Exercising my extreme maturity, I stuck my tongue out at his back.
“Your kid is so lucky to have you as his mother.” Corbin ducked into the kitchen and kissed my cheek on his way to the stove. “Just think how much you two will have in common.”
“Linus,” I whined and stomped my feet for effect. “Corbin is being mean to me.”
“Grier is a crybaby,” he singsonged. “Grier is a crybaby.”
“All right, children.” Linus sat beside me. “Are you going to cook or antagonize Grier?”
“I can do both.” Corbin grinned as Woolly showed him where the pans were kept. “You can have plain eggs, peppered eggs, or cheese eggs with a side order of burnt toast, charred toast, or…blackened buttered toast.”
“With such an extensive menu, it’s hard to choose.” I tapped my chin. “I’ll have peppered eggs with buttered toast—hold the char.” Behind my hand, I whispered to Linus, “Can you pass me the Nutella?”
Surely a few tablespoons of nutty chocolate spread would improve the taste of whatever he served us.
“I heard that.” Corbin brandished his spatula at me. “That was not an option.”
Leaning into Linus, I fluttered my lashes at him. “So…Nutella?”
“Yes.” He kissed my forehead. “I’ll even bring you a spoon so you don’t have to use your finger.”
“That’s half the fun.” I shoved him. “Are you going to share a plate with me?”
“I had a bite of candy apple earlier.” He rubbed his stomach. “I’m not ready for more yet.”
“Candy apple?” I perked. “Now you’ve got to tell me about your day.”
“You didn’t receive a delivery?” A crease bisected his forehead. “A basket?”
“I haven’t seen…” I swung my head toward the entryway. “Lethe.”
The floor shook with Woolly’s laughter, jostling the cabinet doors.
A quick scan of the house through the bond I shared with Woolly confirmed my fears.
Lethe had left the building.
That dirty little sneak.
“Why didn’t you stop her?” I glared at the ceiling. “You just let her escape?”
Hood, who was on patrol, would have accepted the delivery. With a food item, he would have brought it in and left it on the counter in the kitchen, which was folly. That was Lethe’s first and last stop each time she visited. Since Hood was the more honorable of the two, Linus must have trusted him to deliver the treats.
Pfft.
Not likely.
Great.
I hadn’t been training Keet, he had been training me.
“She was drooling when I got out of bed.” I should have been more suspicious. She wasn’t a heavy sleeper while on guard duty. “That’s when I sneaked down to your room.”
“She must have come downstairs, stolen the basket, and escaped while we were talking.”
And Hood let her get away with it. Maybe even called in a tip to her. That, or she smelled it on him first.
“Revenge will be swift and merciless, but that’s not important right now. What matters is finding your mom and Boaz.” I massaged my temples. “I attempted to get in touch with Addie after you left. She wasn’t answering her phone. I’m not sure if she’s an early-to-bed kind of girl or not, so I’ll try again after breakfast.”
“I can walk over and invite her for a chat,” Linus offered. “She can stay for a visit while she’s here.”
Mild annoyance that he was coddling me, essentially offering me a playmate to entertain me while he went about the serious business of finding his mother, crept up on me. The fact I couldn’t see over my belly to find his shins to kick them cooled the edge of my anger with an icy dose of reality.
“This isn’t forever.” Linus cradled my cheek in his hand, even let me bite him, and the fast catch of his breath did things to me. “Two weeks and you can evict to your heart’s content.”
“I’m sorry I’m such a cranky brat. I don’t mean to be. It’s just frustrating to feel like I’m being handled.”
“I have four siblings,” Corbin volunteered in a somber voice. “Mom put the fear of God in all of us during her final trimester. The last month? Forget it. She lost her ever-loving mind. She would throw pots, waddle through the house screaming, and use Dad as a punching bag.”
“That sounds…”
Violent.
Even for a family of vampire hunters.
Maybe I had gotten off easy being crabby, ravenous, and ready to bawl in sixty seconds or less.
“The point is,” Corbin said, grasping he hadn’t imparted his intended wisdom. “The second the baby was born, she became all hugs, smiles, and laughter again. Things will go back to normal. You will go back to normal.”
Tears threatened, but I punched them in the face to keep my eyes clear. “Thanks for the pep talk.”
