There was no stopping my eye roll. “He and Booker are BFFs,” I offered when Julian’s forehead creased. “They put on a show that they hate each other but should be wearing matching bracelets.”
Everybody at the table other than Galen and Booker broke out into raucous laughter.
“She’s making that up,” Galen said. He gave me a severe look. “There will be punishment for that later.”
“I’m thrilled,” I drawled. “I love being punished.”
A wolfish gleam glinted in Galen’s eyes but before he could respond Carlos swooped in to serenade us for dinner.
“Mount your armies,” he bellowed as he floated to a nearby tree. “We’re about to attack the pink fortress.”
Julian jerked his eyes to the bird. He looked just as jarred now as he had during their initial introduction.
“What the hell is that?” Flip demanded. The way his nostrils flared told me he was ready to start hunting Carlos. If I didn’t want the bird to be nothing more than a bunch of stray feathers, I needed to stop this now.
“He’s a pet,” I replied quickly. “We’re going to capture him and take him home.”
Galen laughed. “We’ve been trying to capture him for months.”
“I’m getting closer,” I insisted.
As if to prove me wrong, Carlos started making sounds like a siren. “Woo-woo. Woo-woo,” the bird cackled. “Call the authorities. Somebody just crashed the custard truck.”
I pressed my lips together in an attempt not to laugh. Carlos was always funny, even when he was crude.
Flip relaxed, but only marginally. “Who taught him all those things?”
“Must have been his owner,” Galen replied. “She’s a peculiar woman.”
“Is she also a sexual deviant?”
“Not to my knowledge.”
“You might want to look at her a little more closely.” Flip shook his head.
“What are you guys going to do about the serial killer?” Julian asked, changing the subject to something safer. “Will you cross over to kill him?”
“That wouldn’t be my first choice,” Galen, no longer smiling, replied. “But it might be our only option.”
“Couldn’t you just leave him on the other plane?” Taylor asked.
Galen shook his head. “He’s set at least one trap for Hadley. We still don’t know how Wesley ended up in the cemetery. The only thing we seem to know with any certainty is that Declan wants Hadley.”
“Because he thinks she can open a door back to this world?” Julian asked.
“We’re not sure,” Galen replied. “Declan can’t get back here. He would’ve returned years ago if he could. Hadley can move between that plane and this one. Clive seemingly couldn’t. I just don’t know what it all means.” He looked genuinely troubled.
“Perhaps the doors that exist won’t allow vampires, or dhampirs, to cross,” Taylor suggested.
Galen held out his hands. “Clive was something worse. If there is a spell keeping vampires out, I don’t understand how it works. Is he kept out by association? Was the spell tweaked for him? Does it work on certain beings but not others? That would have to be a very detailed spell.”
“Or you’re looking at it the wrong way,” Lucinda interjected, speaking for the first time in a long time.
“What way should we look at it?” I asked.
“Why did you jump to the conclusion there’s a spell keeping them over there, or rather off this plane, when it would be much easier to create doors that work only for certain people?” the witch challenged.
Galen’s jaw lowered, then he snapped it shut.
