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“I can tell. And your brothers would be here and there as much as possible to be with you. In fact, new guardians might even be chosen.” Gavin held up a finger when he would have protested. “Which is what leads me to believe that Hawk is more mobile than you think.”

He tilted his head. “Oh. Oh, boss, that would be perfect. You don’t know how I’ve worried about bringing a child into a house where it’s trapped there. I want—I want him to know your babies. I want him to be able to play with Violet and Cordelia. And Leah and Esther. Ichi and Robin, Alex, all of them. I want him to know the twins. I want him to know Arielle. And little Sebby. Everybody. All the babies.”

“You’re going to give yourself palpitations or put yourself into early labor or something. You’ve got to calm down. Have you had some sort of a vision saying that everything was going to hell?”

The world seemed to stop at Gavin’s words.

Then he saw it again.

The vampires.

The vampires are going to try to get through.

They’re going to come through and try to infect the world. Infect all the worlds. What they’ve done was sunk into the house. And they want to come. And feed and feed and feed and feed.

His eyes were filled with crimson, and he couldn’t breathe because there wasn’t any air left, and he was gurgling, and the world was spinning and he needed to get out, and…

“Enough. That’s enough. That’s just enough.” His brothers were there, holding his hands, and Hawk was there stroking his hair, and…

He was back where he belonged.

“Where did you go?” Corbin asked.

“I don’t know, I was scared. Vampires are going to come.”

“Here?” Corbin’s eyes widened. “We fortified the house.”

Hawk held him, then kissed his cheek. “We’ll be ready for them, love. I vow it. We’ll defend the lands. That’s what you and your brothers are meant to do, and I am your mate.”

It was as if the words wrote themselves in fire on the air. Hawk’s immense store of magic swelled and burned, sealing the vow with a tiny flow of lava.

Cosmo had never seen anything like it, and as it winked out before it burned anything, he laughed, his chest feeling looser.

“You’re amazing,” he told Hawk. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Together we can take on anything.”

“And we made a baby.”

“I’m going to barf.” Cullin faked a spew of sparkling flowers.

Corbin chortled, grabbing one out of the air, and suddenly, it was a real flower. He handed it to Cosmo. “What do we always say? With us three, anything is possible.”

He perked up. “You’re right.” He grabbed Hawk’s hand. “Come on.”

“What? Where are we going?”

“Don’t ask questions, just come, and remember I love you!”

Hawk jogged away with Cosmo, who was tugging him along like a small tugboat pulls an ocean liner. He didn’t ask any more questions, however. He just moved down the stairs and to Gavin and Jules’s front room.

Where there was an entire clutch of dragons.

“Uncle Cosmo!”

“Uncle Cosmo, you have to introduce us to your guy.”

“You have to!”