Rylie was propped up in bed with a few pillows, and if there hadn"t been the top of a fuzzy head sticking out from the top of the blanket, Elise never would have known that there was a brand new baby on her chest. Rylie looked calm, smiling, maybe even glowing.
The woman looked exhausted, though not as terrible as Leticia McIntyre had looked after her births-a thought that immediately swamped Elise with fresh grief. But Leticia had been a normal person. Rylie had werewolf healing on her side. It would take a lot more than a baby to knock her down.
The TV in the corner was playing. It was muted, but the press conference on the screen was closed-captioned. The new secretary of the Office of Preternatural Affairs"s speech rolled along the bottom of the screen at a rapid clip.
Secretary Friederling didn"t look like as much of an a.s.shole as his predecessor, Secretary Zettel, but that wasn"t saying much. Elise had never met anyone who was as much of an a.s.shole as Gary Zettel.
"Anything good in the speech?" Elise asked.
"I guess," Rylie said. "He"s saying that the OPA isn"t going to pursue some of the laws they started before...you know, before. No registration or anything."
"I"d say that"s good."
"I guess so." She didn"t seem all that interested in that line of questioning. Rylie turned the TV off with a remote control and returned her attention to the bundle on her chest.
James sat on the mattress beside Rylie. He hooked a finger on the blanket and pulled it down an inch so that he could see the baby. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Well done," he said.
"Yeah, I think he turned out pretty good," Rylie said. "Not a whole universe or anything, but I"m proud of myself."
"We can"t really compare the two. I didn"t push the universe out of my body," Elise said. "I only had to die."
Rylie didn"t laugh. "I don"t understand how that works. Actually, I have no idea what happened at all."
Elise clenched her jaw. Glanced at James. He pretended that his attention was still on the baby, but she knew he was listening.
They still hadn"t talked very much about what had happened before, during, and after the genesis.
How was Elise supposed to distill the experience of being a G.o.d into words?
She"d known she was going to have to talk about it someday, though. Elise had spent months preparing answers just for this. "Belphegor killed me in the last fight, but not before the genesis consumed me. When all the other people who had fallen into the vortex came back, I came back with them. Human. Normal." She sighed. "But I had a minute to...direct things."
"A minute?" Rylie asked.
"A minute"s a long time when you exist outside of time." Elise hooked her thumbs in her belt loops, rocked back on her heels. "I gave the rebirth of the universe a nudge. Rearranged things a little."
"Understated as always," James muttered.
He had no idea exactly how understated. n.o.body did yet.
Everyone knew that something had changed when the genesis occurred. Almost everyone who was alive now remembered their cities falling apart, getting pulled into the void, and dying.
They also remembered waking up like nothing had happened in a world that was nearly identical to the one that had been shattered. Some people thought that everything that had happened after the Breaking was some weird, collective nightmare.
Others thought it was a demon conspiracy. A lot of people outright denied that anything had happened at all.
The truth was so much stranger.
"You brought me back," Rylie said. "You brought Seth back."
"I brought back everyone that I was capable of bringing back," Elise said. "Everyone whose souls hadn"t been recycled yet."
The bridge of Rylie"s nose wrinkled. "Recycled."
"It"s hard to explain."
She would have brought back everyone else, if she could have. The McIntyres and Neuma and everyone who had served her among the werewolves and former slaves.
But just as Nathaniel hadn"t been able to resurrect his mother, Elise couldn"t work miracles.
She had saved everyone she was capable of saving.
It hurt that she couldn"t do more, but that was just how the world worked, and even Elise hadn"t been able to change that rule. Her friends had been lost. They"d be reborn as entirely new people someday, unrecognizable as the people they had once been. Recycled. As good as gone.
Elise cleared her throat. "You and Seth were preserved in obsidian. Not just your bodies, but your souls. That"s why I could resurrect you both long after you died."
