Page 20 of Foxin' Around

She blinked at him, but her shock quickly turned to appreciation when he took a bite of food and immediately began to draw her into discussion about the chapters they had read the day before. Delighted with the unexpected and welcome conversation, Krystal tucked into her food, her mind rousing with the strong black tea and engaging discussion.

It wasn’t until after their food was cleared from their plates and Syrix sat back contently that their conversation finally lapsed. He gave his stomach a pat and craned his head to peer over at the window that was largely blocked with the burgundy curtain hanging in front of it.

“Another wet day,” he observed, but when he turned back to her, there wasn’t even a hint of dismay at being stuck in the cabin with her for another day. Rather, he looked surprisingly happy about it. “What do you think…. shall we get back to our little adventure early today?”

“You want to still?” she asked, secretly pleased that reading with her was something he really wanted to continue doing.

The look of surprise he gave her melted her heart. It was as if he honestly couldn’t imagine anything else he would want to do more.

“Of course,” he confirmed. “We may not be able to enjoy each other’s company in the gardens or taking our long walks, but if we must be trapped inside, I cannot imagine a better way to spend that time than having something enjoyable that we can do together.”

She blushed but gestured to a nearby cabinet. “There are also a lot of board games that should still have most of their pieces. I think even a chess set. I bet there might even be dice and a deck of cards if I dig through it, if you get tired of reading.”

He gave the cupboard a look of interest, but he shrugged, his smile brightening as his eyes returned to her. “Perhaps when we wish for a break, but for now I’m happy to be reading with you… if you want to,” he added, a look of uncertainly clouding his expression endearingly.

“I would love to,” she rushed to assure him, but then hesitated, a blush rising into her cheeks as she caught a hint of odor. She’d done her best washing up with a little water and a rag, but she hated feeling so unclean, especially if she was going to be snuggling next to him on the couch. Though he had made no complaint yesterday about sitting so close to her smelling the way she was, it was embarrassing. “If you have rainwater collecting somewhere, do you think I might be able to bathe?”

His eyebrows rose and he nodded, but a speculative look crossed his face. “I suspect that your family did not normally collect rainwater in barrels as I do since I did not see any evidence of them and had to construct my own. How did you normally bathe and gather water?”

Krystal shrugged. “I think the house has a well and a septic system. I’ve been using some of the water you bring into the house to flush the toilet, but everything requires electricity to run, and the generator won’t work since it’s out of fuel—if it would work at all. Electricity generally hasn’t worked since the Ravening destroyed everything.”

She had tried the lights on her first evening there and had been rewarded with disappointment, but what had she expected?

Syrix hummed to himself thoughtfully, his expression growing crafty. “Show me this generator.”

“Okay. What can it hurt? This way.”

Krystal didn’t know how he did it, but less than twenty minutes after showing him the closet in the room her cousins had shared that contained the generator, he not only had power humming through the house but the hot water heater working. And it worked so much more efficiently than any experience she’d had with a water heater before because within an hour, she was sinking blissfully into a tub filled with hot water and a relatively ancient bottle of bubble bath that had once belonged to her aunt.

A hot bath and a day tucked under Syrix’s arm as they read… suddenly the rain was a little more bearable. She could pretend for at least a little while that she wasn’t quietly screaming inside at the thought of what was out there. She was safe with Syrix. But more than that, she had woken up with an eagerness just to spend another day with him. Although she’d begun to genuinely enjoy his company, that was new.

Chapter

Sixteen

Despite enjoying passing the days reading with Krystal, Syrix was relieved when the rain let up. It poured in a torrential downfall for several days before the clouds parted and the sun deigned to reappear, giving relief to both of them. The rain not only muffled the clarity of his senses, but it had made Krystal increasingly nervous as each day passed, despite the enjoyment she found in reading and teaching him her human games. It was as if the entire time, some part of her was waiting to hear another terrible scream from the woods. They never spoke of it, but she seemed to understand as well as he did that the lamia was taking advantage of the gloom to move through the woods around the cabin, watching them.

Squinting against the late morning light, he opened the door and frowned at the gruesome “gift” left on the porch. The decapitated head of the deer lay in a puddle of blood, its antlers twined with flowers from his gardens as if in mockery of the sightless eyes that scavengers had already plucked out in the course of the early hours of the morning while he and Krystal slept. The ruin of the eyes just added to the terrible display as the stag’s mouth gaped with its last silent scream, its tongue hangingout from between its flat teeth. He sighed inwardly. Another thing to dispose of.

The lamia’s “gifts” had begun with the death of the human but had proceeded from there.

Of course, every morning he disposed of the gruesome “gifts” that the lamia had left on the porch every night since she killed the human. Not more human remains, thankfully. It seemed that she was not so fortunate as to come across another crossing through his woods, but torn apart pieces of animals were just as unpleasant to deal with. He plucked the skull up with one hand and descended from the porch at a fast clip, carrying it into the forest. It didn’t take him long to arrive at the thick mass of bushes that he utilized for hiding the evidence far from the little game trails and paths that Krystal might wish to explore. A snarl upon his lips, he chucked it unceremoniously into the growth and returned to the cabin.

The lamia’s games were becoming tiresome.

At least he was the one to discover them. His mate did not venture outside until the sun was well up with the lamia lurking nearby, so he was able to dispose of them, even in the pouring rain, before Krystal caught a glimpse of them. Krystal did not know about the tokens the lamia left, and he intended to keep it that way.

Syrix entered the cabin quietly with every intention of closing the door silently behind him but froze when his gaze collided with that of his mate. Krystal’s eyebrows rose curiously as she warmed herself in front of the stove, a steaming cup of tea held between her hands.

“You were out early,” she observed around a yawn.

“It is not so early.” He smiled at her as he joined her, reaching past her head to remove a cup from the cupboard for his own tea. She looked deliciously warm and rumpled, the sight of whichmade him yearn to curl up in bed with her to wile away the day. “Did you just wake up?”

The corner of her mouth hitched, and she shook her head. “I’ve been awake for a while, reading in bed.” Her head tipped inquisitively. “You didn’t mention what you were doing out there.”

“I did go out,” he agreed, mentally scrambling for the best excuse as she eyed him and sipped her tea. “The weather broke early this morning, it seems, and it looks like it will be a sunny day. It will be a wonderful afternoon to enjoy one of our walks.”

“That sounds great… but what were you just now doing out there?” she drawled emphatically. “I heard you leave so I know that you were out there for a while, but I can’t figure out why. And please do not insult my intelligence by saying that you were out there jogging, or something. I’ve not once seen you go out for a jog or doing anything that is explicitly exercise other than to go hunting… and never dressed like that,” she added, gesturing to his outer robe.

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