Page 66 of Pleasantly Undead in Dark River

Nico shrugged. “If it wasn’t for you, they’d all be still captive or worse.” He kissed my cheeks. “Also Titus wanted me to tell you that the Convocation passed the motion to make you the Representative for the Succubi.”

Happy fucking day.

Chapter Thirty-Five

The Immortal Cupcake was packed, Dark River coming to my re-reopening in droves. It was the way they showed support, or maybe they thought that perhaps something outrageous would happen if they stayed long enough. You never could tell with small towns. Everly bustled around at the end of the counter, making coffee and tea, then bussed the tables. I handled the food, and takeaway orders.

Nico had finished baking early in the morning, and was now relaxing on the couch in the bookstore section. He sat talking to Walker and Judge, who were on their lunch break. X stood in front of me, Enit on his shoulder like she was a boombox from the eighties. “I want a pink one, but I also want a yellow one.”

X nodded solemnly. “Why choose, am I right, Love?” he said to me, waggling his eyebrows. I don’t think he was talking about the cupcakes. “We’ll have one yellow one and one pink one please, you sexy wench.”

“What’s a wench?” Enit asked, and I gave X a stern look.

He just grinned, placing the pup on her feet. “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

I thrust two cupcakes at him and he smiled back. Then he took a bite out of each, eating half the cupcake each time. He got the two, mashed them together, and then handed it to Enit. She smiled up at him like he told the sun to rise each morning, and skipped back over to her siblings.

The front door opened and it was like all the sound got sucked right out. I looked up as everyone went entirely silent.

Six black clad vampires walked into the cafe. X was beside me, his knife in his hand in a moment. Judge was up and on my other side in an instant.

I looked to where the kids were, but they were all huddled around Walker’s legs, Nico standing in front of them all. Thank goodness.

The black clad warriors stood around me, and then dropped to their knees. The one in the center, a dark haired vampire with a jagged scar across his face like the Mariana Trench, spoke.

“Representative Raine Baxter of the Succubi. We come with an official announcement and to pledge ourselves as your guard.”

I blinked, then blinked again. “Uh, okay?”

I heard a strange low pitched whine, and looked over to see Everly eye-fucking the stuffing out of one of the Enforcers. He had bright silver hair and purple eyes. Eesh, he was like catnip for horny shifters, that one.

Great. Kelly was going to murder me in my sleep if her baby fell in love with an Enforcer. It would be like telling her that her daughter fell in love with Ted Bundy or something.

An almost elfin man stood and cleared his throat. He unfolded a wax-sealed sheet of paper. “The Convocation hereby votes that, given the circumstances, the Representative Raine Baxter of the Succubi be upgraded to the Representative of all Endangered Preternatural Creatures. This was passed into motion last night. Please find the document signed.”

“Uh, excuse me?”

Judge just grunted. “Think you just got a promotion, Rainey Day.”

The elfin man passed me the paper, and I snatched it from him. There, in impossibly fancy handwriting, was a proclamation. I’d been drafted. Majority rules. My eyes shot to Nico who looked just as shocked as I did. Lucius strolled into the cafe, standing behind all the Enforcers. As one, they tensed in his presence.

He smiled, and somehow that put them even more on edge. He waved a hand. “At ease, Men. I’m not in the Enforcers anymore. I’m just a civilian.”

He wandered over, looking completely sane, even though they watched him warily. When he stopped beside me and kissed my cheek, and craggy-faced Enforcer sucked in an audible breath. “We’d heard that he’d regained, er, what he’d lost, but we didn’t believe it.”

I shrugged, holding my hands up. “Magical vagina?”

X snorted, but smothered it quickly. I shot him a quick smirk, and then I looked back at the group of six. “Do I have any choice?”

The leader shook his head. “I’d say not, Ma’am.”

I frowned. I hated not having choices. “Why’s that?”

Lucius nibbled my ear. “Probably because there's a group of displaced rare paranormals standing in the middle of the Town Square?”

I reared back. “What did we say about people as gifts, Lucius?”

He grinned, and it was almost sweet in its sinisterness. “Not me this time.”

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