I leaned up, pressing my breasts against him, kissing him deeply. He swept me into his arms and carried me into the shower where we lathered up and scrubbed each other’s backs, and washed our hair. By the time we were finished, it was nine-thirty, and I felt thoroughly loved and absolutely satisfied.
Chapter Eighteen
By the time we dressed and dried our hair, it was time for brunch.
“I’ll meet you downstairs,” Killian said, dressing before I had even fully dried off. He kissed my cheek and left me alone to get ready.
Still awash in the glow of morning sex, I slipped into a pair of jeans, a hunter green turtleneck, and a pair of ankle boots. As I brushed my hair back into a ponytail and put on my makeup, I realized I felt a little adrift. I was so used to going to work and seeing Tad and the rest of the gang that it felt off when I wasn’t. Time off was fun, but I was looking forward to getting back to work next week.
I headed down the stairs, thinking about the meeting to come. We’d coordinate with Rowan before we went, so she could wire us up. Even though I trusted the Court Magika, Esmara had planted a little seed of doubt, and I kept thinking about what would happen if they didn’t make it in time. As far as I was concerned, 15 percent of my lifetime was 15 percent too much to lose.
What the hell was Sheryl planning on doing with the extra time? Did she have some project that she needed to get done and that would take longer than a normal lifetime? Was she greedy or afraid of dying? She seemed so young that the latter seemed implausible.
Whatever the case, it didn’t matter. She was stealing life off of her recruits as well as bilking them out of thousands of dollars and she needed to be stopped.
I clattered down the stairs. As I reached the kitchen, Killian was standing at the refrigerator, staring at the contents. The cats were eating—he had fed them—and a mocha was waiting on the table for me.
“What you want for breakfast? Eggs? Bacon? Waffles?”
“How about lunch instead of brunch? Grilled cheese and tomato soup? That seems perfect on a blustery day like today.”
I was grateful the power was holding. During the Pacific Northwest November windstorms, power outages were common as huge trees came down. We usually had at least one bad windstorm a year, and a number of smaller ones.
The worst windstorm I remembered was when I was in my early twenties. The Hanukkah Eve storm had left two to three million people without power, and near–hurricane force winds had left Western Washington looking like a demilitarized zone.
I was in Seattle at that point, early in my marriage with Ellison, and we had been renting a house. A tall fir had fallen, crashing across the roof. Luckily, we hadn’t been hurt, but I learned a valuable lesson. I swore up and down that when I owned a house, I’d hire a landscaper every year to check the trees and see how stable they were. It occurred to me that I hadn’t done that yet since I’d been back in Moonshadow Bay. I jotted down a note to do so immediately.
“Grilled cheese and tomato soup coming up. Do you want anything on your sandwich besides cheese?” Killian glanced over his shoulder at me.
I laughed. “No, please. I’m a purist. Butter on the bread and cheddar. No ham, no lobster, nothing except bread, cheese, and butter. And make me two, would you? I’m hungry this morning. We worked up quite a sweat.” I gave him a shy smile, almost embarrassed.
Killian winked back at me. “It was my pleasure,” he said, drawing out the words.
Smiling, I sat down to drink my mocha and opened my tablet to bring up the news.
The world was in such disarray that I switched over to the website for the Moonshadow Bay Monitor. I didn’t feel like reading bad news. It raised my blood pressure and heightened stress. Since there wasn’t much I could do about any of it, I decided to put myself out of my misery and avoid it. When there was something I could help change, I’d dive in and do my part. But so much of the world was one giant cluster fuck, and helpless anger didn’t help anything.
“Do shifters get morning sickness?” I asked, suddenly thinking about Tally.
“Not exactly. Yes, the nausea and upset stomach often follow with pregnancy, but most of the shifter women I’ve known who have been pregnant don’t have a regular form of morning sickness. Hormones, though, that’s another matter. Pregnant shifters are far more hormonal than humans. It can be a test of any relationship. The phrase ‘Happy wife, happy life’ applies far more in a shifter household than in a human household.”
I thought about Ari and Meagan. I wasn’t sure if they wanted children or not, but if they did, I wondered who would be getting pregnant. And would they choose a shifter sperm donor, or a witchblood sperm donor? As I pondered over the question, I suddenly felt slightly embarrassed. I was on my way to being a first-rate gossip, but at least it was just with myself. Ari would tell me if it came up, and until then, it really wasn’t any of my business.
“You have the strangest look on your face,” Killian said as he handed me a soup mug and a plate with two sandwiches on it.
“I was thinking about sperm donors,” I blurted out before I realized how it would sound.
Killian turned back to stare at me. “Is there something I should know about?”
I laughed. “No. I was thinking about Ari and Meagan and whether they would have children, and if so, would they choose a witchblood or a shifter donor. And then I realized it’s none of my business, and then you asked me what I was thinking about.”
“I never know what to expect out of you, and honestly—I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Killian brought his food over to the table.
As we ate, comfortable in the little breakfast nook, I glanced out the window. The rain was letting up and, although it was still breezy, the winds had died down.
“I love the bleakness. I love it when all the trees are barren of leaves and at night, I love to see their stark silhouettes against the light of the moon.”
“It is beautiful. In California it’s still infernally hot at this time of year, at least where I lived.” He paused, then added, “When I put up the new decorations and fix the ones that came loose, I’ll make sure to attach them all firmly. Since I didn’t move in until December last year, I don’t think I understood how strong the storms can get here. Have you noticed that? How some storms almost seem to have a sentience to them?”
I nodded. “I had a friend once, from the Midwest. She told me once that tornadoes had a life of their own. She said she saw one, and the malevolence she felt coming from it was terrifying. She was witchblood, with a focus on air magic, so she understood the nature of the element. After that I began watching storms, and I started noticing that some of them do have a certain sentience to them—not all, of course. But enough so that I don’t think it’s a fluke.”
“Are you ready for tonight?” Killian asked.
I shrugged. “I suppose. I can’t help but wonder what’s driving her to do this. What reason can she have for being so…”
“So horrible? Sometimes there isn’t a good reason. You have to go on what you know at the moment. And what you know is that she’s taking advantage of people. In my profession, once in a while an animal will come in and I find a rare form of cancer or an odd disease, and there’s no rhyme or reason why they contracted it. I can’t spend my time worrying about why. I have to try to treat the condition and hopefully pull them through. In some cases, you’ll never find an answer, but you take care of the symptoms and hope that it solves the problem.”