Chapter 29

Following Chase upstairs, my still frayed mind begins churning out numerous reasons for why Richard and Jasmine would want to see the both of us. Each scenario getting more upsetting than the last. I have only known the two of them for a short few months and haven't even met their cubs. Yet I find myself dreading what I'm rapidly convincing myself will be bad news.

As we enter the second floor hallway we hear a loud wailing cry that quickly tapers off before picking up again. At first both Chase and I stiffen as our fur stands on end, but then I realize that the sound was much too high pitched to be either of the new parents. At least one of the cubs is ok.

Getting closer to Richard and Jasmine's room Katrina steps out carrying an armload of soiled towels. Seeing the two of us she lets out a sigh before grinning, “As you can hear the babies are doing fine. Now if you will excuse me I have even more laundry to do."

Letting her pass by Chase moves to open the door as he says, “Well let's go meet our newest pack mates."

When the door swings open I catch sight of Richard sitting on the side of the bed holding a squirming bundle of blankets which is the source of the wailing. Laying beside him Jasmine is holding another bundle that is considerably quieter. As we move into the room the new parents look up at us and smile. 

Richard waves us over saying, “Chase, Ebony, we wanted you to be the first to meet the newest members of our pack."

He shifts the fighting bundle in his arm showing a small cub with fur white as snow just like its mother's. At the same time Jasmine shifts her own bundle to show a tiny face that looks just like its father's. 

Smiling Richard says, “We would like you to meet Rick and Silver. Our twin boys."

As all the bad thoughts that had been swarming through my mind vanish at seeing the two healthy cubs I hear Chase let out a small cooing sound as he reaches a paw out towards the yelling Silver, “My he is a strong one. Listen to those lungs."

I let out a grunt responding, “Oh I will be listening to it a lot. I'm just down the hall, remember?"

 In a tired voice Jasmine says, “Don't complain too much, or we might change our mind about making you godfathers to our young cubs."

Her words cause my ears to stand up as my eyes go wide, “What did you say?"

She smiles up at Richard who lets out a small laugh, “We have decided we want the two of you to be the godfathers of our cubs, or more precisely we would like Chase to be Rick's godfather and you Eb to be Silver's."

With his explanation my mind freezes up unable to form a coherent thought. Then Chase says what I was unable to get out, “Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Jasmine smiles and says, “Why wouldn't it be, Chase? We already trust you with our lives, as our Alpha, why wouldn't we also trust you with the lives of our cubs?"

His mouth opens and closes a few times before he finally says, “But I don't know anything about kids…."

Any objections he was about to try and make are cut short as Jasmine moves to offer little Rick to him saying, “None of us really do. We will all just have to learn together."

Slowly and hesitantly he takes the small bundle from her arms and cradles it in his left arm while using his right to wag a single finger in front of Rick's nose. Turning my gaze toward Richard, I finally manage to find the words, “I get why you would ask Chase to be a godfather… but why on earth ask me? I mean, I'm about as far from being a god-anything as you can get."

Richard gives me a smirk as he adjusts the complaining Silver in his arms, “Because we know you Ebony, despite your heritage we know you are a good person. We also know that should something ever happen to us, and we were…" 

He pauses a moment to swallow unable to finish the thought, “If we were not around, that you would be able to protect our boys and make sure they were safe. We trust you Ebony, and with all you have taught the rest of us in the short time you have been here, we know our boys would learn a great deal from you in return. What do you say? Will you accept the position?"

As he asks the question he offers the squirming Silver out for me to hold. Without even thinking about it I take the small bundle of cub and blanket into my arms, cradling him securely in the crook of my left elbow while using my right paw to fully reveal his face. 

When I do so Silver suddenly stops his fighting and crying to open his eyes wide looking straight up at me with wonder shining bright in his crystal blue irises. For a moment the two of us stare at each other, then he manages to pull his tiny right arm free and reaches up towards my face. Putting my fingers in front of him he grips my thumb tight sending a strong jolt of electricity shooting throughout my whole body.

The shock is so strong that I can instantly tell Dae has felt it as well, and from deep within my mind where he had buried himself I hear a deep rumbling word almost yelled out, PROTECT! Smiling I wiggle my thumb slightly in the little cub's grasp causing him to let out a small noise that's a mix between a whine and a hiccup before his mouth suddenly stretches in a wide, for him at least, yawn. 

