With narrowed eyes, I called on the moon again, only this time I focused on its gravitational pull and tried aiming at him. I thought it would push him back or knock him over. Instead, he began to levitate. Only a few inches at first, but I quickly discovered I could make him go up and down with hand motions.
“Seri?” He gasped, spreading his arms wide as if to balance himself as I held him steady three feet off the ground. “You doing this, darling?”
“Why, yes, Zoodle, I am.” I gave him my sweetest smile.
Then, since he’d made a joke about my cramps at lunch, I flung my hands over my head, shooting him at least fifty feet in the air.
“Ser. A. Fuck. Ing. Fi. Na! Put me down this instant!”
Koa fell on the ground, pummelling the grass with his fists as he roared with laughter.
“How long can you leave him up there, my love?” Casimir’s green eyes turned speculative, and I shrugged.
“I didn’t even know I could do it.”
#
Koa Cimmerian
I understood what Seri was doing. Cas, I was sure, did, too.
Z? Not so much.
Our redheaded menace had been too hung up on her monthly cycle restarting to see it.
And now he wasliterallyhung up, his face turning as dark as his freckles when Seri suspended him upside down.
“Precious, I’m sorry!” he shouted. “For every fang-rotted thing! Let me down, wife, and I’ll take you doggy style tonight! Well, nottonight, Miss Stain The Sheets, but—”
“You know the first rule of holes, Zoodle?” she called back, her chin raised and her eyes reflecting the moon’s glow. “When you’re in one, stop digging!”
Even Cas chuckled at that before he leaned down and whispered in her ear. Dhampir hearing being what it is, I heard every word, of course, but pretended not to.
“Bring him down before his head bursts, my love, and I’ll make you hot cocoa with whipped cream and shavings of Belgian chocolate.”
Zane screamed as he plummeted back to the ground at mach one, and Seri brought him to a halt a foot above the grass. She gently laid him on his back next to Brumous, who promptly attacked him. As the two wrestled, Casimir scooped Seri up and carried her toward the kitchen, and my mind flew back to a certain day two months ago…
Seri fluttered into the dining room, shoulders squared as she stood at the table like a nervous revolutionary at the barricades, pencil clutched in a hand that shook and notebook pressed to her chest like a shield. And that’s when I knew we were in trouble
“Not happening, little wife.” Casimir’s voice came out as flat as the stainless steel tongs he’d been using to portion out bacon.
He didn’t look up from arranging strips with military precision, three per plate. The man couldn’t pour syrup without calculating viscosity.
“Absolutelynot happening, starlight.” Zane’s red hair stuck up in sleep-mussed spikes, but his eyes were hunter-sharp as he flipped a butter knife between his fingers. “You’re about as field-ready as a day-old fawn.”
“Koko?” Her voice wavered for just a heartbeat before firming. “You understand, right?”
Casimir’s head snapped up. Darkness worse than Arabesque’s magic lived in that stare.
“Don’t youdareside with her.”
“Seri, not yet,” I added, gentler than my brothers, but no less firm.
“But I canhelp!” she insisted, clutching her pencil like a tiny weapon.
Gray eyes flashed determination, and the sight sucker-punched me. Her spirit fierce despite the rings lingering under those eyes and the bones still too prominent in her wrists. Weeks of hearty meals and safety and love had brought some color back to her cheeks, but Arabesque’s cruelty couldn’t be undone so quickly.
“The answer is no.” Cas crossed his arms and stared down his nose at her. “We have this hunt handled. It’s a short day-trip just over the border into Canada. We’ll be back by nightfall.”
