How to Rattle an Undead Couple - Hailey Edwards Page 0,59
kept stashes all over the house.
“Hugs, not drugs.” He lifted a finger. “You have to set an example for junior.”
“Fiddlesticks.” Heat tingled in my cheeks. “I was hoping Linus exaggerated that part.”
“Have you ever known Linus to exaggerate anything?” Corbin lifted an eyebrow. “You were a menace.”
“Basically,” Lethe said, sharing a laugh with him, “business as usual.”
“Do you mind if I hold my little bro?” Corbin made grabby hands. “I love babies.”
Where a cinnamon roll hadn’t swayed me, I couldn’t pass on this. “Sure.”
“Let Corbin babysit for a few. I’ll heat you up something from the kitchen. You need to eat.”
Gwyllgi showed their love through food, so I couldn’t pass on that either.
“I could eat.” I handed over LJ and attempted to sit up under my own steam. “That’s not bad at all.”
“Linus has been working on you pretty much nonstop.” Lethe looked me over with a critical eye. “Do you feel up to walking?”
“I can try?” I swung my legs over the bed and experienced a twinge in my abdomen. “Here we go.”
Dull pain radiated through my midsection, but I could tolerate it. A few ibuprofens and I might not even notice. Linus had definitely been healing me, and I was grateful for the boost. Though a bit wobbly, I had no trouble shuffling to the door and into the hall.
“I’m right here.” Lethe trailed me, her arms out to catch me if I fell. “Aim for the kitchen.”
“I need to make a pit stop first.”
“I should have thought to ask.”
“Not that kind of pit stop.” I limbered up as I moved. “I want to drop in the office.”
“He won’t be amused you’re up and about without him,” she warned. “Just giving you a heads-up.”
“He’ll be fine.” I trusted LJ to keep him more than occupied while I recovered. “Phew. I made it.”
The sound of my voice jerked up Linus’s head, and the smile that broke across his face to see me up and about made my heart hurt. “Would you like me to cook you something?”
A rumble in my stomach informed him I was not opposed to the idea.
“I can heat up leftovers,” Lethe offered. “There’s plenty.”
“I don’t mind.” He set aside his work. “I would like to talk with Grier now that she’s more herself.”
“Okay.” Lethe held up her hands. “I’ll run home and check on the girls.”
A bounce in her step, she set out to visit her kids, who I was sure missed her something fierce.
“Alone at last.” I wiggled my eyebrows at him. “Whatever shall we do?”
“I suggest you eat and then nap, but Dr. Rogers mentioned something that stuck with me.”
“I’m not opposed to either of those things.” I wavered on confessing then broke. “Lethe told me.”
“I wondered if she would,” he admitted as he joined me. “There are certain parallels.”
That he had picked up on them too came as no surprise. That brain of his never quit.
Looping my arm through his, I asked, “Does it bother you that we might be one and done?”
“I care more about your health than the Society heir and a spare rhetoric.”
“We were both only children.” I angled toward the kitchen. “Look how well we turned out.”
“On the topic of only children, I have concerns about the volatility of Corbin’s nature.”
A jolt of fear shot through me, and I had pivoted toward the makeshift hospital suite without noticing.
“He won’t hurt LJ,” Linus soothed. “It’s to do with his sudden popularity within the sentinels.”
“Oh?” I kept an eye on the door all the same. “What have you learned?”
“He’s a berserker.”
“Goddess.” I reached the kitchen and sat at the bar. “That’s rare.”
“The condition itself, not so much.” He produced a smoothie from the fridge, this one in one of the new glass bottles he had etched with a sigil to keep its contents frosty. “The ability to control it? I can’t say I’ve heard of a vampire able to turn his rages on and off like flipping a switch.”
“Corbin has a lot of anger.”
As a man who had hunted vampires before I gave him the choice to be resuscitated or die, he had coped with his situation well, but he was ashamed to have chosen eternal life over death. It would take time for him to fully embrace his new identity, grow into his pro-paranormal stance, and take his place in the world.
“I’m going to talk to Mother.” A thread of steel wound through his voice. “I want to ensure he’s not being exploited.” He sat beside me. “But that