The Flame Game (Magical Romantic Comedies #12) - R.J. Blain Page 0,13
After she finished laughing at me for attempting to tell her off, she’d probably get me in trouble.
“I’m pretty sure she and Arthur went to bed.”
“Which type of bed are we discussing here?”
“The kind where they pass out into an unconscious and exhausted stupor. They both got a fairly heavy dose of influences from succubi and incubi in the past week, and they need to sleep it off.”
Oops. “You didn’t, did you, Quinn?”
“It wasn’t me. The Devil’s wife did some, my grandfather showed up to play for a while, and I’m fairly sure the Devil amused himself throughout the hotel. He can’t behave all the time, and Darlene took her eyes off him for ten whole minutes.”
It took me a moment to remember the Devil’s wife was Darlene. “That poor woman.”
“Don’t worry about Darlene. She loves all the trouble he creates. If she hadn’t wanted him creating chaos in the hotel, she would have stopped him. Probably. Then again, she is a succubus, and the Perkins weren’t the only people wanting Christmas miracles this year. They’re just getting the lion’s share of miracles.”
Well, yeah. Perkette being barren until the Devil and an archangel had gotten a hold of her counted as quite the miracle. “If she finds out I’m technically part of the reason she’s having quadruplets, she’ll kill me. Protect me.”
“And who is the reason we’re having twins?” my husband asked.
While I could have blamed his grandfather, I shrugged and pointed at myself. “For every one we add to the chaos, we have to adopt one. It’s a new rule I just made up. I expect the adoptees will be gorgons, though. For some reason.”
“Life will be interesting if our children don’t inherit your immunities. We’re really going to need a new house if that’s how we’re going to approach expanding our family. Also, I’ll be adding to our evening ritual to ask if you’d like to add any new members to the family along with how many new members you’d like.” Still laughing, Quinn dragged me over to his parents, letting me go long enough to hug and kiss them both. “Are you going to be roped into a demonstration, Dad?”
“Not today, much to my disappointment. Your grandfathers and uncle feel it’s best to let Bailey show off. No demonstrations for you, either.”
“He better give me a demonstration when we’re back in our suite,” I muttered.
“I’m sure you can handle any negotiations with my son as you see fit, Bailey. Are you having a good night so far? I was worried when you went under the table.” Quinn’s father chuckled. “But then your father joined you under the table, and at that point, I decided against checking in on you myself.”
“It’s all right. I just didn’t know how to handle so many presents, so I hid under the table until I could come to terms with them. That, plus so many people!”
“You’ll have to get used to it,” my husband warned.
“I don’t have to get used to it right now. Well, mostly. I have to tolerate turning the hotel into a circus, though. I’m going to French braid his snakes.” I bounced on my toes. “He’ll look wonderful with French braided coral snakes. And unlike him, his snakes like it.”
“They like it because you cuddle with them and don’t fall over dead if they bite you.”
“That does help. I’ve figured out they have to bite something now and then or they don’t feel well. His serpents give a nudge and a hiss when they need to bite. Yours whine.”
Quinn sighed. “Do you want me to work on that? We have ways of draining our venom, you know—ways that don’t involve you being bitten.”
“Why would I want you to work on that?” Had my gorgon-incubus doohickey lost his mind? I frowned and considered him. “Are you feeling okay?”
Quinn’s parents snickered, and his mother caught me in a hug and pulled me in the direction of the crowd loitering around waiting for the demonstrations to begin. “Ignore him. He’s not happy unless he’s fussing about something. I was warned my children would be weird. My fathers did their best to prepare me for that reality, but nothing prepared me for Sam, and his sisters are something else, too.”
“I haven’t even met his sisters yet,” I replied. “When can I meet them?”
“They’re around, probably trying to seduce strippers in a different hotel. One of them got the bright idea to start a competition.”