*    *    *

Fridha and Harald agreed Baby should remain with Byron and Nїx.

The closer the smaller wyrm was to Valkyrie lightning, the more swiftly he would develop and grow.

They excused themselves, but both the titans wanted to try for more wyrmlings. In the interests of being courteous, they decided to put just a little more distance between them and the house, this time.

Once the wyrms had made a slow and surprisingly stealthy move away from them, Phenїx leaned up to Byron's ear. She whispered, "When they get started this time, it'll be a tremor."

He straightened out of reflex. Mm. Hm.

"Home?" he muttered.

Her face flared wickedly, "Yes!"

A thought spurred into his mind. "Wait, I need to go check on something." He grinned over at her. "You wanna come see?"

The thought of something new and unforeseen – a surprise – was terrific. She took his hand, following beside him.

Baby was sniffling about from here to there like a massive puppy. Phenїx watched him awhile, sighing happiness. She had only ever caught a glimpse of what he would look like outside the egg, but this scene was glorious to her.

"He was their twelfth baby," she murmured.

Byron looked at the juvenile. "Did you know the other eleven?"

"Four of them," she confirmed softly, then explained, "Wyrms are lifelong mates. They'll take a bonding vow after consulting the Fates and the stars for one thousand years together."

"One thousand years of dating???" Her reaper waved his hand dismissively. "Okay, I am never bothering them about the noise and tremors again."

"They find it hilarious, Byron," she giggled and gave his elbow a squeeze. "And remember, they have a lifespan of epochs. In a hundred thousand years, a millennium is scarcely a week's passage."

She glanced back to the horizon where their forms had disappeared. "But finding the One for them is an even longer process." She nibbled slightly at her lip. "Just because they find a female or male, doesn't mean the Fates and the stars agree to bind them together."

"So no sex?"

"No, no. They can choose to cleave before, and often do, but only with the Fated mate can the male impregnate his female." Phenїx sighed. "And it doesn't always take. They have numerous eggs, but fertilization is rare. Baby came from a clutch of four hundred."

He considered that. "How long to have a clutch?"

"Only eighty days. The extra week of mating is just for fun."

"Extra week?!" He stared at her, then he chuckled. "You're pulling my leg."

"Not even a little, reaper." His Valkyrie turned a mischievous look into his eyes. "They're deeply passionate."

God and Grim, he could learn a thing or two with this one. He pondered that a short while. "How many clutches between fertilization?"

"Every thousand or so. They'll keep at it until they get it right. But the older they are, or the more magick they attain, the more fertile the pair becomes."

"And when the babies grow up?"

"They can create portals," she smiled. "There are a few realms said to keep them in numbers, but Fridha and Harald are the oldest living. They're said to be the most fertile of their species, aside from a dozen other pairings."

"And Baby's brothers and sisters?"

"Off to find mates." Nїx sighed. "But some ancient dragons detest wyrms. And immortals will want their hides, their organs. Steeped in magicks, they're priceless."

Byron's humor settled a bit, his stomach turning over. "Sold on the black market?"

His Valkyrie nodded. "Wyrmlings are very valuable if taken young and small enough. Then the females can be bred artificially with magicks. It produces a weaker half-wyrm. But its organs and hide are close enough."

His lips thinned. "They're bred just for organ harvesting?"

She affirmed it with another bob of her head. Byron watched Baby tumble over a log, chuffing gaily.

"Young males?" he asked.

"Raised for combat." Nїx sighed. "Without parents, a mate, or other non-wyrm friends, a lone juvenile wyrm is vulnerable."

Byron's hand twitched for his scythe. He would need to pull some raids, soon. He recognized just how much trust Fridha and Harald had in him. They'd chosen to leave Baby here with Phenїx and him.

They called him, a bare babe of a reaper, friend and protector of their offspring. His head tilted. "Why not stick together?" he thought aloud.

Nїx's laugh sparkled. "Byron, the planets and realms would fall apart with that kind of rutting going around!"

Well, that was another way of thinking about it. His eyebrows went up, then she giggled, "Fridha and Harald were lucky they were so ancient and powerful. Thor would have a field day over their antics, sometimes threatening to bash them over the head."

Byron bit down his grin. Now that he could imagine, but somehow...

He licked his lips, "I take it that didn't happen."

Her nose giggle confirmed it before she answered in a murmur against his ear. "One day, he interrupted them."

Byron's jaw dropped. "Ohhh, shit. Noooo..."

Phenїx busted out laughing, tears pouring from her eyes. "Harald gave him a heave-ho down to Gaia via the Bifrost. Thor never interrupted again!"

Seeing her like this, reliving these memories, it was like she'd never even been anywhere but in Valhalla. The woman underneath the shield maiden was every bit as young at heart as she'd been when she was first learning from her mother in the vales of that heaven.

"Father often grumbled they were too frisky," she mentioned softly. "Until Mother had her way with him for a few days during one FridHar session. Then he was very pleasant for a month. After that, he decreed every session a holiday season."

