Corresponding Marks

Thanks again for all the readership and comments! This story is so much fun to write, and those of you who comment are a large part of why! And I’m serious, if as the story goes along, you think of something you’d like to see happen, let me know!

Thank you BonnyBlondeLass! And sorry about the cliffhangers…actually, no, I’m not sorry!lol You have had some good ones going yourself, too! A little suspense goes a long way in your Pirates of the Caribbean story “Adrift” and I’m really glad that you’re enjoying this story! That you continue to read leaves me very encouraged and touched, as I know this is not a fandom you are/were particularly into! Thanks for the support!

Thank you Ero Sennin! I’m also so excited to that you have continued reading too! You tell an awesome story yourself, and you’ve got two really great ones with your Johnny Depp story ”Finding Love In Unexpected Places” and also your new Pirates of the Caribbean story ”Wonderlust King”! And your about right, “kibitz” is a Yiddish term for giving unwanted advice or making meddling comments; can’t you see Red doing that?lol And yes, that was Red’s mother and father in Larena’s dream—pulled that from the actual graphic novel “Hellboy” and thought it would be cool to work it in.

Thank you The Book! You’re who really kicked me in the a$$ and made me stop feeling sorry for myself and continue writing this story! Thanks for sticking with it and for being patient! If there’s ever anything you do think of that would be cool to see in this story, don’t hesitate to say so!

Thank you Pysch B. Mused! Your Hellboy story ”Finding Home” gives me inspiration for this story whenever I need it! I always feel like I’m in the movie when I read your story! Thank you also for sticking with me from the beginning, and I’m starting to get jealous of me too when you make me wait for your story to update!lol Just what are they going to do about that “biting” issue? Thanks again!

Chapter 8
Facing Fears

“Right now our biggest tactical problem is the lack of any type of airstrip near Tarmagant Island,” Director Manning was studying the map projected onto the wall pensively. Agents filled the room, all of them arguing about what the best course of action was, but Manning was as oblivious to their criticalness and suggestions as was Red, but for different reasons. “If we land here,” Manning’s finger touched an area of Scotland’s mainland. “Then it would be about a day’s sail to Tarmagant…admittedly over rough seas…and likely by the time we got to Tarmagant, those six little red beasts will have found a way, or done something, to blow us all to Kingdom Come!”

Six little what? Red flinched and in doing so stunned everyone in the conference room to silence as the large table flipped upside down. For a second he was as startled as everyone else, then became aware of the trembling in both his jumpy hands…oh…had his mind and heart not been racing, he might have set the table back up and apologized for overturning it, but instead he simply stood up, walking over it and began to pace back and forth. He’d known to expect something like this, but he’d been more fearful of it than prepared for it. Oddly enough, he hadn’t thought about the added emotional and mental weight of Larena’s concern and how much he owed it to her to bring the babies back, safe and sound. He was their father and he was her…her…well that needed to be established…but he was supposed to provide for and protect his family, damn it! Where were his children? The portal being so suddenly active on Tarmagant did make it the most logical place to search, and Red wanted to, no, he needed to find his children before anyone else did. “I’ll make better time by myself, Manning. This is my crisis.”

“Oh, is it?” Manning asked, the sincere inflection in his voice not matching the scowl on his face. “Let me see,” he pursed his lips and paused in facetious thought. “We let you handle this, on your own, just you making all the calls…this very situation that we wouldn’t be dealing with in the first place if you’d been responsible and fore-thinking enough, to abstain, or at the very least, cover the monkey?” He saw Hellboy’s yellow eyes narrow, but Manning didn’t stop. “And now your best judgment includes allowing you to go after the little red rugrats, by yourself, with no one to stop you when you become overwhelmed with fatherly instinct and decide to protect them and their mission at all costs?” Manning lifted his gaze from Red and looked around at everyone else in the room. “I don’t know. Does that sound like a good idea to anyone else present?”

