Page 38 of Soul Sucker

“Welcome to my parents’ house. They’re celebrating…something.” She started to move toward the kitchen. “There’s beer.”

Alexei lightly touched her elbow. “You’re okay with us being here?”

“Sure! The more the merrier. If you could do a bit of magic and enchant my mother, I’d be really grateful.”

“How grateful?” he murmured.

She grinned back at him and walked into the kitchen. “Mom, Liz and Doug are here and they’ve brought a couple of other people I work with.”

Darlene’s bright smile wavered, but she held out her hand to Alexei. “It’s always a pleasure to meet Ella’s friends. We see her so rarely.”

Knowing how Mrs. Walsh felt about them, Liz and Doug waved and said all the right things before checking out the beer and drifting outside to join the party. Alexei glided over, took Darlene’s proffered hand and kissed it. “Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs. Walsh. My name is Alexei, and this is Vadim.”

Ella moved out of the way as Vadim went past her and also shook Darlene’s hand. “A pleasure, Mrs. Walsh.”

“And where exactly are you two from?”

“We’re currently based in Russia.”

Darlene clasped her hands together. “How exciting. You didn’t tell me you were working with Russians, Ella.”

“I wasn’t until a couple of days ago.”

Darlene’s gaze lingered on Alexei who was smiling endearingly at her. She blushed and patted at her hair. Ella fought back a grin. Perhaps she would have to ask Alexei to dial it down a bit. Fae glamor could be a little overwhelming sometimes. Vadim came to stand beside her and she looked up at him.

“Would you like a beer?”

His gaze moved down from her face to the bust line of her blue flowered maxi dress.

“You look nice.”

“Which bit of me?”

His gaze returned to her face. “All of you.”

“Don’t sound so surprised.”

“Nothing you do surprises me.”

She snorted. “You poor, cynical, world-weary man. That’s such a cliché.”

“Is it?” He braced his hand on the refrigerator door behind her head, cutting off her view of the party.

Rather than look into his eyes, she turned to study his long elegant fingers and the gold signet ring shaped like a dragon. “Are you sure you don’t want a beer?”

His smile made her knees wobble. “I was wondering if you had any wine in the refrigerator instead.”

“Oh!” She hurriedly straightened. “I have no idea. I’ll get out of your way.”

She stepped around him and busied herself retrieving her beer. She couldn’t deal with his party manners at all. Her younger sister came in from the yard and walked straight over. Madison wore a halter top and cut-off shorts so tiny the pocket linings were visible beneath the frayed denim hem.

“Hey, Ella, you look nice for a change. Where did you get that dress, Goodwill?”

Before Ella could answer, Madison’s gaze fell on Vadim, who had just shut the refrigerator door and turned around.

“Holy cow, where did you findhim?”

“This is my coworker, Vadim Morosov.”

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