“I need to check on Grier.” The tenuous connection between his mother’s kidnapping and his wife’s pregnancy spooked him enough he wouldn’t be able to think straight until he saw her again. “I’ll take you to Woolworth House. I can coordinate with the Atlanta team until dusk.”
“That works for me.” They started the short walk to the van. “What about Leisha?”
“We’re bringing her with us.”
They couldn’t risk locking her in a public cell at the Lyceum until dusk. Furious as she was, she would talk to anyone who would listen. The longer his mother’s disappearance went unnoticed, the better for the stability of their community.
Corbin connected the dots quickly. “Lethe?”
“She can spare guards to keep an eye on Leisha until dusk. Grier can question her then.”
“You’ve changed.” Corbin grinned his approval. “I didn’t realize I’d been gone that long.”
The endorsement puzzled him. “What do you mean?”
“There was a time when you wouldn’t have let Grier anywhere near this. Yet here you are, letting your very pregnant wife interrogate criminals.”
“Marriage is, among other things, an agreement to share your entire life with someone.” Linus cut him a look. “I don’t keep secrets from Grier.”
“Still impressive.”
“It helps I can go weeks without sleep, that our property is regularly patrolled by a gwyllgi pack, its alpha pair among them, and the wards on Woolworth House are all but impenetrable.”
Corbin chuckled under his breath. “I feel like I should be taking notes.”
“Imagine the wisdom I will have amassed by the time you decide to settle down,” Linus said sagely, amusement thick in his voice. “I could keep a notebook to record my wisdom.”
“I’m not sure settling down will happen, but you keep that notebook.” Corbin flashed a smile. “I’m sure Grier would laugh herself silly reading it.”
Beneath the joking, Linus sensed real sorrow. “Your situation is complicated.”
“I’m going to live forever. I didn’t want that. I didn’t expect it. I’m going to outlive everyone and everything I know, and that includes girlfriends or wives or…”
Children.
“It’s widely believed your offspring will be like you,” Linus offered. “There are no guarantees, of course. Not enough is known about your breed of vampire.”
An edge crept into his voice. “I’m not willing to sire a child out of curiosity.”
“I’m not suggesting you do.” Though once he might have, given his own lack of empathy when gripped with overwhelming curiosity.
All that kept him from becoming another Leisha was Grier’s humanizing influence. He had been cold, and he had been clinical in the past. He endeavored to leave both behind going forward to embrace a warmer worldview, one he could share with his empathetic wife.
The trip home always took too long, each mile stretching double that, but Linus made it in record time.
“I’m starving,” Corbin complained as he slid out his door, “but I want sleep more than food.”
“We’ll have breakfast delivered.” Linus exited the van and locked it. “Any requests?”
“Do you mind if I cook? I owe Grier an apology, and she prefers them calorie dense.”
Since he wasn’t wrong, Linus nodded. “The fridge is fully stocked. Help yourself.”
Once Corbin left, Linus waited on the lawn for the gwyllgi on patrol to find him and report before he too called it a day. Given the circumstances, he wasn’t surprised it was Hood who ambled up to him on all fours then embraced the change and took a seat on Woolly’s bottom step.
“All’s quiet on the home front,” Hood announced. “Find anything useful?”
“We have a lead.” He pointed to the van. “I would appreciate it if you could accommodate her today.”
“No problem.” Hood whistled, and a pair of gwyllgi rounded the house. “Take our guest to her suite.”
The gwyllgi changed, accepted the keys from Linus, and went to fetch Leisha.
“She’s a necromancer,” Linus warned them. “Keep her hands bound and pat her down for sharp objects.”
The shorter of the two, an older male Linus recognized, nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Can you spare someone to get a read on a house where we lost a suspect?” Heat prickled Linus’s neck in the promise of a burn if he didn’t go in soon. He ought to design a sigil to mitigate sun exposure on necromancers, but he could never seem to find the time. “I checked for bronze contamination before I left, so it should be safe enough.”
“Now that you’re back, I’ll go.” Hood stood and stretched. “I can compare it to what we found on the grounds at the Lawson manor.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet.” He grimaced. “The last time I checked on our wives, they were unconscious in your bed and covered in chocolate wrappers and potato chip crumbs.”