Once he finishes his yawn he closes his eyes and is soon fast asleep still holding my thumb tight. For a moment I just stand there staring down at the tiny life in my arms; feeling nothing but amazed at how innocent and pure his life is when Jasmine's voice breaks the spell, “I think we can take that as a yes then."

I look up to see her, Richard, and Chase all staring at me with knowing smiles. Quickly trying to wipe the grin from my face I move to hand the sleeping cub back to his father saying, “I still think that it's a bad idea placing your trust in me. Even more so placing the life of your children in my care…"

Looking back and forth between Richard and Jasmine I can tell their minds are made up however. With a resigned sigh I continue, “But since you won't accept no for an answer, like everyone else around here, I guess I have no choice but to agree. Just don't let them get too noisy when I'm trying to sleep."

That causes all three of them to let out a soft laugh as Richard says, “Ebony, everyone in here knows you don't sleep much."

Chase adds his own comment saying, “Besides, I know for a fact you're good to go for at least another couple weeks before your next nap."

Growling I cross my arms and stare at him, “Just how much did you tell them about me?"

He shifts so that little Rick in his arms is conveniently positioned between us before he answers, “Only a few basic facts about you, sleep patterns, where you get the grumpiness, the wings… things like that."

I narrow my eyes at him more as Jasmine reaches up and takes Rick back saying, “Chase, kindly don't use my son as a shield to hide behind when you're antagonizing a demon. We trust Ebony not to hurt us or our kids, but you are still on very thin ice with all of us, don't forget that."

Chase's eyes dart between me and Jasmine as he reluctantly hands over the only defense he has against my ire, “I mean, they already figured out you were a demon, and you had already confirmed it. It wasn't anything you said had to be a secret, besides everyone already knows you sleep very little anyway. Just not how little…"

He trails off for a moment before Jasmine says, “Chase, dear, the next words out of that mouth of yours had better be 'I am sorry, Ebony'."

Swallowing hard he says, “I'm sorry, Eb."

Rolling my eyes I wave my paws in the air saying, “Whatever, it's fine. Not like anyone will be getting much sleep around here the next few weeks anyway."

As though to prove my point Rick chooses that exact moment to let out a small cry of his own causing Richard to laugh before asking, “Will you at least be willing to babysit from time to time, so we can try and sleep then?"

I turn my hard gaze on Richard for a moment before asking, “You two were already going to ask me even before our chat earlier weren't you?"

He just nods as he stares back. My gaze drops down to the small form of the sleeping Silver, and I feel my gaze soften considerably. Letting out a resigned sigh I relent, "Ok fine, I'll do what I can to make sure that they are safe and cared for should the need arise." 

I lock gazes with Richard, “But I absolutely will not ever change a diaper. That's entirely on the two of you. There are somethings this demon will not do."

After another round of soft laughs I see Jasmine do her best to hide her own yawn. Grabbing Chase by the shoulder I guide him towards the door saying, “Why don't we let you four get some rest, you've had a very long day."

As Chase waves farewell to the new family we step out into the hall and close the door behind us. Moving to head back to the kitchen I hear him clear his throat behind me.

Turning back to look at him with a raised eyebrow I ask, “Yes?"

He gestures over his shoulder to his room asking, “Would you like to continue our talk from downstairs?"

I glance back toward the stairs thinking about the dishes still left to be cleaned. As I weigh my waiting chores with my need to talk to Chase I eventually make my decision. Letting out a sigh I nod to him saying, “Yeah I think I would like that."

With a grin he turns and leads the way to his room as I follow behind him.

Once we are in his room he gestures towards the foot of his bed for me to sit as he pulls the door shut behind me. Sitting down I rest my elbows on my legs and lean forward looking down at my claws which have become very interesting to me suddenly. 

The bed shifts a bit as he sits down beside me letting out a small huff before saying, “So… Godfathers…"

Letting out a single laugh I say, “Yeah, who would have thought."

I feel his gaze on me for a moment before he replies, “You know, when you were holding little Silver just now, I saw a look on you I've never seen before."

Looking at him with a raised eyebrow I ask, “Oh? And just what did you see?"

He gives me a smirk before answering, “You had a look of pure amazement and wonder that I have never seen on anyone before. Like you were seeing something beyond just the cub in your arms."