Manning was poised to continue on in a condescending manner, every word burning in Red’s blood. Now was no time for the Director to be talking like he was, the man clearly wasn’t bright enough to understand the concept of fatherhood and what it did to Red, or to any man. His children were missing, pieces of the human hybrid soul he’d been given were scattered somewhere in the universe…gone…not with him and their mother…vulnerable…it was tearing away at not only him, but the woman he loved, and Red knew he was the only being on the planet who could make any of this better. Manning didn’t understand that, or didn’t care, but he was about to learn, because Red arched his broad, strong back, stuck out his big shoulders and balled his stone hand up into a fist, then took a giant, aggressive step towards the director, tail switching, but a second before he raised his granite fist, a new found demonic sense flared inside him. Larena, she was near.

“You ain’t supposed to be moving around!” Red said the words before he even turned around, and before she’d even opened the glass door of the conference room to come in. His voice was much more gruff and forceful than he ever intended it to be when talking to her, but it couldn’t be helped with everything that was bearing down upon him in the conference room, and in the world.

Larena stopped short in the doorway, her legs suddenly refusing to move any further forward, but not because she was afraid of Red. “I know.” It would be better just to agree and not argue. After all, she did know that, Abe had given her a very detailed explanation of how she’d nearly bled to death and why she had to stay in bed during her recovery. And she knew Red wouldn’t be happy that she hadn’t stayed in bed. The closer she got to the conference room, the more she felt like his anger and fear were in her head, ricocheting off of every structure of her mind. He was mad, he was so mad.

“Lar,” Red shook his head and sighed, but it came out more as a growl. There was such a storm raging inside him that he didn’t notice she’d gone from the sick bay back to his room to change into a pair of black leggings, boots and the short leather trench coat she’d loved so much she’d kept it hidden in her cell at Saint Rita’s rather than give it up in her vow of poverty. Likewise, Red hadn’t noticed the way all the men in the room bent their heads and craned their necks around his large frame to look at her, their eyes transfixed by every curve of her legs and body, studying her blue eyes and pretty face. He hadn’t seen the way Clay’s eyebrows raised appreciatively as he elbowed Meyers, and Red hadn’t seen how Meyers didn’t react, but starred straight ahead at the wall, knowing better than to try for some lewd eyeful no matter how attractive Larena was. All Red saw was Larena’s pale skin, the way she wavered a bit on her feet and how deliberate each of her movements were, her body still worn and weak and fragile. She should have been in bed. “Please, I got enough to deal with right now, don’t add to it. Go back and lay down!”

“That is advisable!” Seconded Abe, about to get to his feet and walk Larena back to sick bay, but she gave him a pleading look, her thoughts coming through to him clearly. She just wanted the chance to speak and be heard. Abe settled again, but remained at the ready to spring into action should it be needed.

“Excuse me…Miss,” Manning snipped, moving to lean on the table top for added smug effect, but forgot that Hellboy had flipped it over, and he nearly crumpled to the ground, stumbling forward comically until he caught himself again, but went on speaking as though it never happened. “This is a ‘closed’ meeting, agents only, and you are not an agent!”

Larena had yet to be introduced to Director Manning, but based on Red’s descriptions and expressed distaste for the man she knew that had to be him. Once again, there was no sense in arguing. “I know, I’m sorry—“

“No you’re not!” Red’s voice boomed, but as he spoke he spun around from her to face Manning. “You ain’t got any authority over her, Manning!” Red crossed his well muscled arms over his broad red chest and shielded Larena with his body. “Or me…that you got it what it takes to back up, anyway!”

Larena’s head began to spin, but it had nothing to do with blood loss. She and Red had just had six children, and she may have been watching him on the verge of being fired. “Red, please,” she managed one step forward before her feet felt nailed to the floor and she couldn’t move again. She had to lean forward and reach out to grab Red’s massive shoulder, distracting him away from Director Manning. Her eyes caught sight of the map of Scotland projected onto the wall, several red arrows, with long tails, pointing towards Tarmagant Island from various points on the mainland. Is that where they were going? Scotland? No, that didn’t feel right. Now she really wanted to be heard. “Just listen, please?”

Red turned to face her again, ignoring Manning’s sneer. He grabbed Larena by her arms, holding a bit too tightly in his abounding concern and fury, but easing up as soon as he felt her tense with the pressure he exerted, but he didn’t let go. “Why are you even here? You need to be resting! I already lost my boys; don’t make me lose you too! Just…let me do this, please?”

