Johan Birch

"Stop it, Petra," I laughed. "Don't scare my friend."

"We like our demons," Parker righted himself and got off the couch he was slouched on. "They sell tickets."

"Parker, I just need a moment with my husband, and you can resume your little man-chat."

"It's all right. I've got to pour myself back into my car and get home to my...house. It was fun, Johan, let's get drunk again soon."

One of my various assistants appeared to guide Parker to the lobby and through it, the elevator. When I heard the doors close, I turned my attention to Petra. "Hello."

"Hello."

I sat down on the couch Parker had vacated and gave the farthest cushion a pat. "Have a seat."

She sat down on the cushion next to mine and turned towards me. "I'm seated. I am also stupid."

"No, you were as trusting of Vera as I was of you. Right?"

"Huh?"

"I didn't design all of those traps for you, I designed them for Vera Birch. When you showed up at Jaci's wedding to Samantha, I knew something was up with her. There was that hesitation, ever-so-slight, at the boundary of the warding to Jaci's house. When Samantha told Jaci to strangle Vera at her earliest opportunity, I filed that away."

"Good filing cabinets," Petra teased.

"Natasha subconsciously gave me a heads-up on the jet while we were busy rescuing Kyle Andrews and Natalie. She sensed something from Yvonne, something bad, but was under oath not to say anything to me. Besides, what am I, but a lowly mortal?"

"I've never thought of you that way..."

"Petra. Shush."

"Okay," Petra nodded.

"I kept all of that from you, to keep Vera and whomever else was involved from reading it off of you. I never thought..."

"...that Vera would swing me at you like a club," Petra finished.

"Hold." Petra froze. "That she would keep trying. What does she, Vera, have against me?"

"Samantha," Petra answered. "Johan, the very existence of Jaci Stone, and by extension, Johan Birch, sickens Vera."

"In any case, when I told you to prepare to activate The Siefert Clause, I was going to take steps of my own. I was taking them on my own so that Vera or any other Birch sister couldn't read those actions off of you."

"And they did," Petra agreed. "I thought I was helping you keep what was yours, and they read it off my surface thoughts."

"What I didn't expect was the second try."

"They didn't want you to succeed. Fifty years of age and they watched you, a man, succeed where they had failed over thirteen hundred years. Both you and Jaci Stone receive respect that is beyond their understanding."

"What does Vera have on you, Petra?" I demanded. "What?"

"Aysun. When my mother took her last breath, we were great for a while. I was working, being happy, then Vera swooped in and started demanding answers about Aysun. Evidently that was when you popped up on their radar."

"Probably when Jaci seduced Samantha," I nodded.

"For the purposes of this discussion, let's eschew the third-person talk, okay?" I nodded. "Your existence actually came up after Jonna was born. Samantha had then borne two daughters, special daughters, from a so-called 'youngster' and Vera was pissed."

"Vera must have eventually figured out the link between Jaci Stone and Aysun through the hair."

"Vera wanted to know everything about Aysun's father, and I told her a partial truth. Jason Stonebrook and I had been two kids playing doctor and I got pregnant."

"And you couldn't remember anything specific because of my father's curse," I chuckled.

"Then your two sons were born. They were big, handsome, and powerful, and a threat to the sisters' power. By that time they knew who you were."

"Nobody accused immortals of not being able to learn."

"Vera swooped in on the day of Jaci's wedding and asked me to come disrupt it. She told me to remember all the times she had protected me and Aysun over the years and she was calling in her note."

"And that didn't work."

"I couldn't try and tempt Jaci Stone. Once I saw you, up close? I wasn't attracted to you sexually. I mean we could have been besties, but not sexually."

A snort escaped my mouth. "Keep going."

"I failed, of course. Then Jaci died, and I brought Johan back. They wanted you to fail; they wanted Johan, the male side of Jaci Stone, to fail. Then Samantha would have come back from Fontalan and see how wrong she was."

"But I didn't fail."

"No, that's why they tried to steal it from you. That's why Vera tried to steal it the second time, using me."