Byron's stomach clenched with his chuckle. "Well, just to be fair, I think I understand Wóden and Thor a little. Fridha is phew with the roar!"

She leaned in, whispering, "We used to say the reverberations made all our sisters' wombs want a baby."

He tripped over nothing and hit a fallen log with his face. "Ow!"

"Byron!" She fell beside him and wrapped his head up in her lap swiftly, laughing, "You goof! Let me see."

"It's nothing, it's nothing! Hard noggin, see?"

He lifted up the shattered sunglasses and showed the tiny bump. His Valkyrie's coo stirred him up, and that tender touch of her magicks while she healed it made him breathless.

A soothsayer and goddess who needed, craved, her king, and would tend to even the tiny injuries with love. A baby...

"Do you want one?"

Nїx's breath hitched. "Want one...what?"

He nodded up at her, "Baby?"

Phenїx worked her lips soundlessly for a few moments. Then she shrieked. "Byron, I'd want ten, dammit!"

"Okay, okay! Babies, angel!" He laughed. "Can we split it at five or six, maybe seven?"

He rubbed his ear clear of the ringing. Sure enough, this time it hadn't hurt half as much as when he first heard it.

Nїx stared at him. "You... you aren't kidding."

He shook his head firmly, "Not even a little, Valkyrie goddess."

She fell onto him, her lips tangling with his fiercely. Byron wrapped her up just before they rolled down the embankment. When they'd finished, he pulled back, staring over her.

Her hat had fallen off and her raven hair was splayed out underneath her, red and gold leaves fluttering beneath her form. She was beyond marvelous. "If I had a camera," he murmured.

"Next time we visit Chest?"

"Chest does wardrobes and sundries... guess I'll need to pony up for one of those high-end lenses back on Earth."

She kissed him and sighed. "It's a date."

The air began sparkling.

Byron looked up, grinning, "Yes...!"

He lifted her slowly, putting a finger to his lips and pointing. They'd fallen into a nearby depression where a pond sat. The water was placid, calm, scarcely a breeze coming through the trees. Across the way, something white appeared.

Phenїx gasped. She curled up into his lap, trembling with excitement. "They're here?"

"They're friendly enough, but I don't like disturbing them too much," he whispered into her ear.

The herd of unicorns grazed softly through the leaves, the alpha stallion having a sip of the pond. Magicks sparkled in the air like will-o-the-wisps. Tiny mystical airborne diamonds refracting rainbows in the midday sunlight.

The alpha stallion lifted its head when a thunk resounded. Baby had tripped over a boulder.

The juvenile wyrm fell over into the pond with a low thunderclap of water. The stallion whinnied a laugh and heaved onto its rear legs, kicking.

"My gods above!" Phenїx giggled, tears falling. "I haven't seen them in so long."

"Limina Mortis holds the keys and portals to several realms," he explained softly. "Their grazing grounds is one of them."

Her breath hitched. She remembered the one that had escorted her mother those many centuries ago. "Does it mean they've crossed over?"

He cuddled her close and corrected her, "No. Death's Door isn't where life ends, Valkyrie angel. It's where it restarts. Here, they are safe. Until The End and The New Beginning."

Nїx shivered with delight. "They're still alive."

Byron nodded firmly. "Always."

*     *    *     *     *

Mariketa was sidled alongside the rest of her sisters and friends. All were sizzurped on reaper's brew and intoxispells. "So it was him the whole time, eh?"

Phenїx wagged her brows at them through the body mirror she had set up in the living room. "Oh, yes."

"How's that working for ya, any cobwebs needing cleared out?" Penny giggled.

"Oh, sis, don't worry, when your spider comes along you'll know," she winked.

"Well, I have to say," Hypolita chuckled. "It seems you did get a little less grumpy with a dozen orgasms."

She bit her lip and then bawled out a guffaw. "A dozen! Oh, sweet, I lost count after twenty."

"You are so full of shit!" Penny shouted.

"Mm. No." She twirled her hair with a sigh. "Something more along the lines of cream filling."

"Awoooo!" Carrow howled. "Get'im, gurl!"

"God in Heaven."

They all froze at the baritone. Phenїx whipped around with a gasp, "Reaper! Privacy much?!"

Byron lurked around the corner to look at her with his arms over his chest. His gaze lingered on her for a long while, making her feel every bit a fertility goddess. Was she blushing?!

Yes.

She giggled. So this was what it meant being caught redhanded by your mate...

"Last I checked," Byron groused with a wicked grin. "You were visiting my home, darling. I just traced back in to hear... this."

He crooked an eyebrow at the ladies beyond. All were either blushing or giggling. Then he smirked at her. "And you'll be getting more of that cream filling tonight, goddess. But I'm going to make you beg for it."

He traced away.

"Oh, Hekate..." Mariketa laughed.

"Oooooo." She pouted. "He'll do it, too."

Then she looked at her gaping sisters and laughed.

*   *   *   *   *