Page 82 of Death Dance

TWENTY-FIVE

Not a day went by without the kittens getting into trouble somehow.

Between the repairs to the Eclipse and some upgrades my father wished to install on the ancient ship, along with the tedious task of notifying the families of Breckenan’s victims, we delayed the ball and our ceremony by a year. Something seemed wrong about beginning our happily ever after with loose ends dangling. The truth behind Breckenan’s actions, founded on a deep and twisted love, bothered me for months following our departure from Gorgona.

All he’d wanted was to bring his family back from the dead. That he had zero care for the cost continued to shock me despite the passage of time. Even on the morning of our wedding night, I struggled to come to terms with everything that had happened and why.

Thousands of people had perished at Breckenan’s hands during his attempt to raise his beloved family from the dead. All of them, even what little remained of Breckenan, were interred together in a concrete vault two feet thick, which had been imbued with sufficient magic to safeguard the remains from even my family.

I could only hope our precautions would be enough.

That the vault had been dumped into the deepest part of Mariana Trench offered some confidence none of them would come back to haunt us later.

As many of the vampires attending our ceremony couldn’t walk under the sun well, we would begin the festivities at sunset, where everyone would board my precious ship. During the day, as I’d taken to staying up three times a week and enjoying my rest four, I would be putting the finishing touches on my preparations, which involved herding all our animals.

The blue anoles insisted on breeding at alarming frequency, and as such, they would not be coming with us.

Both females had eggs, and those eggs, once they were hatched, would be headed to Gorgona to help secure the anole population. Their next clutches would be headed to elsewhere in the Amazon, where the species would be introduced and replace the lost anole populations there.

The blue anoles had a few advantages over others in their species, and with luck, the jungles would once again be thriving, the tiny reptiles serving as a critical food source for many others, including snakes like my little girl, whom I’d named Chompy.

Chompy tended to take a bite out of anyone who wasn’t me, including my father. My father had learned to keep his hands to himself; nothing he said or did convinced my little pet to like him.

When I had Chompy out, she curled around my wrist, snuggled with me, and observed the world around her. For the most part, she stayed in her habitat, which had required us to knock out a wall in my favorite bathroom to install. While most of the cliff motif remained, she had a whole section of jungle to enjoy, which Emerick kept stocked with her favorite foods.

The times she failed to hunt on her own, he handled the details, sparing me from having to face the reality of what my pet ate.

Chompy would not be going with us on our voyage and honeymoon.

The last thing we needed was my adorable snake escaping and taking over the world.

As for the kittens, they’d grown, as kittens did, and tended to follow us around with adorable dedication. They would be going on our honeymoon with us, and when we couldn’t take them on certain outings, they would remain on my ship, which would be our primary mode of transportation.

My father wanted to show us the world.

I questioned how we’d get everyone boarded on time without missing anything or anyone. The pile of things I thought I needed to take with us grew, and it included my laptop, my carving kit, everything to keep our kittens happy, particularly Klepto, who needed many toys or she’d start stealing socks, panties, and anything else of interest. While Typhoon would join her sister in creating trouble, she would play with her catnip rainbow unless Klepto goaded her into misbehavior.

Not a day went by without the kittens getting into trouble somehow.

“We do not need to take the entire penthouse with us, Pepper,” my husband informed me as he went about his morning chores and preparations. “If we forget something, we can buy it on the way. You already have everything the kittens need, and if you happen to forget something, the ship has plenty of extras. I helped your father make the supply list for them. You could just bring them and they’d be fine.”

“Treats?”

“Covered.”

As our kittens lived for their supper, which involved a small can of wet food each, I stared at the stockpile I’d gathered out of the pantry. “Their gooshy goos?”

“They are at zero risk of running out of their gooshy goos. You could leave that entire pile here and there would be no chance of them starving.”

“I don’t own enough panties to keep any for me if Klepto gets bored,” I complained.

“Your father installed a lock on the main dresser that will keep Klepto out of your panties,” he promised with a grin. “Now, it won’t keep me away from your panties, which is an entirely different problem.”

“You can’t peek at tonight’s panties until after we finish the ceremony. They are special panties I gave to Salania so you can’t sneak peeks.”

“I resent that we did not sleep through the day so we could get closer to the time I am permitted to investigate these mysterious panties.”

“They’re very lacy.”