with your heart and brain!”

“Please, I don’t know, I don’t know!” she wailed, shaking her head back and forth.

“Did Morte d’Amour make you?! Answer the question.”

“Y-yes, Lover of Death…” she heaved out. He could feel her pulse beneath his arm. “He made us… he made all of us… everyone.”

“Is he a Necromancer?”

“Y-yes. He can call vampires - zombies… When he calls us we have to come. He feeds from us… I didn’t want to,” she cried out. “I tried to control it… Please! Please don’t kill me! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Is this true?” asked Al quietly. “Can vampires control other vampires?”

“Yeah,” said Harry, not looking back at him. “Master vampires can control other vampires. A really good one can take their will away entirely. She’s new. No more than a month or three old.”

“How do you know? She looks… not like the vampires I’ve seen,” said Becker.

“That’s because the Rotting line would hardly be popular in mass media would it?” Harry answered. “Everyone expects the beautiful or at least the strong and spooky. Not this, no one would ask for this personally.”

“How did he survive?” Edward asked Harry’s question.

“I- I don’t know. He doesn’t tell me anything. I am not good enough, he won’t reward me because I’m not good enough!” she sobbed, and the tears were real. “Please… Please…”

“Morte d’Amour,” Harry hissed and he opened his shields wide to let everything come to him. It was a dizzying wash of power. “Morte d’Amour…” He hissed again, this time his voice came out with a lot of power behind it. It flowed like silk as he reached inside of the vampire and tugged at the line.

That was when the woman’s eyes began to change and bleed a hollow pitch black, and her lanky brown hair transformed to silk black.

“Oh my God!” Travers hissed.

“You are getting so good at this, Necromancer,” a voice that was not hers took over. More holy objects began to flare bright and Harry grimaced at the sensation. “Aren’t they annoying? Them and their holy objects that they hide behind, but we know better than that. Don’t we?” His voice was like black silk with a hissing quality at the end that seemed to curve with a barely there accent. Oil. It was more like oil than silk. Harry could feel the shivers of the cops behind him.

“You’re Morte d’Amour.”

“Yes, and you childe are much more beautiful in person. Oh, I can see why Belle was so hung up on you, the thought of her childe finding the most fascinating human on this modern earth… you’re good. But I’m older, much older than you can imagine. I have many bodies I can travel in, much like the Traveler himself. You are acquainted, yes?”

“What do you want?”

“What everyone else wants, bloodshed and death,” Morte d’Amour purred in a sound that was like a violin being slid on the wrong note. It curdled everyone’s stomach.

“Do not look into his eyes.”

“Someone always looks.” He smiled with the woman’s face. “Shall we continue to play?” Before he could finish there was an explosion near Harry’s head. But he was fast, too fast. He vanished from the woman seconds before Edward’s shot hit home.

Harry dropped her without a care, and shook the blood off him. “Really, Husband?” he said disgustedly.

“Sorry, Little Raven. You got your interrogation.” He was so not sorry. Harry glared at him, but it had little heat. He should have expected it because the moment he learned that the son had to watch the father suffer, Edward had made a decision. Such a beautifully complicated man.

“Was there nothing we could do?” asked Becker. “It sounded to me like she was - raped.” Harry thought it was a step in the right direction for these men and women on the force.

Harry turned as he used some of his magic to clean his body off of the blood. “I’m sorry, Becker, but no. She was dead the moment he made her. Even if we could have freed her this time, he could have used her again, in the middle of an interrogation when Edward and I aren’t around.”

“You acted like you wanted to slaughter her,” said Travers.

“Yes, and I would have. No one touches my men,” said Harry firmly.

Before anyone could comment on that statement, Ares let out a skittering yip as he collapsed on the ground. His legs had given out from under him.

Nicky let out a roar and Bram shined a flashlight. His hand was covered in blood that had stains of yellow in it. The smell hit him next. He’d smelled it at the hospital.

Ares had been infected.

The hyena let out a great big shiver as it convulsed, and then the gold spotted fur began to melt away as if his human body had been dunked in an ice bath. Harry knew that you only changed back early if the were was powerful enough to will it, too hurt to hold form, or dead.

Harry searched his neck for a pulse, holding his own breath as he waited to feel it against his fingers.

“Edward get everyone out of here,” said Harry, scrabbling around on the ground as Ares’ handsome military face showed with glimmers of sweating pain.

Edward was making the police back off. Nicky came over to try and help. Bram shrugged out of a shirt to stop the wound.

“No, I need you guys to hold him down.”

“Hold him down?”

“So I can remove it before it gets him!” Harry said desperately.

“Marshal, what are you doing?” Becker gasped when Harry mounted the man and Bram moved to pin Ares’ shoulders down.

“I’m going to fix him,” said Harry.

“You can’t fix him if he’s infected!” said Al.

“Yes, yes I can,” said Harry sharply. The wound was much larger than Shang-Da’s had been and it was gaping. Merlin, he hoped he was in time! He used his jacket as a sort of tourniquet. He pulled out his wand and magically tightened it causing Ares to growl.

“No, no don’t do it…” Ares stressed.

“Ares, hold still let me work it out of you…”

“No, he can control me… he can control hyenas. It’s why I shifted back…” Ares ground out. “I can hear him… he’s trying to take me, Harry! If he takes me you’re going to be his target…”

“I’ll work around that, Ares. trust me!”

“Let Harry work, Ares. Just trust him,” Bram encouraged, and Nicky came over and practically sat on him.

“It’s going to hurt. Just let me do this, okay?” said Harry. “Ignis Exerto!”

Ares started roaring beneath him as Bram grunted and Nicky growled when the man started flailing. Deep smoldering purple flames shot out at the wound. “Ahhhhh!”

Harry tried to block his screams out as he forced his will of magic into the wound. He could feel it clinging around as the heat of the spell washed over everyone in the area. Ares continued to holler and scream as the pain ripped through his throat.

Harry swallowed thickly at the smoldering scent of the skin. Burnt flesh smelled like a mix of cooked bacon and something more close to that disgusting packaged meat that he once caught in Edward’s truck as ‘quick on the go never goes bad kind of thing.’ What the fuck was that again? Treat or Spam or something?

He could feel his magic working against the infection, and he almost cried out when it ate it. He pulled up on the spell as the yellow infection turned black and more solid. Harry pulled a knife and worked the infection out like it was a black tendril cord, but squishy. Edward had a baggy that Harry placed it into.

Ares had stopped screaming. He could barely see the man’s face because Nicky had covered him. Bram was speaking in his ear to calm him.

Harry hadn’t realized how much he was sweating when Nicky saw it was safe to move off him. Ares was laying there with his face contorted in pain. His mouth was full of blood as if he’d bit himself or something.

Harry conjured some bandages and began to wrap it around him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered as Bram let go, and Harry bowed down so that they were nose to nose.

“It’s not there anymore… but… he controls hyenas… Harry.”

“Does he? Interesting to know,” said Harry.

“He’s too strong. I can’t fight it,” Ares grimaced. “He wants me to change…” His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he began to convulse. “No! No! I won’t! Arrrgggh!” His skin began to split again. “Harry… kill me! Edward! Shoot me! He’s going to change me! I will not die killing comrades!”

Edward stepped up, but Harry shot a hand up. “No!”

“Little Raven. He needs to die and if he is to do so, he should do so with honor.”

Harry scowled as Bram grimaced. “He’s right, Harry.”

He shook his head. “No! I said no because I can fix him.”

“Y-you can’t. You don’t have my strain. If you had my strain maybe you could be strong enough-” Ares grimaced as he clenched his teeth. “I thank you, but - I can’t… I can’t do it. I won’t…”

“Then bite me!” Harry ordered, ignoring the gasps around him as he held up his bare arm out. “Bite me now!”

“No! It won’t work that fast, not that fast… not in time…” Ares cried out as his back bowed upwards, trying to lift Harry off him. More fur was starting to flow.

“Little Raven… it’s worse for him if he attacks us and we have no choice but to kill him,” Edward’s voice was soft and low. A rare tone for him.

“No!” Harry had his wand in his hand again. “Let’s see how strong he is against my magical powers, shall we?” He heaved a breath, conjured up as much of his magic as he could, and pointed the elder wand between Ares’ eyes. For a moment the man stared back at him with a blue gaze as if in wonder. “It’ll be temporary. Imperio!”

Almost instantly, something tugged on the control of his mind, but Harry pushed his magical powers through like a force of nature. It wrapped itself deeply around Ares’ mind, and the man went limp and slack as the oily power of Morte d’Amour’s faded from his consciousness.

“Can you hear me, Ares? Answer.”

“Yes,” said Ares instantly.

The hyena fur began to recede from his body and Harry shakily climbed off with Edward’s help.

“Stand up,” Harry ordered. Bram frowned when Ares rose more steadily than he should have. “Hop on one foot,” he ordered a second time, and Ares did exactly that.

“What the hell?” asked Becker.

Edward arched a brow. “Is that one of the Unforgivables?”

Harry nodded. “Yes. Stop, Ares.”

Ares stopped.

“Now, Ares, I want you to be yourself. But you only ever answer commands that you want to, do you understand?”

“Yes.” Ares then shook his head as if coming back down from a dream world. “Harry?” he asked as if he were confused. Harry grinned and rushed into his arms as the man grunted. “Ow… my arm hurts… fuck, did you burn it off?” Ares realized. “He’s gone…”

“Yes, you’re under a spell, but it should help counteract it for now,” said Harry, raising his eyes to Ares. He leaned up on his toes and then kissed Ares square on the lips. He didn’t care about the metallic taste of blood as Ares clutched him and responded back. “You are not allowed to die…” Then the exhaustion from the running, fighting, and magic use finally hit him all at once and the world began to fold around him; black and shadowy as his eyes fell closed and he slumped. It’s been a long time, but well deserved.

Chapter Text

Well, this was familiar, Harry thought dryly as he blinked his eyes open to the fluorescent hospital ceiling, the sound of murmurs, and soft beeping from a nearby monitor. How could he have been that hurt to have been put in the hospital? He was only magically exhausted. Ok maybe a bit physically exhausted from all the running and fighting too.

He found a nurse standing by his bed and he blinked down at the IV in his left arm. It was taped down to a board to prevent moving.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” the nurse smiled down at Harry. “Your husband finally fell asleep on the couch, poor boy.”

By process of elimination, that poor boy falling asleep had to be Micah. Harry turned his head to look on the far side of the room and found that there was a small table with two chairs, and a couch. Micah was fast asleep on it with a small pillow and a blanket that covered most of him. His face looked pale, but beautiful, and his curls looked like a dark halo where they were escaping from his braid.

“What about my other? And why am I in a hospital? I was just exhausted, not injured.” But as he sat up, he winced. “Owe, what the hell happened?” His ribs felt as if someone had cracked them.

“Little Raven.” Harry turned toward the door to see Edward coming through. His arm was in a sling.

“What the-?”

“Can you leave us?” Edward asked in his Ted voice.

“Sure, the Doctor will be in soon.”

“Wait- how is his dad? Rush Callahan?” Harry asked, wincing as he tried to move his left arm.

“As good as can be expected,” said the nurse, smiling weakly. She then nodded and left the room.

“Edward? Why are you hurt? Why do my ribs feel cracked? And my head!” He realized, rubbing at his skull. “Owe.” It was spinning like one of those teacup rides at the carnival and Harry should know because Jean-Claude had the damn things installed in his Circus, except they were the shape of bats with their mouths open. Teddy loved that bloody ride and Harry had ended up puking his guts out for it.

“It seems Morte d’Amour did not appreciate your trick with Ares,” said Edward, coming around and sitting on the edge of the bed after letting down the metal railing.

“What did he do?”

“He tried to bring down the chopper with you, me, Al, Ares, and Bram in it.”

“Nicky?”

“He’s two rooms over resting. He changed back and then drove the Hummer back for us,” said Edward. “He’s okay. Just some altitude sickness.” His eyes were blank and carefully concealed.

“What happened exactly? Ares? Did he get Ares?” he asked in a soft panic.

Edward shook his head. “No.”

Harry’s heart sank into his stomach and his body went numb. “What happened?”

“The medic and pilot on board were rolled, and they were trying to kill us by crashing us and taking out human lives,” said Edward darkly. “We all had to jump out because he blew the engine and we were spinning fast about to crash. Ares grabbed Deputy Truman, Bram grabbed you and me. You and I fell through the trees. But Bram hit the mountain side. I don’t know how he did it personally,” said Edward, shaking his head. “How he knew to throw us. It’s not often I am impressed, but those two impressed me, Nicky too, but I’m not surprised by that.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was like he knew exactly where he was going to land because he let go of us too soon to fall through the trees while he hit a sharp point in the wall.”

“He could transform, heal. Is he dead?” Harry asked worriedly.

“No, but he should have been,” said Edward. “He thinks your magic reacted while you were unconscious. He should have speared into the rock wall. But he felt as though he bounced. He broke a few bones, but he’s going to be alright.”

“Detective Truman?”

“He’s fine. Ares caught a sturdy branch on the way down.”

Harry let out a sigh of relief. “Thank Merlin,” he dropped his chin to his chest. “How is Ares’ infection?”

“Gone, the doctors wanted to ask you about that. I told them fire, but I wasn’t sure that it would work on someone who had been infected for so long, let alone someone human. I had to remind them that lycanthropes heal at alarming rates, and you caught it quickly.”

“I don’t know either,” said Harry. “My last resort was to transfer all my ardeur or try the munin, though I have no connection with him like I do the others.”

“You do now,” said Edward. “You tested positive for the hyena strain.”

“How? He didn’t scratch me or anything.”

“You kissed him. His mouth was full of his own blood from biting his own tongue when you were burning the infection out.”

“Oh…” Harry winced. “Oops. I didn’t notice.” He looked over at Micah. “He should be with his Dad, not me. How is he? Teddy?”

“Ethan took him to the hotel last night before dawn. Just in time for reinforcements to arrive.”

“Jean?” Harry asked as his heart skipped.

“Yes, all are here now,” said Edward smirking. “Although, it’s still day out. He stopped in to see Micah and you.”

“Rigel and Elara?”

“Back with Luna. I’m not sure how safe I feel with them in this city right now, but Luna will remain beside them. Plus we have more guards than we can handle at times.”

Harry nodded. “Good.” He settled back as the thud in his head began to ebb. Even his ribs didn’t hurt so much. “You’re wearing your new boots?”

“It’s taking some work to make them worn in, but yes. I’m all Ted today,” said Edward smirking. He also had a white button down shirt tucked into deep blue jeans that were relaxed fit. He had his cowboy hat on. It was well worn and had turned from white to ivory. Edward took off the hat and put it on Harry’s head. “Much better.”

Harry wanted to get closer, but the damn board wouldn’t let him. “I want to touch you.”

“You’re hungry. You are famished now, Little Raven,” said Edward, pushing closer and kissing him on the forehead, drawing Harry’s hunger out like a thick syrup.

“Ngh!”

“But someone else is going to have to eat you, I can’t expend all my energy, Little Raven.”

“Hm…” He couldn’t help but focus on the pulse in Edward’s throat, smell the blood swooshing through his veins as he nuzzled him. He whined before he could stop it when Edward pulled back.

“We’ll get you food soon,” said Edward, tracing his knuckles down Harry’s pale cheek.

“God, Baby, I can feel you from here,” Micah groaned as he sat up from the couch.

“Alpha,” Edward held out his one good arm.

Micah tossed the blanket away and rose. His chest was bare, showing the muscles that his clothes had hid. He padded barefoot toward them, and Edward swooped around him pulling him in for a deep, drenching kiss. He wore a pair of Edward’s pajama bottoms. A deep dark green, so it went well with his eyes.

“God, don’t do that,” Micah breathed, “going to make me horny,” and then he turned to Harry. “Cute in that hat,” he said weakly.

“Only because it's Edward’s. I don’t think a failed Brit would make a good cowboy.”

“Too posh sounding,” Micah said, causing Edward to laugh in that rare way that he only did with his husbands and children. He ran his palm up Micah’s back making him shiver. “So glad you’re here, and Jean-Claude. I saw him before he went down. He introduced himself to my mother, and Ty. I thought she was going to wet herself.” He shuddered at this.

“It’s not hard to do,” said Harry as Micah took the hand that wasn’t nailed down.

“Careful,” Edward warned when Micah leaned down into Harry to kiss him. “He’s extremely hungry.”

“I can see that,” said Micah, and Harry met him the rest of the way with a deep kiss that filled his mouth with an explosive hunger. Micah’s tongue dived into his mouth with an aggression that Harry returned. His hand gripped the back of Micah’s curls as the leopard ended up mostly on top of him.

“You can’t feed off Alpha, Little Raven. He needs his energy,” Edward calmly stated, making Harry moan as he tried to get hold of the raging beasts inside. His leopard was leaping, his ardeur was buzzing, and his own natural need was tingling beneath his skin. It was a trifecta, and Micah was ticking all his boxes. Harry slowly released Micah and nibbled his bottom lip. Edward was right. He couldn’t steal what little energy Micah had.

“God, Baby, I’m so sorry…”

“No, he’s right. Just wanted to taste you. I’m sorry I can’t heal your dad.”

Micah shook his head, and rubbed his nose to Harry’s as their leopards mimicked one another. “Not your fault, Baby. I heard you saved Ares. I’m glad. Peter would be so sad.”

“If only I could have helped your dad. I don’t even know if the flame would work on a human.”

“I know, Edward explained it to the doctors when they inquired about it. Jean-Claude took a look at his wound, but he couldn’t do anything because the entry point had been cut away, and it’d been too long.”

“How long have I been out?”

“Fifteen hours,” said Edward. “Night is about to fall. You need to eat, both ways, and we need to finish healing.”

“My head doesn’t hurt and my ribs feel better. Probably us being in the same place together.”

“Yes, my arm doesn’t bother me. But I’m hesitant on removing it,” said Edward.

“What if I said I used a potion on you?” Harry asked. “After everything they’ve seen. It’s not illogical.”

“That could work,” said Edward, and he and Micah helped Edward remove the damn thing. Both were sitting shoulder to shoulder. Harry could only use one hand. Once Edward was free, he stretched out his arm and moved it around. “Not bad.” He grabbed both of them and drew them in for kiss after kiss. He stroked both of them. Harry sighed as he leaned into Micah’s hard shoulder and shifted to nibble the sweet and salty skin.

“Little Raven…” Edward drawled as Micah shivered against him, making Harry nuzzle as he ran a tongue across his skin and up to his neck.

“Fuck…” Micah moaned.

“S-sorry, Nimir-Raj.”

Micah shook his head and he kissed Harry’s cheek open mouthed. “No, don’t apologize. Just your kiss has given me the energy that I needed.”

“It’s not supposed to work that way,” said Edward. “You both need a good watching.”

Harry and Micah snickered, and Micah dove onto Edward. Harry whined. “Why can’t I join? Damn IV!” Harry grumbled at the board. “So cute, where is my camera?”

Edward’s eyes were so wintry, but at the same time they were true. A tiny light that would flare for only them as he stroked Micah who settled against his chest. Edward swept a hand down his neck.

“You do know we have some cops outside the room, right?” Edward mused.

“Why?” Harry asked.

“Why? Do you have to ask?” Edward snorted. “As far as they are concerned you saved most of their lives last night, and everyone knows what Ares did for Truman. He wouldn’t be alive right now if not for us.”

“Oh, I figured they’d resent me.”

“A couple might, but I think you’ve won them over, Little Raven. I don’t think this will be like Las Vegas or Seattle.”

“I hope not.”

“Al’s been asking questions about lycanthropes,” said Micah. “I think you might have been able to change opinions they’ve had since birth, Baby,” he said. “I’m so proud of you.”

“I’m hungry,” it was all Harry could say, making Micah chuckle as Edward grinned at him.

“We can get someone in here, but unless you mind a potential walk-in or audience…” said Micah. “My family has been wandering in and out of here for the last twelve hours.”

“That wouldn’t be awkward,” Harry grumbled.

“I think he needs some kitty beefcake,” said Edward.

Harry grinned sheepishly. “Nicky was pretty last night.”

“I’m not sure that’s what I’d call it, but okay,” said Edward.

“Lions are captivating,” Micah agreed. “But I want to watch.”

“I’ll hold in that urge then,” said Harry as he settled back into the pillow with a pout. “Still hungry.”

A tap on the door, and Harry’s blood rushed and his energy reached out when he saw Peter waltzing through the room.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Careful, Kid. He might eat you,” said Edward.

Peter smirked and crossed over to the bed. He kissed Micah once as Harry stared at him with too much focus. “I can handle it.”

“Good luck then,” said Edward, keeping his hold on Micah who had relaxed with his eyes half closed. But they were open enough to watch as Harry reached out to Peter who was drawn.

His chestnut brown hair had such texture and layers, and some pieces of his bangs were falling into his soft brown eyes. Peter’s heart began to speed up as he was drawn in and their lips connected. Harry sucked, aggressively pulling, making Peter let out a shuddering moan.

“Free show,” said Micah.

“Probably for whoever comes into the room,” said Edward.

Harry opened to Peter, and tried to move his body closer. He wanted skin. He wanted heat. He dropped his mouth to the pulse making Peter cry out. “Shit…! Ahhh!” A fresh well of blood pulsed through Peter’s veins as he licked and sucked at the point, drawing some of the lust from Peter’s desires into him. Harry’s free hand was climbing beneath his shirt. So hungry.

A sharp knock had Micah quickly reacting to pull Peter back. Harry let out a snarl and Micah’s eyes narrowed. “Let go,” he ordered, pushing some of his energy into Harry.

Harry whimpered and drew back as Peter panted, hanging his head. “W-wow, what was that?”

Harry shook his head and licked his lips of Peter’s flavor. “Sorry - sorry!” He reached for the covers as Edward called for whoever to come in. He drew them closer as Peter stared at Harry. “I didn’t mean to snarl, Micah.”

“It’s okay, Baby. You’re really really hungry. He does have to be fed soon,” said Micah softly. “His leopard doesn’t usually get worked up. That tells me he’s starving.”

“Sorry I couldn’t finish,” said Peter as Micah kissed his cheek.

“Me too.”

Harry’s door opened and he wasn’t surprised to see that it was the doctor. What he was surprised to see was that the doctor was a vampire.

“You’re so very popular, Marshal Potter-Black,” said Dr. Cross, the vampire.

“Cross, huh?” Harry couldn’t help but smile.

“Yes, I know. A vampire called Dr. Cross, it is rather ironic. But I was Dr. Cross before I became undead.” As the vampire laughed, he showed a set of dainty fangs. Harry couldn’t help but notice his tall height and the dark hair that looked almost black, but not quite.

“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Cross. How are you awake so early?”

“This floor has no windows,” said Dr. Cross. “We’re also in the vicinity now of the Vampire King, and he flows through us all,” he said, trailing through the room. Harry watched him as he glided.

Edward nudged Micah. “We should move and give the good doctor some room,” he said, and the hint of amusement lingered.

“Yes we should.”

“Why is he going to get eaten? I’m his boyfriend too,” Peter sulked.

Dr. Cross blinked. “I assure you I’m not going to eat anyone.”

“We didn’t mean you, Dr. Cross,” said Micah with a slight smirk. “God, it's hard to be sad and upset when you guys just make me smile.” All three of them rose from the bed. “I love you all so much.” He pulled at Peter as they made some space for the doctor.

“Alpha, I think you should go and get yourself a shower now,” said Edward.

“I can help him,” said Peter.

“No, let’s not tease Little Raven right now,” said Edward.

“He’s right. If Baby smells us, he’s going to probably destroy this hospital,” said Micah.

“Damn… I don’t have the self-control that you have,” Peter grumbled.

“Need to work on it, Kid.”

“I’m trying!”

Dr. Cross had bent down close to Harry and was watching the three of them. “A lively bunch, aren’t they?”

“You have no idea,” said Harry, reaching his hand up to touch the soft dark hair. Dr. Cross turned back to Harry and their eyes connected. “Sorry…”

“It’s fine. I do have nice hair.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Is this his form of flirting?” Peter laughed.

“No, he’s going straight for the kill,” Edward murmured.

Dr. Cross unwound his stethoscope from his slender neck, and began to listen to Harry’s heart. The front bangs were thicker on one side, so they swooped over. Harry wanted to reach out again and smooth them back from his eyes.

More hair spilled over him as he spent an extra amount of time checking Harry’s heart. He opened the neck of the hospital gown enough to reach in and touch the stethoscope to his chest. The tips of his fingers caressed ever so slightly.

“Does it take that long to hear his heart?” asked Peter.

“Must be thorough,” said Dr. Cross, not looking at him.

Harry’s heart began to speed up as he pushed into the touch and leaned forward to smell the man. He smelled of hospital and shampoo, the shampoo was like a burst of berries. Dr. Cross turned to look at him. His eyes were brown with an irregular circle of gray around the pupil.

He felt the vampire’s gentle flow of power hush over Harry’s skin and Harry responded back. Harry was trying to keep his urges under control, but damn was it hard. His pulse was thudding harder and Harry’s fingers grazed the man’s jawline.

The vampire pulled back as if he hadn’t realized he’d been motionlessly staring into Harry’s eyes. “Sorry, I must be more tired than I knew.” He pulled back on the stethoscope and swung it around his neck. He began to push the sheet down and started rolling up the gown. It was humongous on him. “It might have been quicker to go from the top,” he joked.

“Maybe,” Harry purred out, making Dr. Cross’ eyes flicker.

“One size does not fit all,” Edward mused. “Unless you’re Little Raven.”

“I have never seen an exam like this before,” Peter admitted.

“I should shower, but I am a bit too entertained,” Micah admitted. “Should we stop him?”

“I’m not going to eat him,” Harry huffed. He shifted to give the Doctor more leverage.

As he pulled the gown, Harry noted he had been put in comfortable soft touchable booty shorts, and Dr. Cross’s fingers danced up his leg toward his flat stomach to check on his ribs.

“So small,” said Dr. Cross. “I don’t believe it. Your ribs are healed, all of them.”

Harry shivered at the touch and tilted his head to catch the vampire’s eyes again. Dr. Cross could not resist looking into them, and he drew him closer as fingers continued to caress him. His eyes widened, lips half opened, and he looked startled, almost frightened as he inched closer.

“Little Raven, that’s enough!” Edward’s voice was sharper than normal, and Dr. Cross stood abruptly as Harry started.

He pulled down the gown back over Harry’s body. “Sorry, what was I saying?” he asked, his fingers lingering a little too long.

“You were saying, Marshal Potter-Black looks good,” said Edward carefully.

Micah was watching the whole scene with Peter who was wide-eyed. His mouth half parted, Harry wanted to kiss and suck his lips.

“Well yes, he does look good. So very good,” the doctor frowned at this. “Lovely… beautiful… most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.” A finger trailed down Harry’s leg and he shivered as he lolled his head.

“I mean his wound looks good, and healed,” said Edward. His frosty eyes were sparked with amusement. Harry was mad that the man would stop him, and he didn’t understand why at first.

“It does, of course, that is what I mean,” he tried for brisk again. “I would like an X-Ray just to make certain that the crack in his ribs have healed completely. Bones take longer to heal even with shapeshifters.”

“What would it entail to get him x-rayed?” asked Edward.

“I’m not sure I understand,” said Dr. Cross.

“I mean, would he have to be on a stretcher or in a wheelchair?”

“Wheelchair should be sufficient.”

“Who would normally take him to get an x-ray?”

“A technician would come to get him. He would take him down and bring him back when it is done.”

“Why don’t you go get that set up, Doctor,” said Edward.

“Ah, yes, good plan,” said Dr. Cross. He got tangled in the curtain on his way to the door. “So sorry, I seem to be clumsy today.” He finally got free of the curtain and left the room.

Peter, Micah, and Edward watched him go and then turned simultaneously to look at Harry who tried to appear innocent.

“Dad, I’ll bet you twenty dollars that he comes back with the wheelchair and the idea that he’ll take Harry to X-ray personally.”

Micah snorted. “Sucker’s bet!”

Edward smirked. “Good try, Kid. I’d give you five for just offering the bet.”

“Five? Really?” Peter drawled. “I can just fuck him real quick like? I bet it won’t take long...”

“And with the way his powers are right now he might drain you, completely,” said Micah. “Did you not see what he did?”

“He rolled the Doctor.”

“A vampire doctor,” Edward added. “Little Raven? Are you in this world with us? Do you hear what I’m saying?” He moved closer to look at Harry who had been staring off into space.

“So, he just vamped a vampire?” Peter deduced.

“Sounds about right,” said Micah chuckling.

“Cool!”

Micah shook his head. “And now I really do have to shower.”

“Go now,” said Edward. “I have this. Little Raven?”

“I’m sorry,” said Harry, bringing his legs up to his chest. He stared at Edward longingly. “I didn’t mean to get mad at you.”

“Mad at me?”

“I got mad at you because you pulled him away.”

“You wouldn’t want to eat a stranger, Little Raven.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Harry agreed. He then frowned and whipped his head around to see the room empty of one less husband. “Where’s Micah?”

“He went to shower, Little Raven.”

“He’s going to be naked.” Harry shook his head as he tried to clear the cobwebs. “Can’t I at least watch?”

“Not this time, Little Raven. Remember why he’s here,” said Edward, caressing Harry’s cheek.

“I know, I know. I’m being selfish. Aah, sometimes I hate these hungers.” He shook his head and clenched his eyes shut. He cracked open an eye when he heard and smelled the pulse in Edward’s throat.

Edward slowly drew away, and he gave a rare sigh when Harry frowned at him. “Don’t look at me like that, Little Raven.”

“Like what?”

“You look like you’re about to cry,” said Peter wincing. “Don’t do that.”

“I don’t mean too…” He bowed his head. “You guys should go.”

“We aren’t going anywhere without you. We just need to remove you from the hospital,” said Edward.

“Do we really have to wait for an X-Ray? Can’t Harry sign out AMA or you sign him out?” asked Peter. “Like Seattle?”

Edward shook his head. “No because of the critical emergency he’s been labeled.”

“I guess falling from a helicopter will label anyone an emergency,” said Peter.

Harry laid his head back and closed his eyes. Maybe if he didn’t open them he wouldn’t accidentally roll someone or try and eat them. His body stirred, and it was hard to lay still. He was aware of Peter sinking back down and the shower stopping.

Harry braced himself as he imagined Micah dressing, and he couldn’t resist opening his eyes once more when the door opened. He came out looking freshly showered and clean. Smelled so good. His dark curls were darker, almost black, and they sat straight until they dried. He was in a forest green shirt and a pair of black jeans.

“How is he?” asked Micah.

“Taken care of.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. You need to go check on your dad, we’ll take care of Little Raven. Peter, you should go with him.”

“Okay, Harry?”

Harry turned to look at him. “I love you, Peter.”

“I love you too. I’m going to check on Ares, is that okay, Micah?”

“Yeah, I want to too,” said Micah.

Peter leaned in to kiss Harry who let out a shudder at the overwhelming scent. He drew back. “I can’t kiss you?”

“Kiss me.”

Peter did, it was quick and it sparked Harry’s energy, but he braced himself as the younger man let go. Micah was right there and he kissed Harry too, this time a bit deeper.

Harry had to work hard not to draw on him. He managed to succeed as Micah pulled back and stared into his eyes. “I love you, Baby.”

“Love you more.”

“Not possible.”

He kissed Edward, and both of them left the room making Harry sigh and take off Edward’s cowboy hat and fiddled with it. “I’m a freak.”

“No, Little Raven. You are ours. To call yourself that is to call one of our other husbands that. So do not do it,” said Edward sharply.

“I know. Just feel it right now.”

Before Edward could respond the door opened again, and Dr. Cross came through with the nurse at his side. He was smiling. “I thought I’d take you to x-ray myself.”

“Kid would have won,” said Edward.

“You wouldn’t make a sucker’s bet unless there’s something in it for you, Husband,” said Harry with a half smile.

“That is true,” said Edward.

Dr. Cross unhooked the IV from the board, and let Harry get up for the bathroom. But he wouldn’t let him get dressed. “Not until after the x-ray comes back clean. I get the feeling if I let you get dressed you’ll just make a break for it.”

“Not with my Husband standing there. He’s the only one who could catch me.”

Edward smirked. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that. You far outpaced me last night. I was impressed.”

“I have been working hard with the boys,” said Harry grinning, and Edward chuckled as Dr. Cross smiled at them.

“I must say the three of you - or is that four? Go so well together. I imagine the Vampire King has the ultimate happiness,” he gushed.

He was not the first to call Jean-Claude the Vampire King. Many vampires had flocked to St. Louis to blood oath themselves to him. Everyone knew they had destroyed the Mother of Darkness, and in respects they had become the inheritors of the vampire world. At least in the United States. Harry had no doubt that one of the reasons that he was so attracted to a stranger was that he could feel his connection to them somewhere along the line.

Harry knew some had chosen to do this out of fear, but he would like to think that a lot of them saw Jean-Claude for who he was. His capability of leading and protecting them, and with Harry, Micah, and Edward at his side some had become quite passionate in their blood alliance to him. Harry had done his best not to look Dr. Cross in the eyes. It wasn’t easy when he could smell him.

“Did I do something, Marshal Potter-Black, to insult you?” asked Dr. Cross, concerned.

“No, it was me,” said Harry, keeping eyes averted. “I apologize.” Dr. Cross seemed to consider this and Harry couldn’t help but flick his eyes quickly at Dr. Cross.

“He’s hungry, Dr. Cross, and he has a lot of shifters in him that do not manifest,” Edward explained and Dr. Cross gasped.

“Oh dear, and I’ll just bet with the vampire marks and the famed ardeur, I’m like a walking twinkie.”

Edward actually laughed and Harry grinned as he tilted his head. “I would never insult you that way, Dr. Cross.”

“He prefers more healthy handmade options,” said Edward, and Harry knew that if a vampire could blush, Dr. Cross would have. His pulse went skyward.

“My my, you are fetching aren’t you? Go to the restroom and do be careful with your footing. Let me know if you’re in pain. How is that head?” he asked, trying to find a way to distract himself from his own pulse. Harry imagined it was extremely loud in his ears.

“Fine.” Harry disappeared into the bathroom. He had to gather the damn gown to keep from tripping over the bloody thing. Standing in front of the mirror, Harry blinked at the creature staring back at him. “Bloody hell.” How could Micah, Edward, and Peter even look at him like this? How could he roll anything like Dr. Cross looking like this? Harry wasn’t the most vain bugger, but he looked like something out of a horror movie.

His hair was even more wild and lively than normal. It stuck up in all different directions. His skin was chalk white and it was only enhanced by the black raccoon ring around his eyes, making his eyes look bigger than they naturally are. He could see that he had the peakiness of a vampire having gone too long without feeding. He had a pinched look that made him look skinnier and that was not good on someone already small like him.

Merlin, what must his breath smell like? His heart fluttered when he saw that Micah had set out his toothbrush for him along with a hair brush. It would only work if he used some water, otherwise it would flare all over. Micah had to be careful with a brush as it could break the curl, but he often used one if only because he knew that Harry would use it next; getting his scent added to Harry. Yeah they were a bit obsessed with each other, but who cared?

He washed his face as best as he could, letting the warm water soothe him. He ignored the burn of hunger in his throat as he set to brushing his teeth. He couldn’t believe that Micah, Peter, and Edward had been willingly kissing on him in this state.

He ran a wet brush through his hair a couple of times. He could imagine the brains and blood he’d had stuck to him at some point. He wondered who had washed him? Micah wouldn’t have been in any shape and Edward had to get slinged. So now it was bugging him to know that someone had washed him while he was out.

Not long after the water dried was his hair moving back into its natural position, which meant all over the place. But at least he didn’t look like he’d stuck a finger in a light-socket. He finished in the bathroom and when he stepped out Dr. Cross offered him a blanket for his lap. Edward was standing beside him having not moved. It seemed they’d been talking about Edward’s injury.

“For small breaks, Little Raven’s potions are more than adequate.”

“Ah yes. We are still trying to get a license for them, some of the non-maj fear the addictive effects that they seemed to have.”

“And vicodin isn’t addictive? It doesn’t stop pain more than it suppresses it. It doesn’t heal anything, but a potion does.”

“Yes, that’s one of the arguments, but what they don’t understand is how no one has allergic reactions to them. They were never distributed to the worldwide public,” said Dr. Cross.

Harry settled into the wheelchair and placed his feet on the metal plates. Edward reached over and lifted Harry’s bag.

“You get all our stuff?”

“More than we need in a hospital,” said Edward. He then pulled out Harry’s wand and handed it to him, handle first.

“I assure that you don’t need to be armed, Marshal Potter-Black.”

“You never can be too sure, Dr. Cross, darkness fell a half hour ago,” Edward said.

Harry felt much more comfortable with the wand in his hand, and it seemed to help hold his control as he stuck it into Micah’s fur cuff. “Ready.”

“Not quite.” Edward pulled out Harry’s Ruger, double checked its ammo, and then he slipped it beneath the lap blanket.

“Really? Is this necessary?” asked Dr. Cross.

“It is,” said Edward as he kissed Harry softly and then moved to stand beside him. “Everyone saw on the news him falling from the skies. Somehow, they skipped me and the flying shapeshifters, but managed to catch you.”

“Figured,” Harry grumbled. “It’s okay, Dr. Cross. This is for all of our safety right now.” He reached back and touched the vampire’s forearm.

Dr. Cross dropped his eyes down to Harry. “If you say so, Marshal Potter-Black.”

When Edward opened the door, and Dr. Cross pushed him through it, he had to resist flinching and turning red as he clenched his hands onto the blanket discreetly. There was a crowd in the hallway, and they weren’t his men.

Harry had never been considered one of them unless it was RPIT or his hometown SWAT who had somehow fallen in love with him. So he was a bit wigged out to see that some of the police had come down to his floor. They needed to be on Rush Callahan’s door, not Harry’s.

Al had come over to wring his hand and thanked him. He wasn’t the only one. Harry saw out of the corner of his eye, near the wall, Lisandro and Dev were looking as unobtrusive as possible amongst the gaggle of police officers and uniforms that kept squeezing his hand; thanking them for helping save lives.

A lot fewer people followed them in their parade thankfully as they split off and went back to Sheriff Callahan or went back to their job.

The door at the end of the hallway opened and Officer Bush walked through. His short brown hair was still hat-flattened, as if he’d been in his patrol car for a while and was still fresh enough from the academy to wear it behind the wheel.

“Marshal Potter-Black, good to see you awake.”

“Good to be awake, Officer Bush, sir,” said Harry with a sweet smile. “How are you doing?”

Bush nodded. “Still trying to figure out what happened last night. We did not expect that going into the wilderness.”

“You couldn’t have unless you’ve been in that position before, Officer Bush. Don’t be so hard on yourself,” said Harry.

“I guess…” He didn’t look convinced.

“The fact is, Officer Bush, you kept moving and shooting even under extreme duress,” said Edward. “You took orders to your best ability and you protected and served as is your duty. You went beyond your job requirements.”

Bush flushed a bit in the cheeks. “Thank you, that means a lot coming from the two of you. You didn’t flinch or hesitate.”

“This is not your normal job, Officer Bush. It’s our job,” said Harry. “So don’t be so hard on yourself.”

He left them so that Cross could continue on through to the x-ray room, and no, he did not eat the vampire. He had managed to resist, though Edward did have to take his wand back. Good thing he remembered because the x-ray machine might not have been the same if the two had made contact.

Harry’s face broke out into a big smile before he could stop it when Dr. Cross wheeled him out of the room only to be face to face with Teddy who was holding a bag of food in his hand. He was dressed in cute brown corduroy pants with several pockets on the sides and had a deep green turtleneck that had a brown wolf on the front. His hair was black and mimicking Harry’s along with his big green eyes.

“Parrain, I brought you some food.”

“I’d rather have you!” Harry opened his arms, and Teddy ran into his arms. “Ulgh, you are not allowed to get bigger or taller,” he pouted as Teddy laughed. Edward removed Harry’s gun from his lap and Teddy happily settled in its place.

Dr. Cross was smiling. “What a cute child. He looks just like you, Marshal Potter-Black.”

“I can look like anyone, Dr. Vampire,” said Teddy cheerfully. He turned to look at Dr. Cross and screwed up his eyes, and a second later an identical face copy and hair of Dr. Cross was sitting on Harry’s lap.

“Oh my!” Dr. Cross gasped. “That is brilliant magic…”

“I’m a wizard of course.”

“You knew I was a vampire? I figured I did human well.”

“You do, Dr. Vampire, but my Pére is a vampire, and I live with vampires. How could I not know?”

Dr. Cross chuckled. “Call me Dr. Cross.”

“Ironic.”

“Yes.” He smiled wide, showing those dainty fangs.

“Parrain, you need to eat food, not me!” Harry had been snuggling into his neck and nibbling very slightly against him. Not for food, but because it was simply Teddy and he was warm and cuddly. He changed himself back to his mini-Harry look as Dr. Cross easily wheeled the two of them.

He might have won a lot of brownie points with whatever cop was nearby if they saw them. Yeah, someone with a kid changed everything.

Edward ruffled Teddy’s head.

Harry had been brought a sandwich and a small grilled chicken salad. It wasn’t really what he wanted, but it helped take the bloodthirst out of the raging hunger that roared through his throat.

He was taken back to the room to await results and he was allowed to finally get dressed. Teddy had crawled onto the bed to sit with him. Harry fed both of them, himself and Teddy, if only because it was habit.

Even at twelve Teddy didn’t seem to mind. “You still going to baby me like this when I’m twenty?”

“You know it,” said Harry as Dr. Cross gushed his way out, a bit more happy than Harry was used to his doctors being. “I wonder if he’d like to transfer to St. Hedwigs…”

“So you can eat him?” Edward asked.

“No,” Harry sulked. “But I like him. I bet they don’t appreciate him here.”

“You might not be wrong,” Edward agreed. “I did see some of the nurses frowning as he wheeled you past them.”

“Can I spend the night with Papa?” Teddy asked as he took a piece of chicken.

“You don’t have to ask that Teddy. You know better,” said Edward, pulling up a seat and stealing a tomato from Harry’s salad.

“Just make sure you have a guard on you.” Harry stated with a frown.

“Yep, Ethan is guarding me and sometimes it’s Dev. He keeps trying to challenge Ethan. I think Dev might have a crush on him.”

“Who doesn’t?” Harry grinned. “Ethan is a sweetie.”

“Yes, he is.”

Thankfully with Teddy here creating a distraction, Harry could avoid the other beast that was hanging around and snarling internally at him.

Harry finished eating at the perfect time because Ethan tapped on the door and then entered. It took all of Harry’s strength not to call him over as Teddy beamed at him. He barely heard what Edward said to him. But he was aware of Ethan getting closer, and all his tigers began to stir around in happiness making Ethan’s pretty eyes flicker.

“King?” He moved closer, and Harry tilted his head.

“Hi,” Harry whispered as Ethan was drawn to him as if he were being pulled in Harry’s direction by a rope. But he wasn’t fighting it. He curved a hand around Harry’s neck.

“You okay, King?”

“Mmm…” Harry kissed him, harder than he intended and Ethan’s muscled back shivered.

“You can’t eat Teddy’s guard,” Edward hissed so close to his ear as his pulse thudded to meet Ethan’s rising pulse.

“No,” Harry whispered, “Teddy’s guard.”

“Yes, Little Raven, Teddy’s guard.” Harry let Edward pull him back.

Ethan’s face had flushed, and he could feel the tiger energy flowing beneath his skin. Harry wanted to free his beasts.

“Oh…” Ethan gasped.

Edward drew Ethan in and kissed him softly to try and get his head back on track from the power coming from Harry, but it wasn’t helping because Harry was touching both of them.

“Must take notes…” Teddy chirped, causing Harry to blink rapidly and shake his head as the two parted.

“Go,” said Edward. “Little Raven. Shower for you.”

“Let him leave first, I don’t trust myself,” said Harry, his hands clenched into fists.

“I’m sorry, King.”

“No apologies. You have the most important job of all of us. We wouldn’t trust just anyone, Ethan. Not with my Baby.”

“I know,” said Ethan. He caressed Harry’s cheek once more and then smiled shyly at Edward before he turned to take Teddy’s hand. “Let’s get you to Micah.”

“Bye Parrain, eat soon because you don’t want to eat the boring human cops. For one, I bet they won’t taste good and another it won’t be good for your reputation.”

Harry couldn’t help but chuckle, even Edward laughed. “He’s so your kid.”

“Why is he my kid when he’s most precocious?” Edward asked.

“No, he’s more your kid when he’s downright literal. He’s Micah and Jean-Claude’s when he’s precocious, and he’s mine when he’s a sweetie.”

“So you get the easy parts?” Edward said, purposely distracting Harry.

“Uh huh, I get the hugs and snuggles and feed him.”

“Shower, Ethan is gone.”

“When are you going to fully fuck him?” Harry had seen everything from heavy petting to blow jobs between the two, but Edward had yet to claim Ethan.

“Maybe soon, I like teasing him. Seeing him wound up. So needy.”

“Your type then.”

“Maybe.”

Harry didn’t bother to ask why Edward wasn’t using his rare power to cut off the flow of the ardeur. It was because Harry could feed it soon as there were enough lovers in town to feed while still being guarded. He just hadn’t had the opportunity. No way was he going to do it at the in-laws’ house. A lot of the big bads they tried to fight often tried to rip or manipulate his ardeur. Edward always saved it for last.

Harry wasted no time making the steam rise as the shower scalded his skin to a light cherry shade. He washed his body and hair as thoroughly as he could, and he still hadn’t yet asked who it was that had cleaned him up before. Edward was the perfect man to distract him. Hospital showers were nice because they were roomy. At times they were needed for patients who had to be accompanied into the showers, there was even one of those little seats built into the wall that came down.

More than his skin began to flow with warmth when he felt what, or rather who, moved into his vicinity. The sound of a belt buckle being chinked had him turning and opening the frosted shower door.

Lisandro was standing there shirtless working his belt. His hair was out of its braid. “Lucky me. Looks like I might fall unconscious over this.”

“You might,” said Harry, eyeing Lisandro from his deep dark eyes down to his perfect neck and chest. He watched those hands pull at his belt and the slide of leather on fabric. Harry stepped out of the shower soaked as Lisandro took off his jeans. He’d already had his boots off. He dipped his head down and kissed Harry intensely. He matched his pulse and blood pressure with Lisandro, making the alpha wererat let out a snarl against his lips. He was completely naked and Harry’s hands roamed, not just to his thick stiff cock, but everywhere his fingers could touch. Lisandro lifted him with such ease, and Harry’s legs looped around him as he stepped them into the shower and against the wall.

For a long time the two could do nothing but kiss, their mouths gluing together, their tongues having a battle. Harry wanted him to win, but not without working for it. He moaned when Lisandro’s throaty growls came out more bestial and he accidentally bit Harry’s lower lip. Blood began to drip into his mouth.

Lisandro’s hips ground into Harry as he sucked and lapped at him, the taste of blood and meat stirring the guard’s beast.

“I never get to lick blood from a partner…” Lisandro moaned. “No one likes it when rats want their blood, not even other beasts.”

“Suck mine then,” Harry moaned as he dropped his lips from Lisandro’s and bit sharply on the pulse in his throat.

“Fuck me!” Lisandro had to be his most vocal and loud lover. He fisted Harry’s outer thigh, hard enough to leave a good bruise later, but none of that mattered because it all felt too good.

Harry sucked hard, bringing Lisandro’s pressure to the surface as he bit enough to cause the skin to break.

“Ahhh!” Lisandro used the shower to their advantage, Harry wasn’t worked open at all when Lisandro’s cock teased his entrance. Lisandro’s hips moved forcefully into him and he screamed into Lisandro’s throat as he gripped the man’s hair. He slowly loosened as the man worked his way through him with his magic flaring to provide the lube needed. His toes curled from where they were suspended behind Lisandro’s body. “Sorry, I need… I can’t-.”

“Fuck me!” Harry growled. Fuck, it hurt. Hell yes, but the more Lisandro pushed his way inside of Harry the more his hunger begged for it. Sometimes, Harry’s body had a way of working through the pain and his needs, and he didn’t mind the pain because once the pleasure started he was riding. He was sucking and drinking Lisandro from his neck to his mouth, their blood was passing back and forth, a sweet metallic. Harry’s mischievous rat was all over this as Lisandro worked through him until he became smooth. He didn’t stop. Harry attacked both sides of his neck, sucking and drinking up what he could.

His body tightened as the first real orgasm burst through them; cum splashing across Lisandro’s front. Lisandro pumped him harder, bouncing him now with his palms spreading his ass cheeks open. “God, yes…! Don’t let me stop! Perfect…” He was forcing Harry down onto him, back and forth, the slide and the pressure teased every nerve as he shook convulsively. Every small trickle of red on their lips or Lisandro’s throat was kissed, sucked, or washed away. Harry’s body was trapped in an endless loop of pain, pleasure, vibration, orgasm. It continued to repeat. He could hear Lisandro, but he wasn’t listening to Lisandro as he shifted himself on the man’s cock to move with him. “God, I love your ass…!”

“Your cock is nice…” Harry got out in a strangle. “I bet you can’t move harder-” he taunted, taking a shuddering breath as Lisandro snarled, he was hardly himself anymore. His eyes had changed from their deep brown with a deep moon green. His snarl was followed by pinning Harry flush to the wall, and moving only his hips as he thrust, deeper and harder.

“You think so?” Lisandro. Harry’s eyes rolled and he convulsed as another orgasm spilled through him. “I don’t see your lovely body arguing… but I can go faster and harder.”

“Ahhh!” Harry was lost as Lisandro never seemed to stop. A great burst of speed and strength. He was stretching Harry’s ass, cock working its way in, and leaving little room for getting his breath.

Lisandro must have noticed the bench seat because he smirked and moved Harry onto it. He situated them so that his ass was hanging off, and he pinned Harry’s wrists above his head. “Shall we?”

