by M. L. Briers
“Behave, Lucifer,” my mother hissed. She-who had berated us all of these years for my sister’s moniker-you had to love the hypocrisy.
“Perhaps we should continue this over dinner tonight?” Syrus looked like a pussycat as he waited for my mother’s answer, he reminded me of next doors cat when I had a fish supper.
“I don’t even want to know what’s on the menu,” Sydney forced a well timed shudder and I snorted with laughter.
“Me, dear.” My mother purred, and I choked on that laughter as Syrus growled, hungrier than ever. “Love too.” Mother’s smile equalled the old shifters and I shuddered for real. Suddenly the leftovers were a lot less palatable.
“At least your mother’s not backwards in coming forwards,” Cane whispered against Lucy’s ear as he leaned in.
“That’s because she has one foot in the grave,” Lucy hissed back as she drew her upper body away from him and gave him a look that would put Medusa to shame.
“Lucy!” My mother berated her.
“What?” Lucy went for innocent, but that look hadn’t worked for her since she’d reached puberty.
“Your mother is still a very vibrant, beautiful woman, and age is of no real consequence to life,” Syrus rushed to my mother’s defence and the woman swooned once more.
“Thank you, Syrus,” she purred.
“Not when you have that many years on the clock,” Sydney chuckled.
“Thank you, Sydney,” my mother’s tone was acidic and her steely eyes glinted like barbed wire on a battlefield. You had to love a family gathering-the knives were always sharpened on someone else’s back, at least in our family they were.
“Hey, if you want to play some screwed up version of the Lion King with Mustafa here, be my guest.” Sydney’s words got a growl from Syrus and a groan from my mother.
“Back to Marmaduke’s ghost,” Scott announced.
“Marmaduke?” Syrus growled. “So it’s that old buzzard-why’s he back and what does he want with my pride?”
“You still have some pride left after being defeated by your son?” Scott shot back and Syrus growled longer and harder this time as his top lip curled in anger. “What? Too soon?”
“It’s not too soon for me to rip your-”
And here we go again!
CHAPTER TEN
~
“Now, now, boys,” my mother’s soothing tones drifted between them. Scott smirked at the lion shifter, and Syrus continued to give a low growl back to the vampire, and I guess everything was right in my world again-same old-same old.
“In spectral terms, Marmaduke’s still reasonably fresh in the ground and it wouldn’t take much to bring him back with the right spell,” my mother changed the subject, and yet I didn’t think that would satisfy either man’s need to butt heads. Butthead-s, hmm, apt description.
“But the old witches are all dead,” Sydney offered and I turned a suspicious eye on her.
“But you’re here,” she always liked to play in the dangerous sandpit of magic.
“What possible purpose could I have for bringing a dead wizard back?” she snorted her contempt for my suggestion.
“Mayhem, oh, and to see if it could be done,” I offered.
“Sure, there is that,” Sydney waved an absent hand. I knew she couldn’t deny those reasons, they were engrained within her psyche. “But it wasn’t me.”
“Don’t look at me,” mother shrugged.
“And I know it wasn’t me, so…” We all looked at Lucifer. She almost choked on her own tongue.
“Hey! I just got here,” she hissed.
“Exactly, so did Marmaduke,” Sydney folded her arms and pinned her with a look.
“Not guilty-this time,” she rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and I remembered the incident well…
“That’s right-hammy!” Sydney’s tone was more than accusing.
“Hey, you wanted the damn thing undead,” Lucy snapped and Sydney balked.
“I wanted my pet hamster alive, as in normal, not Hammy the zombie hamster that wanted to devour flesh!” Sydney hissed.
“Is this really necessary?” Mother asked, “we put that particular problem to bed many years ago.”
“Yeah, with a shovel and a lot of squishing,” I chuckled.
“Eww, poor Hammy.” Sydney looked more than a little squeamish at the thought.
“And a binding spell to make sure that it never arose again,” my mother assured Sydney.