Larena quivered and a tear appeared at the corner of her eye; she’d cried so long now over the babies that any mention of them made her well up, and now she’d upset Red and made him worry about her again. But she couldn’t lie in that hospital bed any longer and leave this all up to him; it was killing her. She blinked back her tears and drew in a shuddering breath, raising one hand to stroke Red’s face, the other smoothed down the collar of his leather duster, eventually pressing over his heart. “They’re my children too, Red.” Her voice nearly broke as she suppressed the tears. “Please don’t shut me out of this.”

Red’s head fell forward and he sighed in shame, realizing he’d been thinking of himself and his own grief only, and forgot that he was not alone in this. Would he ever be any good at having a woman in his life, and children too? He looked at Larena again, at the defiance on her face as she fought off the sobs that threatened to overtake her. She was being so brave, trying so hard not to add to the turmoil inside him. She was something to be keeping it together like that just to spare him, but she shouldn’t have to be worried about him worrying. There was likely plenty to come for her to worry about. He pulled her against him, kissing the top of her head, the fingers of his left hand disappearing in her red hair as he pressed her closer. “Why you gotta come in here making sense?” He sighed, laying his cheek to the top of her head, but quickly realizing that every agent he worked with in the field and played poker with, worked out with and hung out with on the off time was looking right at him and likely thinking something snarky about the big, red demon’s softer side. He straightened again, pulling Larena into his hip with his hand on her back and walked out into the privacy of the corridor with her.

* * * * * *

He was still against taking her along to Tarmagant; there was still so much she didn’t know, and it encompassed more than just the destiny of their children. If she knew what he did, if she knew what he faced, if she knew what existed in this world, would she be able to accept it and deal with it? And if she could, would she be able to handle loving someone who faced down dangers like those on a regular basis? What if she couldn’t? And their children, the prophecy…not even Red knew what type of ending this story would have yet. What if he had to…that was, what if there was no other way to keep the world intact, and he was forced to…no, he wouldn’t think that, he couldn’t think that, he’d sooner die himself before harming his children. But still, what if…Larena, it would kill her. He couldn’t put her through that, and he couldn’t lose her to it either. “Look, I know you understand the basics of what I do, babe. But there’s a lot of stuff you don’t wanna see, and I don’t want any of it to hurt you or make you afraid.”

“But Red,” he was right, she didn’t quite understand what it was he did, or what types of things he encountered, or how hazardous they were, but Larena didn’t see that as a reason to be left behind. Both her hands tangled in the lapels of his duster as if she were hanging onto him incase he pulled away. He’d always looked so handsome this way, ready for battle, his yellow eyes gleaming, his sideburns framing his rugged face, the expanse of red muscle peeking through the open long coat, the black leather pants with a half moon of navel arcing tantalizingly over the waistband, the Samaritan hanging from his hip and a rosary dangling delicately from his huge hand. He’d been too much to take in the first time she’d seen him, unable to place just what he was as he defied every category that had flipped through her brain at lightning speed. But she couldn’t look away from him either; she never could, no matter how different or unexpected some of his features may have been. A warm and secure feeling of nostalgia crept into her, making Larena able to smile a bit, and her smile only intensified as her stare fell at his huge black boots. “You have to let me see these things.” She stepped closer to him, glancing up at his eyes with a flick of her long lashes then looked down at his boots again, his stare following hers this time, both of them looking down at his toes. “I may not be as afraid as you think.”

Maybe? She’d proven him wrong before. That warm summer night they’d snuck from her cell out to the pond on the grounds of Saint Rita’s hadn’t put her off, after all. Red had never been affected much by temperatures, he was always warm and was used to it, but when Larena had suggested it was far too hot to remain within her cramped cell, and proposed a walk in the garden, Red had agreed. He knew she wouldn’t bother with changing into her habit, and he could see her so much better in the moonlight outside, and there was so much to look at when she was clad only in her sleeveless cotton nightgown that stopped at her calves…not that he should have been looking in the first place, of course…she was a nun…and a witch.

