I nodded at him, impressed, though I wasn’t about to say that out loud. “Now how are we gonna move ‘im?”
“Magic, obviously.” He shot me a grin when I made eye contact. “I can use my wind magic to carry his bulky ass.”
“That’ll work?”
“As long as my magic doesn’t get out of control, yeah.”
“Is it gonna get outta control?”
“No.”
I wasn’t sure I believed him since he was smirking again, but I didn’t call him on it because I didn’t want to risk a back injury. Stepping back a tad, I waved my hand in invitation, and Basil grinned, closed his eyes, and muttered under his breath. A gust of shadowy wind blew past my face before settling around the orc. In one hefty move, the magic lifted his bulky form from the ground. As Basil began walking, the magic moved with him.
“That’s handy,” I murmured after we’d walked fifty feet.
“It totally is.” Before he could continue, his phone rang. When he pulled it out, he groaned, but still answered. “Ellwood.”
“Like I don’t fucking know that, Basil,” a voice said loudly enough I could hear him. “Have you decided to go rogue?”
Basil sighed, but I could feel his anxiousness through my bond with him. “No, Alec, I left early for the day.”
“Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on here. You left to help that hunter.”
It wasn’t a question, but Basil still said, “That’s none of your business.”
A loud, low growl came from the other end of the phone, and I had the urge to growl back and scream at this Alec guy who was so clearly making Basil upset. “You’re making my life really difficult here lately, Bas. You can’t go on unsanctioned missions whenever the hell you feel like it!”
“I’m helping my viramore. I don’t see how that’s any concern of yours. Are you telling me that if Aspen needed help, you’d run it through the fucking BCA first?”
The other man was quiet for about thirty seconds. “If you do this again, I’m going to have to bring it to the board.”
“You do that, and I’ll fucking quit.”
“You are too much like your bro—”
Basil hung up the phone, fuming, and stuffed it in his pocket, letting out a frustrated groan.
“I’m sorry, Bas. I didn’t know you were gettin’ shit at work for helpin—”
“No, don’t fucking do that. I’m glad you called. I’d rather come help you any day of the damn week than do something for that asshole werewolf.”
“That asshole werewolf who’s also your brother-in-law.”
“Doesn’t make him less of an asshole, especially right now when it’s close to a full moon. He’s got a bug up his ass lately, and I’m apparently his punching bag.”
I grabbed Basil’s arm to stop him from walking. “Want me to pay him a visit? I could tranq ‘im for you.”
He snorted. “Yeah, maybe I’ll take you up on that.” He sighed and stepped forward to press his forehead against my shoulder. “You mentioned food?”
Since he didn’t seem to want to talk about it, I rubbed his back for a few seconds. “Yeah, let’s get this guy back to my handler, and I’ll cook you some dinner as a thank you.”
He nodded, took a breath, and stood up to begin walking again.
I followed and said, “I’m sorry you got in trouble on my behalf.”
“Trust me, I’ve been getting in trouble my entire life on my own. It’s nothing new.”
“Well, that doesn’t exactly surprise me.”
He sent me a smirk, and some of his tension released. “My brother Thayer and I were terrors growing up. He was the mastermind, but I was the one that got caught, or at least, the one that took the fall.”
“I’m sure you plotted out enough of the shit yourself.”
His smirk grew. “Maybe.”
Snorting, I shook my head as we neared the car. We loaded up the orc in the truck bed—my truck sagged so much under his weight it was worrisome. I shot the orc with another tranq to ensure he stayed asleep during transport, then covered him with a blanket so people driving by wouldn’t freak out and call the BCA or whatever. Once we were inside the truck, and I started driving toward Jasmyn’s place, I noticed Basil shaking out his hands.
With a furrowed brow, I asked, “You okay? Did ya get injured?”
“No, I’m fine. Just a little tired. Using that much magic in a short period of time wears me out, especially since I haven’t been training very hard lately. I’m out of shape, I guess.”
“That’s a thing? You can be out of shape from magic?”
“Yeah, or at least Jorah, Thayer, and I can. Our bodies have been trained to handle the foreign magic we’re carrying, but if we don’t train and use it often enough, it’s harder on our bodies when we do. We’ve been slacking a little since we’ve all been super busy lately.”
“Gotcha.” Kinda.
I pulled into Jasmyn’s place, unloaded the orc, and received payment before we headed back to my house. Once we got there, I made Basil go sit on my couch while I ran across the street to Ulma’s and picked Rasha up. She jumped into my arms, and when I told her Basil was at the house, she started jumping around.
Ulma and I shared a laugh before I walked my daughter across the street. Rasha ran right into the living room when we got there, and even though I could tell how tired Basil was, as soon as he saw her, he sat up and said, “Hey, Rasha! How are you doing, sweetpea?”
She smiled widely and surprised me by giving Basil a hug. The witch caught my eye over her shoulder and I could see—and feel in my chest—how happy it made him.
Rasha sat beside him on the couch, and Blaze immediately hopped off Basil’s shoulder onto her lap, making her giggle in delight. She loved that crazy lizard. She started petting him, and he curled up in a ball after rubbing along her fingers, then Rasha started talking a million miles a minute about every little thing she did in school today. The fact that she felt comfortable enough around Basil to talk like that was mind-blowing. Basil listened with rapt attention, and a warmth settled in my chest as I moved into the kitchen to figure out something to do for dinner. Rasha had never been so comfortable around another adult before, not even Ulma, and she loved that woman.
“Did you do your homework already?” I heard Basil ask her.
Rasha sighed. “I still have one paper, but I was having trouble with it.”
“Do you want me to help you?”
I paused, hanging halfway in the pantry to listen to her answer.
“Sure… I missed a lot when I was in the hospital since I didn’t get to go back right away.”
Basil said, “That’s okay, I’m sure we can figure it out together. And if your daddy and I don’t know how to do it, I’ll call my little brother. He’s the smartest guy I know.”
“You have a brother?”
“I have eight brothers.”
“You do?” She sounded amazed.
Basil laughed. “And I have ten sisters.”
“Woah.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, and now some of my siblings are… married, so I have even more brothers- and sisters-in-law.”