Her laughter did things to my bloodstream that should be illegal. Hot, syrupy things that made me want to pin her against the nearest vertical surface.
“Hold still, Brummy,” Cas ordered the wolf. “Almost done.”
And then chaos.
One moment, Brum-Brum was standing there, miserable and compliant. The next, he let out a sound halfway between injured moose and malfunctioning blender. The world became wet fur and flying suds as the wolf exploded sideways, claws scrabbling against the slick patio stones. His escape route took him straight through Koa’s spread legs, a move that would’ve been hilarious if the fur missile hadn’t clotheslined me with his tail on the way past.
As for Cas, he ate a faceful of wisteria blossoms when the little demon used his shoulders as a springboard, and I dearly hopedSeri had captured that most precious of moments for my album, “Casimir at His Finest.”
“Epic!” I croaked out, massaging my throat. “Absolutely epic!”
Seri’s shutter clicked rapid-fire, capturing Casimir’s drenched shirt clinging to abs hedefinitelydidn’t earn from reading medical texts. I made a mental note to delete those later.
Brumous bolted like a rocket, tearing across the lawn with suds flying off him in every direction. The three of us stood watching, stunned, as he zigzagged through the yard, leaving a trail of soapy water in his wake.
“Well,” I said, breaking the silence, “that’s one way to air dry.”
“Look at him go!” Seri clapped her hands, her gray eyes sparkling with delight. “He’s playing!”
“Playing?” Casimir drilled his knuckle into his brow. “This is not playing. This isinsanity.”
“Go, Brummy!” Seri called. “Oh, he’s fast!”
Her delighted giggles tangled with the crash of overturned buckets as Brum-Brum zoom-zoomed back to the patio. She danced backward as he carved figure eights through our legs, his panic translating into maneuvers that would’ve made a Formula One driver jealous.
Blinking at me, Ko waited until I nodded, then he turned to Seri and swooped her over his shoulder, her sundress riding up her thigh to reveal a crescent scar, the same one I’d licked every millimeter of just this morning.
Then his palm connected with her ass, the smack echoing across the lawn with her startled shriek.
For half a second, everything froze. Seri’s flushed cheeks, the way her fingers dug into Ko’s shirt, the perfect ‘o’ of her mouth.
Brumous skidded to a halt twenty yards out. His head swung toward them, tiny bubbles arcing off ragged ears, then the bastardmoved. Not the funny scrambles from before, but liquid fury condensed into fang and muscle.
Dhampir reflexes mean we see fast things slow. Human sprint becomes stroll. Bullet becomes dandelion seed. ButBrumous? He blurred like bad film stock, leaving afterimages in the noon glare. One frame: Paws churning grass. Next: Jaws locked around Ko’s forearm, baby blues blazing with feral clarity, teeth shearing through fabric to bracket flesh without breaking skin.
Nobody breathed.
“Easy, buddy.” Ko lowered Seri with glacial care, never breaking eye contact with the wolf. “Just playing.”
Brummy’s snarl rattled the pergola, the warning rolling off him in waves.
With a fierce snarl of his own, Cas lunged for her next, and Brumster switched targets with a hunter’s precision and launched again, hitting Cas’ chest full-force. They hit the turf with a brutal thud, muzzle inches from throat. The sound that tore from the wolf wasn’t a growl; it was a roar, deep and guttural, like a fault line grinding underground.
“Brummy!”
“Stay back.” I grabbed Seri’s wrist as she surged forward, her pulse rabbiting against my palm. The wolf’s lips pulled back, incisors grazing Cas’ skin.
“But he’ll listen to me! Let me—”
“He’s got a PhD in panic right now.” My grip tightened just a bit as she tried to tug her hand free. “Touching isn’t a good idea when dealing with anything that views throat veins as pull tabs.I’lldo it.”
My mental shove met a resistance similar to swimming through tar.
Let me in, you fuzzy bastard.
As usual, his thoughts were all sensations and images. Seri grimacing as her hands bled. Seri screaming as Bad Hurt Witch stole her silver worms. Seri crying with broken glass glittering in her hair.
Seri, Seri, Seri.
