Page 96 of Thunder with a Chance of Lovestruck

“You’d be shocked at how creative I can get,” stated Sherri.

“Can you two focus and stop nettling one another?” I asked.

“No,” they said together.

I rolled my eyes.

“Where are you guys? Still in Arkansas, hunting that nest of vampires who were dropping bodies left and right?” she asked.

“They’re no longer a problem,” I replied. “And we’re headed back to South Carolina. Demi called early this morning. She’s insisting that Arch started sensing Torid in the area a day or so ago. We’re headed there to look more into it. Robin’s had Arch keeping Demi on lockdown until we get there, worried she’ll get into trouble hunting on her own.”

“She hasn’t been hunting anything in over five years now,” protested Robin. “She’s rusty. I don’t want her getting in over her head.”

I glanced over at him before focusing on the road again. I passed a rather pokey driver in a Tesla and continued onward.

“Did Rachael just give youthelook again?” asked Sherri.

Robin snorted. “Yes. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I do not have a thing for Demi. That would be wrong.”

“How so?” asked Sherri. “I mean, other than the fact I think you’re a ladies’ man who is used to getting his way and on a twenty-year time-out for bad behavior. Something tells me whatever you did to earn the punishment would have gotten any other Fae or supernatural a death sentence, but you, the golden boy, got off with a hand slap.”

Robin looked over at me. “Remind me again why I insisted you reconnect with her?”

I lifted my fingers from the wheel but kept hold of it with my thumbs. “Hey, I’m not getting in the middle of this with you two. I happen to think you and Arch arm-wrestle over fathering Demi, forgetting she’s a thirty-five-year-old woman.”

I still had a hard time believing my baby was thirty-five. She’d be thirty-six later this year. I felt like I was that age. How could she possibly be it? I had equally as hard of a time believing I was fifty-seven. I didn’t feel like it. When I was in my teens, movies and television portrayed women of this age as ancient.

When I looked around at my friends and other women in my age group now, I didn’t think we looked like we were out of our forties. Most forty-year-olds I knew now didn’t look to be out of their thirties. LeAnne had once told me that forty was the new thirty and fifty was the new forty. I was starting to believe her.

I wasn’t falling apart like television led me to believe would happen at this age. Honestly, I was in the best physical shape of my life. I did strength training on a regular basis, was big into yoga to stay limber, and ran every other day. Sometimes that running came in the form of chasing down supernatural baddies, but it was running all the same.

Yes, I had random strands of silver in my otherwise dark hair, and yes, I had the starts of wrinkles around my eyes, neck, and hands, but that didn’t bother me in the least.

What bothered me most was still not knowing what had happened to Astria, or even if she was alive or not. She’d be forty now and hopefully was alive and well with a family of her own. And hopefully, she was free from the taint Henry had left behind. Free from the monsters and everything to do with my brother.

Robin tapped the dashboard lightly. “I don’t father Demi. I never have. Do I look out for her? Yes. Do I worry about her well-being? Yes. Am I there if she needs an ear or a shoulder to cry on? Yes. But I don’t father her. Same can’t be said for Arch. He’s insanely overprotective of her.”

“He said that last bit like he’s not as well,” said Sherri, laughing loudly. “I’m not sure what his hang-up is. It’s clear to me that he has a thing for your daughter, Rachael. Maybe because you’ve done nothing but turn him down and she does look a lot like you.”

“I’m the holder of his pendant,” I protested. “It would be wrong to start something romantic with him—again—now. Kind of pervy. I control where he goes and how long he’s out of the containment device. Sleeping with him on top of that seems very, very wrong. Like an abuse of power. Plus, we really are only friends now.”

Robin eyed me. “Hey, I told you when I showed up with the pendant that I was totally fine with you abusing me. For reference, I’m also fine with being tied up. Dominate me. I like it.”

“Does he ever stop?” asked Sherri.

“Nope. You get used to him, though,” I stated.

She was quiet for a moment before speaking. “Have you gotten any calls related to your uncle and brother?”

Robin stopped slouching in the seat and sat up straight.

In addition to reconnecting with Sherri and LeAnne, Robin had pushed me to tell them the truth about everything that had happened with my uncle and brother. And to tell them about Victor Frankenstein and the sanctions, as well as the Nightshade Clan’s involvement in it all.

We had no secrets between us now, and it was great.

I grunted. “Let me guess, they’re petitioning for retrials again, aren’t they? I swear it never ends.”

“Rachael, pull over for a minute and stop the Jeep,” said Sherri.

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