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August 18, 2004

“ Y ou’ve been keeping secrets, Thorny-man!”

Thorn jumped at the sound of Simi’s voice. “Shit, Sim! Little warning please.” He was on the curb outside of Karma Devereaux’s house where he’d just dropped off a present.

Simi’s eyes glowed a faint red in the darkness as she glanced to the shotgun house behind him. “You got another little boy…”

“Shh!” Thorn gestured for her to keep her tone low. “Tell no one, Sim. I don’t want him to grow up like Cadegan did.” Hated by others and persecuted. He wanted to give E.T. a chance at a normal life. “Karma knows I’m not human, and she’s okay with that.”

“You love her?”

“What? No. No! It was a one-time thing that just kind of happened. I’m still not really sure how.” He’d been in town to check on his people when she’d shown up at Sanctuary. They’d exchanged some witty repartee and the next thing he’d known …

Yeah, the encounter had been a mistake, but he’d never regret his kid.

Thankfully, Karma felt the same way he did.

“I had no idea she’d get pregnant and neither did she. E.T. thinks I’m her friend and he calls me Uncle. I’m good with that.” At least sort of.

To be honest, he’d rather be a father to the boy, but given that E.T. was part human, it wasn’t worth the risk. Thorn had too many enemies who would use his son to get back at him.

Even though E.T. was still a toddler, he had yet to show any signs of having powers. Which meant the boy might never be able to protect himself from those who wanted to strike back at Thorn.

It was a risk Thorn wouldn’t take. Besides, Karma’s insane family had their own abilities … mostly because they were descended directly from two of his Hellchasers who’d been called Deadmen in the eighteenth century.

Which made him feel so much better. What Karma and her sisters thought were an “aunt” and “uncle” were actually the progenitors of the entire Devereaux side of their family.

Uncle Jake Devereaux had been one of his original Deadmen and their aunt, Esmeralda, was Sancha Delarosa who’d married Jake in the eighteenth century after they’d earned their freedom and moved here to New Orleans.

The sisters had no idea.

That was okay by him, too. He liked the fact that E.T. would grow up surrounded by all of them. They would be watching and notifying Thorn if anything or anyone threatened his child.

Especially since Sancha and Jake were the only two besides Karma and Simi who knew E.T. was his son.

And he intended to keep it that way.

Putting her arms behind her back, Simi swayed in a very adorable way. “Would akri-Thorn minds so much if the Simi played with the baby sometimes?”

“Only if you promise not to eat him … He wouldn’t taste good, even with barbecue sauce. He has too much of his dad in him for that. Sours the taste.”

Laughing, Simi let her horns show for a second. Like her eyes earlier, they glowed a low luminescent red in the dim light.

For the first time, he realized how much she’d grown over the centuries. Gone was the little girl he’d met in the market and scared all those centuries ago.

Gah, she’d appeared not much older than E.T. when they had first met. And over the years, he hadn’t really paid attention to her growing up as she aged so slowly while he didn’t age at all.

Now …

She was grown. Physically, she appeared around the same age as Acheron.

It was hard for him to acclimate the Simi he’d known then to the woman in front of him now. Yes, she could be immature, but that was her innocent spirit. And that enchanted him all the more.

Stop.

She was completely off-limits. Acheron would tear him to pieces if he ever thought Thorn had these ideas in his head. When it came to his daughter, Acheron was insane and Thorn couldn’t blame him.

Without a word, she hopped past him, toward Karma’s door.

“What are you doing, Simi?”

“Going to say happy birthday to your little one and akra-Karma.”

“You know her?” Why was he even surprised? Simi seemed to know everyone.

She smiled at him. “’Course, Thorny-man. Karma is Tabitha and Amanda’s sissy. The Simi meeted her long ago.”

And with that, she went and knocked on the door.

Thorn stood there, not sure what to think. Other than the fact that Simi was absolutely adorable.

Dangerously so.

And he needed to go take a long, cold shower before Acheron started ripping parts off his body he might miss.