Page 3 of My Haven (Bewitched and Bewildered #16)

“If they ignore their Founding and Noble family members, is that such a huge surprise?” a deep voice asked from the doorway.

“Hey Kendrick, pop a squat,” Meryn said, pointing to the sofa.

He grinned at her, and with Anne at his side, he dropped a kiss on her cheek as he walked by. “Brought this for you.”

“More coma tea?”

He nodded. “Fresh batch.”

“Cool beanz.” She reached up and Ryuu took it from her. “So… why can’t we kill them again?”

Brennus harumphed. “Good question.”

“Brennus!” the queen chided.

“Meryn, it’s not that we can’t kill them, we just don’t have a complete kill list yet,” Kendrick explained.

“Oh.” Meryn thought about it for a moment. “That makes sense. It’s easier to do them all in one go.”

“I thought I told you no mass murder before the baby was born,” Aiden said, eyeing her.

“And I said, that killing douchebags is therapeutic. You don’t want to hurt our baby, do you?”

“Of course not!”

“Then let me kill people.”

Aiden looked over at Darian and sighed. “You have it easy.”

Darian shook his head. “I’d take murder spree Meryn over Amelia’s explosive emotion hurricanes.”

Amelia gasped. “What?” She then began to sniffle, which turned into sobs.

Meryn gave Darian a flat look. “Dumbass.”

Pip moved over and pulled Amelia close. “You know the guys aren’t best with cuddles and feelings,” he said, in soothing tones.

“I’m trying!” she screeched.

“You poor thing! Has he been bullying you?” Pip demanded.

“Yes,” Amelia admitted in a small voice.

Pip looked up and glared murderously at Darian, causing the King of all the Fae to take a step back. “Meanie Head!”

Amelia snorted, then began to giggle. “Yeah! Meanie Head!”

Darian nearly slumped forward in relief. “I’m sorry baby, you know I didn’t mean it like that. Pip, you’ll have to teach me how to be a better cuddler,” he said kneeling down in front of his mate.

Meryn turned and met Aiden’s eyes. He looked from her to Amelia and back. “Gun or tech gear for future murders?”

She licked her lips, causing his eyes to go black. “Hmmm, surprise me.”

Aiden looked back to Amelia and shuddered. “Anything you say baby.”

Meryn had to smile. There was no way her bear could handle it if she had the high warble of Amelia’s pregnancy hormones.

She thought it over and frowned. “Looks like our vacation is over, babes.”

Aiden scowled. “A vacation is what you do when you leave the house for a break. We do not vacation at our house between traipsing all over the country,” he bellowed.

The queen turned to her. “You’re going to Storm Keep I take it?”

She nodded. “I kinda need to be boots on the ground there to see what’s going on.”

“No, you don’t!” Aiden argued.

Meryn rubbed her temples. “Look, we have about three to four weeks before our kid makes their world debut. It would look sketchy as hell if you visit all the other pillar cities and not Storm Keep. And if you’re going, I’m going.”

Aiden opened his mouth to argue, then shut it. Then beamed. “Our daughter will be here soon.”

She smiled. “Or son,” she added to be contrary.

“I want to go too,” Amelia added.

Darian took her hand. “We can’t go.”

“Why not? I could visit my parents,” she asked.

He winced. "Because I’m the king of the nation that they broke the alliance with. You’re now the Queen of the Fae.”

Amelia paled. “What?”

Meryn poked her big-sister cousin’s arm. “Don’t you remember the coronation? Lots of gold dresses and bowing,” she paused and looked up at Cord. “Killer food though.”

He winked back at her.

Amelia turned to Meryn scowling. “Of course, I remember the coronation. It’s just…”

“You didn’t realize being a queen meant real world shit, like meetings and politics?” Meryn asked. “Cuz, I’ve totally been there.”

“I can’t go back?” Amelia whispered.

Meryn saw another meltdown brewing. “Of course you can, you just gotta wait for me to kill the witchery douchebags. Then Auntie can make new portals, and everything will go back to normal…well… our normal.”

Kendrick chuckled. “Don’t worry crybaby, your athair will take care of things, so you can visit your parents.”

Anne swatted at his chest playfully.

Amelia sniffled. “I’m not a crybaby.”

Kendrick was about to answer when his phone beeped, then beeped and then beeped again.

Meryn was about to tease him, when her own phone went off. When she looked down, she froze, it was an SOS. She pulled it out immediately. “Fuck, it’s Law.”

Everyone was staring at her and Kendrick.

Meryn decided calling would be faster.

When the ringing stopped, she simply asked. “What do you need?”

“Information. Gods! I don’t know how far back,” Law said, fear and frustration in his voice.

“You are talking to your Red Queen, there’s nothing I can’t find. Give me a target Deadpool,” she said, using their codenames. She hoped it would ground him. She knew she had done the right thing when he took a deep breath.