And so they’d walked, talking casually about the safest of things, each of them carefully ignoring what by then simmered under the guise of being just friends. Red’s left arm at some point snuck around her trim waist, pulling her close enough to him as they strolled that he could feel where the fabric of her nightgown ended and the curves of her body began. He was mapping a concocted image of her intimate form in his mind that burned intensely, when he’d felt Larena’s long red hair brush the red skin of his arm, then felt her head calmly lean against him. He’d always been so ready for her to reject him, expected it each time he saw her, but tonight he finally felt relaxed enough to trust that she trusted him, and that she saw something in him that went beyond what he was. The feeling flourished so stalwartly that he began to wish that Larena knew what desires he concealed in his touch, and that she was suppressing the exact same fire inside her. Yet when she suddenly stopped walking and looked up at him, he was so terrified that she did realize what he was doing and what he was feeling. But he shortly recognized that she was smiling; whatever she had discovered, it wasn’t something she found repulsive.

“The pond!” Larena’s smile grew as she reached down to gather the skirt of her nightgown a bit higher around her legs. “Come on, we can wade in up to our knees and cool off!”

She ran to the water’s edge, splashing in with her bare feet, giving him quite a carefree show of her shapely legs now that the hem of her gown was above her knee. Red immediately followed her to the water’s edge, his body moving without his mind willing it to, until he remembered his boots…damn! Water and leather didn’t match well, and he’d already gone through three pairs of boots this month alone; he wasn’t an easy size to fit, and Manning would be all over him if he ruined another specially made custom pair. Anyone else would have been able to just go barefoot, but…

When she didn’t hear him behind her, Larena turned, standing still and looking confused. “Aren’t you coming?” She asked, her smile a bit fainter, looking as though she thought she may have somehow offended him and what he was by suggesting getting into the water.

He did want to; whenever he wasn’t close to her all he thought about was being close to her, and standing so near to her and yet still so far away was torture. But he was far away, so very far away from what she was. “Na,” Red steeled himself, acted bored and took a seat on the ground, tucking his feet beneath him and wishing he could make them go away completely. “You go ahead.”

Larena stood looking back at him, puzzled but her mind working away at what he was hiding. “Don’t tell me you can’t swim!” She half laughed, slowly making her way back over to him.

“I can swim!” Red nearly snorted, not wanting her to think of him as having any such inability or inadequacy, but he should have just said that was it, it could have put an end to the discussion after all.

“So?” She’d reached the shore now, water dripping down her legs, Red’s eyes watching every drop and wishing he could be one of them, clinging so closely to her body. “What’s wrong then? Do you not like water? Does it…do something to you?”

“When did I turn into the ‘Wicked Witch’ from Oz?” It was difficult to laugh as he said it, but he’d somehow managed. She’d lay her head against his arm tonight, made him actually hope that she felt something for him, but there it was, her recognition that they were not the same thing, that he wasn’t human, not the way she was; the boots, they were definitely staying on!

“Red,” Larena was shaking her head as she sat down next to him, what had started out as curiosity now turning to worry on her face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He wished she’d just drop it, and he tried to think of something to change the subject to as he unconsciously tucked his feet more beneath him. Stupid hot summer night…stupid pond…stupid leather boots…

“Right,” Larena rolled her eyes sarcastically. “A minute ago I thought you were going to climb into my nightgown with me, and now you’re being all shy,” she laughed a bit as she finished her sentence, but Red knew it was because she was nervous, maybe realizing too late that she’d introduced a rather provocative image where she had meant to say something silly. She stammered a bit as she composed herself again, Red aiding her in her quest by not acknowledging the whole nightgown comment…but oooh, that was something to think about! Larena took a deep breath, finally over it and herself. “Just tell me, what’s wrong?”

He didn’t want to talk about it; it wasn’t going to end well. He didn’t even want to look at her, but he did, and then was sorry he did. Her brow was creased, her eyes narrowed with the weight of her concern, and one of her hands had actually moved to her chest, covering her heart as though some kind of bad news had just befallen her. Red began to realize that if he didn’t tell her something, she’d assume she’d done something wrong and blame herself, and he couldn’t allow that to happen. “It’s…” well, what was it? What could he make up, if anything? “I can’t take my boots off.”

Larena looked at him a bit more confused, but her features soon relaxed and she smiled sweetly again. “Because of your hand?” She asked, indicating the mass of granite that hung from his right arm.

