borrowed from the dining room before I noticed he had left. The extreme ladder-back wasn’t comfortable, but I sighed with relief to get the weight off my feet.
Squirming on the hard seat, I tried to settle, but there was too much of me and too little of it. “Do you think Linus will still love me if I don’t lose the baby weight?”
“You’re the center of his universe, Grier.” Lethe chuckled. “He won’t care if his universe expands.”
“Women underrate how incredibly sexy they are while they’re pregnant,” Hood contributed. “There’s a primal tug in your gut when your mate is carrying your child.” Crimson sparked in his eyes. “That doesn’t go away after the baby is born.”
“Neither do stretch marks,” I grumbled. “Neely told me to call them tiger stripes.”
“Fierce.” Lethe tilted her head. “I can’t use it because cat, but I fully endorse it for you.”
Clipped footsteps drew my attention toward the stairs as Linus took them at an easy lope that spoke of familiarity from a lifetime of doing that exact thing in that exact way. The maid followed at a more sedate pace, and she huddled into her uniform.
“Are you feeling well?” Linus didn’t stop until his shoe tapped the leg of my chair. “I saw you sitting out here and…”
“I’m good.” I rotated my ankles. I assumed. I mean, I felt like I was going through the motions, but I couldn’t see my feet to be certain it was happening. “My nemesis strikes again.”
Linus knelt and took first one ankle and then the other in his cool hands, his fingers tickling over the swollen joints, and his touch was better than an ice pack.
“We need to get you home.” He stared up at me. “Otherwise, I’ll be carrying you straight up to bed.”
“I wouldn’t complain.” I touched his flushed cheek to draw his attention. “Are you done here?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s my turn.” I palmed my knife. “Bring me the maid.”
The order caused an unexpected reaction, in that the maid overheard and zoomed off at a sprint.
“I did not see that coming,” I said to Cletus, who materialized behind me as the others rushed after her.
Cletus, a wraith of few moans, bobbed on unfelt air currents in solidarity.
Four
Linus growled low in his throat, the howling void in his head screaming at him to give chase, and he did. A tide of fear swept through him for Grier, but he refused to let it drown him. Her pregnancy was a test of his resolve to let her continue on as the strong, independent woman she had grown into rather than swaddling her and leaving her safe behind the wards at Woolworth House.
History had proven there was no such thing as safe for them, and his mother’s disappearance reaffirmed that belief.
“I can’t believe you left her alone.” Hood shot him a sideways glance. “I’m proud of you.”
“Don’t be.” A smile tickled the corner of his mouth. “I drew an impervious sigil on her ankle.”
The gwyllgi barked out a laugh then let the transformation have him, emerging on all fours in a splash of crimson magic.
The fastest of them, Lethe snapped her teeth at Josephine’s heels, and the maid wailed in fright.
Only a fool ran from predators. As a vampire, she ought to know better.
One misstep cost Josephine, and the maid went down hard on her stomach with Lethe poised over her, teeth at her nape.
Hood arrived next, his tongue lolling in a doggy grin at his mate that she returned with a tail wag.
Linus slowed to a prowl, and black mist wafted from his skin as his cloak and cowl settled around him.
“Why did you run?” He squatted in front of Josephine. “You must be aware of how that makes you look.”
“I’m a-a-afraid of dogs,” she panted, her fangs slicing into her bottom lip. “Please, get it off me.”
A rumble from the it in question caused the maid’s pleading to taper into a squeak.
Magic splashed across the floor as Hood traded one skin for another.
“You reek of old fear.” He prowled closer. “You’ve been stewing in your panic for hours.”
Meaning the gwyllgi had merely tipped the already precarious balance of her emotional state.
“N-n-no.” She squeezed her eyes shut and produced pinkish tears. “Please.”
“Why wait until Grier called for you?” Linus pressed. “You chose that precise moment to run.”
“I don’t want magic used on me.”
“You’re animated with necromantic magic,” he said, cold seeping into his voice. “How is this different?”
“She’s not like the rest of you,” Josephine rasped. “She’s…”
“My wife.” Linus