Pre Edit Count – 2,508 Words – What this is: The number of words I use to get the story out there. At the bottom is the word count for when I edit these.

Song I listened to for this chapter: OneRepublic (Mix), What this is: The song I play on repeat until the first draft is done. Song searches sometimes delay chapters since I need songs…

Afanasi sighs as he leans back in his chair and looks out on the skyline of Pittsburgh.   He runs his hand through his short hair as he thinks on all he needs to get done tonight.

He had long ago put together a group of people back in the time of the Tsars.  He could foresee the fall of the royalty of Russia with the extravagant parties they threw.  While at the start, they were making a statement, but it never seemed to take in account the people who made up the empire.

Then came a prophecy to him, that the oldest female of a generation of those he has watched over will be the one he has waited millenniums for.  And it will be a sign that the time of the three is close to hand.

He had always kept an eye on the family of Romanovs, their family had entertained him when he had been in the courts and he had helped them become the Tsars.  He had the mother country under his control, and he needed to recruit some new blood for both his control here and control in his colonies.  Being one of the oldest of his kind allowed him to have this control, but he knew that soon he will need to let go of some of it.  So training was imperative as well as finding those he can trust to keep this family safe.  He had no idea who it was that would be born to them, but that he had a prophecy and that it even referred to the three that most of them had awaited many millenniums for the prophecy to be filled.

He had found the person he could trust, knowing his maker extremely well.  Stefnir or Stefan as he is known now, had been the one who had turned his maker into a much more restrained individual. Maedaeric had been on the earth and Afanasi was one of the few to know and serve, his father.  He knows the situation that drove Maedaeric to the madness of his first thousand years on this earth.

Stefan had left once for a vacation, and came back with a fledging.  Other than that, he has guarded the family for generations.

Then came Anastasia.  He had come back to Russia to work on more of his plans, to recruit more of his kind to his plans.  He had moved in the circles of the royalty, never one to deny his own wants, and he met her the day she was born.  At that moment in time, he had enchanted with her.  He never knew why, she wasn’t his mate, but something about her called to him.  He had protected her when the Tsar’s fell, and he hid her family in different countries.  And he had made her family as part of his Brotherhood.

Since then, he has made a point in being there for every birth of each generation of the family.  Currently, Sharon, the wife of John Nikolaevna aka Larson to the uneducated masses is pregnant with their first child.  The older son has had only sons, so even though this is the 3^rd birth of this generation, if she is female, she would be the oldest.

He leans forward and works on his paperwork, making sure that all his different interests are all in order.  He has spent a lot of time over the years to make sure he is basically above the normal man on the street.  Afanasi has been ‘born’ many times, easy to do since there are really are not many pictures of him.  He, like others of his kind, are careful never to be photographed and even had managed to stall enhancements to technology from making it harder for them to be captured.  But technology is advancing, and they are all aware that they will need to do something shortly about it.

Of course, to beings as old as their species and individuals are, shortly can be anywhere from a year to 40 in the future.  It will be well planned out.

Plus the prophecy of the three has driven them since the beginning.  No matter how close they think the time has been, it has passed due to the mechanics of one of the four true gods.

Sighing, he turns in his chair to look out the windows.  No, work for tonight will not be done.  He is feeling…energized, antsy.  He has no idea why or what is going on.  But today just feels as though something monumental will happen.

His blue eyes study the city that he has helped guide for years, since it was a settlement.  Unlike others of his kind who settled later, he had brought the family over once he had firmly established himself as the leader of his kind here.  He was not going to risk them over anything, and with that need, he had established himself as a King of the new colonies.  No one got into them until he has approved them.

This way had existed for decades, through the Revolutionary War and until the States started to grow.  He had his hand on them, but at the same time, he was busy guiding his city, trying to make it all he wanted, needed in this new World.  So he decided to allow others in under him as he was still reigning over Russia.  And so it went.

After the Civil War, he brought his family that he watched entirely here.  Up until now, he had brought parts of it to him, but had made sure no one realized what the family is, and had Stefan and his protégé Caitlyn bring the remaining family here, renaming them Larson.

Leaning back in the chair, he puts his hands behind him.  His race.  What humans call demons.  Or what he should say Demons are based on, until they got their hands on the descriptions and added the red skin, the horns and tail.

On the most part, they look like humans.  Except when they are hungry, then they have fangs.  Their eyes ‘shine’ as animals do, and for the Supe community they glow.  The glow tells the age and strength of the demon.  They can be anyone on the street, and only another supe can identify them as such.  The sun is no problem for the upper castes, but will kill the younger.  They all need human blood to survive, and their blood will heal most anything.

How a demon comes to be, is different and determines their caste.  They are either ‘born’ from the will of a god, which is very few, in fact, he can think of only two that live now, himself and Maedaeric.  However, Maedaeric doesn’t know his birthright, since he was actually born from a God and human.  But his father had removed his humanity, making him fully demon.

The others of their kind have faded away.  Tired of the life when they had once been all worshipped as gods and goddesses in their times.  Being born of a God’s wish is also extremely fickle, since the God can take away the wish.

He had lucked out with Hades as the grantor of his life.  He had gained much, and fought even harder for more.  And Hades had named him to be the assistant of his son, when the time comes.  For that reason, Afanasi had lived.  He controlled much to be able to be able to be the left hand of him when the time came.

