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“Really?” He sniffs. “You’re certainly acting like one. A spoiled, foolish one at that.”
“Oh, wow, you’ve stepped in it now, buddy,” Blaire mutters, clapping Edmond on his metal shoulder hard enough to send him lurching forward a step as she moves past him. “Don’t rip his lips off, Casey. And don’t forget to tell him about the um…other potential lip ripper. Might as well dump all the bad news on him now while he’s cranky and get it over with. I’ll see you back at the estate.”
“What’s she talking about?” Edmond demands, but I don’t answer.
This isn’t the kind of conversation a person has in the middle of the street. We’re already going to be the subject of gossip—several shifter moms are at the playground down the street with their little ones and shifters hear everything—but we don’t have to give them any more fodder than they’ve collected already.
“Library basement. Now.” I jab a thumb toward the library steps, cutting him off before he can protest, “I know Laura’s down there. She can referee. If you keep saying stupid things, I might need a sensible third party to hold me back.”
I storm up the steps and into the library, lifting a hand to Sophie, my newly found half-sister and Wyvern book nerd librarian extraordinaire, on my way past her office. I point to the stairs leading down to the sub stacks and shout, “We’ll just be a second. Need a private, sun free place to talk.”
“Okay, but be careful,” she calls after me, sticking her head out her door. “You aren’t trained in supernatural book safety.”
“I won’t touch anything,” I assure her, already pounding down the circular staircase as Edmond lurches slowly down behind me.
“Well, if you do, don’t touch your face,” Sophie calls back. “A few of those spells can put an eye out.”
I should be worried, I guess, but losing an eye doesn’t sound so bad right now.
Maybe, if I lost an eye, and had to wear a pirate patch for the rest of my life, it would serve as a reminder not to fall in love ever again. Clearly, the universe and I are both terrible at picking significant others. I picked Manny and if all that “fated mate” stuff Annie talks about is true, then fate gave me Edmond, a cursed control freak who thinks he has the right to boss me around like he’s my father.
But he’s in for a rude awakening—I never had a father and no man has earned the right to talk to me like I’m a dumb little kid.
Hell, you shouldn’t even talk to a dumb little kid like a dumb little kid! Dumb people can’t help being dumb and little people can’t help being little. Neither one is an excuse for the kind of patronizing tone Edmond was using out there on the street.
I reach the bottom of the stairs and turn, fists balled on my hips as I wait for him to trundle down to join me. But when I cock my head, the creaking, groaning sound of the suit shifting as he moves has stopped.
I huff and cross my arms at my chest, nodding to Laura, Baron’s bear, as she lumbers out of the shadows on the opposite side of the stairs, a curious expression on her face. “Hey, Laura, Emond’s coming down, but he’s on my shit list so I need a few minutes alone with him before you two catch up, okay?”
Unlike most animals, Laura seems to understand English pretty well, a fact she proves by groaning amicably and plopping down onto her ample bottom. She waves her paw at me in what I assume is an encouragement to take my time.
But I don’t need long. Five minutes should be plenty to tell Edmond to shove the alpha-hole attitude up his ass and oh—by the way—your psycho maker is back in town and might want to kill me, so I’d better get back to the estate and lock myself in a room with plenty of pointy wooden objects before it gets dark.
The thought takes some of the wind out of my anger sails.
I am in danger. Edmond had no idea how much danger when he started barking orders in public, but he knows I was attacked last night. He was there when a supernaturally powerful vampire had his hand wrapped around my neck. If our positions were reversed, I’d probably be feeling bossy and protective, too.
I’ve nearly talked myself into having a reasonable conversation when a very pale, very naked Edmond staggers down the stairs, looking shell-shocked.
He’s not completely naked—he’s wearing black boxer briefs—but what little he has on leaves nothing to the imagination. From his broad shoulders and chiseled chest to his powerful, golden-furred thighs, to the part between those two parts that I try not to think about too much because if I think about it, I might do something pathetic like fall to my knees and beg him to fuck me one more time before I die, he’s…exquisite.
He’s like a masterpiece painted by a long dead artist or the perfect sunset at the end of the perfect day—something that can never be duplicated, no matter how hard you try.
I’m so transported by the glory of him that he’s practically on top of me by the time I stammer, “Is there a reason for the, um, uh…” I jester up and down. “State of undress?”
“That suit is hot as Venus’s arsehole,” he mumbles. “Venus the planet, not the goddess. The surface of Venus is over four hundred degrees centigrade.”
My brows pinch together. “Really? I didn’t know that. Didn’t know you were a space nerd, either.”
“Space is fascinating,” he rasps, still with that distant, haunted look in his eyes. “Like deepest parts of the ocean. Untouchable mysteries are always compelling.”
I start to cup his face but remember we’re fighting and cross my arms more firmly instead. “Are you okay? Did something happen to you in the past five minutes that I don’t know about?” I hitch my chin toward Laura. “Because you’re scaring Laura. She hasn’t uncovered her face since you stepped off the stairs in all your underweared glory.”
“That’s right…” He stands up straighter, some of the life coming back into his expression as he turns to the bear. “Laura, I need you to wake Bethshapet and ask her for a lock of her hair.”
Laura grumbles behind her paws, but Edmond cuts her off with a firm, “Now, please, Laura. It’s important. Tell her it’s for a good cause. We can’t make protection charms for Casey and her sisters without hair older than the target of the charm.” He glances back to me as he adds in an ominous rumble, “And there aren’t many creatures in town older than Priscilla Lilianna Blackmore.”
Chapter Nine
