Page 27 of The Flame Game

“Standard treatments can work on me. I am concerned about the food supply for their snakes, though. Most eat feeder mice.”

“So, we look into the mice situation, figure out why your family’s gorgons haven’t contracted rabies and other local hives have, and start there. Where does your grandfather get his mice?”

Quinn blinked. “Huh.”

I stared at him. “What?”

“I bet he’s been catching them with extermination groups, as the whelps are young and need to learn to hunt mice if they’re unable to get to a supplier. That is an example of what gorgon young are taught. Beauty and Sylvester must have been fed feeder mice, where my grandfather’s hive would have been using live-caught mice and rats.” Quinn snagged his phone and dialed a number. “Sorry to bother you again, Grandfather, but have you been teaching the whelps how to hunt for mice? Excellent. Thank you. Have you been catching and freezing the excess? What is your general supply right now? How long have you been doing live hunts? Okay, thanks.” Shaking his head, my husband chuckled. “Yep. They’ve been live hunting mice, and he’s been taking his wives out for group hunts before that because it’s a fun family activity. They petrify the mice, take them home, neutralize them, dispatch them, and then freeze them. They’ve been doing this for years. Apparently, he made an agreement with several exterminator groups to help handle swarms of rats and mice. They do eat rats, too—they just cut them up before freezing into pieces small enough for their snakes.”

“And so your family dodged being infected because they weren’t using a regular supplier.”

“And I bet my cousin does the same thing. They just have to dish out for the neutralizer, and that’s cheap enough compared to buying vast quantities of feeder mice. Better yet, the neutralizer would purify the wild rodents of most problems, including rabies. They just stack the statues, spray the whole lot of them, and then prepare them for eating later.”

“Let’s open the rest of our presents, then we’ll make a to-do list, and get this show on the road!”

I wanted to begin the rest of my life with my family while keeping them safe. Maybe some of my life’s problems couldn’t be solved with a liberal application of fire, neither rabies nor gorgon dust could survive through me.

Six

Are you sure about that?

Many of the gifts involved clothing in some shape or another, including a mix of pretty lingerie, baby clothes in various sizes, and a disturbing number of fuzzy handcuffs for my enjoyment, which provided a rather strong hint everyone had rightfully assumed I’d fall prey to my husband. Constantly. Or I’d enjoy using handcuffs to catch him.

Also rightfully assumed.

“According to the number of baby outfits and general supplies here, we are not having twins. We’re having octuplets. Or even more. This is way too much for two babies, Sam.”

“Except the diapers. There will never be enough diapers.” The diaper packs cracked us both up, and a small fortune in baby poop containment devices waited by the door to be sent home via various teleporting family members. “Storing those until the babies arrive will be amusing, but at least we won’t have to worry about getting most things for their first few weeks of life.”

“And we won’t need to worry about getting a baby stroller, car seats, baby cages, or toys. There were only two bags, though. We’re going to need more bags. We need to stash emergency supplies for the babies in our cars.”

“You got several gift cards so you can pick out your own bag,” he reminded me.

“I think they forgot weddings aren’t baby showers, Sam.”

“I think they did, too. Almost. The lingerie and handcuffs leads me to believe they were actually aware they were attending a wedding.” My husband chuckled, fetched a pair of red fuzzy handcuffs, and spun it around his finger. “And I don’t have to worry about using my work cuffs on you now.”

Whee! “Gorgon-incubus doohickeys are the best doohickeys.”

“I’m certainly glad you think so. I did order new tack for you, but it won’t be ready for a while. I also put in official orders for your work tack, which will be ready soon, as that was a rush order so you can work. I’m going to have to get measured now, too.”

“Do I get to ride you?”

“Obviously.”

“Is now a bad time to say I don’t have any idea in hell how to ride a horse or unicorn?”

“You’ll be trained, as you’ll have to possibly ride on mounted patrols. Or if we’re required to ride in a parade.”

“No parades.”

“We’re chiefs, Bailey. We can’t avoid the parades, especially if the civilians demand one.”

“But why would anyone demand a parade?”

“They like to show us off during the Christmas parades. This year is the first year since I started I didn’t ride in the parade, but apparently, we got an announcement of our wedding instead. I refused to watch the videos, as I saw no need to embarrass myself.”

“Oh, great. Now everybody knows we’re married?”