Page 31 of Warmongers and Wands
“What are you planning for all these things?” I asked.
“The mouse traps will be alarms. The flashlights are temporary blindness. These?” She shrugged. “I was thinking something defensive.”
“Wouldn’t knives be better for that?” Hadur asked.
“Probably if we were looking to stab someone.” I picked up one of the spoons. “Stabbing a werewolf isn’t really that effective. They heal fast. It just pisses them off unless you can somehow launch two dozen knives into them at once.”
“And spoons work better?” Hadur was clearly perplexed.
Actually, I was too. Normally I had all sorts of brilliant clever ideas for things to enchant, but I was tired, and despite my confidence just a few minutes ago, I was worried I wouldn’t have the strength to do more than the nippers and one of the spoons—whatever I intended on doing with them.
Spoons. “I think I’ll do a sap energy spell,” I said. “Werewolves are absolute babies about that sort of thing.”
“Sure you don’t want to do a towel spell?” Cassie asked.
I didn’t have the strength to do one towel spell, let alone half a dozen. That thing was complex. Doing the one for Pete had taken me weeks, and I didn’t have weeks here.
“No, I’ll do the sap energy.” I ran my fingers around the spoon, thinking of the incantation, the focus area, the sigil I’d need to trace, and the energy I’d need to somehow pull together.
“Can I help?” Hadur asked.
“That pen knife over on the table? I need to scratch sigils in each spoon just like I did with the nippers, only different sigils.”
He shook his head but got up to retrieve the item. “I meant can I help as in can I contribute to the spell?”
Cassie sucked in a breath. “No, you cannot.”
I bit back a smile, knowing what she was thinking. When Lucien granted Cassie his energy for a spell, it was downright erotic.
“Yes, he can. I was going to have him help me with the nippers as it was. If you want me to enchant all these spoons, then I’m going to need help. He can help.”
She glared at me, then at Hadur. “Go outside while I speak with my sister.”
He scowled back. “It’s my home. No, I’m not going outside.”
I rolled my eyes. “Please step outside. Cassie’s going to give me a sex ed talk and she doesn’t want to do it in front of you.”
There was a bit of a staring match between the two, then Hadur headed outside with an exasperated huff.
“Has he…have you…” Cassie made a rude gesture with her hands.
“We’ve gotten to second base. Or maybe third base. I didn’t really memorize what happened at which base, so I’m not really sure. Let’s just say up until this morning I’ve been naked, and there was some fun involving a bathtub.”
My sister clapped her hands over her ears, then paced a few steps before lowering her hands. “He’s hot, if you’re into that muscled, mountain man look—”
“I totally am,” I interrupted her.
“He’s a war demon.” Cassie glared at me. “And you’re not…you’re not all that experienced with guys, Bronwyn. I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t trust him, and I don’t want to see you fall for some good-looking, studly, jerk of a demon who will break your heart.”
“Like Marcus did to you?” I totally threw her ex-boyfriend, the ‘ho of a panther shifter, in her face. “Look, I get that you’re protective. You’ve always been that way to me, to all of us. And it’s kind of a sisterly obligation to warn us that we’re about to make a terrible mistake in the boyfriend department. Warning taken. But I’m a grown woman, Cass. I’m thirty-one damned years old. And just because I haven’t had a manly shaft breach the walls of my virtue doesn’t mean I’m a fool about men. Have some faith in my ability to make a decision, please.”
She smiled, and her eyes glistened with something that might have been tears. “Okay. But if he turns out to be an asshole, if I find you crying out by the pond over him, then shit’s gonna get real.”
“Pants-on-fire real?” I teased.
“Oh, way more than pants-on-fire real,” she shot back. “No one hurts my sisters and gets away with it.”
And now my eyes were glistening with something that might have been tears. “I love you, Cass.”
She plopped down beside me on the bed, knocking spoons and the frying pan aside to put her arm around me. “I love you too, Wynnie.”
We hugged for a moment. When we separated, I dried my eyes on what I hoped wasn’t the werewolf pelt. “Good. Now that we’re in agreement on all that, let’s get to enchanting some objects.”
