AN:  any of you sneaky Latin studiers, forgive any mistranslations, I went through three or four different sources getting different answers and finally just picked one.

Warnings: Lots of Descriptions and some serious Info Dumping (To me, that's a warning), Language, Injury Recovery, Past Trauma, Guilt, Self-Loathing

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*Reader's POV*

Levi was unconscious the rest of that day, through the night, and at least into the start of the next day. Not even the twins starting to cry with whatever need or an overly excited or anxious to be let out Captain yipping his little demands could wake the recovering man up. However, since he'd almost died, you weren't exactly complaining about it–as long as he was unconscious, he wasn't pushing to move before he was actually ready to be moved, and he was making a fairly swift recovery. After the antivenom kicked in, the rest of his healing abilities seemed to be acting at a rapid pace to heal the other injuries faster than the venomous bite. The random scratches, slashes, and other claw marks across his body disappeared first, and by the start of the next day, the slashes across his face had turned to angry red healing scars. Even now they were making slow progress through the stages of scarring, heading gradually towards a full recovery with no visible marks.

Since the rest seemed to be doing him some good, and Furlan had said he would need it, even if he normally slept through the twins and Captain and everything else going on, you tried to be quiet and avoid disturbing him, letting him rest. While you waited, you simply cared for everyone's needs, planned the best route to the address Levi gave you, and of course monitored his progress.

The only thing that bothered you, besides the ever growing period of unconsciousness that kept you all in one place when he'd been adamant you needed to move until you reached the safe house, was that mark on his chest. It was the only thing that seemed to be getting worse while everything else was getting better. It was more prominent, an angry red, looking like it was burned into his chest recently, even though it had been slowly gaining prominence as time passed without any outwards interference.

What the hell was that?

Probably another demon thing you didn't understand that Levi wasn't going to talk about, but you were still curious. Maybe some google searching. Maybe there was a book somewhere in Levi's library that had the symbol. Then again, who knew how long it was going to be before you could go back to the house. Perhaps you'd luck out and the next house would have a library as well, and considering it would be his personal library, maybe there would be some answers in there, to something that you didn't yet know.

Thoughts like that could wait, though. Right now you were in charge of an unconscious demon and two infants, well aware that something was after you, and that Levi had taken you all to run, and you stopped running halfway to the safehouse. You'd already almost been at the hotel for a day and had to pay for another night with Levi's black card, but hopefully he would wake up soon and you wouldn't have to be here for two full days. Even you felt an urgency, a need to leave sooner rather than later. Furlan or Isabel might have been here to keep an eye on you and make sure you were safe if they hadn't been busy doing who knew what trying to make it safe to head back to the house.

Thankfully, late into the evening that next day, Levi finally stirred, catching your attention after some rather tiring several hours of play with the twins. You caught the shifting on the bed almost instantly, making sure the space on the floor for the twins to crawl around on was free of anything dangerous and Captain was too preoccupied napping on the other bed before you moved over to Levi's side. You sat carefully on the side of the bed as Levi's head turned, face scrunched up in pain before he started trying to open his eyes, flinching against the light and disorientation.

You waited patiently for him to wake up and come to full awareness, just in case he was simply stirring and wasn't quite ready to wake up yet. However, he kept making his little at a time progress, rousing gradually until at long last his eyes focused on you. He still looked a little bleary, but he was for sure able to see you and focused on you.

You could see gears turning in his head, his mind trying to catch him up to the present and fill in the gaps, a hand running along the basic hotel bedding. Once he felt that, something about it seemed to tip him off about the current situation, because he took in a sharp breath and tried to sit up with a pained moan.

"Where are we–?" he started to ask before his voice gave way to the moan. You pushed him gently back down onto the bed, not needing to use much strength to do so given his current state.

"We had to stop somewhere. Don't move, you still need rest–" you tried to tell him, but Levi continued to push to try and sit up.

"We can't be here, we need to be at the house." He continued to protest, trying to push you off him, but he was in no shape to do so, and you were determined not to let him hurt himself further.

"Levi, I know. But you almost died, and would have if I hadn't stopped and called Isabel and Furlan," you said firmly, raising your voice enough to talk over him and get his attention. "And you're still not well enough to be moved. When you are, sure, I'll break all the traffic laws to get us there, but for now, you have to rest. The twins need their father, Levi, you can't risk yourself like that."

He continued to be stubborn, all the way up until the moment you pointed out that the twins needed him. Something in his eyes shifted, including some guilt, and he finally settled back down, albeit slowly and reluctantly. Letting out a small sigh of relief, you helped him ease back down into a comfortable position, patting his arm fairly awkwardly in an attempt to show some reassurance.

"Rest," you stressed, easing over slightly on the bed so you could start setting the alarm clock for the closest time to dawn that you could fathom. The twins would /not/ be happy at the rude awakening, but you would just have to deal with it when it happened. "At the rate you've been healing, you will probably be good to move around dawn. If you really can't wait and we absolutely have to, I suppose we can make late in the night or in the early hours before the sun rises work," you murmured.

You were about to get up, but you turned back to look at him, expression softening slightly. "For what it's worth...thank you for looking out for us. But next time remember that the twins have to have their father around. You can't make gambles you're almost guaranteed to lose like what you tried to do the other night. You weren't going to make it, and someone should have known sooner so you had a better chance than slim to none. And I'm going to be mad at you about that for a while."

Levi arched a brow slightly at your statement, but he wasn't arguing–not at the moment. You'd certainly made your point with him bringing in the twins to your argument, pointing out that risking himself like that, while noble, was recklessly stupid when he was a necessity for the twins going forward. He was the one who knew the ins and outs with the currently dormant nature of the twins, the one with all the knowledge on what was happening and would happen, and the one with the ability to protect the twins from these threats that had just become very real to you.

You got up from the bed, moving over to make sure you could see where Ida was army crawling off to, her brother on his hands and knees and wiggling in frustration, stuck in place and not yet figuring out how the crawling thing worked. "Besides, I don't think any of us want to be stuck in this motel room much longer. I'd feel a lot better behind private walls with a lot more space than this," you murmured, letting the silence linger a few moments longer before you turned to address Levi directly again. "I know you probably won't answer, but what's that mark–"

You cut off halfway through your sentence when, upon turning, you found he'd slipped back into unconsciousness. You really should have expected that. He hadn't been awake this whole time, and he used up so much energy struggling against you as soon as he woke up? Of course he was going to burn out so fast he'd fall back asleep.

Or he was faking it to avoid answering your question, which was possible, but given the situation, the first option was more likely.

Still...you were rather certain he wouldn't have answered you anyway.

Slowly, you let out a small breath, leaning down to pick up Ida and spin her around when she got close to the air unit by the window, not wanting her to mess with anything in that area in her infantile curiosity. Just a little longer, and you could leave to drive this motley crew to the beach house Levi had been trying to take you to in the first place. You could use the fresh air and the sun, after this fiasco, and you were painfully looking forward to it after the accelerated case of cabin fever the motel room had given you with the current dire situation.

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Levi tried to get out of bed late that night, or rather, in the earliest hours of the morning when it was still dark. However, he couldn't do it on his own, and he ended up waking you with the sound of him falling ungracefully off the bed and to the floor, startling you awake and almost startling the twins awake. Thankfully you'd worn them out quite a bit and they were able to stay asleep in their exhausted state.

A rarity with those two. Normally they woke up at the slightest sound. Thankfully, since you had the alarm set, you had the foresight to wear them out in the hopes you might be able to shut off the alarm in the morning before it could wake them up with how tired they were, like a reflex as soon as that first beep sounded.

As soon as the sound of Levi falling out of bed woke you, you were on your feet, momentarily concerned one of the twins might have by some fluke gotten out of their pop out cribs and fallen off the bed. Discovering it wasn't the twins, but actually Levi that fell off a bed, simultaneously brought you a bit of relief and a bit of distress. He'd tried to get up and move around, to move enough and prove that you could leave sooner rather than later, before dawn. Clearly, he hadn't been able to pull that off.

With a bit of grumbling from Levi, you were able to get him into the bed again without a word, both of you knowing that he would have to rest a little longer and wait until dawn to try again. There was no point in reinforcing it if you both already knew what this meant. At least he had the reassurance that you were at least going to make sure you were both out of here by dawn. Which also meant that you were most likely going to have to all but carry him to the car in the morning so you could all leave.

Well...it was better than nothing.

You went right back to sleep after Levi was back in bed, hoping he was doing the same since you had to get up again in only a couple hours. It wasn't so much as sleeping as it was a power nap before you woke up, you mind, thankfully, waking you up just before the alarm thanks to a well-embedded hatred of that God-awful beeping noise that apparently was so strong your brain was willing to rouse you from a dead sleep moments before to make sure you wouldn't hear it. Now awake, you laid in bed for a few moments longer, letting yourself slowly wake up and gathering the will to get out of bed despite the early hour.

When you finally managed to get up, the first thing you did was let Captain out to go about his business and pack what bags you could back into the car, coming back to the room to clean up and go about the condensed version of your morning routine as quickly as possible, pack up what remained, and then start getting the others awake to change, eat in the babies cases, and get in the car.

The twins came first, both of them gently woken up, changed, cleaned up, and got before you situated them in the car seat carriers again with a toy each, waiting on the bed for you to get Levi into the car, first.

You found him not asleep like you'd hoped, but awake and staring at the wall, apparently waiting for you to finish running around so he could get his help and you all could finally leave. His gaze shifted to you when he approached, started to push himself up with a muttered, "Finally."

