He froze and looked down at me. "What?" His voice sounded worried, but I didn't take my eyes off of the view out the window.
"Move slowly," I said. "Put me down, but make sure I can see the window at all times."
He stiffened. "Is someone out there?"
"No." I lowered my voice even more. "It's the owl."
He huffed out a breath. "Seriously? Now?"
"Yes," I hissed. "Now." No way was I letting this owl get away without him seeing it.
He slid me to the ground, but I stayed on my tiptoes so I could watch the owl over his shoulder.
"Now." I pushed on his other arm. "Turn around very slowly."
Following my directions, he faced the window and let out a breath we both seemed to be holding. "Wow. It's gorgeous."
"Are they supposed to be that big?"
Lucian shook his head. "I don't think so. I went through a bird phase in middle school."
I interrupted him. "I remember." He'd driven me crazy with books about birds. He wanted to go bird watching. I'd taken my romance novels and read while he sat for hours looking for birds.
"Well, that looks like a Great Horned Owl. They're supposed to get to maybe two feet. This thing is three times that."
I tried to judge how tall it was as it sat on the railing, and he was right. Its head nearly went to the top of the porch. Another two feet and it would brush the ceiling.
"Its eyes are too aware," I whispered. "It's freaking me out."
"Yeah, I see what you mean." Both of us stared at it for several long moments. "That thing is an owl. I'm sure of it. But its size is alarming."
"Could it break that window?" Suddenly I was more than freaked out. If it got inside, it could cause serious damage to the house and us.
"I don't see why it would. It has no reason to want to come inside." His words were reasonable, but his tone was worried.
"It has no reason to sit on the porch while staring at us through the window either," I said in a squeaky voice. "But there it is."
"Okay." Lucian sucked in a deep breath. "We should move."
"Where? Toward it, or into a room with no windows?" I laughed, but I wasn't kidding.
"Um." He turned his head toward the stairs, calculating our move away from the window. As soon as he moved, the owl launched itself off the porch railing and into the air, its wingspan wider than we could see through the window. "Sweet Lord!" Lucian yelled. He and I both flinched and ducked, but I didn't move my gaze from the huge bird.
Its wings beat up and down a few times, then it turned in an unnaturally smooth flight path and disappeared above the porch where we couldn't see it.
"Holy cannoli," I breathed. "Now do you believe me?"
Lucian wrapped his arms around me. "Dang, baby. That was some insanity. That's what you've seen flying past the window?" His voice went up an octave. "That thing was out there while I was looking over the fence?"
"It could've eaten us. I knew we shouldn't have gone out there."
He turned away from the stairs. "I don't know about you but knowing that thing went toward the upstairs makes me want to stay down here for now."
I nodded. "I am not really in the mood anymore."
Chapter 3
Gabriel
