New Blood

Chapter 2

Logan was sitting at his desk in his office at Emery Technologies. Today was one of those mundane days that made him antsy. He liked days when he stayed busy and kept his mind active. Reading financial reports did not fit that description.

“Why are you here and not at home with your new daughter?” Everly said from the doorway.

Logan looked up to see his sister leaning against the door frame, smiling at him. She didn’t wait for him to reply before entering his office and dropping onto the sofa. Everly kept his eyes on him and raised her eyebrow, waiting for him to respond.

“Because someone has to read over the most boring reports in the world, and Damian is at home, enjoying time with his new baby. Since this is his first and my third, Gabby and I decided that Damian needs to stay home right now and enjoy the new baby,” Logan said, sighing as he tossed his pen into his desk. “What are you doing here? I thought you had some kind of unknown rock to run tests on.”

“I did, and I ran the tests,” Everly said. “I confirmed what I thought, and it is green obsidian. There are some impurities that I am still isolating and analyzing. Those will either reduce or increase its value. It is pretty and valuable as a gemstone, for carvings, and for specimen collectors, but there are few other purposes. If the deposit is large enough, it might be possible to use it as a building material in some way, but the deposit I found is small. Even if it were large, we do not do mining on any scale, so it will sit right where it is for now.”

“Hmm,” Logan grunted.

Everly looked at her brother and sighed. “Why don’t you send me those reports? I will go over them. That way, you can go home and take care of my little niece, whom I will be over to snuggle with later.”

“You know, you and Ashton could have another one,” Logan said with a grin.

Everly wrinkled her nose and laughed. “Why does everyone keep telling me that? Ash and I are happy to have only Darcy. I love my daughter with all my heart, but I'm happy not to have any more. I hated being pregnant. I had to change everything I did. I was confined to the lab, but I could only work on certain things. Then, if I did manage to sneak out of the office to do fieldwork, I had to ask someone to take me because I couldn’t shift. It was downright maddening.” Everly sighed, “Mom, Lia, Gabby, and no one else I know had to do that the way I did. Anna had to make a few adjustments at the salon, but she was still able to work and do everything she had always done. I felt like I had to give up half of my career and a big chunk of who I am. I don’t want to do that again.”

“I get it, Sis. I was only teasing you. You told me how you feel, and I would never push you to do anything you didn’t want to do. You're welcome to come over and snuggle with Amanda anytime if it makes you and River feel better. I can’t imagine River is thrilled with only one pup. Has she said anything about it?” Logan asked.

“Surprisingly enough, she agrees with me. River likes to shift even when we are in our dragon form; it makes her happy to fly. There are times when she comes forward and has a good look at things from above. River says that let’s her learn where things are that we can’t run to. Above everything, she wants to keep me and my family safe.”

“And she couldn’t do that when you couldn’t shift,” Logan nodded.

Everly tapped the end of her nose and smiled, “You got it. Now, either shoo so I can take care of those reports at your desk, or email them to me and I will do them in my office.”

Logan chuckled, “I’m sending them to you now. Thank you for this.”

“You’re welcome. But I’m doing this for Gabby, not you. I like her better than you,” Everly teased.

“I can live with that,” Logan said, making a show of clicking the mouse and sending Everly the reports. “They are on their way to you.”

“When you get home, if your fey dragons are being little pains, you can send them over to our house. Violet was a little mopey this morning. She might enjoy the company,” Everly said as her phone beeped with a notification. “I have the reports, so there is no reason for you to still be here.”

“I will send Vern and Patches over to your house only if you promise not to blame me for any chaos and destruction they cause,” Logan grinned as he got to his feet.

“I will not hold you responsible for anything they do,” Everly laughed as she and Logan walked out of his office. “Violet is a good girl and will keep Vern out of trouble. She has been doing it since she and Blue hatched him out.”

“Yeah,” Logan sighed. “Do you want me to walk you to your office?”

“Thanks, but I can find my office on my own,” Everly laughed. “I know I’m not there very often, but I do remember where it is.”

Logan pushed the elevator button and hugged his sister. “Thanks for this, Evvs. I’ll make sure Gabby knows it was your idea.”

“You’d better!” Everly laughed as her brother stepped into the elevator. “I’ll see you at Mom and Dad’s for dinner. Bring the kids!”

“I will!” Logan yelled as the doors closed.

Everly was still smiling as she hurried down the hall to her office. She stepped in and inhaled deeply. The office was small, but it was on the corner, allowing ample natural light to fill the room. That meant Everly could keep live plants in her office. Those, combined with the driftwood and rock specimens she had scattered about, helped fulfill her need to be in nature.

That need was something that had increased in the years since she had activated an ancient fairy magic within her that made her far more powerful than most were aware of. Everly could control water. Most believed that meant water bodies, such as lakes or rivers, or water in containers. What she could do was far more. Everly could pull the moisture out of things, including things that were alive. That made her a danger, and if she ever lost control, she had the potential to be deadly.

Everly went over to sniff one of her blooming plants before she dropped into her desk chair. She logged into her computer. Opened her email and found the files Logan had sent her. She sighed when she opened it. Everly understood why Logan was having so much trouble slogging through it. It was page after page of financial reports from the various departments within Emery Technologies. The one she had compiled for the geosciences division was somewhere in there. This was the type of thing Logan despised when it came to run-of-the-mill administrative tasks.

She chuckled to herself as she muttered, “Alright. Time to get this done so we can all enjoy a nice quiet, family dinner.”