Smiling softly I look back down at my paws before turning them over to look at the pads on my palm, “In a way I was. When I looked at his face I saw for the first time something that was pure innocence, infinite potential. I have never seen something like that before. I have seen so much bloodshed and evil my whole life to be handed something so…"

In a soft voice he offers, “Something so…. good?"

Nodding I slowly find my words, “I've never seen that before, it was amazing."

Pausing to let out another chuckle I continue, “I will never be able to stand by and let anything ever happen to those cubs if I can help it and believe it or not neither will Dae."

Chase stiffens a bit beside me at the mention of my demonic side, “He contacted you? While around the twins?"

Noting the worry in his voice I nod saying, “Yeah he did… sorta… when I was holding Silver I felt him stir in my mind for the first time in days before he practically yelled out his desire to protect the cub."

His stare bores a hole in the side of my head before he asks, “So he wants to protect the cubs as well?"

I nod answering, “Probably even more than you or I would want to."

Turning I look into Chase's eyes and say, “I can promise you, Dae and I both will do everything in our power to protect those two boys. Even if they weren't part of your pack I don't think either of us could do otherwise. There is just something about them…"

Chase tilts his head with curiosity showing on his face, “What do you mean?"

Shaking my head I lean back on his bed as I try to answer, “I'm not sure… it's hard to explain, but even before they were born I felt like they would be important in some way. Then when I held Silver just now I know that they are meant for something big."

He shifts so he can look down at me asking, “Big like what? Leading this pack big? Doing something special big? What?"

Shrugging I answer as best I can, “I honestly have no idea… All I know is I have only had a feeling like this once before in my life. When it happened last time the wolf it focused on was the one who now owes me a life debt, but even that wasn't as strong as with Silver just now. In fact I would even say that wolf is one of the few beings around who could potentially threaten me, my family not included."

Chase raises an eyebrow at me before saying, “You really do have a rather high opinion of yourself you know that right?"

Looking at him with raised eyebrows I reply, “Well of course. I'm faster, stronger, more agile than most everyone I meet. Why shouldn't I think myself better?"

He snorts saying, “Well you always claim you're oh so much better than everyone, but you have never proven it. Plus I seem to recall dragging your bleeding and unconscious body back to this house. Where was the big strong demon then?"

I turn and give him a hard glare, “You know damn well just how powerful my relations can be. I was lucky to survive that fight as long as I did, and if not for getting the drop on Agerex you wouldn't have survived either."

Chase returns my glare with a raised eyebrow of his own before saying, “I have only met your grandparents and your one cousin, what was her name… Circe? If I remember right you sent her packing with just a snap of your teeth."

Letting a small smirk spread my lips at the memory of sending her running I reply, “She is a lower level demon, who barely ranks among most of the family in fact. Yet she ran not because of my display, but because of who I am to my grandfather. She already knew that I was chosen by my grandfather to take his place."

He nods slowly before saying, “So it wasn't really you but your grandfather that scared her away then?"

I give a shrugging nod, “Pretty much. Remember my own demonic aura is very weak so most demons consider me to be among the lowest tier, barely worth acknowledging let alone respecting. Though that will still put me far beyond the normal for the rest of the world."

Shaking his head he mutters, “Well aside from your grandfather's shouting fit I still haven't seen anything all that special about you or any other demon. Guess I'll just have to take your word for it…"

His eyes sparkle with a mischievous glint before he continues, “Unless you want to have a sparring match and see if you can back up your claims."

Letting out a growl of a sigh I look up at the ceiling with exasperation, “You're not going to give this up are you.?

With a happy bark in his voice he answers, “Not till you say yes."

Giving him a halfhearted grumble I say, “Fine, will you be happy with a simple sword sparring match then?"

Shrugging he replies, “For starters I suppose that will do."

With that he gets up, moving to his closet and begins digging around, “I should have a couple of old wooden practice swords around here… Aha!"

From the back of his closet Chase pulls out two long sticks that have been crudely carved into the shape of swords. Looking from the basic weapons to Chase I raise an eyebrow in question causing him to shrug, “I made them when Jake first arrived so Richard and I could teach him some basic combat skills. Don't use them much in the winter, so they tend to get buried."

Conceding his point I reach out for one, “May I?"