“Fuck me,” Harry ordered in a short pant.

Lisandro fucked deep, held, pulled back and slammed him causing the bench seat to twist beneath their movements. Harry writhed with it as he tried to remove his hands only to find them pinned. “More?”

“Fuck me!” Harry glared at him.

“Beautiful eyes, keep them open,” said Lisandro with a vicious grin as he worked hard inside of Harry. Lisandro’s face was the clear expression of a predator that was on a hunt. A hint of a snarl, his lip curled, his eyes narrowed. Harry stared back at him, never letting their eyes leave each other. Harry was Lisandro’s meat, his mark, the one he wanted to eat.

A scream tore from Harry as the pleasure grew stronger. It was building up to something stronger and Lisandro had risen to the challenge. Harry gyrated against the thick pulsing thrusts. He made sure every inch of Lisandro was inside of him when the man pushed in. His wrists and hands fought Lisandro’s control. He nearly came off the wall, but Lisandro kept him pinned.

“Uh uh, I’m the alpha. I fuck you!” Lisandro sent Harry’s whole body into a whirlwind. He also struck a metaphysical cord inside of him. Lisandro pulled back very fast, his cock coming out of Harry as he let go. Harry was still shaking and writhing.

“Had enough of me?”

Lisandro said not a word. Instead he seized Harry’s slim body and then he turned him over. “Hands on the wall.”

“Uh?”

“Hands, on the fucking wall!” Lisandro grabbed his wrists instead of waiting for Harry to react and he pinned them flat. “Do not move.”

“Fuck you.”

“That’s the idea.” Lisandro had his legs spread. He was in an awkward position on the bench seating. It felt like he was going to slide off. Luckily his cock wasn’t restricted. His ass was in the air and Lisandro’s palms raked down his soaked back to his cheeks where he squeezed and kneaded them. His thin nails dug into them as he spread Harry. A finger ringed along his swollen entrance. “You pulse so nicely…” He slid his middle finger deep. “Trying to suck my finger off... trying to close back, I can’t have this…”

“Goddammit, Lisandro! Fuck me!”

“What is in your ass?” Lisandro asked.

“A cock should be in there,” Harry pointed out, his hands still on the wall. He yelped when Lisandro slapped him.

“I can see why Edward is fond of smacking your ass. Moves so nicely.”

“Better be a cock in my ass in the next five seconds…” Harry growled, and his eyes rolled when Lisandro’s laugh was deep and throaty, animalistic in its own way. “Fuck me, you wererat! Fuck me like you mean it.”

Lisandro let out a groan and he pushed, spreading Harry’s cheeks wide open and sliding the tip of his cock in. Going deep as Harry let out a crooning sound between a moan and a purr.

Harry tried to keep his palms flat on the wall as Lisandro rode him. His hands squeezing and clenching his waist, sometimes bringing Harry back into him. A new orgasm began to shudder through him since Lisandro had temporarily broken his chain, and it was stronger, not so small like the ones he’d had. Lisandro was growling as he seized Harry’s soaked hair, doubled over him. “God, God!” He shoved his body so hard into Harry that his forehead hit the wall a bit. It was like he was desperate to try and get into Harry’s stomach. He could feel the twitch and convulses of his cock as it exploded hot and burning inside of him. Lisandro found his shoulder and bit down. All restraint was lost as he bit so hard that Harry lost his own screams. He had pulled out every ounce of lust he could feel from the man as he writhed on his own orgasm making Lisandro hiss through the flesh he was biting into.

Harry could feel both of their hearts. Lisandro’s had never been so fast, and he could see bits of black fur on his bare arms. Harry twisted to look at the man. His humanity had slipped away for all of a second. He’d never seen Lisandro or any of the Rats so wild before. He’d made a lot of lovers lose their tight control. He’d done it with Micah who was probably the most well controlled shapeshifter he’d ever met. He’d done it with all the young leopards at some point, and he’d even done so with his former Ulfric and of course Nicky and Ethan and the rest of the group.

But he’d never done this to a wererat. He’d never done it to Lisandro. Never to Bobby Lee or Rafael.

“Did I go too far?” Harry choked out. His throat was thick and he was thinking that if he didn’t get off this wall he was going to be stuck forever. Lisandro’s eyes bled back to their natural brown and he raised his face and licked Harry’s cheek of the sweaty salt of sex. Harry managed to twist his smaller body as he was pulled and turned around, sadly Lisandro’s cock slipped out of him. Harry kissed him as Lisandro rubbed his forearms over him. Lisandro was shaking like Harry had never seen before. “I think I took too much,” Harry whispered nuzzling into him.

“No, I’m fine,” Lisandro breathed. “May not be fit for guard duty, but I am fine.” Harry pressed his lips to Lisandro’s cheek. “Most rats, unless they are with other rats, do not get many chances to - let their beasts go. We are not pretty like leopards. We are not sexy like wolves or lions…”

“But you’re strong,” said Harry softly. “You’re Lisandro. Just like Rafael is Rafael. You are who you are, and you deserve to be every bit of who you are with a chosen partner.”

“You…” Lisandro let out a throaty laugh.

“Besides, my rat really likes you. I just hope Rafael will forgive me for contracting hyena.”

“He will understand,” said Lisandro. “Maybe in the end it's for the best. You not only saved Ares, but you saved Bram. Even when there’s no prayer left. We do not fault Ares for what he is. It was never his choice just like all of us. He is our brother in arms and will always be. I can say that without a doubt.”

Harry kissed him on the lips, but this time it was soft and gentle. Neither minded the water falling over them.

“Not dead I see.” Both looked over to see Edward in the doorway.

“Pretty sure that was the most heart stopping sex I’ve had yet.” Lisandro chuckled as he went to step out.

“You fit to guard?” Edward watched dispassionately as Lisandro stumbled.

“Unfortunately not, he took a lot of energy.”

“I’m sorry Lisandro. Go meet up with Micah and Teddy, recover with them.” Harry kindly ordered.

“Sorry, Precious, you’ve drained your lead guard. Guess I shouldn’t have teased you so hard on the plane.” He was having trouble with his motor functions. He dropped the towel twice, and stumbled twice more. Not to mention the glaring bite marks. Harry hadn’t realized he’d nearly torn a hole in Lisandro’s neck while using the otherside as a chew toy. It would heal, but it would be a bit more human slow. Harry’s bites tended to do that when he was super charged during sex.

“Rest up.” Edward stated as Lisandro finished drying. “Nicky will take your spot in the meantime. He’s been given a potion and is up.”

Harry took pity on the alpha rat and magicked them all clothed again. Lisandro in black.

Chapter Text

Edward spent an extra amount of time studying the bites on Harry’s neck and shoulder. He pulled down the crushed velvet blue sleeveless shirt Harry wore to consider the bites. His frosty eyes glittering with amusement. Harry was wearing dark tight fitting denim jeans this time. Edward had tested the tightness with a slap to the ass to see if it bounced. To his pleasure, it did. They weren’t as tight as leathers because who knew what they were going to get into? He had knee high black boots that zipped making him taller than he really was.

Lisandro sported his bites in a rather proud way. Harry had plaited his long black hair. He had to change his red shirt to black. Red shirts meant they were either Harry’s lovers or they were willing food. Black meant they were off table, and currently Lisandro was off the table with the way he stumbled and even bumped into the door. Harry winced appropriately as Edward smirked at him. But Lisandro took it like a man.

Harry knew he had taken too much and felt guilty about it. He knew, because when he looked into the mirror, his eyes didn’t look too wide nor did he look like a raccoon. His skin was extra healthy and slightly glowy. His cheeks were flush, lips pink and plumper than they had been, and he could feel the energy and power of all his metaphysical abilities, including his natural wizard magic. His hair was shinier, much more like Jean-Claude’s pretty curls, and it looked alive the way it seemed to move even when there wasn’t a spell of wind anywhere in sight.

“I want the memory of this later, it had to have been good,” said Edward, finally looking at Lisandro with appraisal.

Lisandro smirked. “It was…” he agreed. “I’m walking around in a foggy haze. I didn’t know the door was in front of me. I thought it was over there.”

“I’m really sorry for overfeeding, Lisandro,” said Harry.

“No consequence, Precious. I knew what I was getting into. You weren’t the only one annoyed by my own trickery.”

“Besides, you did your job. You brought him back to his best,” said Edward, threading his fingers through Harry’s wild hair. “Even a null like me can feel his power. I have no doubt the uniforms outside are going to notice. If they didn’t hear.” He ran his knuckles down Harry’s cheek making him shiver slightly.

Harry shrugged. “I don’t care. I’m not ashamed of my life or anyone in my life.”

“I wish more people were like you, Precious,” said Lisandro with a real sigh.

“But then, Lisandro, there wouldn’t be a job worth doing.”

Dr. Cross swept back through with a bundle of something in his arms. “Ah, Marshal Potter-Black. Looks like you’re much more healthy now.”

“Yes, and I won’t try to eat you, Doctor.”

“I’ve never had a patient trying to eat me before, I take that as a compliment.” He began to hand out bottles of water.

“What is this for?” Edward asked.

“To keep down on elevation sickness. I am recommending all of you, including the guards and those who are not my patients to drink copious amounts of water. I’ve already divided them out to the rest of your guards.”

Lisandro didn’t say no as he took it and drank half the bottle, making Harry start snickering before he could control it and Edward cocked his head. “Drink up, Lisandro.”

“That’s the plan.” He took an extra as Dr. Cross stepped forward to inspect his bite marks.

“Interesting,” he said, and then looked at Harry and inspected him too. “I am impressed, how are your motor functions?”

“Sketchy at best,” Lisandro admitted. “But it’s worth it.”

“You ever think about getting out of Colorado?” Harry asked, unable to help himself.

“I don’t have anywhere to go, Marshal Potter-Black.”

“St. Louis?” Harry tried.

Dr. Cross smiled. “Maestro Fredrico warned me that you might try and recruit one of us.”

“I’m not recruiting you. I’m just saying you’re a good doctor. I have no doubt that with Colorado being the last and one of the least accepting, I’d at least offer you a place where your talents would be recognized for what they are rather than what you are.”

Dr. Cross looked thoughtful. “I appreciate the compliment, truly I do. I may even think about it. For now you are clear to go. Perhaps next time I see you and you are in rough shape we shall have food at your side instead of painkillers?”

“Probably be a good idea, yes,” said Edward. He handed Dr. Cross a card for St. Hedwig’s. Harry was surprised he had them on him. But then Harry knew he had a slight fondness for Dr. Lillian. He respected her for her knowledge and talents. Not to mention all she put up with by holding therapy sessions for them.

Dr. Cross left and Harry noticed his really good mood. Lisandro snorted. “You have a new fan. You can’t go anywhere without wanting to help someone.”

“Sorry? I couldn’t resist. He was good about me pawing at him when I looked like something from those horror movies Peter likes to watch. He could have called me on vamping him, but he didn’t. I know he knows I did it.”

“But he knows you didn’t mean it,” said Edward.

“Still, he could have taken me to task for it. He would have had the right.” Jean-Claude and all of them tried to promote freedom as much as they could within the confines of things like blood oaths. So it would be going against their own teachings if Harry did not recognize he had been doing wrong even if it was an accident.

Harry was very relieved to see that there weren’t many uniforms outside, but there were a couple he didn’t recognize. It was easy to identify what flavor they were by certain quirks they shared.

Deputy Truman was talking to Nicky who had a bottle of water in his hands. Beside him was Bram who also had the water but it wasn’t open. He ignored any of the other cops staring at him. Maybe they did hear him in the shower. He had screamed a few times.

“Is Ares still in the hospital?” Harry asked, looking at Bram and Nicky first before dealing with the cops around him. He was aware of the stares, he was aware of the quiet and Al looking at him, blinking a bit too rapidly. Focus on the important things, Harry thought.

“He’s on rest,” said Nicky.

“And you guys aren’t?” he looked at both of them.

“You cushioned my fall,” said Bram with a stretch to show that he was whole and complete. “I’ll never figure out how you did that when you were unconscious. I should be splattered on the side of a mountain.” Several cops winced visibly at this. “No amount of shapeshifting will heal that kind of damage.”

“I’m fine, Kitten. You know I shift almost as fast as Micah,” Nicky said.

“You still having shifting contests?” Bram asked him. It was something that Micah and Nicky had started as a dominance battle, who could shift quicker, and it had turned into a training exercise for the cat shifters.

“Yep. It helps the young ones,” said Nicky seriously.

“My magic has a mind of its own when I’m down for the count, but I’m glad that it reacted.” Harry explained as he rubbed both of their arms. “It’s been bred in most from when they are young that our bodies will expel accidental magic to protect us when needed. I just take it to another level and mine will often encompass those with me.”

“I’m not sorry for that,” said Bram, gathering Harry in a hug. “I thank you.”

“Never thank me for saving my friend,” Harry said, kissing him on the cheek.

“And never touch him when he’s asleep in an unfamiliar place if he doesn’t recognize you,” said Edward casually. Harry could feel his smirk. Lisandro was standing at Harry’s side. He was a bit close, and carefully watching the police officers like he was still guarding or… peacocking.

“What happens then?” asked Becker, and Harry turned to look at the tall woman.

“I don’t know, ma’am. If I feel unsafe, sometimes my magic will lash out accidentally. Children do this too.”

“My niece is a witch,” Becker told him. Seems like Becker had loosened up since they started the search for Little Henry if she was being this friendly. The fight must have really realigned her point of view on the preternatural.

“Ilvermorny?”

“Yes, seventh year. We discovered this when she got mad at her little brother and all the pillows in the house pelted him.” A few cops nearby snorted, a couple laughed. She smiled. “Yeah, we couldn’t explain that. My brother lived with us at the time. So we were all in the know.”

“What house?” Harry asked curiously.

“Uhm, Pugwudgie?” She looked like she wasn’t sure.

Harry smiled. “My son is a Thunderbird.”

“Nicky, you’re up.” Edward stated casually. “We’re all headed up to see Alpha and Kid before we check on Ares and check out.”

“Went full out did you?” Nicky glanced over Lisandro, noting the marks across the rat and the fact he was in a black shirt.

“His fault for winding me up on the flight in.” Harry pouted.

“What?” Al asked. “Don’t tell me… We thought we were misunderstanding. You just…”

“Had sex with a guard. Yes.” Harry blinked at the officers. “Problem?”

“How could you cheat on your husbands like that?” Truman looked like he had sucked a lemon. “How could you do that to Mike with his father dying?”

“I didn’t cheat on my husbands, Officer. Everyone I sleep with is approved of by them before anything ever happens. This isn’t the first time Lisandro and I have had sex.” Harry shook his head. “We’re in an open polyamorus relationship, with specific rules. Just because you don’t understand our rules, or agree with our decisions, doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for us.”

“And need I remind you, I am also his husband,” said Edward. “I was there the whole time.”

“Preternatural heal best when they are touching one another,” said Bram. “But Harry can’t change, so for him to heal and be at his best sex is oftentimes much quicker.” It was about the only explanation that they could probably swallow down.

“And Mike approves?” asked Truman.

“He’s often involved,” said Edward.

“It’s not like they aren’t allowed to sleep with others that have been approved, too.” Harry smiled. “We all know how to have fun and share now. But right now it would not be a good idea to be stealing my husband’s energy when he needs that energy to sit beside his father and reconnect with his family. Edward is a Preternatural Marshal and we are now on case. So I can’t take his to heal myself either.”

“Is it that draining?” Becker asked.

“Sometimes,” said Harry.

“So you just fuck everyone?” Horton asked unnerved.

“No, only those that we all approve of, and those who want to, but we have many lovers. All of us do,” said Harry.

“Little Raven here just tends to have the most,” said Edward shrugging. “Can’t have him out of the game and weak when we have enemies knocking on the door.”

“Sounds like Mike’s practicality right there,” Truman muttered.

“Just too bad I was down myself,” said Nicky.

Lisandro smirked. “Not sorry.”

“Are you all gay?” Becker asked, and it wasn’t asked in horror or disgust, but intrigue.

“No,” said Harry, shaking his head. “Lot of the community is often open. You have to be when all your senses are quadrupled. Some are purely straight, some are a bit of both. Some are straight with exceptions. Some are gay with exceptions. Just like the human world.”

“But to be one of Harry’s guards we must be a lover or at least close. To guard the Pup you need to be close family, to guard Micah you need to be bi-flexible. Different requirements depending on who we are guarding and where. He spent a shit-ton of energy last night,” said Nicky aggressively. “Someone had to give it back. Just a pity it isn’t me.”

“Later Nicky,” Harry had plans for Nicky later, but he didn’t think he should mention that. Nicky smirked as he seemed to read his mind. “For now let’s go see Ares, and the rest of them.”

“You go on, Little Raven,” said Edward. “I need to check with the updates on the case and reconn of last night. I’ll catch up.”

“Who’s on you?” Harry asked, glancing around. He wouldn’t normally say anything as Edward typically didn’t have a guard assigned to him, but they were here as husbands first and foremost. They didn’t need for the cops or family to start asking about who got guards and who didn’t.

“Don’t worry, one of the group that came with the twins is.” Edward answered vaguely. Harry knew that meant no one was. Edward wouldn’t trust one of the Harlequin to guard his back and their normal guards were all assigned on more important marks.

Harry kissed his cheek and nodded. “Alright.”

Nicky and Lisandro walked beside him as Bram led the way. “It’s probably best if we see Ares first. He’s on the same floor,” said Bram.

Probably attended by Dr. Cross. Harry didn’t doubt that this was intentional. Now whether it was intentional thanks to Fredrico or Colorado still being too wiggy about weres and so the hospital opted for a practical choice or not the world may never know.

Harry then groaned. “Oh no, now I’m back to that question.”

“What question?” asked Lisandro as Bram quickly moved the trash can out of Lisandro’s way because he didn’t notice.

“I know I had brains and rubbish in my hair. Who cleaned me?” Harry asked, causing Nicky to chortle as Bram turned and flashed him a smirk. “It’s bugging me. Who - who did that awful job of picking bits out of my hair?”

“Peter and Micah.”

“Micah? He shouldn’t have done that.”

“He wanted to. More like needed,” said Lisandro. “Peter helped him out.”

“He needs to worry about his dad, not about me,” said Harry, feeling guilty that he took Micah away from his father.

“I do believe that simply touching you calmed him and his raging emotions down,” said Lisandro. “You give him energy too. It’s probably what has kept him from falling apart completely.”

“I’d have licked you clean if I could have,” said Nicky.

“Zombie brains?” Harry looked up at the big man.

“Sure.”

“I think he would see it as a worthy cause getting to lick you,” said Lisandro.

“How hard did he bite you?” asked Nicky.

“Hard enough. I bit back.” He grinned fully showing his teeth.

“Fuck you, I’m jealous now. Can I do that next time?”

“You know you can, Nicky,” said Harry, rubbing his arm and enjoying the muscle through the t-shirt.

Lisandro smirked. “Not all of us have a stately handsome form that he can fuck. Be glad of that.”

“That’s true.”

“You’re handsome,” Harry argued.

Bram laughed. “Our rats are disgusting, even to us.”

Harry shrugged. “I love my rat.”

Both looked at him in surprise, and Nicky shook his head. “I don’t get him sometimes. But I guess I ain’t the only one.”

“Actually, his rat is fucking cute,” Lisandro said after a moment.

“Is it?” Bram tilted his head. “I’ve never seen a cute rat. Can you see it metaphysically?”

“Yes. I can feel him too,” said Lisandro. “Probably has something to do with him being willing and perhaps the Rom doing it himself.”

They turned down the hall, and they stopped in front of Ares' room. Bram tapped upon it.

“Come in.”

Bram entered first, followed by Harry who slipped around the curtain in front. Ares was sitting up in bed, but he wasn’t alone. Nathaniel was laying beside him curled up near his legs.

“When did Nathaniel get in?”

“He insisted on coming too to take care of everyone,” said Ares, smirking as he played with the long auburn braid. Harry’s fingers danced up Nathaniel’s side affectionately. “He was awake all night and day, going from place to place, and fretting.”

“Awe. How are you feeling?” Harry asked, pausing in his touch to look Ares over. He had an IV drip and his arm was still bandaged. “Didn’t the wound heal?” Most needles that were tailored for preternaturals were much bigger. Almost as big as a coffee stir straw so they could keep the wound open without it healing over the needle.

“It’s healing, but it’s super slow,” said Ares. “they think it's the infection that was in my body. Its still in shock.”

“It didn’t return, did it?”

“No, whatever you used last night worked.”

“Good. It was a darker spell to its brother. It’s meant to consume, and I did my best to focus it on the infected blood rather than the rest of your body.”

“I don’t understand a word of that, but I thank you.”

“No thanks. Just stay alive,” said Harry, poking him in the leg. “Are you hearing his voice anymore? At all? I don’t know if my spell dissolved when I passed out.”

“I don’t hear anything,” said Ares. “What spell did you use? I’ve never heard of anything like that. His call was stronger than Asher’s.”

“It’s an illegal spell in my world. A horrible person could take full control of you and make you do whatever they wanted.”

“Not too different from an animal to call.”

“True, but they can also take it a step further. Make you mimic emotions that you wouldn’t have.” He’d heard stories from Draco. “In the morning I’ll cancel it if that’s okay?”

“Let it stay until this bastard is gone,” said Ares.

“You sure?”

“I trust you, Harry,” said Ares, staring right at him. “You have hyena don’t you?”

“Can you feel it?”

“I feel something,” said Ares. “I’ll keep that quiet for as long as I possibly can.”

“It’s okay, Ares. I was willing to have you bite me if I thought it would work.”

Ares shook his head. “How the hell do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“The impossible?” Ares asked. “I should be dead, Harry.”

Harry brought his shoulders up. “I don’t know?” he tried.

Bram laughed. “If that isn’t the truth. I should be food for any carrion bird on the side of a mountain.”

Harry kissed Ares on the cheek making the handsome man scoff playfully. “Oh, now I’m back to the cheek.” He swung his arm around Harry who kissed him on the lips.

“You need to ask Nathaniel and Peter really.”

“Nimir-Ra?” Nathaniel raised his head, his pretty lilac eyes fluttering with a bit of sleepiness.

“Hello Nathaniel.”

Nathaniel pulled him into a tight hug. Harry rubbed his back and kissed him on the cheek. “What does Ares need to ask?”

“He likes me kissing him.”

“I like kissing you,” said Nathaniel, kissing him chastely.

“I like more than that, but I won’t be pushy,” Ares grinned. “Just can’t help it. You sort of smell… familiar.”

“It’s okay, Ares. I still won’t go further though. Not in the mood to deal with the Oba.” he patted the man. “He needs a guard, where is your guard?”

“I am a guard. I don’t need a guard, Harry. Besides, I have Nathaniel here.”

“You can trust me in a pinch,” said Nathaniel.

“You did get lessons from Peter and Edward, so it should help waylay anything.” Harry stroked Nathaniel’s cheek. “How long are you in for?”

“A couple more days. I don’t know if I can stand it that long,” Ares snapped his teeth, the irritation showing at being pinned down.

“I’m sure I can come up with something for us to do,” said Nathaniel grinning. “I brought a few toys from home.”

“I’m not sure if Dr. Cross would approve,” Harry laughed.

“It’s not like he’s truly hurt now. They just see him as a medical miracle so they’re watching him,” said Nathaniel, bringing his shoulders up.

“Ya got the collar I gotcha for Valentine’s Day?” Ares asked, and Harry could feel his wild hyena energy slowly rising at the idea. It was a strange feeling compared to the rest of the shifters. Maybe because he didn’t really have much of a connection with one. He had to resist pulling back from Ares’ touch. He adored Ares, but it felt odd. Not right.

“I do, I even brought the leash that Peter had specially made for me,” said Nathaniel gushing.

“Special leash?” Nicky asked. “I had a leash last night, and a spiked collar.”

“Lucky!” Nathaniel chirped. “It’s gold, and has these cute clasps made of platinum so that the gold doesn’t bend.”

“I think we’ll leave you two to some fun,” said Harry, kissing both of them again. On the cheek this time as he moved out of Ares arms.

“Bring Peter in if you get a chance!”

“Will do, luv.” Harry stroked Nathaniel one last time. “Don’t strain yourself, Ares.”

“Strain myself! I’ll fuck my Pussycat’s pretty ass raw!” Ares slapped Nathaniel’s ass making him squeak and his eyes to light up as Ares took a fist full making everyone laugh. Nathaniel’s sexual energy shot up fast and quick as he nuzzled into Ares.

“You do that. But mind the screaming.” He didn’t flinch or blink when Lisandro wound an arm around his neck to lead him out of the room with Bram and Nicky.

“You were uncomfortable,” Lisandro pointed out.

“I don’t know if it’s the hyena or his connection to his Oba, but I feel wiggy now,” Harry confessed in a quiet voice so that only the three could hear him. “I adore Ares, so I know it’s not him.”

“You don’t trust the Oba?”

“Nope. I never did. I was neutral toward him because I needed to be,” said Harry. “But I really don’t like his form of politics. He’s for everything I stand against. It’s always a trial having to deal with him. I wish Ares was a wererat.” Narcissus liked full control, and didn’t offer his hyenas much free will, which was Harry’s ongoing motto.

“He wishes that too,” said Bram.

“He’s honorable,” Lisandro agreed as they swerved toward the stairwell instead of the elevators to go up one floor. “Socrates is too.”

“Can we send someone to watch his room? Just in case,” said Harry.

“On it,” said Lisandro, pulling out his phone and sending a text.

“Nathaniel has gotten better, but I’d be more comfortable if he had someone else outside his door. Oh!” And then he kissed Bram’s cheek who blinked in surprise. “Glad you’re safe too.”

“You’re impossible,” Bram scowled.

Harry snickered and moved ahead out of Lisandro’s arms and skipped up the steps. “Come on slowpokes!”

“Slowpoke…” Nicky growled, and all three of them moved.

“Come on! I just had the fuck of my life, Precious!” Lisandro groaned. “Fuck you, I’m faster than you, Nick.” Nicky grinned over his shoulder. “Fuck that smile of yours!”

“No thanks, I like them pretty, and Kitten-like.” He managed to get up to Harry passing a grumbling Bram. He slapped Harry on the ass as he did and then he lifted him off his feet.

“Yii! Oi! Nicky!” He was raised over Nicky’s head with such relative ease. “Shouldn’t you- haha - take it easy?”

“Yeah, Nick, take it easy,” Lisandro growled. He was trying not to huff and puff. No self-respecting guard should have running issues.

Bram chuckled. “I don’t think this was covered in the guard manual…”

Harry was sat down once they got to the correct floor before Bram opened the doors for them. Nicky kissed him on the cheek as he did.

Lisandro was still glowering at Nicky who was a bit smug. Lisandro was oftentimes one of the fastest with only Micah outstripping him when it came to speed.

“I’m sorry, Lisandro,” Harry turned and wrapped his arms around Lisandro’s front. He was so warm and cuddly.

“It’s okay, Precious. I knew I wouldn’t be fit for much after you. I can’t wait to see Nick drop.” he squeezed Harry a bit tighter than he normally did.

“We’ll see, Lisandro,” growled Nicky.

“Am I going to get jumped next or can we head on?” asked Bram, smirking.

“Sorry, sorry, Bram!” He rubbed the man’s bare muscled arm, and swept through.

“I’m supposed to be in front of you.” But it didn’t matter because they were right there near Rush Callahan’s room. Just a single turn into the room and they saw Micah sitting between his mother, Bea, and sister, Beth, on the blue couch. Ethan was standing by the door. Harry rubbed his arm in greeting. Teddy was sitting between Peter and Jerry with his homework spread out on a table. Jerry looked very confused by what he was doing.

“Baby!” Micah rose as Harry entered the room. He hugged Harry as if they hadn’t just seen each other. “Look so much better,” he said, cupping Harry’s cheeks and kissing him passionately.

“You can thank Lisandro’s sacrifice,” said Harry, turning and smiling over at the guard.

“Wow!” Micah said, stepping forward to look at him. “Holy shit.”

“All in the line of duty,” said Lisandro, politely. Micah couldn’t help but smile.

“Harry. You’re looking much better,” said Bea.

“Thank you, ma’am. I feel it. Hello, Beth.”

“Hi, Harry.”

“What are you working on, Teddy Bear?”

“Defense Against the Dark Arts,” said Teddy, raising his head.

“Did your teacher behave?”

“Of course, Professor Randall is a great teacher. I’m doing a two foot essay on the advantages and disadvantages of the disarming spell.”

“Good,” said Harry, ruffling his hair.

“Is that the one spell that you sometimes use to call guns out of enemies hands?” Peter asked.

Harry nodded. “Yeah, when I need to keep moving and don’t have to think too hard. I can just flick and disarm and keep moving along.”

“And the one that sends things to you?”

“Summoning.”

“But doesn’t a summons work the same way?” Peter asked.

“Actually, you could be right if it weren’t for one small thing,” said Harry, smiling. “If Teddy and I were to duel, and I disarmed him, that means his wand would ‘bow’ to me.”

“Bow?” Jerry blinked.

“Yes. You win the right to his wand. Like an old world sword fight? Most wands do not work for anyone else but the one that was chosen. It’ll fight you and be harder to cast a lot of the time.”

“So that’s why that white haired guy was so passionate,” said Peter.

“Yeah.”

“But Parrain’s wand work well for me, right?”

“Yes, and your wand is fine with me.” He had tried it, and it worked just like his holly wand. “Probably because I gave you my wand when you were a lot younger so your magic adapted to my magic that was in the wand. I wasn’t too comfortable with him having more than a knife, so to compromise on safety I gave him my old wand,” he explained to the confused group.

“But why would he need something to defend himself?” Beth asked wide-eyed.

“Can never be too careful, Beth,” said Harry genially.

“It’s better safe than sorry,” said Micah. “Not to mention if you gave Edward a chance he’d have Teddy outfitted with a gun.”

“Not too different from you then,” said Beth, shaking her head. “I don’t understand it. Dad taught him and Jerry how to shoot as little kids.”

“I was never fond of that,” admitted Bea. “We fought a lot over it.”

Harry took a seat on the arm of the couch beside Peter as Micah went to sit between his mother and sister. “I was leery, but open. It’s important for all children to learn to defend themselves. Girls and boys. I have no doubt that Elara will learn everything that Teddy and Rigel will be taught.”

“You can count on it, Parrain,” said Teddy cheerfully.

“Jean-Claude is leery about bringing the babies to the hospital,” said Micah. “So he and Luna have kept them back with the guard. He was here last night. But, he’s resting now.”

Probably a good idea. “I wish I had known what was going on sooner. I never would have let them in this city,” said Harry, shaking his head.

“That’s why Jean-Claude isn’t here. He trusts Luna of course, but you can never be too careful. Are you going to be alright?”

“I will.”

“You sure, Baby?”

“Yes, do not focus on me. Focus on your dad. You know I will always be fine,” Harry smiled at this.

“I heard you saved one of your friends from the infection?” Bea made it a question.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“But you can’t do that to our Dad can you?” asked Beth.

Harry grimaced. “I don’t know because he’s a human. Both times I’ve dealt with this, I managed to catch it in the moment and they were shifters. It’s more than healing, they have a much higher pain tolerance. I wouldn’t recommend it. Ares bit off his tongue when I was doing it.”

Beth and Bea gasped. “Oh…!”

“It grew back,” Nicky assured them from where he stood near Ethan.

“Did it? Oh, I’m glad!” Beth touched her chest in alarm. “How awful…”

“Jean-Claude tried,” said Micah, his face crumbling. “He actually tried… ”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked.

Micah had tears in his eyes. “He walked into the room, took a look at the wound, and he tried to suck out the poison…” He shook his head.

“I’m not surprised. He’d do anything to see you smile again, Micah.”

“Just… I didn’t think he’d do it or expect it of him,” said Micah wiping his eyes.

“Did it do anything?” Harry asked.

“He spent about ten minutes trying to work it out. Even though there was no more point of entry. He tried. He tried so hard. His skin started to turn colors, so I told him to stop.”

“According to Dr. Rogers, your Jean-Claude sucked enough poison out to give him a good extra day of living, son,” said Bea, squeezing Micah who shuddered.

“That’s not it… I’m sorry.” He looked away to hide his own shame.

But Harry understood. Micah didn’t want Jean-Claude sacrificing himself for anyone, even if it was his father. That kind of infection could have marred or scarred Jean-Claude. It could have hurt a lot of his own power. But he had done it, willingly took in poison to try and save his husband’s father. Even at risk to himself.

Jerry shifted. “Is it true that - he might have been able to fix Dad if you’d known sooner?”

“As soon as it happened, yes,” said Harry sadly.

“Can any vampire do that?” asked Jerry.

“Oh no,” said Harry, shaking his head. “It would have to be a strong and powerful one, master or very near master level. Jean-Claude did something like this for me a few years ago when my blood got poisoned and it temporarily killed my magic. He was able to get most of it out of my system because he got to me in time.”

Micah smiled through his glimmering tears. “That was when…” he threw his head back and laughed. “Did you know Jean-Claude threatened to smack me in the nose with a rolled newspaper?”

“I heard, but that was so not what I was thinking about,” said Harry, shaking his head.

“What were you thinking about?” asked Bea curiously. “I could use an uplifting story.”

“I have a better question for you. What did you feed your kids?” Harry asked, causing Jerry to start laughing and Beth broke out into a series of giggles.

Bea turned to him with an innocent look in her eyes. “I am afraid I am not responsible.” She pointed at Rush on the bed, and Harry smiled as Micah was snickering.

“Let’s just say I’d never seen it quite that…”

“Large?” Nicky piped in.

“Yeah.”

“I still remember asking Papa before he was Papa why he was so big,” said Teddy, not raising his head. “He said it was genetics.”

That had everyone laughing. “Oh, I don’t blame you. I was alarmed myself,” said Bea.

“Mom!” Jerry, Micah, and Beth squawked in shock.

“What? It’s true!” she said with a sly devious smile.

“I was knocked out because I’d been kidnapped by an idiot,” said Harry rolling his eyes. “I had no ability with my magic because of what they drugged me with. I managed to get free, but I had quite the wounds on me. Jean sucked out the poison that was in me dampening my magic, and Micah was there healing me.”

“It was our first time,” said Micah.

“I thought you got smacked for it? Or threatened?” Jerry asked.

“Only because he wasn’t awake to feel it,” said Micah.

“Oh I woke up. It was the first time I ever woke naked with more than Jean-Claude or Edward in bed, and those two at the time were not in the same bed,” he clarified.

“Edward was our lone ranger for a long time,” said Micah fondly.

For the first time since they had arrived, Bea had a soft and almost relaxed look on her face. Even Beth and Jerry looked more cheery than they had before.

“Baby was excruciatingly shy back then,” said Micah.

“Yup, and you lot corrupted me. You can ask Teddy.”

“Yup,” said Teddy, snapping his book closed. “You did.” Everyone was laughing.

“Hey, I was third,” Micah reminded. “You had Edward and Jean-Claude to taint you.”

Harry just stared at him. “Need I remind everyone in the room about your kinky ways?” he asked sweetly.

“Yes!” Jerry said at the same time that Micah said. “No!”

“Don’t let my Papa fool you.” Teddy pushed the table back. “But also don’t let Parrain fool you either. He’s not so shy anymore.”

“You are mouthy these days, Teddy Bear.”

“Yup. You say what you mean or not at all.”

Jerry was dry laughing as he held his stomach. Peter was smirking. “Such a Dad thing to say.”

“Yup.” Teddy pecked Peter on the cheek. “I’m going to the bathroom and getting some Sprite. I’m thirsty after all that writing.” Ethan moved off the wall where he’d been guarding, and Teddy kissed Harry as he passed before taking the man’s hand and walking out of the room. Bram and Lisandro were just outside the room guarding the door.

“By the way, Nathaniel is looking for you in Ares’ room,” said Harry, tilting his head innocently.

Peter kissed Harry’s cheek in thanks before doing the same to Micah and heading out of the room without a word. But Harry saw his eyes. Oh yeah.

“Nathaniel is the young one with pretty eyes, right?” Bea asked.

“Yes,” Harry said. “He’s one of our leopards.”

“Is Peter a leopard?” Jerry asked.

“No.”

Before anyone could ask anything more, Edward was suddenly appearing in the door. Harry and Micah hadn’t felt him, he’d moved so fast. “We got a problem.” Both hands were on either side of the doorway as he stared right at Harry.

“What’s going on?” Harry asked, rising.

All the guards turned to him. “Edward?” Micah rose.

“Where’s Teddy?” asked Edward sharply.

“Bathroom and vending with Ethan. Why? What’s going on?”

Edward pulled Harry out of the room and Micah followed. “Alpha-”

“I want to hear it, Gardien. Please?”

“No one burned the bodies,” he said as the guards circled them.

It took Harry a few seconds to realize what he was saying. “Wait - you’re talking about- Bloody Hell!”

“What does that mean?” Micah asked.

“Rotters, Husband. All of the vampires last night were rotters.”

“They were missing persons that were newly turned. Someone had a bright idea to ignore our orders of burning the bodies in order to identify the remains,” said Edward.

“Wait, only fire can kill Rotters for sure,” said Micah.

“Yes, and last night the forest was way too dry,” Harry told him. “I managed a couple of the vamps and zombies using mild incendio spells on my sword, but if I’d cast a fiendfyre or anything of substance I don’t think even my control could have stopped the whole place from turning into a wildfire.”

“Who ignored our orders?”

“A quack named Hatfield.”

“Wait, wasn’t she the woman kicked out of the Preternatural Unit?”

“She was the first to go when she got her entire squad killed because she didn’t follow orders of the wizard who was surveying her for the final test. She almost got him killed.”

“That’s against the law.”

“I know, Bradford is going to have fun with this. Jonas, the Captain’s ass is on the line. He just called me for questioning. I reminded him that he was of no authority and to take it to Director Bradford if he had issues. He threw Hatfield under the bus saying that she lied to him about being kicked out. But now we have bigger problems.”

“They’re here aren’t they?” Harry didn’t have to ask that.

“Yes, this is the largest hospital, and it has the largest vampire morgue unit. They’ve stored all the bodies down there. All of them.”

“Shit,” said Lisandro.

“Shit is right,” said Micah in shock when there was a cry from inside Rush’s room.

Harry and Micah rushed back in to see Bea and Beth on their feet, Jerry near the bed. Rush was flailing around in the bed despite being pinned down by painkillers to keep him out.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. He started moaning and he’s thrashing around!” Bea was calling for the doctor on the little hand-held remote.

Harry looked over at Edward. “Not a coincidence.”

“No it’s not. It reminds me of New Mexico,” he confessed.

“What can we do?” Beth asked as tears began to stream down her face.

Dr. Rogers came rushing through the room with a nurse behind him. All of them were sent out, Bea started crying and Micah quickly grabbed her as he was closest.

“Alpha, let us deal with this. You take care of your mother,” said Edward.

“Okay.”

“I’ve got some men on the way,” said Lisandro. “Mrs. Morgan, let’s get you to the family waiting room.”

“Bram, can you stay with them and back Lisandro up?” Edward asked.

“Of course.”

As they turned down the hall toward the family waiting room there was a high-pitched woman’s scream followed by a sudden blast, and then the familiar shout of their son. “Incendio!”

Harry, Edward, and Nicky were running. Micah seized up and froze.

Lisandro pulled him. “This way, Micah.”

“But-”

“Edward and Harry have it,”

“Teddy…”

“Best thing you can do is help us protect your mother and family,” said Bram.

As they rounded the corner toward the vending machines, a handful of police officers were manhandling a Rotting Vampire that had somehow made its way onto the floor.

Ethan had grabbed one of them all on his own, and Teddy was sending a weak stream of flames starting at its face.

“Let go!” Harry ordered and Ethan let go of the vampire and moved to help the cops with theirs. “Ignis Exerto!” A series of bright purple flames spat out in a hot dazzling stream and lassoed around the vampire that shrieked and screamed. Many patients and visitors were pressed to the wall, gasping and watching the scene. A few were huddled around carts and chairs nearby. Some had ducked into rooms for shelter.

“Get off it!” Ethan ordered the cops. “Get off before you’re bit!”

All of them pulled up at this, and gasped when they saw Harry burning his vampire into charred ash causing it to burst as it collapsed and the flames died away. Teddy sent his weaker magic into the vampire that Ethan had pinned.

“What spell did you use, Parrain?” Nicky had lifted Teddy off his feet in case he needed to make a run for it.

“Ignis Exerto, but don’t cast it here! I’ll teach you later.” Harry swept his magic toward the pinned vampire as Ethan leaped away.

“Get him to the waiting room,” Edward ordered.

“What the hell-? It just appeared from nowhere and rushed us!” It was Gonazales who spoke first. He’d been the one who had it in a cross-hold, and Commander Burke had been trying to shoot at it only for all its parts to wriggle and molt back together.

“Rotters and zombies all have to be burned,” said Harry. “Preferably to ash and then dumped into multiple bodies of water.”

“But we killed them last night!” said Bush.

Edward explained to them about the morgue, and Harry once again told them that rotters and zombies needed to be burned completely. It was sad when his son knew that better than these cops. How many times did he have to say it? Al got on his cell to try and call the morgue, but no one was answering.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Morte d’Amour was able to re-raise the zombies along with the vampires,” said Harry.

“What does this mean?” asked Rickman who was unusually pale.

“It means Little Raven and I have a date at the morgue,” said Edward. “Nicky, get Teddy to the waiting room and join us. Ethan, you stay with him!”

“Yes sir.” Both stated automatically. Nicky disappeared in a burst of speed with Teddy followed by Ethan.

Chapter Text

Harry and a small group of men were standing outside the morgue with the windowed door barricaded shut, because there were zombies inside eating the remains of the morgue attendants and the security guard who Edward had claimed the Captain sent down in a cocky bid to prove him wrong. By the time Al got down there it was all over except for the eating part. Harry was sad to learn that Dr. Shelley had become one of the victims. She didn’t deserve that.

Harry had been worrying about the vampires, but he had never heard of zombies putting themselves back together once they were blown into pieces with guns. However, the vampires were the least of their worries. He now saw why the two Rotters had gotten free and ran away, the zombies were eating them too.

There were two more hospital security officers with them now. One man looked to be in his early forties, built like a square with a high-and-tight haircut that screamed ex-military. He’d introduced himself as Macintosh, and Harry had no idea what he meant by an apple, but he liked being called Mac.

The other guard, Miller, looked to be early twenties, a slender, dark haired kid with glasses. He’d already been sick down the hall.

“How?” Al asked. “Zombies, like this?”

“I can only theorize, Al, I don’t have actual evidence or concrete details.”

“Tell me your theory because so far all your theories have been proven correct. I’ve done some research you know? We screwed up, didn’t do the research, and so I studied up last night. I read all of your articles… I didn’t think zombies could put themselves back together.”

Harry frowned. “And a year ago I would have told you that a vampire necromancer was impossible. It’s kind of an oxymoron, you know? But, I have been thinking about it. There aren’t that many animators in the United States. Even less who can call themselves Necromancers. Vampires have a strong fear of Necromancers.”

“Why?”

“We don’t jump? We don’t get rolled? A Necromancer with advanced powers is nearly impossible to control, and sometimes we can control them.” He shrugged. “Anyway, I’ve noticed that when an individual animator raises a zombie it tends to have a lively sort of quirk that it adopts from the animator. Not really a surprise considering our power is juicing them. Sometimes our blood is donated to get them up and animated. So they take on characteristics like a child would.”

“I can get my head around that,” said Al.

“Morte d’Amour is a Rotting Vampire. Maybe a Necromancer becomes a Rotter if he or she’s turned. I’ve never heard of it. But perhaps his ‘brand’ is not just rotting vampires, but rotting corpses too. Merlin that makes no sense to me, but it also does. His power going into them makes them rot and knit back together.”

“Your zombies are almost human,” Edward pointed out.

Everyone looked at Harry who nodded. “Yes, they are.”

“Sometimes it's hard to even notice they’re dead.”

“We guard the Kitten sometimes when he does his raising. If we hadn’t seen them come from the ground we’d be hard pressed to smell anything rotting,” said Nicky.

“They also have a force of personality,” said Dev. “One wanted to spank Harry for being out so late on a school night.”

Harry scoffed as Gonzales started coughing as if to hide a laugh. “Shush Dev!” He rolled his eyes. “That’s why every year it never seems to fail, I get at least one request for Marilyn Monroe.”

Al’s brows shot upward as he worked to get back on topic. “So, you think because he can rot, his raised zombies can rot?”

“That’s my theory. I’ve never seen it before, Al. It should not be possible, but like I said, the texts are thrown away when it comes to these ancients.”

“How much were you offered?” asked Mac, curious.

“Once, 10 million dollars.”

“Why did you say no?” asked Al.

Harry snorted. “I might be a kinky boy, Al, but I do not condone necrophilia. Not to mention that’d be kind of like rape. No!” He shook his head, everyone but Edward was too horrified to smirk or even snicker.

“I always wondered what bloody bastard had decided to make the morgue windows so bloody high?” Harry grumbled as even Edward had to stretch to see in the windows and he had Harry by a few inches, plus his two inches of cowboy boots.

“A tall bastard,” answered Officer Jenkins.

“Probably,” Harry agreed.

“It’s like what happened in the mountains,” Edward told him. “They’re huddled down over the bodies like vultures.”

“They’ll be safe-ish until there’s nothing left to eat: then they’ll try to get out and find something fresh. What kind of zombie can take out a vampire?” Harry murmured.

“This kind,” said Edward.

“Are they eating the other dead bodies, or just the vampires?”

“There are no bodies on any of the slabs.”

“Bloody hell, I need to see them!” Harry said with a scowl.

Edward looked down at him and smirked. “Need a boost so you can see for yourself?”

“Yes!”

“How can you smile looking at that?” Al asked. He looked very green.

“I can smile looking at a lot of things,” he said, and this time it was more Edward than Ted looking out at the deputy. His real Edward. Gorgeous, cold, pitiless Edward.

“Please give me a boost, Husband!” But Edward didn’t have to because Nicky, who had been behind him, seized him by the hips and lifted him with ease. If Nicky’s hands shifted for ‘leverage’ and ‘happened’ to squeeze his ass… Well his lovers were always finding excuses to feel him up, even during serious times. It helped that the movement was blocked by Nicky’s large body.

Harry caught the edge of the window sill to peek in. It looked like every zombie movie out there, except that Harry knew they got it wrong. So why did this match it? The police had sent a handful of vampires to the morgue and maybe a dozen zombies in bits, but the room was so full of the dead that Harry couldn’t count them as they huddled over the bodies. Edward had compared them to vultures, but vultures squabble over the dead, fighting for the best pieces. The zombies ate in near silence, except for the wet, tearing sounds that they had all been hearing through the door long before he looked. The zombies huddled around four distinct piles of ‘food’. There were only supposed to be three dead, so why four piles? Harry couldn’t see the bodies because the crouched undead hid most of the corpses from view. Harry got bits of red flesh glinting in the overhead lights, white bone gleaming, and shining colors of organs as they ripped and tore.

Some of the zombies were decayed, but the one munching on someone’s heart looked fresh as could be. None of the zombies that had been sent there had looked that good.

“Oh bloody hell…”

“What is it, Little Raven? What did you see that I didn’t?”

“The police sent less than a dozen zombies in pieces here.”

“There has to be more than twenty.”

“Yeah, and none of them looked this human, Edward. They were all decayed, a lot, not fresh like this.”

“It’s some of the bodies that were in the morgue when we unloaded,” said Al, taking a guess.

“So he can remote raise?” Harry murmured. “I didn’t even feel him raise them tonight. I felt nothing! I’ve been in this hospital for hours. I always feel this kind of power. Why didn’t I feel it? I’m seeing everybody in the morgue has turned into a zombie. It doesn’t spread like that.”

“I thought they had to be in the ground?” Edward asked.

“Not - always,” said Harry. “Nicky, put me down please. I saw enough.” Nicky gently sat him back down on his feet. “We need to assume these zombies are able to remotely spread an infection on the dead that makes them animate. That is the only thing I can think of that would bypass my sensors. That’s like Nicky and Dev not being able to smell flowers shoved under their noses.”

“Sounds like we’re fucked,” said Jenkins.

No one argued, but Harry saw Edward’s lip twitch. “Looks like we need to get the big guns.”

Miller let out a high-pitch scream when something heavy hit the door. Nicky and Dev snatched Harry back.

“We need to burn them,” said Edward. He turned to Harry. “Can you use that fiendfyre?”

“I can…” But he worried about the explosive things. “But we have to be extra careful. I don’t know exactly what kind of explosives would be in there, and if I did that it won’t be just the zombies going. Everything in the room would be reduced to ash. I can use the other variant that I used upstairs. Less chance for - mistakes. Fiendfyre has to be precise.”

“I have a flamethrower in my car,” said Edward.

“This is a basement of a hospital,” Gonzales reminded them.

“Evacuate the hospital,” Edward said logically. “Once we burn them we scatter their ashes into different bodies of running water. As we told you all to do initially.”

“We can’t order that,” said Jenkins.

Harry frowned. Did they not see what was going to happen? “We have killer zombies in the morgue, and unless we can use fire we might not be able to stop them. I think that’s an excellent reason to evacuate the hospital.”

“Fuck,” Gonzales said, softly but with feeling.

The zombies were beginning to throw themselves clumsily against the doors, but flesh-eating zombies aren’t like the regular shambling dead. They wouldn’t stay clumsy; they would learn and adapt like a wild animal not native to their surroundings. Harry and his men had learned that the Harlequin destroyed rogue zombies the same way they killed rogue vampires, and for many of the same reasons.

The doors shuddered under the next shove. Harry doubled the weight and strength of the ax handle that had been shoved through the door handles. “Whatever we’re going to do, we need to do it before the doors give.”

“Not if?” Miller looked very pale and sweat was gleaming from the top of his forehead down into his eyes. He was already starting to show signs of shock.

