“Terrifies me with happiness,” Zed said, before adding, “OK, it scares me a little bit.”
“Sonja will just organize the hormones into submission. It will be fine,” Will said, making Bael throw his head back and laugh.
“You’re a medical doctor?” Brendan asked.
Will retorted, “You know Jillian’s going to write a pregnancy book for hybrid shifter pregnancies, right?”
Bael grinned at the very thought. “That’s my Jillian.”
“You know, when I have a pint with the lads back home, there’s less pregnancy talk,” Brendan said.
“Sorry, but you did bring it up,” Will told him.
“So, I noticed that almost everything in town is owned by a Boone, and yet, you are a civil servant? How does that happen?” asked Brendan.
Bael shrugged. “Yeah, my family and I don’t really see eye to eye on things like civic responsibility and commerce. They definitely come down in favor of the commerce side.”
“Bael’s the weirdo,” Zed said. “But ninety-five percent less of an asshole than most of his cousins, so it works out.”
“So you all grew up here? And you didn’t want to…move away?” Brendan asked. “To somewhere not located in the sun’s armpit?”
“You think this is bad, you should’ve been here in August,” Zed scoffed. “Try surviving the summer heat wearing a full bearskin.”
“I did for a long while,” Will said. “I went to medical school in New Orleans, practiced in Seattle for a while, but it’s hard for us to resist the call from la faille.”
“Everyone keeps talking about this pull, but I’ve been out to the rift site and I don’t feel it.”
Bael shrugged. “Well, maybe that’s because you’re, you know…”
“Dead,” Zed finished for him.
“Tactful as always, bud,” Will snorted.
Zed swept those massive hands towards Brendan. “Well, he is!”
“My family’s Scottish,” said Will. “But my Gran always had respect for death-singers…or at least, she said that you shouldn’t mess with death-singers.”
“Either instinct is a good one,” Brendan said.
“She never mentioned male banshees,” Will mused.
“Well, yes, that did come as a bit of a shock for the family. I am the first male banshee to be born into the O’Connors far as anyone remembers or knows. My uncle Ennis blames all the hormones they put in the meat.”
“Makes about as much sense as anything else,” Zed agreed.
“So you’re all from here,” Brendan said again.
“Yes, we’ve covered that,” Bael said, nodding patiently.
“But from what I can tell, all your lady-friends are League employees,” Brendan said.
“I tried dating local girls. I got a TV thrown in the shower with me,” Zed said.
“We’re lucky that the lights of our lives were willing to stay here on a permanent basis,” Will agreed. “Sonja likes a challenge.”
“I don’t think I could force Jillian out of here with dynamite,” Bael said.
“Dani likes the pie. And me,” Zed insisted. “But mostly, the pie.”
“So, how long have you and Cordelia been working together?” Bael asked. “Jillian doesn’t tell me a lot of background information about League employees. Security and all that.”
“We only met a few days ago.”
“Really?” Will tilted his head, his expression confused. “Because you seemed pretty close in the clinic the other day. I don’t know that many relative strangers who would hold a coworker’s hand while she’s unconscious.”
Zed eyed Brendan suspiciously. “In a creepy way?”
“No, not in a bloody creepy way,” Brendan shot back.
“I thought she doesn’t like to be touched,” Zed insisted, his brow furrowed in stubborn lines.
“She doesn’t like to be touched by most people, but because I’m…”
“Dead,” Zed supplied again, but in a much more serious tone than before.
“She doesn’t feel anything from me,” Brendan said.
“Well, that doesn’t exactly speak to your appeal,” Will said, frowning.
“That’s what I said!” Brendan exclaimed. “See? It’s an insult.”
“It’s definitely a sign you have no game,” Zed told him.
“I’m not trying to have game with her!” Brendan said.
“Then what are you trying to do with her?” Bael asked, his lips quirking.
“I don’t know. Cordelia’s a little different, in a good way. Sensitive. Honest. She’s been through a lot.”
Zed sipped his beer. “So she’s not going to fall for your old Lucky Charms routine.”
“Why did I invite you into my home?” Brendan asked.
“Do you want her to get your Lucky Charms?” Bael asked with an expression that should not have been so serious.
“My sister was wrong. I do not need friends,” Brendan sighed.
“OK, OK, you two. Stop with your pecking. Just think how bad you would have felt if some smartass teased you when you were all moon-eyed over Jillian or Dani,” Will said.
“I was a tower of dignity and reserve when I wooed my Dani,” Zed retorted.
Bael stared at him. “What about when you ran through the administration building without opening a single door? You literally ran through it.”
“That doesn’t count! Dani was in danger! And I happen to remember you going full dragon when Jillian was threatened. Don’t think I didn’t notice how that serial killer ended up getting ‘mysteriously’ eaten by an alligator.” Zed turned on Will. “And you! When Sonja got kidnapped, you swam into certain death as a damn mermaid to get her back.”
“How often have your girlfriends been in life-threatening situations?” Brendan asked. “What kind of town is this?”
“There have been a lot of complications with the rift in the last year or so and the ladies tend to chase danger,” Will said. Brendan didn’t need psychic powers to sense that Will was omitting a lot.
Zed muttered, “It’s hot as hell, and yet horrifying at the same time.”
“And it was wasn’t a coincidence that asshole Malfater was eaten by an alligator,” Bael added testily. “Because he was running around the bayou in a boat, dripping blood into the water. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“This is not how I hoped this conversation would go,” Will said, while Zed and Bael continued to bicker.
“And yet, I get the feeling it’s how most of your conversations go,” Brendan replied.
Will shrugged and took a long pull from his beer. “You’re not wrong. You haven’t really said one way or another whether you want to have game with Cordelia.”
“I haven’t done much wooing lately…or ever,” Brendan confessed. “But I do like her; more than like her. And if I was ever going to be able to have a relationship with someone, I would like it to be with someone like her. Wait, no, that’s wrong. I don’t want to be with someone like her, I want to be with her. Why is this so bleeding difficult?”