“I don’t know-a lot of neighbourhood cats went missing over the years,” Lucifer teased.
“I think your sister learned a valuable lesson on why we don’t, as witches, reanimate the dead.” Mother’s tone was barbed.
“Zombie hamster,” Scott chuckled, but the look from his mate cut that sound off and he cleared his throat. “So, none of you did it, so who’s left?”
“Nobody, the other witches in town are pretty benign, and there hasn’t been a coven here since…” I tried to think past my baby brain, but it wasn’t happening for me.
“They were slaughtered in the early seventies,” Syrus offered, his tone somewhat approving, and my mother scowled at him.
“By whom?” Talk about acid in her voice.
“Not me!” He balked with a quick shake of his head that reminded me of Doug.
“Good to hear,” my mother’s tone had only slightly less bitterness to it.
“What about those damn Faeries? They’re always meddling in things, and they do spend a lot of time creeping into Marmaduke’s house,” Cane offered a scenario that I would never have come too on my own.
“The Faeries?” I was sceptical, more than-I was sure that the only crime those two would commit would be of the fashion variety.
“They do have magic,” Sydney tossed up a shoulder.
“And it’s not unheard of for Faeries to meddle in things they shouldn’t,” Lucifer warned.
“I’ll go talk to them,” Hawk growled from the side lines. He wasn’t one to get in the thick of a conversation, maybe it was his job training-he was more of a listener and a doer.
“I’ll come with you,” Scott pushed up to his feet.
“Why?” Hawk growled.
“Because I’m already dead,” Scott offered back with a look that questioned Hawk’s sanity. My mate grunted in reply.
“You can’t kill a dead man,” Lucy offered.
“Well you can, but some of them just won’t stay buried,” I snorted at Scott, pleased that my baby brain had allowed me to get that one in.
“You make it sound as if you wouldn’t miss me if I wasn’t here,” Scott wiggled his eyebrows at me and I had to groan-I probably would, but he didn’t need to know that.
“What’s to miss?” I shot back.
“All the fun times we’ve had over the years,” Scott offered, but I continued to look unimpressed, “and the fact that I saved your mate’s life.”
“You’re using that old one again?” I tossed back at him.
“Of course,” Scott shrugged, “if it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t be with pup.”
“You might want to rephrase that,” Hawk growled and I chuckled.
“I think Scott’s ability to father isn’t in question here,” Lucifer offered.
“Yeah, that’s a dead subject,” Sydney offered with a grin up to her mate.
“Go ahead, pick on the dead guy,” Scott huffed.
“Right now, you’re not the dead guy that we should be worried about,” I reminded them while shooing them towards the door.
Normally I would be worried about Hawk going off on his own after bad guys, but I still didn’t think the Faerie sister’s had a hand in this, but then-I did have baby brain.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
LUCY
It wasn’t that I hadn’t taken on board my mother’s willingness to open herself up to the new possibilities of some kind of relationship with Syrus, the Lion shifter, I had. It was that growing up with mother on the prowl for a new man every f
ew weeks or months had made me less open in my own abilities to trust that any man sticks around longer than it takes for the initial thrill to wear off.
Now there was Cane. He was a dead certainty to stick around-like glue-or chewing gum that you couldn’t shift from your favourite fluffy sweater-maybe that was unkind, but I still couldn’t quite see anything that permanent working out for me.
I knew about the mating bond, I was a witch, it was drummed into some of us from an early age-just in case we met our mate. I knew that there was no way of escaping it-save death, mine or his.
I also knew what would happen if I just up and left. Putting my own misery aside, Cane had a damn good chance of becoming a rogue wolf-a mindless beast that lost his humanity and went insane, a danger to everyone-supernatural and human alike. His pack, and probably most of the supernatural element in this town would have no choice but to hunt him down and kill him… job done on the mating front, but… meh.
