Stronger Together chapter 135 (Patreon)

It was family dinner night at the Carpenter house, which naturally  included us. Charity cooked every Sunday and she insisted we come. At  first it had just been Kara and Inari, but over time the rest of us  joined in. Not just the people at the house either, Harry and Susan were  here with Maggie, who was only a few months old and adorable. Tera had  come with Conner though convincing her it was safe here had been a bit  of a chore. Conner was playing with Bea and Yang who was always around  for her "little sis". Raven and Barb were sitting with me watching the  three of them play with the trio of temple dog puppies we'd gotten from  our most recent case.

That's  right, Mouse was here. Not just him, I'd remembered from the books that  the largest male and female had been kept captive after the litter got  saved, and we had managed to rescue those two. The female was named  Angela and the Carpenter's ended up keeping her. She was incredibly well  behaved of course and Charity adored the puppy who followed her around  constantly. The pup who would have been given the name My Shadow had  been christened Rumor, and we kept him for ourselves. He and Raven had  bonded instantly and he was definitely her baby, though he seemed to  love all of us. Finally Mouse had of course gone home with Harry and  Susan and Maggie.

We  watched as the puppies slunk down in the grass to circle behind Yang  and Conner who was, to the great delight of all the adults, giving them  all pouncing lessons. Unfortunately for them, puppies are clumsy even  demi-immortal puppies, and their pounces were more like adorable flops  follow by each of the kids and Yang grabbing one of the puppies and  cuddling  the fuzzy little things. Kisses ensued, it was the cutest  thing I'd ever seen. I grinned at Harry who was smiling tiredly at his  own pup playing with Conner. I was laughing as I spoke "Looks like the  little fuzzball is learning some valuable life skills boss. Speaking of  being alive, you look half dead, Maggie keeping you all up?"

His  groan was halfway between a laugh and a sob "I haven't slept since Barb  came over to babysit on Tuesday. I'm so tired it hurts." He smiled in  exhaustion "But I'm still so happy I can't stand it. Maggie is adorable,  and so smart, and Mouse loves her and he's so gentle with the baby.  Charity is always stopping by to help with things too." Harry had used  his percentage of the treasure from my first Lily favor to buy a house  near ours for himself and Susan, who had been working with Raven and  Morgan on suppressing her hunger to startling effect. We were all  neighbors now, though there was no basement at Harry's new place when he  moved in. A few months of lessons from Henry had been enough to change  that.

I  glanced at Susan, who looked slightly less tired but mostly because she  was part vampire. "How about you Susan, how have you been feeling? Raven  says your sessions are going well, and you and Morgan have been  bonding. I've noticed she's calmed down a lot since the three of you  started working together." That was true, Morgan had definitely  mellowed, she was still a bit odd and excitable but she was much more  lucid than she had been before. She and Kara were still "besties" but  she was much closer to Raven than she had been and she really looked up  to Susan.

The  half vampire secret militia member slash new mother smiled softly.  "I've been good. You've all been a huge help with Maggie and I just love  her so damn much. And yeah, Raven has been a lifesaver for me and  Morgan is a total sweetheart once you get past her excitability and mild  sociopathy. I'm honestly surprised she isn't here today, it's not like  her to miss free food. Honestly the only thing in my life that isn't  amazing is the fact that that skank Lara won't stop sniffing around my  man." Rather than look annoyed though she just smirked at Harry who  looked a bit chagrined.

The  big wizard put his hands up helplessly "Babe I keep telling you Lara  just hires me for the occasional magical consultation. We need the  money, that million in bearer bonds paid for the house but with Maggie  and everything we can't afford to retire on it or anything. Lara pays  well and she'd flexible about hours so I can help with the baby." I  watched Susan choke down a snarky comment that I assumed was about how  Lara would love to show Harry how flexible she was but she didn't say it  out loud.

Despite  her words though her tone hadn't been harsh and she reached out to grab  Harry's hand to show him she wasn't actually mad. "I know, it doesn't  actually bother me that much, she can't touch you anyway. I'm glad she's  been helping out. Hell, I don't even dislike her that much, I'd  probably propose a threesome if our skin wouldn't burn her like a hot  griddle every time she touched us." Harry's eyes went wide at that and  his jaw dropped. Susan laughed at the glazed look on his face "See I  knew you'd been thinking about it." She raised an eyebrow at me "You're a  bad influence Cam."

I  shrugged helplessly "Oh please, like I have any say in anything. My  girls have me wrapped around their fingers. Raven and Barb make all the  decisions I'm just along for the ride." Susan smirked at that and  wiggled her eyebrows "Ok, well yeah that part is pretty fantastic. Still  you know Harry would never do anything without your say so. But enough  about that, how is my little sister liking her first family dinner?" I  cooed to the little blanket wrapped baby. They usually took turns at  family dinner and left Maggie with the other parent, this was her first  big outing to meet everyone.

