Page 20 of Valley of the Shadow
Well, notherroom. Her room was going to be in an isolated cabin in the middle of nowhere where she couldn’t see any of her human friends or family because she could easily lose control and kill them.
So that sounded fun.
Natalie turned the corner and nearly ran into Brigid Connor, Carwyn’s wife, who was wearing a leather jacket, black shoulder holsters, and ripped-up jeans.
Yes. Perfect person.
“Hi!” Natalie said.
“Hello.” Brigid smiled politely.
“Want to get a horse and ride into town so I can get a tattoo from a guy who tattoos people in his kitchen?”
Brigid stared at her for a long time. “Feck yeah, that sounds like savage craic.”
“I don’t know what that means, but you should definitely come along.”
“Well done.” She put her hand on Natalie’s shoulder. “Let’s get the girls.”
Chapter Six
Baojia burst into the living room. “Where are they?”
Lucien looked up from the book he was reading by the fire. “If you’re referring to our wives and partners, I believe they have all ridden into town to accompany your wife on her tattoo adventure.”
He shook his head. This was what he got for being the responsible one who put the children to bed. Granted, it was his turn, but leave it to Natalie to take advantage of his absence to do something ridiculous.
“Did you not want her to get one?” Carwyn looked over his shoulder. The children had decorated the Christmas tree just after sundown, but since they were all short, the upper level of the tree was more than a little naked. “I’d get one if I could. Wish it had been traditional when I was human.”
Carwyn was redistributing ornaments from the lower three feet of the tree to the higher branches while Lucian and Giovanni read. Matt was browsing a picture album on the coffee table. Baojia walked over and helped Carwyn with the tree. “She’s just… impulsive. God knows what she’s going to get.”
“It’s her body,” Giovanni said. “She’s the one who’ll have to live with it.”
“Unless she gets it someplace she can’t see and he can.” Carwyn grinned. “That’d be an excellent joke.”
“I really don’t agree,” Baojia muttered.
Giovanni put down his book. “I have a feeling that Baojia is having a harder time with the idea of change than the actual tattoo.”
He turned and looked at the collection of men around him. Giovanni looking superior. Carwyn looking up for anything. Matt, who appeared amused. And Lucien, an island of calm and reason.
Baojia turned to Lucien. “She’s facing enormous changes, and I don’t think she realizes how much this is going to alter her life.”
“Of course not,” he said. “How could she possibly understand that?”
“But she has flatly refused to seek human treatment for the cancer.”
Matt cleared his throat. “Baojia, why would she?”
Carwyn walked around the tree and stood next to Baojia. The large man was an affectionate person, but he didn’t touch Baojia, which he appreciated.
“It was always going to happen,” Carwyn said. “You’d both planned on it.”
“Not this soon,” he said quietly. “Not when the children—”
“They’ll miss her,” Giovanni said. “But in the long run, her changing now might be easier than when they’re older.”
“How?” Baojia was trying not to lose his temper. “How will it possibly be easier?” All these men save for Matt had experienced exactly or nearly exactly what he was experiencing now—the transition of their wives or partners from human to immortal. “How is it easier now when the children are so young?”
