That Rex Gotta Roar - Julia Mills Page 0,32

could hear what they were thinkin', but after years of tuning out and trying really hard not to read the thoughts of my best friends, it was all just white noise.

(You see, being a Psychic from a very young age, I developed an automatic filter. I had to. Hearing what everybody is thinking all the time will drive a person stark raving mad. Trust me. Think about it. What if you were six years old and heard your mom thinking about how sexy your daddy's butt was. How would you feel? Yep. That's what I thought. Now, you know what I felt like, and why I got really good at 'turning the station' as my dear old dad calls it.)

When nobody started talking, my curiosity began to get the better of me. Needing to know what everybody was thinking, I was just about ready to turn the volume up and take a listen, when Tank's deep whisper floated through my mind, “You were really that worried, Clem? I mean about me? About what I would think of having a Mate? You really thought that I wouldn’t want you? In my life? Forever?”

“I was.” Answering directly and honestly, remembering what he’d said about not hiding from him, I added, "See, where guys are concerned, I've never been what anyone would call smooth. When I was younger, before I knew how to tune out all the voices and thoughts of others, I knew what they were thinking. Let me tell you, boys in elementary school are real asshats. When I was a teenager, well, you can imagine what that crap sounded like. It was all tits and ass all day. And the girls are just as bad, just no tits,” I chuckled, surprising even myself that I wasn’t embarrassed and felt so comfortable talking to my hunka-hunka-prehistoric hottie about sex and the like. “Then, when I got older, I knew how to filter through the piles of crap, but I just never found the right guy. They either wanted to date Clementine Cooper, Photojournalist, or thought I was a ditz because I was blond and a Canary Shifter. If I had a dime for every time some butthead made a Tweety joke or said, 'Hey, Babe, I can be your Sylvester,' I would be one rich woman."

Shaking his head, his grip on my hand never wavering, my man, my Mate, my incredible T-Rex with a heart of gold professed, “From the second I laid eyes on you, I knew you were the girl for me. I was in love, head over heels, silly, crazy, wanted to be with you all the time in L-O-V-E.”

“Really?” I breathed, just needing confirmation in plain words because my mind was truly blown.

“Yes, really. There are two things you will never have to doubt, Sweetheart, my love and my honesty. You, Clementine Sue Cooper soon to be hyphenated Thomas, will always be my number one priority. I love you all the way. No question. You can take that to the bank."

"I know y'all are havin' a tender moment. I can feel the lovey-dovey feel-goods all the way back here in the third seat of this big old SUV, but…" Pointing towards the windshield with her eyes wide and red, green, and golden magic popping and crackling in the air all around her, Zelda matter-of-factly exclaimed, “That shit right there doesn’t look good.”

Following the tip of her finger, I spun in my seat and gasped, “Son of a biscuit eater at an all you can eat breakfast buffet, Hell's here, and it brought everything, but the blasted Devil himself. Look at them flames. Think that's what keeps the Pits all toasty?" Laughing at my own jokes because nobody else but Tank was, I added with a giggle that sounded a little maniacal, "Damned shame not a one of us thought to bring the stuff to make s'mores. I sure do love me a good s'more beside the fire."

Chapter Nine

Slowly approaching the half-mile lane leading to the front door of the Thomas Manor, Tank brought the SUV to a rolling stop. You could’ve heard a pin drop inside that truck. I’m not even sure any of us were breathing. The sight before us was straight off a movie lot… a horror movie, no doubt about it.

Dark as night, swirling clouds of lightning, giant balls of fire, massive billowy plumes of mossy green and deep purple haze that vibrated with pure evil hung in the sky for as far as