Chapter Twelve
MINA
The room fell silent as I greeted Gordon, and everyone leaned in.
“Hello, Mina. How is everything?”
The phone wasn’t on speaker, but my godfather’s deep, aged-in-an-oak-barrel voice boomed through the line and carried across the room.
I shot Roux a glance and touched my eye. “Oh, just fine.”
Marius growled under his breath, and the tiger bit his lip.
Henrik gave the antique clock over the hearth a pointed look, and I followed his eyes. Eleven p.m. Funny time for a social call.
“Hello?” I asked after a long pause on the other end of the line. Had we lost our connection?
“Sorry, still here,” Gordon hastened to reply. “I was just…”
Surprised, his tone said.
“…distracted,” was the word he chose. “And I wanted to check on, er…your guests. Everything all right there?”
I pictured Henrik creeping through the attic. Predators stalking around the obstacle course. Worst of all, that intruder — an enemy vampire — in the garden.
“Nothing out of the ordinary?” my godfather continued.
Ha. Where did I begin?
A dragon, a vampire, and two felines stared silently at me.
Then I frowned. Staring at me…why?
I swiveled away. This was my call, not theirs, dammit. My home, too. I’d had it with these guys getting mixed up in my business—
“Actually…” I started, but Bene sliced the air urgently.
I turned the other way, but that brought me right back to the others. Roux put a finger firmly over his lips.
“Um…” I stalled. Why didn’t they want me to mention the intruder?
“I went for a walk in the garden tonight…” I continued.
Roux winced, and Henrik’s eyes shone red. Bene wrung his hands.
I was ready to ignore all of them, but my eyes caught on Marius’s, and for the first time, I wasn’t catapulted away into a dream world.
Danger! Danger!his stormy eyes warned.
“Yes?” Gordon asked impatiently.
I swallowed hard, keeping my eyes on Marius.
He gave a curt shake of his head.Don’t. Please.
“It was beautiful. All the stars…” I said.
Roux and Bene exhaled. Henrik looked slightly less murderous, while Marius gave me a nod. A teensy-tiny one that somehow made me feel ridiculously proud.
