Zeev POV
"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked Harlee again.
"Look, I'm tired of him looking at me when I have to go pee, ok? Even if I pull the curtain I can still feel his eyes on me." She shivered. "And aren't you tired of hauling him out of there so I can shower?" I had to concede her point.
"We can't just kill him, so..." She continued.
"So we're going to just let him go?" I asked incredulously. Again.
"Well, not just, right Harlee?" Ash came up behind her and wrapped their arms around her waist. Harlee blushed and looked up at me surreptitiously. She still thought I might get jealous, silly girl. I leaned over and kissed her, but I could feel they were hiding something from me about the Prince situation.
"I'm not happy about your choice concerning the Prince." I growled. "But I am excited about the new baby." I smiled against her lips and she glowed inside and out, our link lighting up with so much happiness and love, my heart stopped beating for a moment.
"I mean, I'm not sure yet-it's not like it was with you." Harlee blushed.
"I'm sure." Ash said confidently. "Any day now it will implant and then you'll be sure too." Ash kissed her neck and she blushed again. I tugged them both into a hug. Another child! I felt my heart swell in my chest and began imagining how it would look.
"Focus bird brain." Ash slapped my arm lightly. Sands and Sam had come into the room as well, all of us glaring into the bathroom.
"Cael?" I asked.
"Safe." Sam replied. I nodded. Sam and Sands had placed him temporarily out of reach in case the Prince of Hell went looking for him. In fact, it was a room that, as far as we knew, only Sands could enter or exit, until we broke the warding so Cael could come back out. Sands set the baby monitor on the kitchen counter. Cael's slow, steady breathing could be heard through it.
"How did you- Never mind, Angels and Demons, why am I asking" Harlee shook her head. I laughed. Of course we could boost the signal of a simple baby monitor. I ruffled her hair and she shoved my hand away.
"Ok, here goes nothing." I stroke purposefully into the bathroom and released the ties that bound the Prince to the chair. He ripped the tape off his mouth.
"You're letting me go?! How dare you?" The Prince demanded. Why did this perv sound offended we were releasing him?
Harlee POV
I placed a hand over my eyes.
"You want to keep living in my bathroom?" I asked, exasperated.
"No, I..."
"Good then." I darted forward, slapping a hand on his arm. "You're going to forget about me, my family, and my Nephilim son. If you try to come looking for us again, you'll forget where we live." I pulled his bare arm towards me, and drew on the power of all four Bonds. I extended Ash's fangs and sank them into the fleshy part of the Prince's arm letting the venom flow, then heard Zeev grunt as I drew bits of his power, Ash's, Sands, and Sam's to complete the Binding. I released my fangs dizzily. I hadn't drawn on a Demon Bond like this in a while, it was a lot easier with Zeev where he was half my soul. "Poison for poison, this is your debt to me." Sam and Sands drew in a quick breath, but I could feel Ash's grin on my own face. The Prince blinked as if confused, and a rosy pattern shifting through a rainbow of colors appeared on the flesh of his arm, then sank in, the veins around it carrying the poison throughout the Prince's body. A poison he would never know he carried. He suddenly disappeared.
"A Binding." Sam said, awed.
"I wish you'd told me you were going to do that." Zeev grunted. "Now I'm hungry." His orange eyes glowed as he looked at me.
"Do you think it'll stick?" Sands asked. Ash shrugged
"It was worth a shot though, right?" Ash clapped. "Now go get our baby Princeling! Zaza misses him!"
Zeev POV
I paced. It was the only thing I could think to do. I had no idea if the Binding was going to be strong enough to hold the Prince at bay, even backed by all of our power.
"Would you please stop pacing and come back to bed." Harlee murmured from the dark. "I thought you said you were hungry-you can't be satisfied yet." I let out a soft growl. I wasn't, I knew she could feel it through out link, but I was worried.
"I'm going to go check on Cael again." I muttered and stepped into the nursery. Cael was asleep in his crib, completely fine, but still, I worried. I had so many I loved to look after now...
