It was ridiculously adorable. It probably would have been even cuter if he hadn’t been coated in a monster’s intestinal juices, or whatever all the wet slimy stuff was.
Griffin said, as if needing to hear the statement aloud to believe it.
Brady whistled.
Bobo’s ears drooped.
I blinked rapidly and shook my head to clear it.
Bobo whined, but when I narrowed my eyes at him, he ceased.
His ears stood up another time. He scrambled to rise in the cradle of my lap, then slid off to stand beside me.
he asked.
Bobo nodded. He stood strong, ears and tail at attention. Aside from the glistening evidence of the dunk he took inside Monster-Fanny, he appeared to be his usual self.
Hunt said, his words taking on a sharp edge.
He glanced at the very nonhuman corpse lying mere inches from us. The stench of its open body cavity was beginning to push through my numb shock. The monster smelled as rank as it looked, like rotten-egg stink bombs and doo-doo all at once.
I quickly took stock of the situation as my friends appeared to do the same. Monster-Fanny’s shield, or whatever exactly it was, was holding strong. If the three Escalades remained on the other side of it, I still couldn’t see any signs of them or the soldiers waiting with them. I could, however, make out the welcome-to-Ridgemore greeting beyond where the vehicles should be, taunting me with its semblance of normalcy.
Griffin said in a conspiratorial whisper even though he didn’t speak aloud.
He said it so matter-of-factly, like the idea of me bringing someone—anyone—back to life wasn’t absolutely mind-blowing.
Griffin continued.
I was hearing every word Griffin was saying in that deep voice of his that sent excited tingles rushing through me more often than not lately, but they weren’t fully registering.
The shakes had started, so mild at first that I wasn’t sure they were really happening. But now there was no denying them. My teeth chattered as if we were on the Arctic tundra with whipping winds and not in Ridgemore on a balmy fall day.
Griffin didn’t hesitate to wrap me up in his arms and pull my body back against his.
“It’s okay, baby,” he cooed aloud. “It’s okay. You’re just in shock.”
“Ho-how are you n-not?”
“I’ve always known you’re amazing.” He said it again so matter-of-factly. “I’ve always believed in you.”
“Me too,” Layla said, before glancing at Brady and Hunt. “All of us.”
My eyes moistened. My head bobbed as the intensity of my shivering ramped up.
Like he was readying for a piggyback ride, Griffin wrapped his legs around me as well, enveloping my body in his heat as much as he could.
It took a minute, but finally my shivering began to diminish.
A final tremble rolled through me.
Layla said, eyes bright and made brighter by the contrasting gray sprayed across her face.
I sniffed and breathed in a bit of Monster-Fanny. I winced.