You wound your arms through his and proceeded to lift him up before he could do anything else, not wanting him to push himself too much too soon since you were probably moving him before he was ready–physically, anyway. Once there you slung his other arm over your shoulders like in the movies and attempted to walk forward with him, the attempt turning out harder to do than you'd anticipated, especially when Levi was still shaky, and apparently a bit heavier than he looked. He might have been slight, but you knew for a fact he had some muscle mass to him.

Levi grumbled under his breath in a language you didn't recognize, though considering the tone and the fact he was staring down at his feet made you think he was probably cursing about his lack of mobility. You didn't comment on it, letting him mumble to himself in peace whenever he was particularly struggling and simply focusing on getting everyone to the beach house sometime today. Once there, Levi could hopefully properly rest without much fuss until he was actually recovered.

Getting Levi into the car was surprisingly trickier than getting the twins in, the entire ordeal awkward and involving awkward moments of bumping against each other while you both shifted around. Eventually, you got Levi in the seat and buckled in, claiming the driver's seat with a relieved huff and glad to finally be back on the road.

It was about as chaotic as last time, but with less near death experiences. The twins were restless and grouchy, tired of being in a car seat and cramped spaces, Captain wouldn't stop whining and pacing in the back, and Levi was in and out of consciousness, sometimes looking like he was still in pain, albeit a milder form of what it had been. You still had quite a bit of a trip to make since Levi had lost consciousness fairly quickly on the first try, something he remarked at the first exit he saw that told him where you were in relation to your destination. Considering the house was on the coast, however, you weren't complaining, you'd expected as much. Your internal complaint was when the twins got grumpy enough to start cry screaming and kicking, wanting out of the carseats.

It was...a long trip. And needless to say, by the time you reached the address Levi gave you, you were mentally exhausted and ready to call it quits for the day.

Of course, seeing this 'cottage' he'd told you was your destination was a bit of a wake up call.

You'd been driving along the coast in perfect view of the ocean, windows rolled down to give you that fresh ocean breeze and hopefully cool and calm you down before arriving. You hadn't paid any attention to the houses you were passing besides looking at the numbers next to gates on walls of various materials, not looking up at the houses within as you tried to find the house number that matched the address displayed on the maps in Levi's phone.

When you finally found the house number, 23, you came to a stop at the gate, and Levi tapped your shoulder to get your attention, handing you a set of run-of-the-mill keys, four or five on one ring with different colors.

"Brown is the gate. Black's the garage. Red is the front door," Levi told you in a gruff voice that suggested he might have been asleep a few seconds ago. Or something close, anyway.

You took the keys from him and got out of the car, heading up to the gate to unlock it and let the car through. As you grabbed onto the wrought-iron bars of the gate and looked up at the house, you were dumbfounded by what you saw.

Hadn't he said this was a cottage, not another damn mansion? At least, it was a mansion by your standards from what you could already see. A four story adobe house, with what looked like some kind of top floor open balcony deck like space between two parts of the house, like the towers on the Notre Dame, except this was on the same story, and it was just one floor, not multiple. But the balcony deck space was wedged between the enclosed rooms on the right and the left, the enclosed space on the left appearing slightly larger than the right and suggesting another room or two from what you could see, open pergola covers of white wood over most of the deck space that stood out against the blue sky and the bright sunlight.

The drive itself was grand, far more than the one at the house you'd just come from. Instead of gravel it looked to be a paved, polished, smooth stone pathway leading all the way up to the grand entrance, and off to the side where there seemed to be a separate, smaller building acting as a garage perpendicular to the side of the house. Undoubtedly, that was where you were going next, though it was hard to tear your eyes from the four story house and the winding front garden and stone work and trees that seemed to take up the space inside the enclosed fence that wasn't being used for the three car wide drive up to the house.

As you got in the car, you stopped to stare at Levi, who looked at you in what seemed like mild irritation since you were stopping so close to the finish line. "What?"

"I thought you said this was a cottage," you said quietly, easing slightly onto the gas to start the car moving as you turned your head forward again to guide the car within the gate.

"Have you seen the other houses on this beach? Compared to them, it is. You're not going to find any small two bedroom house on the good beaches like this, it's all going to be huge sprawling estates. At least this isn't some ridiculous twelve bedroom nine bathroom house like the one three down. Seven bedroom four and a half bathroom is still a bit much, but, it turns out we'll need the space when the twins get older and want their own rooms...and I'm not even using all the rooms in this house."

"Seven bedrooms?" you echoed, looking up at the four story house with a weak feeling in your knees.

Cottage?

There was no way this place could pass for a cottage. And he still called the twelve bedroom mansion a house. So what counted as a mansion for him? A castle?

You drove the car forward enough to clear the gate, got out to lock it behind you–wondering why he didn't have the automatic sliding gate if he had so much money and why it was all still manual right down to the locks and opening it up–and then got back into the car to drive up to the garage. This one there was a fob with the key to open the garage door, allowing you to stay in the car and pull inside. There was another car in the second parking spot, though it was covered with a sheet so you couldn't see what it was. On the far end was a regular door, which you assumed the garage key was to, for you to exit closer to the house once everything was closed up.

You got everything shut down in the car and let out a small sigh, leaning your head back for a second and trying to relax to ease the tension headache you had pulsing through your head with all the screaming the twins had been doing and the yapping from Captain.

"Will you be okay if I leave the twins in here with you until I get the bags inside?" you asked quietly. "I don't want to leave them unattended in the house while I'm moving everything in."

"Sure."

You opened the door, deciding not to comment on the tired sound since you knew if they got restless and started screaming again, he wouldn't be sleeping. However, you stopped when you realized you were missing a few important details.

"Ah...are any rooms set up ahead of time or is it pick of the litter? Is there a nursery set up, cribs in the rooms, or...?"

"Right...I wasn't planning on...having the twins here until they were one, at least, so, there's a nursery. I can move the cribs up to your room if I need to–"

"Up? My room's on a different floor?" You asked uneasily. As if having to suddenly adjust to them being in another room and not with you wasn't enough, they were on a different floor?

"Yes, but you also have a private staircase directly from your room to their nursery," Levi said pointedly as he started to try and sit up while describing rooms in the house with accompanying hand gestures. "And they're not on the ground level. There's four floors: Ground, which is the floor below the grand staircase entrance, first, second, and third. You and I are on the top floor, on the left side of the house, and your room is the one on the far left. Their nursery is right below your room on the second floor. There's a spiral staircase running up the center of the house. And obviously the entrance starts at the first floor. There's a separate staircase further inside that leads to the ground floor, but...tch, there'll be plenty of time to explore later, you just need the bedrooms," he finished with a small groan, sinking back into the seat with a slight grimace.

"Our rooms on the top floor on the left, the twins on the second right below. My room on the left, yours on the right...okay...okay...that's a lot of stairs. Do you think you can make it?"

"We'll worry about that later, just...go," he admonished, waving you away with a hand as he started some purposeful, shallow breaths that was obviously meant to try and manage the pain somehow.

Right. The sooner you got everyone out of the car and into the house, the better.

Getting out of the car, you went around to the back and opened it up, letting a relieved Captain out and setting him on the ground since he was still too small to be jumping that distance before you grabbed your bag and Levi's bag. You got them into a rolling position to make your life much easier going up four flights of stairs, and left the garage to head for the looming mansion in front of you, feeling intimidated by the sheer size of this house and the possibilities of what could be inside.

For some reason, you doubted you would get to decorate this one. The first one had felt like yours, this one felt...different. At least for now.

Captain ran off to go pee on a bush, and you let the puppy run around in the fenced in area, especially since the walls were solid stone, and the spaces between the bars of the gate were thin enough you were fairly confident he wouldn't be able to wiggle through. Or at least wouldn't be interested enough to put in the effort to wiggle through if all his people were heading in the opposite direction.

The grand staircase you had to climb to go up to the large entrance made you feel even smaller, the sheer size of the house now looming over you as you counted the steps up to the next floor, one, two...seven...twelve...seventeen steps until you reached the grand entryway, the porch a large half circle with two columns standing in front of the door to support the half moon outcropping roof over the large double doors. Two porch lights of a translucent stone looking material in half-cup shapes were currently unlit on either side of the doors, though you were certain they could light up this entire area. The wheels of the suitcases had clacked all the way up the stone steps, and now rolled loudly along the stone entrance, making your heart pound in your chest as you wondered how much more extravagant this house was going to be.

At this rate, you were starting to wonder if he'd been royalty at one point, or if he'd just been really good at saving money and accruing interest over however many centuries he'd lived. Surely that added up, but you hadn't thought it added up to several mansions just lying around waiting to be used.

Then again, look how much money some people could earn in one lifetime? Who knew how much he had earned throughout several lifetimes?

You were now just standing in front of the double doors staring at them with trepidation, the hands holding the keys shaking slightly as you mentally scolded yourself to just open the damn door. The twins were restless and wanted out of the car, but you couldn't do that until you got everyone's stuff put away, and with four flights of stairs to go up and the layout of a strange new house to take in, it was going to take a little bit already.

Behind you, the clatter of something thin and metal against stone caught your attention, and you looked back to see little Captain struggling up the seventeen steps behind you, the name tag the source of the noise every time it jangled against the stone on the way up. You sighed as the puppy came close to you, bigger but not nearly as big as he would eventually be, and eager to go inside with one of his people.

You couldn't delay forever. You had to go through. Sooner rather than later, too, since Levi was hurt and probably wanted to lie down and rest, and the twins had already reached their limit of being cramped. They were all waiting on you.

Trying to brace yourself for whatever opulence awaited you, you held your breath, used the red key to open the lock, and opened one of the double doors to step inside.

