Page 92 of Bitten By the Basilisk

Mark granted her a couple of days to think about it, then ended the call.

She had walked the rest of the way to her destination on autopilot, and though her screen reverted to her mom’s contact menu, she stood outside the coffee shop’s rear entrance staring at nothing, deep in thought.

It was therefore a surprise when a familiar peacoat appeared in front of her.

“You could have waited inside, kitten.”

She looked up, blinking to get her eyes to focus on Silas’s gentle expression. “Oh, I…needed the fresh air after being in the studio for so long.”

Silas nodded. “It was quite warm in there. I found it pleasant, but only because my kind is not suited to the cold.”

She frowned with sympathy. “Must suck, then, living somewhere with pretty harsh winters.”

“It’s not so bad,” he said, shrugging. He looked her up and down, and his low voice dropped to a purr. “Especially if you have someone warm to wrap yourself around at night.”

She had to fight off a smile, amused by his innuendo.

It was something he did a lot—made her smile, although he deployed plenty of innuendo as well.

“Where to next?” she asked, gesturing around them.

“If you come to my place, I can make you dinner.”

She pressed her lips together in a snickering smile. “I’m not sure I should go anywhere private with you without a chaperone.”

“I’ll see if Bruno is available,” he said, reaching into his coat for his phone.

“Stop!” she laughed, tugging his arm down. “Don’t bother poor Bruno. I’ve bugged him enough the past few days.”

“If you think he won’t jump at the chance to eat my cooking…”

“Okay, fair. But it’s a little too early.” She looked up at the sky, still in its golden hour.

“We can watch the sunset from my balcony,” he proposed. “I’ll even make cocktails for us. The three of us,” he clarified.

She tilted her head, intrigued.

Silas held up his phone. “Should I text him?”

She thought for a moment but failed to come up with any other concerns. Her mom would be busy until late evening, and a homecooked meal did sound good.

“Do it,” she said, giving him a firm nod.

His lips formed his signature smirk. Once he’d sent Bruno a message, he held her hand as they headed back to his car and conversed about what they were in the mood to eat. They had gone only a block when Bruno replied to say he would meet them in the parking garage of Silas’s building.

“Did those two guys promise to behave?” she later asked as they neared the private garage where his car was parked.

“They did, once I threatened to let them sit in jail for a couple of days and miss the rest of the festival.”

“And…no one saw anything they shouldn’t have?” she asked in a quiet aside.

“Miraculously, a sheriff’s deputy was just across the street and intervened, so the fight started and ended so fast that no one got their phone out in time to record anything.”

“That’s a relief.”

“For the moment. Tomorrow is when my kind is at our most territorial. I don’t know that I’ll feel truly relieved until the wards are back up and our guests are gone,” he said, punching a code into the garage’s security keypad. “How was the rest of the class, by the way? I regret missing it.”

His question instantly reminded her of what had happened while shaping her final piece—how she had sensed the heat trapped in the glass and stoked it without using a blowtorch.