Dark Champion (Flirting with Monsters #4) - Eva Chase Page 0,105

enjoyed in a physical body—as I’m sure you know.” I let my gaze trail down his naked form in all its muscular glory.

“And thank all things dark for that,” Ruse said.

As I reached for the door, Snap made a soft noise in his throat. “We should still—on her real birthday—”

When I glanced back, he was shooting a meaningful glance around at the other men. Thorn had set his face into an expression that seemed designed to indicate he had no idea what the devourer was talking about, but so obviously it had the opposite effect. Ruse’s smirk widened.

Omen rolled his eyes and prodded Snap in the ribs with his heel. “Let her take her shower first. There’ll be time.”

Time for some kind of shadowkind surprise? Intriguing. I’d better make this shower a fast one.

Of course, that was easier said than done in our current accommodations. The sylph who’d conducted our initial renovations in gratitude for getting her out of the Company’s clutches had possessed an aptitude for airiness but not for plumbing, and the beings who’d attempted to pitch in since then had only partly solved the Everymobile’s quirks. Any time I turned on the shower, I had a fifty-percent chance of first getting pelted with hot cocoa, sesame oil, or a rainbow of tiny gumdrops. And every now and then, even after I got the water to start, it turned into a dust shower partway through.

Today I received a gulp of coffee and a mouthful of gumdrops—both caught in the mug I kept on hand for such occasions, because why not make the best of it?—before the showerhead resigned itself to a spray of standard water.

I washed quickly, keeping an ear out for the faint hissing sound that usually warned of impending dust, and then pulled on my standard burglar gear. My tastes hadn’t changed in that department: all black all over, though I wasn’t bothering with my hat yet. And I didn’t need a scorch-knife anymore now that I could melt metal by force of will alone.

As I stepped into the hall, giving my hair one last rub of the towel, Vivi emerged from the RV’s new upstairs, which was the main result of the sylph’s help. The Everymobile didn’t look any taller from the outside, but inside, a narrow spiral staircase beside the bathroom now led to a loft bedroom.

Vivi’s eyebrows leapt up, an eager gleam coming into her eyes. “Is it time to get started already?”

I poked her in the arm playfully. “It’s only just getting dark. We go by cover of night, remember?”

She bobbed on her feet in a gesture so like Antic I reminded myself I shouldn’t be surprised she and the imp got along well. “Right, right. I still get so pumped up even though I’m not the one going out there!”

The destruction of the Company of Light hadn’t rid the world of independent hunters and collectors. When my quartet of shadowkind and I had decided to take the Everymobile on tour as a sort of traveling Shadowkind Defense Fund, I’d known I had to invite my bestie.

It was hard to put any stake in the doubts I’d once had about whether Vivi would accept my less-than-legal hobbies after the way she’d pitched in against the Company—and all the other things she’d accepted about me. So, we’d arranged an extra bedroom for her, and she was getting the adventure she’d always dreamed of, coordinating with our various contacts, monitoring security systems, and doing reconnaissance whenever we needed someone who could pull off “normal” better than the rest of us.

She was clearly having the time of her life. I was sure it didn’t hurt that she and Cori had started getting awfully chummy during his regular visits mortal-side.

Antic herself dashed past us then, giggling as she sprinted after Pickle in a game of hall tag. The little dragon appeared to have prompted it by stealing one of the jelly bracelets the imp had stolen from a tween fashion stall in a mall several cities ago. Pickle waved it at me from his jaws with a puff of smoke and dove past us into one of the kitchen cupboards.

Vivi laughed. “Always an exciting time around here.”

I nudged her with my elbow. “I’ll let you know when it’s about to get even more exciting.”

I stepped back into my bedroom to find all four of my lovers crammed along the edge of the bed, back in their clothes, with an air of anticipation that made my skin