Page 73 of Missiletoe
I kept them tucked safely in my hands once I decided they were warm enough.
“Th-thank you.” Vix’s ears were dark pink, and he had the sweetest little shy smile. It stole my heart away.
“Let's go find your family.”
Vix nodded vigorously. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”
We didn’t have to go far. We were rounding the corner of the part of the house with the huge turret when Baz appeared, running from the opposite direction, and plowed head-first into Vix.
I steadied them both before they fell to the ground and met another set of hands reaching out to steady them as well.
Gareth and I locked eyes coldly.
“There you are! Love told me you were okay, but I still wanted to make sure you made it out in one piece.” Baz had undergone one hell of a transformation since we’d seen him an hour or so ago. His hair looked like it had gotten sucked into a vacuum cleaner, his shirt was torn, and his pants were on backwards. He was also rubbing his hip and shifting uncomfortably.
I also noticed Gareth had a conspicuous scratch on one cheek.
Vix nudged Baz’s shoulder with his. “Who won?”
“...Gareth did.”
Vix giggled and said, “I don’t know why you fight. Gareth always wins.”
“I’ll have you know that some parts of me definitely won thatpunishmentsession,” Baz responded in a haughty tone.
Gareth coughed and looked away.
“He’ll never learn if you keep fucking him after you discipline him, Gareth.”
Gareth ignored Vix’s comment and said, “The fire is in the north wing of the house. It started on the trellis—”
“The boobytrapped one?”
“Yes. It was clearly intentional. Vale is suppressing it now. But—”
There was a hugeBOOMand Gareth and I both threw ourselves over Vix and Baz, knocking them to the ground.
I noticed Gareth had covered Baz and left my bunny to me, and I caught the ghost of approval crossing his face as we locked eyes over our charges.
He’d allowed me to protect Vix instead of covering both of them himself.
I gave him the man nod.
He gave it back to me.
All of this happened in the split-second after the explosion.
Once Gareth had ascertained that the fallout was over and we weren’t in immediate danger of getting cut apart from shrapnel, he started to get up, saying, “Cover them. I’ll go see what happened.”
I caught a familiar, uncomfortable energy, and I grabbed Gareth’s arm to keep him down. “I think there’s another one.”
A second explosion came on the heels of my words, and a scrap of metal flew just over Gareth’s head. If I hadn’t kept him down, it would have gone right through him.
I received another man nod but was too busy to acknowledge it.
“Bunny, are you okay?” I was sprawled over his small form and was concerned I might have squashed something important of his. He was wiggling enough to make my worries valid.
“I’m fine. What about you? If some monster damaged your perfect ass, I’m going to kill them!” My bunny was spitting mad and more reminiscent of an angry kitten than a bunny at the moment.