Macintosh’s phone sounded, making everyone but Harry, Nicky, and Gonzales jump. “Mac here. We may need to evacuate the hospital.” He was quiet, and then he went pale. “Say again? You have reports of zombies on three different floors?”

He hit the speaker so that they could all hear and said. “I’ve got cops with me, and you’re on speaker. Can you please repeat that, Ida?”

Ida said. “We have reports on three, five, six, and the ICU. They called on the hospital line but the line went dead; I could hear people yelling in the background before the call cut out.”

“Tenth?” Harry gasped. Rush was on that floor. Harry dug his phone out, but he needn’t have to because several cops let out yelps at the sudden appearance of a vampire at Harry’s shoulder.

”He’s safe!” Harry shouted before anyone could get any ideas.

“You’ve gotten faster, I didn’t even smell you in time,” said Dev, wide-eyed.

It was Damian, his long spill of scarlet hair trailed down over his shoulders and down his back and chest. His beautiful pale face was flawless and perfect, his eyes were so much like Harry’s in their startling shade. He had his ancient sword riding his back.

“Damian?”

“Jean-Claude says to focus on the morgue. He and Wicked Truth have the upper floors along with our guards. Micah’s family have all been moved and barricaded in Mr. Callahan’s room for ease of guarding one location rather than spreading out. He also said they are not zombies, but vampires.”

“How many?”

“Unspecified. At least twenty.”

“Far more than the wilderness!” said Al, who seemed to get over his shock a lot quicker.

“Let’s leave the upper floors to them then,” said Edward, nodding. “You staying to fight?”

“Yes. I am not leaving my master though I know you would protect him.” He looked at Edward when he said this. “Still, I will not be useless.”

“Master?” Jenkins blinked.

“So the rumors are true?” Al gasped.

“Another reason why a lot of vampires used to execute Necromancers or those with potential. He’s my -” Harry stopped for a moment. He always hated calling anyone a servant.

“Servant. I am his vampire servant,” he said with a pride lingering in his cultured voice.

“How?”

“That is not what is important right now,” Edward reminded when another thud against the door jolted everyone. “Let’s just say that Little Raven has the devil’s luck when it comes to accidents.”

“If you use a flamethrower the sprinkler system will go off,” Mac told Edward after they had recovered from the situation.

“Fuck.” Edward scowled.

“We have those phosphorous grenades,” said Harry.

Edward’s cold eyes sparked. “Yes we do.”

“But phosphorous grenades are designed to go out in the water.”

“Not these ones,” said Harry. “You have those old European grenades right?”

“In the car.”

Harry pulled out the mokeskin pouch that he always tucked away, and dug his hand deep inside. He pulled out a couple. “I stole them from you.” He handed them over and Edward grinned viciously.

“I love when you steal my stuff, Little Husband. You don’t by any chance have enough ammo mags in that pouch?”

Harry smirked. “Yes, I do, and you know your stuff is charmed and spelled to hell and back to take from your stash in the car. Can’t quite get the magic to use the armory stash, but little things, yeah?”

Edward laughed. “Perfect!”

“You all act like this is another day in paradise for you!” Al flinched at another bang on the door.

“If we can cut them into pieces, we can use your fire and grenades to keep the blazes contained,” said Nicky smirking. “I’m game.” Edward nodded.

“We have to do what we have to do,” said Al solemnly. “Gonzales?”

“I ain’t moving, Al!”

Harry had conjured some of their guns. He put one in Al’s large hands and another in Mac. Nicky was already pulling a couple from Harry’s pouch that he had passed over. Gonzales was just watching him.

“How much more shit you have in there?” But Harry never had a chance to answer.

A second crash against the doors told Harry that his magic was about to give. Nicky looked into the window. “They’re using a gurney as a battering ram! We have to get into position now or we’ll be overrun.”

“My magic can’t hold it much longer, it's about to snap.”

All of them backed up to glue themselves to the wall. The double doors of the morgue bowed and bucked as if some giant hand had slapped them. Harry could hear the bolts and pins, feel the strain of his magic.

“Are you ready? We aim for the mouth, and then the limbs. Everything else is worthless,” Harry shouted. “It’s a waste of ammo going for the torso. I have lots of ammo, and all the guns are charmed, we may have an endless supply, but you don’t have nine lives so make the damn thing count!”

“Got it,” said Jenkins and everyone else.

Damian readied his sword, and Nicky stood on Harry’s other side as the doors gave a massive groan. Soon the zombies busted through. It was all very movie and TV like, Harry thought dryly. Maybe next time he should join Peter in watching that Dawn of the Dead movie that he’d become obsessed with.

None of them had time to see more than the flood of the dead pouring out like water onto the floor, weighing down the silver doors because the world exploded around them as if they were a firing squad.

Dev, who had never seen real combat let out a yell of pain as the explosion hit his ears. He hunched over, free hand to one ear, face grimacing with pain.

Nicky’s strong body moved as if it was born for this. He dropped the gun to hang on the hanger and seized a zombie, ripping him to pieces easily. He might have had a visceral smile. He would use the gun, but he preferred to use his hands. Harry noticed they’d been transformed into switchblades. Good idea!

“Now that’s what I call a big boy,” Jenkins grunted as he continued to fire.

Edward was moving in a seamless line, up and down just ahead of them. Harry moved to match him, and the two made a game of it. Harry’s magic flowed, he used liberal sectumsempras as they were faster. He had conjured a sword for one hand to use, lighting it with a bit of fire on the end as he swept through a series of zombies that were grappling and shoving their way toward them.

“Two!” Edward called out as he swung around.

“Sorry, Husband, I have three!”

Al and Miller let out yells, and Harry swung around to see Al had been dive-bombed by at least four.

Edward, and Nicky brought their guns up and simultaneously blasted the zombies in the head.

“Bombarda!” Harry shouted, causing a zombie to go flying and explode into the nearby wall.

“I apologize but I have managed to take six,” said Damian calmly as he moved his body like a dancer across the floor. Jenkins was about to fall to the ground with the weight of the zombies seizing at his torso and pulling him down. Damian cut through them making Jenkins stumble as Damian used one hand to grab him and push him up to the wall. Then the vampire turned and sent his sword to cleave from the top of the skull down, splitting the zombie perfectly in half.

Gonzales was firing point-blank into their faces. He had a .45 and at that range it blew one head to pieces, so all that was just left were hands reaching blindly, but he was dry firing into the face of the second, and it turned to him with a hungry, angry expression. Zombies don’t do angry unless they were ordered to.

Harry dropped the sword to let it disappear back into his pouch as he took up the AR gun and fired from less than two feet away. The head exploded in a fountain of blood and brains. Most of the bone was soft cartilage so it was hardly noticeable.

Gonzales stared at Harry with wide eyes as he dropped his gun, took up the sword again that appeared like magic and he moved into position.

Dev was still beside Harry, and didn’t have the loaded AR to his shoulder yet. He wasn’t like Nicky who was just having the time of his life alongside Edward. Damian moved like a flash. You saw him one second, didn’t the next.

Miller let out an unearthly scream, and Jenkins cursed as he fired into the face of a zombie who had sunk its mouth down on Miller. Blood was gushing as the younger officer slid down the wall. Gonzales moved to cover them so that Jenkins could stem the flow.

Harry and Dev would remove items from the mokeskin pouch for the others to use. Gonzales took up a pump shotgun as Al, who also had a .45, continued to shoot into the reaching hands and gaping mouths of zombies. “I like this no re-load times!” Al shouted as he just kept firing.

Nicky moved in beside Harry. He had a series of claws at the ready, the other hand was more normal. He seized the nearest zombie by the shoulder and upper arm before pulling. Harry had a moment to watch those lovely muscles strain and the veins on his arms rising with the force as he pulled the zombie’s arm out of its shoulder socket. It’d been a fresh zombie.

It should not have been that hot.

“Harry!”

Harry ducked, turned and sent a spell in the direction of the voice. He trusted his magic to strike true. “Use your gun, Nicky!”

“Sorry, Kitten,” Nicky guffawed as he took up the AR rifle.

Dev had finally managed to get over his shock and was up and shooting, taking Nicky’s other side. Harry had no doubt that he would have to take up some more training. Most often Dev was the lazy cat. He was good at fighting, but not so good when it came to things like this. Rafael and his men would be putting him to work after this no doubt if he wanted to keep his guard position.

Between Damian, Harry, Edward, and Nicky most of the ground was littered with attempted crawlers of dismembered zombies, and it seemed like the morgue had been endless with fresh deaths. He had no doubt being the largest hospital in the area with a morgue attached, that it catered to more than just Boulder City.

Dev flinched harshly when he heard the elevator doors sound. Harry had just enough time to swing around, and pull his gold tiger back before he could shoot the incoming SWAT. Friendly fire was a thing after all, and Harry wasn’t about to give anyone a free pass at shooting his men.

“A bit late to the party,” Harry called out as he turned to see Edward, Nicky, and Damian finishing the last three. The hall had this sudden bout of silence as the blood, guts, and other bits splattered through the air. They were in a mound of zombie parts. Al was grimacing and clutching his shoulder. Miller had been dragged off to the side by Jenkins. He was sheet-white as Jenkins held something to his neck. Gonzales had been covering them. A couple of zombies ripped to pieces lay at his feet. A hand here and there was trying to crawl its way across the floor. A couple of legs were using their knees. Most of the heads were gone except for the occasional mouth that opened and closed repeatedly as if it was desperate to eat through the air.

“I take it the pretty vampires upstairs are yours?” asked the man eyeing Damian.

“Yes. Harry Potter-Black.”

“Yes I know. I’m Yancey.”

“We’re not finished yet,” said Edward, wiping down his face of blood and stepping over the mound. Nicky smashed down on a ripped off hand that tried to grab Edward’s ankle. “We have to burn the motherfuckers.”

“You’ll set off the sprinklers or burn the hospital down.”

“Sprinklers yes,” said Harry. “Burn down. No. That's why we cut them up.”

“How?” he asked, intrigued.

Harry couldn’t help but grin at the man through the zombie bits and blood that dripped down his face. Good thing Yancey didn’t flinch. “We’ll show you.”

He grinned back, eyes taking in the knee deep pile of corpses. “Looking forward to it.”

Nicky, Edward, Harry, and most of SWAT gathered all of the wriggling, still attempting to move body parts to pile them all up in the center of the morgue. Al had shoved the leftover tables aside to give them as much room as they could.

“Grenades?” Edward looked at Harry once.

“Yes.” He would rather avoid showing off that kind of magic. Fiendfyre was not a friendly spell. It was one point away from being called an Unforgivable for a reason.

Harry, Nicky, and Edward set the European grenades in a circle around the mound. Edward sat one of the grenades on the very top, and he pulled the pin as they all backed away.

It wasn’t a normal flame or orange like a fireplace. It was white-hot with edges of blue, so bright it would sear out your eyeballs if you looked at it too long. Harry had to warn them of this as Damian stood at his back, eyes ever watchful of the men around them that weren’t their own.

The heat was so intense it felt like it could shear the skin off of them. Harry had used a shield to cover Damian so the intensity didn’t jolt him.

“Do zombies always burn so bright?” Yancey asked.

“No, it’s the phosphorus.”

Harry frowned, and Edwared caught it. “What are you thinking, Little Raven?”

“I don’t think these were human zombies. I think they were vampires.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Yancey.

“They didn’t smell, and they don't smell like anything now. A burning vampire doesn’t have a smell of cooked meat like a human.”

“He’s right,” said Damian.

Before Yancey could ask anything more the fire alarm started screeching around them. Not long after the sprinklers kicked in and the rain started.

Water pounded down upon them and helped ease some of the battle fatigue. Harry grimaced as he kept his mouth shut. He had to look at the floor at some point to keep the water out of his eyes. Dev on the other hand made a sound that they all heard above the water, the alarm, and the fire blazing up like a white-blue flame.

He was wiping at his face frantically, and Harry realized he didn’t know the rule that all monster hunters lived by. Keep Your Mouth Shut. He stumbled away from the room into the hall to fall to his knees. Harry moved quickly to kneel beside him as he threw up all over the place. He gathered the retching tiger into his arms as they leaned against the wall. He smoothed the man’s blond hair out of his eyes and away from his face. His eyes were wide and the fear was plain on his handsome tanned face.

Harry snuggled him, not caring who may or may not be watching. Dev flinched when he saw something out of the corner of his eyes. He gasped when he saw writhing body parts, like octopus tentacles, trying to get out of the fire pit. Nicky stabbed at the few that made it out with a claw and tossed them back onto the pit.

“Sorry… so sorry.” Dev heaved quietly into him.

“No, I’m sorry.” Dev shook his head as he pushed into Harry’s body. “You should go up top or check on the guards, Miller and Jenkins.”

“The elevator won’t work. You’ll have to take the stairwell,” said Yancey over his shoulder.

Harry helped Dev to get to his feet. “I’ll take you upstairs. I want to check on Jean and the rest anyway.”

“At your back,” said Damian, instantly at his side.

Yancey made a noise. “Are there vamps faster than you out there?”

“Yes,” said Damian.

“Shit…” Al croaked.

Harry didn’t wait to listen to the comments, he had more important things to do. Halfway up to the ICU, Dev seemed to collapse on the stairs. His blue-gold eyes were impossibly wide. “How do you do it?”

“I’m sorry, Dev.”

“I can’t do this.”

“I know, this was a war, not guarding.” He stroked Dev’s face as Damian stayed at his back, eyes ever watchful. It was the only reason Edward let him go without him in tow. He was going to make sure the bodies burned completely before moving. Nicky would be right along with him.

Harry didn’t care that Dev had zombie guts and blood on his face as he sat beside him and kissed him on the cheek, making Dev push into him. “I’m supposed to help you, supposed to protect you. I failed.”

“He’s alive,” said Damian like it wasn’t obvious.

“I did nothing…”

“You stood at our side and fought all the way through. You did not run and you pushed through, Dev. And really I don’t need as much guarding as everyone thinks I do,” Harry scoffed. “Besides, everyone is a mess when they encounter war for the first time.”

“Were you?” Dev asked.

“All of us were,” said Harry. “I can’t remember when my war started to be honest, Dev.”

“He was a child. I was a child too when I saw war. From what I remember, the glimpses every so often,” said Damian.

“I’m a mess…”

“Our mess,” said Harry. “My mess. You’re my gold tiger to call. I chose you…”

“But Ethan would have been better. Ethan is more yours. He encompasses most of the tigers.”

“You're still mine,” said Harry. Dev’s thought had passed through Harry’s mind before and if Harry had met Ethan before Jake brought the golds it was likely that Dev wouldn’t have been Harry’s tiger to call. However, he had met Dev first, so the point was mute.

“Even if we were forced on you?”

“I could have said no. I could have sent you all back out with Jake. But I didn’t. You’re my tiger. You’re my Devil. You don’t have to be good at war to be a good guard. You just have to be mine. But maybe next time we’ll leave the zombie and vampire killing out of it?”

Dev wound his arms around Harry’s neck and pushed his strong body into him. “But then I won’t be able to go anywhere with you anymore. You’ll choose everyone else over me!”

“For war, yes, and that’s not a bad thing, Devil. You can give me and everyone else support without being in the thick of it. You are great with weres and humans. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. You have to recognize them. Perhaps next time Micah leaves for his Coalition duties out of state you can be his guard.”

“Really?”

“Yes, you’re second to none when you’re up against what you understand.”

“I suppose he could use my assistance. I heard he damn near tears the throats out of the dominant females that try to barter with him using sex,” said Dev. “Nilda might not like it though, but that’s not my problem. I told her I can’t be monogamous.”

“It’s your decision, Dev. Everyone fits somewhere, and everyone has a job to do based on their strength.”

“What’s your weakness?” Dev asked. “You don’t have one. What about Sir. Edward?”

“You can’t compare us, Dev,” Harry chided softly. “You shouldn’t be comparing us.”

“Master’s weakness is his insatiable ability of sacrificing himself,” said Damian. “As a guard you need to watch him and make sure he doesn’t take all those issues on his shoulders to the point where he believes his own conscience needs to be sacrificed.”

Dev looked at Damian.

“Edward, I don’t know.”

“I’m not that sacrificing, not anymore, Damian. I’ve learned. Just like you’ll learn if you want to. But I’d rather not lose the mischievous Dev. For me that’s more important than your fighting skills. You being you. Edward had to lose a lot of himself to get to the point he’s at right now,” said Harry. “It’s Edward so it's fine. But, you are Dev. You are not Edward or Harry. Just be you.”

Dev kissed him, and it didn’t matter if he’d been throwing up or what-not. Dev needed comfort and Harry would provide it. They kept it close mouthed on instinct. “Come on, let’s go see Jean and the others, and I’ll just bet you’d feel better after a shower.”

“You should join me, help me get it off,” said Dev, nuzzling Harry’s chin with his nose.

“Now who is fishing?” asked Damian flatly.

“I need snuggles!” Dev said, slipping his fingers beneath Harry’s sopping shirt to touch his skin. “Need someone to wash my back.”

“I can if you like.”

“Yeah, but you’ll really wash my back and nothing more. You won’t fuck me,” Dev said with a pout making Harry snicker.

“Now you sound like Seth,” said Damian, and that to Harry sounded like the ultimate compliment even if his words sounded dull. Damian loved Seth. Cardinal had tried to get him to give up Seth, but Damian had told her that she was not worth him giving Seth up.

“Hm, maybe I should be a pomme…”

“Well, we do have Wicked Truth…” they needed pommes for themselves, but no one had seemed to fit them so the leopards would rotate feeding them.

“Meowwww.” Dev grinned that joker smile, and Harry knew that while shaken, he was going to be just fine.

Harry, Damian, and Dev arrived at the tenth floor to see a rather interesting scene that was probably a once in a lifetime.

Up and down the hall leading to the nurse’s station between the rooms was a long trail of vampire body parts. Some of them were on fire, light smoldering flames. Not enough to get the sprinklers going just yet. Harry realized it wasn’t a match or lighter. It was magic.

He saw Jean-Claude’s beautiful back. He was guiding their son who was lighting each of them up between the rows. Wicked Truth flanked them. If anything moved, a sword would come down and stop it, or an ax in Truth’s case.

A mass of police, medical professionals, and first responders of every flavor were spread out. All of the patient room doors had been slammed shut. Ethan was making up the rear behind them, double checking that the flames were doing their job.

He could hear murmurings. “It was so amazing! One second the vampires were there, and the next they started dropping, and the pretty ones moved so fast, I didn’t see them!”

The uniform nearest them laughed when they saw Harry and his men. “How did you get that wet and still look like you walked out of a slaughterhouse?”

A lot of eyes turned in their direction. A lot of gasps and flinches followed. Harry looked down to see the damage that he truly hadn’t noticed, but could feel he was wearing.

Damian’s and Dev’s hair were plastered to their heads and backs, and Harry knew that his had been too. Probably the only time it ever lay flat. Their clothes were dripping a brownish reddish puddle to the ground.

Dev cringed when it was brought up. Harry noted that Damian had some brain on his shoulder, and he reached up and plucked it off causing a few people to shudder.

“Fun with zombies,” Harry said languidly.

“What?”

“Boys, keep guiding mon Petit Loup,” said Jean-Claude’s lovely voice, and it drowned out the mundane voice of the uniform.

Wicked Truth looked like a couple of men out of the Lord of the Rings. All very handsome, masculine, and scruffy. He noticed that Dev was considering them now quite seriously. Harry thought it was a good distraction for the sensitive tiger.

Jean-Claude kissed Teddy’s forehead, and it only took one blink before the lovely man was standing in front of him. He had a single little tear in his laced shirt.

The uniform flinched as he hadn’t noticed until Harry's attention changed. “Mon Amour. You look - like a gorgeous disaster.”

“Right, I’ll just bet Mr. I Have A Single Rip.”

Jean-Claude didn’t care about the blood or guts as he pulled Harry close, and kissed him passionately. Oh the things a man or woman would do for love, Harry thought, keeping his mouth closed.

“Ooh, now you’re filthy,” Harry purred when Jean-Claude stepped back.

“It is fine.”

“Considering you have about a thousand of the same shirt,” Damian said blandly.

“How are Micah and his family?”

“I have them in Monsieur Callahan’s room for the duration of the incident,” said Jean-Claude with a motion of his elegant hand. “Lisandro called us with some worry. I figured it was time to get out and stretch a bit.”

Harry wanted to say, ‘well you are the Vampire King.’ But he refrained with so many eyes and watchers. “Shall I help Teddy finish?”

“Oui, I thought it would be a good chance to practice some of his spellwork. He is particularly interested in some purple flames, non? But I did not have the proper knowledge to instruct him.”

“Probably best. It takes a lot of intent and focus. He’s not quite there yet. He could probably manage one, but it’d drain him quickly,” said Harry, taking out his wand and moving from between Damian and Dev. He went along the rows of the light flames and shot his own on top. All purple and bright, making those nearby gasp and watch the scene in fascination.

A few people poked their heads out of the patient rooms, no doubt attracted by the flaring light it gave off.

“What should we do with the ashes?” asked Officer Bush coming around. Becker had joined him. It seemed these two liked Harry a lot now or at least respected him.

“Divide each pile up and place each into separate bags to be scattered in various bodies of running water,” Harry said, not looking at the man.

“Why isn’t the sprinkler going?” asked Becker.

“These ones don’t give off smoke, and the heat is very low to the ground,” he explained. Soon enough, he met Teddy, Wicked Truth, and Ethan at the end of the line.

“Parrain! I helped!” said Teddy, looking so flushed and proud.

“I see you did, great job, Teddy Bear,” said Harry, finishing the last one.

“You have to teach me that!”

“Soon, once your control and focus is better,” Harry promised. “Incendio is a great starter spell to work your way to the next. Get them about this high and I’ll teach you.” He showed with his hand about the size of a dog. “Wicked Truth!”

“You are filthy,” said Wicked literally.

“You need a good wash,” Truth added.

“And you boys are way too clean,” said Harry, inspecting each of them.

“Zombies are messier,” said Wicked. Harry kissed both of them on the cheek, having to stand on his toes to do so.

Come to find out, Jean-Claude, Wicked Truth, and some of the Harlequin guards with Claudia in tow had taken to each floor with zombies and vampires present. Ares had left the comforts of his room with Nathaniel and Peter to help. No one commented about the Pussycat collar around Nathaniel’s throat or the fact that he was in soft drawstring pants with no shirt. Harry was sure he saw Becker pressing her knees together at some point with wide-eyes. Edward deputized Wicked Truth to take the remains of the zombies and vampires for proper disposal.

But, the best part about the whole thing was Micah slipping out with Lisandro, Noah, and Bram. Micah didn’t care that Harry and Edward were nasty and covered in muck as he ran into their arms. Jean-Claude leaned proudly against Edward as they stroked Micah and peppered him with kisses.

Yes, even alphas needed love. Fuck anyone who thought differently.

Chapter Text

He finally got a chance to see his hotel. No surprise it was one of the pricier ones in town. It was also a great location to get to and from the airport as well as all the business dealings including hospital and police department.

He knew that the staff had been alarmed when Harry and all his men had walked into their elegant upscale establishment, that sat in viewing distance of the enchanting Rockies, to see them covered in blood, brains, and muck. Good news, Jean-Claude was leading them. He looked pretty as a picture as they bypassed the male staffer who looked dazed and confused with a mere smile in his direction.

New guards were left back at the hospital and so Bram, Nicky, Dev, Noah, Ethan, and Lisandro were coming with them to get some rest and have some downtime before starting again the next night. Ares was back in his assigned hospital room. It was a few hours until dawn, and they all took the stairwell. Edward hadn’t even had to prompt Jean-Claude.

“Luna has covered the floor and every wall with her wards and enchantments.”

“And the Harlequin?” asked Edward.

“In their own specialized places,” he assured. “The babies’ room is off limits completely except for the Rats, Lions, Leopards, and Tigers.”

“Good,” said Edward stroking his hand through Jean-Claude’s pretty curl. “Who is watching your body when you go down?”

“Emmanuel and Domino shall be taking the place of Wicked Truth, mon Tueur d’Ombre. I admit I am a bit weaker than I wish to be at the moment. It took twice as long to fell such newbie vampires as it should of.”

“Why is that?”

“Is it because of the infection?” Harry asked, moving to look at their husband, and tracing him over. He hadn’t a mark on him. Just as lovely and perfect as he always was.

“Oui.”

“It touched you?” Edward asked, and the hint of true worry lined his eyes.

“Non, mon Tueur d’Ombre, but I tried to help our father-in-law. It does not seem it, but it has had an effect. Truth helped one of the officers who had been attacked too. But it hadn’t been as bad considering it was a fresh wound.”

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

“I could not not try, mon Tueur d’Ombre. He is our father-in-law, and mon Chaton does not deserve the pain he is going through. I wanted to at least try and offer some form of aid, but he forced me to stop.”

“Good,” said Harry and Edward.

“We want to help him too, but not at the expense of you,” said Harry sharply.

Jean-Claude chuckled and curled his arm around Harry and drew him in with a kiss to his blood soaked hair. “You are all precious, but I think I extended his life a day. Perhaps if we can stop this madness then he may recover yet.”

“Did you ask Asher to ask Draco to look into skelegro?”

“Oui, I had no idea what we were talking about, but Draco assured us he was on it. I shall call when we get into the rooms and see if there is an update,” said Jean-Claude as Edward’s palm flexed against the gorgeous vampire’s back as they kept in step. A couple guards were ahead of them as they continued to scale the floors.

Harry was sure that only their party would ever take the stairs all the way up to the 15th floor, which they had all to themselves. A couple of guards were moving up and down the hall. Harry recognized a few of the Rats and a good dozen of their own personal Kiss including Faust.

All twelve rooms on the floor were their own, and Harry could feel the warding and magic layered across the rooms.

“Did Fredrico not offer?” asked Edward.

“Oui, he did, but I did not think you would appreciate a strange set of Kiss members,” said Jean-Claude.

“You’re right I don’t. But it would have been a faux pas if they hadn’t offered. We can’t have those insults,” Edward tightened his hold on Jean-Claude who tilted his head and nibbled at his ear while they kept moving at a slow sedated pace.

“Oui. Non, Fredrico is quite terrified of what is going on right now. He has sworn a blood oath to me for our participation in clearing his city of the corruption.”

“If they were under your blood oath, Morte d’Amour couldn’t just take them and do as he pleased,” said Harry. “I know a few of them had to have been his.”

“Oui, he has identified five of the vampires from last night in the wilderness as the wanderers who had been drawn away from his fold.”

“Doesn’t sound like much of a master,” grunted Dev.

“He is perhaps one of the weakest. He has this territory because no one else wishes for it. It is scraps off a larger territory.”

Not quite the middle of the hall on the left side Domino was standing guard in front of a door. Harry’s eyes lit up. “Domino!”

Domino smirked, his fire orange eyes blazed when they saw Harry. “You are messy. I’m sorry I missed it,” he said, not caring about filth as he curved around Harry. Domino drew him in for a sweet kiss.

“You have a most important job, Domino.” He kissed the man’s cheek.

“Come in with us, mon ami. I think mon Amour could do with your handsome face after all he’s seen tonight.”

“And I’m not handsome?” Dev sulked.

“You are plastered with brains and blood, be thankful you still look almost edible,” Jean-Claude purred as he turned and curled his finger beneath Dev’s chin making the tiger shiver.

He might not be Jean-Claude’s official tiger to call, but he still loved the touch and attention when Jean-Claude gave it to him. Jean-Claude pressed a kiss to Dev’s lips. He let go when Domino opened the door for them to the room. Dev might or might not have staggered. Nicky poked him in the ribs. Dev sniffed and took it like a man with a walking hard on.

Most of the beds had been removed from this particular room. No doubt Luna had done it for them temporarily because the entirety of the hotel suite had been set up with identical coffins. All the windows had been blacked out, and there were a few sofas and chairs that lined around the walls of the room so people could sit, facing toward the door and windows for anyone coming and going.

Jean-Claude could have slept in a bed just fine, but with the state of things as they were right now and Harry and Edward coming and going it was best that he blend in with the rest of his Kiss. Damian’s, Wicked’s, and Truth’s coffin would be right next to him. Damian could wake during the day if he ever had to. It would be a nasty surprise for anyone who had bad ideas. Not that they were likely to make it to the door with enchantments, wards, and then the guards. But paranoid was paranoid and ancient vampires like this bastard tended to bring the worst out in everyone.

Rafael had gone for high quality guards this round. Not since Harry visited the Roderium last had he seen so many wererats in one place.

Claudia stomped her way over, and when Harry says stomped, he meant it. She was six foot six, built tall and solid, and yet at the same time she was gorgeous and feminine. Draco had whispered that she looked like Xena Warrior Princess, but without the armor. Her hair was coal black and pulled in a low tail. She had no need for makeup. Harry could only imagine her Quidditch skills if she’d been a witch.

All of the guards circling them winced simultaneously.

“We’re in trouble,” Dev breathed.

“Yep…”

“You were supposed to guard him, and you let him get hurt!” Claudia scowled as she rounded on the guards.

“I shall leave you to your - entertainment,” said Jean-Claude grinning as all the guards had the sense to look sheepish.

“Ethan, can you take Teddy to the bath and then lay him down with the twins?” Harry asked. Ethan had been carrying Teddy, who was fast asleep draped over him.

“Of course, King.” He smiled blindly at Claudia. “My charge was perfectly safe, Ms. Claudia.” He turned and headed for the large bathroom.

Dev scowled. “What a leader, he is throwing us under the bus!”

Harry barely heard what Claudia followed up with, but Lisandro was able to bow out when he plucked at his black shirt and Claudia excused him for it.

“Oh come on! I’d have been fucking the kitten too if I hadn’t had elevation sickness!” Nicky argued.

“No excuses, Nick,” said Lisandro, his smile was smug and shameless. It was payback for Nick being faster than him earlier.

Harry felt bad for Claudia because he knew that Rafael and Edward both trusted her with the delegations of the guards when at home and when traveling with them, and she took that trust very seriously. All the men listened to her rant and took it like men usually do, though not without Dev trying to jokingly flirt with her. She was one of the rare women that it just wouldn’t work on if the devil’s glare that she gave him was anything to go by. She was happily asexual.

Harry knew that Edward was taking a small amount of pleasure in it. He hadn’t been pleased with Dev freezing.

Edward went to check some of the rooms out. He wouldn’t be pleased until he could look in on Luna and twins. He wouldn’t be able to touch them until he was clean and washed without risking them getting sick. But Harry knew he wanted to see them badly.

Harry was concerned about Wicked Truth and so as Jean-Claude spoke to some of theirs he gently nudged them aside. Wicked wound his arms around Harry and nibbled his neck.

“You okay, Truth?” Harry asked, running his palm up the man’s chest.

He had shaved his beard so now he was lovely and smooth. He looked even more like Wicked except for the hair color difference. Wicked often dressed Truth in designer suits unless they were preparing for a fight. Truth preferred his old leathers that Harry repaired from time to time, but he seemed to cherish the dragon hide boots and gloves that Harry had given him.

He wound his arms around Truth who stared down at him, pretty deep blue eyes like his brother. He hadn’t gotten to talk to them much at the hospital. As Jean-Claude’s guards they had to truly blend in with the cops. Not to be seen or noticed, they were good at that.

“I am fine. I was honored to help a warrior,” said Truth, stroking Harry’s cheek. It was sometimes a challenge to hug these men. He had to fight with all the weapons. Edward appreciated them for that. Although, they preferred old world swords and battleaxes to the machine gun. “I’ve become stronger thanks to you.”

“No, you worked to get yourself back in shape.”

“Unfortunately we as guards cannot feed you as we should when we are your pommes and at home,” said Wicked.

“What about your own pomme? You still haven’t found someone right?”

“Correct.” Both said at the same time.

“How about Dev then?” Harry said, smirking. “You need a permanent pomme yourself, and I hear Dev is a sweetie and needs a backwashing.”

Truth chuckled. “You are spoiling us.”

“We would be fools to not accept,” Wicked followed up.

Both men loved hugging Harry together, and both of them drew him in for kisses one after another. Truth was generally shyer, but not with Harry. Wicked was always the first mover unless it was Harry.

“We were never allowed such liberties with our Dark Mistress,” said a man’s voice.

Harry shifted slightly and kept his grip on Truth, his cheek brushing the man’s suit. He would apologize for it getting filthy later. If Harry were being honest, he admitted that he did not like these new guards. The man had been just one of the few who had been sent to execute them.

Mischa was one of the Harlequin; he had been Graziano, one of the early names of Dottor or Doctor in the Italian Comedy, whatever that meant. Harry had barely listened when Jean-Claude was trying to explain it. He’d spent centuries wearing a mask that matched that name. The only people who saw his real face had been those he spied upon or those he killed. His real face had been the last sight on earth for thousands, maybe more. Some of the Harlequin were more than two thousand years old.

Many of the Harlequin were what real spies looked like: nondescript for their day or their country. A stalking horse was something more akin to those James Bond movies. Edward was a perfect spy or he would be if Harry didn’t know him so well.

Mischa was almost six foot. He had thick blond hair that was as straight as Wicked’s, but his hair was paler, almost white blond. Wicked’s was a golden bronze shade. Mischa looked at them with blue eyes that were ice cold.

“I’m not a mistress. I’m a man,” Harry said as though it weren’t obvious.

“He is a kinder master, and not so dark that he is gone,” said Truth, holding Harry in a protective embrace.

“I think someone has a jealous bone,” Wicked said. He was a bit more confrontational than his brother. Always the first to speak out and push buttons unless it was to Harry, Teddy, or the Core of them.

“The Master or Mistress of us all isn’t supposed to be kind. He’s supposed to lead.”

“So long as I don’t fail in leading, I can do whatever the bloody hell I want,” said Harry, shifting just slightly. His wand was already out and his wrist was pressed to Truth’s back. Not even Mischa noticed, but Truth did as he darted his eyes down at Harry once before looking back at the ancient man.

“He leads us where we all need to go,” said Truth calmly.

“You believe he leads well enough,” Wicked shook his head with that teasing ‘wicked’ smile. “You are simply jealous that we have his favor and you do not.”

“That is not true and you know it. You say such things only to try and anger me.”

“Maybe, but the fact that it's working is quite telling,” Wicked continued. “You do know it was Harry here who helped give us our powers back, return them to the state they were before we felled our former fountainhead. He made Damian a master vampire after a thousand years.”

Mischa let out a hiss, his eyes crystalizing. Harry knew that Wicked Truth could have at one time been their marks for doing such a thing. But Belle Morte had intervened on their behalf. Why she did such a thing, Harry could only guess. Maybe it was because she hated seeing beauty go to waste, and Wicked Truth were beautiful men.

“It is hard to be jealous or feel such a thing when he doesn’t let us be,” said Wicked, curving around Harry and licking the blood that was smeared on his cheek. Harry had to resist shivering. He knew Wicked was just being playful. He too did not like the Harlequin. But it was either they take them or kill them so they didn’t have to deal with them anymore. Edward and Jean-Claude had reminded him that if they killed all of these talented assassins then new ones would be made and they would be out of their hands. Instead, they were to be put to use. But damn if they weren’t annoying. So stuck up and self-righteous in their own way. “We’ve always been on the list.”

“I do not know jealousy,” Mischa sneered.

“You have yet to best me at sword practice or outdo my score at the firing range with a handgun,” Wicked reminded. “You storm out every time one of us ups you, and we haven’t touched handguns in centuries.”

Harry thought at that moment that Wicked Truth would definitely get along with Dev if they had more opportunity.

Mischa flushed, hands curling into fists at his side; for a really ancient vampire he was surprisingly easy to bait. Most of the really old ones could control their emotions to a degree that was frightening.

“I have bested you both with knife and long gun,” he said, hands in tight fists.

“But neither of us with sword or handgun,” Truth replied. “And you won’t even try to practice with me and an ax. Harry is quite good with the ax, aren’t you?”

“It’s not bad in a pinch! Great fun to swing,” said Harry.

Mischa glared at them. “Our Dark Mistress was a weapon; she had no need of guns and blades and training with us. She was more dangerous than any of us could ever be.”

“Doesn’t escape the fact that I destroyed her,” Harry quipped. “I don’t need guns and blades, but I don’t like being a one trick pony so I use everything in my capacity. If it gets the job done I don’t have that kind of arrogance or pride to rely on one little trick.”

“You say that the Mother of All Darkness was more powerful than any of you; then wouldn’t whoever killed her be more powerful than any of you too?” Truth asked, and Harry was surprised that the man would egg a confrontation on. That was usually Wicked’s realm.

“No!” Mischa almost spat that one word.

“You sure about that?” Truth purred out.

Mischa shook his head, but said nothing. Harry could see him rising to the bait.

“They debate between themselves on how a mere little human man could have slain their dark mistress,” A man stepped out from the adjoining bedroom. He was taller than Mischa by several inches, broader through the shoulders, just bigger all over. He had short brown hair that curled carelessly and eyes that were deep reddish brown. If one wasn’t sure what they were looking at, then Harry would think they were human eyes. But they weren’t. The were bear eyes, big fucking ancient cave bear eyes. His name was Goran and he had been a werebear before most of the great cities of the world had been more than a wide place to sell cattle. Mischa was even older. If Harry let down his shields and let his necromancy feel them, they were old enough to make his body feel old.

“You are suggesting there is a human being in this room,” said Harry sweetly. “Edward is checking on more important things right now.”

“Important? More like useless. What use are they to Jean-Claude?”

“I would be very careful continuing down that vein,” said Truth, his body had fully relaxed against Harry. Harry knew that the lack of tension meant that he was going into that mode that the two were so good at before they destroyed a room in a blink.

“The fact that our Dark Master is expending his energy for humans and creatures with no worth is an embarrassment to all of us.”

“I let you say that once, but once more is going to be too far.”

“You let men sodomize you, what kind of Master are you?” He snarled.

“A happy master,” said Harry. “It’s not my fault your former Mistress gave you no real enjoyment in the world. Freedom is such an enjoyment, and if you let yourself be blind, you’ll simply die miserable.”

“You allow men to use you.”

“I allow them to love me just as much as I love them. I am not Belle Morte who connives and manipulates men into bed. I don’t have to do that, and they know they don’t need to do that. But they are friends, family, and lovers. I do not have to be cruel in my everyday life. I do not have to have my personality taken away to do what I need to do at times. I am me. I am not a Dark Mistress. I am not a straight man and I will never be. Sexual positions and who does who is none of anyone’s business but those involved.”

“I often wonder how you stayed alive for so long being so snide with the Mother of All Darkness,” said Wicked.

“She valued my skills as an assassin and spy above petty concerns of flesh and hurt feelings.”

“And that’s why she lost,” said Harry, unwinding from Truth and leaning forward, his wand still hidden. “She couldn’t feel or enjoy her way out of a wet paper bag, and I consumed her.” He saw Mischa’s nostrils flaring and the hatred that brewed in his eyes. “I ate her power. I ate it all. I gain trust by being true. I gained friends and loyalty not by my power, but because we all have a common goal and an interest. They are my Community and my family and they are each others’. I highly doubt your Mother,” he sneered, the word with dripping disdain and insult, “would know what the meaning of the word true was if it fucked the brains out of her empty skull.”

Perfect! Mischa moved at a blurring pace, Goran let out a cry, but Truth and Wicked were stepping up to protect Harry who didn’t need it when he flourished his wand and pointed it right at the man’s nose. “See you, Crucio!” The moment the words left his mouth, Mischa let out an ear splitting scream. A ring of fear and pain flowed through him as he fell to the ground at their feet and writhed and flopped like a fish. Goran was cringing and shaking as though he’d been electrocuted too.

All of the other Harlequin turned to stare as Harry stepped away from Wicked and Truth. “Shall I make it worse?” Harry purred as he twirled his wand and the man rose upside down by his ankles as he screamed and flailed. A drops of thick blood poured out of his eyes, nose, and mouth. He was screaming and begging for mercy as he revolved.

Harry’s eyes turned into a pure emerald fire, and he released some of the magic that he always kept tightly wrapped and sealed. He caused several members of the Harlequin to stumble onto their knees from the pressure.

Wicked Truth had not been affected nor anyone Harry trusted. He was greater and bigger in that moment, and Harry could see what Voldemort saw in the lust he collected from the pained squalls of two thousand year old Mischa.

“Do you want me to stop, Mischa?” Harry asked sweetly.

“Yes! Please! Please!”

“Please, Master…” Goran begged, and Harry turned to see the man on his knees, blood dripping from beneath his eyes.

Harry quickly stopped the Cruciatus Curse, but he kept Mischa hanging upside down.

“I’m sorry, Goran. Can someone please help him out?” said Harry, and one of the Rats moved instantly to help him out. Mischa was sobbing where he hung as Harry began to revolve around him. “Just because I don’t like doing something does not mean I can’t do it if I must.” He poked Mischa in the nose with his wand making the man flinch violently. “I much rather be myself, and earn the trust around me through who I am rather than scare tactics or violence. You are a Harlequin. You are fine assassins, but do remember that it was you who tried to kill us first not so long ago. So you have to work your way up to getting me to trust you. Just so you know, saying things about my children and family are not the ways to go about that. I don’t flaunt my power because I don’t have to. I know what I can do. I don’t have to prove myself,” Harry moved in close so that they were almost touching. “But, there is a second reason I am doing this. I’ve heard rumors, and I don’t like those rumors, about the way you treat your Animals to Call. So all of you Harlequin, all of you great assassins and warriors, you will in no way abuse or treat your Animals to Call as you have been doing while under your former Mother. I am not she. She is not me. I will have arrangements made for you all to get some sort of counseling. But you will only get one warning. You continue on as you have been and Edward will be your next stop. I’m the nice one.” Harry produced a handkerchief from thin air, and handed it to Mischa before turning and walking away. “Let him hang there for a few hours. Give him some perspective. Someone put him in his coffin by dawn. I’m sorry, Goran.”

“Master…” Harry handed him a potion.

He was being mopped up by a couple of the wererats. “Should heal your nerves. I didn’t realize the pain would bleed through. I‘m really sorry, Goran.”

Goran stared up at Harry with wide-shocked eyes. “Why would you care about me?”

“It was not your fault, Goran.” He brushed his fingers through Goran’s curls and moved them out of his eyes so that he could see those bear eyes. “We can’t lead by example if all our guards and assassins are hurting their Animals to Call. It’s shameful and embarrassing and we won’t have it. You are not an animal. You’re a strong and fierce warrior.” Harry kissed him on the forehead, and let some of his ardeur spread to heal the wounds and relax the nerve endings that Harry knew he had frayed.

Goran moaned and pushed into Harry, winding his arms around him as Harry kept his lips on the man’s skin. He could see Mischa staring at him upside down. Harry turned and looked right at him.

“See? Now do you see what your Mistress missed?” he asked. Mischa was just staring at him, gray-blue eyes so stormy and confused. “And believe you me, I will find a way to remove the bonds between you and him before Edward finishes you. At least let them be free of your stupidity.” He hugged Goran to him as the man relaxed. He could see the other Harlequin watching the entire spectacle. He knew they were confused, thousands of years beneath the command of the Council and the Mother of Darkness was a culture shock of epic proportions. But he would not let anyone abuse their bonded servants in such a way. He’d kill them all, their skills be damned.

Jean-Claude and Edward swept through the room and the power behind Jean-Claude was enough to get more breaths stirred up. He started circling Mischa before stopping in front of him.

“I’m sorry… Dark Master…”

“Are you truly? Do you doubt mon Amour’s power now?” asked Jean-Claude elegantly. Edward was holding a gun in his hand lazily by his thigh.

“N-no.”

“I fear, mon Amour, that their unrest is partly my fault,” said Jean-Claude with a sly smile.

“How so?” asked Harry.

“It galls them that the greatest spies in the entire world had no idea what I was,” said Jean-Claude as he leaned against Edward, some of his curls folding over the man. “It’s not so much you, mon Amour, but me. Am I right, Goran?”

“Yes master. My master… has pondered how it was missed. How it was you got overlooked.”

“I know very well that the Dark Mother sent her guard to spy on the vampires she felt were powerful enough to be on her council or powerful enough to be a threat. I am betting I wasn’t on the watch list, that I never entered her mind as a threat to rival anyone, let alone her, am I right?”

“Yes, my lord,” Mischa choked out.

“You are a King of Patience and Subterfuge,” said Edward.

“You compliment me so, husband.”

“I knew what you were the moment I met you. I knew how dangerous and wild you would be. Before you were my husband I wondered what it would be like to fight you. To see who would die first or would we both?” Edward grinned, his eyes colder and more natural than Mischa’s could ever be. “I had dreams about it. I woke up orgasming all over myself.”

“Tease,” Harry and Jean-Claude exclaimed, making Edward cock his head.

“I thought you were perfect to be another dark half to Little Raven.” Harry leaned over and kissed Edward on the cheek. Wicked and Truth were at his side.

“And now we are each other’s half,” said Jean-Claude. “Perfect half.” He ran his thin short nail across Edward’s chest in circles. Edward drew him in for a deep passionate kiss that could have left even a vampire from Belle Morte’s line breathless.

“It takes more than power,” said Harry as he let go of Goran. He didn’t flinch when Goran rubbed his cheek against his knee from where he sat on the floor. “It takes intelligence and knowledge, and the problem is your former Mother was empty. She did not understand what emotions were or feelings. She never did understand Belle Morte’s line or her powers. She could mimic them, but she could never understand them.” He moved to Jean-Claude’s other side. “And a person who can’t understand the greatest asset and power that the line of Belle Morte possesses could have no true hope of defeating it.”

“I do hope you all keep to mon Amour’s warning. Just because we are not cruel like your former mistress, does not mean we can’t be if we must. I do not wish to destroy such useful weapons and allies. I do not wish to disturb the freedom and peace that we have forged. But I will not accept insults on my family and the Community. If you were to be a part of the Community then you have to work for it. Like we all did.”

“What do you want us to do with him?” asked Claudia coldly.

“I want to make him an example for the rest of the Harlequin, the ones here and back at home. I know Nilda is having issues,” said Harry. “Dev and Ethan were waylaid because of them, they had to sacrifice being our early guards. So they are the ones who failed to be proper guards in the end, Claudia. Not Dev or the others.”

“I’ll keep in that mind.”

“Mon Amour. You must go and wash, get yourself clean.” Jean-Claude kissed him passionately on the lips, followed by Edward who was already clean.

“Okay. Love you both.”

“Same.” Both said simultaneously, and Harry knew they would soon be joining him. How could they not? He saw Wicked Truth approaching Dev, and smiled to himself. No one hurt his men and got away with it.

oOo

He didn’t know about Edward, but after another long, much needed shower he had slept like the dead. He smiled when he opened his eyes to see Edward flat on his back, shirtless, with Rigel laying on his belly. His head was turned toward Harry, and so Harry saw the little movement of his mouth as though he were sucking a teet while at the same time probably having hazy little dreams as lashes fluttered. Edward had a hand on his back. His eyes were closed, but he wasn’t asleep. More like relaxed with awareness.

“Where’s Elara?” Harry whispered as he stroked the baby’s small hand.

“Here,” Harry turned over at the sound of Nicky’s voice to see Elara in the same position, but on Nicky.

“Jean-Claude went down not long after you,” Nicky explained. “Claudia’s got him on guard.”

“Damn, you guys look so hot…” Harry groaned as he rolled and kissed Elara on the forehead, and stroked Nicky too. Both men were in drawstring sweatpants, both lovely muscled and toned, their white scars shining, and with the cutest bundles to complete it. Some of the most dangerous men in America were reduced to baby snugglers. It was too precious! Harry was laughing softly until they turned into outright giggles.

“I always knew babies were a lady magnet, but I guess they’re a Little Raven magnet too. Better for us,” said Edward, and Harry smiled as he rolled back to snuggle against Edward and Rigel. Nicky made his job easier by shifting carefully so that he was wedged between them.

“Ooh, which one first?”

“How about both?” Nicky and Edward moved at the same time, and Harry was suddenly given the full weight of both babies as they stirred at the movement.

“Awe… Rigel and Elara!” Harry sing-songed softly as he kissed both of them back and forth and snuggled them to his chest. Soon they would not be small enough for him to do this. Nicky might and Edward might for a while, but they would outgrow the ability to be placed so close together. “My babies!” He loved their smell, the baby powder and clean gentle scent. It helped rid him of last night. Edward and Nicky helped him to sit up. Nicky moved so that Harry was between his legs and he was against that hard muscled chest. He laid one twin down between his own legs on their back, and he took turns snuggling and talking to them as well as Nicky and Edward about the events of last night.

“How is Dev?” Harry asked, concerned.

“I would ask why you cared, but you’re not a sociopath,” said Nicky.

“No, he’s not Nick. I do believe he’s sided himself with Wicked Truth,” said Edward. “He offered himself as their personal pomme. Let me guess, you gave him that idea?”

“Actually, Damian,” said Harry. “In his own way of not meaning to. Did they wash his back?”

“I think they did more than that,” said Nicky slyly.

“He’s not fit for guard duty,” Edward said, going serious.

“Not of the vampire and zombie kind, no, but for weres he’s fine.”

“But we never know if we’re encountering them or not,” said Nicky. “It’s often a toss up with you in the mix, Kitten,” said Nicky as he fanned his fingers through Harry’s wild hair.

“Then how about we put him on as Micah’s Coalition guard and one of his champions?” Harry suggested. “Most of those fights are always planned, and one on one. It’s more structured than the chaos of war that we often run into.”

“On a trial basis, if anything he’d do well on the seduction side of things,” said Edward thoughtfully.

“Everyone fits somewhere. We just have to find where they are best at. Besides, I don’t want to lose my mischievous joker Dev to a life he can’t handle. You might judge him harshly for not being able to keep up, but I’d be judging even more harshly if he lost his personality.”

“Spoken like my Little Husband,” said Edward, drawing him in for a kiss.

There was a lot to do that morning, and since Harry was up by noon, Nicky moved to get them some breakfast; leaving Harry and Edward alone with the twins. Edward took Elara into his arms with a kiss to her cheek as he cuddled her to his chest.