My siblings might have nicknamed me Lucifer, and sometimes with good cause. I certainly enjoyed trying to live up to their dark expectations of me whenever possible. I liked to play to the crowd, and then it had become somewhat second nature when I was around them.
Now I was faced with a mate.
Damn, I kind of wished that I’d never come here, but Joss was pregnant and I wanted to share in a little of her happiness, Goddess only knows I never had much of my own over the last few years. Now this, a mate… Cane.
As if on cue I felt his presence against my shields. The heat of his body warmed my back as he came up behind me, and I stupidly allowed myself to revel in that feeling for a little too long. His breath against my ear snapped me back to the reality of it all…
“You’re not stealthy-I felt you coming,” I muttered and was rewarded by the deep chuckle that seemed to rumble through my body to my very bones.
“And yet you didn’t move away,” Cane’s deep voice felt like velvet against my nerves. “That tells me that you welcome my presence.”
“And those words tell me that you’re delusional,” I deflected. I had too-it was second nature.
“I think we both know that you’re mine,” his breath against my ear, my cheek felt like a caress of the best kind. My body appreciated it even if I tried to tell myself that I didn’t.
“Paws off,” I noted his hand had moved out of the corner of my eye and put a stop to it.
“I like a woman that plays hard to get, there’s something to be said for the chase,” he growled.
“I like a man who knows when to back off, there’s something to be said for having your swinging bits still attached,” I shot back-trying to sidestep out from the makeshift cage that I’d found myself in. I was the filling in the sandwich, caught between his body and the window in front of me. One big muscled arm came up and put an end to my escape route as his hand palmed the wall-damn, I’d always had a thing for those muscly-sinewy lower arms… and his were well defined
“I’ve stolen your heart, Lucy, you just don’t want to admit it yet.”
Ok-I had to admit, that was a good line, but I wasn’t a fish. Right then I felt more like the worm on the end of the hook.
“Blah-blah- blah,” I childishly made the talking hand gesture. “If you think a few words are going to get these panties off…”
I didn’t see it coming. I guess it had been some sort of challenge to his alpha sensibilities mixed with a heady dose of X-rated imagery that I’d put in his mind, but a heartbeat later-if that, and I’d been spun around of the balls of my feet, caged within those muscly arms, and his lips were against mine…
Boy, what a bloody rush of awakening that was…
Heat swept through me like a hot flash or flush, but I hadn’t reached menopause yet so I couldn’t say which. All I know was there was this giant jolt within me that sent a rather nice wave of something very pleasurable to my womb, at the same time as my stomach dipped on that rollercoaster ride that we all know and love, and that wave of heat whooshed through my body and made my head spin, my knees weak, and I found myself clinging on to him for dear life.
I’m not sure if I opened my mouth to protest or garner more of the same-but I did, and he took full advantage of my brain fart and went in for the kill… I was a lamb to the slaughter as his tongue swept over mine-that kiss became those kisses, an onslaught to my senses that swept me up in a tidal wave that tossed, turned, and battered every inch of my mind, body, and soul-until I was putty in his paws… hands!
I had the sudden urge to climb up his muscled body and wrap myself around him like a vine… What the hell? I knew the mating pull was supposed to be potent, but come on… give a girl a break… or don’t, because his body felt divine against mine. Those hard, ripped, muscles squishing my soft bits, wrapping me up in the knowledge that this man was all man… every last inch of him…
And speaking of inches-there seemed quite a few that were pressed against my stomach right now-either that or he was carrying a sock puppet in his jeans.
Wow… or was it whoa? I couldn’t be sure of anything…
Then there was that growl-and oh what a growl it was. Hungry wasn’t the word-it was sooo much more than that. That sound could have devoured me alone as it rumbled through him, through me, and echoed through every organ, every bone, and every last cell in my body.
There was a part of me that was his cheerleader, and another part that poured scorn and told me to get a grip… guess which part won.
Yep, go Cane!
