But kind of grumpy.
“Oh.” Dorian cocked his head as I turned right. “Are all mages moody?”
Would saying yes be rude?
“I think they just get fed up with dealing with shifters and stuff.” He probably included the kids in that too. “Now that you don’t have to pretend to ignore everything, I’m sure you’ll have better conversations with him.”
At the very least it’d probably piss him off less.
“They can’t get worse.” Shaking his head, Dorian smiled at the gator sunning himself on the side of the road. “I will never get used to the wildlife around here.”
“The best part is trying to decide which is real wildlife and which is some kind of shifter or mimic.” That had him nearly turning all the way around in his seat like a kid. “It’s hard to tell as you’re driving past.”
“How do I tell what something is?” Dorian barely turned back around in the seat before charging into the new conversation. “Do I just try to talk to everything and see what responds? I really don’t want to end up looking more insane than I already do.”
My scoff made him jump. “They didn’t think you looked nuts. You were confusing and unshockable, but that just made them more curious about you.”
His low hum as he settled back in his seat made me think I’d surprised him. “I guess I’m not used to fitting in?”
“Well, you’re going to have to get used to it here. You can talk to the locals and your students aren’t going to scare you.” They’d tried to hire regular humans back in the early nineties and it hadn’t gone well. “Just the fact that your students kept stopping in to be nosy says they like you.”
And that we were all insanely nosy…humans had nothing on a shifter with a curious streak.
“Are we taking the scenic route home or are we fucking with the person who seems to be following us?” Dorian wasn’t subtle at all as he twisted around in the seat. “A black SUV makes him look like we’re in aMen in Blackmovie.”
Would laughing make me an ass?
“Both.” As Dorian sighed again, I pointed to a small store that looked like it was in the middle of nowhere. “If you walk through to the back of that store where it says Employees Only Moron it opens up into a larger store full of magical throw pillows and weird knickknacks that are supposed to affect the mood in your house.”
I thought the whole place was overwhelming and kind of weird, but I could see Dorian’s eyes light up. There were going to be countless shopping trips in my future, so I knew I had to pick the ones he’d like first. “What do you think about going exploring once we get your stuff moved in?”
“That sounds wonderful.” As he watched the SUV in the side mirror, he shifted in his seat. “Um, I’m not sure if you were paying attention yesterday but I might’ve told Emeric we were going to make a space in the house that’s just for him.”
Yes, I’d heard that one and his response.
“He can’t live in the guest room forever. Eventually we’re going to have guests and the options upstairs aren’t set up for family.” The utter relief flooding through him was so strong I could smell it. “Which room should be his? Does he have an opinion?”
Dorian rolled his eyes as he tried to hide his smile. “He has opinions on everything, but in this case, I think he’d appreciate any one of them.”
Before I could decide if I wanted to tease him or be politely supportive, he sat up and sucked in a breath. “We need another air filter for his room.”
“We’re bringing in a mage to put the best quality spells on the bedrooms upstairs that we can afford.” I didn’t care what it cost. “Ones to block sounds and anything else we can figure out.”
I wasn’t sure how humans had kids and a quality sex life, but I wasn’t going to figure it out.
“He’s old enough we don’t have to worry about him not being able to come and find us in an emergency.” Or whatever else parents of little kids worried about. “He’s also not stupid and doesn’t seem to be reckless outside of the wholecoming to find mething.”
“Under the circumstances I consider that dangerous not reckless.” His tone said he was going to keep rolling that onearound in his head. “We’re making his aunt get a new phone when she gets back, right?”
Ugh.
“Yes and I’m going to have a long conversation with her.” The fact that she hadn’t understood the danger she was in was startling. “Even after telling me she was pretty sure her brother hadn’t died in a car accident, she wasn’t worried where Emeric was.”
“We need to ask her about where she grew up.” Shaking his head, Dorian frowned as I nodded. “I know they came in under your uncle but his record keeping was terrible and this just isn’t reasonable.”
I had a calendar which seemed to have been more than he had.
“Agreed.” It was also a good learning experience for a variety of reasons. “I’m going to need to make a few interesting phone calls when I stop wandering around the backroads and we get home.”