Immediately you were met with a grand sight, squinting slightly at the different kind of light that filled this space. It was gleaming white marble on white walls with a dark reddish brown polished wood railing and top part of the steps. The front sides were white, and the metal bars connecting railing to stairs were shining brass, making up what you counted as a large spiral staircase that went all the way up. In this immediate vicinity, though, it was a round room entrance with a curved staircase on the left that led up to a landing on the second–no, the third floor, though if you looked straight up, you could see another curved staircase leading up from above you on the right to what you assumed was another landing on the top floor in what seemed like a perfect circle upwards, like it was climbing a tower instead of heading up through the center of the house. Down through the center hung a rather simplistic but gorgeous crystal chandelier, hanging just below the second floor. Straight across from the entrance was a pair of double doors that were open to show a roomy hallway that you thought might have split into two directions. You could hear water somewhere below echoing through the spacious house, but you restrained your curiosity to investigate for now, knowing you had to climb that staircase to the top floor.

It was strange trying to keep track of floors, when you knew there was one below you, and Levi had called this the second floor. Surely down below was just the basement, so why wasn't this the first floor?

You'd figure it out when you got the chance to explore, you supposed.

Not wanting to chip the paint or scratch the wood, you collapsed the rolling handles on both suitcases and picked them up by their fabric handles, lifting one in each hand and starting towards the staircase a few steps from the door.

You took breaks as you climbed, stopping at the landing for a breather so you wouldn't tire yourself out, also taking a moment to look down each end of the hall without really exploring yet. At the first landing, what was apparently the second floor, there was the room to your left, firmly shut with a solid dark wooden door to what had to be the nursery, if your room was above theirs on the left of the top floor. The door was closer to the staircase then you'd thought, and you nervously eyed the open space to the large curved staircase, hoping there were gates somewhere to block it off with your newly minted crawler and soon-to-be crawler. Down the right side of the hall along the left wall there was a cut out open space along the wall that, with a bit of a lean, you could see housed a simple office space with cabinets and drawers in a long dark wood desk, a single desktop computer and a sleek office chair situated near a printer/scanner/copier, and a shredder as well. You were sure there was more, but that was all you could see from this angle.

At the far end of the hall there was an open, round top archway instead of a door, with what looked like a mostly sparse and open room with more light than the rest of the house, and the only piece of furniture you could see being part of a long white couch. Along the right wall were two more doors fairly close together, though you couldn't see what was beyond those two doors since the doors were shut.

One more set of stairs to go. At least you were only going up three flights of stairs, though it was still a lot to be carrying these suitcases up. You weren't looking forward to trying to carry Levi up these stairs to get him to his bedroom...

You made your way up the final flight of stairs, curious to see that the space narrowed in the hallway slightly up here. There was one short hallway that these stairs came to one end of, and at the far end opposite you there was a pale grey wooden door to what you assumed was your room. You moved almost to the end of the open space that was the spiral staircase towards the enclosed hall, and to your immediate left was a pure white door. You paused, wondering if this was Levi's room, and opened it just to double check.

Nope. You'd found...a very opulent master bathroom. It was all white–white marble, white countertops, white amenities, white towels, white everything. Whatever was made of metal was shining silver. Directly across from you was a grand dressing table in a corner, just off to your right at the end of the table was a large white stone drop-in tub that looked like it was deep as well, and on the other side of the stone tub, a second dressing table extended in a straight line towards a murky glass door on the right wall closest to the wall opposite where you were standing. To your immediate left was a clear, streakless glass door that went into a spacious open stone room that had, from what you could see, a stone bench running along all the edges that wasn't in the way of the door, and sparkling silver shower heads fixed strategically around the walls. A shower room–you hadn't seen one of those before. To your immediate right, along the wall that shared the doorway you were standing in, was the countertop with a long mirror affixed over it, a deep marble basin was centered in the middle of the countertop, and on the far other side, in the corner, you could see the toilet.

Quite the bathroom, but not what you were looking for.

You shut the door again and moved a little further down the hall, no other doors along the wall you'd found the bathroom at, but one on your right a little less than halfway down the hall. This was a grey door like the one at the end of the hall, and when you opened it, you assumed you'd at last found Levi's room.

The room was open and sparsely decorated. Directly across from you was a lounge chair of light blue with a dark, polished wood side table beside it, and immediately to your left you could see another dark wooden door leading...somewhere. Likely not a bathroom. To your right, centered in the middle of the wall, was a king sized bed with a cushioned bench at the foot of the bed, nightstands on either side, the bedding whites and pale, sky blues and the wood of the nightstands the usual dark wood as the rest of the décor. The floor in here, however, was a polished slate grey hardwood. There were no dressers or cabinets or anywhere for clothes in here, which you found a little suspicious, but you were distracted by the defining feature of this room.

Leaving the suitcases momentarily sitting by the bedroom door, you walked forward to approach the wall directly across from you, a wall of floor to ceiling glass panes with slender, pale grey metal frames in large sections, allowing for maximized view of the world outside with reinforcement of the glass wall. There were also heavy curtains that could be pulled over each pane, curtains of the same pale blue as the bedding and the lounge chair. Half of the wall on your right was also the glass pane style, except instead of solid glass, there was a double glass door that led to what you could see was the stem of a T balcony. Across from the double glass doors was a similar pair of glass double doors, curtains positioned over both on the inside so privacy could be attained, the handles smooth, slight silver that you could miss if you weren't looking so that it didn't detract too much from the view provided by the glass walls. You could currently peer into the room opposite Levi's, since none of the curtains were pulled, but it seemed to be a mirror of the room over here, though with a bit more space.

But, again, those weren't the main attractions. The mirrored double glass doors led to the stem of the T balcony, small white wicker chairs settled close to the bottom wall between your two rooms with a small white wicker table between them. Extending out to for the top of the T, running from the far left side of your room and past Levi's room to what you assumed was the balcony/top floor deck space you'd observed earlier, was a balcony with a glass wall and silver top railing, giving an almost perfectly unobstructed view of the beach below and the ocean stretching farther than your eyes could see out beyond.

If his room had this view, and yours was a mirror of his, that meant your room had this view. This gorgeous view of the ocean, almost entirely unobstructed by railings for the balcony and the frames for the walls. You got to wake up to this?

You shook your head slightly, moving Levi's suitcase closer to the bed before pausing, realizing again that there were no dressers to put the clothes inside in here for some reason.

Curiously, your gaze wandered towards the dark wooden door that had been at your left when you first entered. Was it perhaps a closet?

Opening the door provided you with the answer that yes, yes it was. Not just any closet, though, a huge walk-in closet with slants towards the ocean facing wall on either end, and a long base that included two counters with marble tops with a gas lamp style chandelier above–not an actual gas lamp, of course, electricity as always, just styled that way–with drawers and hanging racks galore. While the walls and ceiling were still white, the wood in here was an inky black, even the wooden flooring. The side you were standing on had a fair assortment of all kinds of men's clothes from shockingly revealing and flashy to simple casual wear to sharp business suits. Oh yes, you'd found the right place, though looking around, you wondered why he even bothered to pack his own suitcase. Maybe he had some favorites he traveled with, who were you to judge?

The other half of the closet...was bare, save a few clothes that were still in unopened black plastic bags or shoeboxes, things like that. And, as if to confirm the growing suspicion, there was a similar door to the one you entered on the other side, leading to your room.

Not only conjoined by a balcony, but by a walk in closet? You might have to say something to Levi when he was feeling up to it.

You left both suitcases in here to be unpacked later, keeping Levi's suitcase to his side of the walk-in closet and yours to your much more bare side of the closet. You wanted to explore into your room, maybe through the murky glass door in the bathroom as well, but you needed to finish unpacking the car and get its occupants into the house as well. Like Levi said, exploring could wait until later.

Heading back down the staircase, you could hear Captain running around on the marble floors and yipping in excitement as he ran around and explored the first floor, a sound that faded as you headed back out the front door to go grab all of the twins' stuff and bring it to the second floor.

You could tell before you even reached the garage that the twins had reached their limits, screaming at the top of their lungs and able to be heard halfway to the garage. Coming inside, you found Levi awkwardly placed over the console in the front and reaching back trying to sooth them while leaning heavily on the chair he was in, breathing heavily. You went to admonish him, to tell him to lay back down, but that screaming was unbearable, so you understood why he was still trying. He knew what you wanted to tell him, too, because one look at you and he scowled.

"Just hurry up," he muttered, wincing as Ida took a breath for a new shriek of anger, earning more of his attention for the time being. You grimaced at the noise, grabbed the diaper bags and their suitcase with all their stuff all at once, and even shrugged on the small bag with Captain's things, overloading yourself at least to the first floor where you would drop off Captain's things to try and get to letting the twins out sooner and giving Levi a sweet reprieve.

Going back up to the second floor, you got to go through the dark wooden door at the left end of the hall to enter the nursery. Inside, it looked like the soft black carpet was brand new, and you could barely feel the hard surface beneath with how well cushioned it was–clearly it had been repurposed to be a room for babies, most likely recently. It was mostly open for now, two cribs nestled close together along the wall opposite the door, taking center stage with changing tables on the left of the leftmost crib and on the right of the rightmost crib. There were two padded rocking chairs in here, a small bookshelf with children's books in it and a sliding wooden door to cover the books and keep little hands from getting in there and tearing them up before they were old enough to resist doing that–complete with a child lock to keep them from opening it anyway. There was a toybox padded ottoman, just to keep some of the hard surfaces and edges away from their room, a large playmat, and plenty of space for potential. There was plenty of room to make this a room for two children all the way up until they started to diverge in tastes and it was no longer fitting to keep them in the same room anymore. But at least for a while, it would be able to fit all kinds of things. Tables, toy boxes, bulky playhouses and stations, bunk beds, all of it. And while it didn't have the amazing view your room had above, there was still a bay window facing the ocean, complete with a padded bench seat with two soft throw pillows and no way to open it, thankfully, so it wouldn't become a safety hazard.

