She had perched herself halfway up the stairs, crouched down and half-turned so she could drum her knuckles on the wooden steps. She was the one producing the hollow sound he had heard before, and he was not the only one who had noticed. The cerastes looked like it was in the middle of making for the ductwork. Its long body was bent in a U, as if it had turned in mid-slither, unable to resist the woman on the stairs. Lucaunderstood and even sympathized—he felt the same way about Macy.
Even as he stepped forward silently with his hook, he admired the determined way Macy kept her cool, keeping the steady beat going even as the cerastes started up the stairs towards her.
“You know it’s not going to hurt you, right?” Luca said, approaching slowly.
“Yes, you told me and I believe you. You said there’s never been an incident where they’ve hurt a person.”
“Well, that. And there’s the fact that I wouldn’t allow it to happen.”
With nothing more than that, he used his hook to snag the cerastes up and pull it back, making it automatically twist and hiss furiously. It wasenormous. If Luca had been shorter or even a little less strong, his arm would have sagged under the cerastes’s dead weight, allowing it to slither away. Even as high as he held it, a portion of its body twisted on the ground, its tail flipping back and forth in an attempt to get enough traction to get away.
“Luca!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ve got it,” Luca said absently. “I’ve got you, it’s okay.”
With care, he manipulated the cerastes around to ease it into the live bag, a large fabric container with plenty of mesh that would let a snake to breathe without allowing it to escape. Once it was halfway in the bag, the cerastes seemed to decide that the small dark place was all its own idea. It slipped off the hook, going straight into the shadowy bag and hopefully awayfrom Luca, and finally, Luca was able to throw the hook down and lunge forward, securing the opening and trapping the coiled cerastes inside.
He had trapped a wide variety of animals in that bag and ones like it. Some of them thrashed everywhere, unsafe to handle until they were lifted off the ground. Others immediately twisted around to the opening to try to escape. He watched tensely to see what the cerastes might try. As big as it was, there was no bag that was designed to hold it. This one was rated for gators, but you just never knew.
The cerastes turned over a few times and then settle, almost grumpily, into a tight coil. The occasional irritated hiss came from the black fabric, reminding them that it was nothing that could be taken lightly, and Luca breathed a soft sigh of relief.
“Is that going to hold him?”
Luca was not planning to admit the small yelp he uttered or the way he jumped, turning at the same time to see Macy standing next to him. At some point, she had come down off the stairs to stand at his side, her eyes glued to the snake in the bag in front of them.
“Yes, it will. See, he’s given up on struggling for the moment, and when we need to move him, we can lift him up easily, get him into my car.”
“Ah, so all taken care of?”
“Yes, Madame Mayor, your snake situation has been dealt with.”
The words were no sooner out of his mouth than Macy went up on tiptoe, throwing her arms around his neck anddragging him down to her. Suddenly, her mouth was on his, warm, lush and delicious, and something in him opened like it never had before. In this moment, there was nothing to do besides kiss his mate, no snake to worry about, nothing but Macy’s lips, her smell, the way she was his fated mate, and he kissed her passionately in return.
There was no telling how far he might have taken it if she’d allowed it, but after a small eternity that was really no time at all, she pulled back with a soft laugh, her eyes glowing even in the dim light from the stairway.
“Where’s this guy going?” she asked, nodding at the snake.
“Well, wherever I am at the moment,” Luca said reluctantly. “There’s someone who can take him in Chicago, but she won’t be able to get out here until tomorrow morning at the earliest.”
“Hm, right. And there’s no hotel in town that’s going to let you check in with an enormous snake in tow.”
Luca hadn’t exactly been planning to tell the hotel that they had an extra guest, but Macy gave him a patient look.
“Of course you’re going to come home with me,” she said gently. “If the cerastes isn’t going to escape from the bag, and if it can stay in there until tomorrow morning, which, oh God, is going to be here in less than five hours, we can just drive over to my place.”
Luca gave her a hungry look up and down.
“And once the cerastes is secured?”
To his surprise, Macy blushed from the neckline of her blouse up to her ears. It gave her a vivid glow that made himwant to kiss her all over again, and something in his chest tightened. His. She was all his, and he would have this for the rest of their lives together.
“I think that once everything is secured, we’ll be able to figure out exactly what’s what,” she said. “Come on. Collect your snake, I’m going to lock up.”
CHAPTER NINE
∞∞∞
Macy had a vague memory of letting them into her apartment, of apologizing vaguely for the general clutter of her life because it had been weeks since she had time to do a proper tidying, of Luca telling her it didn't matter to him, and going to get the cerastes stashed in her shower.
