“Now you’re just being stubborn.” Grann chuckled. “Fine… I’ll leave you to your games. Perhaps I’ll wake him for myself. His picture does look good, and I could do with some action, pa kwe?”
“Grann! I don’t need to hear that!”
“It’s only natural, cherie. And just because you refuse to live—”
“I’ve heard enough. Do what you must, but leave me out of it. And don’t tell me about it.”
Now Grann was laughing out loud. “I love you, cherie. Take good care of yourself.”
“I love you, too, Grann—and I will.”
She hung up on him, leaving Jon wondering what she was cooking up in her brain to let him off the hook so quickly. Usually her rantings about him coming home lasted a lot longer. He shrugged, knowing he would find out sooner than he would like and determined to enjoy the time until the boot dropped on his head. He had a book club meeting about The Witcher to attend.
Chapter Two
Barion was pacing in front of his huge TV screen, waiting for Sammy to come out of his library. His older brother, Dresalantion—or Dre for short, and mate of Sammy—was lounging on the designer couch in his mansion in the Carpathians, eating a tartuffone he had just bought at his favorite gelateria in Rome, seemingly without a care in the world. Of course, he hadn’t brought any for Barion, who had been watching Sammy for his brother—not that Sammy needed watching, at least not in the sense Dre thought.
The small human was peaceful enough, though with a knack for getting into interesting and potentially dangerous situations with paranormal beings. The way he had met Dre—as his sacrifice—was the argument Dre always brought up when either Sammy or Barion argued that he could take care of himself for a few hours. The human was also a menace when it came to books. Barion had a lot of them in his library and Sammy loved organizing them—at least that was what Sammy called it. Barion thought of it more along the lines of wreaking absolute havoc in the once-peaceful chaos that had been the books he’d accumulated throughout the years.
“Would you stop with the pacing, Barion? We still have time.” Dre had chocolate and cocoa powder all around his mouth, contrasting with his deep red skin.
“I know we still have time. And your mate is using it to misplace every book in my library.”
“You barely go there.” Dre had a point, not that Barion would ever admit it.
“It’s the principle of the thing. Besides, I can’t find anything anymore!”
“You couldn’t find anything before.” Barion itched to wrap his claws around Dre’s neck. That his brother was right didn’t help his temper.
“But I knew where the books were not!” His tone was a shrill whine, even to his own ears. He really wanted some of that tartuffone. Damn his brother for being so inconsiderate.
“Do you listen to yourself sometimes, or is what’s coming out of your mouth just stream of consciousness?”
“Fuck you, Dre. Now drag your mate out of my library. There’s a book club we have to attend.”
Dre got up slowly, his tall frame unfolding gracefully from the soft confines of the couch. Barion’s eye for aesthetics was well-trained enough to appreciate what he was seeing—a very fine specimen of a royal demon, just like himself—even though his brother was testing his patience. Since he’d met his fated mate, Dre had become more of a family man and spending time with him and Sammy was actually fun. Well, most of the time. When they don’t mess up my books and refuse to bring me sweets from Italy. “You do realize it won’t start without Sammy because he’s the host?”
Again with the logic. Barion so didn’t need that. “Then get him!”
“Geez, why are you so keen on the book club all of a sudden? After the one time you’ve been there, you said it wasn’t for you, even though we had so much fun telling all those stories about Lovecraft’s demons. I thought you enjoyed yourself.” The slight reproach in Dre’s voice did nothing to soothe Barion’s agitation.
“Yes, I did, but that was because there was something real behind the Cthulhu Cycle. It’s not nearly as funny when I have to read the books. But this time, the topic is The Witcher.”
“Which is also a book…or books.” Dre furrowed his forehead, apparently not understanding the severity of what they would be discussing this time.
“And a video game, if not the video game—and a very successful TV series. Don’t you get it, Dre? This is finally a topic I can relate to.”
“You mean you can relate to a naked Henry Cavill in the bathtub.” Dre was grinning broadly. Barion huffed.
“That too. He does look good for a human, you know.”
“Who does look good?” Sammy was coming from the direction of the library, his bi-colored eyes lighting up when he saw his mate. “Oooh, you’ve got tartuffone.”
“Yes, mo grah thu, tartuffone. You want some? And Henry Cavill looks good as the Witcher.”
“He does. Why do you think everybody was so keen on involving the series in our discussion?” Sammy was pressing his slim body against Dre’s side, eyeing the half-eaten treat in his mate’s hands with pure lust.
With an indulgent smile, Dre handed it to him, not taking his eyes off Sammy’s lips while he took the first bite. Barion had to avert his gaze so the two wouldn’t see the jealousy in his eyes. He decided to make some gagging noises instead, to show clearly how much he didn’t envy them their happiness…which he didn’t. No. He was happy for his brother—most of the time.