You didn't have much time to oogle the space, and it didn't immediately hit you that you hadn't seen the doorway for the staircase Levi said would lead from your room to theirs. Instead, you were focused on getting them up here and into the cribs at least until you could get Levi situated in his room and their stuff unpacked. Then you could let them out to relax and play and finally have ample open space to crawl around in with supervision.

Back down the stairs and out the door again, Captain coming to the grand entrance to run after you and out the door with excited yips at your quick pace before losing interest and chasing a squirrel up a tree instead. The twins were still screaming away in the garage, though at least you were about to give Levi some relief on that front.

He sagged gratefully back into his seat when you finally appeared to take them, unblinking their carseats to carry inside with you and carrying one in each hand, trying to, for the moment, ignore the screaming you couldn't do anything about.

Back up the stairs, back into the nursery, you set both carseats down on the ground and freed Ida, first, since she was the angrier, squirming and pulling in vain to get free while red in the face and snot bubbles coming out of her nose. You got her free of the carseat, ignoring the little kicks and flailing arms as she continued to voice her displeasure, focused on making sure she didn't need to eat–not that she was in a calm enough mood to eat–and seeing if she needed changed–which she did.

After changing a fussy Ida and putting a bottle of milk in the crib where it would be in reach if she needed it, you deposited her in one of the identically dressed cribs and added a blanket and two toys, one of which she threw out as she continued to throw a fit. However, she was going to have to deal with it while you got Asa out of his car seat, the little boy seemingly more upset that his sister was making such a fuss than he was about the cramped quarters.

She was pretty loud.

You went through the same routine with Asa as you had with Ida, Asa actually calming down substantially after he was clean, had a bottle, and was in a crib with his toys. He was still sniffling and occasionally giving a low cry at his sister's noise, though, who was still upset enough to be making snot bubbles–you'd wiped both their noses by now, Ida's three times counting this final time.

That was all you could do for now, since you still had to get Levi in the house and up to his room. Hopefully they would calm down a bit by the time you came back into the room.

You were glad that this was the last trip because you were starting to feel absolutely winded with carrying all this stuff and people up three flights of stairs and then going back down. Maybe you needed to follow Levi's lead and start an exercise routine to get in shape, especially if you were going to be staying in houses this big. There was an entire beach now, and he'd said himself he wasn't using all the rooms down here. Maybe you could find a good space to exercise inside and outside.

Going back to the garage, all that was left now was to get Levi. Which was probably going to be the hardest part.

You opened the passenger side door to be met with the sight of him slumped over in the seat, glaring at you as if daring you to say something about the state he was currently in while trying to push himself upright. You quickly composed your expression to be as neutral as you could manage, eyeing him closely from head to toe.

"How do you want to do this?" You asked him, thinking of how far you were about to try carrying him and how much dead weight he'd been earlier simply getting him a short distance to the car.

"I don't have to be in my room, there's perfectly functioning guest rooms on the first floor," Levi muttered, making a point not to mention carrying him and not looking you in the eyes as he sat up a little straighter, mostly pulling it off because he was leaning heavily against the back of the seat.

"You might be on bed rest for a few days, are you sure you don't want to be in your room?" you asked.

"One day at the most," he said with a surprisingly strong note of finality that left no room for arguments, though you still doubted that statement's validity. "And the first floor has the tea room."

He did like his tea. It only took the first couple months living with him to learn that about him. And since he didn't have to eat but he liked his tea, it would probably be nice for him to be on the same floor as the tea room. Plus, his room was on the top floor, and that was one hell of a climb. It would be easier on him if he was on the first floor, he had a point.

"Okay. First floor it is, then. That'll make this a bit easier," you murmured, coming in close to get your arms under his again and help get him out of the car. Somehow, he felt even heavier than last time, and he leaned more on you this time than he had the first as you started carrying him with his arm slung over your shoulders again, hoping he could at least get his feet functioning. He was dragging, but at least he was moving.

"You know, it's times like this that the huge houses are really ridiculous. You can't even go to your own bedroom because it's the fourth floor off the ground–that's ridiculous."

Levi only grunted in response, acknowledging your complaint but clearly not deigning to give it an answer. You stopped talking after that anyway, your gaze focused on your goal of the house, knowing the task wasn't as daunting now, which made it feel easier to accomplish. Helping him up the steps proved challenging, as you had to lift him any time he was moving upwards so he wasn't trying to lift his entire bodyweight, something currently outside his capabilities. Just going up the grand entrance staircase would have been enough to change your mind and give in to the concept that he should stay on the lower floors until he recovered.

It was slow progress, but you made it into the grand entrance with the spiral staircase soon enough, though you got to cross the marble floor and head for the double doors you'd noticed earlier leading into another hall. Once there, you noted that the hall splitting left moved towards stained glass and dark wood double doors that were unfortunately shut, though you could smell a sweet and also heady fragrance from that direction as opposed to the overall cleaners and fresh breeze clashing scents in the rest of the house. Undoubtedly, those fancy double doors led to the tea room–you'd have to peek your head in there later to see how much detail Levi gave to a room dedicated to one of his favorite things. Off to the right, the hall stretched a bit longer, one simple dark wood door at the way end facing the longways of the hall, two on the left wall, and one a bit further down on your right. To your almost immediate right was an archway entrance that descended into what looked like either U steps or L steps–you couldn't see what was beyond the curve from up here, obviously, but you could hear that sound of water again much stronger standing here, coming from somewhere down there.

Levi noticed where your attention had wandered and broke your silence. "Stairs to the ground floor. We'll have to put up a gate here–for the stairs alone, but there's also the start of the pool down there," Levi remarked. When you turned to question why there was an indoor pool, or why there was a pool in a beach house at all, he cut you off. "Questions about style can be asked another time, let's just...get me to the room. The one at the end of the hall is fine."

"Okay," you muttered, starting forward again. "And the other doors are...?"

"The one on the right is the bathroom, the one on the far left is another guest room, and the one closer to us on the left is a coat and storage closet. I didn't know what else to do with all the extra damn rooms, so I just made a bunch of bedrooms I'll never use," Levi grumbled as you continued to lead him down the hall, wondering why he wanted this particular room and not the one slightly closer to the tea room.

Not that you were going to complain. If this was where he wanted to be during his recovery, then so be it.

When you opened the door at this end of the hall, you were met with a polished, reddish tigerwood floor, a white sheet bed facing the ocean and pushed up against the wall on your right, a fake fireplace on the wall running perpendicular to you on the left with a TV mounted above it, a white couch pushed up against the wall directly across from the entrance, but positioned closer to the ocean facing wall, which had white double wood louvered doors framed by two bay windows on either side, cushioned in white on the bottom so you could sit comfortably in them and overlook the ocean.

Since Levi was currently a sack of potatoes you were carrying, you brought him right to the bed, pulling back the covers before depositing him onto the bed to finally get him off your shoulders and let him do whatever he pleased to get comfortable.

"Okay...now...do you need anything while you're down here? The doors open for a breeze perhaps, or...?"

"It goes to one of the decks, I don't need it open right now," he answered as he laid on top of the sheets instead of under them, like he really didn't expect to be here long.

"I should probably bring your suitcase down here instead, though–"

"No point. I won't be down here long enough for that," he grunted. Your eyes narrowed slightly at that, but you didn't comment on it again.

"Is there anything you do need, before I go back to the twins?"

"No. I'll be fine, no need to concern yourself with me. I'm sure they need you more right now," Levi said fairly stiffly, looking uncomfortable with the fretting you were lingering to dole on him. It was probably best for you to give him a bit of space. Warming up to him and being cordial with him was one thing, doting and fretting over him was another. It probably felt a little too alien to him right now with where you two were in your...relationship? Though you couldn't help it when he'd almost died protecting you and the twins.

You let out a slight sigh, straightening up and turning back to the door. "Right. Well. I need to go...take care of the twins. If you need anything, just...well...I'm around," you said awkwardly before finally leaving him in peace and getting both of you out of the weird situation, thankfully.

You could have explored a bit, but you didn't know how fed up the twins were at this point. Captain was still outside, but Levi had trained him to bark once to be let inside, so you just had to be aware that would be coming while you were off with the twins. Hopefully the screaming had stopped by now, or at least calmed some.

In an odd sort of blessing in disguise, it seemed Ida had screamed and thrown a fit all the way to the point of exhaustion, and was now passed out asleep in a rather odd position in the crib, still semi-sniffling in her sleep and twitching here and there from whatever dreams she was having. In the crib beside her, Asa had finally calmed as well, sitting up in place and chewing on his teddy bear's head. It would be a disturbing yet hilarious sight if you weren't well aware he was in a fairly aggressive teething stage and you'd neglected to give him a teething toy in your rush to get everyone and everything out of the car. Ida still chewed on things as well, they were both at an age where you expected them to teethe, but Asa was almost constantly chewing on things, always looking for something to stick in his mouth and chew on, even if he had to use his own fist.

You went over to Ida's crib first, very gently deciding to tempt fate and live on the edge by rearranging her sleeping position just enough so she wouldn't wake up sore and cranky, covering her with her blanket for good measure before turning your attention to Asa. Once you got close enough, he held the teddy bear in his mouth and simply reached out his hands, muffled little grunts of demands coming out of his mouth around the teddy bear head. You chuckled softly at the sight, glad that at least one of your children seemed to be less hot-headed.