Harry scooped Rigel back up and settled closer to him. “I don’t want to move and go back to war,” he said softly.

“They sure are a distraction,” Edward said, making gentle circles to Elara’s back as she wriggled a bit in her burrito.

Rigel’s leopard eyes opened, and Harry beamed as he bent down and touched their noses together. “Hi Star,” he cooed. Rigel flailed his arms and legs, Harry didn’t care that he was getting kicked by baby feet. “You’re our little Star, and your sister is our little Kitten.”

“You’re going to confuse Elara if you call her that. What with Nick calling you Kitten.” Edward stated as he softly rubbed Elara’s front.

“I’m Nicky’s Kitten, but she is Kitten to all of us. Besides, what else would we call her with her being a leopard like her Papa.” Harry pressed a kiss to Rigel’s forehead. Rigel made a lot of aah noises as he let out the world’s largest yawn, and his face screwed up in what could be considered a grimace. “Uh oh, someone is using the bathroom,” Harry said, rubbing his belly to help him out.

“I bet this one is too,” said Edward. Harry summoned the bag, thanking Merlin it wasn’t one of those pastel cheesy ones. Instead it was a quiet dark brown that held more than it looked and had small white silhouettes of wereanimals around it. Edward and Harry teamed up to change them. Rigel was a lot more wild, and Harry had to do some ninja work while Elara fussed at being out of her wrap.

When it came to boys you had to be fast in their changing otherwise you risk getting peed on. Micah found that out the first week when he caught a mouthful by accident. A week later there was an exploding vomit and diaper incident. Yeah, they were cute, but Jean-Claude was still a bit cranky over the state of his hair and the leathers he’d had to replace.

But they were babies and they could get away with it. Just because Luna was the wetnurse did not mean she was the nanny. All of them did their best to move around each other’s schedules. Harry and Jean-Claude’s skills at learning to evade accidents were next to none.

Edward was still trying to learn baby cues. He was a monster hunter extraordinaire, but he admitted that he’d probably meet his death when it came to baby cues. Micah had taken too much enjoyment out of finding the one thing that Edward struggled at doing. Harry had to remind Micah to watch it because Edward would perfect the art sooner or later. He always did.

Once they were clean and back to happy the two of them switched. Elara’s green eyes were open and staring at him. Harry kissed her nose. Her mouth opened automatically as if to try and latch onto something.

Both knew that they would have to leave them soon to go back out into the real world.

“We need to find the central location of where his original body is laying,” said Edward as both of them placed the babies back into their bassinets. Harry shimmied across the starch sheets to kiss Edward for no other reason than to be doing so.

Edward responded back, gripping him by the hair. “You shutting me up?”

“Never, but like you said, babies are a Little Raven magnet.”

“Indeed.” Edward slid a hand down Harry’s sleep shorts.

“Just wanted one last fantasy before we head back into the world of death, blood, and guts. Least I got the brains out of my hair.” Harry pressed his ass back into his husband’s hand. Edward gave it a squeeze before taking his hand back out.

Edward moved his head around as if to inspect, threading his fingers and teasing him. “You left Mischa hanging until he died this morning.”

“Good, now where is he?”

“Cross-wired coffin beneath a window with sun blaring into the room. So he wouldn’t dare to come out of his coffin. Goran will be catching a commercial flight with a couple of rats. He’ll be seeing Dr. Lillian as soon as he arrives. Asher has also decided to take out Primo. Perhaps Mischa will get some perspective with a few rounds with him.”

“Good,” said Harry, kissing him one last time. “We need to find out more about these missing persons. We need to sort through them all, maybe there’s a link or correlation amongst everything. I mean, he has to be somewhere nearby. I bet if we can find one of his first victims we can find him or get close to him.”

“Good, go get pretty, I’ll pick out some guards and then we’ll get to work.”

Harry resigned himself to getting off the bed, and he blinked when Edward seized his arm and pulled him back. “I love you.” His voice was thick, his eyes cold, but shining. A real shine. It wasn’t often he would say it out of nowhere. But when he did, it always made Harry’s skin buzz and his heart would fill because he knew the man meant it. He never said what he didn’t mean. That was his oath to Jean-Claude, Micah, and Harry.

“I know, Edward. I love you too. Death do I.”

Chapter Text

Teddy was sitting on the bathroom sink with his legs swinging. His hair today was a deep chocolate with curls, mimicking Micah’s except it had been placed in a ponytail at the base of his neck. His eyes were Harry’s emerald green, but the rest of him was definitely Micah with the triangular chin and full pout of his lips.

Harry had dressed him in some of Edward’s clothes. He had asked to wear them so that he could smell Edward all day that day. Teddy thought Micah would like that. He was in a shrunken down checkered green and white button down with a white t-shirt beneath it and a pair of cargo black pants. He was absolutely edible.

Dev was taking Ethan’s place as Teddy’s guard today. But he wouldn’t be alone, not for a while at least. Noah was an obvious choice as the main guard of Micah. Peter would be with him. Ares had called saying he was signing himself out of AMA and would be standing guard by Micah’s side along with Nathaniel. While Nathaniel wasn’t a guard, he was a good distraction and he was so charming that he would probably have Beth and Bea eating out of the palm of his hands in minutes. Harry would have loved to assign a guard to Peter, but he had to remind himself that Peter was no longer a kid and a Preternatural Marshal in his own right; even if this trip he was taking on the role of guard not Marshal.

Domino and Lisandro had been chosen as the main guards to be at Harry’s back. Nicky of course was also going to be in tow. Ethan was staying back watching over the babies with Luna, Pride, and Claudia. If Harry took ten minutes making out with Ethan in thanks, well no one was going to tell him off.

Harry chose to wear what Jean-Claude had laid out for him. A pair of forest green snug leather pants with black accents and zippers on the back pockets. His shirt was a black button down that fit him too perfectly to need tucking in. Everything he owned was tailored to size.

“You taking something to do while you’re there?” Harry asked him as he moved to help straighten out the shirt Teddy was wearing. He played with some of the curls that fluttered around his pretty face. “Have you learned how to change the length of your hair? I could have sworn it wasn’t this long yesterday.”

“Yah, learned during school, you won’t need to cut my hair anymore. I still have lots of homework. I brought books and stuff to do my report for Magical History of the World. I did a lot of research on the topic before I left school, so I just need to write up the report itself and cite sources. I also have a checkers board, dartboard, and chess in the bag I’m taking to the hospital.”

“Good.” That was when Edward slipped into the room and smirked.

“Looking handsome, Kid” said Edward as Teddy beamed.

“I figure you being on me will help Papa feel brave. He already has Parrain all over him, so it's a win-win for everyone!”

“Startling intelligence.” Edward kissed Teddy on the top of his head.

“He must have gotten that from Remus and Tonks,” said Harry as Edward smirked and Teddy gushed.

“No silly, I got it from all of you. I think they would agree with me.” Teddy wrapped his arms and legs around Edward in a giant hug before he jumped from the counter.

“I bet they would. Go get your shoes on.”

“Okay.” He kissed both of them and ran out of the room. Edward was watching him go thoughtfully.

“Kid makes me think too hard,” he admitted.

“Can I ask what?” Harry turned and leaned against the sink as he admired Edward’s side profile.

Edward looked at him, his eyes almost unreadable. “Feeling,” he said. “I feel, and I’m starting to get a sense for Peter these days.”

“Does it worry you?” Harry asked, crossing his arms.

“No, because it makes me better. I have to get the job done and get home. I have too many people who need me.”

“But the job can still be fun as hell.”

“You said it,” said Edward smirking. “Are you ready to go? Chapman has called us into his office.”

“What for? And who is Chapman?”

“Jonas was replaced this morning, and Hatfield is facing legal ramifications. Chapman asked to see us personally. Chapman was once a Preternatural Branch Marshal, but he was moved to the regular branch. He’s the Deputy Marshal in Colorado. He was the one who recommended Hatfield. I think he has something to say to us.”

“You want to hear it?”

“Might as well. We have missing persons reports to go through anyway. We may need meat shields in the end.”

Harry nodded in agreement as he propped his black boot onto the counter and zipped it. This time it went under the pant leg.

Domino had a giant to-go bag in his hand. Harry had ordered a lot of room service to go for Micah and his family. Harry kissed all the men going with them on the cheek before Teddy took his hand and they headed out together.

Micah and his family were in the family waiting room when they arrived. Micah was on his feet as soon as they entered the room, hugging the both of them and then kissing Teddy. Teddy had been right about the scent because Micah took in a deep breath and held him longer.

“Is that Teddy?” Bea asked, looking over the boy.

“Yes, he’s a metamorphmagus. He can change what he looks like. Something he inherited from his birth mother.” Harry explained.

“What’s that?” asked Jerry, spotting the bag Domino passed to Harry.

“Food,” said Harry, placing it down on a nearby table.

Micah couldn’t help but smile as he curled around Harry again. “So you,” he breathed deeply in Harry’s neck. Harry smiled as the Nimir-Raj teased at the zippers of his back pockets on his leathers.

“How’s your father?” Harry asked as he rubbed Micah’s back.

Micah kissed Harry’s neck and pulled back. “He stopped thrashing and having nightmares. What do you think it was? Do you think it had something to do with last night?”

“I do,” said Harry, moving to pull out the containers of food for everyone. “No idea what people liked so I bought everything on the menu.” He didn’t forget to greet the guards around the room and hug Ares extra tight as Peter and Nathaniel gave him quick kisses that had Jerry and a few others watching either curious or bemused.

Bea’s eyes widened as more and more food was brought out. “You didn’t have to do that, Harry.”

“No point telling him that, Mrs. Morgan. When it comes to food, he won’t listen to a word of it,” said Edward as he shook Jerry’s hand. Ty Morgan was at work.

“Everyone needs food, and Domino’s getting waters for everyone. You, eat.” Harry ordered pushing the container into Micah’s chest. “You too, Peter and Ares. Even the guards are eating. It’s daylight after all.”

“You don’t have to twist my arm, Nimir-Ra,” said Noah.

“Did all of you get any sleep at all?”

“Three hours earlier while Ares and Peter took over.” Noah reported.

“Ares, Nathaniel, and I slept earlier. I also slept some in the car when Dad and I switched off coming in.” Peter reached over Harry to grab some food.

“Yes, Baby. We all have had some sleep. I miss your food,” Micah admitted, and Harry could feel his hunger roll through him.

“Of course you do, Papa. His is the best after all.”

“Can you stick around for a bit?” asked Bea when Teddy purposely handed her a grilled chicken salad. It was light enough that she would be able to stomach it and get something in her stomach. “Or are you off to work?”

“Work,” said Edward. “We must get ahead of this runaway train before nightfall or at least try.”

Domino returned with at least ten bottles of cold water and began to pass them out to everyone. Aunt Jody and Bobbie were surprised when food was included for them, and even Esther.

“One of these days, mom, you have to try his food. It’s the best,” said Micah as he stabbed at the medium rare steak tips.

“I would love to!” said Bea, and Harry saw a real smile cross her face at the idea of them returning and being around more often.

“How are the babies?”

“Cutest sight ever,” said Harry. “I woke this morning, and Edward and Nicky had one of each lying on their chests. It was so hard to look both ways at the same time.”

Edward smirked. “I don’t think I’m as impressive as Nick here.” He jabbed his thumb back to Nicky who flashed a charming grin.

Bea blinked and then she blushed and Beth giggled softly.

“Liar,” Harry and Micah said.

Bea was ever so thankful for Jean-Claude’s interference last night. “He saved three of the officers. I’d never seen anything like it. He moved so fast and such control. He didn’t even touch them and they-”

“Were cut apart, and the other two - what were their names?” asked Jerry. “It was the cleanest attack I’d ever seen.”

“Wicked Truth, they’re two of the most honorable warriors you’d ever meet, no matter the species.”

“And the lovely one with eyes like yours? Is he a relation of yours?” Bea asked.

“We think so, but we can’t be sure. He’s since lost his family name, and it's been a thousand years or so since his human life.”

“Wow…” Beth gasped.

“But, he does hail from Europe and was turned in Ireland in particular, so it's entirely possible. My mother was a redhead with bright green eyes like mine.”

“I bet she was a lovely lady.”

“Yep. I have the famous hair from my father’s side. You can’t tame it, not even with magic. So I don’t bother.”

“We love it,” said Micah, leaning heavily against Edward.

“You look so much like Mike when he was a kid,” Jerry seemed to only just notice how much Teddy looked like Micah.

Beth gasped when she too noticed it. “You do!”

“Yep! And I’m wearing my Dad’s clothes. I thought Papa would like the smell.”

“I love it, Pup,” said Micah, kissing him on the nose.

“How is he wearing adult clothes?” Beth asked curiously.

“I shrunk them down,” Harry said, rubbing his shoulder and teasing at the ponytail.

“Familiar smells are soothing to shapeshifters,” Micah explained as he took a long drink of water. He nearly finished the bottle.

That told Harry he’d gone without for too long. He glared and Micah squeaked. “I’ll water myself! I promise.”

“You better or I’ll water you myself.”

“He’s right, Alpha. You all need to stay hydrated and fed.”

“I’ve got some extra snacks and meals here, Teddy has pocket money for the cafeteria for both of you.”

“I have money.”

“No you don’t,” said Harry. “I took your dirty clothes with me and your wallet was in them.” Harry pulled it out and handed it over.

“Sorry, Baby.” Micah winced.

“We’ll make sure they take care of themselves,” said Aunt Jody with a real smile.

“I have a deposition in an hour,” said Aunt Bobbie. “Thank you for the food, Harry. It’s nice to meet you, Edward, right?”

“Ted Forrester,” he corrected as he shook the woman’s hand firmly. “It’s nice to meet you as well, ma’am.”

“Bobbie please.”

“Only we call him Edward,” said Micah fondly.

Harry and Edward passed kisses to Micah and then to Teddy before rounding on Peter. Edward even hugged him, and Harry heard the whisper in the younger man’s ear making his chestnut eyes widen. He had been too stunned to respond.

“You take care of my Kid, Pet,” said Edward, touching Nathaniel on the back.

“I will, Gardien, you can count on me.”

“Good.”

Harry thought that maybe this whole issue was hitting too close to home. He knew that one of his fears was ending up pinned down to a bed and in such a state as Rush Callahan. It was a bit too real for him right now.

It wasn’t that long ago before Edward had come to learn what family truly meant, and now that he had it he would be damned if he gave it up. Not many people like him got a chance to be truly happy.

Content? Yes. Happy? Hardly.

In the end, Harry was no different in that regard, and neither was Jean-Claude. Micah was the only one who had a family. He lost it and now he found them again.

oOo

Deputy Marshal Chapman could not have looked more unhappy or tired if he tried. He was a much older chap, starting to go gray at the temples making his slick back almost, not quite black hair look as though he’d taken chalk to it. He had lines around his mouth that Harry was sure were not laugh lines.

Edward and Harry had come in and taken their seats as though they belonged, and before even being prompted. Their guards were waiting outside the room. It’d taken some finangling to admit his boys.

Chapman had a pinched look, like he’d been thinking too hard. Harry could see where he had probably been one hell of a field Marshal at one time if his broad strong shoulders were anything to go by. But his hands were soft, no calluses. Just a few papercuts. It sounded cliche and typical. Harry didn’t have calluses but that was because Jean-Claude loved his lotions and loved rubbing him down.

Edward was every bit the pleasant Ted Forrester.

Harry had no idea what Bradford or people in MACUSA had said or done, but whatever it was Chapman hadn’t liked it.

“Preternatural Marshal Ted Forrester and Harry Potter-Black,” said Chapman to start off with. He had clasped his hands together and sat them on the desk. Probably to keep from moving them around nervously. “I had hoped that you two would never enter my office.”

“Then why did you ask for us, sir?” asked Edward, he let the twinkle push through his gaze.

“I didn’t have a choice. I don’t like not having a choice. I’ve been a Deputy for a long time. You both are one of four that I never wanted to meet or have in my office. You lack honor to protect and serve and uphold the badge like officers of the law. You are considered monsters in your playing field.”

“Four?” Harry could resist.

Edward smirked. “He’s meaning Bernardo Spotted-Horse and Otto Jeffries.”

“Otto isn’t a Preternatural Marshal,” Harry responded.

“No, but he does do jobs from time to time.” Edward looked at Harry when he said this, and he realized that Otto, or Olaf, was being used for more secretive dark ops. He was pretty much a glorified serial killer with a badge. His flavor was women, but he had an exceptional hard-on for Harry. He was good at his job because of these skills, but he was dangerous. It was always best to aim someone like Olaf in the right direction. But a handler had to be careful where they aimed him. It could go wrong. Harry had no doubt that MACUSA and the powers that be had struck something with Olaf, intending to use his experience and skills for themselves in the best way possible. It was either that or kill him. “So he is loosely considered one of us without MACUSA taking responsibility for him. He’s in the non-magical system because of it.”

“I see… I get Otto, but Bernardo?” Harry blinked. “Bernardo is a sweetie!”

Chapman just stared at him, disdain curling at his thin lips. “You four are considered the Four Horsemen of Marshals. Not only by the monsters that you chase but also by those who have all come in contact with you.”

“Oh really? Who is who?” Edward asked with a smile. Harry knew, but he hadn’t realized the rumors had gotten that far across America. He had thought it was a one-off from those weird masterless vampires.

“You don’t know?”

“I had heard rumors that some were giving us pet names,” said Edward.

“Pet names,” Chapman glared. “The Monsters give you pet names. Do you not find something wrong with that?”

Edward shrugged. “Little Raven is always the one they like to name. He’s the pretty one,” he leaned forward a bit as though he were telling the man a revelation.

“I don’t understand where these monikers come from,” said Harry with a cross of his arms.

“It’s said that you ride into a town. You either make friends or enemies, and then you wipe it clean. You waltz back out of town and leave the rest to clean up your messes,” said Chapman. “Harry Potter-Black is known as War. When asking about this the monsters around us make mention that you always run to every War you can find.”

“You keep using the term monsters, but if they have not been charged with a crime or have a warrant in their name they are legal American citizens, Deputy,” said Harry. “And I know most of the Marshals on the normal side are not in the habit of talking unless it's to a human because you feel the preternatural are insignificant. You do know the law isn’t going to change again, right?”

“I uphold the law to the fullest extent of my abilities,” said Chapman.

“You only say that because you’re not really a field Marshal anymore,” Edward pointed out. “So, who are Bernardo and Otto these days?”

“It’s obvious isn’t it, Husband?” Harry asked, unable to hide the mirth. “Bernardo has to be Hunger.”

Edward grinned. “He makes them hunger because he’s good enough to eat, but no one has ever taken a bite.”

Harry laughed as he doubled over a bit. “He tastes pretty damn good.” He sobered up, ignoring the anger pulsing in Chapman’s throat. “And let me guess, Otto is Pestilence right? He spreads plague wherever he goes and leaves none alive if given the opportunity.”

“I love your intelligence.”

“You love my ass just as much, and I don’t even have to ask what he is. He’s Death.”

“Yes. You sound proud of these names. I wouldn’t be so proud if I were you. It’s not a compliment. We have to recognize that we have monsters with badges. You four are never held liable for anything. You especially, Marshal Potter-Black.”

“I’m not the one who ignored orders to burn the corpses and vampires retrieved from the wilderness. I’m not the one who set the course to leave a hospital in danger. In fact, Ted and I rode in on our horses and cleaned up your mess. My other husband, who you would call a monster, protected the lives of everyone in the hospital. He did not have to lift a finger, but he did.”

“That isn’t the point,” said Chapman sharply.

“Isn’t it? You said you clean up our messes when we leave town, but I don’t think that’s quite true,” said Edward. “I never said we were not monsters with badges, Chapman. In fact, I agree with you.”

“You do?” Chapman looked surprised.

“We are killers, Chapman. We are legal assassins with badges, and we will always be. Your men protect and preserve the lives of the citizens, all citizens. We don’t do that. We don’t make friends with the locals. We do our job so that you don’t have to. We do our jobs because you can’t do the job we do. It has been proven time and time again. It’s why MACUSA took over in the first place. Seattle proved exactly why normal and brave officers of the law cannot handle the parts of our jobs where we have to throw caution to the wind and kill everything in sight. If we don't, more people will die.”

“The end does not justify the means!” Chapman snapped. “You have no real authority over you. You have no one to keep you in balance! It’s all about checks and balances, and you have none of them. You have no restraint.”

“If we had restraint we die,” said Harry. “You don’t think MACUSA will pull us in if they think we’ve done wrong? If we overstep?”

“You don’t want to see what a prison is like when it comes to the magical side of things,” said Edward. “If we are ever up on charges and they end up sticking, I do believe Gitmo would seem like an afternoon in paradise. Yes, we may have more freedom because MACUSA is trusting us to do our job. But the consequences of losing that trust are far worse than your prisons and punishment.”

Harry leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “My godfather was framed for mass murder not long after I was born, Chapman. He was sentenced to life in Azkaban prison, the magical prison in the UK. He was an innocent man, and he eventually managed to prove his innocence and get free. Do you know that he could barely remember that I was his godson and not his best friend? He went insane during his imprisonment.” Of course he hadn’t told the whole truth about the Sirius situation, and he wasn’t about to. That was not his point.

Chapman’s eyes went a bit round. “How long was he in?”

“Twelve years. He was a good man, but he was driven insane. The guards of the prisons are less human than vampires and werecreatures.” Not completely true anymore, but once upon a time. “He died because of his lack of sanity. He chased after the bad guys who put him there in the first place. If we fuck up, we have to answer to them. Not to you. So yes, it may seem like we don’t answer to the powers that be. But we do. We always know that it could go wrong if we step out of bounds.”

“They say you have a strong protection from that part of the world.”

“Maybe so, but that strong protection works in reverse when you break their trust and loyalty. It’s like a celebrity who the world fawns over but then they learn that celebrity is an asshole and treats people like rubbish.”

“The bigger you are, the harder you fall. The stronger you are, the greater the consequences are if you are too weak,” said Edward. “Is there a point to you calling us into the office, Deputy?” he asked genially.

“Marshal Hatfield is a good officer.”

“Was,” Edward said.

“She is. She is a highly trained and highly experienced officer.”

“And yet it was her and Jonas who went above the rules set in motion and everyone who had been in the morgue was eaten.”

“You can’t blame her or Jonas for not sharing your insight,” said Chapman sharply.

“Share?” Harry arched a brow. “If I remember correctly, Deputy, my husband and I were in the hospital injured. Add in the fact that Hatfield had gone through Preternatural Marshal training before failing the final assessment test. There’s a reason, clearly stated in her files, on why she didn’t pass.”

“And I clearly told Deputy Al before boarding that helicopter that all pieces must be gathered and burned before being dumped into running water in various locations,” said Edward. “Since Deputy Al survived the crash thanks to our deputized preternatural,” he made sure to enunciate it for effect. “I know he wouldn’t have ignored our orders.”

“The families of those missing deserved to know what happened to them!”

“At the expense of the lives of others?” Harry challenged.

“Vampires and zombies do not work in the same way. Even I know that. I don’t have to be a Preternatural expert to know that if you take the heart and head that’s good enough.”

“Apparently it wasn’t.” Edward stated calmly.

“And I clearly told them that these vampires and zombies were special, they were Rotters, and only fire is a sure way of destroying them. I told them that when it came to ancients of any species that the rules change. You can’t follow the book.” Harry explained. “I should charge you, Hatfield, and Jonas with obstruction of a warrant of execution.”

“But we’re not going to because it would defeat the purpose of everyone working together,” said Edward diplomatically. “I can’t help what happens to Hatfield and Jonas, they made their bed. They made the decisions. If you are implying that we ruined their careers, I assure you we did not.”

“And I didn’t even know those two existed so you can’t blame me; though I know you want to. You’re all so quick to blame anyone just a little bit stronger for things you don’t understand.”

“I get Forrester here, I get Spotted-Horse and even Jeffries, but what I don’t get, Marshal Potter-Black, is you have no military experience. You have no hunting experience. How is it you know so much more? You don’t even have a degree like Ms. Blake or Mr. Mallory.”

“I do have hunting experience, because when I came stateside, my husband here took me hunting. A lot. As for military, I might not have what you normal people call the typical structure, but I was a child soldier in a war that spanned decades before I was born. I also have a lot of gifts that help me do my job. My necromancy abilities give me a leg up because I can often sense vampires and the dead, and with the strains of lycanthropy I possess I can even sense others who have my flavor. I don’t need a biology degree to know what I feel and what I see. All these things come very naturally to me.”

“I was his teacher and his mentor before I was his lover and husband,” said Edward. “I’ve never met another who has his sharp instincts. Who has the ability to pull dying and lost men out of the fire. I do not possess magic. I do not have the feel of the preternatural world that he does. But I have eyes. I have the experience, and what he doesn’t have I will give it to him.”

“And vice versa.”

“Harry… Marshal Potter-Black is the only one I would ever one hundred percent trust to have my back in a hopeless situation. In a nightmare where all hope is lost and men around me are dying. Most of us Marshals run as a lone ranger. It comes from our old hunting abilities before the preternaturals were legalized.”

“What is it about you then, Marshal Potter-Black? What is so special?” asked Chapman with a frown.

“Not a clue.” Harry shrugged. “I’m just a man trying to do his job and live as well as he can.”

“Somehow I believe that, and I don’t want to. You are a loaded mass weapon of destruction. Both of you are, and I know that if a weapon such as this was to fall into the wrong hands or be aimed in the wrong way, we’re all fucked.”

“Why is it your job to worry about this? You have no authority or jurisdiction over either of us. Your jurisdiction is over Hatfield and all the other normal marshals in your area at any given time. Not us,” said Edward.

“It's my job because you are in my city, running it on your own terms. You are the weapons that are being aimed and I need to know what to expect. You are not here to save anyone’s life. You’re here to take them.”

“We were here in response to our husband’s father dying. Dying by a disease that we could have saved him from if you had followed proper procedures.” Harry countered. “Not to mention, taking lives is our job. You should leave us to it, and stop interfering with the men and women of this station who swore an oath to protect and serve. We did not swear an oath to protect and serve. We swore an oath to eradicate the rogues and monsters as we see fit in hopes that the United States of America could one day live in harmony.”

Harry was sure that if Edward hadn’t been pretending to be Ted, he’d have sneered on the harmony aspect. Sadly where there were people of all species there was going to always be a war somehow. There was no such thing as a perfect war.

“Instead of trying to figure us out, Deputy. You need to ask yourself what happened to our country that forced the hands of the government to give birth to men or future women such as us?” Harry said softly. “Why are we here? Why do we exist?”

“That is the question isn’t it?” Chapman agreed. “You deputize preternatural. You use them as your main force. Most do not like that.”

“That’s too bad, because werecreatures and vampires are just as much citizens of this country as humans,” said Harry. “It’s not on me if some don’t like it. It was my men who saved your men. It was my men who protected a hospital of innocent people. If me and my men hadn’t been there everyone in that hospital would have perished. Your cops wouldn’t stand a chance because they would have no idea what they were dealing with.”

Chapman brought a hand to his face and rubbed it as though he were tired. “Gonzales told me that you knew almost the moment he spoke to you. How? How did you make that leap?”

“Atlanta.”

“The Master of the City of Atlanta was destroyed.”

“The Master of the City was from the bloodline of Morte d’Amour. A rotting vampire who hailed from Europe. Morte d’Amour went off the reservation because he did not like vampires becoming legal citizens here in the United states.”

“Why?” asked Chapman.

“Because it made him less important. It gave him less power with all the new laws and the acceptance. Once upon a time he could do whatever the hell he wanted, and the only consequence at the time was death. So what did it matter? But now, others who are as old as him are following the law. Most of them are embracing the new and modern. Why wouldn’t they want to own businesses and have homes legally?” Harry asked Chapman. “Most have stockpiled the world’s fortune over the centuries. Most very old masters are billionaires. Not even Warren Buffet can touch their kind of money. But what can they do with it when they’re illegal?”

“Another point in the column of never going back to being illegal. If only for the economy’s sake,” said Edward.

“d’Amour can’t fight against them, and so now he has decided to wage his own version of a war. Morte d’Amour used Clayton as a stalking horse, and before they killed him he fled his body to find a new one to possess.”

“Can all heads do this?” asked Chapman, going a bit pale.

“Not exactly. Some of the fresh vampires can be possessed by their fountainhead for a time, but the older you become and the more powerful you are that possession would stop. But those lines still often owe a certain amount of allegiance. It’s like a parent’s control over their child, and we all know that not all parents are good law abiding citizens. Only a few can break away from those fountainheads to become their own. It’s like a caveman learning to live without clubbing everything on the head or starting fires everywhere.”

“Fact of the matter is, Deputy, we don’t have to share or give you any information if we don’t want to. We can waltz through town and freeze you out. We can take over all investigations that have even a remote preternatural element,” said Edward, his voice still calm and polite. But Harry could hear the strain. He was done with this line of conversation. So he was moving along. “But we don’t. We choose not to. We choose to work with the good men and women who do the job that we can’t do when we are in town on a case.”

“And what is that job?” asked Chapman.

“Save lives because we can’t be everywhere in this world. So the more good men and women we can teach, and if they can learn something from us, then there is a good chance that they and their city and state would be much better off and protected when we can’t get there.”

“Did you know I could have healed Rush Callahan?” said Harry, his voice changing somberly.

“You could?” Chapman stared at him. “I know you managed to save one of your own, but that’s because of his healing abilities right?”

“It’s true that a lycanthrope would have made it easier. But if you had sent the proper message to the proper people someone would have gotten me here. My vampire husband managed to extend Rush Callahan’s life by at least a day from sucking some of the poison out of an old wound. But if it had been fresh and if it had been the real point of entry, Rush would not be in the hospital right now.”

“Travers was infected, and one of yours siphoned the poison out of him,” said Chapman and now he bowed his head. A flicker of shame crossed over his face.

“Yes he did. It takes a strong and powerful vampire to be able to do it. But they could have done it. I could have helped. Even if I had to amputate or nearly do so, I could help him grow it back with the help of magical medicines.” Harry shifted in his chair. “If my father in-law dies from this, I will hold your office partially responsible.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Yes I can, because your office, and all of the other officers in this state, did not follow proper procedures in this case. You should have reported this to Director Bradford as soon as the first attack occurred.”

“You say you uphold the law, but saying and doing are two separate things,” said Edward. “You accuse us of being killers with badges. But are you not the same when you let your conceit and pride of what you don’t understand get in the way of doing the job effectively?”

“Now, I want every single missing person’s report ever filed in the last six months,” said Harry rising from his seat.

“Six months?” Chapman blinked in confusion. “I thought it was three months?”

“Nope. I’m going further back. I want in state and out of state. All the nearby counties. I want it all. I want everything from every department that Rush Callahan had ever worked with.”

“That’s a lot of paperwork. You Marshals aren’t known for your paperwork.”

“That is true for most,” said Edward. “But every case has its own individual flavor.”

“In the Preternatural Unit, if you do not have all the facts and information and if you miss something, you die more often than not. We have until nightfall to try and find a beginning source.”

“Beginning source?” asked Chapman.

“Where did he start? He’s been hopping from one vampire to another, and never pinned down. He has his real body somewhere. It’s closeby. It has to be for him to have been able to remote control the zombies and vampires last night.”

“If we can find the origins. We may be able to find him. If we find and finish him, there is a good chance that infection will die with him.”

“You are sure of this?” asked Chapman.

“Not one hundred percent, but preternaturals typically work in this sort of vein,” said Harry. “Last night before the attack, Rush Callahan started thrashing and moaning in his sleep.”

“Which, considering the amount of drugs in his system to keep him in a medically induced coma, that shouldn't have happened.”

“Which tells me his body is responding to the infection that’s more akin to a power flowing through him. A corrupted power from Morte d’Amour. So if we kill that power…”

“You can stop it in its tracks.” Chapman seemed to realize that whatever he originally had planned for them was stopped in its tracks. Good, maybe he wasn’t so hopeless. “I’ll have everything rounded up.”

“Good. I do hope you have a coffee pot,” said Edward.

A coffee pot was every man’s treasure after all. It was just as much of a necessity as a good old fashioned flamethrower.

If Rush Callahan survived, Harry would not bring them up on charges. He believed they would have learned their lesson, not to mention they would be effective tools in the future. You keep the devil you know in their places to prevent new devils from taking them after all. But if he died and they made Micah cry...

Harry and Edward would destroy them.

Chapter Text

He knew that they might have bitten off more than they could chew. The local PD had given them a small room in the depths of the station, and the boxes had kept coming in until they were towering dangerously tall.

“Can you fight paperwork?” Harry asked Lisandro who had taken up his immediate left side as Edward sat on the right.

“Might be tricky,” said Lisandro, eyeing the teetering boxes.

Al had asked if he could join them, and so he was sitting across from them eyeing the piles with a bit of shock at how much paperwork could be accumulated.

“You know, give me a hundred shambling dead to rip apart no problem; but give me paperwork and I feel like we’re drowning and I can’t do shit,” Nicky remarked.

But, they didn’t have much choice. There was a reason that reports were drawn up, pictures were taken and measurements were given at every angle. It wasn’t all for court. If they could learn even one new thing from these reports then Harry was determined to find it.

All of them divided the reports into three piles: the missing-person reports, most of which were now solved; the crime scenes where people had been killed; and the reports from the doctors about the survivors’ injuries and the rotting disease. Harry had skipped the last pile because they had talked directly to the doctors and Micah. Al was going through that pile.

Useful tool was useful, as Edward would say.

Chapman hadn’t been wrong when he had said most Marshals didn’t bother to read the paperwork. That was because time was often of the essence. Harry on the other hand was very different in this respect. Edward too if there was nothing to kill that was urgent. Forewarned is forearmed after all. Harry had to know everything, what he was doing and why he was doing it.

It’s why no one bothered him about morgue executions anymore. One of many reasons. Harry would insist on knowing every detail down to the vampire’s favorite food and color. It was more headache than it was worth and so the morgue stakings had been given to someone who simply didn’t care about that stuff. Even Larry had been calling up lately, completely pissed and put out at the idea of having to stake down a vampire who was eighteen years old, and their parents had forced him to sign a staking clause at the age of fifteen and simply forgot to alter it once he came of age. According to the reports and the man’s friends, he had been an atheist while his parents had been hardcore Catholics. A source of contention. He had planned all through his teen years to become a vampire once he had crossed the legal threshold.

When asked why, he had said that he never really fit with humans. He always felt like he was walking lopsided. Further inspection had concluded that this eighteen year old had a lot of sensitivity to spirits and the undead. He could have been trained as an animator, but of course the Catholic families couldn’t have that. Larry had to fight it in court, and with the backing of Jean-Claude and MG&B managed to override the potential execution. But it had cost the city a lot of money. And the parents, not realizing they had lost, were still trying to appeal for the right to kill their son because he was being inhabited by a demon. Yeah, not fun at all.

Edward and Nicky were reading the crime scenes to begin with, and Harry and Lisandro had taken over the missing persons reports. Al was on his own with his pile.

A few officers had been in there earlier trying to help, but Harry got annoyed quickly when they tried to separate Harry’s missing persons by victim and vampire. He did not appreciate that they believed that once they were a vampire they were the enemy. He had cleared his throat, snagged both piles and plopped them in front of Lisandro to reorganize. Harry knew that this was standard procedure, didn’t mean he had to like it.

Harry had not liked the distinction that vampires were animals with superhuman strength and super speed. Yes, they were damn dangerous, but Harry had asked them if a full grown man qualified as super human when they attacked children because to Harry that would seem very super human.

Problem is with the vampire world was that it was, as Jean-Claude put it, ‘prehistoric.’ Everything about a vampire was survival for the longest time. Humans had evolved and adapted from what they used to be, which had been bloodthirsty cavemen. Now it was the vampire’s turn. Weres were a little better off due to the fact that they looked and acted human and could fool damn near anyone if they had the control to do so. But a lot of vampires had been out of society for so long that even their way of speech could identify them even if they could use their powers to hide their otherworldly features and blend in.

Harry continued to flutter through them, a small frown marring his face as Nicky, who had been distracted and fighting the paperwork, silently sat him some coffee down.

“What is it, Little Raven?”

“Just a weird thought I had about how new these vampires are,” said Harry. “I’ve never been called in where this many people were listed as missing and then changed into vampires. One or two, yeah, but not dozens.”

“It’s not dozens,” said Al.

“I requested they send me all the missing-person reports for this area in the last six months. Even ones they didn’t think were linked. A lot of people vanished in the same area, but over about a five month period. They found three bodies so decomposed that they thought they’d fallen to their death and the animals got to them. That may be what happened; animals do that in wilderness areas and it’s routine to just accept it as accidental.”

“But you don’t think it was?” Al followed up.

“If a vampire is powerful enough, it can go inactive for years and sustain itself, but when it wakes or gets out of where it was trapped he or she tends to go insane for a while. It feeds in a more animalistic fashion. Much like a newbie vampire again, until it’s had enough blood to sort of get its head back to a point where it’s not crazy anymore. Some vampires never come back after being trapped without food for too long.”

“Humans are like that too,” Lisandro pointed out and before Al could deny this, he rolled on. “How many men and women get trapped in some far out place and end up eating a fellow friend, family, or even lover due to starvation? You hear it at least once a year about camping and hunting gone wrong.”

“It’s mostly the colder climates,” Edward acknowledged as he continued to flip through reports. “Since food can be used as a heat source on its own.”

“Anyone who goes hungry will eventually start seeing delusions, and not all of them are food related,” said Harry. “You become weak and ravaged. You even become violent and suicidal, children are very prone to losing their minds when they go for long periods of time having not eaten. At one point you might even try to gnaw your own arm off.”

“He’s not wrong,” said Nicky.

Al was horrified. “I’ve never come across that. I mean, yeah we get neglectful parents and such, and children lost… but-”

“I knew a child who went hungry for six full months,” said Harry quietly. “He resorted to eating spiders that he found lying around, and kept seeing people he’d never met sitting in front of him, talking to him. He started to talk back because it was all he could do.”

Even Nicky had a look of horror on his face, which was hard to do. Edward was staring hard at Harry. Al looked like he was in tears.

“It’s never fun to go hungry. Anyone can be a monster, Al. Just give them a reason. That's all you have to do.”

“If you went six months without food, you’d die,” said Al.

“Unless you have magic to stop you,” said Harry. “It’s like vampires, they can go hungry for a very long time. Sometimes years, but they have power and magic in their veins to stop them from dying. I agree, a lot of the time a normal non-magical child or human would have died. Lucky them,” he snarked as he tapped the papers on the table and took up his coffee.

“Only way a person would fully go hungry is if they were trapped without access completely,” said Al.

“Yep, and a lot of vampires can be trapped by their masters. It’s legal to do so.”

“How?” asked Al.

“Cross-wrapped coffins usually.”

“Who traps them in cross-wrapped coffins?” Al asked.

Edward answered. “Vampires have what amounts to jail when one of their kind goes crazy and they don’t want to kill them.”

“I thought they just killed each other like any other predator.”

Harry shook his head. “Even the most blood thirsty predator wouldn’t want to kill one of their own friends, family, or even lovers. Vampires are not too different from humans. Most of them have the exact same base needs that a human does. Just the tools they possess are different. They find it very hard to kill someone they’ve known for a long time or they consider family, so they try and imprison them and hope they can cure them.” Some do it just because they’re asses but Al didn’t need to know that.

“You mean rehabilitate them?” Al asked.

“Something like that,” said Edward.

It was more about punishment than trying to save a vampire, but they are also too valuable to kill. Like Primo. Harry was beginning to wonder if the Dragon handed Primo to them so that she didn’t have to be the one to confine him. It would fall on them to do it. Ever since Primo came to them, he’d been in and out of a cross-wired coffin. She hadn’t made a stink about it. She must be happy about it. Whatever. Not his current problem.

“So, say you had a vampire wake up, or escape being imprisoned, whatever; they’d go after the nearest food, which would probably be animals, right?” Al asked.

“Animals are harder to catch than you’d think, and it makes it even harder when you’re ravaging. But oftentimes animal blood doesn’t sustain you. Not even freshly killed animals.”

“Why not?” asked Al.

“I’m not sure,” Harry sat back and thought about Sabin. “A few years ago I met a master vampire who came into town looking for a cure. He had given up blood of humans and weres, and tried to live off cold animal blood. His animal to call at the time had been a delightful humanitarian,” he snorted at this. “But in doing so, it destroyed him. It ate him alive on the outside as if the plague had come to him.”

“What did you do about him?” Al asked.

“Killed him when he tried to kill us,” said Harry.

“Why did he try to kill you?” Nicky asked. “I mean, I know you, Kitten. Even if you don’t like the person you’d still try and hunt for a cure. You’d help him.”

“I was willing to help him, yes, Nicky, but he already had it in his mind that if he could drain my Necromancy powers that he would be better again. He tried to set us up. Problem is, his own people set him up in the end. They were going to sacrifice him so that they could live.”

“What do you mean?” Al asked, confused.

“He had bonds that if he had died they would have perished too,” said Harry. “So his other two lovers and bonded decided to conspire against him. He had no idea that if it had worked, he’d have been dead and they would have been freed of him. So, he stabbed his own foot. I think that’s what confused me at first,” said Harry, tapping his chin. He looked at Edward. “I liked him, kinda. I mean, I felt horrible for him. He didn’t seem like he wanted to hurt or kill me at all. But his other two bonded…”

“Ah the wolf and necromancer. I remember. You never did like the wolf,” said Edward.

“Didn’t trust her. But he was weak, they manipulated him. Sometimes at the end of the day even the most powerful amongst us can be manipulated.”

“Is that why you have guards?” asked Al boldly.

“One of many reasons,” said Lisandro smirking.

“So, what makes us so special to vampires?” Al asked.

“You’re asking a question that no one knows the answer to, Al,” said Harry. “Not even me. I can’t begin to guess because if I said it might be the soul, then that’s assuming animals don’t have souls. I don’t believe that for one second.” Harry could feel when some of them died or if they were too close to him and killed over natural causes. He’d learned to block it out, but it had been an annoying amount of white noise at the time.

“What makes your vampire husband different to these?” asked Al. “What makes him and his group different to what you go out and kill?”

“What makes you different from Ted Bundy, Al?” Harry asked him. “What makes the average teenage boy different from Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris?”

“Point,” said Al. “And I see where you’re going with that.”

“Where am I going?” Harry blinked as the man smiled.

Edward, to Harry’s surprise, laughed followed by Lisandro. Nicky shrugged at Harry.

“That’s like comparing me to Al Bundy because my first name is Al.”

“Eh?”

“Married with Children,” said Edward. “Classic, and wouldn’t fly today.”

“Horrible more like,” said Lisandro. “But yes, it had its moments.”

“What’s that?”

“You’d never let anyone watch it,” said Edward smirking.

“That bad?”

“Oh yeah.”

Harry didn’t get it as they moved on, though the men seemed to be amused. Good for them.

Al sighed. “So, how are we going to break this down? How do we separate the missing persons?”

“I want to see how close the missing-person reports are to each other geographically,” said Harry.

“We need a map,” said Edward.

“What does this accomplish?” Al wondered aloud.

“It may tell us the general whereabouts of d’Amours body. If the missing persons are clustered originally in one area like I’m thinking then we need to check on anyone living up in that area.”

“What do you mean?” Al asked.

Edward looked at him. “There are always people in the mountains who don’t come to town much if you go far enough up. Some because they’re just good old fashioned mountain people and antisocial. Or the new mountain people have money and some of them don’t need to leave and so they wouldn’t be known to be missing for some time.”

“You really think we have a lot more people missing?”

“Maybe, because that will give us a good place to start looking for his body.”

“You say body like he’s not in it,” Al pointed out.

“A vampire that can take over those he’s created or offspring this easily usually does leave their body somewhere safe and just uses other bodies as a sort of stalking horse.” Harry stated, mind flashing to the Traveler’s body that was safely stored under his house buried beneath multiple layers of enchantments and wards. “That body gets damaged, they abandon it like a sinking ship and find another boat to take over.”

“They jump bodies that easily?”

“I’ve only known a couple that could, and I’m thinking worst-case scenario here.”

“If the bad vamp can jump bodies that easily, how do you kill it?”

Harry and Edward answered in unison. “Destroy the original body.”

Al looked from one to the other as Lisandro and Nicky nodded. “You’ve done this before… that’s how you figured it out.”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, we need a map? I can get us a map,” He said, pushing back from the table.

Al came back with a large rolled map and a lot of pins. Harry was surprised to see that Travers and several others were joining them once Al returned.

Lisandro and Nicky placed the map on the clear board behind them and started delegating. Harry took the green for the missing people, Nicky took the yellow for the missing and found dead of presumed natural causes. Edward and Lisandro joined the fray with red pins of the vampire locations.

All of them saw the cluster at the beginning in a remote spot in the mountains, but then the next cluster was miles away and much less isolated. The next one was closer to one of the small towns in the mountain. It headed straight for Boulder.

It was Gonzales and another Detective named Foster who were staring at the large map that pointed it out. He was much older than all of them. “How did we not see this?” he asked, rubbing his chin.

“What’s there to see?” asked Travers darkly. “Hikers go missing all the time.”

“It’s more than that. I’ve been asking myself a couple of silent questions since I arrived in town,” said Harry, looking at Edward. “Rush was the first of the police to be infected, right?”

Foster nodded. “Yes.”

“What does that matter?” asked Gonzales.

“It matters,” said Edward, turning in a pivot. “Because until Rush Callahan, no one thought to connect anything together.”

“And the ancient vampires like this one are notorious about not drawing attention to themselves,” said Harry. “What if Rush figured it out?”

Edward looked at him. “You mean he saw exactly what we are seeing?”

“I think he did. What if the attack was more strategic than just an attack? What if he was moving in close on Amour? What if he’s been paying attention this whole time? What if he connected Atlanta to here?”

“And that’s why he wanted to call you in before we knew it was Preternatural,” said Al in realization.

Harry nodded. “Yes, what if Amour feared that we could heal Rush, and last night's attack was a part of a plan to shut him up? He might even know the location of Amour’s body.”

“They were on the ICU floor. Most of them,” said Lisandro. “You being here, whatever plan this guy has is being threatened. He probably didn’t count on you.”

“Wouldn’t the bad guys know you were connected?” Travers asked. He was slumped against the wall with his large frame. He seemed tired and withdrawn. Harry had no doubt that he had been having nightmares.

Harry shook his head. “Not necessarily. Micah had lost touch with them. I didn’t even know their names. I didn’t even know who Beatrice Morgan was when she called me at work. Some ancient vampires don’t look too deeply into these sorts of things. It’s often one of their greatest weaknesses. They don’t make leaps and bounds and connections.”

“Besides we don’t lose this many in a three to six month period,” said Foster with a nod. “Rush always did have an eye for things. He saw what we sometimes didn’t see.”

Chapman had joined the group now, having been lured by the others to see what was happening. He stepped up beside the map. “This is the first time that all the cases have been put together to my knowledge.” He seemed to be in shock by all the missing men and women that lit up the map. “Individually it was a bigger number of missing and accidents than normal, but not that much bigger. You’re saying Rush Callahan figured this out?”

“He is acquainted with multiple precincts and stations outside of his own, isn’t he?” Edward looked around the room. “At the hospital I saw Wyoming cruisers.”

“He was always promoting linking departments together. He was like the glue when it came to information passing,” said Al with a nod of pride.

“You have different law enforcement agencies covering different areas and that means you don’t always share your information unless there’s a reason for it. Different jurisdictions, hell, different ranger stations cover at least two of these areas. Some of them could still just be runaways; an elderly man who wandered off and was found dead by a presumed fall and exposure may be just that. People die by accident all the time. But this cannot be ignored,” said Edward. “I’d say you’re right about Rush Callahan having figured it out. If he is the link to many districts and precincts then taking him out would have in theory worked.”

“Theory?” asked Travers tightly.

“Morte d’Amour did not realize that maybe a few months ago Rush saw his son on the Good Morning Show, learned that he was married to not only one Preternatural Marshal, but two of them,” said Edward.

“And that’s when Rush Callahan had started making mentions of bringing the Preternatural Unit in,” said Al.

“It might have jogged Atlanta loose from the back of his mind. Everyone knows that it was Marshal Potter-Black that Finnegan sought answers from. It was him who warned Morgan before he died to torch the place. Even willing to take responsibility, but it went ignored. It was him who called MACUSA to help finish the fight.”

“At the same time, Morte d’Amour attacked us remotely,” Harry confessed, getting all eyes on him.

“He’s attacked you before?” Travers asked.

“Yes. He invaded someone’s body, and tried to force us to…” Harry was trying to find a way to say it.

“Eat each other,” Lisandro finished.

“That’s how you guessed it was a rare vampire who could eat flesh?”

“I didn’t guess,” said Harry solemnly. “He was backed by a lot of power and aggression. He was inside of a visitor lying in wait.”

“You didn’t eat each other did you?” asked Al.

“No, of course not. My husband was able to block the attack with his own power,” said Harry. “While we got a handle on the situation.” It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it was all they needed to know.

All looked at Edward who shook his head. “I’m as null as the day is long, fellas. He’s talking about Jean-Claude, our vampire husband.”

“Could he do it again?” asked Al.

“Al!” Chapman scowled.

“What?” Al bit out. “I think the time for being a species-phobe is fucking over with! How many times do these two have to prove that they know what the fuck they are doing before you get it and get it over with? Zip up already. Stop letting your ego get in the way of the lives and safety of everyone around us! I know for a fact that if Mike had never been attacked by a wereleopard he would probably be a detective today, and damn good at it.” His face had gone flushed. “He was always fighting for others. Always at someone’s back and defending them. Rush even talked about how he knew that if Mike had the option he’d put all of us to shame. So stop insulting Rush’s son!” It was a damned day when most of the cops in the room looked suitably ashamed.

