Erik sighs, but he straightens his clothes with those precise movements that scream, 'I'm totally fine' even when he's falling apart. He shoulders past me, his boots leaving heavy prints in the snow as he heads for the others.
Gullfax prances up, his golden coat catching the weak sunlight. I wrap my hands around Dani's waist, lifting her into the saddle like she weighs nothing. She settles in with a grunt that tells me she's still pissed, but at least she doesn't try to kick me in the face.
I swing into the saddle behind Dani, my thighs bracketing her hips as I settle against the warm leather. Her scent hits me hard, making my cock ache despite our earlier interruption.
Erik stumbles toward Gullfax like a drunk trying to catch a chicken, his usual lethal grace completely shot to shit.
My brother, ladies and gentlemen—feared vampire warrior, reduced to a stumbling mess because he can't handle his feelings. Fucking perfect.
His first attempt ends with him face-down in the snow. The second time, he manages to get his foot in the stirrup before sliding right back down. By the third spectacular failure, the whole fucking compound is howling with laughter.
Baldr's prissy ass is practically crying, doubled over and clutching his sides. Even Heimdall's cold-hard face cracks a smile.
Dani's body shakes against mine as she tries to hold in her giggles. "Shouldn't we..." she whispers, watching Erik wobble to his feet again, snow clinging to his silver hair.
"Erik!" I bark. "Either get your drunk ass on this horse or crawl to Valhalla's Veil. Your choice, brother."
He glares at me with unfocused eyes, looking about as threatening as a wet kitten. Finally, after what feels like a fucking eternity, he manages to haul himself into the saddle behind me, reeking of enough mead to stock a tavern.
Gullfax snorts and paws the ground the second Erik's ass hits the saddle, his coat rippling with barely contained energy. Bryn's already disappeared into the clouds above us, and this competitive bastard of a horse isn't about to let a Valkyrie show him up.
"Hold on!" I barely get the warning out before Gullfax launches us into the sky like we've been shot from a fucking cannon. The ground disappears beneath his hooves, clouds whipping past us at neck-breaking speed.
Dani'ssqueal of surprise turns into breathless laughter as she grips the reins. Behind me, Erik sways like a tree in a storm, and I clamp my arm around his wrist hard enough to leave bruises—because like hell am I explaining to Dani why her favorite brooding vampire fell off a flying horse.
"Holy shit,"Erikslurs against my back, "when did you learn to control six horses at once?"
Fuck me. He's even more shitfaced than I thought.
Lucian
31
"Hey, hey,hey! Hands off the limited editions, Darkness McEdgelord!" I swat at the demon who's treating my vintage collection like it's a demonic coloring book. "Those babies are worth more than your sorry soul on the interdimensional black market. You so much as breathe on them wrong, and I'll go all samurai on your ass faster than you can say 'brimstone and bullshit.'"
I mean, the balls on this guy, waltzing into my crib like he's the Lord of the Underworld, leaving his stanky demon-stank all over my Italian leather couch. Those fiery eyes might work on the dumb schmucks he usually terrorizes, but I've seen scarier things in my morning mirror after a night of bad chimichangas.
The demon just stares at me, those soulless flaming eyes boring into me like he's trying to read my mind. Joke's on him, though—pretty sure even the most powerful telepaths would nope the fuck out of my head after five seconds. It's like a Hieronymus Bosch painting in there, but with more dick jokes and pop culture references.
He grumbles deep in his chest, like a malfunctioning garbage disposal, as I stand my ground. "Oh, don’t you even start with that growling crap," I snap, pretty sure that's demon dialect for "fuck you."
"Listen up, Beelzebub," I continue, getting all up in his grill, which, let me tell you, is not a pleasant experience. The dude's breath smells like a tire fire in a sulfur factory. "I don't care if you're the biggest, baddest demon on the block. In Casa de Lucian, we have rules. Rule numero uno: keep your grubby mitts off my shit. Rule numero dos: if you're gonna park your ass on my couch, at least have the decency to Febreze yourself first. I just had this thing steam-cleaned."
"Lucian, quit your whining and leave Braxos alone," Emily snarks from her spot at the kitchen island, not even bothering to glance up from the dusty grimoire she's poringover. "He's not interested in your precious nerd stash, so take a chill pill and unclench, would you?"
I've been dealing with this demonic disaster for longer than I can stand, and it's driving me bat-shit insane. This asshole's got the manners of a brain-dead zombie, putting his grubby mitts on everything like it's a fucking free-for-all. And of course, I'm the only one who can't understand a damn word he's saying because I don't speak Demon like Little Miss Rosetta Crypt over there.
Seraphina, Sable, and Emily are gathered around the kitchen island, their noses buried in Sable's cookbook-slash-spellbook. They are trying to figure out how to send a magical smoke signal to Dani and maybe teach our new roommate some basic communication skills that don't involve Latin or interpretive dance.
Meanwhile, I'm over here, ready to put my head through a wall just for shits and giggles.
"If he's your new boy toy, then why don't you teach him some goddamn boundaries?" I snap, stalking into the kitchen to liberate a bottle of Jack from the liquor cabinet. If I'm gonna survive this asshole, I'm gonna need something a hell of a lot stronger than coffee. "Dude's been invading my personal bubble like he's got a PhD in bad touch."
"Braxos, sede mecum," Emily commands, patting the stool next to her. The demon—all ten feet of midnight muscle—immediately plops down like an obedient hellhound.
"There, problem solved," Emily smirks, returning to her book. "Maybe if you spent more time expanding your mind instead of rotting it with stupid video games and bad porn, you'd be able to communicate with him too."
Seraphina, my sweet celestial snack cake, tries to diffuse the situation. "Now, now, let's all just take a deep breath and focus," she says, her melodic voice carrying an undercurrent of strained patience. "The sooner we find a way to contact Dani, the sooner we can figure out what to do with our new... guest and what to do about Lilith."
