AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Yes. Absolutely," I confirmed his counter-question. "You always claimed to be able to smell where I'd been and who I'd been with. That was creepy." Laughing, I took the first bite.
"Who says it was just an allegation?" our former butler suddenly said, deadly serious. "You do know that I'm a demon, don't you? A creature known in your world as a vampire. Although a lot of what they tell about us isn't true." His grin turned treacherous, and he moved a little closer. "And yes, I can smell very clearly that you slept in the Dumah's bed tonight." He looked at me triumphantly, and I almost choked on my bacon. "But without him," he added, and the afterthought was spiced with disappointment on his part.
However, I ignored it. Instead, I placed the plate on the kitchen counter with a bang. The other people present were startled out of their half-sleep and the demon opened his eyes in surprise.
"You may be a demon, Stephan, but I'm still the same woman who didn't put up with everything back in New York. And I don't want anyone snooping around in my life or my privacy. Do you understand? That's disrespectful," I roared, putting my hands on my hips. The demon nodded mutely.
"Stephan, what have you done to make Myrina so angry with you?" Tanael asked, amused, from behind me.
Having got going, I turned to the angel. With one of his incredibly seductive smiles, he raised his hands defensively as he met my sparkling gaze.
"It's all right; I'll stay out of it." He laughed and sat down at the table, where he looked at his neighbors critically. "But someone should take care of them; otherwise, we can forget about our meeting later."
Satisfied, I took my plate and searched for a place at the table. The men may have been supernatural beings, but that didn't mean they could dance around on my nose.
Stephan placed filled coffee cups and breakfast plates in front of the team. "I'll take care of it. They'll be fit again in no time," the demon promised. "Dumah, please get your own breakfast. I have to run over to the Hamptons to get something important." Smiling, he winked at me. Apparently, he hadn't taken offense at my outburst.
"Thank you," I silently formed with my lips, and he disappeared through the kitchen door.
Tanael observed him in confusion. "What? No breakfast for me?" he asked like a little kid, and I couldn't suppress a giggle.
The man of the house got up and went looking for his meal in the kitchen. Amused, I returned to my breakfast, but suddenly Tanael sat beside me, picking at my food with his fork. With a satisfied sigh, he let the scrambled eggs and bacon disappear into his mouth.
"Hey, that's my meal!" I shouted indignantly, watching in amazement as he grabbed my mug of coffee and took a big sip.
"It seems like I'm sharing my butler with you, so you're sharing your breakfast with me." He grinned, letting another piece of bacon disappear into his mouth. "Unless you want to tell me what mission you sent Stephan on?"
I pressed my lips together grimly.
"I thought so," purred the angel, pointing to my breakfast. "Bloody delicious. You'd better hurry, or there won't be any left for you." He dipped his fork into my scrambled eggs again, and I quickly grabbed a bacon. Let's see which of us could eat faster.
CHAPTER 36
Fortunately, Stephan was right, and Sam, Rick, Chris, and Hecate came to life pretty quickly. Although I had the feeling that the dosage wasn't quite right with my brothers, they somehow seemed more active than usual.
Rick talked about baseball all breakfast until he finally jumped up and bounced around the kitchen, imitating hits, throws, and home runs. On the other hand, Chris barely got to eat because he was reciting all his favorite passages from Shakespeare's plays. Instead, he had tied a kitchen towel around himself and stood on a kitchen chair like a faithful Hamlet. "To be, or not to be, that is the question!"
Meanwhile, Tanael and I shared a second portion of scrambled eggs and bacon, and sometimes it was hard to stifle a laugh at the sight of my brothers.
The fact that we were in the underworld and mythical creatures were having breakfast with me, and my brothers faded into the background. Because this was life as I knew it from when my mother was still alive. The light-heartedness of a family who could laugh and dance together and share their eggs and bacon. I would have loved to stop the world clock and push against its hands. I enjoyed the moment, and the happiness flowed through me unhindered. Everyone seemed to shine like bright stars in the night sky, glowing with the same joy that had taken hold of me. Even Hecate laughed from the bottom of her heart when Chris got down on one knee before her, took her hand, and played a love-struck Romeo.
Then Tanael's fingers interlocked with mine under the table. Quite secretly, innocently, it meant the world to me, and my happiness was complete.
His golden eyes lay warmly on me, and I realized he had also claimed this moment for himself. He had turned his back on his worries and fears for this breakfast together. Sometimes, the small gestures showed more than the big ones, and this one needed no words. He knew how I felt, and for me, it was no different with him.
We had sat there hand in hand, silently absorbing the events and our touch. What lay ahead of us would be hard enough. This was our home run, Romeo and Juliet story, and happiness. And no matter how it ended—and we all knew that Shakespeare didn't have a happy ending in mind for his lovers—no one could take this away from us. It was just as Aspasia had said. The moments of absolute happiness and true love would accompany us to our deaths.
All too soon, the morning was over, and normal activity returned. After everyone else had finished eating, they left the kitchen to prepare for our meeting. Only then did we both let go of each other—silently and without looking at each other.
Half an hour later, we sat around a massive table in the large salon. Tanael was standing next to the board again, already writing down the first point.
"Hecate, what do you have to report? What is the current situation in the human world? Did you get an idea?"
The Goddess of Magic looked around thoughtfully. Her gaze swept over me and lingered on me for a moment.
"The situation is terrible," she said without mincing words. "The Brotherhood has drastically increased the number of daily executions. People live in constant fear, including men. Poverty and hunger are steadily increasing."
"The number of abducted women has also increased. We had contact with a lady from my community. She reported that almost half of all young women between the ages of 20 and 30 had disappeared in her neighborhood, and more were disappearing every day," Chris added in dismay. The young man playing cheerful songs on his guitar yesterday was no longer recognizable anywhere in him.