"You went along with it," I protested.

"Before that meeting in Laurel, had you seen Jona, Greta, Olya, Sammi, or Hart in the last two months?"

I hadn't. I instantly felt bad because I hadn't missed my companions. "Who had them?" I demanded.

"Vera. Husband, she had them captured."

"How?" I asked.

"Somehow, in some way, Vera or one of her little bitch helpers managed to create a plane of existence inside Uliona. They call it 'Trix.'" They pulled the five of them, two of the women pregnant, into that plane. Aysun and I only went along with Vera..."

"Because there were pregnant women involved. I understand. That's probably why Joshua couldn't read any of you, because Vera was holding them captive and gaia was intentionally blocking him. I will assume that the delay in your reappearance was to arrange to have my companions freed?"

Petra started to tear up. "I'm sorry! It is always supposed to be the children first!"

"Come here," I held out my arms and she fell into them. "You did it all right, my wife. All of it right. We just have to protect the rest of our children from reprisals now."

Petra sobbed into my shoulder. I actually felt Sindee's presence, which caused me to look up. When she saw that she had my attention, she nodded. I didn't want her to leave, and instinctively raised my hand to catch her attention.

"What?" Petra asked.

"I want you to meet someone who shares my love. But later."

Petra tried to pull away, but I held her firm. "I need to see her, husband."

"This isn't the time. Later."

She pulled away from me, using just a tad bit of magic to loosen my hold. Petra turned around, and seeing Sindee, she paled. "A nymph?"

"Petra..."

"You knew she was here? She bound herself to your heart?"

"No, I didn't," Sindee admitted. "I was in love with Johan before the meeting."

Petra turned back to me. "You were afraid for me?"

"I was," I admitted.

The situation could have gone any way. Either Petra would leave me because I knew of Sindee, or she would leave in spite of Sindee. I was glad she chose the third option, throwing her arms back around me and nibbling on my ear. "Is she any good in bed?"

"Goddess, Petra," I sighed.

Sindee giggled. "I have sisters."

"Yay," Petra whispered.

***

During the next three months, Erin's lead rocket scientist, Rendhil, launched fourteen rockets. It was a surprise to everybody on Earth that those rockets merged together to form a spacecraft.

The top-top-secret part of the mission was two more rockets, both of which carried people, astronauts, to that spacecraft. Six people; two from the US, one from Russia, and three from the EU, were aboard the craft as it shot out to intercept Mars.

At the same time we launched another rocket, which was actually a rebuilt nuclear missile with MIRV capability, toward Venus. I really wanted to see if those ten probes, each made of the nine-nine-nine stainless, could survive the lethal and corrosive Venusian atmosphere.

Every country with nuclear capabilities, even though they were notified of the launch in advance, was on edge until those launch vehicles had cleared lunar gravity. Word eventually came to me that one woman had crafted the math which had led to that launch being so perfectly executed. Her name was Professor-Doctor Kimberly Pulanski, and all she wanted for payment was the chance to put together a family. It was the least I could do to help her.

***

-Epilogue-

Months later, between Martian missions and Venusian data, I heard news that my word to Doctor Pulanski had been kept. In a somewhat roundabout way, she had been pointed toward a very gifted accountant by the name of Heather Jenkins.

What troubled me was that this introduction had come with the help of the four fifty-seven club. Despite my reservations, Birch America had become entangled with them at the lower levels of both organizations.

It was inevitable, I supposed, that our destinies would cross. After all, we were really after the same things. I just needed to keep Miranda goddess-damned Olsen from fucking up everything.

Then Kimberly, Heather, and Heather's husband Declan all went missing for nearly three months. The next thing I knew, Heather Jenkins-Sagemueller was running Brookstone Pointe. This was with the blessing of Marcie Hathaway, the blonde with curls too tight to be natural.

We had to make sure, Petra and I both had to make sure, that Jaci Stone's company was in good hands. So we made an appointment to go see Heather Jenkins-Sagemueller at the skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles which held the offices of Brookstone Pointe.