Page 57 of House of Kallan
Idris wrapped his arm around Calix’s shoulders. “She’s coming and I promise, she’ll be well worth the wait.”
Calix smiled and nodded. “I know. The wait sucks.”
It did. But when it was over? Yep, I’d wait a thousand years for Tatum. I’d wait all over again. But thankfully, the wait was over. She was here. She was ours.
Tatum
The dayI got back to the office, I’d only had a moment to pop into our new orphan wing on the third floor with the caged monsters. One of our mothers was going into labor, and it wasn’t looking good for either of them. The labor was long and complicated, and though both survived it, I spent a lot of time with them as they struggled through those first few hours.
As I was headed to the third floor, another mother went into labor, so I was called away again. The second one was less traumatizing than the first, but it wasn’t quick and easy either. However, both mother and child were doing remarkably better than the first.
By the time I was finished with both, it was late, and I was ready to head home, so I checked in on the babies and then left, swearing to them they would have almost my entire undivided attention the following day. The only thing scheduled was the meeting between Lydia, Tate, and the family who were matched to potentially take them home. Lydia had asked me to attend with her, and I couldn’t say no. I didn’t want to say no.
The next morning, I stopped at the nurse’s station first. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s talk about the orphans in cages. Whatdo you know?”
She held up a binder and then handed it to me. “I don’t know why they were keeping written notes, but they’ve been most helpful. Although most notes were written based on awful ‘trials,’ as they called them, they have been useful in letting us know what their basic needs are.”
I flipped through the book and frowned at some of the words that stuck out.Affixation. High heat. Pressure. Voltage.
Shuddering, I closed it and looked at the nurse again. She gave me a sympathetic look. “It’s worse than you think,” she said quietly. “But they seem to be doing okay. I don’t see any lasting effects but… one of the older kids in there, on the top left of the room, he tells a very interesting story I think might explain why and I’m curious to know what you think.”
Raising a brow, I asked, “What kind of story?”
“With all due respect, I don’t want to influence your thoughts, so I’d rather you hear it from him first-hand,” she said.
I nodded. “Okay. What else?”
“We’ve fed them all and they have fresh bottles of water.” She bit her lip. “I’d like to get them out of those cages soon. I hate that they’re in there.”
“Me too.”
As I was turning away, I looked up to find Toby walking down the hall with a wide grin on his face. However, I couldn’t help but notice the wary looks that the nurses were giving him.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hey.” I gripped his hand for a minute. “What’s wrong?”
Toby shook his head. “Nothing.” He looked around and then met my eyes again. “Can I help? Can I tag along with you today? I promise not to get in the way.”
The nurse I was just speaking to frowned. Toby saw it and gave her a wide smile. “I swear, I wasn’t trying to be obnoxious. I was looking for Tatum before I knew who I was looking for, so yeah… I was probably a lot in the way.”
I chuckled and took his hand in mine. “You can hang withme today. But if I need you to sit out, you have to find somewhere else to go until I’m free again. Okay?”
“Yes, absolutely!”
“Good luck,” the nurse said. I wasn’t sure if she was referring to the kids or Toby.
“We’re heading into the orphan room.” I nodded in the direction. “These are the kids that Hawthorn and his friends retrieved two nights ago.”
“The ones in cages,” Toby said.
I nodded.
We stepped inside. The room was already quiet as the many eyes looked at me. “Good morning,” I greeted. “This is my,” I paused and decided to go with the simplest answer, “husband, Toby. He’s going to spend the day with us.”
Toby beamed, but his smile faded as he looked around the room.
“Let’s start with some basics. Do you need anything at all? Are you hungry? Cold? Hot?”
