“May I hold her?” Lucy asked, and the request surprised me.

Doyle looked to me, and I said, “Of course. We’re waiting for the nurse to bring the wheelchair; they won’t let me walk out, and most of the other men are helping load the gifts.”

Lucy didn’t seem to hear me as Doyle laid Bryluen in her arms. Lucy didn’t know how to hold the baby, which said she’d never really been around them. Doyle helped move her arms into place, and once she had the baby tucked into the crook of her arm she just stared down. Lucy’s face got this happy, almost beatific glow to it, as if the world had narrowed down to the baby in her arms.

I hadn’t expected Lucy to be that entranced with babies, but maybe she was having that “I’m in my midthirties and the clock is ticking” moment.

“Detective Tate,” Doyle said.

She never reacted, just started humming softly and rocking Bryluen gently.

“Detective Tate,” he said again, with a little more force to his voice.

When she didn’t react this time, I moved closer to her and said, “Lucy, can you hear me?”

She never reacted, as we hadn’t spoken.

“Lucy!” I said it sharply this time.

She blinked up at me as if she were waking from a dream. She stared at me, trying to say something, but she had to blink twice more to finally say, “What did you say?”

“I need to get Bryluen ready to go downstairs.” I took the baby from her arms, and she was reluctant to let her go, but once she wasn’t holding the baby Lucy seemed to recover herself. She shook visibly, like shaking off a nightmare, and said, “Wow, I just had that sensation like someone walked over my grave.”

I nodded. “It happens.”

She shivered again, and when she looked at me her eyes looked normal. Detective Tate was in there again.

“I’m sorry, Lucy, and I hope it doesn’t get you in trouble with the higher-ups in your department, but we need to take more precautions against my uncle, and Maeve Reed’s estate is more magically guarded than any safe house would be.”

“We’ll have police wizards on the detail, Merry.”

“The last time you and I worked together, one of the bad guys was one of those wizards,” I said.

“That’s not fair, Merry.”

“Perhaps not, but it’s still true.”

“You’re saying that you don’t trust the police?”

“No, I’m saying that no matter how safe you think you are, you’re probably wrong.”

“That sounds pretty hopeless,” she said.

“I thought it sounded realistic.”

She smiled, but it wasn’t entirely a happy one. “We’ll put extra patrols in your neighborhood. Call and we’ll be there.”

“I know that,” I said.

“Promise if anything goes wrong you’ll call the police and not try to handle it yourselves.”

“I can’t promise that.”

“Because you’re not allowed to lie,” she said.

I nodded.

“You’ll handle this internally, if you can, won’t you?”

I nodded again, cuddling Bryluen to me.

She turned to Doyle. “Don’t you or any of the people she loves play hero and get killed when we could have prevented it, okay?”

“We will endeavor not to,” he said.

“I mean it. Merry loves you, and I don’t want to hold her hand while she mourns you, or Frost, or Galen, or any of you guys. We’re the police; it’s our job to risk our lives to protect and serve.”

“It is our job, as well, where Merry and the babes are concerned.”

“Yeah, but Merry won’t be devastated if we get hurt, and police dying in the line of duty won’t lose the babies their dads.”

He gave a small bow from his neck. “I will remember what you said, and thank you for putting our lives above yours for Merry’s sake.”

“I don’t want to die, none of us do, but it’s our job to stop this bastard from hurting her again.”

“And ours,” he said.

She frowned and made a little push-away gesture. “You’re going to do what you’re going to do; I’ll tell them I tried.”

“We really do appreciate you coming down, Lucy.”

She smiled at me. “I know you do. I just really want to get this guy.”

I realized that Lucy had taken my rape more personally, because we were friends. It made me care for her even more, and say with real feeling, “Thank you, Lucy.”

She smiled a little wider. “I’ll leave you to get the little tykes ready to leave, and go join the cops helping to keep back the crowd.”

“I assume the press,” I said.

“And just people wanting to see the little prince and princess; it’s not every day that America gets newborn royals.”

“True,” I said, and smiled at her.

She smiled back and then left us with, “I’m not usually into babies, but she’s a cute one.”

We thanked her, and once the door closed behind her, Doyle and I looked at each other. He came to stand beside me, and we both looked down at Bryluen.

“Mustn’t bespell the humans,” I said to her.

She blinked those exotic-looking eyes at me. The little knit cap was tucked over most of her red curls and completely hid the horn buds. She was tiny and perfect, and already magical.