Jon heard heavy thumping, indicating two demons play-wrestling. It was enough for Jon to make him fear for his door and the hall. He stepped forward and opened it.
“Good morning, Barion, Sammy, Dre. How are you?”
Sammy smiled happily at him, while Barion looked up from where he was trying to strangle Dre from two steps below him, which made quite the picture.
“Good morning, Jon. Barion was just assuring me he would never leave you stranded in a strange dimension, but as my highly intelligent mate has pointed out, we haven’t yet established if he wouldn’t leave you somewhere else in time.” Sammy cocked his head. “Sounds a bit like Dr. Who, if you ask me.”
Jon felt his lips turn into an even wider grin, the way Sammy’s eyes were sparkling telling him he was mostly yanking Barion’s chain. The friendly human could be quite mischievous when he wanted to be.
“Yep, sounds definitely like Dr. Who. And you can rest assured that we’re only playing a game today—no going out into the world, not to mention other dimensions.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.” Sammy clapped his hands. “We’re leaving you two alone. Have fun.”
“But things were getting good,” Dre whined.
“Yeah, I was close to finally getting rid of you,” Barion spat back.
“In your dreams!”
The temperature in the hall was suddenly rising and Jon didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t a fan of violence, at least not when it happened in real life. And though he had gotten used to the casual fights in the book club—shifters and vampires were a volatile bunch, especially when they were of differing opinions on the matter of female representation in the Dragonriders of Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey—two demons getting serious was way out of his league.
Luckily for him, Sammy had no qualms about getting between the two brothers, whose intricate tattoos had started to glow so brightly that Jon could see them through the clothing they wore which was…yummy, if he were completely honest with himself. Very yummy indeed. The light was just strong enough to emphasize Barion’s perfectly muscled body underneath the sweatshirt and designer jeans, both of which didn’t leave much to the imagination to begin with. Seeing all those cloth-encased muscles highlighted like a painting by an old master reminded Jon of his sex drive, the very thing he had thought he’d lost forever.
He shook his head. Thinking of Barion and sexiness and muscles and sex was wrong. So wrong. Even though he couldn’t seem to remember why. He heard a huff. Ah, yes, because Barion and Dre were this close to a full-on fight, and Jon had to protect Sammy or the members of the book club would kill him.
“Dre, Barion, stop it or I’m telling Dad.” The words were like a bucket of ice-water. The demon brothers turned to Sammy.
“You wouldn’t!” Dre’s eyes were wide with disbelief.
“Watch me. You two love each other, and you know it. So why do you always have to escalate things?”
“That’s what demons do, mo grah thu.”
“Yes, Sammy, we’ve been like this since we were small.”
Sammy crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Well, I don’t like it, so stop.” The devious little devil even managed to let his bottom lip tremble the tiniest bit. Jon had to applaud Sammy’s talent for acting.
“It’s okay, mo grah thu. We were just joking. Everything’s fine, isn’t it, Barion?”
“Of course, brother. We simply got carried away, Sammy.”
Both demons almost fell over themselves to placate Sammy. After a few more reassurances, Sammy and Dre went back upstairs and Barion entered Jon’s apartment.
“Sorry about that. Sammy insisted on coming down with me and Dre always manages to rile me up.”
“It’s fine. I know everything about annoying family.” Jon thought about all of his relatives and shuddered. Intent on leaving this topic behind, he looked at the box Barion had picked up from the ground after his attempt to get rid of his brother. “Please tell me this is breakfast. I think I’m starving.”
“It is breakfast. Crêpes from a quaint little café in Paris, the best you’ll ever taste.” Barion opened the box and the smells wafting up made Jon an instant believer.
“What do we have?”
“This here is with Parma ham and Le Beaufort Chalet d’Alpage, a very expensive cheese worth every penny it costs. I think you’ll like how the saltiness of the Parma ham harmonizes with the complex taste of the matured cheese. Then we have one with Fromage fraise made from goat’s milk paired with spinach and garlic and the last variety is Roquefort with figs, walnuts and Leatherwood Honey. As dessert I have brought crêpes with a filling of strawberries and cream, applesauce with sugar and cinnamon and a hint of cider, as well as the classic nougat cream made with seventy percent hazelnuts.”
“In other words, not death by sugar overload as would be the case with Nutella.” Jon found Barion’s enthusiasm about food endearing.
“No, no Nutella.” Barion shuddered. “Once you’ve tasted what nougat cream can be like, Nutella becomes nothing but a bad memory.”
“I’ll take your word for it. Let’s get the goods over to the gaming room and I’ll get us plates and cutlery. The game is ready and the camera focused, so we can start right away.”