The next caste was those demons that were ‘born’ of humans and raised with them.  When they are killed, it ends the humanity in them and brings them into their next form, of demons.  There are not many differences, and in fact Stefan is one of the strongest out there of this caste.  The thought is that he was descended from a god in his background and when he died, it activated the other part.  But since there are none others like him, it is purely a guess at this point.  They had all the signs of a God born Demon, but were weaker than them normally.  They are the nobility of their race.

The third type was the most common.  The made type.  This was by forcing the human to drink their blood and then killing them.  If you were lucky, in three days they were reborn as a demon.  If not, well you got the fun feeling of them dying, suffocating as the three days go by.

They had the eye shine, the fangs, the glow.  The superhuman strength, the need for blood, but they cannot have human food nor drink.  No one knows why the blood works on some on making them, and not others.

The largest difference between the ‘born’ and made is the markings.  When you mate, you feel a pull to them.  Your mate is always a ‘born’ demon.  The marks show the stages of your mating, and normally on the last part, if when you take your mate as yours.

He has never heard of a female finding their mate, it is always the male.  The males became very protective of their mates.  And on most cases, they find their mates very young and are active in their lives before they are fully mated.  But then, he has no idea how it will be for the ones born of a wish.  They had kept themselves more secret than others.

His phone rings and brings him out of his thoughts.  He picked up the phone, “Sharon just went into labor” his assistant tells him.

“Thank you.” And he hung up the phone, grabbing a jacket to make his way to the hospital.  He made his way downstairs, slipping in the last knife into his pants as he nods to his guards.  They fall in behind him, as they walk to the limo, he sliding in, one in the back with him and one with the driver.

Soon they make their way to the Rochester Hospital.  He asked, “The mother is doing fine so far?”

The guard looks up. “Yes, Master.  She has checked in and was immediately given a private room as you had indicated.  The dr is not very happy with her progress, and will need to discuss the possibility of a caesarian.  He indicated that the baby has the cord wrapped around her throat.”

This causes Afanasi, or as the guard knew him as Nash, raised an eyebrow. “This was not something even shown to be a problem earlier.”

Nash kept a close eye on all the births of the next generation.  This one had called to him more than any other, and keeping his involvement to a minimum was a trial.  But if this one is the one he had been waiting on, well Mrs. Larson better get used to him.

Sharon Larson had no idea who Nash is beyond the employer of her husband.  She had no idea they were Russian Mafia nor anything else with this family.  She had never met Stefan who still comes and visits them, having took care of the family for so long.

Caitlyn though, everyone knew.  She had introduced herself to Sharon and even though Sharon had been a little cautious, she had eventually fallen under Caitlyn’s charms.  When Nash had mentioned to Stefan that this child felt different to him, Caitlyn had made sure that she was involved completely with Sharon’s pregnancy.

He fully expected that Caitlyn will be waiting for him at the hospital in fact.

The guard clears his throat.  “It was not an issue until the baby turned for birthing.”

Sighing, Nash tells him, “I hope they are intelligent enough to know that they will do whatever it takes for this birth to be successful.”

The guard nods.  “Caitlyn said she will make them if it comes down to it.”

With this, Nash relaxes minutely.  He stares out the window, wondering what it is that he has been waiting for and if this birth will be it.

Nothing is said as they pull into the Hospital, Nash getting out as the car comes to a stop, his guards beside him as he walks into the hospital.

No one stops him as he makes his way into the hospital, Caitlyn appearing by his side.  “They had to do a Caesarian.  The baby is in the nursery already, the mother is having some complications.”

With this information, Nash heads to the nursery.  His care of the mother is non existent.  She is the first non-Russian to marry into the family, and it had been on the request of John’s mother.  It had made for trouble, since all Russians know of him in some capacity.

As he walks into the Nursery, there is a nurse who runs past him into the nursery.  He glided in after her, and can feel a pull almost immediately.  He pushes through the nurses who are gathering by the side of a crib and looks down into the crib.

The eyes on the newborn open and look up at him, snaring him in that one look.  A flash happens and a mark appears on the baby.

Nash sighs, then reaches down to pick up his life.  One of the nurses go to grab him, but another, knowing who he is, stops her.

Nash cuddles his tiny mate to his side.  He quickly moves his hand, faster than a human can see him, to his mouth and opens a small wound, then puts it to her mouth.  He smiles as he feels her drinking his blood.  Forming the beginnings of a bond that will last longer than most buildings.  He frowns slightly as he feels her healing, and looks down to see the light bruise on the throat healing as well as some other parts of her.  Her eyes had been healed, and will be more than the 20/20 that is normally ascribed to humans.  She will also have other senses heightened beyond normal humans, but his instincts tell him that this will make her life easier.

Caitlyn is smiling at the door, happy that this lifelong ally and friend of her nest is finally with his other half.

The King of the Americas and Russia, the head of the brotherhoods, is standing there staring at his tiny mate who has the power to demolish everything he has done with a wave of her small hand.  And he will do nothing but happily help her destroy it.

She is everything and anything.  She is his mate.

Final count, words.

Fairfarren~Wendy

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