“To be fair,” Fane said, “you two actually planned to dye her blue. It was premediated on your part. We simply made a mistake.”
“Next time, don’t steal the baby that we stole fair and square, and you won’t mistakenly dye her blue,” Jacque said, glaring at the two males.
“So you plan on stealing other babies?” Fane asked his mate.
“Maybe,” Jacque said, pursing her lips at her mate.
“I think it would be prudent that we not encourage Jacque to add her brand of mischief to our already exciting lives,” Vasile said as he and Alina entered the suite. Alina made a beeline for Decebel, but he still did not give her up. Alina had to be content with simply getting to touch Jen’s daughter, at least for now.
“Well, if it’s not some evil, psycho supernatural making our lives difficult, or Jacque and Sally, then it’s Jen,” said Peri.
“Hey!” Jen said, frowning at Peri. “None of this disaster was my fault. Blame Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb.”
Sally frowned. “We were just trying to give you and Dec time to work out your crap without an interruption.”
“I wasn’t talking about you two. I was talking about them,” Jen said as she pointed at Costin and Fane.
Fane threw his hands up in the air as he groaned. “You’re never going to let us live this one down.”
“While I realize it wasn’t your fault she was taken, I will remind you on a regular basis what a dumb-butt move it was to dye my kid blue,” Jen grumbled.
“Not if I can help it,” Peri muttered under her breath.
Jen’s head snapped around to the high fae, but she hadn’t heard Peri’s words and didn’t bother to stop and ask for clarification. “And you! You have some talking to do. We’re all here, so you only have to say it once. Tell us what happened and who did this.”
“And tell us you ensured they will never be able to do it again,” Decebel added.
“Fair enough,” Peri said. “I stopped the heart of the woman who stole Thia. By some strange coincidence, the lactation nurse that Jacque found for you, Kimily Blankenship, was actually a centuries-old elf hiding among the humans. She kidnapped your daughter in the hopes of impressing some bad people,” Peri said.
“What bad people?” asked Vasile.
“I don’t want to say anything else until I have more information. But I made it clear to her that she was going to tell me who and what she was, why I couldn’t sense her magic earlier, and why she took one of mine. I threatened to turn her brain to liquid while I took the information I wanted if she refused to cooperate. We had a heart to heart, and then I sentenced her to death for her crimes. I’ll admit, some of the things she said are concerning, but they may turn out to be nothing. Vasile, I’ll discuss it with you later.”
“Kimily?” Jacque breathed the name. “I can’t believe it.”
Sally’s eyes widened. “Itreallyisour fault,” she said softly.
“No,” Jen said, shaking her head and staring hard at her two best friends, who were beginning to look horrified. “The only fault lies with Kimily. End of story. If you two feel guilty, let me help you. I absolve you of any guilt. Boom. Done.”
“What, are you the pope now?” Peri asked dryly.
“If you’re around me long enough, you’ll swear you’ve had a religious experience,” Jen said as she smirked at the high fae.
“Listening to these ridiculous statements is far worse than a little bit of blue dye Fane and I may have, with nothing but good intentions, accidentally put on a baby,” Costin said.
“Watch it dimples,” Jen growled. “We can put it to a vote that when you and Sally and Jacque and Fane have kids we should dye them green and see how you feel about it.”
“That’s not really fair,” Sally said. “Everyone knows being green isn’t easy.”
Peri smacked her forehead. “And the jokes just get worse and worse. Can we call it a day?”
There were murmured agreements, but Jen spoke up before anyone could move. “Seriously? My daughter was kidnapped, like three times in one day,anddyed blue, and we’re just going to ‘call it a day’?” she asked, trying hard not to laugh at the looks on their faces. She’d milk it for as long as it would annoy them. Because she was Jen, and that’s what she did.
“Why are you still upset?” Sally asked. “Thia is back.”
“Because now I don’t have to be in control and levelheaded. Now I can go ape shit on you mofos.”
Peri sighed. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to do this, but apparently I am.” The high fae looked at Alina. “Could you step out into the hall for a moment, please? I’ll explain later.”
