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He snorted. A clawed hand closed around mine. I squeezed back, and we walked hand in hand into the house together.
“This had better notknock me on my ass again,” Ben said, taking the joint from my fingers.
Chris snorted and elbowed him, snatching it out of his grasp before he could bring it to his lips. “Lightweight.”
Ben frowned and eyed me like he expected me to tell them what’d happened a few days ago, but I was over it. He should be too. Wasn’t like the xalender had done any lasting damage. Besides, I’d passed that over to Cupid. That had been the best decision of the night, as I’d never seen the winged dude so mellow in my life.
He squinted at the movie playing on the TV, Charlie splayed out in his lap. “Vizzini’s not very smart at all. It’s obvious where the poison is from the start.”
“I think that’s the joke,” Charlie said listlessly as he toyed with the feathers on Cupid’s wing. His eyes were glazed over and his movements lazy and he hadn’t even taken a direct hit. There was enough smoke floating around in that living room that everybody probably already had a nice contact high.
“I always thought his hubris was the butt of the joke,” Chris said, gesturing to the screen with the joint pinched between two fingers.
“You’re reading too much into it,” Robert grumbled and snatched it away from him. “It’s funny because it’s funny. When you have to read into it, that takes all the fun out.”
“Humor works because it’s unexpected,” Ziggy agreed and Cupid passed the xalender mix to him. He took it with a frown, sniffed the air, and wound up passing it to Honor.
“Oh, that’s, um…” I grimaced as Honor inhaled. “That’s kinda strong, just to warn you.”
Honor arched an eyebrow and just inhaled deeply, as if he needed to prove me wrong. Then he tipped his head back and blew a perfect smoke ring into the air. “Son, I survived the seventies in a fae commune. This is child’s play.”
I stiffened as he just casually threw out that the fae existed in a room full of people who probably had no idea, but if any of them were surprised, they were too baked to show it.
Ollie rumbled with laughter. “I imagine those were fun years.”
“Depends on how you define fun,” Honor mumbled. “You ever seeWicker Man? Like that, but with magic and motorcycles.”
“But without the murder, right?” Robert asked.
Honor laughed. “You’ve never met a true faerie if you’re saying that. Nah, the Emerald Riders carved out their empire in blood all up and down I-25. Not that I know anything about that. Most of it was before my time.”
“Must be ancient history then,” I quipped.
That earned me a half-hearted smack to my knee before Honor passed the xalender laced joint to Ghost, who scooped it up with a claw, sniffed it once, and opened his mouth.
“No, Ghost. Don’t—” I was too late. He’d already swallowed it. I wiped a hand over my face when he let out a smokeyburp and shook his head. “Well, this night’s about to get more interesting.”
“You know what we haven’t done in forever?” Chris said, letting his head fall back against Ollie’s arm. “PlayDungeons and Dragons.”
“We totally should,” Robert said, but made no effort to move other than to look over at Hopper, who’d fallen asleep, his head tucked into the crook of his arm. “Shit.”
“Is he asleep?” Bud asked. He looked like he was about to follow Hopper right into sawing some logs, but I didn’t blame him. He’d been busy with Junior all day. Phoenix had taken Junior out to the RV for the night so Bud could relax.
Say what you want about Phoenix and how he treated me, but he was good to Bud.
Chris popped the cap off a black permanent marker with a devious grin.
“Aw, come on, man,” Robert protested.
“Sorry, Robert, but rules are rules,” Ben said, rising. “First one to fall asleep gets a dick on his face.”
I stood and stretched. “You guys have fun. I need some air.”
“Now?” Honor frowned. “It’s getting kind of late.”
I dismissed his concern with a wave. “If I’m not safe walking around my own property with all of you in here, then we’ve got bigger problems.”
Ziggy had just done a walk of the perimeter to make sure no one was out there, and Phoenix was supposed to be keeping an eye on things from the RV. Besides, it wasn’t like I was totally helpless. I’d survived that long on my own. With a house full of friends and monsters, I’d never felt safer in my life.