Susan  got a big goofy smile on her face as she stared lovingly down at her  daughter. "Oh she's just having a wonderful time isn't she?" Her voice  dipped into a coo as she spoke to her daughter but returned to normal as  she looked back up at me "She was a bit overwhelmed at first but she's  really enjoying the time out. Speaking of overwhelmed, where is Cinder  today? I thought you were bringing her with you this week?" Cinder had  been getting closer with Barb and Raven and I lately, not in a sexual  way, but just spending lots of time with us, today was supposed to be  her first family dinner with us all.

Raven  shrugged, not seeming bothered by her absence "She was a bit afraid to  come with us, not that she would admit it. She stayed behind with Sam  and Morgan as usual but we got a commitment to do dinner with her  tomorrow night at least. Just the four of us. That however is not  important." She shifted her eyes to Tera "You're more worried than a  simple dinner would warrant. Something happened, tell us about it."  Raven was usually pretty tactful but that kind of thing didn't really  work with Tera, she was an in your face kind of person.

Susan  dropped the Cinder subject and turned to cast a concerned look at Tera.  The wolf woman had been a huge help to Susan during her pregnancy and  they'd become friends, in the year since the mess at Dalton's place  they'd become good friends. Harry added his own concerned gaze to the  mix and Tera finally caved. Her brow furrowed as she frowned before  finally glancing up at Raven. "I should have known not to try to hide  this from you all. I received news from a friend back in Colorado when I  made it to the mainland. Multiple people have begun asking around about  Conner and Myself."

That  was bad. Since Dalton had gotten rid of the Song family no one else had  come around looking for Conner. We'd hoped Tera had successfully shaken  her pursuers. Conner had shown his unique abilities more and more in  recent months, able to tap into the strength of the Loup-Garou outside  the full moon and without losing his mind. Granted as a child he could  only utilize a potion of those abilities but it heralded great power  once he grew into his nature a bit. Tera had even had Barb, Kara, and I  working with the little guy a bit, not combat training but just stuff  like tag and hide and seek to teach him to get used to his strength.

Demonreach  was much more hospitable with Alfred on our side and with Harry keeping  an eye out so it wasn't dangerous either. Harry frowned at his friend  "Once dinner is over we'll get you back to the island. You'll be safe  there and we'll put out some feelers to find out who is looking for the  two of you. We might be able to intervene directly and scare them off.  Cam still has two favors from Lily worst comes to worse, he could ask  her to offer you two protection, nobody in their right mind picks a  fight with the Summer court. Except Winter...wait I said right mind. Oh,  sorry kid, didn't mean to assume of course."

I  waved a hand "No big, if we need to I'll call that favor in but you're  not wrong about Winter. Maeve is horror movie crazy and would absolutely  try to kill someone just because Lily was protecting her. Also we  should probably stop saying their names before we get to three times and  summon them by accident. Regardless I'll reach out to Dalton and see if  his sources have heard anything. The Song family came after him about  Conner someone else might be poking around his organization and the  least I can do is warn him even if he doesn't know anything." Tera  looked gratefully at both of us.

She  bowed her head deeply "I cannot express my appreciation for your help.  It means more than I can say. I'll put you in touch with Juliet as well,  my friend in Colorado, she may be able to help you identify the people  she talked to." Charity came outside and waved Harry over, telling him  there was a phone call. He kissed his girlfriend and daughter and headed  in to get it. Tera continued "If we're going to be at the cabin for an  extended time maybe we should stop and pick up a few things before we  return. Just so we have the necessary supplies."

That  was smart, I hadn't considered that but she was right about it being a  necessity. Demonreach didn't exactly have a Smith's someone could stop  at. "Of course, I can foot the bill for supplies and help get them on  the boat, might be best to have Kara bring Conner personally to the ship  and make the shopping just the adults though, we can't afford to make a  long production out of things and I remember when I was that age I  hated the grocery store." Tera smiled fondly over at her son and nodded  at that, but before she could speak Harry came back.

Harry's  face was drawn and pale, not from tiredness this time but pain and  anger. we looked at him expectantly, not wanting to interrupt whatever  his news was. He sat down heavily "That was Billy. There's been a  murder. Someone broke into Kirby and Andie's place. Andie wasn't home  but they tortured Kirby. Looks like they wanted information, we don't  know if they got it or not but Kirby is dead. I'm heading over there now  to investigate, if you all don't want to come with I'll understand." I  felt my stomach drop out at the news. Kirby was dead. Killing Shagnasty  hadn't saved him. I got the unpleasant feeling he wouldn't be the last  friend to die.