Linus rested his hand on my knee, which was all kinds of distracting with thoughts of nibbling on him already in my head. “I brought you something that might brighten your outlook.”
“Oh?”
“Leisha Penduko.” He waited to see if the name registered. “She set the wards on the bunker.”
Interest piqued, I settled in to listen to the full update on how he had spent his day, marveling when he showed no signs of strain for having been up all night, all day, and had no choice but to keep on going. His stamina never ceased to blow my mind, in more ways than one, but I envied his ability to stay awake now more than ever.
“I’ll text Lethe and get her sent over.” I beamed at Linus. “It’s nice feeling useful.”
“You’re always useful.” He kissed my nose and then my cheek. “You’re just not as mobile as usual.”
“It is harder to cause trouble when I’m mostly under house arrest.”
As much as I hated to admit it, after this, I was done. I had wanted to work up until my scheduled due date, but I was being ridiculous. I might as well promote Linus and be done with it until my maternity leave ended. Maybe then I could focus on the baby’s health, and mine, instead of fretting over my city.
“Pity party over.” I checked with Corbin. “Are you going to feed me prior to this interrogation or…?”
Corbin held up a pan with greenish eggs in lumpy slime. “Your stove is broken.”
The lights overhead swelled in direct proportion to Woolly’s indignation, and I heard a bulb pop in the living room.
“I’m sorry, Woolly.” Corbin set the pan down and held up his hands. “I didn’t mean it.”
The presence of the house retreated in a huff, and I rubbed my belly as LJ kicked like a teeny, tiny mule.
“How did you do that?” I was mystified. “Food doesn’t last long enough around here to spoil.”
“It’s better than my last attempt,” he admitted. “That bacon stank up my apartment for weeks.”
A pang arrowed straight through my heart—or maybe it was my stomach—over a waste of good bacon.
“You could have ordered in,” I pointed out. “I would have been as impressed with takeout.”
Based on the emptiness of my stomach, I would have been more impressed with an edible breakfast.
“Sit,” Linus ordered Corbin, then cleared away his mess. “I’ll cook.”
Behind his back, Corbin grinned like the cat who ate the canary.
“You did this on purpose.” I pitched my voice low. “Why not ask him? He loves to cook.”
“Linus enjoys cooking for you. He doesn’t do it otherwise. Haven’t you ever noticed?” A dreamy expression blanketed his features. “I’ve been fantasizing about his Crêpes Suzette for months.”
“He doesn’t do it otherwise because he never gets hungry.” I thumped him on the forehead. “Next time, ask him. Or ask me to ask him.” I thumped him again for good measure. “You hurt Woolly’s feelings for nothing.”
“I’ll make it up to her.” He flashed me a picture on his phone. “I brought her a present for staying away so long. I’ll just have to repurpose it into an apology gift.”
The image showed a row of antique crystal doorknobs that matched the ones original to the house. Many of them had broken over time, thanks to magic, use, or my fascination with them as a child. We had replaced them with ceramic, which was pretty, but this…
“She’ll love it.” There was no doubt in my mind. “Where did you find them?”
“Neely put a bug in my ear a few weeks ago. I’ve been keeping an eye out ever since.”
As much as Corbin traveled, he must have scoured the country to find so many of them.
While Linus took our requests, an eyebrow cocked over Corbin’s rather extensive and detailed wish list, I dialed Adelaide and waited to see if my bad luck held.
“Hey,” she answered in a breathless voice. “What’s up?”
A spike of concern tightened my fingers. “Everything okay over there?”
“Macon stole my phone yesterday,” she panted. “Looks like he was using it to watch TV shows his parents have blocked, and I had to download a tracking app to find where he was hiding it.”
Easing my death grip, I had to ask, “And you sound like you’re dying why?”
“He’s in much better shape than me?” She exhaled hard. “He’s also faster than he looks.”
Easily able to picture it, I snorted. “I take it he caught you attempting to steal it back.”
“Yes,” she wheezed. “I chased him for a half hour before the ice cream truck’s arrival distracted him.”
Mmm.
Ice cream truck.
No. Bad Grier. Focus.
And not on my empty stomach.
Clearing my throat, I got my mind out of the dairy aisle. “That explains why I couldn’t reach you.”