"Me, Seth, and this little guy." Rylie"s finger smoothed over the little head resting on her chest, making the soft curls spring back. "There"s so much to thank you for, Elise. Not just for me and the baby, but most of the pack, and...everything, I guess."
Elise shrugged. What was she supposed to say?
Rylie shifted her grip on the baby. "Want to hold him for a minute? I need to adjust my pillows and get a drink of water and stuff."
James started to reply. "No, I don"t think she-"
"I"ll hold him," Elise said.
James couldn"t have looked more surprised if she"d announced her plans to join a knitting circle. "Really?"
Rylie grabbed a baby blanket, wrapped her newborn, and lifted him. Elise ignored James"s expression and collected the infant. She thought it couldn"t be that bad-she"d hauled her sister around a lot when she was a baby, not to mention the McIntyre girls, and this thing wasn"t going to be nearly as squirmy as those two.
It was still incredibly awkward to pull Rylie"s son to her chest and figure out how to hold him.
After making an entire universe, it was still sort of terrifying to take a brand new baby. He looked like a doll and felt like a droopy bag of rice.
Elise took a close look at him, one hand under his head, the other under his b.u.t.t. The blankets fell open to show his face and the dry, wrinkled hands curled against his chest. Dense black curls were matted to his scalp. His skin was surprisingly dark, considering that Summer and Abram were fairly light-skinned.
"Not bad," Elise said. There wasn"t much else to say about him. He was a pretty normal-looking baby, after all.
Rylie grinned. "So maybe you and James might...?"
"No," Elise said.
James looked thoughtful. "Well-"
"Never." She put extra emphasis on the word.
"Never," he agreed dutifully.
"I was actually going to ask what you thought about being G.o.dparents," Rylie said, closing her nightgown around her chest and carefully getting out of bed. "But okay."
Elise"s upper lip curled. James tried to hide a smile behind his hand as he replied. "I"m terribly flattered, but regarding my history with the werewolf pack, I don"t think anyone would think very much of my involvement with your offspring. Don"t take this the wrong way, but I"m surprised that you"d even ask."
"My Aunt Gwyn has some pretty strong feelings about forgiveness. And grat.i.tude. She rubbed off on me." Her cheeks turned pink. She didn"t look at them as she grabbed another bottle of water and set it on her bedside. "I thought it was a nice idea."
"Does Abel think it"s a nice idea?" James asked.
"Gwyn"s not the only one with strong feelings about grat.i.tude."
Elise frowned at the baby in her hands. His face flexed in sleep, nose wrinkling, lips twisting.
"You can take time to think about it," Rylie added.
"Yeah, sure," Elise said. "G.o.dparents. Fine."
The Alpha giggled. "You sound so enthusiastic."
"I planned on keeping an eye on him anyway. Might as well attach a name to it."
Rylie immediately stopped laughing. "You"re keeping an eye on him? Are you worried about him? Why? What"s wrong?"
"Nothing," Elise said. "You have a very healthy baby. He"ll grow up fine. I guess you could say I have strong feelings about duty, just like you do about grat.i.tude." She held him out. "You want him back?"
"In a second." Rylie crawled back into bed and shifted her millions of pillows around. James helped fluff the ones behind her head. "Are you guys staying for very long? I have so many questions about what"s changed and why." She looked embarra.s.sed. "Secretary Friederling has been calling me."
Amus.e.m.e.nt twisted James"s lips. "Has he, now?"
"The OPA is starting this new council. They want to write a new treaty between angels, demons, humans, and I guess gaeans. Since werewolves are the biggest gaean species, and I"m the Alpha..." Rylie rolled her eyes. "Well, you know. I"m supposed to get involved."
"You could do well at politics," James said.
Elise nodded. "Better you than me."
"But you"re the one who knows everything," Rylie said, almost desperately. "I mean, you set it all up."
"The fewer people who know that, the better. Besides, I"m not gaean. James and I are both human now. Normal people. They"ll need someone special like you to help." Rylie looked like she wanted to keep arguing, but Elise cut her off. The baby was starting to squirm. "Can you take him back now? I"m done holding him."