"Cael will be fine." Said a soft voice and Ash wrapped their arms around my waist from behind. "He's a part of you-there's no way you'll ever lose track of him. But that's not all, is it Papa Bear?" Ash murmured, kissing my shoulder blade. A tingle started under my skin at the brush of their lips and as soon as Ash reached my spine, I jolted. "God I love that you started sleeping shirtless." Ash whispered against my skin and I shuddered. Their hands gripped me tighter and I felt a cool cheek against my back.
"Everyone's going to be ok, you know? You don't have to look out for all of us-you have help." Ash murmured.
"But Harlee, Cael, the new baby... you.." My voice choked. Sands, even Sam to an extent.
"Harlee has a fallen Angel, a fallen Arch Angel, a Demon and whatever the Hell Sam is, all looking out for her. Cael's a Nephilim. Yes, we're trying our damndest to protect him, but let's be honest for a moment-if it came down to it, he's more powerful than all of us combined. So if he doesn't wanna go.. ain't nobody gett'n' that boy away from his momma." Ash laughed lightly.
"What about the new baby.. Harlee would be devastated.."
"It will most likely be a Cambion. Which means it will be particularly difficult to harm in utero. And I'll be sticking pretty damn close to her side because I don't want it feeding on her, so I'll be the one nourishing it while it grows. We're well protected Zeev. Now please, come to bed lover." Ash released my waist and tugged gently on my arm. I cast one more look at our son and allowed the two loves of my life to draw me back into their embraces in bed.
Harlee POV
I was actually doing dishes when the first wave of nausea hit. How long since Ash's and my date? Was this too soon?
"Calm down Harlee. Let's get you to the bathroom before you are sick." Ash's cool hand stroked my forehead and neck, then moved my hair aside. The cramp in my lower abdomen hit me just as I felt the acid begin to rise in my throat. I turned, covering my mouth, but Ash had me over the toilet in seconds, and I vomited all of the lovely breakfast Zeev had made. Damn, I loved his french toast. I groaned and relaxed back into Ash's arms, shaking as another cramp rolled through my lower abdomen. I groaned, rolling to my side to curl around my stomach. Ash laid a hand on my lower abdomen and seemed to concentrate for a moment.
"You feeling ok Harlee?" Ash asked. I groaned.
"Is the baby ok?" I responded by way of an answer. Ash suddenly grinned.
"Oh yes. Very much. They're ok." Ash replied.
Zeev POV
Cael protested loudly when I squeezed him to me a little too tightly. He squirmed and I set him back on the floor amongst his toys. Mentally, we knew he was much older than he appeared, but Harlee insisted on buying him a ton of the infant toys, saying it would provide him time to 'shut down' and do something mind-numbingly boring, if nothing else. And I have to say, he did at least investigate them all to see what they did. But I was guilty of doing the same, though I'd never admit it out loud. I guess Cael inherited that from me.
In a daze, I walked through the kitchen into the bathroom where Harlee still sat with Ash. She looked up at me with a look of disbelief. Ash was grinning broadly, I just fell to my knees.
"Twins? She's having twins?" I choked out. Ash's grin widened. Sam appeared at the doorway next, followed swiftly by Sands.
"We're going to need a bigger house." Sam observed dryly.
Harlee POV
Ash was on cloud nine, strutting around like a proud peacock, like they did something more than sleep with me.
'Hey!' Came the mental objection as I thought that. Ash was at work, and had wanted to quit, but I told them to keep as much of their independence as possible. They eyed me dubiously, but agreed.
"Stop tormenting Ash through our link Harlee." Zeev commented, passing through the kitchen as I swept.
"Hey, whose side are you on? And where have you been? Would you look at this mess?! I just swept here! Agh!" I tossed the broom to the floor and spun on my heel, heading towards the bedroom. Zeev blinked after me owlishly.
'Hormones.' I heard Ash tell Zeev through our link. I mentally snapped at both of them.
'Ash are you certain she's pregnant and not possessed?' Zeev shot through the link with amusement. I screamed into a pillow with frustration.