I think I was just about to go with the urge to climb up around him and get him in a vice like grip of my inner thighs…. When, my mother walked in… thank the Triple Goddess for the mother of bad timings, my mother’s speciality.
“Get a room,” she announced, and Cane growled and groaned at the same time as he reluctantly set me free… I kind of seconded that emotion, only kind of, I was still torn… a little.
“I thought we had,” Cane grumbled.
“A b-e-d-r-o-o-m,” mother announced as if he was five, and I had to snigger.
“Where’s the fun in that, Nora?” Cane gave her a poignant look over his shoulder.
“You can call her mother,” I could have bitten my own tongue off-I wanted to spear my mother’s pride and ego, and hadn’t quite thought that one through-I had just basically agreed to be his mate-poop! Talk about your brain fart.
“Good to know,” Cane looked like the wolf that hadn’t just captured the bunny-he’d devoured it whole with cream on the side… Yeah, I was toast.
“Ha!” Mother spat out-I guessed she’d seen the look on my face. “That’ll teach you to mind your tongue,” she added, spinning on her heels and floating out of the room on cloud nine.
Oh, boy!
“About that room,” Cane growled against my ear…
I think I might have whimpered. I know I definitely did it on the inside…
“Hold that thought,” I lifted my index finger and he reached up and snatched my hand in his. His eyes fixed on the bracelet at my wrist and his dark eyebrows lifted upwards.
“Where did you get this?”
I stayed silent for a long moment. My brain was still numb from his kisses and my ability to drop myself into the hot stew of life was well known, and I couldn’t quite come up with a plausible way to deny what I’d done.
“I… found it.”
“Where, exactly?” I couldn’t meet his eyes. There was something about being busted in the act that did that to a person.
“Marmaduke’s house,” I grimaced when he growled. “It was just lying on the floor under a desk…” I shrugged my shoulders in a no harm no foul way.
“It’s Anna’s,” he informed me and I pulled a face.
“Eww, the faerie?” I snatched my hand from his and slipped it off my wrist. “That can go in the bin-”
“Proof that she was at Marmaduke’s house, and maybe the reason she came back there today,” Cane growled.
“Hawk and Scott!” I blurted out, but he was ahead of
me. Practically carrying me with him under one arm as he started out the room.
“I have feet,” I ground out, but as usual with alpha men, he wasn’t listening.
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
JOSS
“I knew those little Faeries were up to no good! Well, not exactly, but with hindsight-” I bit out.
“Yes, dear, isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing?” Mother shot back at me as we raced towards the old house where those dastardly Faeries lived. Not by foot, but in a great big off road, jeep type thing that was, sort of, driven by Cane. The man had an overwhelming need to keep correcting the steering wheel and bumping us about in the back… men!
“Don’t tell me, with hindsight you would never have had children,” Sydney announced from beside me; squished in the corner on my left side with my mother and Lucifer squished on the other, and I wasn’t fairing much better in the middle-ish- although, being pregnant did have its advantages, they were trying to give me as much room as possible, but how much room could a backseat hold?
Of course, the men were in the front. Cane driving and Syrus in the passenger seat… it was kind of lucky that Doug wasn’t with us-although my mind did run to him being strapped on the roof-rack like road kill…
“Don’t be silly dear,” mother’s acid tone floated across me, “I would have had all boys.” She added in the driest of tones.
“Could you two stop?” I snapped. Hawk and Scott were walking into the lion’s den… well, the faeries house at any rate, and who knew what lay in store for them?
“No,” they both said together and I got in in stereo.
“In the pride we are more than grateful for our mothers who give us life,” Syrus berated my sibling and I heard Sydney snort her contempt for that one.
“I’m not in your pride,” Sydney shot back.
“And she doesn’t have any either,” Lucifer added, and I shot her a look.
It served her right that she was practically pressed up against the glass of the back window with mother almost on her lap. She couldn’t even jump in place when Sydney reached out with her magic and zapped her, but she did yelp.