“Unfortunately, ancients tend to learn from their mistakes,” said Harry. “He wouldn’t be so bold to face all of us together again like he had that time.”

“He would also need to be pinned down in something stronger than what would count as an infant to the Preternatural world. He won’t do the same thing twice. He’s insane, but not that insane,” Lisandro pointed out.

“He’s hiding from us,” said Harry, turning to look at the map. “He’s hiding behind meat shields and facades. No way will he show himself.”

“Right now we need to rundown those who are potentially alive and living in the concentrated areas that the attacks and those missing are most present,” said Edward, circling his hand in front of the map.

And it was this reason why they didn’t freeze out the local law enforcement.

“We can split into multiple teams to cover more ground,” Al suggested.

“As long as you're accompanied by someone who can handle fire,” said Harry.

“It’s daylight,” Travers pointed out.

“Yes, but even though zombies hate the daylight they are not burned by it like vampires are, Travers. They don’t like it, but if they were ordered to move in the day they will,” Harry explained. “And once again, not all vampires are pinned down by the bright light of the day. I’ve known a couple of vampires that could move beneath the sun.”

“I thought that was a myth,” said Chapman.

“Every myth has a grain of truth otherwise it wouldn’t be a myth,” Harry said. “Actually one of the few Rotters I have met could move in the daylight. He didn’t look human or even like a vampire would. It was bad for him, but he did it. Ancients have their own rules.” He felt like he was repeating himself a bit too much. But then men like Foster were new to him.

Foster nodded. “You are the one who reclassified vampires.”

“Yes, just as you classify humans by age, weight, gender, and their potential physical capabilities. Do not be fooled by seeing a five foot tall dainty female vampire. She might or might not be ten times stronger than the giant brute vampire that could possibly be her underling.” He was thinking of Nikolaos. “So the rules are different and the classification is different.”

“What are the classes?” asked Chapman. It looked to Harry like he was thinking too hard.

“Newborn, Adolescent, Adult Vampire, Pre-Master Vampire, Master Vampire, Ancient Vampire, and Ancient Master Vampire,” Harry ticked. “It has nothing to do with what they look like or their human years. A newborn is any vampire born from 0-30 years ago. From 31-50 they are adolescents. Adults are over fifty and up. A Pre-Master can sometimes bleed into the normal adults. Close, but not quite.”

“Like a sixteen and seventeen year old?” Chapman said, and Harry realized that a couple men were writing this down.

“Yes. And do not be fooled, not every vampire makes it to master. Some just don’t have the power or juice to do it. It’s why you have ancient vampires and ancient master vampires on that same line. And as with every system it’s not perfect. It’s like sometimes you see a twelve year old kid walking around who's six foot tall with a full grown beard.”

Al grinned. “That would be me!”

“But, it’s the best classification we can come up with that makes sense to the populace.”

“And all of this information is out there?” asked Chapman.

“Yes, has been for a while now..”

“Little Raven is quite the teacher,” said Edward smirking. “I don’t have the patience.”

“You taught me.”

“You are an exception.”

“You taught Peter.”

“Another exception.” Harry couldn’t help but smile smug.

“What does your vampire husband think of all this information out in the public?” asked Chapman.

“Just like humans, he knows that his kind needs policing. He’s never thought differently. He helped me class a couple of them. It’s how a person goes about it that changes everything. Just like humans you have the civilized and uncivilized, and the same can be said for every species.”

“We should break into two groups, smaller ones but each one with strengths and weaknesses to cover one another as best as possible,” said Edward. “We can do it ourselves, but it would take longer, and night might fall. If anyone volunteers, know that you might die.”

“We are all aware of that, Marshal Forrester,” said Foster.

“Yes, but this is a bad way to die. You’re not getting shot.”

“Just eaten,” Travers grimaced.

“We can call the exterminator squad.”

Edward was dropping them an olive branch, and they were taking it. Travers was upset that he couldn’t join. He still had the injury and he was having trauma issues. Al was going to be with them, and they turned down the need for an exterminator. Travers’ face would go dark and then it would go back to neutral like he was hearing voices or reliving the nightmares of the past couple of nights.

As plans to go out were being formed, Lisandro and Nicky were outfitting Al with the weapons he might need when Travers touched Harry on the shoulder.

“Can I talk to you?” He flinched when Edward’s eyes were on him, watching him carefully. “Alone?”

“Sure.” Harry let the man lead him to a small corner. Not that it would stop listeners, especially none of the were guards, but if it made him feel any better sure. Nicky had hung around as Edward took his place to outfit Al with Lisandro. Sometimes, suspension of disbelief was a must.

“I- want to apologize.”

“Apologize?” Harry arched a brow.

Travers’ eyes flickered, fast all around him and they seemed to darken. “I lost it. I hated you for coming onto the case. I didn’t believe you were needed. I - I almost lost my friend, I still think I did.”

“How is Little Henry?”

“He’s catatonic. He won’t speak. He only eats through a tube.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what they did to him. He was always one of those men you’d never count out in a fight. He was always the strongest, the biggest and the baddest in the room.”

“He witnessed his own father’s murder, and more than that it was a slaughter.”

“Yesss.” He hissed it. “You - you don’t flinch.”

“I can’t flinch.”

“But you don’t. You look like you’re my sister’s age! She’s bigger than you.”

“Many are,” said Harry. “And I have a lady friend at home that’s six foot six.”

“Tall broad,” said Travers thoughtfully.

“Uh huh, and she kicks every man’s ass that comes at her.”

“I just wanted to apologize. Your friend the vampire-”

“Truth?” asked Harry.

Travers nodded. “Did you order him to do that?”

“No, he did it on his own. The Wicked Truth are great warriors, and they were so in a time long lost. A time where honor was all you had on a battlefield. Both of them have lived through some of the worst times, they were hunted down by their own for doing what was necessary.”

“What was necessary?”

“Protecting what they can,” said Harry, smiling. “So they respect and look up to all forms of honor and warriors, including humans. Good men, no matter the species.”

“I don’t think I’d ever approve of vampires and the like. Lycanthropes, maybe,” he said with a sigh.

“I don’t expect anyone to see things the way I do. But holding your tongue and looking further than the small narrow scope you have been looking through all your life might not be so bad. It might one day save your life or the lives of others.”

For a moment Travers said not a word. His eyes were still dancing that confused tune in his head. “Thank you.” He squeezed Harry’s thin shoulder and focused on him for too long. His face began to grow healthier in color as the gray exhaustion seemed to recede as Harry patted his hand. It was a cops version of a hug when you knew it was going to be awkward.

“You’re welcome, Travers.”

Nicky started laughing when the man was gone, and Harry turned. “What are you laughing at?”

“His blood pressure rose.” He smirked. “I think you’ve wooed him, Kitten.”

It took Harry a minute to realize what he meant, and then he too blushed. “Shut up!” He squawked when Nicky was suddenly there and lifted him off his feet. “Oi! You brute!”

“I’ll show you brute when I get a chance. It’s my turn!” Nicky growled as he squeezed Harry tight enough that if he was completely human he’d not have a breath left.

“Chance? You never have to ask for a chance, Nicky,” said Harry, kissing him and not caring who watched. “Because the lioness in me, really wants to see the Rex in you.”

Nicky grinned. “Done.” He bit Harry’s lower lip, and the only reason a makeout hadn’t gotten started in the middle of a station was because Edward whistled for them.

It was time to go to work. Fun later.

Chapter Text

Before setting out with Al in tow, they had to figure out their squad setup. Nicky and Lisandro were already with them, but now they needed people who could have Nicky and Lisandro’s back, and so they were going through their options as Harry sat on the table munching on a vending machine candy bar that Lisandro had gotten him. With the new hyena in his system, they didn’t want a chance of it stirring the pot at the wrong time so food was a good way to keep down on that potential.

“We can’t use Socrates. He’s a hyena,” said Harry, biting down on the Butterfinger.

“Like Ares was?” asked Al.

Harry nodded. “If Morte does have animals to call with hyenas, then that is the worst option.”

“Not to mention he doesn’t like me,” said Nicky.

“Why doesn’t he like you?” Harry asked, frowning.

“It’s because he’s a thug,” said Al before Nicky could answer.

“Socrates is an ex-cop. No matter how furry he gets. He will always be a cop,” said Lisandro.

Edward arched a brow and Nicky chuckled. “You’re not wrong.”

“If you know this, why are you willing to work with him?” asked Lisandro.

“Maybe I’ve learned,” said Al smirking. “He’s a sociopath, which means he will do what is necessary. I’m not as blind as my fellow officers that sometimes you need bad guys to hunt bad guys.”

Harry knew that everyone’s opinion had gone up for Al. “What would make you trust me?” asked Nicky.

“I don’t trust you. But I won’t hesitate to follow orders from the guys who know more about this situation than me. I’d rather get out alive and the more you get closer to ending this nightmare the higher the chances of Rush Callahan opening his eyes again. Also while I don’t trust you, I’ve come to trust Harry here. You follow him, right?”

“To the end.”

“I don’t get the whole multi-relationship stuff, but hey if it works.” He opened his large hands. “As long as Mike is okay and willing. It’s not my place after that.”

“All right, Al. Since you said your peace and impressed me, I will give you a free piece of information. Do you know why Morte d’Amour won’t risk facing Jean-Claude and me again in the same room?”

Al looked over at him. “Why?”

“Remember I told you that some vampires can take more than blood for their power and energy?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“That’s because Jean-Claude and I have the power of sex at our fingertips.”

Al blinked at this. “Come again?”

“He did last night,” said Nicky, causing Al to splutter and Edward to smirk. “Lisandro had great fun in there.”

“You still sore over that?” Lisandro asked with a scoff.

“No, but I got promises later.”

“Jean-Claude and I can feed and use the power of lust and sex as weapons, Al. It’s a type of magic we have in our bodies. It requires sex - lots of it. Morte d’Amour can’t ‘digest’ that kind of power.”

“It would destroy him?” questioned Al. “I don’t understand most of what you’re saying, but if you have a power that he couldn’t handle…”

“He gets destroyed, yes.”

“So, you feed on sex? Both of you? Does Mike?”

“No, but he gains power everytime Jean-Claude or I have sex. Edward does too.”

“We feed him. He feeds us, and a connection is often always made,” said Lisandro. “So if you cast a power like sex and lust over someone who only knows death and despair…”

“He’d be a goner,” said Al. “Okay, I get that. I did notice how shiny and different you were last night after you came out of the room. You fed him?”

“It killed my energy,” said Lisandro.

“So, you’re like an Incubus?”

“Close enough,” said Edward.

“Jean-Claude has the power of sex and lust, and oftentimes it forms intimate bonds and relationships with people, even if you don’t want it to. You and a lot of people have asked what makes Jean-Claude and his close circle so different to other vampires? It’s because we can feel your desires. We can feel your wishes, and our sex wants to grant them. We want to give you something. We want love.”

“And even a sociopath like me can feel it, so why wouldn’t I follow him to the ends of the earth?” asked Nicky.

“You have the same thing? You’re human. You’re not a vampire.”

“I’m a Necromancer. I’m dangerous to vampires because I can collect powers. I’m the first human to ever possess this power as far as those around me are concerned. As much as Belle Morte pisses me the bloody hell off, she could be a far worse Sourdre de Sang. One of these days we might need her.” Now, normally Harry wouldn’t tell him so much information. But Harry thought he would be a good friend for Micah who could be open and honest with someone from his childhood. He also thought that maybe Al could be like Zerbrowski in that he would always have Micah’s back. Edward seemed to see exactly what he was going for, and didn’t stop him from doing so. It was all for Micah after all.

Edward nodded. “The devil you know.”

“I’m the devil you know,” said Nicky smirking. Harry kissed him on the cheek. He had bent down so he could do it, knowing exactly what Harry had planned.

“She’s also been a pretty nice lady ever since we freed her.”

“Freed her?” asked Al.

“From something very similar to Morte d’Amour, but bigger and badder because d’Amour is terrified of her and won’t go near her.”

“I see… you live complicated lives, but the more and more I’m learning about this side of the world… fuck what would happen if you guys didn’t exist?”

“It would burn,” said Nicky with an I-don’t-care if it does sort of grin.

“None of us claim to be saints, but I don’t think we’re the worst either,” said Harry. “The Preternatural World is not black and white. There are a lot of varying shades out there.”

“I say we pull Domino,” said Lisandro. “We all work together well, and he could use a stretch.”

“Ethan is with the twins, but we could use him if needed. I trust Luna and Claudia implicitly,” said Harry.

Edward nodded his agreement. “I don’t want to risk Peter on this. He’s good, and all of us trust him, but if Dev froze I don’t want to chance Peter, who is full human, to freeze in a bad situation.” Harry also knew that Edward wanted to keep him safe. Protect him like a father should.

“I’ll call Ethan and let him know to be on stand-by, and Domino to get prepared,” said Lisandro, pulling out his phone.

Domino was waiting outside of the hotel. Lisandro was up front with Harry between him and Edward. Al and Nicky were in the back. He was wearing the guard red t-shirt that everyone else was now sporting. He had a leather jacket over his shoulder holster. All pockets charmed. His mass of curls was black with white tips, showing his most recent change was to a black tiger. His skin was also a dark tan, and it made his orange flame eyes stand out as he slid in beside Al with a nod.

Al asked questions as Edward drove toward the mountains and they were soon entering the great old roads that tended to have heart-stopping curves for most people.

“Thank Merlin you are not Arlen Brice. A good Preternatural Marshal, but complete pants at driving,” Harry muttered as Edward smirked.

“I don’t think Bernardo and Bradley picked him out for his driving skills.”

“If they did we would be having a talk about that.”

They tried to get through their list quickly, and they were soon at the third house on their list. From the front the house looked completely ordinary except for the road that was a two-wheel dirt track leading to said house. But once you got out and walked around to the back the ordinary ended.

The windows were shattered, the door was broken with its pieces scattered across a small deck that had a view of a mountain that people would pay a fortune for. The mountains went on and on until the front range rose in white, snow-capped peaks, stark and beautiful.

However, the smell was anything but. Everyone had their guns out and moved sideways toward the open door. An elderly couple had been eaten by zombies it seemed. It was hard to tell whether zombies or vampires came first by the small bits of flesh left and the scattered bones that looked like a dog had chewed them.

Wrecked furniture had blocked part of the door and even the windows. It looked to Harry like the couple had the idea of boarding them up with a tall dresser, but the door… why and how had the table gotten in the wrecked doorway? If the couple put it there, then why were they ripped apart and eaten?

“Why?” Al asked Harry’s question, but in a more simple way.

“I think maybe the vampires camped here,” said Harry.

Edward nodded. “I don’t think the couple boarded the windows. From the public records, Glenn and Wanda Banner were well into their eighties. Wanda had hip surgery and Glenn was on a cane. No way they would have moved so fast.”

To Harry, it was rather sad to know that this elderly couple had to face this. “How long?” he asked softly, glancing at all the pictures and portraits of the smiling couple through the years.

“Forty-seven years,” said Edward.

“You’re really bothered,” said Nicky, looking at Harry.

“Yeah I am,” said Harry. “A couple who makes it that long shouldn’t die like this.”

“Pictures don’t tell the whole story,” said Nicky.

“I know, but it's more than the pictures. You don’t stay married for forty plus years and not have some happiness in your life. If they were really an unhappy couple, one would have likely died earlier than the other.”

“You saying happiness lets you live longer?” Al looked at him surprised.

“I think so,” said Harry. “If you’re happy you work harder right? If you’re miserable, you don’t try as hard.”

Edward stepped around Al, careful as he was not to crush the broken bits of furniture that littered the ground. “He’s one of the most effective in interrogation. But never let him get too close.”

“You’re shockingly a glass half full kind of person aren’t you?” asked Al, staring at Harry’s face with an intensity.

“I don’t know if this scene qualifies as half full.” Harry’s eyes flickered over the timeline. Once Glenn and Wanda had been a handsome young couple. An old fashioned black and white wedding with a pearl obsessed gown, and soon a baby was popping up. It had the same eyes as Glenn, but the face was all Wanda; who many straight men would have said was a looker. As the years passed, two more children popped in. Each one of them taking characteristics from their parents or even potential grandparents. From birthday celebrations to Christmas. So many pictures in the house that Harry just stood there looking at each one and taking in all their details.

He let the others look around as Nicky came to stand beside him. “I hate pictures like these.”

“So did I,” said Harry.

Nicky’s one good eye looked down at Harry. “The kids in those pictures… I thought childhoods like that were fiction. I thought everybody was abused like me. That it was this big secret that nobody said out loud, but it happened to everybody; and then one day I realized that it wasn’t everybody. It was just my shitty family.” It was like a maze sliding his arm through Nicky’s arm, and around all the weapons and body armor to get closer to him. “When I see pictures like this, it pisses me off. It makes me feel cheated. Stupid, huh?”

“No. I was the little boy who no one knew existed. I’m convinced I’d have been at the bottom of River Thames if I hadn’t been a wizard.”

“That story you told about the starving child, was that you?” Nicky asked.

“Yes,” Harry answered. “But, I don’t have that hatred anymore. Why do you think I take so many photographs? Why do you think I make sure everyone is in their natural state when the photos are taken? No one is really posing for them unless it's a special moment. You’re in a lot of those pictures now.” Both of them headed back outside to the beautiful mountain view, and where the air was much fresher. Harry didn’t need to see much else to know what happened.

“I’m in your family,” said Nicky softly.

“Yes.”

Nicky tilted his head from side to side. Harry stroked what bit of skin he could find which turned out to be his solid muscular arms. “You won’t let me keep believing that will you? Even if you let me make my mind up. You accept me for what I am.”

“Yes.”

“You love me for what I am?”

“Yes.”

“You will never give up on me will you?”

“No.”

Nicky pulled him up for a kiss, nevermind the tasteless and miserable place they were standing.

Harry snickered when Lisandro’s chest pressed right up against his back to observe them. “Guarding his mouth?” he teased as Nicky pulled back and smirked.

“You know it.”

Lisandro’s palm ran up the expanse of Harry’s back and tugged at his hair affectionately. Harry turned and kissed him too. No doubt Lisandro had heard every word spoken between them. One after another, Harry was gathered up and kissed by them, and it was so hard not to start rubbing against them. He licked LIsandro’s mouth as Nicky ran a hand beneath his shirt.

He could feel them against him. Knew they had to part before everything in him began to stir and they would become even more inappropriate at a crime scene. But sometimes, you had to to keep the negative from taking over your life. Both released him as Edward and Domino made more noise than necessary to signal they were coming out.

The three of them released, but did not move out of each other’s personal space. Harry had an arm wrapped around both of them as Edward, Domino, and Al came out to stand with them.

“So, what is it you think happened here?” asked Al.

“Zombies and vampires ate the couple, and in return they started using this place as a nest of sorts. It would explain the attempted boarding of the windows,” said Harry.

“Even if it was the other way around and they were trying to defend themselves, which I think was physically impossible they would have been trapped in this house,” said Edward.

“Did you see the corkboard with all the keys in a row?” Lisandro asked.

Harry nodded. “Yes.”

“Let’s check and see if their keys are here. Personal keys have stuff on them, they aren’t just bare keys even if they have spares.”

“Did anyone see the lady’s purse?” Harry asked. Everyone shook their heads no. “Let’s find her purse.”

Harry didn’t want to go back into that house, neither did Nicky. Edward pulled him in for a distracting kiss as Lisandro planted his palm firmly on Harry’s back as they were guided in.

Domino stood on Nicky’s other side like a solid rock. They may not be lovers in the typical sense, but they were all family and community. Harry ended up kissing him behind Al’s back in a silent thank you. Domino smiled and caressed his cheeks.

The other two houses that they’d seen had held the remains of dead bodies. They’d been broken into, but they hadn’t been barricaded. As attacks by zombies went, the other two houses had been normal.

They searched the horrid house high and low. Al made the comment that not everyone carried a purse, but no one could find her wallet, a change purse, or any form of identification. Harry found her husband’s wallet with his ID, money, and credit cards all intact on the bedside table. Even though it wasn’t likely, Al would follow up at the bank to see if the accounts had been used or accessed.

“She has purses, but all of these are something that Hermione uses when she’s going out on a date with Louie. Also they smell like they hadn’t been used in ages,” said Harry, lifting a beaded black one. “I also know she would have an everyday purse. Simple and easy, well worn. So where is hers?”

“Did they do this to make it look like a robbery?” asked Domino as he leaned against the wall near the window that was boarded up.

“Bad robbery,” said Lisandro.

“I’ve seen kids do better than this,” said Al.

“Likely that’s what they were Al, infant vampires. Maybe they thought this was an out of the way place to hole themselves up. A simple little couple. I found some letters here,” Harry picked up the stash by the old desk. It was made of an old oak. Most of the furniture in the house looked older, the bed in the middle was made up of quilts, and the only light was the two lamps on either side of the desk. Harry thought the bed being made like this was quite sloppy, but then this was an elderly couple. But they looked clean as if they’d been changed.

“No religious motifs anywhere,” Domino had noted.

“Were they religious and someone threw them out or were they not?” Lisandro wondered.

“Not that we could see, who writes letters anymore?” asked Nicky.

“Apparently the two adult kids who live in California, there’s one more kid left but I notice one picture of the middle child started vanishing. Maybe he either died or had a falling out.”

“If this was such a perfect place to hide, why did they leave?” Al asked.

“We came into town,” said Edward. “Or more likely, Little Raven did. Boss could have told them to hit the road or change locations.”

“Daytime resting places often change locations. A good chance they have more than one. Mountains are a perfect place to hide,” said Lisandro. “No one blinks much when people go missing for long periods of time.”

“And by then the evidence is corroded to the point of no trace evidence being left behind,” Domino followed up.

“But why take the purse?” Lisandro asked the big question.

“Keys aren’t here,” said Nicky. “I’d say someone broke in after they were dead, but I doubt it. There’s over a hundred dollars in the wallet.”

“And the credit cards have not been used,” said Al after he got off the phone.

Harry’s fingers tapped his chin. “I had an idea…”

“What?”

“What if they were trying to hide?”

“That’s what we said, hide from you, Little Raven.”

Harry shook his head. “No, not hide from me. What if they tried to hide from their boss? What if their boss is never around when they are newly risen? What if they go on a mass attack of these houses, kill them, and then they are full of remorse once they come back down to earth. They know someone is calling for them. You saw Ares, he was trying to fight it before I fixed it.”

“But why the purse?” Domino asked.

“Maybe they left the house and planned to return?”

“So because they were newly fresh vampires, they’d still have the human instinct of locking doors?” Al said.

Edward was thoughtful. “Let’s say for a second that this couple somehow managed to barricade themselves in, but then for some reason they opened the door. Why would they do that?”

“Law enforcement,” said Domino, Lisandro, and Nicky said looking at Al.

“Emergency help,” Harry also put in.

“You’re saying a cop did this?” Al asked in horror.

Harry shook his head. “Maybe, but I think an EMT did this.” He waited, and counted slowly in his mind.

For ten seconds, Al did not piece it together. Edward made a noise three seconds in as they all waited for him to get what Harry was saying. “Little Henry.” He closed his eyes tiredly.

“You say he’s well known. Good friend to the cops, EMT…”

“But why would he do that?”

“What if he had no choice?” Harry asked. “Travers said to us that Little Henry had changed when he came back from the Military. Now I know that’s a normal thing. But Travers also said that he took to the mountains to get away from people. He loved it in the mountains.”

“Whoa, whoa, wait a second!” Al held up a big hand. “Are you saying Little Henry brought his father into the woods so they could kill him?”

“I told you, Morte d’Amour tried to make us eat each other. What if he has mind-fucked Little Henry? Linked them together?”

“Human servant,” said Edward, looking at Harry. “I could see that.”

“You’re saying Little Henry is a human servant? He’d never agree to that!”

“They don’t have to agree, they can be forced, Al,” said Harry. “If he is the human servant what if he’s doing the thinking and leading the zombies and vampires?”

“What do you mean doing the thinking?” Al asked, confused.

“A human servant to a master vampire is a powerful position even if it is an unwanted position. The human servant gets powers and direct access to a form of immortality so long as the vampire stays alive. They are more durable, typically faster, and they can think like their masters if they are controlled hard enough. What if he’s leading these vampires and zombies for food?”

“But if you’re a human servant you can’t be rolled by baby vampires,” Nicky reminded.

“What if he wasn’t rolled by baby vampires? But rather his own master in a baby vampire.”

“I - I can’t agree to this. There is no proof. Little Henry is a victim. If we go in there accusing him of this…” Al shook his head, his face was pale, and he had a sheen of sweat rolling down his forehead.

Harry began to do what he often did and started pacing along the upstairs bedroom, and then he froze. “I’ve got another thought.”

Lisandro laughed despite the dire atmosphere. “What is it, Precious?”

“He’s always full of ideas,” said Nicky.

“He is a wildcard.”

“How many times have I said that a servant can get around his or her master with enough incentive? Even if they have to follow direct commands and stay loyal to their master, they can still fuck around in non-obvious places.” He looked at Domino. “Crispin? Ethan? You.”

Domino nodded. “You're right.”

“He took the purse to draw attention, maybe he sacrificed his own father to draw attention,” said Edward.

“He’s organized when he has to be, but his master is hardly going to tell him to drop a purse.”

“So you’re saying he wants to get caught?” Al asked.

“Not in the front of his head,” said Edward. “But maybe in the back of it. He’s not being as careful as he wants to be. He wants someone to find him. He wants someone to end it.” He looked right at Harry as he said this. “A good man goes bad, and when they often do it’s one for the history books. Mostly because they want to get caught, they don’t realize they want to get caught but there is that tiny voice that controls the subconscious where we never go.”

“We still need more evidence to be able to get into the locked ward of Little Henry,” said Al. “He doesn’t fall under your Preternatural because he’s a human.”

“For now, if we have evidence that he is or could be a human servant then he falls to us. But we’ll have to see more crime scenes to know for sure. We need evidence.”

“What happens to Little Henry? If this is true?”

Harry frowned. “Unfortunately if we kill Morte d’Amour, which is going to happen. He will die.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“He will die,” said Edward.

“Fuck…” Al gripped his hat tight, messing around with the lip of the Stetson.

“Let’s go outside shall we?” Lisandro insisted. “At least outside it smells better.”

“Let me go first,” said Nicky, weaving out of the small compact master bedroom. The house floors were the kind that were old and squeaked with every step a person took. It groaned beneath Nicky’s weight as he scaled down the staircase.

Edward was next with Harry right behind him, Lisandro, Al, and then Domino making the rear.

“I’m sorry, Lisandro, I should have thought better about how you have a more sensitive nose than even wolves being wererat,” said Harry. Poor man must have been in pain at the smell.

“It’s okay, Precious.”

“You're a wererat?” asked Al in surprise.

“I know, I’m just too good looking to be a rat. You were probably thinking wolf or leopard, but no. I’m just a great, big, giant rat.”

Harry looked back to see Al’s eyes a bit wide. “Scared of rats?”

“No…” Al lied.

Lisandro couldn’t help but grin with a snarl attached, the curl of his lip made and his dark eyes glittering. “Then you do not want to see me in my animal form.”

“Probably not,” said Al.

“I wouldn’t mind,” said Harry sweetly.

“Cause you’re precious,” said Lisandro smirking.

As they all headed out onto the porch again, Harry couldn’t help but turn. “But that does remind me. Is the fridge working?”

“I know what you mean,” said Lisandro. “The smell shouldn’t be this strong for a little piece of meat. I checked the fridge, and the food is fine.”

“So then why does it smell so bad even to human noses?” asked Edward.

“It’s almost like there are more bodies we haven’t found yet,” said Nicky.

Harry looked at Edward who said. “There’s a basement.” He pointed to the side of the deck. Harry went to look where he had pointed, and there were stairs leading down to a door tucked beneath the deck.

“We didn’t see a door into the basement from inside of the house,” Nicky surveyed.

That was when Edward turned around and walked back into the house. Everyone trailed him until he was standing in the back bedroom looking at the huge dresser. It towered up over the window. But the room was so small that it effectively blocked the entire corner of the room from view. He got one side, and Nicky grabbed the other. Sure enough a shorter than average door was right behind it.

“It wasn’t the window they were blocking. Someone else was blocking the door,” said Harry.

“Were they blocking something in or out?” Al asked.

“Or were they just hiding the door from this end?” Lisandro asked logically.

“We don’t know,” said Harry, shaking his head.

“Smell is far worse near the edge of the door,” said Lisandro with a sniff.

“Even I notice it,” said Edward.

“It’s either a hell of a lot of zombies or more bodies,” Harry said the obvious.

He nodded. “I have a flamethrower in the Hummer.”

“Go get it. Let’s not tempt fate,” said Harry.

“I’ll get it,” said Nicky, taking the man’s keys.

“We need crime scene techs up here to at least take more pictures than just a few with our phones. They need to collect evidence,” said Al.

“Let’s not get them here until we know what’s down there. This was Marshal Morgan’s mistake in Atlanta,” Harry reminded. “And it cost every tech their lives.”

“Domino, shoot a text to Ethan to bring the backup in case it gets out of hand,” Edward ordered, and the man was already on his phone. He took Harry by the wrist and pulled him into his arms. Harry kissed him, fingers glided across his jaw. A small sense of comfort even for a sociopath.

“Never hurts to let someone know, it wouldn’t do for this to turn into another hospital basement,” Harry agreed with a hug around his neck. He slid to the side to see Al staring at the two of them. His brows knitting slightly as if he had questions in his mind that he didn’t think were appropriate to ask. Harry didn’t bother to prompt him. He could feel the pressure on his waist from Edward’s hold.

Edward made a call while Harry kept his arms around the man’s neck. He told them that they suspected something preternatural in the basement, and if anyone wanted more pictures of the crime scene than what was taken with their phones, then they needed to send techs out now. When they suggested more cops, Edward didn’t say no.

Nicky had returned with Edward’s portable flamethrower. Lisandro was already checking the AR rifle that he’d had strapped to his back.

Al looked completely out of his element as he watched them.

“We’re not waiting for them?” Al asked nervously.

“No,” Everyone said.

“We may be walking ourselves into another trap,” said Lisandro. He had a small vicious grin on his face. Even Nicky looked a bit interested. Domino would be waiting outside watching their backs in case anyone came down the basement while they were busy. “You learn this as you go along.”

“Nine times out of ten we don’t have backup,” Harry told Al. “We called them for your sake, and to make you feel more comfortable. Most of the time, we don’t bother.”

Edward holstered the flamethrower and turned on the flashlight mounted to his AR.

“I don’t get it… why?” asked Al.

“We’re Marshals, waiting wastes time,” said Edward.

“Also, they’re Death and the Equalizer,” said Domino smirking.

“I thought they were Death and War,” Al pointed out.

“Not you too,” said Harry looking over his shoulder.

Al held his hands up. “You’re running toward war. You have been doing that since you dropped in. You might not bring it. You run toward it and I saw your enjoyment last night, Ted.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Deputy,” said Edward with all the innocence of Ted, but his eyes were coldly amused. Harry couldn’t help but nibble on the man’s ear making Edward stare at him. “You really want to start that?” Harry could practically feel the stirrings of his excitement at what was down there from their tightened shields.

“You know I like that gaze. If Al wasn’t here, I’d drop and do something else before going down there. Give everyone some energy.” Everyone but Al laughed and Edward smirked as he raked his hand down Harry’s back to his ass where he squeezed a big handful.

“I think only you’d be getting energy from that, Kitten,” Nicky teased.

“I can give energy too. You know that, Nicky. Besides, you like my pockets.”

“Guilty.”

Lisandro grinned. “Zippers are easy access,” he said in all seriousness.

“I haven’t gotten to play with them yet,” said Domino.

“Awe, I’m sorry! You can play with them all you want, Domino.” He ran over and wound his arms around him, and Domino kissed him.

Al was astonished. He noted that Edward was staring at the two as the kiss became a bit heated. Domino pressed himself into Harry as if he were trying to melt them together. Lisandro reached over and unzipped his zipper for Domino to rezip it with a squeeze.

“I’m still trying to get the headspace for all of this,” Al confessed. “I feel I need to speak up on Mike’s behalf.”

“Mike?” Domino asked, pulling back slightly and licking his lips as Harry nibbled his neck.

“Micah.”

“Oh,” Domino grinned mischievously. “Harry and Micah are my two favorites. What are you talking about, Deputy? Having both at the same time really gets the tiger going in me,” he groaned as he pushed into Harry’s back.

“You and Mike?” Al gawked.

“Micah is a lot of fun,” Nicky agreed. “For his small size he can sure fight back, and that’s what’s most fun.” His one eye sparkled, but not an innocent actor’s sparkle.

“Weres like touch, we like sex. It’s high aggression and high sexual energy most of us have,” said Lisandro easily. “Humans don’t tend to take well to our needs. You live and you learn.”

“You were with a normal human?” asked Al.

“For too fucking long,” said Lisandro bitterly. “As if I couldn’t smell her fucking her own brother-in-law.”

“I thought polyamory was okay?” Al blinked.

“Sure, when you’ve talked about it,” said Lisandro. “I was faithful to her, even when it was restraining. I even asked her if she wanted to do open relationships when I first smelled him on her. She about killed me, thinking I was being sick and a pervert. And the whole fucking time she was fucking him. So I gave up.”

“Did she start this after you became a wererat?” asked Domino, frowning.

Lisandro shrugged. “That’s what I originally thought. After Sammy was born and before I was a wererat she seemed to lose interest in everything sexual or even romantic with me. I thought at the time she was simply tired. I get that and I respect that. But I learned later she had been fucking around with her brother-in-law since the night of our wedding. She’s a good mother, not a good wife.”

“Sounds tiring,” Nicky admitted.

“It was,” Lisandro agreed. “I was faithful to her because I feared that she would take my kids away from me. I took my opportunity to let out some stress at your bachelor party,” he looked at Harry and Edward as he said this. “Figure if I’m fucking a pretty guy I could get away with it. At one point I just stopped giving a damn.”

“For most humans they don’t need sex or need to want it,” said Nicky. “Most humans will tell you that sex is not the most important part of a relationship, but for us weres…”

“It works the energy out. Helps you control the beast inside of you,” said Domino.

Edward was letting them talk it out. Not just for distraction, but for everyone to be at their best. Sometimes constant images of death and smells of death could get to anyone, even a sociopath. So the fact that they were talking about relationships and Lisandro’s failed marriage was a way to get something out of such a horrible event. For some cops they would make crude jokes and take bets. Harry liked to talk about sex or help his men by giving them lovely imagery.

“You can’t be yourself with humans,” said Domino, rubbing Harry’s shoulders and squeezing at them.

“No one has to be anything but who they are. That is our only requirement,” said Harry with a wiggle against Domino before trotting back over to get into position. “We’re all polyamorous, but not everyone is with everyone else. For instance, Domino is with Micah and me officially. I am with…”

“All of us,” Lisandro smiled.

Harry nodded. “Yep. Not everyone has the same tastes or energy. It’s more than looks, it’s also the energy and if it compliments you.”

“Like chemistry?” Al tried.

“Yep.”

“Ready to have fun?” asked Edward, a wolfish smile spread across his face, and all of the men around them nodded, though Al was a bit slower.

“You can stay back, you know, keep guard with Domino.”

“No, I need to go,” said Al, steeling his nerves. It seemed that their random conversation helped him out. Good. Maybe he would survive. Harry hoped he did. It would be a shame to lose someone with potential.

“Ted and I will get the door,” said Lisandro as the two looked at one another. “Precious, stay behind us please. We can’t guard you if you go pushing through.”

“Yes sirs,” said Harry, and the two scaled down the stairs leading to the basement as Nicky leaned down around Harry and kissed him on the neck.

“Good, Kitten. We don’t need more third degrees from Claudia.”

“We’re already going to get it, but if we’re extra good maybe Ted can cover for us,” said Domino grinning.

“Maybe I will,” said Edward.

Edward and Lisandro placed their shoulders up to the door next to each other as Lisandro eased the door open. Harry, Nicky, and Al all brought their guns out at the ready. Domino kept back to watch their backs. It was a natural marching order, one that Al seemed to understand much quicker than most normal law enforcements. But then Al seemed to be able to pick things up quickly. Much like Zerbrowski in that way.

The basement’s smell was of rotting meat mixed with the largest nastiest outhouse. Lisandro swallowed convulsively and Al nearly doubled over. Even Harry had to resist the rare gag reflex that flared in the back of his throat as he took shallow breaths. It was decomp hell in there.

Lisandro tried the light switch and no surprise, it didn’t work. Edward’s flashlight on the end of his rifle flared to life and trailed into the darkness.

“Stairs,” Edward said, quietly so that everyone knew what lay ahead of them. He moved down first in a slow rhythmic gait with Lisandro following and Harry at his back.

Harry had brought out his wand and conjured some light on the end so that he, Nicky, and Al could see better. For a moment there was nothing to see but bare walls and stairs going down. But Harry had no doubt that with the intensity of the smell there was a lot more to come.

Nicky was careful to keep the barrel of his raised gun from crossing over Lisandro and Edward’s bodies, Al had mimicked him. Neither could use their lights, and instead followed the light from Harry’s wand.

His wand light showed glimpses of railing ahead as the stairs curved in. All rails went deeper down, and Harry knew there was an elevation difference. The smell of decomposing flesh got stronger with every step they took.

Harry couldn’t even put a number on the amount he was smelling. Harry had no doubt that Morte d’Amour would not be like most vampires who abhorred bad odors. To him it probably smelled like a field of flowers. Al cleared his throat sharply behind them. Harry hoped that he didn’t throw up on them. Lisandro was making sharp hissing sounds between his teeth.

Edward and his rifle pointed to the left of the stairs, Lisandro took the right, and Harry stepped out of the sheltered area and into the open space of the next section of stairs. Nicky was following at his back with Al doing a long sweep if the air movements being stirred were anything to go by.

Harry saw the first pile of bodies as he slid his wand across the darkness. They were stacked on top of each other, but these bodies weren’t like some of the ones in the woods. These were all plump and rotting instead of thin and starving. It reminded Harry of the cave video footage that Finnegan had sent him from Atlanta.

Nicky had to hunch and duck to turn the corner as Al asked. “Are these zombies?”

“No.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Now you’re making me second guess myself. In any other case I’d say no because they’re bloated with gases. Zombies rot, but they don’t make gas. Theory is, either moving around dissipates the gas or something about being a zombie means they rot differently from regular dead bodies. However, considering the morgue scene I wouldn’t be surprised if he could raise these as potential zombies. I’ve never been near a Necromancer or an Animator to where I couldn’t feel him or her before. It’s like not feeling it when someone stabs you in the arm with a needle.”

“And the more painful the needle stick, the stronger?” Al deduced.

“Yes,” said Harry. “It may have something to do with the fact that he is a vampire. It’s not supposed to be possible. I mean, undead raising the dead?”

“It does sound ridiculous even to us uneducated,” Al agreed.

“Either way someone brought the bodies down here as storage,” said Edward.

“He might be feeding on them as a source of energy instead of blood,” said Harry. “Since blood wouldn’t be all that available here in the mountains.”

Nicky peeled off with Lisandro and Harry followed Edward. The five of them split the room to search.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Al hissed. You could hear the beginning layers of shock, but he was holding steady as Harry noted his hands weren’t shaking.

“The bodies are almost untouched,” Lisandro noted. “Doesn’t look like he’s feeding off them.”

“Future raising then?” Edward theorized. “But if this is the food storage or any sort of storage it means someone is going to come back for it. We use it as bait.”

“You mean like staking out a kill for a maneater?”

“Yes.”

“And if it's just a body dump?” Nicky asked.

“Then they may want to put more bodies down here.”

“So either way we stake out the place and see who, or what, comes back,” said Edward logically.

“Not if they see the police here,” said Lisandro. “I can hear the sirens in the distance.”

“I don’t hear anything,” said Al.

“You’re human.”

Harry listened carefully, Edward doing so too, and both soon nodded. “I hear them.”

“I still don’t…”

Harry knew Edward was regretting calling them. It was typically why they didn’t do so in the first place. It was quiet for a moment’s spell, Al’s hearing was straining to hear what the others could hear when a cold power ran through his head and along his skin. He felt it wake, and had time to yell. “Vampire!”

“Where?” Al swung around.

“Here,” said a voice that wasn’t any of them.

Al was frozen, and Nicky and Lisandro’s guns had gone off, blasting through the room. Harry couldn’t see a damn thing. Even in the lightning flashes of their guns and one wand he couldn’t see the vampire. But Goodness, he could feel it like a pressured magic burning into his skull.

“Zombies!” Lisandro called out, and Harry swung around as Edward grabbed his flamethrower. They had been hiding amongst the piled bodies.

“Everyone get to the light! Ignis Exerto!”

Edward released the latch on the flamethrower and the darkest areas of the room flashed and lit up, and there he was! Harry moved and took aim with his wand only for a heavy rotted body to smash into his side and send him sprawling onto the floor and through the dead bodies. Those same dead bodies began to stir and move as the power through the room fluctuated.

“Harry!” Everyone called out, and groping hands he didn’t recognize seized at him. Harry kicked and let out a holler.

“EVERYONE BACK OFF! Now! Get to the stairs!” He could hear the loud footsteps of the men moving toward the stairs as he flailed, and flicked his wand to disarm zombie after zombie that tried to crawl over top of him. “Flipendo!” A shot of turquoise light sent one of them into a strange backbend away from him. Another made for his throat, but the magic kicked in causing the zombie to start burning as Harry flicked him off with a swish of his wand.

“Stairs!” Edward hollered in the darkness, once they had all made it.

“We can’t just leave him!” Lisandro hissed out. He could feel Lisandro being grabbed and pulled by Nicky, and saw in the dim of the flashlight from Edward the horror and fear at the idea of Harry being on the ground amongst the still bodies with the zombies amongst them rising and crawling toward him. One tried to bite, making Harry shoot him in the mouth causing it to explode.

“Trust him!”

A great weight of zombies began to fold across him, and he didn’t hesitate to shout. “Fiendfyre!”

A sound like a volcanic roar was all the warning the room got as Harry swept his arm up, and released the flames in a blazing arc. He rose with it as the heat climbed higher and higher to a boiling point. He saw his men crouched on the stairs as he swung his wand over his head as though he were about to throw a loop around the neck of cattle. He danced to the flames in a circle and with a flick each flowing tendril transformed into hot fiery beasts to engulf the room. Screeches unlike any flame could ever make filled the airspace.

He worked hard to keep space between him and the flames and to keep it from touching the staircase. He could do nothing as things in the basement exploded and pipes burst.

No wizard that Harry could think of would ever cast such an uncontrollable and deadly flame in such a small space, but Harry’s theory was that he’d rather be burned alive than eaten alive, and so he pushed it. He pushed his magical abilities to sweep through the room.

Harry parted the flames as he stepped between them to the stairs. Edward was the first to move up the stairs, all the while keeping his gun trained on the basement floor. Nicky was moving Al ahead of him. Harry kept the flow up as Lisandro reached out with his hand and drew him in. Harry was being guided backwards up the stairs.

“Propane tanks, hit the propane tanks as we head out of the door,” Edward told him.

“Get us to the edge, Husband!”

Harry could see the zombies and bodies flailing and burning alive as great beasts of fire munched down on them. Just as the stream of daylight reached him, Harry flicked his wand to not only release the spell but to send one of the avian flames toward a series of propane tanks that Edward had pointed out with his flashlight. They were lucky that the spell hadn’t already reached them.

Lisandro didn’t wait. He hauled Harry over his shoulder and he ran out into the blazing daylight. Not a moment after they stepped off the porch, the entire house began to smolder, smoke, and then explode.

All of them hit the grass outside, Harry falling on Lisandro causing all the wind to leave his lungs. Lisandro kept moving, rolling with him. Nicky had done the same to Edward, and Domino had taken Al.

All of them looked up as the blaze of orange flickered over them like a mirror reflecting, and Harry saw the beasts looming high in the sky. Ashes rained down, and a few stray sheets of metal with fire swallowing it before it hit the ground.

It was at this moment that the police backup showed up. Just in time to watch as one last dragon made of pure fire let out one last roar, and then it dived and consumed the entire house in one great volcanic gulf.

Harry let out a choke as the magic released from him in a wash. All that focus to not burn anything but their enemies was often a greater cost of magic than the magic being performed itself.

His cheek touched the blades of dry parched grass and he soaked it with the sweat that his body had accumulated. He could feel Lisandro curl around him with one arm, and his nose burying into Harry’s ear and hair. He squeezed Harry as though he was in shock.

“Do not scare me like that again, Precious,” Lisandro heaved.

“I stink…” It was all Harry could get out.

Lisandro choked out a strangled laugh and groaned up against him. “Rom isn’t going to be happy with me.”

“Why?”

But Lisandro didn’t answer. He just kept holding on even as the EMTs, police, and SWAT stepped out of their vehicles. Someone was smart enough to bring a firetruck. But Harry was too tired to tell them that all the water in the world wouldn’t put his flames out. Harry could feel Lisandro smile. He could feel and sense Lisandro’s wants and desires. He could feel and sense his thoughts as though they were connected.

Like Nicky. Like Ethan. Like Micah. He could feel Lisandro’s rat. See him inside of that metaphysical plane. He was a giant. He stood tall on hind legs. His fur was so black that it looked dark reddish. He was at least three times the size of Harry’s little tufty guy. His tail was sleek and long, trailing at least twice around his small Rat. Giants. Everyone was a fucking giant. So not fair.

Oh.

Chapter Text

Everyone took separate showers this time. All of them needed as much space as they could to get the decomp off their skin. Dev had gone running for the hills as soon as they got onto their floor and he smelled them. Several wererats had literally doubled over as they passed.

To say they were the least popular right now was an understatement. Harry had armed everyone with an industrial magical body wash that smelled of lemons. The Muggles used one that smelled like bad oranges. But lemons and lemon juice had always been a hot commodity in getting rid of scents that were more akin to stains rather than masking them. Nicky had grumbled about it. He hated lemons or anything that smelled like it.

Even Domino, who was the cleanest of them all as he had stayed outside as watch, was getting a full lemon wash shower.

All their clothes, armor, and gear had to be sprayed down out on the balcony. He was not surprised that a few floors down a lot of doors and windows closed. Harry chose to pitch his clothes, but the armor couldn’t be pitched. Some of the newbie guards would be responsible for washing their gear. He felt really bad for them.

Al had been quiet and speechless on the way back to the station. His eyes had a haunted edge like a man who had been shell shocked.

Edward had to explain for Harry who had been way too tired about what they’d done in the house. He might have gotten a lot of weird looks, but he didn’t care. Lisandro had been quiet on the ride back, no doubt thinking about their recent discovery.

There was a lot to do, and it wouldn’t be long before night would fall, but did night really matter right now in the grand scheme of things? He had no doubt that Morte d’Amour was still alive, and more than that he had been able to possess the bodies of his own zombies.

He thought about calling the Traveler for more information, but then decided that no, it was best he work these things out alone. He had no doubt that if he played it right the Traveler would tell him near anything. But what didn’t he already know? The Traveler would find it a pointless question when he already had quite a handle on this monster.

Someone had laid out fresh clothes for him when he was finally done. He hadn’t even thought about doing it himself because there was no way he was entering the room with the babies with the way he smelled. Simple snug denim jeans and a black soft wool shirt with a gray hood attached. It was currently about seventy degrees, but the closer it got to night the more the temperature dropped significantly.

He noted two bottles of water were also sitting on the counter. He had no doubt that the others were getting the same treatment.

He shoved his feet into his boots, and quickly headed out not bothering with his hair as he took his bundle of weapons to sit them aside on the nearby bed.

He was in one of the rooms where the blackout curtains were open, and the weak sun was streaming through. The babies’ room was the same. Sure it made it difficult for Jean to see them before night fully set but all children needed light.

He sat down on the bed and let out an exhausted sigh. He was more tired than he meant to be. Fiendfyre itself was not hard to cast. What was so hard was the focus to keep from getting caught in the blaze. He shoved the weapons aside and stretched out on his side across the large bed. He drew a pillow to place on top of his arm and just laid there for a moment as his body caught up with the after effects of an adrenaline rush.

He closed his eyes and blanked out for some time only to awaken to fingers combing through his hair. His eyes flickered and he raised his head only for lips to come down upon him.

“Why are you already dressed?” Nicky growled against him, and Harry realized that his lovely lion was completely naked. His skin shined and the muscles bulged. He smelled clean and fresh, like lemons had been squeezed over him. His hair was damp, the triangle wedge of the front hid his eye. Harry for his part pushed it aside for the moment and kissed him. “You need to feed, Kitten. Feed well.”

“And you just happen to be the cake of the evening?” Harry moaned as he slid his mouth down, and nibbled Nicky’s collarbone. His hand swept down to his cock. The head was very much thicker and wider than the rest of him. As if it too was a special muscle that had to be trained to bulge. Nicky groaned as he pushed his hips into Harry’s hand.

“I’m whatever you want me to be, Kitten.”

“My Rex then.” Harry sucked down Nicky’s chest, running his tongue flat down his hard stomach, and flicked his tongue around the thick head. “I’m still holding you to your kitty, Nicky.”

Nicky groaned. “Fuck yes! I’ll fuck you with my lion cock… shit!” He seized Harry’s head as his cock was swallowed all the day down. “Ulgh… shit… love that you can do that!”

He sucked Nicky’s lust as aggressively as he sucked his cock. He refused to let up, and had Nicky pinned and writhing on the bed.

Nicky gripped his large hand around Harry’s throat and pulled him from his throbbing cock. Harry used his magic to make his clothes vanish as Nicky rolled them, and he began to suck at Harry’s mouth all the while squeezing at his throat.

He shivered when a naked body slid across the bed to join them. He could feel Edward’s chest, his hot breaths, and his fingers teasing at his nipples with a harsh pinch. Harry moaned and rubbed his ass against the man’s perking cock.

“Going to be my stretcher?” Nicky asked with a vicious grin.