As he tosses it over to me I barely catch hold of the handle before it hits me in the nose. As Chase suppresses a laugh I adjust my grip on the stick and give it an experimental swing. For such a simple weapon it's balanced well enough to be a decent training tool, if a bit ugly.

Huffing a bit I finally say, “Not the prettiest sword around, but it feels decent enough in paw to be a good training weapon."

Letting out a snort Chase responds, “Well excuse me for not being a master craftsman. Function was much preferred to form at the time."

Giving it another couple of swings before moving to hand it back to him I say, “True, if all you're doing is practice then it doesn't matter how it looks."

Instead of taking the sword back however, Chase uses the one still in his hand to tap it away with a grin on his face. Looking around the room I ask, “You really wanna do that here?"

Shrugging he answers, “Why not? It's already dark outside and not like we would do much anyway."

He taps his sword against mine again as he starts bouncing on his paws. Letting out a sigh I tighten my grip and stand up facing him, “Fine, but I'm not responsible if something gets broken"

His grin grows wider as I move to face him raising my weapon to a ready position in front of me. Before I am fully in position he is already striking out with his first attack and pokes me in the arm just hard enough to be an annoyance. Looking up at him with a smirk I say, “So it's like that huh?"

In answer he moves in to make another jab aimed at my chest. This time I raise my own stick and block him with ease, “You're going to have to do much better than that, big guy."

As his smile spreads from ear to ear his face takes on a more determined look as he attacks with earnest. Settling into a practiced form he starts a series of swings and jabs that would make most human warriors envious. Taking a step back I quickly parry or dodge each of his blows never letting them get closer than a foot from me. 

For several minutes we continue our dance as he begins pushing himself faster and faster with each attack. Soon though I see him starting to pant from the prolonged exertion. Then I see my opening. 

Midway through a jab he has aimed for my chest he over extends himself presenting me with a momentary opening that I quickly take advantage of. Pushing myself more than I have in months my arm moves in a blur as I rap his wrist with the flat of my sword causing him to drop his grip. 

As soon as the sword begins falling from his open paw his eyes go wide as I deftly catch the blade in my off hand, spin around his side to get behind him and position both blades against his now exposed neck and abdomen. For a long moment he stands there frozen in place holding his breath, his arm still outstretched, as he takes in what just happened.

Eventually he swallows hard causing his throat to touch the blade held in front of it as he asks, “Uh… what the hell just happened?"

Chuckling I tap both blades against him signifying where the killing blows would be before I lower them saying, “You overextended your reach, and I killed you is what happened."

He moves his outstretched paw to his neck and rubs his throat nervously before saying, “I get that part, I mean how did you move so fast? I saw you hit my wrist, then just a black blur for a second, then you were behind me… how did you do that?"

I raise an eyebrow, “You actually saw a blur? Usually when I move my body that fast most people can't see anything. Only a handful of highly skilled swordsmen have managed that before."

He blinks a moment and asks, “You just moved fast? You didn't use some demon trick or magic?"

Shaking my head as I reply, “No trick or magic. Just physical ability, though it is very taxing to do it for long. It would be like you running as hard and fast as you are capable of doing. You might be able to cover a lot of ground in a short time but will soon wear out and need rest. It's the same thing, only my top speed is faster than most people can react and takes a substantial amount of recovery if I push myself too hard."

He looks from my face down my body then back up, “How much more recovery?"

I tilt my head as I lift my gaze thinking, “Well that little stunt won't do much more than leave me sore in an hour or so, if it was a full fight then I would likely use most of my energy and would need to sleep until I fully recovered."

His eyes narrow, “Did you use it in your fight with Agerex?"

I open my mouth to say something but close it and simply nod.

Narrowing his eyes even more he says, “And he still nearly beat you?"

Nodding again I say, “I pushed myself nearly to the breaking point. The only way I could have gone any farther than I did would have been to unbind Dae fully."

Raising an eyebrow he asks, “Why didn't you then?"

Taking a deep breath I lean the practice swords against the side of his bed as I sit down thinking about how best to answer, “In order for me to willingly set him free like that takes one of three things to happen: A blood pact needs to be forged that will bind him to a set goal or task which will force him to behave within limits. He and I have to agree to fully and permanently merge back into a single mind. Or…"

He sits down next to me as I trail off, “Or what? What is the third option?"

Letting out a long sigh I answer, “The third option is to undo every binding I have placed on him and give him free control, possibly forever."

