“He was slapping the bag to his fangs,” Katricia explained gently. “A quick popping motion works best to avoid tearing the bag and making a mess.”
“Oh,” Allie said weakly, and deduced that his fangs were now drawing the blood out of the bag, which was why it was shrinking. They certainly sucked it up quickly, she noted with a slight frown.
“This is how we feed now since the advent of blood banks,” Magnus said quietly, and Allie tore her eyes away from Lucian to find that the very big, very handsome man now stood beside her. He was close enough that their arms would brush if she shifted the smallest amount and the realization made her arm tingle slightly, as if in anticipation of the touch. That hadn’t happened before and they’d been closer than this. He’d actually carried her in his arms and she hadn’t reacted like this to him.
Allie blamed it on his scent. She couldn’t really sort out what it was except that there was a hint of citrus and something spicy to it. He smelled delicious and she was surprised she hadn’t noticed that earlier, but supposed she’d been too upset by the events taking place at the time to be aware of it.
“It is how Liam will feed from now on too,” Magnus added, distracting her from his scent.
Allie met his gaze, her eyes widening slightly as she did. Dear God, he had beautiful eyes. She had noticed that before, but it took her breath away anew as she peered into their pale blue depths. Except they weren’t just pale blue, she noted. There were sparks of silver in them, and they seemed to be growing in number, the silver filling his iris and blotting out the blue. She watched with fascination as it happened and then gave a start when the teakettle started to whistle next to them.
“Can you grab that?” Tricia asked as she moved away.
“Yes.” The word was a breathy sound. Embarrassed, Allie cleared her throat and added in a more composed voice, “Of course,” as she turned away from Magnus to stand in front of the stove. She turned off the flames and shifted the kettle to a cool burner.
“Here we are.” Tricia returned to her side with a tray holding four mugs and a can of powdered hot chocolate. She set down the tray, grabbed up the hot chocolate, began to scoop some into each of the four mugs she’d collected, and then glanced toward her uncle. “Grab the cream from the fridge for me, please, Uncle Lucian,” she requested, and then added, “And a mug if you want some too. There should be enough water for everyone.”
Much to Allie’s surprise, all the men moved to get cups and followed Lucian to the counter where Tricia was working. When the first four mugs of hot chocolate were ready, Allie carried them to the table and sat down at the table with the boys to get out of the way. She wasn’t surprised when the others joined her there moments later, each of them settling in one of the eight chairs surrounding the table as their own drinks were ready. She’d thought it was a huge table when she’d first seen it, but with the men crowded around it, it suddenly seemed much smaller, Allie thought, and then smiled at Tricia when the woman joined them with a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a stack of napkins.
“Did Sam make those cookies?” Magnus asked, eyeing the plate suspiciously.
“Yeah, but she’s stopped making things with weird stuff,” Tybo assured him with amusement as he took several cookies. “They’re safe to eat. Good too.”
“Mortimer’s wife, Sam, was on a health food kick for a while,” Katricia explained to Allie with a grin.
Tybo snorted at the words. “You mean she was on a mission to torture us all. The woman was making wheat germ shakes and chocolate chip cookies with tahini and coconut sugar or some damned thing. Made us all wonder what Mortimer had done to piss her off.”
“Made me wonder too,” the man she assumed was Mortimer said glumly.
“The worst part was, while she was forcing that garbage on us, she was slipping out for burgers and shakes,” Tybo said with disgust, and when a surprised laugh slipped from Allie, he smiled slightly and said, “Sure, laugh at our pain.”
“Mom, can Liam and I take our cookies to the living room and watch cartoons?” Teddy piped up suddenly, drawing everyone’s attention.
“No. You will get crumbs everywhere,” Tricia said at once. “Eat your cookies first and then you can go watch cartoons.”
The boys looked at each other and then, as one, shoved their cookies in their mouths. They were large cookies and the boys’ cheeks were bulging when they finished.
“Liam,” Allie said in a reprimanding tone. “You’ll choke yourself on . . .”
Her words trailed away as the boy quickly chewed and swallowed the cookie, then grabbed his mug and downed the last of his hot chocolate even as Teddy did. Setting the mug down, he beamed at her as if he’d done something clever and announced, “All done.”
“Can we go watch cartoons now?” Teddy asked eagerly.
“If Liam’s mother says it is okay,” Tricia said solemnly.
Allie found herself the focus of two pairs of hopeful eyes and Liam said, “Please, Mom?”
Allie hesitated, part of her wanting to keep him close. She had spent every moment of every day with the boy since he’d been passed into her arms nearly four years ago. At least until she’d started the job at the blood bank. But she’d worked days while he’d slept, and while it had been night when she’d gone to rob the blood bank, she’d waited until Liam was down for his nap, fully expecting to be back before he woke. She hadn’t been surprised to return and find him awake and upset that she’d left him. He seemed eager to leave her now, though, to play with his friend and she felt a little wounded at the knowledge. But she knew it was healthy for him to make friends. It was also convenient, because she had some questions for Katricia and the others that she didn’t think Liam should hear, so Allie forced a smile and nodded. “Sure.”
“Thank you, Mom.” Liam beamed at her and slid off his seat to follow his new friend from the room.
“They will be fine,” Tricia assured her.
Allie nodded, sure that was true.
“Now that the boys are out of earshot,” Lucian said, drawing all eyes his way, including Allie’s, who grew wary when she noted his determined expression. Before she could worry too much, he ordered, “Explain things, Katricia. She seems to trust you.”
Tricia rolled her eyes, but then turned to her with a wry smile and explained, “As I mentioned earlier, we are Enforcers. The police for our people, basically. We hunt immortals who break our laws, such as the ones who attacked you and Liam.”
Allie nodded in understanding, but was mentally substituting “vampire” for “immortal.”
“One of the ways we do that is by listening in on the police scanner for reports of any crimes that might be immortal related,” she continued. “Last night, Mortimer heard that the blood bank had been broken into and the perpetrator taken to the hospital.”
“And assumed it was vampire related. Because who else would rob a blood bank, right?” Allie guessed, and didn’t miss the winces that went around the table at her use of the word vampire.
“Basically, yes,” Tricia said. “And because of that, Tybo and Magnus were sent to the hospital to investigate.”