Smooth move, Ex-Lax! Now she thought of him as some helpless and dexterity lacking toddler that couldn’t tie his shoes! “No, not like that, that’s not it. I just can’t…take them off.”

“Are they like…” Larena cocked her head and looked at him strangely. “Stuck to you?”

“What?” Even Red was perplexed now as to what she could mean or how she could think he was somehow melded to his footwear, and his tone began to indicate how absurd she’d sounded.

“Well, if you weren’t being so cryptic I wouldn’t have to make such oddball guesses.” Larena sighed, looking off across the pond for a moment, saying nothing. She was quiet for a while, just staring off, and just when Red began to think that the discussion was over, she turned back to him, cocking her head again and eyeing him with a sly and satisfied smile. “You don’t want me to see your feet!”

Damn! Double damn! He pushed the shock of being discovered from his mind and laughed, more uneasily than convincingly. “Oh, you’re way off, sister!”

“Really?” Red expected her to begin presenting all the evidence he’d given her to the contrary, was readying himself to mount his defense, but she surprised him when she laid a gentle hand on his left arm and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t like my feet either.” She said and grew a bit fidgety as she did so.

Now she was just trying to depreciate herself to make him feel better. “What could possibly be wrong with your feet? You’re beautiful!”

A sudden cockeyed smile crossed her face, she tried to hide it, but Red caught it, along with the slight blush that crept into her skin, what was going on with her? Beautiful…oops…too much? He was on the verge of apologizing for saying anything that made her uncomfortable, but Larena spoke first. “Thank you,” she almost gasped, then had to clear her throat a bit. “But, my toes aren’t.”

That was impossible, she was beautiful from head to toes, literally—he’d know. “What’s wrong with ‘em?” Before he knew it his curiosity had gotten the better of him and he’d reached down and grabbed her ankle, making her knee bend and took her foot towards him.

“Red!” Larena shrieked, whether because she truly was that insecure about her feet or because she was startled by how he’d just grabbed her ankle, he wasn’t sure. But she was laughing soon and only mildly fighting him as he examined her foot, laughing some himself now. “It’s my second toe,” she said, her leg trembling excitedly a bit when his right hand came to gently support her calf. “It’s the longest toe on my foot, and it looks kinda…kinda not so much like a toe…”

Red felt his features contort as he looked at the digit she’d mentioned. Indeed, it was the longest, a good quarter of an inch longer than her big toe, like it perhaps was aspiring to be a finger. “Yeah,” he agreed, for a moment forgetting that she may have some genuine embarrassment attached to the oddity. “That looks like…like…well, if we cut it off and then threw it in the corner somewhere, whoever found it would pick it up and say, ‘what the hell is this?’!” He laughed.

At that Larena kicked and yanked, trying to get her foot back from his grasp. “Oh, thanks! That makes me feel so much better!” She tried to sound mad, but she laughed, and Red held tighter just to spite her, a meager wrestling match ensuing that had them both laughing, until Larena leaned back and stretched her arms out towards his feet and he felt his boot being tugged on fiercely. “I showed you mine,” she laughed, gripping the heel and toe of his boot harder as Red fought to pull away. “Now show me yours!”

“Don’t!” He warned, his voice turning serious, but not soon enough. His boot popped off, his eyes immediately slammed closed, not wanting to see the ensuing look of revulsion on Larena’s face as she stared down at the terrible thing he’d kept hidden from her. He couldn’t plug his ears though, whatever horrific scream she let out, he’d hear it for sure…for the rest of his life.

“Oh!” Her breath hitched, there was surprise in her voice, she had been caught off guard by what she saw, but she wasn’t screaming. She wasn’t even pulling away from him. She was silent for a few seconds, taking it all in…yeah, cuz she was trying to decide if she should be or was horrified…but if she was, she was sure hiding it well. If anything, dare he think it, it all seemed to be making logical sense to her. And next he was astounded to feel her steady fingertip gently trace the shape of first one half of his broad cloven hoof, and then the other. She touched the tragedy that was his foot? Really? Red let go of her ankle and she took the opportunity to move further down his leg, scrutinizing his foot more and more. She drew her finger down the cleft between his two hoofed toes and down what would have been the sole of his foot, ending at the part he’d learned to walk on as heel, discovering it was actually a joint there and not solid bone. He saw her eyes crease as if she felt some sort of pain, and finally she looked up at his face again, questions in her eyes. “How do you…I mean, doesn’t it hurt you to walk like that?”