Mischief sparked in Rylie"s eyes. "It depends."
"On what?"
"Can you talk to Secretary Friederling? Just, like, give him an anonymous phone call and answer a few questions?"
Elise lifted her eyebrows at Rylie. Was the Alpha actually using Elise"s discomfort with babies to try to talk her into dealing with the OPA?
"Please, ladies. Infants aren"t methods of advanced interrogation." James took him from Elise, settling the baby easily into the crook of one arm. "Rylie, we"ve decided that we prefer to lay low for now. We"d appreciate your respect in this matter."
She sighed and sagged against the pillows. "Yeah, okay. I wouldn"t mind a little more information, though. Maybe just a bullet point list of the "nudges" you gave the universe when it was remade?"
Elise sighed, stepping to the window. A yellow moon was cresting over the trees. "I"m not sure what I did. I don"t remember everything."
"Really?"
"I can tell you that there are no more G.o.ds. No higher power watching over everyone. n.o.body to go crazy and take it out on the entire universe, and no more geneses. This is it." Elise turned from the window. "The less intervention, the better."
Rylie considered this for a moment. She nodded slowly. "That"s actually kind of a relief." After a beat, she added, "And don"t worry, I won"t give Secretary Friederling your phone number. a.s.suming you even have one." The unspoken question hung between them.
They seemed to have lost James in the conversation. He was swaying, watching the baby sleeping in his arms. "We do have an answering machine." Elise plucked a business card out of James"s shirt pocket. It was plain white with black numbers stamped in the center. "If you need me, just leave a message."
Rylie took it. "Thank you." She set it on the side table then tilted her head to the side to give Elise a long look. "You know, I think I liked you better with the black hair."
Elise touched the thick braid hanging over her shoulder reflexively. She kept forgetting that she looked human again. Even after so many months walking around in her old skin, she was still shocked every time she looked in the mirror. "You"re probably the only one who thinks that. But thanks. I miss it." She swallowed hard. "I miss a lot of things."
Judging by Rylie"s expression, she understood completely.
"Just so you know, I"m happy for you," Rylie said. "Really, really happy. You deserve a break."
"You do too." Elise sat down on the bed and rested her hand on Rylie"s. "I"m sorry I didn"t turn you human when I brought you back. I could have, but it didn"t seem right."
"I"m not sure I would have been all that grateful about it anyway." Rylie smiled tremulously. "Someone needs to keep the pack in line, right?"
"And all the other shifters to come," Elise said.
Before Rylie could ask what she meant, the door opened. Abel stepped inside. He was still wearing his tuxedo, but the jacket was gone and his tie was undone. Considering that Seth and Anthony had been trying to drain an entire keg into him, he looked pretty well put together.
Elise tensed, but Abel"s usual temper was nowhere in sight. He didn"t seem surprised or bothered to see them visiting with Rylie.
"Hey," he grunted. "You done yet? Rylie needs to rest."
"I think so," Elise said, stepping back to let James pa.s.s the baby over to Abel.
Rylie looked like she wasn"t done at all. Elise could practically see all the questions caught on her tongue, and those questions were only going to multiply in the coming years. Why did you do everything you did? What"s going to happen? What am I supposed to do with all this responsibility?
"The wedding was lovely," James said. "Thank you for having us."
Another grunt from Abel. Once he was holding his baby, it was like n.o.body else in the room existed.
Together, Rylie and Abel seemed to glow.
Elise headed for the exit. She didn"t need to see them together like this. It was a private moment, a family thing, and she didn"t belong in the room.
James lingered a few steps behind her, slightly more reluctant to leave. "By the way-what did you name your new son?"
Elise kept walking. She didn"t need to wait for the answer because she already knew it.
James knew his name, too, but he just couldn"t resist asking.
Rylie"s soft response drifted through the doorway as Elise headed out of the cottage.
"We named him Benjamin."