I didn't sleep that night, thinking about what needed to be done.
Silas wouldn't agree to it at all. It was far too soon to give him the time to grieve and move on. Hell, even I wanted to mourn, but I knew that I didn't have time for that.
I needed to build our family back up as soon as possible.
He wanted kids, and lots of them too, but there was no way he was going to be forced into having them. While I was like this, he could easily escape me by hiding inside the house.
I didn't want him to hate me either. We had worked hard to make this relationship the way it was now, but I was getting desperate.
I could lure him out and keep him where I wanted him; really lean into the predatory side of my demons form. He had a prosthetic leg I could even take advantage of.
For now, all I could do was free Sadie and rebury her bones in the grave Silas made for her.
It was some sort of compromise between both our methods.
When I turned from the grave I saw Avery in his black pyjamas standing by the fenceline, just watching me. 293Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqojo7nU2u3
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The little white spots on his clothing looked like the stars in the night's sky. 293Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvABXA6PkF2
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He held onto a small brown bear that had two blue button eyes. 293Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI1zSgkTvKz
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He hadn't clung to that thing since he was a baby.
"I couldn't sleep" he spoke up when I approached him "can I sit with you?"
"You can" I smiled down to him and settled at the fence so Avery could nestle himself between my front legs and stare up at the stars.
"When demons die, do they go up there too?" he pondered "like the humans?"
What had him questioning this? I guess I had never discussed death with them before either. Silas must have for this new sudden curiosity.
"We don't" I wrapped my arms around him to keep him warm "when a demon dies, their souls pass into the next baby born in the family."
"Really?" he frowned up at me but then gasped in excitement "so Knox and Jayce and Paisley and everyone will come back?"
"Not exactly" I shook my head with a smile at his innocence "when I was a kid, my mother told me that the spirits are swallowed and absorbed into the life that creates the babies. The spirits of those who passed helped the new ones live. They won't bring back your brothers and sisters, but they will guide new ones into this life."
Avery sighed. He shifted in my arms and looked up at me again.
"Are we supposed to eat the others? Is that what you were doing at Sadie's grave?"
So he had seen that.
"When they are dead, yes. It helps their spirits pass on into new ones."
He wrinkled his nose at me and turned back to the stars.
"I don't know if I could eat the others" he mumbled and hugged the bear tighter "they might taste bad."
I let out a giggle and squeezed Avery into a hug he melted into.
"You don't have to worry about that until you are much older" I reassured him "that's only for the adults to worry about, OK?"
He nodded, looping my fur in his twining fingers.
"Dad?" he spoke up again.
"Yes?"
"I was scared today" he held onto me now "the most scared I've ever been."
I heard him sniffle. I laid my head next to him, seeing Avery bury his tears into my fur so I didn't have to see them.
"I was too" I breathed to him.
His head turned so I could see a glimmering eye.
"R-really?"
I nodded, feeling my own tears brimming back up.
"I was scared I'd lose all of you. And I was especially scared about coming home to nobody here. I was putting on a tough face, but I was as scared as you were."
"I thought you died too" Avery gripped my arm and snuggled his head down into it "you were gone for so long."
My poor baby was shivering. I held him close, checking the silent landscape while he was so vulnerable.
"Someone had to make sure the bad guys didn't follow us" I reassured him.
"Bad guys?" he sniffled and faced me again, turning his whole body this time "there was only uncle Reid."
What did I tell him? That humans turned up to take away his siblings? That they tried to numb me with darts? That could lead him to hate them, maybe even his own father. 293Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPFCPrpz1TJ
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But there had been more than just Reid. Avery hadn't seen it, but he didn't deserve some lie to sweep it all away.
I just stroke his head that I pressed back down into my body.
"Daddy took care of it" I simply said.
Avery didn't question it further. He rolled over so he could gaze up at the sky.
I wanted to share this moment with him, but I was too afraid something was lurking in the darkness. If I tilted my head upwards like that, it'd leave my whole neck exposed. I wouldn't be able to keep Avery safe.
"Dad, look" he pointed.
I glanced up to see a blinking red light swimming across the sky. It had his whole attention through its effortless path.
"That's a plane" I shook my head with a smile down to him.
"It could be a really slow shooting star" he grinned to me while I kept my eyes glued to the treeline on either side of us.
"Dad said that you can see bears and cups in the sky too" Avery piped up to try and get my attention "he said he saw a man that was half a horse once! And... and he carried a giant bow!"
Silly Silas and his constellations. He had the poor boy so confused it was amusing.