Was he hearing her right? Was this really even happening the way it was happening? Or had he merely wanted it to be like this so very badly he was imagining it all, and right now Larena was actually screaming her head off and running as far away from him as was possible? Red shook his head and blinked once or twice, peering down at her again just to be sure it wasn’t the latter. Take two the same as take one…well, why panic if she wasn’t? “I only walk like that when I have shoes on.”

Larena nodded, still looking at his foot. “Then,” she paused a moment, starting to smile, Red recognizing that her mind was working, figuring stuff out again. “You’re actually taller than I always thought you were?”

“Yeah,” Red felt himself smiling and nearly forgot the nightmare he’d been so sure this moment would become. Larena actually seemed impressed with him, had even expressed concern that he was putting himself in jeopardy folding his lower leg up and cramming it into shoes. He began to feel badly that he’d said what he’d said about her toe.

“So, how tall are you really?” Her smile broadened, she was leaning closer to him now, her hand stroking up his leg and he wondered if she realized she was doing it, hoping she’d continue doing it. Big guys musta turned her on…good, he had that. Both of them were forgetting the awkwardness that had hung over this issue only a minute or two ago.

Red kicked off his other boot without hesitation, then reached down and took both of Larena’s hands, lifting her to her feet as he got to his, letting the folded “heel” joint straighten as it did naturally, the wide base of his hooves taking his weight entirely and comfortably, and he looked down at her from his full height. “About seven feet,” he said confidently, proudly jutting out his broad chest for added effect.

She was smiling up at him. No, that was more than just a garden variety smile…she was giving him the eye! And then she stepped even closer and laid her head against him again, this time against the bottom of his chest, as he was now a full twenty-two inches taller than she was. He’d never forget how soft her hair felt against his skin, or the way she slowly turned her head and pressed her cheek just below his sternum. “Cool!” She murmured through her smile then wrapped her arms around him, her hands pressing against the thick muscles of his back, conveying how much she wished to know his body. For the very first time, she hugged him; her sigh conveying how no amount of physical closeness would ever match how close to him she felt when he chose to let her in.

* * * * * *

Manning wasn’t at all happy that she was here, and playing such a major part in this briefing to boot, but as Abe and Professor Bruttenholm coached Larena with her unrefined psychic abilities, Red’s face eased from tense worry into a smirk. They’d need her to guide them, but Red still wasn’t all for taking Larena along on this mission, but Manning was suffering far worse than he was over it, and that felt good! The professor had overruled Manning on investigating Larena’s intuitive claim that Tarmagant was the wrong place to be heading, even though she could only offer the odd dream she’d had as the reason why she felt so strongly about it, yet could propose no suggestion of what the right direction to head in was. But when Red saw the wry smile spread over his father’s features, he knew that the old man knew the answer had come to Larena, even if she didn’t know it herself.

“Think back to the vision you had, Larena,” Abe directed in his dulcet tone, holding both of Larena’s hands and trying to transfer enough of his own intuitive energies into her so that she may sustain the images appearing to her. She sat in a chair across from him with her eyes shut, struggling a bit, but clearly learning how to gain access to what she wanted to know. “Let it come to you, where are you?”

“I,” this was not the type of phenomena she was familiar with; the ghosts were always very forthright in telling her what they wanted or needed or expected. But trying to gleam information from a lucid dream was like interpreting a segment of a play or movie that had no beginning or ending. She could see it again though, the girl with dark brown hair chanting over the trough of black, bubbling water, something about to make its dark emergence. “I’m getting a name…Catherine…Catherine Tanner-Tremaine.”