“Yes, but Little Raven has to take from you. Not me.”

“Oh he will take from me. I promise,” said Nicky running his tongue across Harry’s chin and down.

Both men were rough and hard to handle alone, and get them together and Harry could barely speak. His legs were spread and he was pulled into Edward’s chest as Nicky teased his lubed entrance with a single middle finger while biting his nipples and getting a bit rough. He moaned as Edward hissed into his ear. He reached down to level his cock, and Nicky helped Harry’s slim body push down onto it.

Tears sprung to his eyes as the pain and pleasure hit him from the initial glide. Edward’s hips bucked up into him. Nicky’s grip on his throat and teeth on his chest sent his heart thumping, and the need for air pulsed into his ears.

He rode and bounced backwards on Edward’s cock as Nicky wrecked his body with his teeth and mouth. He rolled his hips and felt his cock pulled and teased. He was restricted from orgasm with a finger over the hole and it sent him rolling as Edward gripped his hair, slamming his hips up into Harry.

He was then pulled and rolled onto his stomach. His mouth swallowed Edward’s hungry cock as Nicky mounted him. Nicky pulled no punches as he gripped Harry at the small of his back, thumbs pressing toward his spine and he pushed without stopping as Edward gripped him by the back of his head and held him onto his cock until tears sprung to his eyes and breathing became a problem.

Both men used and manhandled him, and he drowned in their thrusts and growls. He was pulled up and licked by Edward. He too had become almost animalistic. All of that awful stuff they’d seen and finding release was a desperation for them all. Harry was fucked repeatedly, orgasms bubbled and burned, and then they would stop, roll him and switch.

At one point, Edward pinned him flat on his stomach, ran his hands down and spread him to be fucked in one continuous long looping motion.

His hand reached out between them and he pulled the watching Lisandro onto the bed, and it was a ring of all three of them. He swallowed Lisandro. He was fucked by Nicky, watched by Edward, and then it would change. He’d be fucked by Lisandro, Nicky would bite and steal his air, and Edward would fuck his mouth. Every time he got on that edge of orgasm or blacking out from the pain and intensity, they would let go, give him a breath or two and start again.

He dove over the edge as he released the arduer when Nicky was balls deep in his ass. Lisandro holding his throat and forcing his cock to hit the back of Harry’s throat. He sucked on Nicky, tasted and teased Lisandro, and though he didn’t feast on Edward he did lick the edge like he was a treat. He sent them all into a series of orgasms that saw him covered in all three men as they ringed around him, losing themselves as he drew them in. Harry could say and promise all he wanted before sex, but when the moment came sometimes control was better left to someone else.

In the bed, with his men, Harry could lose all the control he wanted, and he finished with a good suck to each of them as Nicky rubbed the slick mixture of cum and sweat into his stomach like a lotion. Each of his men needed to see that he was alive, he could feel their needs through the thick invisible weave of the ardeur. Nicky wanted to see that he was coming back every fucking time. Edward wanted to feel him, needed to taste and sense him. Lisandro bent over, his long black hair folding around him in a curtain and puddled across Harry as he kissed him, licking the cum and scents out of his mouth with desperation.

He made the house, the basement, and all the imagery vanish from the men’s minds, and in the end wasn’t that the point sitting next to something called love that two of these three men should not be able to feel?

Harry was proud that he could make them feel it.

oOo

Claudia and Luna were amazing, they had set up the conference room at the end of the floor with a humongous banquet for everyone to eat. Harry had re-dressed, and proudly sported the bites and red marks around his neck as he sat between Lisandro and Nicky with Elara in one arm while he ate. Edward had Rigel.

The room consisted of wererats, tigers, and more. Some of the Harlequin shapeshifters had been invited to join them.

As they ate, they made plans about going to the PD. “Edward, you should talk to the police. I want to see Little Henry,” said Harry as he adjusted the sleeping infant burritoed in his arm. Nicky had to cut up his steak tips for him so he could eat them one handed. “They can’t hide him away now under the victim’s laws.”

Edward nodded. “You take someone with you, Little Raven.”

Lisandro and Nicky perked, Claudia frowned. “I’d like for one of you two to stay with me. The vampires are waking soon.”

“Can’t Wicked Truth handle them just fine?” asked Lisandro.

“Sure, but they’re vampires and if we let Wicked Truth do our job, then that just signals to them that they are the superior ones,” she scowled at this. A lot of the vampires had issues with the wereanimals taking charge and leading. Mischa wasn’t the only one. He was just the most vocal.

“You should stay, Nick. He fed from you,” said Lisandro.

“I’m fine,” said Nicky. “He fed a bit from all of us. So he hasn’t exhausted any of us.”

“He wasn’t supposed to feed on me, but then he doesn’t have much control after all,” Edward smirked. Harry pelted him with a roll. He caught it and bit into it. “Needs butter.” And then he paused and stared. “Don’t throw that. I have a baby in my arms.” Harry smiled sweetly as he floated the butter to hover in front of him. Edward took it, with cold amusement. “Better.”

Lisandro had sat aside the cheesecake before Dev could steal it and eat the whole thing. He’d do it too. Between him and Teddy, cheesecake had to be made in multiple batches.

“Are you implying that our Dark Master is more dangerous than us Harlequin?” asked Seamus, and boy he did not look like Harry’s Seamus from Hogwarts.

He was as dark skinned as Bram, except his eyes were a hyena green as his master vampire had kept him in his animal form for a bit too long. He was a werehyena. He was tall, dark, and typically handsome. His vampire master was named Jane.

Nicky grinned. “Yep.”

“If you saw what he did today…” said Lisandro proudly.

“That took more focus than talent,” said Harry. “Focus not to blow everything and burn us alive.”

“A bit of your famous Potter luck shining through.” Luna mused as she swept into the room. Today she had chosen a knee length dress made of many layers of sheer pinks, oranges, and golds. It almost looked like she was surrounded by an early sunset. She still had her bottle cap necklace and radish earrings to finish out the outfit.

“Good evening, Luna.” Harry smiled at her as she settled into the spot next to Edward.

“Hello. Is Micah going to be returning this evening? Kitten is missing her cat.”

Harry looked down at Elara, she seemed content to him. Her green eyes were set on his face, then they would drop and her head would turn to look at Edward seated opposite, before returning to stare up at him. “She is more awake and curious than she usually is when I see her, but she seems happy to stay wrapped up.”

“That’s because she’s currently wrapped in one of Micah’s shirts from home so she is surrounded, but she is searching for him. A part of her knows the scent is old. She has spent time with the dead and the human, but the cat has been gone long. The Star needs the lightning like the Kitten needs the King.” A glance up showed Harry that her gaze had softened.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Luna?” Harry wasn’t surprised that she didn’t answer, only looked at him with a mysterious smile. She would keep the secret until someone asked her directly for confirmation, word for word. Harry thought it was too soon to know, but Luna had carried them within her, it wouldn’t surprise him at all if she knew whether Rigel was magical or not.

“Let me call Alpha and see if I can convince him and the Kid to return to spend a few hours with the twins while we’re out.” Edward stated, shifting to pull his phone out without setting down Rigel. Harry was always impressed by the man’s dexterity and ability to do things with one hand compromised. “No guarantee though. Not with his father still out and I don’t want the twins anywhere near the hospital.”

“He’s desperate to try and make up with his family,” said Harry as he struggled around the loaded twice baked potato. It was hot, and so he didn’t want to accidentally drop anything on Elara. How the hell did Edward do this? He tried not to flare up red when Lisandro assisted him by literally feeding him. “Thank you.” he muttered quietly. “Give me that cheesecake. I give up.” He wouldn’t care if most of the Harlequin shapeshifters weren’t in the same room with them. He had to be at his best. At his most Dark Mastery, whatever the bloody hell that meant.

He was not comfortable being in the room with any of them, though Goran was growing on him. That puppy dog stare or was that baby bear stare? Seamus highly valued their modern ideals, but a few of the other shifters were often left bemused and utterly silent with just their eyes staring at him as if he were someone interesting.

Lisandro reluctantly agreed with Claudia to remain back. He did take Elara for Harry as Edward handed Rigel to Luna. While he wasn’t of the cat variety, hopefully his shifter energy would help keep her settled until Micah could return.

Domino would be partnering with Nicky fully this time. Not just backup.

Harry had whispered to Claudia that she needed to rethink the weretigers and their training. “But Domino wasn’t trained to be some white knight.”

“I know. Just letting you know, maybe even a rethink of rotations. Ethan would be a better choice.”

“But he and Nicky don’t know each other well yet,” Claudia reminded. “Not knowing someone means hesitation. Domino is used to working with Nicky when they head off with Micah for Coalition work.”

“You're right, and Domino was trained as a mob bodyguard and enforcer. I often forget about that, you know?”

“It’s hard when they’re so dainty acting,” Claudia laughed.

Harry nodded slowly at this. All of the tigers, no matter the clans they hailed from, had a daintiness about them. Even the strong dominant alphas. It made it kind of hard to gauge what they could do. Ethan was the only one who didn’t have the feeling as though he were born with a silver spoon stuck in his mouth or in this case gold because silver would just be painful.

“How much more trouble are you getting from the Harlequin?”

“After your display last night, and Mischa on the edge of death, they’ve shaped up. But I don’t expect it to last,” Claudia rolled her eyes. “I never imagined such bloodthirsty killers can be so fucking whiny!”

“You’d be surprised,” said Harry thinking about some Death Eaters he’d known. Edward was usually the one who did all the guard scheduling work with Claudia, Lisandro, Bobby Lee and Rafael, but considering he was supposed to be the ‘Dark Master’ he realized that he needed to know a bit more. He felt guilty for having not realized what the vampires were doing to their animals to call until it was pointed out. Edward would have put a stop to it, but he didn’t know those kinds of cues like Harry or Micah would pick up on. Harry and Micah were very good at picking out the abused and the weak willed. For Micah, it made his job as a Coalition Leader effective. For Harry, it helped him get into the minds of his victims and even the monsters that they chased. Outside of their immediate family, Edward had no education or understanding in this department.

“I heard about you and Lisandro though,” said Claudia, and Harry couldn’t help but flush.

“We didn’t mean to.”

“A lot of people don’t mean to, but you’re just so snuggable!” Claudia teased with a ruffle of his wild hair.

Harry scoffed. “Yeah, snuggable. That’s what you call it.”

“You smell like all three of them.”

“Proudly so,” said Harry grinning. “Even Edward and I had our own issues in that house apart from smelling a decomposing body farm. No one deserves to die like that. Especially a little old couple who had been married for over forty years. I mean, you have to be special to make it that far.”

Claudia nodded in agreement. “It’s unreal these days. Everyone around the corner divorces or eats each other. It’s why you shouldn’t get to know the victims, Harry. You’re the worst when it comes to that.”

“I know, but sometimes you have to get close to get to the answer. I know this is a nightmare for you. I’m really sorry.”

“I know you are, but you won’t stop doing it,” Claudia shook her head. “I’ll get the Harlequin into shape one way or another. Maybe beat the whine out of them.”

“You and Lisandro would make a great team in that regard. Nicky could help later.”

“I think Rom will be stepping in when we return,” said Claudia. “He would like to speak to Micah on who is ideal, but he can wait. How is he doing?”

Harry brought his shoulder up. “I have Teddy making sure he eats and drinks. But I have to end this nightmare before he’ll ever be okay again.”

“Well, you go do what you have to. I’ll hold the fort down and make sure your twins are safe. It won’t be long before the vampires wake for the night.”

Harry walked away and couldn’t help but think if he only was straight and Claudia wasn’t asexual. Her and Luna were rockstars, really they were.

Edward and Harry had to go in two separate directions since he was heading to the station and Harry was going to the hospital. Nicky and Harry went to find Domino, and found him sorting through his weapons and preparing for departure.

“Do I get attention this time?” Domino teased.

“You could have joined us,” said Nicky with a smirk.

Harry smiled and sank down on the bed. “If we had time I’d tell you to ravage me right now.” He placed his palms into the bed behind him as Domino’s orange eyes flared. “You need to come say hi to me more often. Come slip into my bed or simply come see me. You’re missing out if you don’t grab me and kiss me like everyone else does.”

Nicky’s smirk turned into a grin as Domino stalked forward until he was standing between Harry’s parted legs. He bent down over Harry who reached up, seized the new red t-shirt and pulled him on top for a soft kiss that turned passionate and delicious as their tongues lolled together.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Domino, pulling back and licking Harry’s chin. He turned Harry’s neck to examine the marks. “Your work, Nick?”

“All of ours, but yes mostly mine.”

Domino buried his face into Harry’s neck who sighed and shivered as his mouth sucked down on the red marked skin. Harry couldn’t help but moan as he caressed Domino’s chest to his face and beautiful messy curls.

“Kitten has enough beasts to be charged up for a century at least,” Nicky commented.

“Not just beasts. It’s simply me. You don’t lose your virginity to Jean-Claude and not be affected for life.”

Domino chuckled, and the kiss could have turned into a whole lot more if Harry’s phone hadn’t started ringing. Domino pulled back and let go, leaving Harry huffing as he answered the phone. It was Al.

“Harry, everyone here is congratulating us on killing the rogue vampire, but before that I wanted to ask you and Forrester. Is it dead?”

“No.”

“Fuck, I thought so. I video’d some of what happened in the basement for evidence. Everything has been reduced to ash by your magic. No one thinks its possible for anything to have gotten out of there alive.”

“Remember what we said, this vampire can hop bodies, and apparently he’s hopping into his zombies. I’m guessing that’s how he’s been getting around this whole time, and the stash we found beneath the house was his feed stash for the zombie he’s taking control of. Typically, the more powerful the vampire the more the stalking horse has to be fed to be able to handle it. Otherwise the body can’t contain it and it’ll likely split or explode.”

“I didn’t even know that was possible.”

“It shouldn’t be. I’ve never heard of it. I kept going back and forth about vampires being zombies, which while ridiculous sounded much more probable than what we discovered. I wasn’t far off in the end.”

Domino began to prepare. He, unlike Nicky, preferred to use a vest as he had been trained to when he was a mob enforcer in Las Vegas. Domino slipped into the vest and began to tighten the straps as Harry stood up.

“How are we going to truly kill this thing if it's jumping bodies?” asked Al, sounding hopeless.

“We need to pin it down in one place long enough or find his original body.”

Domino started putting his weapons in place. He got to carry more weapons when he came out with Harry and Edward as a sort of junior marshal, because he didn’t have to hide that he was armed.

“How do we find it then?”

“I’m going to question Little Henry at the hospital and Deputy Gutterman about the sheriff’s attack. See if I can get a clue to a location.”

“You still think Little Henry is…” Al went quiet, not wanting to say it.

“I think he had no choice, Al.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“I know, but he didn’t choose this willingly. Most wouldn’t, especially when they discover the fascination of Rotting vampires.”

Nicky picked up a pocket-sized .308 pistol from the bed. He made a teasing remark on the size and implying cock size comparison in some way. Harry just grinned and reached out to stroke Domino, making Domino smirk. Domino had little to be ashamed of in that area. Harry proved this by rubbing the outside of Domino’s jeans as the tiger got out his Beretta .45 and made some remark back, teasing Nicky on his size since he carried a nine-millimeter as his main gun.

“Okay, Harry. What can I do to help?”

“Edward is on his way to you guys to see what we learned from all the new crime scenes we found.”

“He’s letting you go alone?” Al sounded surprised, and dubious.

“You know better than that by now Al,” said Harry. “But, it’s too close to dark to be going one place at a time. We have to split the work down the middle. Considering zombies can move in the daylight despite not wanting to. It means this vampire can walk in the sun, but come nightfall shit is going to hit the fan.” He was still squeezing and rubbing Domino and enjoying how the man swelled beneath the fabric with his touch. Domino continued to add his gear as Nicky assisted him. His face showed nothing though his eyes had narrowed into lovely Halloween orange points.

“Is that what I tell the guys?”

“Tell them to wait until after tonight. From the time the sun goes down until it rises again,” he grinned as Domino rose to the occasion as he said this. He firmly squeezed making Domino snap his teeth as Harry’s thumb ran over the covered head. “It will be the true test. If nothing happens, then I’m wrong and great! But I know what’s going to happen.”

“What do you mean? How can you predict it?”

“What do serial killers do when they are cornered?” Harry asked, sinking onto his knees and reaching up to unzip. Domino froze for a minute and stared down at Harry whose eyes twinkled mischievously.

“Suicide, or kill more people faster, usually.”

“Mhmm.” He was a boss at pulling stiff tight cock out of snug pants. He sprung Domino free and leaned forward to breathe over it. He let it roll around his face and mouth. Domino used one hand to grip his cock and slap it on Harry’s face. Harry opened his mouth so he could hit his tongue.

“You should tighten this strap back here,” said Nicky as though Harry wasn’t doing anything.

He ran his tongue across the head, and grinned as it bounced and swelled as if it had a mind of its own.

“Damn, that is not a good thought.”

“No, it’s not a good thought,” said Harry as he used his tongue liberally to quietly glide around Domino’s cock.

“Okay, Harry. I’ll do my best to get the point across.”

Harry pulled the phone away for a second and he swallowed Domino who made a quiet noise. He gulped the man down to the back of his throat as Nicky took his phone and set it to speaker.

“We’re heading to the elevator, and will probably get cut off, talk to you soon.”

“Nick, right?”

“Yep.”

“Where is Harry?”

“He’s suddenly very busy,” said Nicky with a ferocious grin that Al would never see as Harry sucked and bobbed on Domino’s cock.

“Busy? He was just right here? What is he doing?”

“Last minute quick weapons cleaning,” said Nicky and Harry actually choked on Domino’s cock to keep from laughing.

“You make him bite me by accident, I’ll shoot you!” Domino hissed.

“Also need to double check that the gear is in working order,” he said, watching Harry get more vigorous as his hand clenched the base. He moved faster and harder sending Domino’s hips into him as he folded his lips to keep from groaning aloud.

“Shit, I didn’t think about that. Maybe I should check my gear too? Although from the looks of it I wonder why Harry even uses weapons. He has that magic of his!”

“He likes evening the score. Not much fun in taking down enemies if you can do it with a single swish and flick.”

Harry mimicked a swish and flick making Nicky smile as Domino rolled his eyes in pleasure.

“Right, I am talking to a sociopath, I forgot. That’s your reason. What’s his reason?”

“Got me. The Kitten does things that even stumps me sometimes, Deputy. He’s got real talent. See you soon. Elevator now.”

“Oh right, okay. Yeah see you soon.” Nicky hung up and Harry went deep. He held Domino’s cock hostage, making him curse out as he let out a gulp of air and he began to cum generously into the back of Harry’s throat as his muscles worked to drain him.

Positively delicious, Harry thought as he swallowed and wiped the rest of Domino clean with his bare hand before he appropriately tucked the twitching cock away. He rose back up as Domino pulled him and shoved their tongues together; trying and failing to clean Harry’s satisfied mouth.

“I would almost like to think you have an orgasm point in the back of your throat,” said Nicky observing Harry’s glittering eyes.

“He does…” Domino said with his lips sucking on Harry’s tongue. Harry flinched as the arousal spun. Nicky moved to press against Harry’s back and lean around to watch with his one eye as Harry breathed heavier and convulsed. It was more a dry orgasm, but it was there as it spasmed his body. Nicky’s hand clenched him to watch as Domino kissed him to orgasm.

“You have to teach me that,” Nicky growled.

Domino pulled back with a satisfied smirk and red lips as Harry sagged against Nicky. “Just kiss him in the right moment. His whole body is a livewire.”

“Ngh. I’m ready…” Harry said, licking his lips and swallowing the taste in his mouth.

“He’s got to be full up on fuel by now,” Nicky said as they soon made their way to the door.

Domino arched a brow. “For now,” he corrected.

“Come on, boys. You know a whole part of the orgasm is because it's you guys,” said Harry sweetly to them as they left the room. “You’ve been so busy lately with helping out the Coalition.”

“Sorry,” said Domino as Nicky hit the button on the elevator.

“It’s okay, but you do need to see me more often or us, any of us,” He kissed Domino on the cheek as the tiger nodded.

“I promise. I’m just not used to being wanted,” Domino confessed. Harry leaned into him when he said this. He knew that while he had it better with Bibiana and the White Clan than Ethan with the Red Clan, he had still been looked at like he was a second class citizen. He, like Nicky, got along in the sense that they had grown to despise most women because of this. Bibiana would use him to seduce others into what she needed, but if Domino wanted a choice then he had to ask her permission. Nine times out of ten she would say no because he was unworthy. She also was not a big fan of two men together. She liked all the attention. She’d given Max and Victor hell, and then turned around and tried to pimp them back out to Harry when she learned she could get something out of him.

It was sad that these strong, beautiful, and very powerful men were made to feel as if they’d been emasculated.

“What did Micah and I say to you?”

Domino would have done the shy look if Nicky hadn’t been standing there. “I’m free? I can do what I want.”

“Yes,” said Harry. “And anytime you want either of us, you have that right and honor. You’re not just my animal to call. You're friend and family. You're a lover to those you wish for in your life. You are my beautiful black and white tiger. You are also a human man. Lovely man, but still. You have more in you than your color and creatures.”

“He’s right,” said Nicky.

Domino held Harry around the waist and drew him closer, and clung to him a bit tighter than he normally would. Harry pet him all the way down to the ground floor.

Chapter Text

Nicky drove and Harry planted himself in Domino’s lap. “I’m going to make a bad bodyguard with you in my lap,” said Domino, cuddling him with hugs.

“We’re in Edward’s Hummer, probably the second safest place in all of Colorado right now.” Edward had left them the Hummer for this very reason and had taken the SUV loaned to them by the Master of the City. “Can we stop to get some food and drinks for everyone? Poor Teddy has probably tried to feed them snacks and candy bars to keep their levels up. But he’s not quite at the age to realize they need veggies and proteins.”

“Fastest place is KFC. You can get a huge bucket,” said Nicky. “I worked there once. For a couple of weeks.”

“How did that end?” asked Domino.

“I shoved the manager’s head in a fryer when I lost it. He was a short-shit of a man who thought he could rule over us. Never lifted a fucking finger.”

“How did you get out of that?” Harry asked.

“I shoved him in the back of the cooler with the coleslaw shit, had Jacob hack the system and erase my name. I also took all the money from the register.”

“Cameras?”

“Blotted out.” Nicky grinned. “Good times.”

“KFC would be bad on a stomach already unsettled. All that grease, I can’t imagine feeding my babies that. No, let’s do…” He tutted in thought. “Wendy’s. They have good salads and grilled chickens. It’s not the best, but it’ll do.”

Nicky swung into the drive-thru. Each of them ignored the fact that the workers were probably sweating and panicking when Harry made one hell of an order. He bought out all of their chicken BLT salads, eight grilled chicken sandwiches, two with cheese and tomato only, and all of their baked potatoes. Harry passed over his card, and they had to wait a bit, but they could afford it.

Micah’s mother was sitting in the hallway softly crying with Gonzales at her side. Harry’s heart sank because for all of a minute he was thinking the worst.

He glanced over at Dev who had been on the opposite side of the wall, enough to give her privacy, but close enough so that he could act as necessary. Domino was carrying the food that Harry had brought as well as the waters they had stopped to get on their way to the ICU. Even those damned sugary sodas because crying and being miserable took more calories and energy than anything Harry had ever seen. Even bad sugars at this point would be good for them. A comfort.

Dev shrugged and shook his head at the same time.

“Bea?”

He almost flinched when the woman pulled herself off the wall and grabbed him in a surprisingly tight hug. For a moment he was at a loss. He was very used to being hugged nowadays, but he hadn’t expected this as he patted her gently on the back.

“Bea?”

“Thank you!” Bea whispered into his chest. “Thank you for bringing my son home to me, and making him so happy.” Her shoulders shook, and Harry gently eased her off him to sit her back down.

She swayed as she sat. “Bea, have you had anything to eat since I came by this morning?” Harry asked, leaning down to look at her unfocused eyes.

She shook her head. “T-Teddy tried to give me a candybar, but I just couldn’t stomach it.”

“Bea, you have to take care of yourself. I’ve brought food for everyone again. Light salads and the like. You need to eat and water up.”

“Just don’t want to leave… I don’t know if I’ll ever see this again.”

“See?”

“Micah and Rush together,” she sniffed, and now Harry knew why she was crying. He rubbed her back as Domino laid the bag on the chair beside her. Harry opened a bottle of water and handed it to her to drink in small sips. He gave her a chicken sandwich, which she ate most of.

Domino went to hand the rest out to the others in the waiting room, including shoving a salad in Dev’s hand. Dev was about to say no, but Harry looked at him. “Eat before nightfall.”

“Can I at least have something with meat?” Harry smirked as Domino gave him a cheeseburger. “Better, and no tomato. Yay!” He bit into it, and ignored the salad completely as Domino sat the coke down, and headed to the waiting room.

“Bea, you’ll have plenty of time to see Micah.”

“But not together. He’s starting to fade, his blood pressure is dropping,” she confessed, staring down at the sandwich forlornly.

“You’re not going to see much of anything if you’re in the ICU too dehydrated,” said Harry firmly. “Eat and drink some more. It’ll give you fuel. Can you make sure she gets something every few hours?”

“I’ll tell the others,” said Gonzales.

“Where’s Teddy?”

“He’s taking a walk with Peter, Nathaniel, and that handsome Ares man to get some energy out.” Harry nodded at this. Of course Ares would appeal to her. He was military-esque like Rush. Teddy did have a lot of energy. “He’s such a sweet and smart boy,” said Bea.

“Yes, he is,” Harry agreed.

“Still don’t understand that chess set that likes to yell at us though,” said Bea with a crying laugh. “Jerry had a blast playing with him.”

Harry grinned. “Yeah, magical chess sets tend to get testy at times. I played with a set that would outright refuse my orders because I was so rubbish at it. Some are feisty enough that they outright insult you.” And through the glimmering tears she smiled a real smile.

Gonzales snorted. “Not sure how that would work in a real competition.”

“Oh you’d be surprised by how lethal those boards can be in a real competition,” said Harry shaking his head. “Let the wood and metal fly.”

Bea was outright giggling, and she managed to finish her sandwich before drinking more water. “Thank you, Harry. You are such a rock. You’ve been working so hard…”

“I’m doing what I can to stop…” he paused because at this stage he wasn’t sure if he could stop anything. “Do what we can,” he settled on looking at Gonzales who nodded once. “But you have to do your part too.”

If Bea looked this bad, he was going to have to prepare for Micah. It made his own stomach swim, and then the nausea was added to the swimming by the sudden smell of rotting flesh, it was much stronger than it had been before or maybe he was slightly traumatized over earlier. For one of the first times, Harry’s gag reflex activated.

“Where is the bathroom?” he stood abruptly with a small smile.

“Down the hall on the left.”

Domino and Nicky had returned from handing out food, all that was left was for Micah. Bram went to hand out Peter, Nathaniel, Teddy, and Ares’ food to them.

Harry made it to the bathrooms in time to lose the food in his stomach.

“You’ve never been sick like this, Kitten,” said Nicky, standing outside the stall door.

Domino ran some cold water as Harry finished emptying his stomach and got back on his feet.

“I can’t fix it,” said Harry, morosely as Domino handed him the paper towel. He wiped his mouth. “I can’t do anything for Micah except kill this bastard. I can’t fix his father.”

“Is that what made you sick?” asked Domino. “You don’t have to fix everyone, Harry. Sometimes things are unfixable.”

“It was the combination of everything,” Harry confessed, taking shuddering breaths as a listless sensation took over him. It was like losing Sirius all over again. He couldn’t fix it. He couldn’t stop it. “Between the morgue last night, and the house earlier I think I’ve had my fill of rotting corpses, and then the smell from that room. It’s stronger than it's ever been.” He rubbed his head. “It’s the smell of rot and something beyond death, I can feel it in my bones. I’ve waded through far worse than last night and today, but - right now I’m just- I can’t do anything! None of that matters if I can fix it, but I can’t- I’m-”

“Stressed,” said Nicky. “You think you have to fix everything or try. But, Kitten, this isn’t your fault and if you can’t fix it no one is going to blame you.”

“It reminds me of Sirius,” Harry confessed, staring far off. “He was the last person who was truely family that I watched die, and I couldn’t fix it. Just like I couldn’t fix Marcus. I failed him and he ran from me. Teddy’s dad, I cared for him a lot. But he wasn’t Sirius. He always kept his distance from me because of his werewolf. He hated himself so much. So I never got attached like Sirius.”

“Do you think Micah would do that to you?” asked Domino, wide-eyed. “That isn’t going to happen, Harry.”

“Hell no, Kitten, it won’t happen,” said Nicky vehemently. “I think you’re tired and overwhelmed. You’re starting to run on empty. Come on, let’s wash your face.” He was led over to the sinks as Domino flushed the toilet.

He let both men take care of him, and he leaned on Nicky as the cool water soothed him. There was a snap, and Harry turned to see Domino pull out a metal box. He held out a couple of mints. Harry didn’t say no. He could use them right now. He popped them both in and rolled them around.

“You’re carrying breath mints in with your ammo?” Nicky asked, with a snort.

Domino rolled his eyes, and not in pleasure. “Yeah, yeah, I know werelions don’t bother. We weretigers are such prissy bastards.”

“We eat raw meat and then just suck the juices from each other, no mint needed,” said Nicky with a snarling smile at the edge of his lips.

“You’ve told this to me a thousand times, Nick. I know that only the werehyenas are a tougher society to survive in than the werelions. Weretigers are complete pansies compared to you guys.”

“Now that isn’t nice,” Harry chastised softly.

“Sorry, Kitten. It’s hard to be nice when you’re not around,” Nicky said.

“I’m not denying it. But also as a mob enforcer you look your best including smelling your best, and when you are in the spotlight with constant eyes on your back, you don’t want to smell like raw meat.”

“Besides, in St. Louis the werehyenas are almost laughable,” Nicky replied.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked as he dried his hands. He was glad for the distraction. Rotting corpses, no, eating fresh meat? Doesn’t phase him a bit.

“I don’t know exactly how Narcissus got to be head of the werehyenas in our city, but he’s seriously fucked up the societal norms,” said Nicky.

Harry tilted his head. “He is a she, scientifically. Just get rid of the rest of the female hyenas, and he’s Queen.”

Nicky nodded as if that made sense to him. “Hyenas aren’t tougher to fight than lions, but they are tougher on each other. They’ll brutalize each other to a degree that we won't. We don’t do it for fun.”

“Plus I’d be upset,” said Harry. “It’s okay to keep your natures, but too far is too far. Don’t they already do that?” He was thinking of Narcissus in Chains and how extreme it could get in the play rooms.

“I don’t mean bondage stuff, Kitten. I mean they fight just to fight, and fights that break out at a spur of the moment can totally change their clan structure. Every other animal group has rituals for dominance fights. A fight that gets out of hand doesn’t necessarily change anything, because if it’s not formal, then the rest of the group can join in and take sides, or in some animal groups an informal fight doesn’t even count if it results in a death.”

“Really? I’ve been out with Micah a time or two when he thought there might be an outside witch who’s a part of a group’s culture,” said Harry.

“I don’t know about every animal group, but if someone killed Queen Bibiana in Vegas outside of ritual combat, the challenge would die with her. Her guard, her son, or her husband would see to that.”

“I could not picture her taking on all challengers in one-on-one combat,” said Harry as Nicky checked the hallway before they stepped out.

“The White Tiger clan allows the queen to pick a champion if she is a good enough leader that we don’t want to lose her.”

Nicky went a half-step in front, and Domino a bit behind. That got Harry thinking. “What if the queen wasn’t a good leader and the clan didn’t support her? I mean when Marcus kicked Raina as his Lupa off her throne, I still had to fight her anyway. And my fight with Gabriel was one on one with Micah as a second since he was pulling a second.”

“Did Micah kill him?” asked Domino.

“No, I did. Micah did nothing but keep Elizabeth out of the way. I was smaller than him because I’m an animagus not a wereleopard, but he wanted to play with me. So I just went for the kill. I’m fast. Everyone watched it. I’ve only ever fought my own battles.”

“You’re special, Kitten, that’s why,” said Nicky.

“So what does happen?” Harry asked curiously to Domino.

“Then a vote can be called and if enough of the clan votes no, she has to fight her own battle.” Harry wondered if Gabriel had tried this? He had never asked. Or maybe he thought it would just be easy tearing Harry apart.

Nicky looked back. “Sounds like an easy way to assassinate a leader without actually doing the job yourself.”

“It’s a way to spread the guilt around,” Domino agreed.

“If you want the leader dead, you have to do it in a one-on-one fight. There are no substitute champions in our culture.”

“You and Micah took Haven?” Harry whispered.

“Like I said, you are special,” said Nicky. “You can’t be expected to follow all of our rules, Kitten. You have too much in you. But the fact that you learn and you try and you support us, that’s more than enough. It’s why when Micah starts struggling in his Coalition duties we often take over for the other side.”

Harry knew what he was talking about. Some cultures required the submission of the dominant female or if the leader was female for them to be dominated. It was very very close to technical rape. The wolf culture had something similar, but Logan and Harry had been able to bypass that.

“It’s one of the main problems with the Coalition. We are all different animals, different cultures, with very different rules. It’s hard to bring us together when we can’t even decide how to elect a leader.”

“But, Micah has learned to adapt to whatever animal group he’s visiting,” Harry pointed out.

“Yes, he has. You know how I dislike women,” said Nicky, lowering his voice to a hissing whisper. “But I don’t mind dominating the fuck out one of when I got to. It saves him the headache of accidentally killing her and ruining what shot he might have at bringing them to heel.”

Domino frowned. “You’re not supposed to go into this kind of detail, Nicky.”

“He knows.”

Domino looked at Harry who nodded. “I understand that he has to fight for dominance to bring the groups into the Coalition at times. I can’t stop him doing what he’s had his heart set on. I wouldn’t think to do that. It’d be wrong to stop him. I even gave him permission to…” He cringed at this.

“He’s never done that,” said Nicky and Domino at the same time.

“I wouldn’t have gotten upset,” said Harry flatly.

“Yes you would have,” said Nicky. “But you’d never tell anyone. You would go on being hurt, and Micah knows this. He’d never do anything like that to hurt you. Besides, he did make a vow to you. Even a sociopath knows that vows are important.”

“Am I that transparent?”

“Yes,” said Domino and Nicky as they arrived at the room. Bea had been moved, likely to the waiting room for a bit of rest or another bathroom to clean herself up.

Harry breathed in through his mouth instead of his nose so that he didn’t get a whiff of the rot inside when they entered. However, he shouldn’t have bothered because the door to the room was opened by Micah before he reached it.

Instead of ringed eyes, he looked almost hollow, and Harry went to him instantly as Micah stepped out and folded around him so strong and tight. He buried his face into Harry’s hair, taking in the deep strong scent. Harry curled around his neck and let him bury his tears that spilled hot down his neck.

Noah trailed behind Micah like a shadow as Harry persuaded him to the waiting area to eat the food that Harry had brought. Nicky and Domino moved in front as Harry and Micah walked in the middle. Micah kept his arm latched around Harry.

“How are the babies?”

“Missing you. Luna had to wrap Elara in your shirt,” said Harry, kissing his jaw. “She seemed to know it wasn’t actually you though. The little Kitten kept glancing around from her burrito wrap.”

“I’m sorry-”

“No, don’t be. She’d be doing the same if this was the other way around, Husband.”

Micah nuzzled him. “Teddy has been a saint.”

“He is at that.”

“He had to go and work some energy out. I think they might have taken him to the workout room. There’s a mini-basketball court here, I heard one of the officers tell them.”

“Good.”

A table was chosen in the corner so that they had two walls at their backs, Nicky and Noah to a table beside theirs while trying to give them some privacy and at the same time keep them safe.

Domino laid the food out, and Harry blinked when he sat a sandwich in front of Harry. “Cheese and tomato.”

“But-”

“Just eat it,” said Domino sternly before turning and heading over to join Nicky and Noah.

“You okay, Baby?” asked Micah.

Harry nodded, as he unwrapped the foil of his own sandwich. Micah mimicked him, and for a while neither of them talked as they ate and shared a single bottle of water. Of course two had been placed down, but sharing was one of their favorite things to do.

Harry reached back and played with the French braid. “Who did this?”

“Teddy. It seems he’s been learning,” said Micah, smiling weakly. Nathaniel had taught Harry to French braid and Harry taught Teddy.

Micah moved in to kiss him only for Harry to stop. “I got sick…”

“Sick? Why are you sick? What’s wrong?” Micah asked, his leopard eyes searching Harry up and down.

“I’m okay, Husband. Just a lot happened in the last couple of days.”

“You never get sick on your job,” Micah pointed out.

“True, I don’t. But I wasn’t on the job,” said Harry, pulling off the tomato and eating it.

“Baby? Did… Did my dad make you sick?”

“Not in the way you think,” said Harry softly. “More like I can’t fix it, Micah. I feel helpless to help you.” Micah’s mouth opened and then he shut it. “I want you happy again. I want my Micah back, and I can’t fix it. I can’t help you. I don’t like not being able to help…”

“God, you’re ridiculous,” said Micah, shifting to block their guard’s view of his tears. “All you’ve done is help me, Baby. I’m the one who is forever lamenting over the way I treated you, and not once but twice. Here you are, working so hard to find the thing that did it. God knows what you’ve waded through. You and Edward both, but you - you’re the most emotional. You’ve always had that mother quality of trying to fix something. But, you did fix something. You fixed me. After Chimera I was broken. It’s taken some time to come to terms that sometimes practicality can get in the way of mental health, and the fact that even through some of our fights you still want me. You still married me. You still mixed our genetics. All of you, it’s ridiculous.”

“Not ridiculous. It’s love, and we love you. We don’t love perfect after all.”

“I don’t care what’s in your mouth,” Micah said, kissing him with a rich strength that belayed the tiredness of his eyes and body. Harry wound his arms around him, and for a long time the two just blotted the world out. “You are mine. I’ll lick you clean,” he breathed into Harry.

“You did pick brains out of my hair I heard,” Harry grumbled as he slipped his fingers beneath the man’s shirt to touch his skin.

Micah’s eyes flickered at the warmth of their skin on skin contact. “Anytime.” He kissed Harry’s jaw. “I also taste breath mints, and a few lovely men…” He looked over at Nicky and Domino who smirked. No need to pretend they didn’t hear anything.

“Lovely is right.”

“Where are you going now?”

“To speak to Little Henry,” said Harry, taking the second bottle of water and opening it. He took a sip.

“Why?” asked Micah as he finished off his salad.

“Do you want an answer?”

“You know I do.”

Harry sighed. “I think he’s a human servant.”

Micah paused at this. “Really?”

“Unwilling one of course. But I’m pretty sure of it. I need to confirm it, and try and find out a location to end this nightmare.”

“Nightmare. Ending it.” he shook his head. “I don’t know what my Mom and Ty are going to do without him. He was a thread they needed.” He bowed his head and rested it on Harry’s shoulder.

Harry soothed him as best as he could. “Give Teddy kisses for me?”

“Don’t forget Peter.”

“Of course. I would never forget Peter. How has he been?”

“Sturdy.”

Harry grinned. “Yeah, he does sturdy good. He does have a foundation from Edward after all. How can you wobble when you have him to hold you?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“Death knows what would have happened if I had an Edward or you had an Edward.” Both of them laughed together at the idea of Edward being their monster repellant.

“He’s so damn proud of that idea too. Every time we mention something like this his eyes light up. Cold still, but the light is there. We can make him feel. I love it,” said Micah.

“He does too. More than he ever thought he would.”

Micah kissed him again. “You be careful okay?”

“Mhmm,” said Harry, tilting his head. “I’ve got this.”

“I know. You and Edward are unstoppable together,” said Micah. “It’s the only thing that eases my heart in situations like this. You have each other’s backs.”

“You think I don’t worry when you leave on Coalition duty?” Harry arched a brow. “I know what you do out there. It worries the pants off me, and not in the fun way.”

Micah chuckled dryly. “Nothing to worry about. I always come home. I always come back.”

“Yeah you do, but I still worry. I support you and I worry. But I trust you to always go for the practical kill.”

“I do. Always.”

Harry walked Micah back to his father’s room. He felt wretched for having to leave him, but he had a nightmare to finish. One way or another, Morte d’Amour would die. Noah went back into Rush’s room where Bram was waiting for them.

It was incredibly interesting when Harry learned that Henry Crawford had been put on the same floor as Rush Callahan. He wasn’t visibly hurt to the point of critical need. It was simply convenient because the cops knew him too.

“You’re thinking something,” Nicky said looking at his face.

“I thought maybe the vampires had been on this floor for Rush, but what if it was to retrieve Little Henry?” He whispered this to his two guards so that the cops nearby couldn’t hear him.

“It’s a possibility,” said Nicky.

“How do you want to do this?” asked Domino.

“Gently,” said Harry. “Good chance he was not willing. I need to keep that in mind.”

Harry knew that human servants were chosen for a variety of reasons. Most of the time it was for power. Some of the time it was for sex. Other times it was for slavery and food. Jean-Claude marking Harry had not been too much about power initially.

Maybe that had been in the back of his mind. Harry had been an animator, but Jean-Claude had not known the depths of his powers. No, Jean-Claude’s line is entirely based upon feeling, and contrary to all the sex in the world, sex was never casual in the end. It formed contact, even to the most sociopathic of the world. It formed a bond. Sometimes people could rip the bond and end it, some could care less about it. But it formed it. Even for a second, you are thinking about that person. Even if you know you are discarding it later. You still have your mind on that person enough to mark a memory. Maybe over time the memory fades. But it still does its job. You have taken something from that person and they have taken something from you.

Jean-Claude had chosen him on a feeling. It might not have been whimsical like some fictions could claim. But it had been a strong enough feeling to move him to react.

Maybe, that was what Harry feared the first time Jean-Claude showed a real interest in him. Maybe that was why he did not bite at it and became oblivious. Harry had never been intimate with anyone. He’d never formed a bond based on strong emotions. He had friends, and the bond he should have had with Sirius had been broken early with only a few remnants by the time they truly met, and then he had Edward. Edward had been the closest bond, but it was still detached. Harry wondered if in the end that bond had to be complete before he could feel safe enough to move forward with Jean-Claude, and then Micah had been so seamless. So painless. So, not confusing.

Why was he thinking this again?

He was thinking about Henry Crawford, and what he could give to Morte d’Amour that the other humans in this world could not have given. If he was a servant, why was he chosen?

Did Morte d’Amour chart strength by size? Or brute strength? Is this what he saw? Like the Mother of Darkness, d’Amour did not understand sex or feelings or any of that. So, what compelled d’Amour to choose him? He was a six foot seven man, and he had the muscle depth to go with it.

Harry learned that tests on the blood around the man’s groin had come back human and female. It was connected to the woman they’d killed in the woods. But, had Morte d’Amour been the one to bite him? Or had it been the female?

He remembered some of Jean-Claude’s memories. Morte d’Amour or someone of his line had taken extreme pleasure in enslaving Jean-Claude for a time, and they did things to him that made even Edward turn away. All of them had seen the ambient dreams and memories, and ever since their counseling with Dr. Lillian they all sat and talked about it. A way to counsel each other and support one another.

Little Henry had been knocked out most of the time because he’d been pretty hysterical any time he started to come to. They couldn’t keep him drugged forever, but they also couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him mentally and emotionally.

Harry had an idea. If only because not every vampire was Jean-Claude. Not every vampire was Asher or Requiem. Not every vampire had ‘good reasons’ for the things they do. Some were simply beasts and monsters.

He was probably feeling the mental pull and strain on the bond if there is such a bond. Considering human servants were supposed to blend in, Harry had no real evidence. Just hunches. Just a preconceived notion. For all Harry knew Little Henry could be a simple Renfield, that was a one way bond while a human servant was a two way bond.

Dr. Bill Aimes was a tall and athletic sort of man. He had short blond hair and steel rimmed glasses. He was stumped at how to help Little Henry. “Is there anything that a vampire could do to him that would cause hallucinations and night terrors?”

“A lot,” said Harry somberly. “This particular vampire is the nightmares of other vampires. He’s the one no one wants to get near. No one wants to talk about and no one wants to cross.”

Dr. Aimes rubbed at his smooth cheek. “You know the vampire?”

“Just of him. I’ve never seen him, but I’ve had to encounter his line a few times, and it’s never ended well,” he confessed. “But, if he is connected to a vampire like I’ve been suspecting then I should be able to sense it.”

“How could you do that?”

“It’s hard to explain unless you have a background in magics and metaphysics.”

He smiled and shook his head. “No, I’m strictly a touch-it-and-it’s-real person. I don’t even believe in God, because I can’t put him in a test tube.”

“Then holy objects won’t work on you will it?”

“I think holy objects glow because of the individual's faith in them, and I’ve never met a demon.”

“Guess that makes sense. But demons are real. Just so you know.”

“Are they? You’ve seen one?”

“Yes, and so has Marshal Forrester.”

“And God?”

Harry shrugged. “I believe in a god, but not the Christian God. But I am not you, and I’d never try to persuade you because that would be wrong. I respect others' beliefs so long as it causes no harm.”

“Do you believe in angels too?”

Harry shrugged some more. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen them,” he added, causing the man to chuckle. “But I don’t disbelieve either because I have seen impossible things.”

“I guess that comes with your career field.”

“Somewhat,” said Harry. “I find we are more vulnerable as a whole if we look narrowly inside of a tube all of our life.”

“I guess I never thought about it,” said Aimes. “But then, my life isn’t usually on the line like yours is. You can’t accept vulnerability.”

“No, I can’t. But I hope I can sense something from Henry Crawford. That's why I’m here.”

“I hope you can give us some clue, because it's almost as if he’s continuing to be freshly traumatized in the dreams and hallucinations.”

“Aren’t night terrors by definition traumatizing?” Harry asked delicately.

He seemed to think about that and then nodded. “I suppose so, but these seem different., I’ve worked with patients with post traumatic stress disorder and helped them work through some truly terrible memories, and all I can tell you is that there is something different going on here, and I have no idea what it is.”

It might be Morte d’Amours memories that’s being fed to Little Henry, if they are indeed connected. He couldn’t imagine what Little Henry was seeing. “Vampire mind games can mess with anything.”

The doctor grinned suddenly and gave a small laugh. “I guess you would be the expert.”

“So they say, I guess we’ll see.” He gathered Nicky and Domino and went to see Little Henry Crawford.

Little Henry looked smaller lying down than he had standing up, and hospital gowns did nothing to help the image. From where Harry stood, he looked shrunken and weak. But Harry knew that he was well over six foot, and his shoulders were bigger than even Nicky’s. From a strength standpoint, he could see why Henry Crawford might have been chosen by someone like Morte d’Amour.

“You think he and his father were chosen for their strength?” Harry asked Nicky.

“None of the vampires we saw were ex-military,” Nicky pointed out.

“You’re saying they couldn’t have judged who was dangerous and who wasn’t? What about him?” Harry whispered lowly.

“Maybe.”

“For a lion it’d be like the difference between a gazelle and a giraffe right? Gazelles are easier to catch and less dangerous.”

Nicky considered this. “But if you have enough lions you can bring down a giraffe, and if you have too many lions you need something that big to feed the pride.”

“And this was the largest group I’ve ever seen,” said Harry, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “But, when you take down the giraffe you feed your pride right? They didn’t eat these men.”

“One of them.”

“But not all of him,” Harry pointed out. “I’d say some were serial killers, but I think it's more than that.”

“From all that you’ve told me, Kitten, the zombies should have just eaten everything they could hold in their stomach and then left the bodies to be found, rot, or something right?”

“Typically, yes.”

“Then what caused these zombies to just kill the people and store them?”

“Storing them,” Harry whispered, turning to look at Henry Crawford. “We buy a lot of groceries at the house don’t we, Nicky?”

“Yes.”

“We feed a small army…”

“You only store food like that if you plan on using it,” said Nicky. “Did you see how the bodies were stacked?”

“Neatly,” said Harry. “Kind of like the way I stack our canned goods.” Ever since Jean-Claude had started ordering fresh fruits and vegetables from farmer’s markets, Harry had begun the process of canning foods and storing them away. It was something that Nathaniel, Stephen, and Gregory all loved to do. Nathaniel and Harry had come up with the ultimate pasta sauce recipe. It required being stored for a set amount of time to blend its flavors. Stephen loved the fruits, and enjoyed making pies with them. Cherry loved baking in her off time too. His reasoning was that if they were trapped in the house with no way out due to dangers and the like then they would always have food available. “He’s creating an army, and not a small one. Bigger than the morgue and woods. Zombies prefer fresher meat than ghouls. They won’t eat badly decayed bodies.”

“But now we’ve gone and destroyed the food cache,” Domino interjected. He’d been quiet and watchful this whole time. “Which means they need more food. Where are they going to get more food?”

“Us, us,” the hoarse voice of Little Henry spoke.

Harry turned, and leaned down with his hands on his knees to get a better look at the hunched frame. Big brown eyes stared back at him. “Morte d’Amour,” he hissed, causing the man’s eyes to get wider, his lips parted, and Harry could hear and feel his pulse speeding up.

A drenching sensation clashed with the warmth of the body as Little Henry opened his mouth and screamed. “God! God!” He started clawing at the tubes and wires, and that drenching became ice cold.

“Vampire!” Just as he said this, the Deathly Hallows symbol around Harry’s neck began to flare white-hot.

Nicky and Domino had their guns out, but Harry didn’t move as the glow spiraled through the room, pulsing brighter and brighter.

“Is it invisible?”

“I don’t smell anything.”

“No,” said Harry, still looking at the flailing man when Dr. Aimes came rushing back into the room followed by a nurse.

“What did you do?” Dr. Aimes demanded as he shielded his eyes from the symbol, and ran for his patient.

“It’s a vampire,” said Harry flatly.

Domino and Nicky were already searching the corners of the room even though Harry knew they’d never find him because in the rare moments that Harry’s symbol glowed it often meant the vampire was remote.

