Chance waved me off. “You’re fine. We were already actively looking for someone else to help out. We invited you to stay and gave you a job so that you’d have options, not to have you at our beck and call.”
I’d gotten so lucky ending up in Willowhope. Chance and Jetty were two of the greatest people I’d ever known. “Is everything okay?”
He snickered. “Yeah, Theo is loving all the hours, and Buck and Stevie are having a blast pranking him.”
“Will you ever tell him that ghosts are real?”
Chance nodded immediately. “One hundred percent. Mom and I can’t quite work it out, but we’re pretty sure he’s a descendant of a magical family.”
I practically rolled my eyes. “Of course he is. It seems like everyone who ends up finding a place with you is somehow magical.”
“Including you,” Ego said, tuning back in and pushing into my side.
Without thought, I wrapped my arm around his waist. Ego’s eyes widened, and I went to pull away—because really, what the hell was I doing—but he snuggled in before I could.
I cleared my throat. “I’m not magical.”
Rosie, the High Priestess, joined us with a drink in one hand and a chocolate éclair in the other. “Yes, you are, dear. What do you think an anchor is?”
“Uh…actually, I’m not sure.” I shrugged one shoulder. “I figured Ego was just used to me, so my presence gives him a measure of comfort.”
“True enough.” She wrinkled her nose. “But you already have to have the magical abilities for that to happen. Your soul has to carry equal parts patience and protectiveness. And it’s essentially your blood that carries the properties that soothes Ego, and demands his vampiric nature take notice.”
“Really?” I asked, shocked.
“Well, duh,” Ego teased. “Lysandro told us that.”
I gaped at him. “No, he didn’t. He pretty much said,you’re his anchor, and you have to stay here with him. That’s it. The end.”
Ego’s brow furrowed. “Then how did I know everything Rosie just said?”
Lysandro appeared on Ego’s other side. “Once I said it, you just knew. It’s part of our nature. Sometimes we know things we don’t even know we know until someone says something. Then centuries of knowledge poof into our brains.” He motioned above his head like it was exploding.
“That’s…okay. That’s helpful, I guess.” I still didn’t really understand why that was magical, but okay.
“Anyway,” Rosie continued. “I’ve been asking Lysandro questions that I never thought to ask before we had our ownlittle baby vamp.” She smiled fondly at Ego. “And he says your senses are heightened now, but that you haven’t tried eating yet.”
Ego huffed. “Yeah, no. The whole food burning up inside my body and coughing it out sounds horrible. Since I don’t experience hunger anymore, and the only thing I crave is…” He trailed off.
“Blood. You can say it, dear,” Rosie said. “We don’t mind.” She held the éclair out to him. “But I really think you should try eating something. Think of it as a test run.”
Lysandro smacked his hands together. “Oh fun! Extra training.”
I leaned around Ego to give him aare youfor reallook. We both knew Ego had done more than enough yesterday. Like the rest of us, Ego didn’t have the ability to say no to the older woman, so he took it and glanced at me. I gave him an encouraging nod, and he popped the whole thing in his mouth.
Then moaned—so long and low my dick twitched. The bliss that crossed his face rivaled the expression he made when he’d orgasmed. His eyeballs rolled back in his head, and I tightened my grip around his waist as his knees buckled. Lysandro chuckled and grabbed his arm, helping me hold him up.
“I told you food was delicious now,” Lysandro said.
Ego licked his lips so aggressively that I felt my dick plump, and I stepped half behind him like I was holding him up when I was really just trying to make sure no one saw the bulge in my jeans.
Ego’s voice came out thick and deep as he said, “That was the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth.”
Sky barked out a laugh from across the room. “Wow. All those years on tour, and that’s the best thing you’ve ever put in your mouth? Cousin of mine, you were doing something wrong.”
There was laughter across the room, and I planned on teasing him about that later because I rather thought my tongue should’ve been the best thing he’d ever put in his mouth, when his head whipped toward me, and his eyes bulged like they were going to pop right out of his head.
“Excuse us,” I said abruptly and dragged him into the hall. “Cough.”
