I refused to be embarrassed. “If you take midnight strolls on a full moon, I can’t be held responsible for what you witness.”
“Just wait for the summer solstice,” Aunt Liz said with a glance at Dave. A ritual I have never partaken in, and I had no idea my straight-laced aunt danced under the spirits.
“Is there ever a time you witches aren’t getting naked?” Dave asked.
“In all fairness, until Hudson, I wondered if Cora was a virgin,” Rebecca supplied.
Hudson smirked. “Glad I rectified that belief.”
“Everyone is getting some but me,” Rebecca whined, her lips curling down into a pout worthy of a two-year-old.
“I hear Ezra is in town,” I shot back. It was rare I had anything to needle her with. So forgive me for taking advantage of the fact the enigmatic shifter had gotten under her skin. “You could always give him a booty call.”
“I don’t make repeat calls,” she answered. Except she had. Once. For him. I kept hoping our developing love lives would rub off on her and alter her long-held belief that she wasn’t capable of a relationship. Rebecca was a free spirit, easy to fall for, impossible to hold on to. She broke more hearts in a month than I have in a lifetime. But Ezra… he’d blasted into her life, and for the first time, she was left reeling when he walked out the door—not the other way around. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that my longest resident was not up to her usual tricks. In fact, I’m not sure she’d had any encounters in weeks. I hadn’t had to threatenanyone with my shotgun in quite a while. That was like one of the hundred signals the world was ending—or a glaring sign Rebecca Lexington had met her match. I made a mental note to ask Hudson about Ezra once I had him to myself.
“One hour, Cora, then your twenty-four hours will start wherever you are.”
“Twenty-four hours for what?” Aunt Liz asked.
Rebecca chuckled as she floated down the hallway, but not before reminding us she lived in the room below ours. “Oh, The Principal managed to maneuver Cora into agreeing to be naked for twenty-four hours.”
I massaged my temple. “Supernaturals with advanced hearing need to find themselves a hobby that isn’t eavesdropping on my love life,” I grumbled as I trotted down the steps and locked myself in my office. It wouldn’t keep a prehistoric tiger out, but it would slow him down. It was a mostly redundant point. He would never know I was even gone, but just on the off chance something went wrong, I felt locking the door was a prudent thing to do.
The Serpents of the Dawn had formed many many moons ago. At the head was a representative from each of the factions, but rarely one of the leaders. For example, Hudson would never hold a seat, nor Leon, or my grandmother—thankfully. We were the unofficial guardians of their power. We’d all seen the results of it going to someone’s head, like in my grandmother’s case, and we were put in place as a sort of checks and balances system. That didn’t mean we simply sat around chatting once a week. We had thousands of covert operatives scattered around the world who could operate unseen in the shadows as they gathered information and fed it up the line. They were our serpents, and we were the dawn. Our mission was to make sure the world stayed in the light, that life was preserved and protected, and that the proverbial Doomsday Clock never struck midnight.
Lucifer was the exception to the leader’s rule, although it was more of a loophole. He was the king of Hell, but not of the angels. It seemed when they’d tried putting a demon in a position of power, it had gone badly.
They had recruited Harry a few weeks before me, when it became clear the ghost community could have some role to play in preventing an all out war.
And I was here to represent the unique position my DNA afforded me. I had a foot in humanity, the elementals, the angels, and now the shifters with being mated to Hudson. They brought me on after some debate and created a seat for a woman who had no agenda of her own other than peace. Given my power was now on Eloise’s radar, it was also prudent to keep me close. She would come for me, sooner rather than later, so into the fold I’d come. The only difference for me was that I didn’t have an army of serpents delivering me information. I was spying on my lover, my father, and my grandmother, making me the biggest serpent in the room.
With a heavy sigh, I raised my arms and uttered the newly laid spell, which would create a space within a fold in time. In it, the Serpents of the Dawn could gather discreetly without being overheard, and when I stepped back out, no time would have passed—as if I were never gone. It did, however, have a time limit of about an hour before a rippled effect would become pronounced enough to alert those who could sense such things, like my father. The last thing we needed was him sneaking through the back door and finding us convening without him. The bible taught us that an angry Abaddon spelled flames and death. I’d already had my fair share of his wrath; someone else could foot the bill for his temper tantrums in the future.
The air before me tore like a page and I stepped through into a fabricated world conjured into existence by Lucifer. It was an unexpectedly beautiful creation coming from one who residedin Hell. A hill rose before me, the long grass shimmering in the setting sun. As I stalked up it, I marveled at the ancient cherry blossom tree perched at the top. Its pastel pink blossoms floated on a warm breeze, their softness caressing my skin. As I crested the hill, a round table with six chairs came into view.
A smile spread across my face as my great Aunt Sophia waved her crochet hook at me, a nearly completed long cream scarf dangling from her lap. “Cora, my beautiful niece, you are positively glowing. Has that shifter mate of yours been treating you well?”
Dave appeared from the opposite side of the hill with a glower marring his features. “Could we please refrain from discussing Cora’s sex life? I’ve heard enough.”
Lucifer shimmered into existence directly in his chair. He was the only one of us who got to make that kind of dramatic entrance. The rest of us had to climb the hill. I glanced at Aunt Sophia. Actually, I never saw my aunt make the trek as she always beat us all here. Did that mean she got special access?
I narrowed my gaze at my uncle and aunt. I hadn’t managed to figure out their dynamic, but if her random blushing was anything to go by, they had history.
Dave slid into his chair just as Aira stalked up the hill, giving us the vampire representation in this little group. Sebastian’s mother was the opposite of his father. She was gentle, bright, and caring, and until recently, I had no idea she could command a room better than her asshole husband. Being queen of the American Vampires suited her, and if I’d cared to look more than skin deep, perhaps I would have noticed the way she conducted herself didn’t mesh with the meek, obedient woman she portrayed. It took nerves of steel to handle Leon. He was just the louder and brash of the pairing.
Sheathed in a navy cocktail dress, one might assume she was ready for a big night. But she was one of those women I envied;the type who appeared perfectly dressed, with flawless makeup and immaculate hair, no matter the time of day. I was no slob, but I favored jeans and T-shirts on my down days. Makeup was a luxury I rarely had time for, and my hair was, well… I patted my crown. Yup, still a mess. I give up.
Lucifer’s lips twitched as he waved his hand, dragging in our sixth and final member to this little slice of paradise—Harry, my ghostly sidekick. Only my father and I could see him, not that he ever spoke to him. Snooty angels. Here though, through whatever magic Lucifer performed, everyone could, which was honestly a relief. There was a lot of pressure being the only person who could communicate with someone.
Harry settled himself into his chair. He was getting better at hovering over furniture, as if he were corporeal.
“How did the meeting go?” Aira asked, as Lucifer waved a carafe of red wine into existence. It poured itself into our goblets as if served by invisible hands.Show off.
“A lot of words were said that accomplished nothing,” Lucifer answered.
Sophia rolled her eyes as her crochet hook flicked through the air. “You aren’t exactly the measuring stick we need. Unless it’s on a biblical level, you don’t see anything as noteworthy.”
Lucifer smirked. “The consequence of being alive for eons is you learn not to sweat the small stuff, or you’ll go insane.”
