“Exactly,” Costin agreed.
Sally made a buzzing noise. “Wrong! Not that our reputation isn’t deserved, but it was the guys this time. Look at their blue hands.”
“Not entirely,” Fane countered, holding up the aforementioned blue hands. “Jacque and Sally stole Thia while Jen and Decebel were having a disagreement.”
“So what does that have to do with you two having blue hands?” She held up her own hands before they could answer. “Wait, please tell me this isn’t going to end with you saying you dyed Thia blue.”
All four pairs of eyes froze on her.
“Bloody hell!” Peri huffed. “Seriously? This is what I get called in for?”
“We stole the baby from the girls with the sole intention of returning her to Dec and Jen,” Fane explained. “But then she puked.”
“A lot,” Costin quickly added.
“Yes.” Fane nodded. “She puked a lot. And it smelled terrible.”
“What puke doesn’t smell terrible?” Peri muttered.
“Exactly.” Fane nodded again. “We realized after the projectile vomiting episode that Jen would not be pleased if we returned her child covered in vomit, so we bathed her.”
“How considerate of you, especially after having stolen her. Then you turned her blue. You four are some winner friends. I’m sure Jen will trust you completely with her child in the future.” Peri paused as she glared at them. “That’s sarcasm, in case you didn’t catch it.” She turned her glare on the girls. “And you two. Did you really think stealing your best friend’s child, after everything you’ve been through in the past month, was the brightest and safest idea? Did you not consider how Decebel might respond to his daughter suddenly not being where she was supposed to be? That it would be no big deal?”
“They didn’t have a clue,” Costin said. “They truly don’t understand how protective male wolves are of their pups.”
“To be fair, they’ve never been around male wolves who have pups,” Fane said.
“Where did you bathe her?” Peri asked.
“In the Gypsy Healer laboratory bathroom,” Costin answered.
“Did it occur to you that bathing in any room called alaboratorymight be a bad idea?” Peri asked.
“Are you implying it wasn’t an intelligent choice?” Costin asked.
Peri raised an eyebrow at him. “Costin.”
“You’re saying my name like I’m an errant child.”
“Exactly,” Peri said. “Now,Costin, what I’m not implying, but outright saying, is that the first idiotic part of this situation was you let Jacque and Sally out without supervision. Forget the blue baby. What happened to ‘I will never let my mate leave my side, hell will freeze over, pigs will fly, and Jen will become a nun, before that will happen’?” She’d dropped her voice to a deep, growling sound, mimicking the tone of the male Canis lupus when they spouted off their possessive, protective, mumbo jumbo. “That’s where you went wrong. You let them out of your sight. Dyeing the stolen child blue is just icing on the proverbial dumbass cake.”
“You know what I like about you, Peri?” Costin asked with a smile. “You never mince words. You just say exactly what you think. It’s good to know I can always count on you to tell me exactly how stupid you think I am.”
“Glad I can help keep your confidence in check by reminding you that your IQ is in the single digits. Now show me the kid. I don’t feel like dealing with Decebel’s temper.”
Costin pointed at the nursery. “She’s sleeping in there.”
Peri let out a sigh as she walked toward the door, muttering, “‘You’re a high fae, Perizada, with much power and responsibility,’ she told me. ‘You’ll be an ambassador to the wolves,’ she told me. ‘You’ll protect the healers,’ she said. You failed to mention the blue babies, Great Luna.” As Peri pushed the door open, she held up her hand and whispered under her breath, conjuring a small globe of soft light. It moved with her as she walked to the crib. When she reached the baby’s bed, she stared for at least a minute before speaking. “Well, she’s not blue,” the fae called out over her shoulder.
“Please tell me she hasn’t broken out into some weird rash,” Jacque said from behind Peri.
Peri stared down at the empty crib and then looked at the four people crowded into the doorway of Thia Angehelesco’s nursery. “She’s not blue and there’s no rash because there’s no baby,” she said, her head turning again to the empty crib. “I really hope you idiots are playing a joke on me. And I call you idiots because it would be the dumbest joke in history, but it would still be better than the alternative.”
“What’s the alternative?” Jacque practically whispered.
“That Jen and Decebel’s child is missing.”
Fane and Costin’s voices were heard above the gasps of Sally and Jacque as the two males cussed in their native tongue. Peri didn’t blame them. She wanted to curse in every language she knew, and she knew pretty much all of them. How the hell could they have let this happen?