Deputy Al, along with a handful of cops, came bursting through the room, and their holy objects flared a blue-white light too as they all pulled their guns. “Where’s the vampire?” Deputy Al asked frantically.

Harry pointed just as the blonde nurse went flying across the room. “Little Henry. It’s in him.” He couldn’t be anything more than calm even amongst all the retina burning crosses and his own symbol. “Help hold him down.” If the vampire was in him, maybe Harry could use his Necromancy to draw him further out.

It was downright risky, but it would be worth it.

Nicky and Domino holstered their guns, and went to help the doctor and battered nurses restrain the man. More of the officers followed after them, and as soon as they touched Little Henry their holy objects flared brighter, going from blue-white to a pure burning incandescent white. His screams intensified, and he nearly threw all that muscle off him. Even Nicky, who was by far the strongest of all Harry’s lovers when it came to brute strength alone.

“Don’t!” Harry ordered when he saw Dr. Aimes picking up a syringe through the glow of the holy symbols.

Dr. Aimes turned and looked at him. His glasses had gone, lost in the struggle. His cheek was already swelling. “We have to calm him down. He’s going to hurt himself, or someone else.”

“Don’t you get it? The vampire is inside of him,” said Harry, seizing his wrist. “Do not put that in him. This may be our only chance.”

“Only chance, for what?”

“To pin him down,” said Harry. “Maybe even save Little Henry.”

“Are you sure?”

“Not at all, but it’s better than pumping him full of more drugs.”

Dr. Aimes kept blinking. Between the glow of the symbols and getting clocked by a six foot seven man it was likely that he was in one hell of a daze. “Then do it!”

“Kitten, what are you going to do?” asked Nicky warily as Harry began to strip out of his weapons.

“I’m going deep diving,” he explained.

“Diving?” asked Al.

“Into his mind,” said Harry, making Al pale. He was stripping off anything that Henry could grab and use against them.

They wrestled Little Henry into handcuffs on the metal bed rails, but he continued to thrash and jerk so much that Nicky said, “The railings aren’t going to hold, Kitten. Hurry!”

Harry wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing. He’d of course helped out Requiem, and broken a couple of lycanthropes free of their ties to master vampires, but he’d never tried this on a human before.

There was no beast inside Little Henry for Harry to call, however, he did have a soul. He knew he was diving into the realm of vaudun doing this, but what choice did he have? He moved around the edge of the bed towards Nicky and began with a single impression of skin on skin. The moment Harry touched him Harry’s Deathly Hallows symbol lit up hotter and whiter just like the police officers’ had. Henry screamed louder, his voice growing ragged with the abuse.

Harry’s symbol had always been touchy in the way that it didn’t always flare white when vampires were using their own powers. Sometimes, it was inactive to the point that a few people had joked that it was broken. But this wasn’t the case. Harry suspected that the Deathly Hallows was the type of symbol that uncovered what he couldn’t see. It was tied to the soul rather than a strong belief in faith or religion.

He could feel the deep warmth of Henry’s soul, and because it was alive and pulsing it was confusing his powers. “Shoot.”

“What is it?” asked Dr. Aimes hovering close.

“If he was a lycanthrope or a vampire I could do this, but a human is much harder due to the warmth of the live soul tucked away in him. He has nothing necromantic for me to grasp hold of.” Of course he could be like Dominga and rip the soul out, but that would be wrong in so many ways.

“Do what? What are you trying to do?”

“Break him free of the vampire that’s possessed him.”

“That’s not possible,” Deputy Al said.

Nicky snorted. “That kind of thinking doesn’t work with Kitten, Deputy.”

“I’ve done it before,” said Harry.

“No way. Once a vampire has you, they have you,” Al pointed out.

Harry shook his head. “Not to me, and not if I’m stronger than the vampire or lycanthrope.”

“Harry managed to take me from my Chang,” said Domino. “She had control of me and Crispin since we were toddlers, and in one meeting he eliminated the bonds.”

“And then there’s Damian,” said Harry. “I took him away from my own husband,” he laughed without amusement at this. “Total accident, but I still did it. Nicky, help me get into the bed,” he said after a moment of deliberation. Nicky didn’t question it as he lifted Harry.

“What are you going to do, Marshal?” Dr. Aimes asked.

“I need to see his eyes, and I’m damn short,” said Harry.

Nicky helped lift Harry over Little Henry’s long muscled arms that strained against the cuffs and the narrow metal bars of the bed. Two officers were still holding down his legs or he would have bucked him off. Harry tried to stay high on his knees above the body, but he was thrashing too much. He knelt down over the man’s chest, and used both hands to clasp to Henry’s cheeks. He was still shrieking, the sound so loud with Harry above him that it was painful to the beasts inside of him.

The skin of Henry’s face was cool in Harry’s palms, and he could feel the vampire slithering inside of him. Harry pushed his own power deep into Henry, and he fully expected to get a response. “Henry Crawford, Henry, look at me!” He stopped struggling and blinked up at Harry through the edge of the lit hollows. “Henry, Henry, can you hear me? Answer me.” He shoved his power deeper into the warmth of Henry’s human soul, and he could feel it stir as it fought against the iciness of the vampire.

“I hear you,” he whispered hoarsely.

“I’m going to set you free,” said Harry.

“You can’t. He told me I’m his forever.”

“He lied,” Harry said soothingly. “He lied.”

“Who?”

“Morte d’Amour.”

The cross light began to fade a little so that he could see how green and brown his eyes truly were. Harry watched the pain and confusion swirl in those hazel eyes before a shadow began to flow across those eyes. He had a second to realize that the vampire was throwing its power into Henry. But Harry knew his vampires, and he knew his necromancers! He’d fought a total of three of them.

As the vampire filled Henry with terror, he drew breath to scream again, Harry did what he could by sending the love that swirled consistently inside of him in place of fear and darkness. Just like he had at the Church of Eternal Life when he wrestled control of the congregation from Columbine’s hands. He showed Henry Crawford what love was, reaching a metaphysical hand deep into the man’s soul. He touched it like a finger to the wick of a candle and it spurted to life, flaring bright and glowing. It caused the cold darkness of the vampire to snarl and fight back.

“You evil bastard, get out of him!” Harry hissed.

Morte d’Amour’s voice came out of Henry’s mouth, oily and slick like it had the female vampire in the woods. “I am not evil, Harry Potter-Black; he is mine, my slave to do as I wish.”

“Bullshit. I say you cannot have him.”

“It is too late, he is mine!”

“No,” Harry threw his Necromancy powers into Henry sharply and it began a search within Henry like scent hounds chasing a smell. Henry’s soul opened up to Harry, desperately wanting to help him.

He searched deep inside Little Henry in much the same fashion that Snape would cast Legilimens on him, and the way that Dumbledore and Voldemort would both peer into him without his knowledge. But because he had knowledge of souls he could go deep, deeper than all three of them combined. He continued to spread his warmth through the soul as he sought out the vampire and the root of the darkness.

“No! No!” Harry saw through the darkness that the vampire’s body was wrapped in dark cloth in what looked like a cave, or bare stone. It turned its head, and Harry saw Morte d’Amour as he was, he was emaciated, skeletal, and he could feel the hunger for blood and flesh. He could not get enough. Lank black hair lay in a puddle around his bleached skull. His eyes were dark and hollow, but they were alive. They burned with a dark fire. Like the night. An impression of Morte d’Amour with a bit of her in him.

“Yes, Necromancer, the Mother of All Things breathed her power into me when you drank her down. She tried to escape to my body, but you would not let her go; thus I managed to return to life with a glimmer of her power in me, but without her control. She did not control all the vampires merely for her own enjoyment. Some of us she controlled so we did not destroy all that is.”

“You cannot destroy all, because all is impossible. You will be slain, and where there is you or the Mother of Darkness there will be another and another, and each one will be defeated by people like me. You have no hope, Morte d’Amour. I will burn you alive as Warrick burned Yvette.”

“I can destroy all humans with my powers and hers combined. I am free from this body and free to enter others. The Mother took me with her when she tried to possess you, Jean-Claude, and your others, but I do not need anyone’s help to ride the bodies of others.” Harry couldn’t help but chuckle. It had no amusement, no warmth, and it caused a tick of irritation. “What has you so full of mirth? Does my darkness not terrify you? Is this how you sucked her down?”

“It seems, Morte d’Amour, that you managed to capture some of her necromancy that I did not, but I have something more that you did not get.”

“Lies!”

Harry shook his head. “Why would I lie? You can only take over zombies you raise from the dead. I’ll admit it’s impressive that they don’t have to be in the grave first, just three days or so dead for the soul to move on and you can raise them. Good for you.”

“My vampires are more powerful than your master’s.”

“Only because you inhabit them and share some of your own power with them. But you only take over the newly made ones; why is that? You were trying to take over your older vamps not that long ago; something about the Mother’s power keeps you out.”

He hissed. “I have no limits, Harry Potter-Black. I will prove that to you tonight.”

“Not with Henry you won’t.”

“And how will you stop me?”

Harry smiled. “The same way that stops you from facing me and Jean-Claude together…” He saw the arrogance melt away as he called upon the roaring beast of his ardeur. He pressed his lips to Henry’s mouth, and he began to suck the darkness away, careful as he was with the ardeur so that he did not enslave Henry.

Harry thrust his power through that kiss and deep into the Lover of Death who fought back with a roaring scream. His hollow eyes bulged as the foreign power of warmth and love suckled at the darkness. If Harry had to give it a color he’d call it pink. A soft shimmering pink that fell across the dark expanse within Henry’s soul. Like everything he had learned, it was through instinct and sometimes accident. He had slain the Father of Day and taken over his powers as the King of the Tigers. From the Mother of All Darkness, Harry had inherited that ability to break the unbreakable bonds between animal to call and master vampire, between vampire and their blood oathed Master of the City, and between human servant and vampire. It’d been her gift and she’d tried to use it on him more than once. But Harry’s own brand of power was that whatever vampire power had been used on him had a good chance of becoming his own, forever. Harry was the weapon that the vampires created, the perfect nemesis that the Mother of Darkness, the Living Night, had forged simply by hitting Harry often and hard enough with their power to grow his own. He absorbed everything like a sponge. As his former mentor and now husband had said, he absorbed everything thrown at him. It’d been no different when he was a baby and had acquired the unnatural talent of speaking with snakes or the ease in which he could cast dark magic without ever having practiced them.

Every holy symbol in the room flared so that he was physically blind to everything but the white light. However, the parts of his eyes that saw in dreams saw the vampire as the light chased down the tie that bound Henry to him, and he began to burn it up like a fuse. Harry tried to thrust that light into the vampire himself, but he turned those night-dark eyes to him and whispered in Harry’s mind: “You have taken my servant, but you cannot take me. Now that you know that I am alive, I must destroy you.”

“Bring it on, because I will eat you with the one power that terrifies you, the one power that has always kept you away from Belle Morte and her line. I will ruin you, and chase that darkness before collecting it.”

“Until then…” And then he was gone, the cave or whatever it had been lost completely as Harry came back to himself, straddling Henry’s chest, the holy objects fading back to simple metal.

Harry let out a soft pant as he rose up out of the kiss. His ardeur was inches away beneath his skin. He could feel the aura flushed through him. He’d never brought it to this edge before. A dangerous edge for sure.

Harry stared into Henry’s eyes from inches away; they were too wide, lips parted, pulse beating in his throat like a trapped thing that caused his hunger to flare and the beasts to sniff at the prey. But, Harry wouldn’t be hurting anyone. He did not free Henry to hurt him; even with the passing thought. It was like sniffing out a piece of delicious food, but realizing that you couldn’t afford it or it was unnecessary. You admire it, and then walk away because if he became a glutton, he would become Belle Morte herself. Just with different parts.

Harry shifted off Henry, so that he was sitting on as much of the bed as the man’s broad shoulders left, but at least he wasn’t straddling him. Some men did not like other men straddling them after all. But it had to be done. It was hard to have serious conversations with a man while you were on top of them. Good thing he had been full up before this.

“Are you okay?” Harry asked breathlessly.

Henry looked around the room as if afraid of what he’d see, and then he said. “I think so.” He was staring at Harry, big hazel eyes wide. He had the look of a puppy who wished to follow someone home.

Oh no, Harry thought. He had tried very hard not to wrap him in his will, not to make him into a slave. He was pretty sure he had succeeded.

Dr. Aimes came over to the side of the bed and started checking Henry’s vitals. Harry thought it was more for something normal to do than because he felt he needed to get Henry’s temperature and pulse rate.

Domino helped him off the bed this time, sweeping a kiss to his temple as he did. Nicky began to strap Harry’s weapons back on as Al came over to them. He was still pale, his eyes wide. “I didn’t think any of that was possible.”

“Nothing is impossible, Al. Just hasn’t been tried before,” he said, licking his lips as Nicky tucked the last of the gun away on his person. He even slipped Harry’s wand back into the fur cuff around his wrist. Domino was petting him from his ear down to his neck. He would then push in, nose sniffing along his ear and hair. Harry realized what he was doing was akin to a cat kneading for a comfortable place to curl up. It could also be construed as anxiety and a bit of fear. But Harry knew Domino did not fear him. He kissed the kneading hand on his shoulder. “It helps that I was reasonably sure that he had been turned into a human servant. It all added up.”

“How?” asked Al.

“After a while you just get a feel for things, you know? Like how you know when a drunk driver is on the road or a car that passes by and you just know they have drugs in the back. A gut instinct.”

“That’s not the same,” Al said, shaking his head. “You said human servant… what’s the difference between them and what is it-? Renfield?”

“A human servant is a two way bond. A Renfield is a one way bond. A vampire does not have to bite to make one an official human servant.”

“I thought they had to bite you first.”

Harry shook his head. “No. A human servant and a master vampire share a good amount of lifeforce between the two of them. At some point a master vampire slows down in their growth and power. Some stop altogether, but to avoid that a master vampire can take a human or even an animal to call since they are ever changing and always evolving even as full adults. We never stop growing. In return the human gets strength and power from the vampire master. A Renfield is only a slave, they may get a glimmer of power, but it’s a facade. Just a flavor that will wash away unless they’re bitten again.”

Al looked very confused, and he was staring at Harry in much the same way that Little Henry was staring at him. It was kind of weird. Luckily, the deputy’s phone rang, distracting him. “Sorry, got to take this, glad you were able to help Little Henry.” He left to take the phone call.

Both Nicky and Domino were having a hard time not petting him. He knew it might not help that his ardeur was on the surface, so close to pouring out of him.

Dr. Aimes came over to them. “I don’t understand everything that just happened, but he seems perfectly fine now, a little shaken, but fine.”

“A little bit of luck, magic, and a handful of ‘I don’t know what I’m doing but it looks right so I do it’ all mixed up into one, Dr. Aimes. I can’t explain it as well as I can do it.”

Dr. Aimes shook his head. “It’s more than that. I have this urge to touch you like your guards are doing right now… I wonder if you’d glow if I did that?” Nicky and Domino stiffened on either side of him. He pet both of them to calm them. “You were covered in white light at the end…. You looked like an angel completely, and when you kissed him I swear I saw the light travel from your mouth into him.”

It was a similar thing to what happened when Morte d’Amour and the Mother of All Darkness had attacked. It was like he was enveloped in white power. But at least this time he didn’t age. Harry chose not to say anything.

“For a moment, I could have sworn I saw wings in the light,” said Aimes, shaking his head.

Harry blinked and looked up at Nicky and then at Domino. “Did either of you see wings?” Both shook their heads. “Sorry, I can’t explain what you saw. I doubt it’s angels.”

“Are you sure about that?” asked Dr. Aimes. He had a shaken look about him. “You’ll drive a man to drink, or to church, saying things like that, Marshal.”

“I’m not trying to drive anyone to do anything that’s not part of their will, Dr. Aimes.”

Dr. Aimes cleared his throat and continued to stare at Harry as though he couldn’t decide whether he was frightened or not. “What is your intention, Marshal Potter-Black?”

“I need to question Henry and see if we can get a clue where the vampire’s body is. If we can destroy the original, we can end this. All of it,” said Harry.

“I’ll leave you to question, Mr. Crawford. I think I’ll go get that drink.”

“On duty?” Domino arched a perfect brow.

“If any good science-loving atheist wouldn’t need a drink after what I just saw, he’s a better disbeliever than I am,” and with that he left.

The other cops were almost evenly divided between being scared by what they’d seen and being so impressed that it was worse than being scared. Apparently, Aimes hadn’t been the only one who saw the white-shadowed outline of wings. Harry stumbled over what to say. “Probably just my magic,” he played off, and finally told one overly solicitous uniform who seemed to think angels were gender neutral enough. “Trust me, I’m not an angel.”

Nicky and Domino started laughing and couldn’t seem to stop.

Harry folded his arms over his chest and looked from one to the other. “Okay, kitty boys, keep on laughing.” He shook his head fondly at them.

That made them laugh harder, until they were leaning on one another with tears trailing down their eyes. At least their laughing stopped any more weird theological questions.

Everyone was interrupted when Harry’s phone rang. “Hey, Husband.”

“Little Raven. It looks like your theories keep panning out. I shouldn’t be surprised. All the older crime scenes that were found today were in Callahan’s district almost without exception.” Harry arched a brow as Domino and Nicky stopped their giggles. “I hear your guards giggling, what did you do?”

“Oh you know, my usual weirdness that gets mistaken for divine entities,” he said delicately, making the man laugh.

“No surprise. Shall we try and change your moniker to Angel of Death? I think it would be more fitting than War after all.”

“Merlin no! You do and I’ll never forgive you, Edward!” Harry scowled, trying not to let his face heat up in front of the cops. Nicky and Domino were back to laughing again and he huffed. “You two yokels hush! Now, where were we?”

“Yes, we should get back to the matter at hand, and talk about pet names later.”

“Grr, Edward…” he growled out lowly.

“Now you do sound like Nicky’s Kitten. You don’t growl very well. You need training.”

Nicky was wheezing. “Are you trying to kill my guard?”

“Why would I do that and not be there to watch? Anyway, your theory about the Sheriff being targeted on purpose stands correct. Gutterman says that Callahan senior visited the isolated houses regularly. He had coffee with them, checked in on the older couples or people with disabilities like the Banners, and anyone he was concerned about.”

“And I take it those were a lot of the people who got hit hardest?”

“Yes.”

“Hang on, Husband.” Harry turned to the cops and nurses with Henry. “I’m going to take this call, I’ll be right back; I have a few questions for you, Mr. Crawford if you don’t mind.”

Henry who had been watching him this whole time gave him a weak sappy smile. “Marshal Potter-Black, you just saved my immortal soul; you can call me Little Henry.”

Harry smiled back. “Then call me Harry. Be right back, dear.” He patted the man’s foot and headed to the hallway with Nicky and Domino at his back. He managed to get a good way away from the other police. “I’m back, Lover.”

“I take it you cured Little Henry?”

“More than that. I was right on the mark…”

“Again,” said Edward.

“Well, it’s hard to avoid the elephant in the room when it’s staring right at you. I mean, it made sense. Most human servants are chosen if not for sex but then its for strength and intelligence and other bits. So someone like the Lover of Death wouldn’t choose based on sexual criteria and instead what looks the most powerful? Also he was the Giraffe in a pack of lions that were ravagingly hungry. Why didn’t they eat him? Or all of Crawford Senior? You saw the morgue. It was a feeding frenzy.”

“You’re right. It would make no sense.”

“I wonder if it was just faulty coincidence that he chose this very town with Micah’s father running it? But, saying this, there’s a good chance Morte d’Amour’s original body is within the sheriff’s territory. Somewhere that Rush would have known about.”

“Gutterman says that Al knows the area just about as well as the sheriff.”

“Al left to take a phone call, but I can ask him about old mines, caves, anything with a rock wall and a dirt floor.” He told Edward about the vision he’d had with Little Henry.

“I called Al and told him to start making a list of places, but I’ll call him again and add your information so that he can narrow it down.”

“Love that you already had Al making a list, husband.”

“Travers and I are making teams to go search the area now. You need to hurry along and don’t take too long with your new pet.”

Harry scowled. “Oh Merlin, Edward, don’t say that! He’s not my pet. I worked very hard not to make him a conquest.”

“Seems you won Travers over as well. He wouldn’t stop talking about you. Even asked when your birthday was. If I was any other man I’d take insult to the way he talked about my little husband in such a way.”

Nicky started snickering and Domino grinned, both shamelessly eavesdropping. Harry glared at them, and it only made them more amused. “I’ll make the questioning fast.”

“We’re burning daylight, Little Raven. Make it quick.”

“Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday,” Harry shot back, and the sound of his husband’s chuckle made the small white hairs on his arms and neck stand on end. “You did make me sit through all 142 films.”

“And you loved every minute of it,” and Harry could just feel Edward’s smirk bleed through the phone.

“Not too bad, I’d eat John Wayne if he’d have let me,” Harry purred, making Domino and Nicky shiver. Edward coughed to cover a laugh. Only his husbands could do that, and Teddy. “And now you have to work your way through Jean and Micah watching them. Oh and Peter of course, can’t leave him out.”

“Seems we have future movie nights planned. Get here soon, Little Raven. Not to quote anymore movies but we really are burning daylight, and I have a bad feeling about tonight.”

“I agree, Husband. I’ll do my best. Are you splitting us up?”

“I’d hate to do that,” said Edward. “But we need both of us going in different directions to finish this faster. Morte d’Amour is spooked now. He has nothing to lose by throwing everything at us.”

“Which means it’s going to be another New Mexico.”

“Bingo.”

“You want me to pull Peter?” Harry asked seriously. “We can’t have Ares and we can’t risk Socrates. I’m not ready for the Harlequin to be at my back. If night falls I’ll have Wicked Truth. Jean needs to stay where he is.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to have another Marshal on hand,” he said after a moment of thinking about it.

“I’ll have Domino get Peter.” He looked at Domino who nodded, and headed in that direction.

“Good, I’ll have SWAT meet you at the hospital to drive out with you. Al and I will take our teams and start searching sections. SWAT will have the map with the locations marked. Let’s find this bastard before nightfall.”

“Yes, Lover, let’s do.” Both hung up, and Harry turned to Nicky. “You ready to play, Rex?”

Nicky grinned. “I have to say, despite the shit going on around here, it’s been fun.” Only Nicky could say that and mean it. Harry leaned up on his toes and kissed Nicky on the lips. “You always bring the excitement, Kitten.”

“Glad I can excite you,” said Harry, swiping a hand down the man’s chest and then heading back into Little Henry’s room.

Little Henry was already up and yelling for fresh clothes. His hospital gown, which would have wrapped around Harry three times and tied twice, didn’t reach his knees, and gaped in the back badly. The view was a nice one, Harry admitted trying to ignore the twitching of the ardeur that was still on the surface. Harry did have a thing for big men, after all.

“I need clothes!”

“Mr Crawford you didn’t have any when you came in,” the small blonde nurse told him, finally raising her voice back. She’d been the one that he tossed across the room, though he probably didn’t remember it.

“I’ve got an extra t-shirt in my tac bag that will fit you,” Nicky offered.

Henry turned, his long, long hair in a tangle around him. “Thank you.”

“But your inseam isn’t going to fit in my extra pair of jeans.”

Harry turned to the nurse who was glaring at Henry. “Can you find some scrub pants that will fit him?”

“I can try,” she said, and stalked past him.

Harry touched the woman’s arm as she went past, and she turned to glare, so Harry was quick. “Thank you.”

“For what?” she asked.

“Doing your job. Henry doesn’t remember throwing you across the room.”

Her eyes softened a little, and Henry blanched. “I did what?!” His eyes widened in horror at having struck anyone, let alone a small woman.

“You fought the nice doctors and nurses when you were under the vampire’s influence,” said Harry earnestly.

He looked at the nurse, who was about Harry’s size. “I’m so sorry, did I hurt you? And I’m sorry I yelled just now.”

What an honorable man, Harry thought. No! Ardeur, you keep your paws off him. He’s not ours! He inwardly argued. Nicky made a strange snerk sound, and he turned to see the man’s lip twitching. “Shut it, lion boy!” Harry huffed.

“Y-yes, Kitten,” Nicky grinned, and it was once again shameless.

The nurse shook her head. “Not really hurt, no, just bruised. Apology accepted, and I’ll see about getting you some pants; we can’t have you leaving in just a shirt.” she laughed at some inside joke.

“I doubt they’ll have shoes too,” said Harry.

“What size do you wear?” Nicky asked.

“Twelve.”

“You’re in luck; I got an extra pair in the car.”

“I appreciate it.”

“Not a problem.”

“You are okay going with us?” Harry asked, concerned.

“Thanks to you, Marshal. Besides, my dad and I were the ones who led them out on the survival searches and helped them do wilderness training around here.”

“Okay, just making sure. SWAT is bringing a map of our search grid.”

“I saw the same image you saw, but I know the place where he’s holed up.”

“You recognized it?” Harry asked.

“I told them about it,” he said quietly. “You’ll never find it without me.” His face grew very serious. “They were right to kill us; we’d find them anywhere in the mountains here.”

“Nicky, can you go get your shirt and shoes?”

“And leave you? You sent Domino to get Peter,” said Nicky with a frown.

“It’s okay. No one’s going to attack me right now,” he rubbed at Nicky’s arm. “It’d hardly be appropriate for him to walk out like that.”

“You don’t seem to mind,” Nicky teased, causing Harry to elbow him.

“Hush you! Go!” he squawked. Last thing he needed was for Little Henry to realize Nicky meant him. Poor man didn’t need to be pawed at anymore than he’d already been, and by a man no less.

“Okay, okay. But you’re explaining to Claudia and Edward if I come back and you’re gone!”

“I promise to take full responsibility,” said Harry. “Now, shoo! Away with you!”

Nicky laughed, shaking his head as he left the room.

Harry’s face was still burning slightly. It was getting harder and harder to embarrass him. “He’ll be back,” he said for no other reason than to simply be doing something.

The blonde nurse who Harry learned was named Brenda came back with a pair of khaki colored scrubs and those slip resistant booties. Harry purposely did his best not to look down when the man began to strip down.

He noticed the nurse was eyeing him like he was a piece of property. Harry didn’t have to eye what he had felt when he was on top of the man. She walked out before she could get flustered and Harry kept staring at a point on the wall. It wasn’t so much that he was uncomfortable with nudity, it was the fact that this man did not belong to him.

“You can look at me you know,” said Henry, causing Harry’s left eye to twitch.

“No, you’ve already been picked over by vampires. I don’t think that’d be very nice of me.”

“You saved me.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t mind.”

Harry’s cheeks flared a bit warmer, and he rolled his neck a bit to look over at Little Henry who was anything but little. He was about like Nicky chest wise with such muscle. Harry kept his perusal all at the top. No need to comment about how nice his tush happened to be. “Nice.” Henry looked down at him, his lip twitching into a partial smile. “Don’t you start too!”

“The guard, he is your lover?”

“One of them,” Harry answered.

“You have more than one?” asked Henry, managing to barely get the scrubs over his muscled hips. He sat down to put on the booties. His chest in lovely view of Harry’s eyes.

“Yes. I’m polyamorous.”

“I guess you would have to be,” said Henry with a nod.

“What do you mean?”

“Something like an Angel would need more than one person to love, hm?”

Harry blinked at this, and when he registered what he said the flare came back. “Wha-? No! I’m not an angel, far from it.”

“But I felt what you put in me. What you used to chase the darkness,” said Henry. “I don’t even feel miserable or sick or sad. I feel… almost whole. I thank you for it.”

Harry shook his head. “You didn’t have a choice. Some vampires are good at the mind-fucking. So good you don’t realize it's their will and not yours.”

Henry swallowed thickly. “I heard you two talking about how the zombies needed so much food and where they’re going to get more.”

Harry couldn’t help but wince as he naturally conjured a brush and a hair tie. He needed to do something with his hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that you might have been able to hear us. Turn around so I can braid your hair?” He offered.

Little Henry turned slightly in the bed. Harry couldn’t do this if he was standing up, no way with how tall he was. Harry began to slowly rake the brush through his hair. “No, I’m glad you talked about that because it helped wake me up. He’ll start with Boulder and the surrounding towns.”

“By raising the dead?” Harry asked as Henry’s long golden brown hair began to lay smooth like silk against his back. “All of them? An army?” Harry worked out the tangles with careful experienced fingers. He could feel Henry relaxing.

“Not an army, more like undead locusts. He just wants them to kill as many people as possible, and he’ll feed off each death. He feeds on fear and death.”

Harry began to part his hair, and decided that he would do a French braid for Little Henry as he parted the thick strands. “I knew he originally fed on death, but I didn’t know he was one of those night hags.”

“You mean nightmares?”

“Not exactly; night hags is a nickname for vampires that can cause fear in people and then feed on it from a distance.” Like Damian’s former master. “They can cause and feed on nightmares.” Also like Dementors. “Maybe that’s where the idea of a nightmare comes from, but it’s a vampire trick.” Possibly something more. He wouldn’t be surprised if a Dementor was somehow related to Rotting vampires in such a way.

“He showed me what he meant to do to the city,” said Henry as Harry continued to weave his hair. Harry used fingers to hook more hair.

“How?”

“He put it in my head. At first I just saw it in my dreams, but then I started seeing it when I was awake. Anytime that I wasn’t bespelled by his puppet.”

“The female vampire?”

He nodded jerkily, and he tilted his head almost making Harry’s movements get sideways. He looked at Harry very unhappy. “She mind-fucked me, and then she was beautiful, and I couldn’t help but want her. She mind-fucked me with his help, and then she fucked me for real, or made me fuck her.” He gave a bitter laugh.

“Turn your head,” said Harry gently and Little Henry resumed a straight position so Harry could continue without making the braid sideways. “You had no choice, Henry. I told you, you were under their spell and Morte d’Amour is one of the strongest monsters out there. Now you know why I wasn’t looking at you like a piece of meat. It would be wrong.”

“But, you’re allowed to, because you looking at me makes me feel like I’m not… corrupted or tainted.”

“I’m male,” Harry reminded. “A lot of people find that corrupting and tainting on its own.”

“No, I’ve seen too much to ever believe that,” said Little Henry. “You’re married to Mike aren’t you? I heard some of the staff chatting.”

“Micah? Yes,” said Harry.

“You were sent here by the heavens. I know you were.”

“I’m not religious, Henry.”

“Please call me Little Henry. Just Henry was my dad.”

“Okay, Little Henry.”

“What are the odds that Mike’s father would be attacked by such a nightmare? And you to come through and start fixing everything.”

“Please don’t place me on a plinth, Little Henry,” Harry gently scolded as he got the end of the braid and looped the band around it. “I don’t know if I can fix everything or anything at all. I’m hoping if we can kill this bastard we can stop the infection, but I don’t know for sure if that’ll work.”

“But you’re here. You scared the devil away…” Little Henry choked. “You chased him out of me. No one else could do it. No one else saw what was eating me.” And when Harry let go of the braid he held his breath when Little Henry swung his arm around his waist and squeezed him. His face burying into Harry’s stomach as if smothering himself would hide the tears. Henry’s large hands pressed to the small of his back. His nose and face rubbing into Harry. “God… God you fixed me. You fixed it… smell so good!”

Harry clenched his teeth as he tried to fight the stirrings in his body and the heat rushing up through his stomach into all parts of him. Harry gently patted Little Henry on the head, smoothing out the one little cowlick, and tucking it away into the perfectly made French braid.

He couldn’t help but sigh quietly in relief when Nicky returned with a red t-shirt and a pair of Nikes. Harry surely hoped that none of his snarky guards and lovers made mention of what the red t-shirt meant. Nicky’s sly smirk was telling on how that would go.

Little Henry rubbed his face against Harry as if to dry his tears so he wasn’t showing them in front of another alpha man, even a human can pick out ‘alpha’ natures. He pulled back quietly, and took them from Nicky with a thanks. “Sorry,” he said hoarsely.

“No apologies,” said Harry.

“I just… I remember pieces of what they did to me, and what I was forced to do. It was bad, but what they made me do was worse, and Pop, he…” He looked away, shoulders hunching as if the memory were a blow.

“Don’t try to remember it today,” said Nicky.

Henry looked up at him. His hands were trembling slightly. Harry would need to let Dr. Aimes know that this man was going to need counseling and PTSD therapy. “The real stuff is hazy, or missing, but the dreams are crystal clear.” He shook his head and Harry, ever the person that he was, took the shoes from his hands to help him put them on. “They were his wish, his goal. He wants to turn everyone into a walking corpse like him. He wants to fill the city streets with walking dead that are faster and smarter than regular zombies. You know how they say some people just want to watch the world burn?”

“Yeah,” said Nicky as Harry tied the first shoe, and then helped him with the second.

“Well, all he wants is to watch it die,” said Henry.

For a long time it was quiet as Harry finished tying the second. “Then you know what we have to do right?” Harry asked, raising his head to look at Henry.

“What?”

“Kill him first,” said Harry.

Chapter Text

Harry, Nicky, and Little Henry left the hospital room, and walked the floor toward the parking lot where SWAT was set to arrive. Harry tried to call Edward, but wherever he was in the mountains there was no cell service. He didn’t dare try their mindlink with Morte d’Amour so close by. That could be a recipe for disaster. No, it was time to stay buttoned up metaphysically. He wouldn’t doubt that the Rotter could slip in like they had done to him.

He chose to call Claudia and update her on what was going on. See if she wanted to send more guards or let them go as they are.

Nicky kept Little Henry talking to distract him, and Harry walked a few feet away. Claudia answered on the second ring. “You okay?” she asked worriedly.

“Yeah, but your voice is saying different.”

“You never call me. It’s always Edward who calls me or whoever is your guard for the moment. So I know something is up when you’re the one calling for me.”

“Edward’s cell is out of range, and I wanted to let you know what’s going on.” He told her about Morte d’Amour and potentially pinning him down.

“So that’s why Seamus and Socrates started flipping out!” said Claudia.

“Flipping out?”

“Luna barely managed to stop it with a few well placed stunners, but the two of them were going crazy not more than fifteen minutes ago. You say you’re both splitting up? God, that’s just what he’d want, you both going in opposite directions.”

“We don’t have much choice if we want to make use of what daylight is left.”

“True, true,” Claudia let out a sigh. “You have Nicky and Domino right?”

“Domino is getting Peter so if you can spare one more for us?”

“Lisandro it is then.”

“Don’t you need him?”

“Right now you need him more. I’ll take care of the whiny Harlequin, set them all on Jean-Claude for double the guard duty, and as soon as night does fall I’ll have Wicked Truth sent to you.”

“Great, thanks Claudia.”

“Keep your ass alive, Harry. I don’t want to hear it from Rom and Jean-Claude both!”

“Will do.”

“Where are you currently?”

“Heading to the parking lot. SWAT will be with us soon.”

“Okay, I’ll have Lisandro meet you there.”

Domino and Peter were already waiting outside. Harry could sense the darkness slowly approaching with the weak sun inching away from them. The lovely mild seventy degrees had dropped about ten degrees.

“Already suited up?” Harry asked as Peter grabbed him for a hug.

“What can I say? I’m itching to do something other than stand around watching Micah be miserable,” Peter admitted softly. He winced. “I didn’t mean that.”

“Yeah you did,” said Harry, tugging him close. “I don’t blame you, Peter.” He kissed the younger man who tugged him closer until they were flush together.

“Another lover?” Little Henry asked Nicky.

“Yep, and Micah’s.”

“Right, he’s quite young but then so is the Marshal, how old is the Marshal?”

Harry spluttered against Peter who chuckled. “I’m almost thirty bloody years old!” he squawked as he spun around. Peter wrapped his arms around Harry, and buried his nose into his messy hair.

Little Henry stared at him. “No way?”

“Yes,” said Domino, smirking. “Peter is the youngest.”

“What can I say? We’re all a bit perverted,” Peter teased.

“Hey! You’re getting mouthy,” Harry huffed as he was nibbled on the ear. Harry had to fight down a shiver.

“I need to get laid,” Peter grumbled, pushing his hips into Harry’s backside.

“I thought Ares fucked you and Nathaniel?”

“We didn’t get that far,” he sulked. “We had Nathaniel all tied up and ready to go when we were rudely interrupted. Let’s just say that Nathaniel takes extreme exception to being interrupted. He took out one of the vampires the moment we unlocked the cuffs.”

“Naturally,” said Harry. He could imagine the sexual aggression and how pissed their sweet Nathaniel could get when he was so close and then was cut off.

“Ares and Nathaniel another set of lovers?” asked Little Henry wide-eyed.

“Mine, not Harry’s,” said Peter smirking.

“How does that work?”

“It works well,” it was all Harry could really say. How did he explain how they worked so well together when it simply did.

“So, who are you married to and who are your lovers?” asked Little Henry.

“Jean-Claude, Micah, and Edward are my husbands.”

“And everyone else is a lover? Everyone is okay with this?”

“I’m not everyone’s lover, and everyone’s not just my lover. It would be unfair to do that, not to mention I don’t have enough time in the day to give them love and attention. Nathaniel is Peter’s like Edward is mine. Same with Ares.”

“I’m Jean-Claude and Kitten’s, and sometimes Micah,” said Nicky, smirking.

“I’m whoever wants to have fun,” said Domino. “But mostly Harry and Micah.”

“Harry and Micah. I don’t have a Dad kink,” Peter chirped, and Harry snickered quietly causing Peter to squeeze Harry extra tight.

“Dad kink?”

“Ted - Edward is my father. Technically legal guardian, but still.” He squeezed Harry extra tight for his cheek. Harry couldn’t resist smiling smugly.

Before Henry could realize exactly what he had said, SWAT pulled into the parking lot. “Looks like the fun is over and a new round of fun is about to begin,” said Nicky.

“I guess this isn’t the time to mention the meaning of a red t-shirt, hm?” Peter whispered into Harry’s ear making him smack his thigh.

“Peter, I will have Edward punish you for your cheek if you keep it up.”

“Bring it on,” Peter hissed with an extra hard bite that sent a pulse up his spine. “Let’s play. I want to kill something or several somethings.” He reluctantly pulled away and double checked his vest and weapons.

Lisandro arrived not long after SWAT had pulled in. Meanwhile, Little Henry was being outfitted with a gun and a proper fitted vest. Normally a civilian would not be allowed to do such, but Harry had deputized him and that was good enough for SWAT.

According to Machet and Wilson, Machete and Willy respectively, two of the SWAT men had been enlisted with Little Henry and knew how good he was. A lot of SWAT members and units were big on nicknames. Some were namebased like these two, but others were just call signs like Sergeant Brock was Badger, and Yancey, who had come to see Harry at the hospital, was Swan.

Oftentimes Harry was known as the White Queen or Queen of Hearts when the Rats were running the show with earpieces. Jean-Claude was known as the King of Hearts or Black King.

Lisandro took one look at Little Henry and his red t-shirt and then turned to Harry. “Is he a new one?”

Harry scoffed. “No.” Nicky chortled. He glared at the werelion. “Nicky let him borrow some clothes. You do have that superior sniffer of yours right?” he reached up and poked Lisandro in the nose.

“I just wanted to razz you a bit, Precious,” said Lisandro with a smirk.

“It’s not often that any of us can turn you red, so if we get a chance you damn well know we’re going to take it,” said Nicky.

Peter and Domino laughed as Harry crossed his arms. “Hmph, I get no respect at all!”

Yancey and the group returned with Henry all suited up and ready to go. It looked a bit odd him wearing scrubs, and full on SWAT gear, but it was what it was. “Okay, Little Henry rides with us and draws us a detailed plan of the layout while we drive. We’ll have an entrance plan by the time we get there.”

Harry was more than fine with letting SWAT lead for the moment, but he couldn’t help but point out one small flaw in this seemingly perfect plan. “Sergeant, not to put too fine a point on it, but the vampire rolled Little Henry, too. Being human doesn’t keep you safe from a vampire.” He told Sergeant Brock aka Badger.

He touched the cross pinned to his vest. “My faith will keep me safe.”

“Yes, but if a human servant or zombie that he controls rips it off you, we’ll need a backup plan. Just remember, zombies might not light up if a vampire is dormant enough inside of them.”

“Vampires are your side of things, so you got to have a plan that will protect us from the vampire by the time we get there,” he said confidently.

“I’ll do my best,” said Harry.

“That’s all I ask.”

It was a bit surprising, and quite new still that these men weren’t fighting him, challenging him or making nasty comments and remarks. It was far and away from the way things used to be. He knew he had gotten through to the St. Louis SWAT team, and he knew they had his back. But Yancey and the SWAT guys here barely knew him. So he said all that he could think of at the moment. “Then let’s saddle up, we’re burning daylight.”

Brock and Yancey grinned at Harry, and then each other. “Another John Wayne fan… see, Badger? I told you I liked him.”

He nodded, still grinning. “Let’s mount up, we are burning daylight.”

Harry chuckled, “142 films and counting.”

“Counting?” asked Badger.

“Yes, one husband may have gotten me to see them all, but my other husbands haven’t.”

Both of them laughed out loud, and Harry shrugged. It wouldn’t do to let them know that he wasn’t so much of a John Wayne film fan per say as he was more of a ‘John Wayne was sexy’ sort of fan.

Nicky drove, and Harry hopped into the front seat with Lisandro, Peter, and Domino in the back. Normally, Harry would ride between someone, but right now they were all on serious alert. SWAT was ahead of them with little Henry as they swerved onto the main road.

Nicky was telling Lisandro and Peter all about Harry pulling a divine miracle from his ass, how a lot of the cops now thought he was an angel and may have even converted an atheist to religion. Harry just shook his head and scowled as Lisandro and Peter laughed.

“Oh come on!” Harry slumped back and crossed his arms.

“He does have a pretty enough ass that it could be seen as divine intervention,” Lisandro taunted. “I know when he sucked me down that time at the park all I could do was scream to the heavens.” More laughter and Harry’s face started burning. He shook his head.

“His ass alone feels like the holy fire snugged around your cock,” Peter chimed. “Fuck I’m horny…”

“Will you hush?” Harry rubbed at the burn on his face.

“I can smell it,” said Lisandro.

Domino leered around Lisandro who was between the two. “Up for being topped?”

Peter observed him. “Maybe. If you can wrestle me into the ground that is.”

“I’d like to watch…” said Harry, looking back thoughtfully.

“I can wrestle all ya like. Nathaniel is free to join too,” said Domino.

Nicky chuckled. “Be a fun night.”

Peter looked like he was considering it. Domino was a beautiful beautiful man after all. But whatever he could have said back was interrupted as they got to the edge of town closer toward the mountains. They saw a woman running across the road in front of SWAT’s Tahoe. Brake lights flashed red, and Nicky had to slam on his brakes to keep from rear-ending them. Thank Merlin they were in Edward’s Hummer that had been charmed to hell and back.

A zombie ran across the road in front of both cars, in the direction that the woman had run.

“Is that what I think it is?” Lisandro asked, gripping the seat to look beyond Nicky.

“I know what I saw,” said Domino.

“It’s not dark yet,” said Nicky.

“Are we ready?” asked Peter.

“Let’s do this!” Harry called. “Do not stop. Don’t let it get back up. Merlin knows what the bite will do and we can’t afford to waste anymore daylight with me burning an infection out.” He mostly meant this for Peter’s sake. He trusted the younger Marshal, but no matter how strong or fast he became he would never outdo a lycanthrope.

Harry and his men hit the ground running as the woman’s screams wrenched through the cool dimming light. He didn’t bother with SWAT or any plan they might or might not have. He knew very well that this was nothing more than a distraction to keep him from moving in closer to the mountains where Morte d’Amour’s body was, but he was not a heartless bastard to let some woman get eaten.

Morte d’Amour knew this and banked on it.

Harry and his men chased the zombie and woman to the driveway between two small identical houses. Her legs were kicking uselessly at the ground as the zombie straddled her waist, holding one of her arms in its hand and eating the flesh off her forearm while she shrieked.

Lisandro, Nicky, Peter, and Domino raised their guns and fired in perfect sync causing its whole body to rock back enough so that its head flopped, mouth full of fresh blood. The woman’s arm was still trapped between its rotting hands.

“Sweet Jesus!” Someone yelled behind them.

“Ignis Exerto!” Harry took advantage of the space between the woman and the zombie from the blowback and ignited the zombie, sending it screeching as Lisandro seized the woman by her other good arm and dragged her out from underneath. Harry’s men continued to shoot as the purple flame ate and rode across its body. Peter and Nicky shot it into thousands of pieces, Domino stood at their backs to watch the perimeter for more zombies.

The woman was still screaming as Lisandro had taken wraps to her bleeding arm. SWAT was with them now, and it seemed like they had taken the time to get the big guns out.

It was completely unneeded now, Harry thought. “Little late!”

“Jesus, you can’t just run out without gearing up!” Badger scowled.

“My warrant. My choice,” Harry reminded. “I let you be in charge because you know your men and this area the best. But when it comes to zombies and vampires, that’s when it falls to me.”

“And they take your orders?” Yancey asked, looking at the men who had finally stopped shooting, the zombie had turned into one splintered and burned up mess. It still twitched every so often. Peter used a knife to stab at a hand that tried to crawl out from under the flame. He savagely sliced it into a lot of pieces making a few of the SWAT men shudder. He then lifted it like a piece of meat and placed it back on the burning flames.

“We are his,” said Lisandro who hoisted the woman into his arms like a child with ease.

“We have to get her to the hospital,” said Badger.

“So much for hunting the vamps,” said Nicky.

Badger looked over and gave him a very unfriendly look. “We can’t leave her like this.”

“We know that Sergeant,” said Harry calmly. “Doesn’t change the fact that this was done on purpose.”

“Purpose?” Machete asked.

“I’ll bet almost anything that this isn’t the only zombie attacking citizens right now,” said Harry looking over at his men. Lisandro handed the woman over to Badger.

“Can’t be a guard with dead weight in my arms,” he muttered flatly as the woman continued to sob. Badger frowned at how insensitive Lisandro was being. Lisandro kicked a femur into the still burning flames on the ground and then moved to stand at Harry’s back like a strong wall.

“I thought zombies couldn’t come out during daylight,” Yancey said.

“They don’t like daylight, but they can walk around in it, or most of them can. They’ll be slower and a little more confused in daylight, so the flesh eaters will be faster and more deadly when we lose what little sun we have left.”

“That looked pretty damn fast,” said Machete.

“It was.”

“The vampire did this, didn’t he?”

Isn’t that what I had just said?

Peter snorted. “That’s what Harry just said.”

“And because we have to take her to the hospital, he’s keeping us away from the mountains where his body resides. We’ll now have no choice but to protect the citizens of Boulder from the walking dead, so we won’t get to the mountains before night fall.”

“How can he make them rise when he’s miles away?” Willy asked.

“Good question, but I don’t think he raised the zombies today fresh. I think he’s just letting us see some of the ones he raised earlier. He’s sacrificing them as a diversion.”

“You ran after her first, Potter-Black. You weren’t willing to let her die so we could kill the vampire.”

Harry shrugged. “Couldn’t have just kept driving.”

“Sure I could,” said Nicky. “But I know that’s not you, Kitten.”

“Even I wouldn’t, Nick,” said Lisandro.

“If you could have kept driving and let her die, then you wouldn’t be human,” Badger stated, glaring at Nicky who shrugged his heavy shoulders.

“I’m not human.”

“Neither am I, I still would have stopped,” said Lisandro. Even if he didn’t want to. His conscience would make him do it. But he wouldn’t begrudge Nicky who wouldn’t have.

“It’s my job to stop,” said Harry, waving away the glares honed on Nicky. “It’s Nicky’s job to do what’s best in my interest, not anyone else’s. He can’t think like a human and protect me at the same time, Sergeant, that’s the way it is.”

“And as a bodyguard this is a nightmare. We are far too out in the open,” said Nicky as he glanced around.

As they got back to the trucks, they found that Little Henry was not there. Badger groaned. “I told him to stay here, dammit!”

“There he is!” Yancey called out at the same time Nicky pointed.

Harry followed where he pointed, Lisandro, Peter, and Domino at his back. Little Henry was running toward them, using all of his long legs to run as fast as he could, carrying someone over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. There were two zombies chasing them.

“We’ll take the zombies, you secure the civilians,” said Harry as he and his men moved like spiders in an arrow-like pattern.

“Roger that!” Yancey agreed.

SWAT was moving out to meet Little Henry and there was a moment when all eight of them were close. Harry’s men kept up with Harry’s pace, not needing to be told what to do as they easily outstripped SWAT.

Harry had his wand out. “Ignis Exerto!” At the same time Lisandro, Peter, and Domino went for the second zombie. Domino called his switchblade claws out in such a discreet and fast fashion that the SWAT hadn’t noticed. Peter had his gun shooting point blank from the middle as Lisandro had razor sharp knives that were charmed to slice through anything and everything.

Only Godofredo was better than Lisandro at using knives. Not even Shang Da could beat Lisandro in a knife fight. Lisandro and Domino double-teamed while Nicky moved in close to Harry’s chosen zombie and began to attack. One set of fingers transforming into long switchblades much like Domino.

“Top!”

“Bottom!”

Everyone switched, Peter moved lower, and then he extracted his hunting knife with the poisonous end, and rushed up to bisect the zombie who was now headless and could no longer bite. He began to stab and shred it from the stomach down to the ground. Lisandro and Domino backing him as Harry and Nicky picked theirs apart a bit quicker. Even shredded and ripped to pieces, they were still trying to move.

“Jesus, these things don’t quit do they?” Peter spat as he watched a fingerbone wriggle once more.

Harry came up to him and lit the second zombie on fire as Domino and Nicky used Lisandro as a shield to retract their claws. It was hilarious to note that the SWAT would never see them coming if those two decided to attack.

He loved his boys. He kissed Peter on the cheek. “Sorry, luv, rotters change the game entirely.”

Peter wiped his bloody hand on his vest not caring about the smear and then he slid his arm around Harry and pulled him close. “Good, simply shooting was getting boring anyway,” he breathed hotly into Harry’s neck.