As Chase stares at me for a moment I can feel his body grow heavy next to me as though the realization of what I told him was a physical weight placed on his shoulders. After the silence has filled the room he asks in a softer voice, “So in your fight with Agerex you only had two of the three options available to you since there was no one to make a blood pack with."

I shake my head gently saying, “A merger takes a lot of time and can't be done under such trying and stressful conditions. So the only option I had that could have been a threat to him was to fully and permanently free Dae.

Chase stares at the side of my head a long moment before asking, “So why didn't you?"

Whipping my head around to face him, I stare with wide eyes, “Are you serious? At that time Dae was the second deadliest thing I knew of except for my grandfather. He has killed hundreds, if not thousands of men, wolves, and demons in the handful of times he has been freed. I would never have willingly done that to an unprepared world. At the time he would have reveled in the freedom and power if he had managed to win."

I turn my body to face Chase more fully, “At that point he would have had no problem with going on a murder spree that makes natural disasters look tame. And his first victims would have been you and this pack. I have no doubt."

He looks me in the eyes before swallowing and saying, “Ok I see your point. You would sacrifice your life to try and prevent a great evil then."

Shaking my head I say, “No it wasn't to prevent an evil. It was to prevent my own imprisonment. Dae would not have thought twice about placing me in the same prison that I have kept him in for all these years. His freedom would give him the ability to take revenge on me, and I have not been kind to him in the past."

Chase places a paw on my thigh asking, “What do you mean?"

Swallowing hard I start explaining, “For his entire existence I have blamed him for the death of our mother, not without cause, but still wrongly. I have on more than one occasion tortured him with that information. I have done some truly terrible things to him in fact. Then when we found out he did not kill Mom, his anger at what I've done combined with my own shame contributed greatly to our shared mental break."

Chase watches me for a long moment before he says, “From what I understand though he blamed himself for your mother's death as much or more than you did… didn't he?"

I nod slowly, “He did, but that doesn't change the facts of what has been done to what amounts to an innocent person. If we had known the truth all along things would be very different now."

I lower my face down to my lap and almost whisper, “Nothing we have gone through would have happened."

He removes his paw from my thigh and grips my chin gently before lifting my gaze back to his face, “If you had known the truth from the beginning then you would never have saved that wolf you're always talking about from being abused, or stopped that monster who had imprisoned you both. You would never have found this pack. Would never have found me, found love."

I try and open my mouth to say something, but he stops me, “Ebony, I am not saying what you did was right… far from it. What I am saying is that even though what happened to you was a tragedy beyond words there has been a lot of good that has come out of the evil you and Dae have committed. Think about it. If you had not bound him up you would have been too strong for the slavers to capture right?"

Nodding in silence I let him continue, “If they had never captured you would you have ever gone to their base or met that other wolf?"

I shake my head in his paw, “If you had never gone there he and all the other slaves would have been forced to be that tyrant's army. How much evil could he have done to the world then, and who would have stopped him?"

Opening my mouth I try to give a retort, but it catches in my throat, “I… I have no idea."

Giving a single nod Chase continues, “If Dae hadn't completely removed all trace of that evil place and its effects, besides you and the other wolf, how long till one of those in captivity had tried to do the same thing in turn? I hate to say it, Ebony, but from what I have read of history in the books we have lately, it seems to me that had some of the slaves been left alive the odds are good that at least one of them would have tried to take control and do the same thing in revenge."

I turn my head as his words tumble around in my mind, “I never…. I never thought of it like that. I have only ever seen the blood and death I caused. I never thought my actions could have prevented worse evil from happening in the future."

He wraps his arms around me and pulls me close to him. As I lay my head on his shoulder without resistance he says, “Ebony, I'm not telling you this to try and relieve your guilt. It's just that there could be some very good things to have come from you and Dae which you never thought about. Perhaps you were meant to take the path you did to lead you here. After all if you hadn't ended up bleeding in front of me that night Silver wouldn't have his new godfather right now, and I wouldn't have fallen in love with you."

At that I lift my head and look at him through misty eyes. In the deepest parts of my mind I feel Dae stir from his own darkness as a feeling of confusion and something I haven't felt from him before… hope flows from him. Without saying anything I just smile and press my muzzle tight against Chase's giving  him the most love filled kiss I can muster while I wrap my arms tight around him and pull him close.