"You just wanted sissy to be quiet, didn't you? Just wanted sissy to be quiet. Well, she burned all her energy and needs a nap, so why don't you and mommy unpack your room and then go look at the new house while sissy rests, hmm?" you said softly to Asa as you leaned into the crib to pick him up, letting him wrap his little legs around your waist with his upper body turned into your shoulder, holding him to you with one arm that was quite used to this position by now.

"C'mon, let's find your teething ring so you don't chew your teddy's head off–that's what you do to gummy bears when you get older," you prattled quietly as you went back to the diaper bags, lifting one onto each changing table and unpacking the supplies within little at a time. When you got the teething ring, you carefully switched out the ring for the teddy bear, tickling his lips with it until he let go of the teddy bear with his mouth to try and eat the ring, instead, gums locking on with a surprisingly strong grip. "There you go, that's better," you cooed, rubbing your nose against his in your form of 'kisses' and making him giggle before you put the poor bear back into the crib–which also reminded you that there were bottles of milk in each crib, both neglected, though there was some from Asa's partially drank. Ida had completely ignored hers.

You needed to get those refrigerated before they went bad...

Putting away the rest of the twins things in their tall dresser, the changing tables, and the toybox, you plucked the two bottles out of the cribs once the nursery was unpacked and headed downstairs to find the kitchen and put them–as well as the two backup bottles in the diaper bag now slung over your shoulder carrying four bottles of milk–into the fridge.

Levi had said they were on the ground floor, so you would finally get to peek at where this sound of water was coming from, and take a look at the only floor you hadn't gotten a glimpse of, yet.

You headed down the staircase with Asa cooing happily in your arm as he gummed away at his teething ring, discovering that the staircase was barely an L staircase, closer to a winder, with the last four steps curving into a narrow hall that went a little further before ending with an open archway carved out of the adobe wall on your right. You turned, wondering why the elaborate setup for a staircase, until you stepped through and saw what it led to.

It looked like a small medieval cloister atrium, except instead of an open air top with a perfect view of the sky, this one had no wall facing the ocean, with a cool breeze of ocean air wafting into the echoing space. All around, even the side without a wall, there were the round top adobe archways surrounding the center piece, a little ways away from the walls like where you were standing, creating covered aisles to surround the centermost point in the room. What the arches were surrounding was a fairly shallow inner square pool, framed by a foot of marble between the arches and the edge of the pool before the floor changed to sandstone everywhere else. On the opposite side from where you were standing, the side facing the ocean that had no enclosing wall, the pool had a clean cut and much, much shallower river passing under the centermost arch and extending out towards what you could now see was the actual pool behind the house, the sun shining down on what appeared to be a real rock wall and a real rock pool, though you were too far away to see details. In the open hall space that framed the pool like a U, there was the archway entrance you just walked through that led to the stairs heading up into the rest of the house. To your left and right was the mirror image of centerpiece double French doors with rectangular, gridded, decorative glass windows along the walls on the left and right, etchings along the edge of each square of simple waves or breeze lines, the windows allowing peeks into the rooms on either side through the currently drawn but not entirely shut curtains. You could glimpse a sofa through the curtains on your right, and moved to the left to what you assumed was the kitchen, eyeing the square pool with white walls in the middle, making the water bright and clear and almost shimmer like in the natural light that the archways let in from the ocean side. There were a few large potted plants in the corners of this inner surrounding hall section, making the space feel less empty, though the echo of the water and the soft clack of your feet suggested otherwise as you headed for what you assumed was the kitchen door.

Stepping inside, this kitchen was similarly styled but much bigger than the kitchen back at the other house. It was a combination of kitchen and dining room, the décor more white marble, and pale grey wood and silver or clear glass fixtures. The kitchen itself was in a U at the side of the room to your left, with a giant island counter in the center. The island had a small toaster oven and a microwave in the body of the island, a sink, and a lot of drawer and cabinet space, with triple pendant light fixtures hanging over the island. Along the U of the kitchen walls there was a large double door fridge, a gas stove with a girdle and continuous grates and an overhead hood, another stove that was electric and worked in with the cabinetry, a door in a corner that led to what you assumed was a pantry, another sink, and even more cabinet space. All the cabinetry on the lower level was solid wood–grey for the center island, white for the cabinetry along the U. However, the cabinets on top included glass door cabinets for any cabinets hanging over the countertops. The floor was a light brownish grey beachwood, and continued past the kitchen area into the dining room. There was a separation between the two, marked by a white marble bar coming out from the wall opposite where you stood and taking up two thirds the width of the room, complete with more triple pendant fixtures and bar stools of white wood and grey cushions. Beyond the bar was the dining area, which was framed on all three sides by floor to ceiling awning windows, with a small crescent moon decorative glass window placed above another set of glass French doors that led out to what you could clearly see was the pool area, now. There were a couple display cabinets along the walls with fine china dinner sets, and there was a centerpiece dining table that took up most of the center space, and a simple branched, silver chandelier above the center of the table.

You looked around the large and open space, bouncing Asa in your arms when he started to get a little antsy. "Daddy is probably the richest man alive and he just doesn't know what to do with all that money," you said to Asa, though it was more for your benefit as you took in the much more opulently styled home around you. And you thought the other house was fancy. What did he even do here, have fancy demon parties?

No, he didn't seem the type. Not to mention the only friends he seemed to have were Furlan and Isabel. Judging off this recent attack alone and what you knew about him and what happened with him being 'judged' recently, he wasn't that popular among the demons. So what in the hell was all the space for?

You put the bottles in the fridge to try and preserve them a little longer, save for the one Asa had started on, which you decided to try and get him to finish while you finished exploring this part of the house. He didn't want to let go of the teething ring, and for a moment, you feared he was going to start crying in this rather echoing part of the house, his face scrunched up and a whine building in his chest. However, when you wiggled the nub of the bottle into his mouth and slowly used it to push out the teething ring, he eventually surrendered it, one of his hands holding to the bottle as he laid his little head on your shoulder contently, sucking away on the bottle while you made your way back to the antechamber with the pool, around to the other side, and entered the living room to see what it looked like.

It also had the double French doors leading out to the pool area, and the awning windows, but the curtains were heavier and meant to block out the light more completely to create a home theatre effect if so desired. The white theme continued in here with blue accents, white furniture with blue throw pillows, white rug spread out across the center of the seating area while the flooring was a slightly darker beachwood from the kitchen. There was a large white U shaped sectional around a square coffee table, a large mounted TV finishing the box above a fireplace. Stretched back a little further was an open area you could see the kids playing in with all the space, and a black grand piano taking up the corner on your right as you walked away from the ocean view and deeper into the room. To your left, as you came closer to the opposite side, there was a solid dark wood door–and another just behind it that led to a very simple toilet and sink small bathroom–that when you opened it, led you to what you quickly decided was an adult room just by glancing at its main feature. You were going to have to put a lock on this door, especially when the kids got older and experimental.

It was a lounge, complete with a dark mahogany bar area at the far end back towards the ocean. The flooring in here was white carpet, with half of the room–the half closer to the door–a seating area with a long grey couch with lounge chair ends facing another large mounted TV, a mahogany coffee table centered in front of it. At the other end, the windows were now rectangular, long floor to ceiling, fixed, and a collage of a sliding window in the center, awning windows along the bottom in a U, and gridded windows along the top in an upside down U to complete the square. The double doors for this room, since it apparently stuck out a little further than the living room, were actually at the far end of the wall on your left as you walked deeper inside, and instead of classic French doors they were simple pure glass patio doors with white wood frames. The bar had shelving from floor to ceiling, again in mahogany, behind the darker marble countertop, an assortment of liquors lining the shelves with fancy lighting against the dark wood, and there was a small open space with a slight step up beside the ocean facing wall to get behind the bar, which curved outwards from corner to corner of the farthest shelving. Stools were situated around the bar, iron frames with grey cushions.

Asa hiccupped on your arm, and you leaned your head against his without thinking much of it. The little tyke was probably starting to get sleepy.

"We're going to have to lock this room up so little fingers don't get into something they're not supposed to," you murmured out loud, heading for the patio doors that led to the pool you wanted to finally get a good look at.

This was pretty. Unnecessary in your mind since the ocean was right there, but pretty. The entire area was made of stone in browns and greys and whites, a more polished and smooth stone supplying the patio areas along the house where there was an assortment of white wicker seats and lounge chairs and tables There was even a small dining table in front of you in the corner space that the difference between the lounge and the living room supplies outside, a round table with a small collection of chairs around it. There was a grill on the opposite side by the kitchen, a high end fancy silver one from what you could see at this distance. And, though you hadn't seen it earlier, tucked out of view of the antechamber without disrupting too much of the patio space at the dining room side of the house, there was a helix staircase leading up past the ground floor, first floor, second floor, all the way up to the balcony beyond Levi's room on the top floor, giving the two of you direct access to the pool and also the balcony deck space you'd noticed earlier, which you were going to have to take a peek at, now.

The straight edge river you'd noticed connected to the pool in the antechamber earlier got shallow enough there was maybe an inch of water over the smooth white flooring of the unnatural river, enough that you could step across it and wouldn't get terrible wet. However, there was a dry option, as the natural stone that made up the large pool went over the top of the river, a cut out, open area below the stone allowing the water to spill into the pool and creating a bridge right next to the pool itself.

