“Not Bennett?” Lucas said, settling into his lap, an arm going around the back of the sofa.
Bennett smiled to himself at the way Lucas just went with the flow of the conversation instead of demanding to read everyone. It said a lot about his mate.
Owen snorted out a laugh. “Hell, no. Bennett’s way too serious for all that. He kicked our asses for some of the stuff we talked Forrest into doing.”
Lucas ran his fingers through Bennett’s hair. “You’re a good brother. I still don’t get why you would start a fire in the garage, though. Makes zero sense, Bennett.”
“So you never did anything dumb when you were a kid?” Bennett asked.
“Not that I’m going to tell you about.”
“What if I demand you tell me?”
Lucas rolled his eyes and leaned forward to kiss him. “Yeah, right. You won’t do that.”
“Oh my God, the pretty little dude tamed Bennett,” Vaughan said and grinned his signature grin, one side of his mouth turning up slightly higher than the other.
Bennett couldn’t keep the growl from coming out at the compliment Vaughan had given Lucas. One time was teasing, the second time felt like a challenge for his mate. Bennett took it as such, and his eyes changed. Lucas ran a hand down his chest. Bennett growled low in his throat.
Vaughan tilted his head to the side. “Sorry, Bennett.”
“Oh, stop, he’s just teasing you,” Lucas twisted Bennett’s nipple to prove his point. Bennett covered Lucas’ hand with his own at the painful pleasure. Lucas turned to Vaughan. “He knows you're just joking.”
They might as well have four heads with the way everyone watched their exchange. “Um…that’s not exactly true—” Ladon started to say, but quickly shut his mouth when Bennett gave him a narrow-eyed stare.
Chapter Fifteen
They ate at the kitchen table, which proved to be much more chaotic than Lucas thought a simple dinner should be. He sat next to Bennett, who was currently shoveling in his food as if it was his last meal before his execution. Lucas watched. All the brothers ate like that for some reason. He met Kristin’s gaze. “We’ll all shift later and that takes a bit out of us.”
“Oh, yeah. It’s the same for me,” Lucas said, completely understanding how much energy it took to be paranormal sometimes.
“What’s the same for you?”
“When I let the light out, I get very tired. Well, I do when I don’t mean to let it out. I’m getting better at controlling it. A lot better.” Lucas told Kristin. He liked her. She had an intelligence in her eyes that Lucas found intriguing.
He turned to Mother Estelle. “I’m getting better, right?” He needed her praise for some reason he couldn’t explain. He never even needed his mother’s approval as much as he needed Mother Estelle’s. Maybe it was because she was like him, a witch, but wiser about the magic stuff.
“So how often can you…” Kristin waved her hand. “Before you pass out?”
Lucas shrugged. He didn’t know how to answer.
“Multiple times when he’s healing. When he’s taking a life probably twice before he’s so drained, he passes out. More than that and it would probably kill him,” Mother Estelle answered for him.
Bennett growled low in his throat. He set his fork down on his plate before turning to Ramsey. “He won’t do it for the clan. I don’t care what kind of sob story each of them has. He won’t fix whatever problems they have. And he won’t kill for us, not at the expense of himself. And we need to mention the vampire scout coming to town. The clan needs to be on alert.”
Ramsey nodded, completely agreeing on all counts, which was a relief.
“Lucas has tremendous control for his age. Most witches don’t have nearly as much power and it’s hard for them to control until they're over forty. Why don’t you show Ramsey what you can do?” Mother Estelle ignoring the vampire comment put Lucas at ease. He’d rather not think about the vampire coven.
Let me get through dinner before I have to revisit that shitstorm.
“Sure. It’ll go to whoever is ill or come back to me.” Lucas put his fork down and pulled up a small ball of light. It appeared right in front of his chest and he brought it to his hand. He moved it around on his fingers like a toy ball. After a full minute the light went back into him and he picked up his fork again.
“Thank God you’re on our side. Holy shit, Ramsey. Did you see that?” Vaughan said.
“Don’t curse at the table, Vaughan Patrick,” Estelle said, making Lucas chuckle. Forrest, who sat on the other side of him, snorted out a laugh, bumping his shoulder.
“Stop it you two, or you’ll be on dish duty,” Estelle pointed to them with her fork. The scolding shut them both up. Lucas got a warm feeling in his chest at the fact that she had included him as if he was one of her kids.
