“I am.”
“Caelan seems to have gotten his shit together.”
I laughed. “He hasn’t asked me to marry him in months.”
“Oh noes,” Moira said lightly. “He must be cheating on you.”
I swatted at her face. “He knows it makes me nervous.”
“As it should. Proposals should happen once and only once. It loses its meaning if the guy keeps popping out from corners trying to rope you into matrimony.”
“He wasn’t quite a jack-in-the-box,” I said, feeling the need to defend him. Caelan had gotten grumbly and possessive, but he’d turned over a new leaf after I almost died.
Moira grunted and craned her neck to keep watching Caelan. “Damn, Evie. Give that ass a nice smack for me tonight.”
“It is a nice ass,” I said wistfully.
“Can you please stop talking?” Tess muttered. “You’re grossing me out.”
Moira grinned and walked over to Tess to ruffle her pale hair. “One day you, too, will ogle your boyfriend as he walks away.”
“I like the front better,” she said in a serious tone. “My neck would hurt from looking down all the time.”
“That’s just part of the fun, dear,” Moira said.
Ash finally raised his head from the bonsai and made his way over to us, stopping abruptly when we all shut up. He huffed a breath. “You’re either talking about me or sex.”
“Can’t we be talking about both?” Moira said and batted her eyes.
Ash snorted and made himself a cup of coffee. “I don’t like the look in your eyes. What are you planning?”
“Moi?” She lay a hand over her chest and let her eyes go wide. “Absolutely nothing.”
“Mm hmm.” He turned and leaned against the wall. “Do you need an alibi?”
Moira straightened. “Are you willing to give us one?”
“Us?” I asked, not having a clue what was going on.
“Depends on how bad it gets.” Ash grinned at Moira’s crestfallen look. He leaned over and tugged on a lock of her dark hair. “Of course I’ll give you an alibi, but I hope after all these years I wouldn’t have to. If you can’t sneak in, screw shit up, and get out again without getting caught, are you even half the vampire you claim to be?”
Moira sniffed. “I don’t claim to be anything other than what I am.”
“Where are we screwing shit up at?” I asked.
“First, we need to go track down some of those fliers or online chat rooms announcing you’re in the market for a husband. Then we need to find a witch.”
I snorted. “You can throw a stone out the front door and hit a witch.”
“A good one. Someone who can create a failproof locator spell.”
My eyebrows lifted. “You want to go after the Lords.” I mulled the thought over and decided I liked the idea.
“Quietly,” she corrected. “I want to inconvenience the hell out of them. Nothing harmful, especially since you and Caelan are on steadier ground. We can’t risk jeopardizing his position.”
I chewed on my lip. “I can’t use my magic. They’ll know.”
All the Lords recognized my magic and would peg me for the culprit the second they stepped outside. Plus, how many Floromancers angry at the Lords were currently walking around?