The pool was made of a slightly rougher natural rock, and surrounded by it as well. In an uneven, more natural looking oval, there was a pool that stretched almost the length of the house. On the end closest to the lounge, there was a hot tub surrounded by the natural rock formation and raised slightly above the pool, with two natural rock steps leading up to it. The pool itself had a rock formation about six feet high rising above the pool on the side of the ocean, with two artificial waterfalls spilling into the pool from two separate gaps in larger rocks within the formation, spilling over little carved out cubbies in the uneven rock. That rock formation also had rock steps that led a person around the back of the hot tub and over the top of the formation to a built in and hidden slide that slipped down into the pool itself on the end closer to the dining room, where the pool had a slight curve and a tail. The body of water was lit up with underwater lights so that the water rippled a clear blue in the pool, and a tantalizing bluish green you thought was only in movies in the hot tub.

Not bad at all. Surely something the twins would enjoy when they were older and learned to swim. And you supposed the hot tub was a nice touch, as well as the slide. Plus, sometimes the ocean was just too cold, though this you bet was temperature controlled and could be enjoyed during all times of the year. Not to mention no salt water. It had its uses, and it looked nice.

There was, however, one more thing to note about the back of the house. Looking over by the lounge edge, you could see the dark brown wooden deck on the first floor that was connected to the guest room Levi was staying in. Just above it was another, smaller deck of the same wood connected to that open room you'd noticed on the second floor, offset just slightly more to the right than the one below it. A set of stairs led down from the second floor deck off to the far right and down to the deck on the first floor, connecting to it off to the side so it didn't take up more of the deck space. From the first floor deck, another set of stairs brought it down to ground level and turned into a smooth wooden walkway that extended out of sight. A few steps back over towards the hot tub, and then beyond along a stone path, revealed that the wooden walkway stretched out past the rough sand of the beach and into the smooth white sand, a direct pathway to the best part of the beach, right before the ocean. There was even a small T intersection where the stone path you were standing on connected to the wooden pathway, connecting the pool to the path that led to the ocean, as well.

Turning back around, you glimpsed sight of a porch swing affixed above the rocks below the first deck, offering a sheltered view of the ocean up ahead in a private, well hidden space.

On your shoulder, Asa almost dropped his now empty cup that he had been sucking on anyway while you perused the ground floor. Apparently, he was about to fall asleep, which meant you needed to get him back in his crib.

Now would also be a good time to look for that secret stairs to the nursery Levi mentioned. So, instead of taking the regular path back through the antechamber, up the stairs, up the spiral stairs to the nursery, you went right to the helix staircase that led up to the top floor.

Asa was starting to fade out as you reached the top, glancing off to the unexplored side, the top floor deck with the pergola covers, a few white lounge chairs and white side tables stretched along the long deck before the other part of the house that was on the other side of the top floor. There was stained glass double doors leading into whatever that other part of the house was, but you weren't going to look over there, yet. Right now, you were going past Levi's room and into yours, which was, in fact, a mirror of Levi's room with the open glass walls giving a clear view of the ocean, the bed and nightstands similarly decorated, the lounge chair and side table, the curtains to pull over the glass walls to shield sleeping occupants from sunlight, the doors to the hall, walk in closet, and balcony...

Except yours had an extra door. For a second, you got excited, thinking that was the door to the stairway, and you went over to open the pure white door...simply to discover the mirror image of the master bathroom you'd peeked in earlier, the murky door off to your left evidence to show the two bathrooms were connected.

Disappointed, you shut the white door, and looked with a puzzled expression around the room. You knew it was here, he said it was here, so where...

Well, he said it was secret, so it wasn't going to be obvious. Your gaze scanned the room, looking for something out of place. As you passed over the sight of the balcony overlooking the ocean, you noticed that the balcony didn't end at the edge of the glass, it went a little further, about three feet almost.

About the width of a staircase.

Okay, so if you looked along this wall, the one your bed was pressed against...maybe...

You ran a hand along the wall, feeling for some kind of abnormality. A little ways along the wall to the left of the bed, you found a seam, one you could get your fingernail into that ran about the length of a door. You allowed yourself a small smile, and then applied a bit of general pressure, trying to see if it gave any specific way. It did, a thin sheet of what felt like some kind of wood swinging out to reveal a sliding door that you were able to push to the right, revealing a narrow space with a staircase leading down to your right.

There it was. A little weird, perhaps, in the future when the twins got older, but there were plenty of rooms they could move to when they got older and wanted a different space, rooms that wouldn't involve this little future privacy infringement, current safety precaution and convenience feature. Though it worked two ways–if they ever figured out it was here, you could certainly see them using it to sneak into bed with mommy when they were scared or to wake you up at an ungodly hour on Christmas morning.

Cradling Asa in your arms, you used the secret staircase to go down to the nursery, the secret spot hidden the exact same way here, easily sliding and swinging open and allowing you to put Asa carefully in his crib, the little boy now fast asleep and not about to wake up anytime soon. Once he was all tucked in, you lingered, a small smile on your face as you gazed at him.

"I don't care what fact checking Daddy tries to do–you're definitely my little angel. You're too sweet to be anything else," you cooed before going over to Ida's crib, where the little girl was still fast asleep. "And you, little miss, are going to be a feisty one. But I still love you just as much," you crooned over her as well, before making your way to the secret staircase again, putting the door and cover back in place, and heading out to explore the rest of the house.

There wasn't terribly much to see. The tea room you left alone because you felt like, in some way, it was Levi's special place, a place just for him like his bedroom and bathroom had been. The rest you explored, though. On the second floor, the same as the nursery, there was a spacious open room at the end of the hall, floor to ceiling rectangular windows along the ocean side wall, and double patio doors leading out to the upper deck you'd seen from the pool. The room itself was pretty much bare, just the white couch you'd witnessed earlier, two end tables, and a sofa chair to fill the open white carpet space. The guest bedrooms, two on the second floor, one more on the first floor, were pretty much decorated the same. Plain, styles of white and light grey, queen beds on the rightmost walls with one nightstand to match, a dresser of grey colored wood, six rectangular, slender awning windows grouped in two, center, left, and right on the ocean facing wall. The bathrooms were similar as well, one on the first and second, in colors of sandstone and creamy browns and peaches. Brown marble top counters, around the long sink counter with the stone basin sink and the long mirror above it, a dividing section that cut into the middle of the room like an overly thick dividing wall, but acted as a small water closet where the toilet was and had a shower on the other side, glass pane connecting from the water closet like room to the far ocean side wall, complete with a glass door to get into the open shower space, a deep corner tub opposite it, and on the other side of the dividing wall, there was a dressing table complete with a well carved chair and a large mirror erected in front of it, lights above to make sure there was great lighting.

You were starting to think Levi bought this place already decorated, with some of the things you'd seen. Or at the very least mostly decorated. Or had someone else come in and decorate it without giving much of an explanation besides one word taste responses, like open and clean, maybe contemporary or modern with a touch of old school.

Lastly, but definitely not the least important, was that room at the other side of the top floor. The one with the double wood framed stained glass doors. As soon as you peeked inside and got a glimpse of the interior, you doubled back to go get the baby monitors set up, knowing that you were going to be spending quite a bit of time here, and you wouldn't be able to hear the twins crying over here. Once you had the partner to the monitor in the nursery, you went back to the top floor, crossing the deck space and slipping past the double doors with a giddy air.

It was a library. A large one, too. Obviously styled different to the one that had been at the other house, but it was still beautiful, this first chamber looking more like a well-designed bookstore. Three of the four walls were covered with floor to ceiling dark brown bookshelves that had backlights on every shelf to illuminate the books within. The fourth wall, the one facing the ocean of course, was pure glass, with a slanted sunroof making up half the roof and allowing a stunning amount of light–and you'd bet a gorgeous view during rainstorms, as well. Opposite the glass wall was a cozy looking couch with accent chairs on either side, a coffee table in the center. Across from the couch and a little to its right was a round study table with four or five chairs situated around it., and a lone armchair on the opposite side of the study table.

Across from the main entrance was a square archway the size of a double doorway. That area led to a secondary room that was styled more like a proper office. As you passed the archway, you noticed that there was a slight gap in the wood, where something slid out to cover this section and separate the two rooms, possibly like the secret compartment to the staircase in your room. However, you got here first, so you got to see it before it was shut and hidden like Levi might want it.

Probably not a space you should intrude upon if it had the secret sliding door...but the other office library hadn't been restricted until he was using it, which he wasn't using right now. For now, it was safe to assume that the same rules applied, so you didn't feel like you were intruding, not this time.

This secondary room was definitely an office, though it also had floor to ceiling bookshelves on the same three walls with windowed walls on the side facing the ocean. However, these windows were not floor to ceiling, more like four rectangular viewing windows next to each other roughly four feet tall and centered in the wall, curtains pulled back but ready to drop down over them to hide the view outside and block the light. In front of the windows was a brown leather couch, small side tables on either end, and accent chairs beside those, also of brown leather. Opposite that wall was a large dark mahogany desk with a sleek rolling office chair situated behind it. Just behind where the desk was, there was a large empty square in the bookshelf walls that instead housed a computer that the chair could roll easily towards. Clearly the desk was meant for study of the books, not anything on the computer, though the computer was close enough for reference if it was needed. While the carpet in the other room had been a clean off white, this one was a rich dark brown with gold diamond accents spaced out over the whole rug. And the ceiling was a dark brown coffered ceiling with recessed lights at each intersection, and four spaced out along the edges of each shorter length wall in the rectangular room.

It was quite the beautiful study room, and the more muted tones and cozy feel in the room was a nice change from the crisp and clean feeling in the rest of the house. It was also a nice place to spend a little down time away from the bustle of the rest of the house. Aside from the tearoom, you could already tell where Levi was going to be spending most of his time.

Going back to the other main library room, you decided to do a general browse of what kind of books were in this library, spotting some well-maintained first editions in carefully selected places on their own where they wouldn't be ruined by withering away squished between other books. They tended to have their own shelves with other books that needed special care.

