Page 22 of April's Fool
My phone dinged with a message.
Unknown number: Hey, this is Oak, from the Northarbor coven. Are you free to come to the coven house to teach us how to track Basil the human way? He has us blocked.
I wanted to be smug, but I hadn’t expected them to contact me quite so quickly. After a quick call to Parker, who said he would be on hand to help, I textedhim back that I would have to find a way back to Northarbor. Oak had seemed okay when I’d spoken to him during the mission to rescue Toth, then he sent a fucking thumbs up to my message! Vague much? I was doing them a favor. The least he could do was give me a thank you. I was perfectly fine chilling in the demon realm.
When I appeared in the orchard to catch up with the tour of the grounds and to meet the pack, Cody was talking about having babies and Mori wanted to buy a heat club. Just what had I missed? I’d get the information out of them at some point.
The shifter guards had been aware of me approaching, though Toth and Cody clearly hadn’t, too caught up dreaming about expanding their family already, because they both startled some when I tapped Cody’s elbow.
“Hey sweetness, I’m going to have to miss this meeting. Is there anyone that can portal me to the coven, or nearby?” Best to be direct and get this over and done with.
Cody clearly wasn’t happy about me leaving so soon, especially since he knew I wasn’t telling him everything. I briefly explained what was going on, sugarcoating it into threats rather than a hit on me. Not that Cody reacted well to that. I kept telling him I’d be fine. He just didn’t seem to believe me. I toldhim I’d use some protection spells, a lie since I had no intention of willingly using magic on myself.
“I’ll be fine, sweetness.” I tried to assuage his worry over my safety seeing he was getting worked up.
“He will, my son,” Mori interrupted what I was sure to be quite a rant from Cody. “I’ll go with him to the coven house. My meeting with the pack can wait until another day. Damon is too important to put at risk.”
He what? I was? What the fuck?
“I’ll go where Prince Amorandes goes, naturally.” Gregoris had a weird expression on his face. This was just wonderful.
“Of course, Gregoris will ensure our safety,” Mori said, smiling and ignoring my glare.
Our safety? Unlikely. If Gregoris had a chance, he’d take me out before this hit could.
Mate Cute
Amorandes
We were quite somedistance from the others before I broached the subject with Damon, who was stewing silently beside me. “Are you sure you should go back to the human realm? I thought there was some trouble there?”
Truthfully, I didn’t know the ins and outs of the situation, just that Cody felt there was more that Damon was refusing to tell him for whatever reason. Damon constantly put my son’s feelings above everything. Was it any wonder that I’d thought he was in love with him? So Cody was likely right and Damon was either minimizing the situation or just plain ignoring things. Why he would risk himself to help the witches, I didn’t know.
“Not really. Parker doesn’t want me to do it. He’s going to meet us at the coven house once we grab some of your stuff.”
“Stuff?”
“A go bag and a coat. It’s February after all.” Damonsmirked.
“What’s a go bag?” I frowned, unfamiliar with the term.
Damon rolled his eyes. “Just the essentials. We have no idea how long the coven might need us so it’s helpful to have a change of clothes, cash, weapons, IDs, etc.”
“Ah!” I brightened, understanding. “I’m looking forward to meeting Parker.”
I got the feeling that Parker, the hacker I’d heard a lot about, had stronger objections, but again, I was getting a sugar coated version of the story. Worry swirled in my gut.
It was actually more of a portent. I think my magic, or the magic of the realm, was trying to give me a warning. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before, so I was inclined to listen to it. Thanks to my time in the human realm before Cody, I’d been given training with my magic and I could fight decently hand to hand against other supernaturals, not humans, who our magic protected. Witches were a gray area, making them tricky to fight against.
Gregoris was fantastic at combative magic and several fighting disciplines, but he was with me more as a deterrent than as a necessary bodyguard. Honestly, he was with me more as an assistant and companion than anything else these days. Our realm was so peaceful compared to the human world. Despitethat, with our training, we could both back Damon up if something went wrong.
Inside the castle, it was delightfully cool. The demon realm was always a balmy temperature unless you were in the far north, the only place that we got snow. The first time I’d experienced cold and snow was when I served Cody’s grandfather. We would have to pack some extra layers or buy some things once we got there because it was February and cold in Northarbor. I was not freezing my balls off!
“Parker is bringing me some more of my things, so just grab what you need so we can get going. I don’t think this will take long,” Damon called as he broke from us to enter his own room.
“Do you really think you can find this witch?” Gregoris asked skeptically. His words had the man faltering.
My eyebrow raised all on its own, just from the tone that Gregoris was using with Damon. It was just towing the line of being rude. What was his issue?
