Page 17 of Christmas Magic

Lucian chuckled. “Going to the pet store and donating food to the cat café wore you out?”

“I am sleep deprived. My blissful slumber earlier was cut short by you and Molly, remember?”

“I get it.” Lucian held up the plastic bags laden with cans of duck dinner. “You’re making me feel guilty so you’ll get extra helpings of your favorite meal.”

The feline purred. “You got me.”

“Next, you’ll be telling me you’re dying of starvation.”

“I could yowl at the top of my lungs and keel over right here.”

“Not necessary. Come on.”

As they entered Black Cat Antiquities, Lucian called, “Hey, Molly. We’re back.”

Her voice drifted down from the main part of the shop. She must be on the phone. Lucian headed to the storage room, opened three cans of food that he spooned onto plates, and set the dishes on the floor near the bowls of dry kibble and water. “Feast away, Galahad.”

The gray tabby, followed by the three other female cats, padded into the room.

“Do I smell food?” Rose asked.

“Mine,” the squire growled.

“You’re supposed to be chivalrous,” Rose growled back. “You’ll share.” After head-butting his ribs, she moved in to eat beside him, while the other females gathered around the second and third plates.

Shaking his head, Lucian rinsed the cans to go in the recycling bin. While Rose liked to boss the squire around, the two of them were in fact close friends.

After putting the rest of the food in a cupboard, he crossed to the magic detecting machines. When a surge of supernatural energy was detected, the old Olympus camera clicked and flashed. The vintage radio crackled, and the thin needles of the dials jumped, only to slide back to zero once the surge had passed. Now, though, the machines were quiet.

Lucian reviewed the data from the past couple of hours. While he had devices in his car, the ones at the store provided more in-depth information.

Nothing looked unusual. He had, for a few seconds at least, sensed a Dealer. He’d even turned the Mini around and driven down Sherwood Boulevard, but hadn’t been able to locate—

“Lucian?”

At the tap of heels, he glanced at the doorway. Molly came into view. Concern etched her beautiful face, and he set down the readouts to finish reviewing later.

He went to her. “Everything okay?”

“Cora stopped by earlier.”

“What did she want?”

Molly rolled her eyes. “You. As usual.”

Chuckling, Lucian swept his hand down his fiancée’s silky hair. He shouldn’t like hearing jealousy in her voice quite so much.

While he’d gotten better at deflecting Cougar Cora’s not-very-subtle advances, he didn’t enjoy having to deal with her. “How timely that I was at the pet store.”

“Timely for you, maybe. She didn’t want to talk to me beyond exchanging some pleasantries—although she did mention a historical society matter.”

His gut instincts told him Cora planned to hold him to his promise to dress in historical costume for a society event. Knowing her, she’d want him parading around in indecently tight tights—

Oh, hell. The annual holiday parade would take place on Saturday evening. Was she going to ask him to take part?

“Let me guess: She’s going to stop by again.”

Molly nodded. “I told her you’d be back after four.”