Page 43 of Wolves' Midlife Reunion
He peeled open the end of the roll and put a piece of tape on it before handing it to her. “We can put some up that goes from one bunch of balloons to the next.”
She grinned at him as she took the end and sent it flying up to its proper spot. “You do the other end, Daddy!”
Heat flushed his cheeks, and fear stormed his body. His stomach was now a raging sea. But Dex had made a promise. Sage was the most important thing in the world to him. He tore off the end of the streamer and attached a piece of tape to it.
The only magic he’d practiced in years had been the healing light he’d used on Wayne Cunningham and a few other patients. What would Sage think if he messed this up? She’d probably wonder why the hell he had anything to say about her own use of magic if he couldn’t lift a simple scrap of paper into the air.
It felt like calling his wolf forward, except that he was tapping into a different part of himself. It came in a slow trickle at first, the tiniest tingling of energy through his arms and into his hands. He could sense Sage’s eyes on him, which made it that much harder to concentrate. Levitating the streamer up and into place wasn’t that hard. It was just the dark feelings that surrounded it. His palms tingled and itched as the crepe paper lifted up and into place.
“Let’s do another one!” Sage was ready with the tape. If she’d noticed Dex’s hesitation at all, she didn’t show it.
The next section was easier. Dex moved his hands in the air, twisting the crepe paper to give it the classic effect just before pushing the tape into place.
“Yay! I like that!”
Suddenly, the decorating was moving along at lightning speed as the two of them worked together. Dex felt himself beginning to relax. A knot of tension and doubt still lingered in his stomach, but he was pushing past it. These were just balloons and streamers, and he and Sage were having a good time.
“Okay, I think that’s all of those,” he said as they returned to the boxes. “Let’s put these table covers on.”
It was easier just to unfold the long sheets of plastic and lay them on the tables by hand, but that gave them a nice break from working their magic.
“What about these?” Sage held up a little bag.
It was filled with shiny confetti shaped like pumpkins and leaves. “I’ll finish putting the table covers on. Then you can scatter those on the ones that are already done.”
“Okay!”
They each went back to work, and Dex was starting to feel that Vanessa would be happy with the results when she got back.
“Daddy! Look!” Sage was holding a handful of the confetti in the air, her arm stretched out. She made a flicking gesture with her left hand, which sent the confetti streaming out along the table.
He hadn’t taught her that, and he was pretty sure no one else had, either. “That’s very good! You’re saving us a lot of time. Have you ever done that before?” Dex tried to sound casual on this last question, not wanting her to know how much it bothered him to see her coming up with new ideas on her own.
“Nope! I just decided to try it. Can I go show Tina? I think we passed her street on the way here.”
Absolutely nothing got past this child. “That was the street to the house where her coven lives, but no, I’m afraid we can’t do that. Here, look. I found some more confetti. Ghosts and bats.”
Sage took the bag from him and occupied herself while he poured bags of candy into apple baskets and set one out on each table.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Sage announced after a while.
“Go out those doors we came in, and it’s right across the hall,” Dex told her, pointing. He still knew the school like the back of his hand.
Alone in the gym, Dex tried to concentrate on what he was doing. He untangled a large banner made up of individual letters and hung it across the front of the stage on one end of the gym. There was a box of small, inexpensive lanterns. He guessed the tea lights would go inside these, so he went ahead and put one out on each table. Nothing they did was probably what Vanessa had in mind, but even Dex was starting to think it looked pretty good.
His wolf suddenly perked up, restless and agitated. Dex stopped what he was doing and listened to it. Though his mind and body had been entirely out of balance over the last two days, and his wolf might only be stirred up by recent events, he could tell something was off.
Sage.
She hadn’t come back from the bathroom. Maybe she’d just needed to take a little extra time in there, but his wolf distinctly sensed she was no longer close by.
Dex pushed through the gym doors. “Sage?”
There was no reply from the girls’ bathroom across the hall. He stepped up to the doorway. “Sage? Are you all right?”
There was still no reply.
“I’m coming in there.” The building was empty, and he was going to find his daughter. Dex stepped in, but the long row of stalls was empty.