Linus had grown used to the crinkle and crunch but… “I’ll take my old room if they’re still sleeping.”
“Might be for the best.”
With a soft laugh, he climbed the steps then paused on the threshold to pat the doorframe. A kiss of warm air swirled around his face, and he relaxed into the feeling of being home, of having a home.
“I’m going to check on Lethe and Grier,” he told Woolly. “Anything worth reporting?”
The curtains in the windows flicked in a shrug, and he took it to mean everything had been quiet, as Hood had told him.
An incoming message alerted him that Bishop had already dug up the rental’s owners and their recent tenants based on the address Linus had given him. He included a link to the app listing, which showed the home in the exact condition Linus found it in and confirmed his suspicions it hadn’t been used long.
A Norma Jean Oppenheimer, likely an alias, had secured the property for a week, but Bishop hadn’t pinned her down yet to confirm. Stolen identities were also popular tricks employed by any paras hoping to conceal their trail with human IDs, and they were equally time consuming to trace.
Once Linus reached the top of the stairs, he ducked his head into the bedroom he shared with Grier and found her curled around a tray of Double Stuf Oreos. Lethe sprawled across his pillow, and the fistful of Pixy Stix she clutched near her mouth left pink and purple stains where they mixed with her drool.
The tightness in his chest made breathing impossible until the slightest flicker from the hall light made him worry Woolly might wake them.
After taking one last look at his sleeping wife, he padded down the hall to his old bedroom and started calling in favors.
Ten
Lethe woke me with her flailing limbs, and once I registered that, it came as no surprise Linus had chosen to set up camp in his old bedroom. She bit him once for waking her, and he never forgot it. Though bedroom wasn’t accurate these days. Over time, we had transformed it into an upstairs office. There was a sofa, for the rare occasions when Linus catnapped while I was at work or on patrol, but he didn’t require much sleep. He tended to save those hours to spend with me, and I wasn’t complaining.
Hovering in the doorway, I watched the muscles flex in his back as he bent over his laptop.
“I can feel you watching me,” he murmured, glancing over his shoulder. “How did you sleep?”
“I can’t tell if LJ or Lethe kicked me in the bladder, but tonight is already off to a rocky start.”
Sliding back from his desk, he rose and crossed the room to me. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s not your fault.” I looped my arms behind his neck. “I never sleep well without you.”
Even when he stayed up all day, his fingers clicking softly on his laptop’s keys, I rested better knowing he was safe beside me.
“Lethe looked comfortable.” He ducked his head. “I thought it for the best she remain that way.”
Tickling his ribs, I grinned when I stole a laugh from him. “You’re not chicken, are you?”
“Chicken implies I’m afraid. I prefer to consider it due caution.”
“Very wise.” I drew him down for a kiss. “How did you spend your day?”
“Let’s head downstairs for breakfast, and I’ll give you an update.”
“That’s an offer I can’t refuse.” I rubbed my hands together. “What did you make me?”
“The smoothie is from me,” he admitted. “The rest will be Corbin’s doing.”
Taking his arm, I let him help me down the stairs. “Since when does Corbin cook?”
“He wanted to apologize,” Linus explained. “He’s not being evasive on purpose.”
“Let me guess.” I exhaled. “He signed an NDA.”
“Yes.”
“Even though your mother promised to exempt him?”
“So it would seem.”
“I really, really hate those things.”
“Trust, unfortunately, can’t be bought.” He guided her into the kitchen. “NDAs, magical or otherwise, are a requirement to work in sensitive fields. The contractors must accept the terms.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “They are, however, headache-inducing if you find yourself on the wrong side of one.”
“Have we ever been on the right side of one?” From their time working for Lacroix, Lethe and Hood had learned firsthand more about my mother and the father I had never met than I would ever piece together, but they couldn’t tell me a thing. “Every time we bump into this, it’s like smacking face-first into a brick wall.”
“That’s what happens when you make friends who work in law enforcement and personal security.”
We entered the kitchen, and he settled me at the bar before opening the fridge to retrieve my smoothie with an extra dose of Vitamin L that had me wetting my lips in anticipation.