"Can we find the bear, Dad?" he pleaded "please? Then I can tell the new Knox that I found it. He likes bears."
I had to keep him safe. I didn't have time to play silly star-gazing games. Something could happen and it would be totally avoidable.
"Dad" Avery whined and reached for my face I lifted away from him.
Maybe I could indulge in a little bit of stargazing. My own father was absent from my life, and my only memories of my mother were her doing what I was now, silently keeping watch while I played without her. 293Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkwidxLQ5g
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She was the security I needed, but not someone I could could on to just let down her guard and play.
I wanted that so badly back then, and it was a special occasion when she did give in for just a moment. Now I was denying Avery the same thing because I was too paranoid of the dark.
"Don't move" I warned him as I rose.
He clutched his bear and sat there in the grass while I stood over him, pondering.
Then, I had it.
I dribbled out webs from my mouth to spread them across the ground. My body helped spread them along the grass, all the way across in a semi circle around Avery and the fence. 293Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1nEcMEZVaE
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The grass glistened like a reflection of the sky he was waiting to explore.
"Place your hands on the strands" I told Avery from the edge of the coating "can you feel this?"
I plucked at the one I finished smoothing down, and then another further across. I saw him gasp and nod when I moved to the right and pulled at another.
If anything stepped within this radius, I would know. I could hunt the skies with my son and keep us safe at the same time.
I laid back down around Avery while smothering the ends of the webs under my legs. He snuggled into me again as both of us gazed upwards.
There was no order to the stars. It was all just splatters of twinkling pinholes that seemed to disappear wherever I spotted one. The whole right side of the sky was in eternal darkness until I gazed over in the hunt for a bear.
"This is a bit tricky" I chuckled "I'm not the best one to be doing this with."
"I think you are" Avery smiled and squinted upwards "I'm not seeing it."
"Me either" I laughed to him "you sure one even exists up there?"
Avery hummed as he searched, pointing to a splatter.
"There!"
There was no special alignment here. Just.... something.
What even was it?
"I see a.... bunch of spilled cereal" I grinned to his enthusiasm "like when someone gets too heavy-handed with the box."
"Well, it's obviously a bunch of trees where the bear is hiding" Avery retorted.
Obviously.
"I see... a...." I sighed, trying to figure out what whimsical thing it could be.
I was so out of touch with this sort of thing. I hadn't played pretend since I was a kid. There was no need for childish things as an adult.
"Witchity grubs!" I gasped and pointed "big, fat ones crawling everywhere!"
"Eww!" Avery squealed out and squirmed when I gnawed into his side with my mandibles, pinching so delicately at his clothing.
His little squeals rang out into the night. His hands pushed on my face while he was too weak with laughter to stop me.
What a beautiful sound. I was worried I'd never hear it again.
"Dad! DAD!" he snorted and wriggled free from me to stand there "I'll wake everyone up!"
"Well then, you'd better laugh quieter!" I roared and leapt over him and pushed him to the ground to continue my nibbling along his sides.
Avery tried to hold in his laughter that came out in a piercing squeal. He snorted and wriggled, but I pulled him back from freedom.
Suddenly, lights flooded the yard and the back door slammed open.
"AVERY?" Silas called out in panic.
"Dad?" he lifted his head up as I did.
I saw Silas standing by the gate in the fence, kitchen knife gripped in one hand. He dropped it to the ground before storming over to pull Avery from under me and smack the grass from his pyjamas, pointing a finger at him.
"I told you to stay in bed" Silas warned him sternly "what are you doing, screaming like that? I thought something was happening to you!"
"I was just having fun, Dad" Avery dropped his voice in shame, lowering his head.
"Go. Bed" Silas ordered him with a push towards the fence, watching him leave before turning on me.
"I had it under control" I told him "nothing was going to happen."
"We have just lost eight of our children" Silas hissed to me "I am stressed, I am tired, I can't even think straight, and I hear Avery screaming like that? What do you think is going through my mind, Quinton? That it's all fun and games?" he let out a frustrated sigh to me and turned back for the house "I can't believe you."
"I had it sorted!" I called back "do you think I'd let something happen after everything?"
Silas pulled the knife from the grass with a scowl at me.
"When you fix this up" he waved a finger at my whole body "then we will talk about things happening" he bit back and slammed the gate shut, sighing on the other side "bed! Go!"
I heard Avery whine before his voice was drowned out by the door shutting once more, the lights plunging me back into darkness.
I turned back to the stars alone and continued my hunt for the bear, hoping at least I would have done something right when morning came to wash them away.293Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7qScFWZHO1
