familiar back at any moment, so there is nothing you can do to protect them?”
“So I heard an interesting rumor,” Isaac said, “on the council news broadcast today, that the Ethereal and Sinistral councils are calling a intra-council meeting for the first time in over a hundred years. Have you heard that? I wonder why that is. Pretty interesting, isn’t it?”
“Goodness,” I said, feeling a small prickle of horror although I knew that there would be consequences. “That must be something serious.”
“Very serious,” Zuzana said. “And I hate to think why it would ever happen. But then, these are exceedingly strange times. I never thought I should live to see the faery realm open its gates, and yet it has and now we are at the beginning of an epoch. Stay safe, now.”
“You too…”
Hmm. I told the others, but there wasn’t much we could do. I checked the wizarding corners of the internet and saw some rumors flying on message boards, with the general assumption that the meeting might be a declaration of war against the faeries.
Since my brother was allied with the faeries, that would be bad news for me too, but I had a feeling that wasn’t it.
Demo day flew by, and then we all tore into two chickens Byron roasted that came out of Sam’s freezer. We had no side dishes but I don’t think the Sullivans minded a purely carnivorous feast, and I was hungry in a different way, wondering what the night would bring me.
Is it bad if I start getting really turned on by the idea of bond mates now? I know the incubi are already hungry for more. Do I invite them all to sleep with me again? But we can’t do that every night or I’ll have nothing left to give to my work. So maybe I have to choose…or let them fight over me? Is that how it works? Then again, life is too short to worry about work…
Byron and Graham had their sights on me already. Maybe I trade off? Do I take the lead or do they?
Don’t make me have to call my brother and ask him…then again, it’s his wife I really should call, huh?
I hadn’t been much of a sister-in-law because I felt awkward about the whole thing, and it was about time I got over myself.
Jasper stepped into the hall. “I’m beating the crowd, Hel. Last night was good but…I’ve never had you all to myself. Neither has Jake, of course, so that’s why I have to get ahead of him.”
A wide smile emerged before I could hide it. “You’re pretty good at sneaking in there, huh?”
“He just keeps making the same mistake,” Jasper said. “He has a bigger mouth so he thinks he’s better with girls, too. But while he’s talking, I get past him. I think he’s out there right now bragging about our date with you while I just left the table like I had to hit the bathroom.”
“I will admit…a night with just you sounds pretty nice.” My eyes followed his as he moved in, his hands circling my hips, and then his mouth claiming mine. He slipped his hands in the back pockets of my jeans and pulled me against him, and my hands matched his, wrapping around his tight ass. I dug my fingers into his skin and delighted in how hard those muscles were. I pressed my nose against his shirt, finding the scent of him under a layer of the stale cigarette smoke of that nasty carpet.
“Jasper…I want you. I also want…”
“Don’t say it.”
“I want to be fair.”
“I’m not flipping coins for you, Hel, you’re mine tonight. They can fight me.”
His low, possessive voice melted my ears. “Okay…you win this round.”
“They’re still talking out there,” he said. “Maybe they won’t even notice.”
He picked me up and carried me off into the bedroom we’d just torn a wall out of. Two twin beds were still there pushed together, against the farthest wall, and he threw me down on it and locked both doors.
I decided I was just going to go with it. Let ‘em fight over me. Why not? In my family it was always my mom’s job to wrangle everyone and keep the peace while my dad just took a backseat. I could do that here. Or I could just be their princess. They could figure out the when, where and who. I wasn’t inclined to say no to any of it once the day’s work was done.
I