At that Red’s head jerked up and he looked at his father, both their expressions suddenly grim and startled. “Pop, isn’t that my—“

Professor Bruttenholm raised his hand, quieting his son and was soon to regain his calm, kind visage. “Very good, my dear.” He smiled, patting Larena’s hand and signaling her that it was alright to come out of it now, for he could see how tiring it was for her to delve so deeply into a void that was still so new to her. He looked up at the agents sitting around the table, that had once again been righted, all of them eagerly awaiting a final word on what this all meant. “The portal may be open on Tarmagant Island, but East Bromwich, England, most likely Bromwich Church, is where this search will begin!”

Larena slumped forward a bit as she drew a deep breath, Abe catching her by the shoulder and Red soon moving beside her. “This all obviously means something to you, doesn’t it?” She asked as Red sat her up straight again.

“Yeah,” he glanced at his father again, but the old man was perfectly calm once more, standing and moving towards the door, no doubt on his way to the library for some last minute research. Catherine Tanner-Tremaine? Bromwich Church? Oh, yeah…he wouldn’t be here without either of them! “It does.”

“It’s bad isn’t it?” She raised her head, looking to Red then to Abe, hoping for a negative answer from both of them. “I mean, spirits, ghosts, souls that have crossed over are what seek me out and tell me things…what if this information somehow came to me from the children…” her lip began to quiver and tears were appearing in her eyes again as she reached for Red. “Then, our babies are—“

“No!” Red surprised himself by how adamant his voice was; he was even pointing a granite finger at her. “They’re not, forget about that!”

Abe surprised them both when he nodded. “I agree,” he said, looking at Larena and Red. “It’s all coming together now, Larena. When you were bleeding, when you became unconscious, that was the children drawing energy from you, so that they could be protected and have the strength to make this…journey they are on.”

Maybe she only believed Abe because it was better than not believing him—but in the short time that Larena had known him, he hadn’t proven himself to the type to lie just to make her feel better about something. He was far more accomplished than she ever imagined herself to be when it came to making functional use of intuitive gifts; if this was Abe’s premonition, she should trust it. A huge weight felt lifted off of her shoulders and with an enlightened sigh, she sat up straight under her own power. “They’re safe, then?” She half smiled, taking Red’s hand and holding it tightly.

Abe’s mouth rounded into as much of a smile as it could. “With the father and mother they have to draw strength from, I would be quite astounded if they weren’t so.”

The relieved sighs of Larena and Red echoed in unison as they drew close, forehead to filed horns, but the moment was short lived, for Clay was soon standing over them, clearing his throat and obviously not sure how to politely interrupt a moment such as the one he was interrupting.

“Hey, uh, HB…and…” he looked at Larena, trying to find something appropriate to address her as, but nothing came to mind. “Miss…Ms…”

“What is it, Clay?” Red finally said, but he looked at Larena instead of at Clay. Is that what she had to look forward to around here? Everyone knowing who she was with and how, but people forever stammering about with ‘Miss’ or ‘Ms.’ or being tagged with something like the demon’s girl? Okay, so them as a couple was perhaps different…and maybe even a little weird by some standards…but would anyone ever learn to just call her by her name?

“We’ll be rolling out of here in about an hour or two, got some extra time now that Tarmagant isn’t our target. You got anything to do last minute, now’s the time.” Clay said, giving Red’s broad shoulder a pat, and then turned to walk away.

Red nodded, anxious to get to East Bromwich and regretting that they would have so much time to kill before they left. He looked up at Larena, who smiled anxiously back at him, but nodded her head, letting him know she was okay, that she could deal with it all. Red brushed her hair behind her ear, his eyes meeting hers, feeling that same connection with her he’d never felt with anyone else, she was amazing. Hmm…two free hours? “Hey, Clay!” He called to the burly agent over his shoulder; his yellow eyes still staring into the blue of Larena’s eyes…the world once again turning green.

“Yeah?” Clay looked up from a clipboard, hoping Red wasn’t suddenly remembering that he’d been among those checking out Larena when she’d come into the conference room. He didn’t want to end up in the doghouse Meyer’s was in.

The fingers of Red’s left hand stroked lightly over Larena’s palm. “You feelin’ okay?” He asked her, still worried about the lack of bed rest she was getting. She nodded, knowing he was up to something and trying to discern what, giving him a look like she knew whatever it was, they probably shouldn’t be doing it. Red only laughed then turned towards Clay. “We’re sneaking out. Kinda need you to come with.”