Phantom of the Library - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,30

I suppose it stands to reason that a few would be twisted individuals with a victim at their beck and call.”

“That’s horrifying,” Graham said.

“Tell me about it,” Bevan said. “It was quite a shock to my wonderfully placid existence.”

“That makes sense, now that I think about it,” I said. “I had never known any witch to fall in love with their familiar, but my brother’s wife’s familiar is one of their bond-mates. He now lives a human life. Maybe that’s more common than we thought. And maybe the reverse would also be true…”

“You may all go down in history as the saviors of familiar-kind,” Bevan said, after a heavy pause. “And it seems you haven’t been attacked…yet.”

“Not yet,” Jasper said. “But it sounds like the wizard councils will have even more reason to be pissed…”

“All seven of those familiars would probably come and help you,” Bevan said. “I could send them here to guard the house and look for more.”

“Oh, Bevan! I could hug you! That would be so helpful!”

Bevan regarded me with his dark eyes—his coloring was darker than mine, matching his bat form, as familiars didn’t necessarily resemble their witches much at all. Then he opened his arms. “You may hug me. I deserve some adoration.”

“You do, Bev, you almost died for me.” I clutched him, although I’m not sure he was actually comfortable with hugs. He might not be blonde, but in that way he was definitely one of the family through and through.

“I’ll send help soon,” Bevan said, and then he vanished.

“Somebody fetch me my suitcase!” I said, looking at the naked men surrounding me—well, Graham had actually put on pajama pants before bed, and Jake was still a wolf, so…half-naked?—and suddenly feeling very wanton. I was trying not to think about how a little morning quickie didn’t sound bad either. But we had way too much to do.

“I’ll get it,” Byron said, striding out of the room without a stitch on.

“Billie doesn’t need to be seeing that!” I said.

He just chuckled.

I needn’t have worried. I threw on a t-shirt and jeans to work in, and Gaston was in the kitchen wearing a robe and warming a little blood on the stove.

“Where’s Billie?” I asked.

“Still sleeping. I’ll wake her up for breakfast.” He splashed a little red wine in the saucepan.

I raised an eyebrow at him. I was getting a definite morning-after vibe.

“You won’t speak of my life and I won’t speak of yours,” Gaston said. He poured the blood into a soup bowl.

“I’m sure Billie will tell me.” I grinned. “But good on ya.”

“At least Billie and I can’t produce any little distractions to run around,” Gaston said with a shrug.

“I’m not producing any ‘distractions’! Um…” I whirled back toward Jake and whispered, “You have more of that birth control spell? I’m making a batch myself today. I got caught up again. Very bad.”

“Shit,” Graham said. “That’s my fault. I had condoms. I just thought…it was too magical to worry about anything. Subconsciously.”

“I think I felt that way too,” I said. “Plus I was just in the past having sex in a different body and I didn’t have to worry then…”

“Kids aren’t distractions,” Jake said. “At least, not for long. We were hammering nails by the time we were five.”

“Six,” Jasper said. “We were definitely six or seven before we were hammering nails.”

“Close enough.”

“I’m not going to have kids just so I can make them work,” I said. “But…good to know.”

Jake was frowning a little, but he wiped the expression.

“You want kids?” I asked, with lightness that was a little forced. Kids. I’d never thought about it much until recently.

“I definitely do,” he said. “But it could wait a while.”

“That’s good. I—I don’t know, to be honest.”

“Don’t worry about it, Hel. We’re new to this.”

“Yeah…okay.”

Billie woke up with a naughty little smile on her lips and she gave me this eyebrow waggle like, Last night, huh? “Vamp sex,” she whispered to me. “Girrrl…”

“Isn’t it cold?”

“Too hot to be cold.”

“Gaston is…you like him?” I had a hard time imagining Gaston being a red-hot lover.

“He’s so romantic when it’s just the two of us. He takes my clothes off really slowly and whispers to me in French…it’s like a movie. Voulez-vous coucher avec moi…” She was dancing around a little. “Was your night good?”

I put my fingers next to my head and mimicked my mind being blown. Jasper looked at us and shook his head. “Hey, gossip girls, the morning meeting is starting.”

“C’mon, Jake, give a girl