“It’s our mother, Meryn. We can’t find her,” he whispered, as if he was afraid to speak the words out loud.

“I need names, last known location, dates of anything. Give me shit to work with.”

“We don’t know,” he said, in a broken voice.

Meryn turned to Darian and the queen. “I’ll need a portal to Storm Keep.” She looked to Pip, Nigel and Neil. “Grab our ‘go’ bags and tech gear.” The boys jumped up and raced from the room. She looked to Noah and Jaxon. “I need you here on standby. I’ll be running a lot of data through you.”

Noah stood and kissed her forehead. “We got this.”

When she saw Aiden just standing there, her eyes narrowed. “Me, you, Pierce, Ryuu, the boys, Kendrick and Anne. Make the appropriate requests for a visit at Elder Council level.” She took a deep breath and bellowed. “Colton!”

It took about fifteen seconds for the sounds of heavy boots running to reach them. Moments later, Colton burst into the room, fangs down and growling. He pulled up short when he saw who was visiting. He turned to her, excitement on his face as his fangs receded. “Is it baby time?!”

“No, you’re in charge of the units again,” she said, pulling up her chat window on her laptop.

“Again? I thought we were done.”

Aiden was on his cell. “Might as well do what she says, we all know she’s really in charge when shit hits the fan.” He heard something, then turned back to his phone. “Father, we need to submit a visitation request to Storm Keep,” he started, walking into the hallway.

Colton’s eyes bugged out. “Is shit hitting the fan again?”

“Kinda. Family is in trouble,” she explained.

Colton straightened. “Don’t worry about us. You focus on whatever needs doing.” He was almost to the door, when he turned back, a grimace on his face. “Did Aiden decide on what he was doing about Darian’s position?”

Meryn stared. “He hasn’t done that yet?”

Aiden stuck his head through the doorway. “There are a lot of moving parts involved.”

“You want me to do it?”

Aiden opened his mouth, then shut it. They all heard laughter from the phone.

“Fine! I am letting her decide. You were right, Father.” He looked her in the eye, and she saw how much it affected him to lose Darian.

He hadn’t procrastinated because he didn’t know what to do, he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“I know what you were going to do, I’ll just tweak some things and put it into effect. ”

“Thanks, baby,” he said, looking relieved. When he turned to Darian, both men swallowed hard. “Good luck, Your Majesty.”

Darian clenched his fists at his side. “You too, Commander.”

“He he he,” Meryn cackled, as she typed.

Aiden paled. “What we discussed, right baby?”

She continued typing.

“Meryn?”

“I’m doing what you would have thought of, had you been me,” she assured him.

“Right. What?”

She waved him off.

He went back to submitting the official requests through the Elder Council channels.

“Law, send me whatever you have. We’ll be there soon,” she said.

“Already sent. What do you need on this end?”

“A place to stay actually.”

“Why not stay with your…” He paused. “It might be safer to stay with the Nu Unit. You’ll be outside the influence of whatever is being broadcast in the city.”

“I can call my brother,” Amelia volunteered.

“You need anything else, Red Queen?” Law asked.

“Consider your mom handled. I got this. But we’ll need any and all dirt you can dig up on the Witches’ Council. If you can’t dig deep enough, give me directions to go on.”

“You got it,” he promised. There was a moment of silence, before he spoke again. “Thank you.”

“Try not to raze the city before I get there, that shit sounds fun.”

They heard a short bark of laughter. “You got it. I’m out.”

Meryn looked over to where Kendrick stood, running his hand through his hair and talking very fast. She couldn’t quite hear what was being said, but kept an eye on her uncle’s expression, who could hear and which she could clearly see.

When it looked like Kendrick was about to throw his phone, she spoke up. “Kendrick, let me talk to him.”

Kendrick stomped over and put the phone on speaker beside her.

“We have this Meryn,” Thane began stubbornly.

“No, you don’t. You have no intel and you’re about to go off half-cocked and ruin whatever surprise or strategy that could give us an advantage.”

“You don’t understand…” Thane began.

“You’re right. I don’t know, because I never had a mother. But, I do have an athair . And right now, my love for you is stressing me out, because you’re about to get yourself hurt or killed and it’s probably running my blood pressure up.” She grinned evilly and passed the phone to Ryuu.

“Thane, I beg you, please wait for us, if only for my denka ,” Ryuu started pitifully, as he calmly folded the clothes Pip had brought to him for the suitcase.

“What’s this about blood pressure? Is she okay?” Thane demanded.

“She has been having problems as of late, but you know how she is. She will move heaven and earth for you and your brothers,” Ryuu replied, holding up her Pikachu blanket.

She nodded.

He folded it and added it to the suitcase.