“Still horny?”

“More than ever…”

They had not one, but two survivors. The second woman, who had been the first woman’s friend and jogging buddy, nearly had her leg torn off. Little Henry had used his strength to wrench her from the zombie, and took off with her. It’d taken SWAT a bit longer to stem the blood that flowed from the nearly severed leg. Harry’s men ripped out of their filthy blood soaked vests. Harry flicked his wand to clean them and then toss them into the back of Edward’s Hummer.

Since they were going to the hospital and not to the mountains, they were hardly needed at this point in time. Harry turned and devilishly smirked as the SWAT got back into their Tahoe with the victims. He pushed on Peter’s chest. “You in the middle,” he ordered as Lisandro grinned and opened the side door.

Peter stared at him for a moment, and then he grinned as he did exactly that.

“You going to blow him?” Nicky asked, hoisting himself into the driver’s seat.

“This I have to watch,” said Domino. “I can smell his lust from here.”

“Adrenaline rush isn’t likely to help him being horny,” Lisandro pointed out. “Considering he’s still a teenager.”

Peter groaned as Harry slipped in and settled on the floor between his knees. Lisandro and Domino climbed in on either side of him.

“Good thing the windows are tinted,” said Nicky, smirking as the Tahoe sped off. “If you need me to lick any blood clean, just give the word.” He started the Hummer as Harry’s hands moved.

Harry knew he had little time as he rubbed the outside of Peter’s jeans. Almost instantly, the cock spurred to life, and he began to unbutton and pull him out. Peter sagged with a groan when Harry’s tongue began to tease and caress him before swallowing him whole.

He could feel Lisandro and Domino’s eyes watching him with a hungry intensity as he bobbed up and down on Peter’s cock generously.

“Fuck, he’s turned blowjobs into an art form,” said Lisandro.

“I love watching as much as I love doing him,” Domino groaned as he reached back and gripped Peter’s loose ponytail.

Peter moaned and turned his head. Harry watched as Domino kissed Peter, forcing Peter’s mouth open to take his tongue. Peter melted into the weretiger’s grip. Harry raised his hands and wiggled to show how clean they are. He’d only used magic after all, and so he ran them up the length of Lisandro and Domino’s strong thighs toward their cocks. He was good at using one hand to undo men’s pants, though Lisandro helped him out, and he soon had his hands full. Domino’s and Lisandro’s long thick cocks in each hand while he sucked and lathered Peter’s with his mouth and tongue. He moved both hands in perfect timing to his mouth, and he had all three men moaning as he tugged and sucked them making their pulses race.

“Oh fuck…! Yes!” Lisandro moved his hips with Harry’s hand, pulling up his shirt so that he didn’t spill all over it.

Domino grunted and mimicked as he sucked at Peter’s tongue eagerly.

“God, I’m jealous…” Nicky whined.

“You’re going to get to fuck him in your lion form, I don’t know what you’re so jealous about,” Lisandro groaned.

“And I have spines so I can’t,” Domino heaved when Harry squeezed him. Harry used his mouth muscles to make Peter squirm as his cock throbbed like a heart in the back of his throat.

“Fuck… you really going to fuck him as a lion, Nick?” Peter whined.

“Hell yeah, I’m going to! You can watch if you like.”

“Micah’s the only one I know who has been able to purposely change his leopard form’s cock,” said Domino.

“Oh God, yes!” Lisandro hissed as Harry picked up speed with his mouth movements.

Peter’s orgasms spilled out hot and heavy, coating the back of his throat and mouth as he sucked the boy down. When he raised his head as Peter whimpered with shivers, Domino grabbed him by the back of the hair and thrust his tongue into Harry’s soaked mouth.

Harry continued jacking both of the men off, massaging and mimicking his mouth ministrations until their own orgasms pooled out in a hot splash onto his hands and wrists. He kept them going until he had them drained.

Harry brought his hands to examine the white liquid as all three men slumped. “And here I didn’t even use the ardeur,” he chuckled as he licked his fingers causing all three sets of eyes to stare at him. “Hm, not bad. Maybe one of these days you boys will be a filling for cupcakes.”

Nicky swerved on the road and let out a curse. “Stop talking like that, Kitten!”

Harry grinned as he raised up and swung his arms around Nicky’s neck and kissed him on the cheek. “My hands are filthy,” he commented.

Nicky grabbed one of his wrists to investigate. “It’s not blood, but…” And Harry almost orgasmed when he began to suck Harry’s fingers.

Harry loved his dirty lovers. He tongued Nicky’s ear and only pulled back when they were swerving into the hospital. All of the SWAT guys were too busy with the victims to notice Harry climbing out of the back, and soon the extra relaxed and oh-so serene guards followed behind. Lisandro had to turn and help Peter whose hands were still shaking, button his jeans.

“You need better training than that.”

“As if you’re any different,” he snarked.

“True.” He playfully tapped Peter’s mouth and turned on his heel to flank Harry.

Both women were left at the emergency room. There were other injuries from zombie attacks coming in, including two police officers. There were zombie calls from all over the city. So far it was just one or two zombies attacking from all over, but Harry had no doubt that once full dark set in about an hour from now that all hell would break loose.

Harry stood there in the emergency room letting the noise and the movements wash over him. Nicky and Peter were right up against Harry. Lisandro and Domino were talking to the SWAT men.

He called Edward to let him know what was going on, finally getting through. The very idea of a zombie apocalypse had excited him.

He hung up with a partial smirk. “Even I heard that,” said Peter, keeping an arm wrapped around Harry’s waist.

Nicky smirked. “Can’t blame him. It does sound like-” He looked over at the SWAT and then whispered. “Fun.”

Peter nodded, and Harry shook his head. “Oh, the men I run with,” he smirked.

“Same men you fuck and suck,” Peter hissed into his ear.

“Would you really want us any different?” asked Nicky.

Harry shook his head again with a small smile. “Nope, I love you the way you are. All of you.” He trailed a hand down and pinched Peter’s ass as he said it.

Harry drew back only slightly when Yancey and Sergeant Badger came over to them, Lisandro and Domino took places on either side of the group. “If we destroyed the vampire’s body, would this all end?” Badger asked.

“Probably.”

“That’s not a definite,” Yancey said, with a smile that couldn’t take the worry from his eyes.

Harry shrugged. “That’s as good as you’re going to get when it comes to ancient masters like this. All of them break the typical cardinal rules. He’s doing things that I never thought possible. I knew that if Edward and I hadn’t seen to his destruction ourselves that there was a good chance that he had been behind it.”

“Why didn’t it work in Atlanta?” Yancey asked.

“Because this vampire can not only jump bodies, but he can jump into zombies. I’ve heard of vampires jumping into humans from time to time, but not zombies. Hell, the two masters that I have met that potentially had necromancy powers before they were vampires couldn’t do this.”

“Are you talking about New Mexico?” asked Peter.

Harry nodded. “One of them, and even then he used his human servant, and they really weren’t zombies so much as they were… liches with no skin. The other had no other Necromancy powers other than that of having ghosts as her creature to call.”

“That’s possible?” asked Nicky.

“Apparently, that’s about the time I started realizing that the older and more powerful they are the more they break the typical rules.”

“If he is jumping from body to body why would destroying this body work any better?” Badger asked.

“Because this is his original body. We destroy that and there’s no more home point to jump from. He’s nowhere near as powerful as the last person who could do this,” he said thinking of the Mother of Darkness. He also knew that from time to time the Traveler had to go back to his body as if to recharge it otherwise risk losing it. “We can either do that or pin him down in the body he’s currently using long enough to destroy it along with his mind.”

“Al’s group is close to where Little Henry drew the map to, so they could detour and destroy the body.” Harry frowned at this. He couldn’t help but think about the idea of getting one of Micah’s friends killed. He was a good man, had lots of potential, and he didn’t want to see it go to waste.

“That’s not a good face, what’s wrong?” Yancey asked.

“Little Henry is still sulking because you sent his map via smartphone and he’s not included?”

“Yes,” said Badger.

“But that’s not the look on your face; you don’t care if Henry sulks about this. What were you thinking?” Yancey asked.

“It’s not hard to read you, Kitten,” said Nicky, smirking.

Harry rolled his eyes. “Hush you. I’m worried about Al. It could see him killed or worse. He’s not with Edward is he?”

“No, they went in opposite directions to cover more ground since we couldn’t make it.”

“Al is one of the most competent deputies on the force, and not only that one of the most talented I’ve seen outside of Rush Callahan,” said Badger. “Text him any information you think he needs to remember and let him do his job. Right now, I want you to tell us everything you know about flesh-eating zombies.”

Harry still didn’t like it. He could pull rank, but he would hate to do that now that he had gained such a good reputation with them. “Not much I can tell you except that when it gets full dark, they will be faster, stronger, and even harder to kill. Necromancy is at its strongest at night because of the ambient Death Magic, and it’ll be worse if these flesh-eaters have been brutally killed before being raised.”

Yancey and Badger exchanged a look between them. Badger sighed and rubbed a hand over his close-cropped hair. “What can kill them?” Good to know that they saw his issue.

“Fire. Blow them up into small bits and you can burn the pieces at your leisure. It’s why I used magic and my men used their own talents.”

“There ain’t enough Exterminators in this city for the potential army that Little Henry’s talking about!”

“What about the bomb squad?” Nicky asked. Everyone looked at him, even Harry was a bit surprised. “If you know how to defuse a bomb, you know how to make one.” He looked at Harry. “Remember Guilty Pleasures?”

“Yeah, I remember,” said Harry quietly. “Any explosive expert really, even demolition could be useful right now.”

“That’s a great idea,” Badger nodded.

“That ain’t fair,” said Yancey. “You look big enough to bench-press a truck and you're smart.”

Nicky grinned. “I’m not just another pretty face that Kitten keeps around.”

“Oh you know,” Harry brought his shoulders up as everyone chuckled. “I’d also suggest Exterminators if you have any around the town. There’s at least one trained in extreme measures.”

“How extreme could it be?” asked Yancey.

“The last time I was up against a killer zombie, I had an exterminator team backing me up with a flamethrower, just in case, as I walked the cemetery looking for the original grave.”

“What would you have gained from finding the grave the zombie came out of?” Badger asked.

“A link to who raised it. There is always a reason why a particular person is chosen to be risen after all. Most flesh-eating zombies are out for revenge of some kind; you give them their revenge and they often go back to being a normal shambling zombie.”

“Are these out for revenge?”

Harry shrugged. “It wouldn’t matter because Morte d’Amour’s will and power has been poured into them. Whether they were or not doesn’t make any difference now. So we need to assume that every zombie d’Amour is raising is seeking revenge. Not for themselves, but the will of d’Amour. It’s like Little Henry said, some people want to watch the world burn and Morte d’Amour just wants to watch it die.”

Yancey looked thoughtful. “Is it possible to raise a zombie as a sort of weapon?”

Harry and Nicky nodded. “Yes,” they said at the same time. “It’s pretty standard folklore that vaudun priests can raise a zombie and send it after the enemies.”

“Vaudun, you mean voodoo?” asked Badger.

“Same religion, different words. I usually say vaudun, because people are less likely to think of movie monsters. You say voodoo and people get very set ideas in their head. It’s a perfectly fine religion and most believers are law abiding citizens.” Harry’s mind began to draw up ideas. Once upon a time, Harry abhorred vaudun, but eventually he came to settle on the realization that not everyone who was a believer was a psychopath. John Burke had been one of them who had changed his opinion. “Huh…”

“What?” Yancey asked.

Harry tilted his head to Nicky. “He’s going to make an army at sundown right?”

Nicky nodded, and then his one eye sparked. “Are you saying what I think you're saying?”

“He wouldn’t have an army if I raised them first,” said Harry, smirking. “If I start raising at the same time he’s raising I bet our powers would finally meet. In fact, they would have to.”

“And what would that accomplish?” asked Yancey.

“I could trace him using my own powers against his,” said Harry, kind of liking that idea. He wished he’d thought of it before.

Lisandro seemed to finally realize what Harry was saying. “Precious, you can’t be thinking to set yourself up as bait! As your bodyguard I vote no.”

“He’s not bait, Lisandro,” Nicky assured.

“But, he’s going to do the metaphysical version of standing in the middle of a fight and yelling: come and get me! That’s bait,” said Lisandro. “It’s like what you did in that house. You took it all on yourself. We can’t keep doing that.”

Peter however shook his head. “It’s not bait, it’s a challenge,” he said. “Harry is betting that he’s the biggest, baddest necromancer.”

“I don’t like it,” said Lisandro. “Domino?”

“I believe Harry could do it,” said Domino. “Don’t you?”

“But it could go wrong,” said Lisandro. “Our job is to think of all the ways it can go wrong and protect him from that. There’s too many variables with that kind of idea.”

“I don’t mean to be a wet blanket,” Yancey interjected. “But what if you’re wrong? What if he’s the biggest and baddest?”

“He won’t be,” said Nicky smirking.

“You remember what happened the night he almost died don’t you?” Peter asked Lisandro.

Lisandro frowned. “Yeah, I remember. We all do.”

“And he didn’t realize he’d done it,” Peter pointed out. “I also know about the time he was in Philly with Ted and Micah. He had to use Ted’s blood to try and avoid raising everything, which he still ended up doing when he passed out. I think he could do it. In fact, I know he can.”

“If there is one thing I’ve discovered, it's how strong my necromancy powers are,” Harry said after a moment. “I have no doubt that if I raise my own mini-army, no doubt the Lover of Death wouldn’t be able to resist coming around to check out the competition. He might even try to take control of them, and if we do that he’ll be frozen long enough to destroy him. If there is one thing that all these ancients have in common it's arrogance and conceit.”

“Aren’t you being the same?” Lisandro cautioned.

Harry turned and smiled. “Not when I know what I can do, I’m not. This way we can get him both ways. Metaphysical and physical. I did it before,” he said thinking about the Mother of Darkness.

Lisandro sighed and rubbed at his face. “Let’s talk to Ted first. If he agrees, I’ll be more likely to agree. Claudia and Rom can’t give me shit if Edward agrees. If we do this, we need more guards. A shit ton more.”

“You don’t trust me?” Harry asked sadly.

Lisandro glared. “That ain’t it, Precious, and you know it. You always throw yourself into the thick of it, and as a guard and…” He couldn’t say any more in front of the SWAT.

Harry reached up and kissed him on the chin. “I got this, Lisandro, and you can keep watching my back because I guarantee you that I am the biggest and baddest Necromancer of them all.”

Nicky smirked and pulled Harry’s small body into his hard muscled chest. “That’s right. So let’s finish this motherfucker so that Micah will stop crying and we can all go the fuck home!”

“Here here!” Peter agreed.

“I have a question…” said Yancey.

“Oh?”

“Completely unrelated, but who the hell is fucking who?” he asked completely and utterly confused.

“Didn’t we cover this earlier?” Harry asked.

“Harry with all of us,” said Domino with a smirk, making the jaws drop of the SWAT.

Harry nodded. “Yup. All of them.” And before anyone could make a comment a hand came down and slapped him on the ass. “Yikes! Husband!”

“You can’t have fun without me, Little Raven. You know that,” Edward drawled “Can’t quite resist a good ol’ fashioned zombie apocalypse. Good son?” he asked, looking at Peter.

“Perfect.” Peter smiled. “Harry took care of me well.” Lisandro and Domino grinned as Nicky leered.

“I’ll be next,” he assured.

“Good, good. Gotta keep your energy high.”

“Do you know what he’s planning?” asked Lisandro.

“I had the idea on the way here that this might be something that Little Raven would come around to doing at some point.” He pinched the back of Harry’s neck, smirking, his eyes as cold as the winter skies of Alaska.

“Does it not worry you?” asked Lisandro.

“Used to,” said Edward. “But then you learn that this one’s instincts are ridiculous, and to actually have faith in him.”

“You have faith?” asked Domino dubiously.

“Uh huh, I do. I have faith, but it’s to no God in the heavens.” He squeezed Harry’s neck, and wound the ends of his messy hair onto his fingers to pull him back. He dropped a kiss on Harry’s forehead. “I think it’s time to have some fun, and then get our asses home where we belong.”

Everyone agreed, and Harry knew SWAT was looking at them like they were all out of their minds with the way they talked so casually about not only sex, but the potential chance of being slaughtered.

Oh well, they weren’t the first ones to think such a thing, and Harry wouldn’t trade his life for anything in this world.

Chapter Text

The cemetery was one of the largest and oldest in the city. Harry could see the years marching across in the changes of the tombstones. They ranged from ornate angels and beautiful tall standing sculptures to the nearly flat and lifeless stone markers.

Harry could already feel the spirits stirring beneath his fingertips. His fingers were locked around both Lisandro and Nicky. Edward was right behind him and only the footsteps of the SWAT could be heard as all of Harry’s men followed the path that kept spirits from creeping up their legs.

He saw two of the SWAT men who had been with Edward shiver. They were named Lindell and Shrewsberry, aka Paris and Berry. Lindell was a tall gangly fellow who, like Harry, would never put on weight unless it was a miracle. Shrewsberry reminded him of a tall version of Larry Kirkland with the fire red hair and freckles. His nickname was not lost on Harry, though Lindell’s nickname made him wonder how he managed that name, though he wasn’t curious enough to ask.

Harry stood at the edge of a meadow that overlooked the sprawl of the graves. It gave them a good amount of sight in the general vicinity, but what was even more breathtaking was the sunset that climbed its way into the sky.

It was a spectacular spread of pink and purple with pale crimson all done in neon colors. “Teddy would love this,” he couldn’t help but say as everyone’s eyes found their way to the sky. It was like someone had taken a giant paint brush and swept it across the western sky and at the very edges began to set it on fire.

“The sunsets are always like this out here,” Yancey said.

“Really?”

“You expect to be bored with another spectacular sunset, but you never do,” said Badger. They’d stayed along with Harry and his men in case Morte d’Amour showed up. Willy had found a vantage point and was waiting to do what snipers did best. Machete was with him in case a zombie tried to sneak up and eat him.

“How could you ever get bored of something that beautiful?” Lisandro asked.

Edward smirked as he stepped around, his eyes scanning the area and then allowing himself to gaze upwards. “Most people stop seeing things they experience too often, even the amazing ones,” he dropped his eyes instantly, and they fell like a wintry spread across Harry before smirking.

“Does that not bother you?” asked Lindell with a strange expression aimed at Harry.

“What?” asked Edward smirking. “Go ahead and spit it out, Paris.” Harry had a feeling that this wasn’t the first time the man had mentioned something about them and their relationships.

“What’s going on?” Harry asked curiously as he turned fractionally.

“You’re his husband, right? And yet he’s snuggling up to these two men,” Lindell blinked a few times.

“I even kiss them,” said Harry as Edward smirked when he leaned up on his toes to kiss Nicky on the lips and then turned to do the same with Lisandro.

“Hey, what about us?” asked Peter and Domino who had been getting a good survey of the land.

Harry stepped away to do the same with Peter and Domino. “Never forgotten, luvs,” he said as they each wrapped him up in a back breaking hug. Each man had their own flavor that Harry couldn’t help but absorb and crave. Each one was special in their own right, and he stroked them as he turned back toward Edward with a proud smile on his face.

Lindell and Shrewsberry were stunned, and Yancey chuckled. “I don’t get it, but whatever.”

“No one has to get it but us, Yancey,” said Edward, gliding a palm up Harry’s back and pulling him close for a soul drenching kiss that lasted a touch longer.

“He’s trying to outdo us,” Peter snarked.

“Per usual then,” said Nicky.

“Got your flamethrower at the ready?” Harry asked.

“Do you have to ask?” Edward smirked as he brought it around. It’d been attached to the other side of his vest. “Your perception is off, Little Raven.”

“Sorry, I was busy looking at you and letting my guards do their jobs for me since they complain about how I never let them.”

“That’s not fair,” Lisandro drawled as Edward squeezed him extra tight.

“Besides, I know everything about this graveyard. I mapped it out as we were walking. There is nothing I can’t feel right now when it comes to this particular cemetery. Anyone enters, and I will feel them. You focus on the human aspect, I focus on the preternatural. How is that?”

Edward smirked and his hand cracked down again making Harry pout at him. “I do love the way it cracks.”

“Bastard!” He shook his head as his lovers laughed at him. Even a few of the SWAT men were grinning or chuckling silently. “Oh, and just so you know, guys, once the sun goes down there will be some vampires flying to meet us,” Harry warned. He could already feel Jean-Claude in the back of his mind awake and readying himself. No doubt Claudia was moaning and griping about the Master of the City putting himself in such danger. He could also feel Damian having awoken not more than a few minutes after Jean-Claude. All that was left now was Wicked Truth to wake.

“How do we tell one vampire from another?” Paris asked.

“Are you saying all vampires look alike?” Domino asked.

He frowned. “I’m saying that our main perp is a vampire, so how are we supposed to know the difference?”

Harry snorted. “For one, my vampires are all beautiful. You won’t have any trouble sorting out the who is who. For another, my guys are flying in. I don’t think the Lover of Death or anyone he’s made is strong enough to do that.” Maybe at one time he could, but after seeing how ravaged and lifeless his body tended to be, Harry had his doubts. The Traveler had once told him that if a vampire bounced too much from person to person without going back to their body for the recharge then they could effectively lose their natural born abilities.

“I thought flying was just a story. You mean they can really do that?” he asked, shocked.

“A few masters can levitate; actual flight is a lot rarer, but most of my men can do it,” said Harry proudly.

After some time, Harry felt the world flare to life from the skies. He and Edward both raised their eyes up and most of the men followed as the sun finally sank down. Just dark enough to let his boys roam.

“Oh look, they brought a friend,” said Edward smirking, and Harry let out a laugh when the first person he saw was riding a broomstick. It seemed that Draco had come for the party.

“Is that a broom?” Yancey yelped.

“Yep, and he’s not a vampire,” Harry let them know as the man swooped down in a deep dive. His pale windswept hair caught by the wind as he leveled out and dismounted with grace. “Good to see you, Draco.”

“Just dropped off the updated skelegro, and was given an update. You didn’t think I’d miss this did you, Potter?” Draco scowled as Harry let go of his men and crossed over to grab his best friend in a hug.

“Not at all.” Harry kissed him on the cheek. “Asher?”

“He’s staying back with the babies as protection. Requiem flew in too to be a second pair of eyes since Jean-Claude is coming.” Draco shook Edward’s hand, along with Nicky, Lisandro, Domino, and Peter. He nodded to the Muggles behind them.

“Good, hope you have that wand at the ready.”

“Fire at the edge of my tongue,” said Draco, cocking his head. “Hermione wanted to be here, but she’s watching Alyse. Luna as well, but she’s on the twins with Asher and Requiem.”

“Understandable. Glad to have one of you at least.” Everyone looked to the skies again. It took two full blinks before the vampires were touching down one by one around him.

Jean-Claude touched down like a breathtaking dark angel. Even the straight men in the group took in deep breaths when they saw him for the first time. His long black silk curls lay in a beautiful array down his slim back. He wore skin-tight black leather with weaves of dark blue silk cloth criss-crossing up the sides with enough space to give everyone just a glimmer of fresh pale skin. His frothy open shirt was the same sapphire as his eyes, the burn cross glowed amongst all the flesh as he stepped up instantly to Edward and Harry. “Edward,” said Jean-Claude carefully, no need to reveal his husband’s status as an assassin. No one knew if the men with them knew French or not. “Mon Amour.”

“You should not be here, Jean-Claude,” said Edward seriously. Also dropping the usual nickname because it was for them and their community who understood that it wasn’t a degrading nickname. Not when it came from him.

“You know I had to come. I can fight as well, have been for years before either of you were born. It is not just you two that he has insulted. We shall take him down for mon Chaton. I have made my decisions. You cannot make my ears ring more than Claudia has already.”

Edward stepped up to inspect the vampire, pulling back his curls. “Not bleeding.”

“I left before the first traces could be seen.” He kissed Edward, lightly so as not to distract him. Everyone knew better than to distract Edward when he was in bounty hunter mode.

“Good.” He ran his knuckles down Jean-Claude’s pale cheek to the edge of his perfect jaw. “Don’t get too bloody now. I don’t want to hear complaints. Your silks are very expensive, you know.”

“Oui, I shall try not to.” He smiled slyly. Harry knew that Jean-Claude was lovingly surprised by any amount of affection that Edward was willing to show to him around the normal humans. It’d never been tested on this sort of scale before. It was always only within the community, but now it was like Jean-Claude’s light got brighter. He now knew that Edward meant business. In all ways.

“Besides, you’re not alone,” said Harry as Jean-Claude wrapped him in his arms and pulled him into a flushed kiss that was on the edge of leaving him breathless as usual.

“Non.” A blink later Damian touched down followed by Wicked Truth appearing, making the men that they appeared behind, flinch.

“Don’t sneak up on us,” Yancey ground out. Harry had to actually turn to let the SWAT know they were there as they appeared looming like gorgeous dark shadows.

“Apologies,” said Wicked.

“Yes, we do apologize. We thought it was best not to overwhelm you.” Both crossed immediately to Harry’s side, fingers lightly touching his shoulders in greeting. Harry wrapped them in hugs and kissed both of them in greeting. Damian moved up and took a spot by Edward, nodding a greeting to Harry who reached across and stroked his arm.

Then, like a shadow, everyone went still as the darkness sank deeper and deeper until they could all feel it in their bones. Harry shivered when Jean-Claude’s fingers traced his collar. Lisandro and Nicky moved so that Edward and Jean-Claude could stand on each side of Harry. Damian was right behind Harry as his vampire servant.

“It is too bad we are missing one,” said Jean-Claude sorrowfully, looking out over the cemetery.

Harry tilted his head and looked at the vampire. “No we’re not,” he said, turning his head fractionally. He could feel the man’s energy flow out. It was tightly wrapped, but it was there. His heart skipped.

“Am I late?”

“Mike!” Yancey gasped.

“I felt like I needed to be here,” said Micah, stepping out from behind one of the angel statutes. He looked beautiful beneath the night sky. His eyes were tired, but they were strong. “Ethan’s taking Teddy back to the hotel to settle down to his big brother duties. They’ll likely make a puppy pile with Ethan and Claudia, especially if vampires and witches are there as extra guards.”

Harry moved fast into Micah’s arms, wrapping his own around Micah’s neck and squeezing. “Love you,” He breathed into the man’s neck.

“Love you too, Baby, always.” Micah squeezed Harry and breathed in his scent. Their leopards brushed against each other in their own greeting.

“Mon Chaton? Are you well enough?”

“Anything. You need me. You need us all together,” said Micah, kissing Harry’s cheek. He let Harry lead him over to Edward and Jean-Claude. Both men pulled Micah close for a kiss. “We beat him and there’s a chance my father lives. I’ll be here to help ensure we win.”

“That’s the plan,” Edward nodded as the guards closed rank around them. Peter even came up and kissed Micah before returning to his position as a Preternatural Marshal. “Can’t let your father die before he gets to hold his grandchildren.” It warmed Harry’s heart to hear Edward state that goal. He knew it was partially for the benefit of the SWAT team around them, but it was also for the benefit of Micah. They would see Micah successfully reunited with all of his family before they left, Rush included.

For the first time in days, Harry was surrounded by all three husbands. The situation wasn’t great, but he was going to greatly enjoy going to battle with all of them again. For a moment visions of Branson and the fight against Bloody Bones came to mind. Once again they were standing in a graveyard about to combine efforts to fight the big bad. Harry knew they would be successful this time as well.

The radio on Badger’s hip began to crackle. Nothing much else was able to be said as the Sergeant touched his mic. “Roger that,” he turned to them. “We’re getting reports of packs of zombies.”

“How big?” Edward asked.

Micah was squeezing Harry and Jean-Claude’s hands like a lifeline.

“Eyewitnesses are reporting anywhere from five to twenty, so probably somewhere in between.”

Micah turned to Jean-Claude. “You do know if this thing comes for us, he can make a direct challenge to you, Jean-Claude.”

Jean-Claude turned and smiled. “You are worth it, mon Chaton. Never forget that.”

“You are ridiculous. It’s not practical.”

“Let him have this, Alpha. You be good and back Little Raven up. You know what to do. This is for all of us, and won’t see you miserable anymore. That is not your job.” His eyes momentarily thawed and softened on their husband, and like a light it flickered out before SWAT could catch sight of it.

Micah nodded and he leaned in against Jean-Claude. His temple pressed to the man’s shoulder. “Just want you all safe.”

“And we shall be. He will not win this night. You should know that. Mon Amour is the most powerful Necromancer, and we only make it more so.” He kissed Micah’s forehead like he was a child more than a husband. Harry could feel and see the paternal streak stirring through him. His natural need to love and pamper. He’d done it with Harry. He’d done it with Jason. It was simply who Jean-Claude was, and it was exactly what Micah and Edward saw in him. More than a vampire.

“Are you ready? I feel him awakening,” said Jean-Claude.

“Oh I feel it,” said Harry as the prickling rush of ice cold power flowed through the night air. It was riding on the current like a wave.

“Everyone, know your positions,” Edward ordered, and they moved at an incredible speed surrounding Harry and the SWAT in a large ring.

“I’m opening my shields,” said Harry, and that was all the warning they were given as Harry lowered them like a window in a car going down. He was doing something he never liked doing, and that was exposing himself to every undead creature. He sent out a pulse of magic as he removed his hand from Jean-Claude’s and brought his wrist up to the man’s mouth.

Jean-Claude knew what he wanted. He cradled his wrist like he would Rigel and Elara, something precious, and he sank his teeth into the skin. Harry was going to be raising as many zombies as he possibly could tonight. He was going to take the entire town if he could, and for that he needed blood. Society claimed he would need a human sacrifice, but Harry didn’t feel that was necessary, his own blood would be powerful enough.

Harry needed the Lover of Death to get close enough to raise a circle with him inside of it, and then all he had to do was keep him trapped as they killed not only him, but his original body. Al was working that angle with a couple of Harry’s men at his side.

As the blood flowed, so did the cold wash of thirsty energy. It was a power that pulsed, and it made his blood flow faster and brighter as he tilted it to spill upon the sacred ground. His eyes narrowed as he drenched and layered the entire area including outside of the cemetery in a wash of his magic.

Hisses and moans erupted around him, but he paid no mind to them as he poured every bit of Necromancy as he could into the ground. It hit graves one after another like a stone tossed into water. It went beyond, and it was like one giant scooper that reached into the earth and dug.

Damian, he could feel, pressed his chest right into Harry’s back. Fingers were gripping and tugging him. He could taste Wicked who had buried his face into Harry’s neck, and Truth was moving to get closer on his other side. Both of them had the urge to bite him, and so they did. All of the vampires in the vicinity were pressed to him at some point. Jean-Claude held most of his attention, but he opened his arms to encircle the others. He used their power to control everything. Make it his own.

“Oh my God…” Domino whispered in shock.

As the grave dirt moved back like water, perfect zombies began to rise from their graves. They didn’t climb their way out more than they flowed out with a liquid sort of grace. All looked as though they were human in their funeral garb.

It still wasn’t enough, and so Harry sent his power out and out to seek more. He found another graveyard, and he raised it. He searched some more, his magic and power dying to be used. Everything dead that he touched rose from their death. Everything, from the sparse common animals of birds and deer to humans centuries old. Harry raised absolutely everything and left nothing out. As his power flowed, he could feel all the vampires that weren’t theirs. He could sense and taste Fredrico, and he teased with a lick against the metaphysical air making the Master of the City let out a great shudder. He also touched down on the Harlequin, and he smirked when he realized that they too felt him. All of the vampires had stiffened, and then they turned in the hotel toward the metaphysical power, drawn to him.

As his power hungered for more, Harry found him. But it was more than that. The Lover of Death’s power was seeking Harry out too. Harry remembered in that moment that they both carried her power inside them, and realized that those pieces wanted to be whole. But Harry wasn’t a typical Necromancer. He was also a wizard and the Master of Death.

He rushed toward Harry’s location. Not just because the pieces from the Mother of Darkness wanted to be rejoined, but because he was dead and all the dead were attracted to him. He walked into the cemetery wearing the body of one of his own zombies, so that he was just one of many. Hidden among the crowd. Harry had opened himself up so high and wide that Edward, Micah, and Jean-Claude could detect the oncoming attack. He kept his eyes closed, trusting the men around him to care for him. To always guide and have his back. He saw the difference between d’Amour’s zombies and his own. d’Amours were fetid rotten things, easy enough to know the difference immediately.

Backed by the power of the Tetrumvirate, Harry ordered his distant zombies to protect the lives of the surrounding humans, and to go after the rotters that they couldn’t reach. He then mentally drew a magical circle in his mind’s eye. He used a flourish as though his wand was sweeping around him.

A few of the rotten zombies lurched forward to try and get at them, but Wicked Truth moved in front of Harry and wasted no time ripping them to pieces.

Shots fired and the Lover of Death roared as Draco’s magic whizzed toward the rotting vampires and zombies that tried to press in on them. “You have put up a circle of power! How did you do that without blood to seal it?”

“I am the Master of Death,” said Harry in a voice that was unlike his own. It came somewhere from deep within his own power. “You are nothing more than a figment. A glimmer of what you wished to be. You are stunted and ruined. You are not a Lover of anything. You have entered my realm, and in my realm I shall take you. Give you what you so wished most of all…”

He didn’t seem to understand Harry’s words as Edward called out. “Al is a go!”

“Do it!”

Jean-Claude and Micah grabbed Harry, Wicked, Truth, and Damian and they threw themselves to the ground when there was a click and a hiss. The orange flames of fire breathed over them so hot that it made the night air shimmer in heat waves.

The Lover of Death was engulfed in flames. Some of Harry’s zombies were caught in the edges of it, but the Lover of Death was lost in flame. He didn’t scream at the start and then he did. “No! My body! How could you?! Half of the Mother’s power dies with me!”

“Good,” Harry hissed back into his mind, projecting it mentally toward the man. “It’s your end and I am claiming your death as my own. Begone!”

He screamed some more as he charged toward them while he burned. Edward and Micah moved quickly. Harry threw up his magic to protect them from the burning flames as Edward unleashed the flamethrower once more. d’Amour tried to run for the edge of the circle, but he got to that invisible line and he could not cross it.

“Toy…”

Jean-Claude moved like a shadow, getting on his feet as d’Amour screamed and writhed. He stepped forward, reached boldly into the flame, and he ripped the rest of d’Amour apart with bare hands.

“You shall cause no more destruction in my lands. I am King and you are merely a pawn.”

d’Amour died in pain and rageful misery. Harry could feel the last crackling cold spark die with him, and when Jean-Claude pulled back, his hands and body were unmarred. Harry hadn’t even used a shield on him. It was a real sign that the Tetrumvirate had never been so strong. All of them together, using their powers. Perfect tandem, perfect synchronization.

Harry let out a deep gulping breath as he leaned back into Damian’s arms, half laying on the ground and the other half on his vampire servant.

It took an extra long time for the flames to die down, and for d’Amour to become charred enough to decapitate him. A job which Nicky and Peter gladly did.

Damian helped Harry to finally get on his feet. He was awash in so great a power that he could taste the hungering addiction on the edges. It wished to be used more, but he resisted it.

“I need more blood to put them back,” said Harry breathlessly.

Damian snatched up Harry’s hand. “Let me do it.”

“Mine will work, Damian. I’m not bleeding you.” He kissed his vampire chastely on the lips and at the same time he used the master’s pretty fangs to cut himself, letting the blood flow from between their lips. It splashed into the palm of Damian’s pale hand. Harry used his magic to spread it as Damian tilted it.

“Such a waste,” Damian licked his lips generously.

“Go back to bed!” Harry ordered with a great invisible wave of his power.

Every single real-life zombie froze for a brief moment, and then they turned their backs on the crowd and headed back to where they belonged. It took no time at all for all of them to find their proper graves. Even those who were fighting for them against the collapsing rotting zombies pulled away to return to where they belonged. None were worried about the rotting zombies as d’Amour’s death caused all of them to drop back into death wherever they stood.

As soon as the graves folded back into place, all of the energy fell out of Harry in one swoop. At least he wasn’t knocked out. Just unable to move as for all of a moment his breath was lost and the beat of his heart stopped. He could feel something cool and calm in the air.

“Looks like someone needs to sleep and recharge.” Micah touched Harry’s head, fingers running briefly through his hair.

“Sleep, Little Raven, we’ve got cleanup covered.”

“Leave the rest to us, mon Amour.”

He stared up at the starry night sky aware of the voices around him. He could hear Sergeant Badger telling them that the zombies had vanished, all of them, including the rotting ones. He heard someone say good-job, but he didn’t care. He was just glad that it was over with. Somehow he knew that Rush Callahan was going to be okay. He closed his eyes, relaxed into Damian’s arms, and slept soundly for what felt like the first time since they arrived in Colorado.

oOo

Everyone was calling it a miracle. Micah’s father’s infection had stopped trying to spread the moment the Lover of Death died. Not only that, but the antibiotics and experimental healing potions were finally working their way through his system to clear out the infection. Dr. Rogers had been shocked when Harry administered the advanced skelegro to Rush Callahan.

Draco had stood by Harry’s side as he explained. “Now, generally skelegro is a potion that sends you through a painful process, but I know Mr. Callahan’s body might not be able to take much more physical pain. So with the help of a certain master I managed to dim the most painful of effects. However, that means the process will be slow. Usually it takes a night for it to work and the bones and skin would regrow, but because of the changes we made it’ll take a good week before he can use his arm. But it should be brand new.”

Bea burst into tears of joys against her husband Ty. Micah physically hugged Draco who grunted, and the other family members did not understand a word that was said.

“I think you’ve just made every surgery and amputation obsolete,” said Dr. Rogers.

“Naturally, why would us wizards cut into each other? That’s just so weird!” Draco’s hoity-toity personality could not be squashed, and Harry loved him all the more for it as he chuckled and slung his arm around Draco.

“Are you another of their lovers?” asked Bea sweetly.

Draco snorted. “No! Eww.”

“Hey!” Harry grumbled as Draco rolled his eyes.

“I have my own. I can’t put up with more than one man at a time!” Bea burst out laughing at this. “Not that we don’t have fun every so often. But not with Harry, that’s creepy.”

“Very creepy,” Harry agreed, still hugging his best friend.

“I’m this git’s best friend,” he said, nudging at Harry who grinned. “So naturally Micah means something to me too.”

“Not to mention they’re technically cousins,” said Teddy proudly.

“I admit I am still curious as to where Damian falls on the scale of relations,” Draco admitted. “But father can’t find any proper obscure hereditary potion that might tell us.”

Harry shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter in the end.”

“No, but I am curious,” said Draco.

“Damian is the lovely redhead vampire?” Bea asked.

Harry nodded. “Yes. He looks a lot like my mother, and we think there’s a relation somewhere in the line. But whatever his name was before he became a vampire has been lost.”

“What about a DNA test?” asked Ty Morgan who seemed to be at a loss on how to enter such a conversation.

“It won’t work because Damian belonging to me means he shares my DNA,” said Harry shrugging again.

“What do you mean belonging?” asked Bea.

“Erm…”

“It’s complicated,” said Micah laughing. “Baby is a rare anomaly.”

Harry scowled. “Micah!” He whined.

“He’s not wrong, Potter. It’s laughable when people think you’re being controlled by vampires when it’s really the other way around,” Draco drawled. “Asher told me that it’s never been done before.”

“You control them?”

“Erm, not like that.” Harry shook his head. “Through a series of unintentional accidents, somehow Damian became my vampire servant. It’s the equivalent of a human servant to a master vampire. Just you know, the other way around.”

“Only you, Potter, would cause the impossible to be accidental.”

Harry scowled. “Go away with you, you bloody ponce!” He shoved Draco who laughed.

“Scarhead.”

“Snob.”

Both of them laughed together as they shook their heads, and seeing Micah smiling after such a hard week meant everything to Harry. Edward and Peter were wrapping things up at the station so that Harry didn’t have to.

Rush Callahan awoke a couple of nights later with no pain or illness, and the rotting smell from the infection had vanished completely. Harry was unsurprised to see Bea and Micah having fallen on top of him on each side. Ty probably would have, but he might have squashed them, and so instead he’d simply held Rush’s hand tightly.

Harry, Edward, Jean-Claude, and Teddy just sat together on the small couch as a family. Teddy in Edward’s lap and Harry happily making furniture out of Jean-Claude. Micah soon re-introduced Harry, and then introduced Edward, Jean-Claude, and Teddy.

It seemed that Rush and his relationships could have caused a small scandal in such a small city, but the department had gotten very used to the idea with Micah and his husbands. At least enough not to give him grief over it. Bea and Ty learned a lot from Micah about how toxic lies were in a relationship. They promised to sit down with the other children at a later date and explain everything to them.

Draco had come up with a business opportunity with his newly re-invented skelegro. First, he had to secure the rights to the actual potion, but considering Draco breathed money it wouldn’t be long before he patented it. It would take some time and a lot of proper testing, but Harry had no doubt that he would make a large fortune out of it. If it had been Harry he’d have just donated it to the cause, but Draco was a businessman through and through.

A family reunion was scheduled for the night Rush was discharged from the hospital. Bea had purposely set it for the evening so that Jean-Claude would be there. He’d been pleasantly surprised when she had accepted him without fail into the family.

Jean-Claude spent the entire night before planning their wardrobes. Micah had joined them and was holding both babies with Teddy snuggled up against him in the middle of the pushed together Queen beds. Damian was resting beside Harry, who had curled up with the redhead who couldn’t seem to stop touching him. Not that Harry minded, Wicked Truth were the same, but they were standing as guards by the door and the open window respectively.

“Toy, I don’t think anyone will care what we wear,” said Edward, watching Jean-Claude go through various pieces. He was lounging on an armchair by the bed. Peter and Ares had taken off together. Seemed Ares didn’t notice when Harry had released him from the Imperius Curse. “So long as no one is walking around naked.” He looked at Harry when he said this.

“Why are you looking at me?” Harry squawked. “Need I remind you that you are the ones who often strip me down?”

“You don’t have to remind us,” said Edward seriously.

“Micah’s the were. He’s the one who’d go naked if we let him.”

“Oh no, I get enough shit from Jerry because of my cock size. I don’t need to hear it from the rest of them,” Micah laughed. “Not to mention Essie might have a heart attack.”

Harry shifted against Damian to look at him. “Oh, Jerry’s not as big as you?”

“Nope. A source of contention between the two of us growing up, I assure you.” He and Teddy would take turns holding the babies. Both were awake and alert.

“I think we should coordinate,” said Jean-Claude finally.

“I wish I could cook and make something homemade for this reunion,” said Harry.

“Maybe we should buy some land for our visits?” Edward offered. “Mountains are exemplary for hunting. I bet Teddy would love to join.”

Teddy beamed. “Really, Dad?”

“You and Peter, and anyone else. We can make a big night of it. Always a plentiful amount of deer and other wild game.”

“That is a brilliant idea, mon Tueur d’Ombre! I bet we could find all sorts of lovely rustic homes around here. It would be a great vacation spot.”

“You’re serious?” asked Micah in surprise.

Harry reached over to take Rigel from Teddy’s obviously tired arms. “Thank you, Parrain, I was starting to get tired. He likes to wiggle a lot.”

“Yes he does. Hi, Star, baby!” Harry cooed, kissing the infant on the cheek and then settling back against Damian to rest him on his chest.

Damian considered the child and stroked his forehead with one finger as he made noises. It was as if the boy was trying to speak to them with as much as he made random noises.

“They are your family and you’ve finally reunited. You must keep contact with them, mon Chaton. We do not need another repeat,” Jean-Clauded lectured gently.

“I plan to,” said Micah. “But honestly, I’m looking forward to going home. I want to go back to our life, and we can’t keep Rafael so busy watching everything when he has hundreds of other duties.”

Harry sat up and rested Rigel on his thighs. He rubbed the child’s belly soothingly to keep him from wiggling too much. Elara, as always, was happy to stay still in her bundle while looking at everyone around her. Harry noted she spent extra time looking at Micah and he noticed her nose twitching a few times, reminding him of Teddy doing the same when younger. Logan explained it was a way to catch all smells near them.

Bea’s house was overflowing with cars in the driveway the next night. Rush had been discharged that day. His arm was wrapped, but it wasn’t slinged to promote proper bone re-growth, which for Muggles was a revolutionary idea.

Bea let out a shrill squeal when Micah and Harry came through first with one baby a piece in a baby carrier.

“Oh my gosh!” Bea gasped.

“Babies!” Fen and Frost squealed from beside Beth.

“Not so loud, their hearing is very sensitive for infants,” Micah warned as they sat them on the couch. Rigel and Elara were both awake, glancing out of their carriers. Both were likely very confused from all the new sounds and smells; especially their wereleopard kitten, Elara.

It was a house full to bursting as their guards spread out to give everyone room. When Rush came through all cleaned up with his chocolate curls ringing around his head, Harry thought he was seeing double for a moment. He and Micah looked a lot alike.

Micah introduced Jean-Claude and Edward to the family who hadn’t been there. Jerry was stunned looking at Jean-Claude and a lot of the ladies had turned a blossom of red. No surprise there.

Edward was playing up his good ol’ fashioned Ted personality. He shook a lot of hands and played the family up with a charm that looked natural, but was more learned than anything. Peter, Harry noticed, was paying close attention to how Edward interacted with the adults. Likely making notes of the persona and how to implement something similar himself.

Rush and Bea were holding one infant apiece. Elara was in Rush’s arms, and Bea had gasped when she saw Rigel and his leopard eyes so much like Micah. “They’re so beautiful, I can pick out bits of all of you,” said Bea breathlessly. “Do his eyes mean Mike’s the main donor?”

“Wonders of magic. All four of us are equal donors for them,” Harry chirped as he sat beside Jerry with Nicky close by. “We had invited Luna, our surrogate, to come with us tonight but her boyfriend insisted on taking her on a romantic date.”

“Is her boyfriend alright with her being your surrogate?” Bea asked, finally looking up from Rigel.

“Very much so.” Micah stated as he came and settled at Harry’s side. “They are very close family friends and Requiem is Jean-Claude’s third in command.”

“Simply amazing.” Bea smiled.

“You’re telling me. I want one of those chess sets.” Rush spoke up as he rubbed Elara’s belly. “It was interesting to watch your boy Teddy play it.”

“We’ll send you one.”

Harry was content to sit back and watch everyone interact and mingle. He had no reason to get involved. Teddy finally thawed out enough to go and play with Hawthorne and the others. He was introduced to Twain who was a bit more like him in regards to intelligence.

Later that night, Jean-Claude was entertaining Bea and a gaggle of ladies while Edward and Micah were nearby. The babies were tucked back in their carriers to sleep. Domino and Dev took them to a quieter room and stood guard over them. Rush asked to talk to Harry alone and so they stepped out of the house into the cool Colorado night.

“I’ve sent word to Van Cleef and his men that duplicating your talents was impossible.”

Amongst all of the issues and things that had happened, Harry had forgotten about Van Cleef. “Good, but I doubt that’ll stop them.”

“You know them?” Rush turned to Harry in surprise.

“Not much,” Harry admitted. “But I know enough.”

Rush nodded. “Most don’t. But, you are married to Ted Forrester.”

Harry smiled. “Yes.”

“So is my son.”

“You and he are a lot alike,” Harry commented.

“You think so?”

“Uh huh, what he does for the Coalition is no different to what you’ve done. Getting the precincts and stations together, making sure everyone knows what the others are doing and chasing at any given time. Regular updates and communication. For a long time the preternatural had none of that. People like Chimera evolved and spread out, terrorizing them, and they had no lifeline to grasp hold of. Micah is a natural leader.”

“He always was. He always did run toward causes with an intensity that drove Bea to near madness. He ended up in trouble all the time, but always on someone else’s behalf,” said Rush. “It was hard when he ran away from us. That’s what made it so confusing at first.”

“Everyone has a reason for the things they do. But I think Micah has finally come back to himself. He’s stopped running away. It took a long time for him to heal. Not just his body, but in his mind.”

“And you? Are you healed?” Rush asked.

“More or less. But I didn’t grow up with a good family like Micah,” he told Rush. “I had nothing to lose growing up.”

“But now you do.”

“And that’s why I fight,” and then Harry considered it. “Also it's in my blood. If I don’t run toward trouble it’ll come toward me.”

“Sounds familiar. You have a cops attitude, though you look no more than seventeen.” Harry laughed. “I take it that’s the connection between you and Jean-Claude?”

Harry shook his head. “No, sir, it’s not. I was like this before him. I died when I was seventeen,” he told him honestly. “My human enemy killed me, and ever since then I haven’t aged.”

“I wonder what the universe has planned for you, Harry Potter-Black? I wonder what it has planned for my son…”

“Who knows? The universe is a right bastard.”

Rush burst out laughing and he clasped a hand to Harry’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

“For?”

“Bringing my son home. For saving our lives.”

Harry could have denied it and made some comment about it being a group effort. He hated taking credit for things like this, but instead he just nodded, accepting it for what it was. That was when Micah poked his head out the door.

“Teddy and Dev are getting into the cheesecake. If you want any you better come get it.”

Harry huffed. “It’s not even good cheesecake. It’s bloody store bought!”

“I don’t think they care, Baby. Everything okay out here?” he asked looking between them.

Rush smiled. “It’s great.” He pulled his son into a hug and Harry’s heart warmed.

“Just telling your dad some very embarrassing stories,” he said grinning, causing Micah to pull back and squawk.

“Baby! You wouldn’t?” he gasped in horror. His beautiful leopard eyes on display. So like Rigel. Perfection. He was a heart that they all needed. Now that he was mended, he couldn’t look more lovely.

Harry smiled smugly as he stepped up and kissed the man. “Oh yeah, it’s your turn, Husband, to be teased for the rest of your life. Imagine what I could tell Bea?” He skipped off back in leaving Micah to squawk and race after him with Rush Callahan laughing richly.

Life was good and so were they.