to my ear as tension hung in the air between me and the Lion stronzo who was looking at me like he either wanted to bite my head off or possibly do something much more interesting.
"Yeah. Did you manage to find the other crystal yet?" I asked, holding Roary's gaze with my best resting bitch face and loving the way his eyes flared with anger which made heat prickle along my skin.
"I'm sorry cugina, I don't know how this stronzo is doing it, but he's gone to ground better than a rat in a nest. I can't find so much as a trace of him let alone get on with torturing the information about that crystal’s whereabouts from him. Is the bastardo who sent it causing you problems?"
"He half gutted me in the corridor a little while ago," I grunted, fiddling with the hole that shank had put in the front of my jumpsuit and Roary's lips parted in confusion, his gaze shifting to my stomach as he tried to piece that together for himself. He tugged my hand aside and snarled as he spotted the hole, but I just continued with my conversation. "Don't worry about it. I'll come up with a plan to get him out of my hair. If I can get him sent to the hole for the date in question then we won't even need to worry about him tagging along."
Dante chuckled darkly and I closed my eyes so that I could listen to that sound as children started shouting in the background.
"Papa, papa! You have to come and see what he’s doing now! He climbed up in the apple tree and says he won't come down unless Mommy gives him a special gift, but we don't know what he wants."
"Is that RJ?" I asked, smiling as I opened my eyes again and found Roary's gaze softening at the mention of my niece. I beckoned him closer and he leaned in as I held the transmitter so that he could listen too and the kids started laughing while Dante told them off for interrupting him in the least convincing voice known to man. If his enemies knew that the king of the Oscura Clan was as soft as butter for his babies then they would probably be a whole lot less terrified of him.
"Say hello to your cugina," Dante called and the kids started shouting hello at the top of their lungs as I laughed.
"Are you little pups being good for your papa?" I asked them, smiling as I remembered their chubby little cheeks and aching to see them for real as soon as possible.
"I'm not a pup," RJ announced loudly. "I'm going to be a Lion and roar louder than anyone else in the entire kingdom."
"Well I'm going to be a ninja," Luca replied in a superior tone. "Who also can turn into a Dragon and a Basilisk and a Tiberian Rat."
"I don't think that's how it works," I laughed.
"Is too. I saw it on Late Night Weird and Wonky with daddy the other night," he protested.
"I feel like that show is inappropriate," I replied. "I'm sure I saw a Fae on there who was a Medusa but had managed to make snakes form in their...not head hair for...unmentionable reasons."
RJ and Luca fell about laughing as Dante protested that he wouldn't let them watch that show ever again and I found myself grinning at Roary as we escaped this underground prison for a little while in their laughter.
"Is it sunny today?" Roary asked in his deep, rumbling tone.
"Zio Roary, is that you?" RJ asked in excitement.
"How could you tell?" he asked in reply.
"Because you always ask if it's sunny." She started laughing again and I smirked at him as he rolled his eyes.
"Ha ha, let's all laugh at the silly old Lion locked underground," he joked and the kids laughed even louder like that really was funny.
"I'll keep you updated on that memory crystal, Rosa," Dante interrupted and I guessed our time was about to run out. The magic only lasted a few minutes and a hundred of them wouldn’t have been enough.
"It's okay," I replied with a sigh. It had been a long shot anyway. "I can take Gustard out of the picture. I have no intention of letting him ever escape this place."
"Addio, Rosa. Ti amo."
"Ti amo, Dante. Ti amo, kids," I called but as they started to yell a reply back to me, the magic died and their voices were cut