“I’ll be leaving now, Mr. Ross!” the demon taunted. “Time to check on Miss Freemark. Down in the basement, isn’t she? Don’t bother getting up to show me the way. I’ll find it on my own. Get on with the business of dying, why don’t you?”
He was almost to the darkened hallway when he turned back one last time. “It was all for nothing, Mr. Ross! All of it! You’ve lost everything!”
Then he wheeled away and was gone.
-=O=-***-=O=-
In the hushed aftermath of the ur’droch’s destruction, Nest knelt before Harper and Little John and touched their faces gently. “It’s all right,” she told them. “Everything is all right.” Wraith prowled through the scattered remains of the demon, big head lowered as he sniffed at the ashes. Little John watched him intently. Overhead, the battle continued, violent and unabated.
“Come here, peanut,” Nest urged Harper, and when the little girl did, she took her in her arms and held her, cooing softly. “It’s all right, it’s all right.”
Little John looked at them, eyes suspicious and uncertain. Nest held out her hand to him, but he refused to come. She gestured with her fingers. He stayed where he was.
Gently, she eased Harper away from her, folding the little girl down against her thigh, freeing both arms. “Little John,” Nest said softly. “It’s all right.”
The boy stared at her with such longing that it was all she could do to keep from bursting into tears. His need was naked and compelling, but he could not seem to free himself from the indecision or doubt or whatever it was that kept him at bay. She held his gaze, her arms outstretched, patiently waiting him out. She noticed for the first time how much the color of his hair and skin were like her own. She was surprised at how similar their features were. Odd, she thought. She had not remembered that his eyes, like hers, were green. They had always seemed so blue…
In fact, she amended suddenly, they had been blue.
“Oh, my God!” she whispered.
He was changing right in front of her, just a little, barely enough to tell that anything was happening. It was his face that was transforming now, beginning to mirror her own in small, almost negligible ways—just enough that she could not fail to see what he was doing, what he was trying to make happen.
Mama he had called her. Mama.
“Do you want me to be your mother, little boy?” she asked him quietly. “Is that what you want? I want that, too. I want to be your mother more than anything. You and me and Harper. We can be a family, can’t we?”
“Luv ‘ou, Neth,” Harper murmured without looking up, keeping her face lowered against Nest’s thigh.
“Come here, Little John,” Nest urged again. “Come let me hold you, sweetie.”
The gypsy morph glanced over at Wraith. The big ghost wolf lifted his head immediately and stared back. After a moment, he took a step toward the morph, and Little John instantly reached for Nest, cringing. Nest took him into her arms at once, pulling him against her, stroking his hair.
“It’s all right, Little John,” she told him. “He won’t hurt you. He isn’t coming over here. He’s staying right where he is.”
She glared in warning at Wraith, as if the look alone could convey what she wanted. The ghost wolf merely stared back at her, eyes bright and fierce, revealing nothing of his thoughts. When he turned away again, it was almost as an afterthought.
“Little boy,” she cooed to the gypsy morph. “Tell me what you want. Please, little boy.”
His head lifted, and he glanced over to make certain that Wraith was not trying to approach.
“He’s not coming back to me, not like he was, not inside me. He doesn’t belong there. He doesn’t even want to be there. It was my fault, Little John. I made him be there. But he won’t come back again. I won’t let him. It’s all right now. It’s only you and me.”
It had gone quiet upstairs, but she could smell smoke and feel the heat of flames. The house was on fire, and she was out of time. If she didn’t break through to him now, she never would. She had to take him out of there, but she didn’t want to interrupt what was happening. She was as close to him as she would ever be. She could feel that he was ready to reveal himself to her. Something crashed overhead, and she wondered suddenly what she would find waiting for her when she finally took the children back up.