The first room was more general stuff, the classics, the highly adored, you even saw some early edition The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings on one of the shelves. The second room, however, was a...different story. These books were heavy, thick, some of them old and worn, some only collections of paper found with thin leather strips between sheets of leather, barely held together. Some of them were old history books judging by the covers, some were biographies of people you hadn't heard before. And eventually, you started to realize...some of these had titles relating to demons, hell, heaven, angels.

This...this wasn't just a study. It was a bit of a wake up call and reminder to what Levi was, a demon's study. There was ancient knowledge in here, some possibly extremely dark knowledge, some not as sinister feeling. Once you realized what kind of content was in here, though, the entire vibe of the room changed.

Was this a room you wanted to be in? A place you should be in? Was this...a peek behind the curtain, if you dared to look? What kind of knowledge would be in here?

A little scared of what you might find if you looked at the books about demons and hell, and not wanting nightmares to keep you up tonight after the rough night you'd had, you decided to grab one of the books on angels, instead, heading over to the desk to set it down and gingerly flip through the thick and heavy pages.

The book itself was in a language you didn't understand, eyebrows scrunching together in frustration as you flipped through, seeing diagrams of different kinds of winged figures here and there, but unable to make sense of the writings themselves. There were, however, carefully slipped in index cards on certain pages in Levi's handwriting, notes about the contents of the pages. Things about types of angels like Seraphim, Cherubim, Warriors, Avenging, Guardians, Virtues, Archangels, Fallen. General wing descriptions–and number of them–though they varied with the individual. What their roles were, some of which differed from the perceived roles of general religious beliefs, some of which went right along with them. You were surprised there were angels of virtues, that you hadn't been aware of. Angels that embodied the virtues, protected those who embodied them in the mortal realm, safeguarded it's sanctity, carried out duties on earth, unseen, related to those virtues amongst humankind, and promoted its cultivation amongst humankind. There was a difference between Warriors and Avenging angels, apparently, with Avenging being the higher and far more powerful of the two, and often mistaken as Angels of Death because of the kind of destruction they were capable of enacting when their true power was tapped into–and not necessarily when it was fully unleashed. Warriors were usually tasked with fighting back the more dangerous and lethal of demons actively preying upon and greatly harming humankind, the warriors in a forever waging war against demons. Yet Levi had a note in his index card that he hadn't seen or heard of one killing a demon in all his years, which made him doubt their existence, or at the very least that they were still doing their job.

In your opinion, maybe he just hadn't seen one because he wasn't a target, wasn't a demon actively killing humans en-mass, and didn't seem like he was connected to any demons like that, either. Not to mention, he'd said himself he'd never met an angel that wasn't fallen, so if he was going off the seeing is believing logic, this kind of thinking could be applied to any angels.

Guardians that protected individuals of great importance from harm, especially from demons trying to harm them. That was their main role, anyway–they also protected everyday humans when they were around, when they could, when it wouldn't cause a greater catastrophe to occur in the process. They were silent watchers, and guardians when they could be, but for the most part were assigned to important people until their work was done–then they would safeguard their passage to the afterlife to make sure no demon tried to interfere while a...Reaper, carried their soul to the afterlife–heaven, if a Guardian Angel was watching over them.

Cherubim had a different role than you'd expected, as well. Four winged creatures, they were guardians of the lost and unfortunate, those who had strayed from their way. Redeemers, and contributors to finding justice. They played a measured role of a mediator and a judge and a redeemer in passing judgement. There wasn't much on them besides they were strong in a different sense than Avenging Angels, who were more the fighting and destruction in the name of protection or judgement, the sword. Cherubim were strong in their brilliance and raw angelic presence, and the divine abilities that came from that status as a powerful angel. They could rebuke demons with as little as a finger twitch, destroy them if they didn't flee from their presence fast enough. Powerful angels could do that, angels like Cherubim, Seraphim, Avenging Angels, and Archangels.

Archangels. Commanders and leaders of heavens angels. The power of a high ranking Angel, sent to areas of importance when the specializing angels weren't enough, usually with an Avenging Angel close behind if the situation was dire enough. Usually found in the fight against demon kind and hell, but guiding, leading, strategizing, not on the front lines. When they were on the front lines, there were serious, groundbreaking things happening. Arguably the most famous and well known of angels, with immense, grand wings.

And then of course the Fallen. Still powerful, but only shadows of what they'd once been. Stripped of most of their wings except the bare bones, which were charred and barely holding on at the joint. No longer connected to heaven and whatever their divine powers were, but still possessing an inhuman strength and speed–usually impaired for a period of time after their fall as they tried to adjust. Still able to see into the In-Between–the realm of the supernatural that existed in the same space as the mortal realm, unseen by mortals, except with the possibility to travel down to Hell or up to Heaven if the being possessed working wings–and walk in both the mortal plane and the In-Between. And still retaining the ability to sense a nearby demon that all angels possess.

There was so much here, simply with what you could read of Levi's notes. It made you wonder what you could know if you could read the language, could see what these notes were about. If you got this much information just from notes, how rich were these books with information?

You didn't know how long you leafed through the book about angels looking for Levi's index card notes, but eventually, you heard the distinct wailing of one of the twins through the baby monitor. Your free time was up, then. At least you had the layout of the house, now...and some surprise information about angels, with plenty of incentive to return to this study at another time and see what else you could learn.

Another time. Right now, you had twins to attend to.

*************************************

*Levi's POV*

By the time Levi was able to get out of bed and get up the stairs to the top floor–his personal general recovery goal, even if it wasn't much–his chest burned, and not from the exercise–it burned from the binding mark on his chest, telling him he was running out of time to make a deal for this week. And he still had a hard time getting up the stairs.

Fuck.

That demon sent after them might not have succeeded in killing them or taking the twins, but it still might have succeeded in delaying Levi long enough to keep him from making a deal, which would make it all happen again as an inevitability. If he couldn't make a deal by the end of this week, he'd be thrown into The Pit, a demon would come after the twins and likely kill Y/N in the process, the twins would be turned into...

No, he couldn't let that happen. He had to find a way, before he ran out of time. Something that didn't involve binding some random innocent to Hell...preferably. He couldn't justify it even once. If he justified it once, what was to stop him from justifying it over and over again in the future until it was second nature to him. He'd been down that path before, he didn't dare slip down it again.

Not wanting to be in bed a second longer, and feeling like he was wallowing in misery in some pathetically dramatic way every time he did, Levi slowly made his way out of the bed and out the double doors onto the balcony, heading over to the railing and leaning heavily on it as he looked down over the ocean. It was at a bit of a distance, but he could see Y/N down on the beach with the twins, sitting with them and playing in the sand and trying to keep them from eating the sand in the process.

It was a close call the other night. He'd almost died, it seemed, and if he'd died...if he'd died...the twins would have no one, and who knew who's care they'd end up in. He'd like to think Furlan would try to claim them after Y/N died and before anyone else to make sure they still had a decent caregiver, but there was no guarantee to that.

Levi lowered his head onto his arms, eyes squeezed shut as he let out a long, slow breath.

Y/N was right. It had been stupid hiding that wound the other night. He'd known it meant he was poisoned, but he thought he had enough time to at least get them to the beach house. He hadn't expected it to spread so damn fast, and once he started feeling it, once he couldn't endure it's mounting effects anymore, it took him down too fast for him to do anything about it besides giving the wheel over to Y/N.

Reckless. Foolish. Idiot. His twins did need him, eventually all they would have would be him. He could make gambles like that. He needed certainty, contingencies, he needed solid ground underneath him.

He couldn't keep playing hide and seek with these other demons, moving from one place to another, hoping they wouldn't get found by another demon. That was no life for his twins, not one he wanted them to be stuck with, anyway. And now that he had even more reason to believe the Infernal Court was dealing under the table trying to get him killed...he needed to start doing some offense, get some insurance, some way to keep the other demons at bay even if the Infernal Court was trying to nudge them to attack him, something that would make them think twice about attacking him, something that could protect the others if another demon attacked anyway.

The Court clearly wasn't going to see these deals as enough, so he had to come up with another way to keep them at bay as long as he could, at least until the twins were old enough not to need a guardian to raise and teach them anymore. He had to make sure they were going to be safe.

His phone rang, and Levi lifted his head, propping it up in one of his hands with his fingers threading through his hair while his other hand pulled the phone out of his pocket so he could answer it, gaze fixed down at the scene on the beach with Y/N and the twins–what he could see of them at this distance, anyway.

"What?"

"Good–you're finally conscious. I was starting to worry it would be a whole week before we could talk, since I'm sure some of this is too important to wait that long."

"Don't keep me in suspense," Levi said dryly, weight shifting on the railing to ease some building pain in his legs.

"Well, we found who leaked the information of where the house is, and...I'm sorry, Levi, but this is smoke we can't put back in the bottle. It's out there, now. We can't just kill everybody that knows, it's too many people."

Levi swore, rubbing his forehead in irritation. Y/N was not going to like being unable to return to the house she'd made her home, the one she decorated, and the one close to all the things she did to keep her life her own. And he liked that house as well, had planned on being there for a while.

And if they found this place? Where would they go next? Was he going to keep his family running every time they were found? He couldn't do that to them.

He was so distracted by worry, he didn't even realize despite his attempts to avoid using the word family, he was instinctual doing it again.

"The Infernal Court has to be dealing under the table to try and sabotage and kill me. This demon I didn't even know, I've never met them in my life. They had no reason to attack unless they were told to, promised something in return," Levi murmured, hand still slowly rubbing his forehead.

"That's what I was thinking, too. It's not good news, but...at least we know."

Levi hummed, a deep frown etching its way across his face, about to speak before Furlan beat him to it.

