Ice and Lightning Ch. 08

CAED

As I held my new daughter, I watched my brother try to save our mate. I knew she was gone. I felt her heartbeat stop. I held the baby closer as a tear slipped down my face. My grief was unimaginable. I wanted to scream and roar and cry. I just kept looking at my daughter, trying to keep it together.

Gabriel stepped back from Lyra. He was covered in her blood. He licked one of his fingers and closed his eyes. I couldn't help but feel he was savoring his last taste of her. He stepped forward again, and he brought his fist down on her chest and roared "FUCK YOU, LYRA!" Then he bit her hard enough to tear flesh from her arm. He spat it out and walked away.

I was left alone, holding the baby, and screaming inside. Gabriel was on the other side of the room breathing in gasps and holding his chest. He started to bellow her name over and over. I shuddered every time I heard it. I looked down at our daughter who had found her hand and was sucking on it ferociously. She looked at me with eyes that broke my heart. I felt like she had something to say to me. Then I felt a flutter. I thought it was something the baby had done but then realized it was Lyra's heart. It was trying to start again. It was so weak, but it was definitely there. I put the baby on Lyra's chest and held her there. I whispered into Lyra's ear "come back and meet your daughter." She hadn't moved but her heartbeat was just a little stronger. I yelled for Gabriel to come back. He returned with wild eyes, and still holding his chest. I knew the ache he was feeling but as soon as he saw our baby lying on our mate, and the look on my face, he felt it too. He tilted his head as if trying to hear it, but then grasped his chest again. He felt it.

LYRA

I had heard and felt everything but I could not move. I felt my blood gushing out and the baby tearing me apart. I felt every cut Gabriel made as he carved me up and ripped our baby out of me. I felt him licking and hitting and biting me. I even felt it when my heart stopped. I was trying so, so hard to come back. Somehow I saw my daughter's eyes in Caed's arms. It was her call to me that brought me back. I was finally able to open my eyes. The baby was on my chest and both my mates were looking down at me. Tears slid down Caed's face and fell onto our baby. Gabriel looked like he wanted to kill me. I knew that kind of love from him and I was happy to see it too. Then I looked at her. If I thought my mates were the most beautiful things I had ever seen, I was wrong. It was her. She looked at me with her ice blue Yelarian eyes. She had tiny white eyelashes and white fuzz all over her body. And her wings. Gods, her wings! They were so tiny and delicate. They did not feel so delicate when they were ripping me apart, but now I saw how precious they were. It occurred to me that I had no idea what a Yelarian baby would look like. I had pictured a baby bird. Those are some of the ugliest babies on the planet. I almost laughed out loud at the thought. Our daughter looked like a cherub.

GABRIEL

I fucking hated them all. We got Lyra and the baby home and I flew away. I flew hard for a very long time, then sat on a mountaintop for hours. How was I supposed to deal with these huge fucking feelings? Fuck! I hated that I loved them this much. I hated that my heart felt like a slave to them. Then I started think that there was no way I would have it any different. The life Lyra had brought to me was worth having my heart imprisoned. I finally got ahold of myself. I flew back into the house and they didn't even look up from the baby resting on Lyra's chest, but Lyra's arm stretched toward me. They knew before I did. They knew I didn't hate them. They knew my love was just too much for me to handle. I went to her. She held me as I laid my head on the other side of her chest and stared into the eyes of our daughter.