He and Kaz bent down to press the required kisses to her deep ruby cheeks. Winnie kissed them both in turn, as if it’d been weeks since she saw them last and not a day at most. “If you had been ontime,you could’ve changed,” she admonished him before delivering one final smacking kiss to his other cheek.
“Negotiations ran long,” he sheepishly explained.
Fixing the collar of Kaz’s leather jacket, she demanded, “And what’s your excuse?”
“Vesta stabbed Arjun over control of the remote.” Kaz sent Theodore a pointed look. “Itoldyou giving them free access to television was a bad idea.”
Winnie, long used to Fracture’s ways, simply rolled her eyes. “Well, you’re here, so I can assume no one died.”
“Not yet,” he sighed.
“Come on, come on.” She ushered them inside. Both men, fully grown and nearly twice her size, followed obediently after her as she led them down the hall decorated in dozens of Delilah’s paintings.
When they reached the lavish family sitting room, they were met with even more glittering decorations, a roaring fire, and nearly all the people he loved. A low table had been set up where the usual coffee table normally sat, and it’d been covered in a white table cloth embroidered with silver moons. Silver platters of raw meat, some seasoned and some left plain, were scattered across it. Green candles in faceted crystal holders flickered between them and made the blood glitter.
Andy hovered by the overflowing drink cart, clearly whipping up a new holiday beverage that would get them all slammed well before any of them suspected, while Valen sat spread-legged on a leather armchair, looking sleepy-eyed and at ease for once.
Samuel stood with his back to the fire, a drink already in his hand, with his head bent toward Delilah. They seemed to be having some sort of intense conversation, but he knew it was useless to wonder what it was about. They wouldn’t explain even if he asked.
Those two shared a special bond that only two beings capable of Foresight could. If it brought them a little bit of peace to share some things only with each other, then he couldn’t fault them for it.
Mostly.
“At last, the wayward boys have arrived,” Winnie announced with a flourish.
Valen raised his glass with a grandfatherly grunt while his consort looked over her shoulder and called out, “Finally! Come grab a drink. And give me a kiss, for Glory’s sake.”
Delilah peered at them from her place by the mantle. Standing in the shadow of their mother’s portrait which hung in its gilded frame over the crackling fire, she gave them a look of uncanny confusion. “Where’s Viktor?”
Theodore winced. It’d been years since Viktor joined them for any family event, but she never seemed to remember.
Giving her a gentle look, he answered, “He’s not coming this year, Lilah.”
“Oh.” She wrinkled her nose. “That’s rude. We’re family.”
Crossing the room to give her a kiss on the cheek, he agreed, “It’s very rude. Maybe someday he’ll pull his head out of his ass and join us again.”
Her heavy sigh brushed his ear. “There are too many people missing. It’s not the same.”
The holidays — all of them — were difficult for his sister, but he thought that perhaps Burden’s Moon was the hardest for her to endure. The woman who stared serenely out at them from the canvas over her shoulder loomed even larger in his sister’s fragile mind, and sometimes the shadow of her loss made it harder than normal for Delilah to connect with the present.
Samuel, who understood Delilah better than any of them, draped an arm over her shoulders. “Let’s break out the game, huh? We have more than enough people here forthat.”
Brightening immediately, she took a large swig of her drink before swanning off toward the food, her melancholy forgotten almost as quickly as it arrived. “I’m going to kickeveryone’sass,” she declared, plucking a strip of cured salmon off a platter.Wiggling it in the air, she sent her consort a cheeky wink. “Except my Winnie, of course. I’ll happily kiss hers.”
“There are parents present!” Valen called out with a heavy roll of his eyes.
“You better let me win,” Winnie sing-songed as she sashayed toward Delilah, her own drink in hand.
Pressing a loud, smacking kiss to her lips, Delilah promised, “Always, my love.”
Turning away from the display with a fond shake of his head, Theodore yanked his brother into a tight hug. Samuel barely escaped it before Kaz did the same.
“Welcome home!” Theodore slapped his back once, but when Kaz followed it up with his own slap, it became a game to see who could smack him the most and quickest.
“Good gods, you monsters need to leave me alone,” Samuel grunted, swatting at them with his pale, ungloved claws.
“But wemissedyou,” Kaz drawled, smacking him even harder.