"There's also something you need to know about what happened, something after you lost consciousness."

Levi froze, his shoulders tense at the hesitant and measured tone of Furlan's voice, making it sound like he was about to say something very...unpleasant.

"What, Furlan? You know I don't like beating around the bush."

"You were in the final stages from what she described, despite our best efforts. Seizing, black veins spread all the way to your neck, poison having reached your heart quite some time ago–you were barely holding on. But when I finally got there with the antidote, there weren't any black veins visible, you were still, breathing okay even though your lungs should have shut down before I got there. You got better. Just a little, just enough for me to make it there in time."

There was a long silence, one that stretched for what felt like a frozen eternity, Levi staring down at the beach without really seeing it. After several minutes of this silence, Furlan spoke again.

"Levi, she bought you time. Without realizing what she did. That means–"

"I know what it means, Furlan," Levi interrupted sharply, his voice strained. Furlan was quiet after that, giving Levi the moments he needed to process what he was being told and then recompose himself.

He didn't hang up but Levi momentarily put the phone back into his pocket so Furlan wouldn't hear anything he might do in the next few seconds. Gripping onto the railing with all his strength, Levi leaned back with his head bowed low between his arms, body taught and ready to snap, teeth grinding together painfully.

She already had so little time because of him, had already lost a bit more in those first few weeks thanks to circumstance. The twins adored her, like he'd expected them to. Asa was hard to disengage from his mother when he wasn't asleep, sometimes throwing a fit even when he was passed from her to Levi, wanting his mother over his father. He still didn't know how he was supposed to explain what happened to their mother if she made it to their eighth birthday, how he was supposed to tell them at that age, but now he was certain eight was off the table. Seven was the new optimistic idea for how old the twins would be when she died. Four the worse case scenario.

At least he hoped that was the worse case scenario. He didn't know how much time she actually had, this was all just rough guesses to give him an idea of how much time she had left with the twins. And when she was gone...he would be on his own. He would have to try and explain to five to seven-year-olds why they couldn't see their mother anymore. The thought was enough to take the breath from his lungs as his head moved slightly so he could press the knuckles of his thumbs into his forehead.

Why, why the fuck had she done it? To him, of all people? It didn't matter what gesture of affection she'd given him that had given him a bit more time, she shouldn't have been giving him any affection at all, period. Never again. He of all people didn't deserve it, not after what he did to her, how he hurt her. It wasn't right, not even the little gestures. He didn't deserve it, and she deserved so much better, a better he'd robbed from her at the very start. Hadn't he taken enough from her? Why did there have to be even more now, why did she have to save his worthless life? How was that a fair trade?

He really was some kind of goddamn parasite, wasn't he, if all he could do was take, take, take, even when he wasn't trying to, even when that was the last thing he wanted to do, even if he'd do anything to give even just a little of what he'd taken from her back. But he couldn't. There wasn't any way to do that. He'd looked, and he'd tried, but it all failed, and he was left with the crushing finality to his every little decision, and the negative impact his very presence made on others.

Why? Why the fuck did she do it? Why him, of all people? He didn't deserve any sympathy, let alone affection, especially from her. It felt wrong, like he'd somehow taken advantage of her situation again.

Carefully, he pulled the phone back out of his pocket as he straightened up just enough for his head to be above his arms as he stared down at the beach, pressing the phone to his ear and glad to hear Furlan was still on the line and waiting for Levi to return.

"Are you sure?" He asked in a low voice.

"Positive. She wouldn't lie about the state you were in, Levi, she was scared for you, we could tell." Furlan paused, allowing Levi to ruminate on how strange it was to hear that Y/N had been scared for him. Again, it didn't feel right. He'd be more comfortable with a different kind of fear, the kind that meant not knowing what to do with two demon babies if something happened to him, not genuine concern for his safety.

After a few moments' pause, Furlan spoke again. "Levi, it's not my business, but if there's something more going on between you two–"

Levi bristled and tensed in place, standing up straight as his hand tightened in an unflinching grip on the rail of the balcony as he responded with a bite. "Furlan, I drove her to the point of constant exhaustion trying to get her pregnant, gaslighting her off and on throughout the whole three months, then left her alone to deal with nine months of an impossible pregnancy where she had no support, including through the death of a child, and then proceeded to try and take the twins as soon as they were born, telling her they were heartless demons like myself that would never be capable of caring about anyone or anything including her and would one day, certainly, kill her, threatened to kill her myself to take them...all that, and you're really suggesting that there's even a chance that there could ever be anything between us? That doesn't just go away. She doesn't even know that what I did gave her a death sentence yet, or that I was there the whole time during her pregnancy and never once made myself known, no matter what happened. She's never going to forgive me, let alone care for me the way you're suggesting. Nor would I want her to."

Levi 'tched', turning his gaze away from the sight of Y/N and the twins playing on the beach several stories below him. "Besides...what fucking idiot would fall for a woman he knows is going to die in a few years. That's just asking for it. I've got enough on my plate without adding that kind of heartbreak into the mix."

"You could have just said no," Furlan said flatly, earning a slight roll of Levi's eyes.

"No, the fact you even asked that means you needed an explanation."

Furlan sighed. "How's the recovery going? You're well enough to answer the phone, I see."

"Doesn't matter. Listen, I know you've got a lot on your plate, and I was wondering if you have any other spare names you're sitting on. Not necessarily anyone dangerous like on the list you gave me, just someone."

"Levi, you really shouldn't be thinking about deals right now. That poison did a number on you, I don't think you'll be in any condition to make any more of your deals for at least another week or two–"

"I don't have that luxury, Furlan. I'm not picky this time, any name will do."

"Levi, no. It's not going to kill you not to make a deal for one week–"

"Yes, it will," Levi ground out, and there was a heavy silence on the other end of the phone. Suddenly, Levi realized Furlan might have been fishing for this response. Fuck. Sneaky bastard.

"What did you do, Levi?"

"Shit," Levi hissed between his teeth, his hand running through his hair as his head dropped low, staring off somewhere to his side without really seeing anything.

"Levi, I know something happened with the Infernal Court that you haven't been telling us. I have my suspicions, but–"

"I made a deal with them," Levi cut him off bluntly, hand dropping to dangle over the edge of the railing. "When Gross came to take the twins, I made a deal with the Infernal Court. They would allow me to claim the twins if I promised to make a binding deal with a new soul every week for the entire time I acted as their guardian. And if I missed one week–"

"You'd be thrown in The Pit," Furlan finished darkly before swearing loudly into the phone. "That's a shitty deal, Levi, and you know it."

"Like they were going to offer me anything different? It didn't matter, anyway, since they've started sending people to kill me and take the twins. Fucking shitbags."

"Wouldn't expect anything less from them, considering how much they hate you. Even if they could get years of weekly deals from you, I think they'd rather throw you in The Pit for some revenge."

"Obviously," Levi muttered. "Will you give me a name or not? I'm almost out of time to make a deal this week, and I can't leave to find anyone, I'm not in any condition to."

Furlan was quiet for a few minutes, and Levi stayed patient with him because he could hear Furlan moving around, probably looking at things, trying to see what he could offer Levi. After a few minutes, Furlan let out a long sigh.

"Levi...I know you don't want to hear it, and I don't like to say it, but I don't think you have the luxury of choosing who you make a deal with this time. You don't have the time–or the strength. I can't give you one of my names, they'll tear you up with the state you're in."

"Furlan, again, I don't have much choice, I'm going to have to do something, or the twins will end up losing both parents."

A heavy silence followed that statement, a weight pressing down on Levi's chest and temporarily preventing him from saying more. Thankfully, it was Furlan who spoke first yet again.

"What's your policy about bringing targets over to your home?"

Levi's eyebrows rose, and he tensed slightly at his thoughts on where Furlan might be going with this. "Never. Especially right now, since I've got Y/N and the twins at the house. Especially if they're dangerous."

"Well, you might have to make an exception. Send them out for the night or something," Furlan mumbled.

"I don't want whoever it is to be coming back to my house, Furlan, I don't want to risk it."

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen. Can you trust me, just this one week? Maybe next week depending on how long it takes you to recover."

Levi muttered a few choice words under his breath in a couple languages, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine. Don't make me regret this, Furlan."

"I'm trying to help you, Levi, don't be so suspicious and stubborn," Furlan scoffed.

Levi was quiet for a few moments, making himself slowly relax as he went back to watching the twins and Y/N play on the beach. It looked like one of the twins was climbing all over Y/N while the other was still entranced by the sand. If he was taking a guess, he would bet Asa was the one climbing on her, Ida was the one playing in the sand still. His little family, fragile as it was, and doomed to fracture at some point. But while it lasted, he wanted to make sure that it was protected, preserved, so it wasn't shattered prematurely. Right now, he lacked the ability to do that without getting one hell of a beating–he just wasn't built like the others, and while he knew how to fight with what he had, they always had their edges on him with their claws, teeth, spikes, other natural weapons. He needed something more, something to give him an edge to fill the absence of fangs, claws, and barbed tails, all the natural weapons he kept running into that left him bloodied and bedridden. There were options, but...

"I need something to keep them from coming after us, Furlan. Something to ward them off, make them think twice about attacking us, so this doesn't keep happening."

"You sound like you have something specific in mind."

"I know most of them have been missing for centuries, and the few that are accounted for are in the hands of people too strong to try taking them from, but...I want you and Isabel to help me find one of the Gladius Occidere Daemonium."

"Getting fancy on me with the Latin, I see."

"Well, if I'm going to be looking for one, I better start getting used to the many Latin names for a Sword of Demon Killing. It's a good thing this house has my research library."