Page 25 of Plaidypus
My brother laughed. “Okay, that is pretty close to the truth. It turns out while you were able to keep me from biting random people, you needed rest to recover. Eating as much as you did helped, and sleep helped more. You get to repeat yesterday, except you’ll sleep at normal bedtime and sleep only through the night. I know, it’ll be hard having to sleep a normal amount. If I let you, you really would become a bear and hibernate. It’s a good thing the hotspot didn’t make you into a bear. We wouldn’t see you most of the year.”
“If the hot cocoa is a lie, I will be inconsolable.”
“I’ll go make sure the hot cocoa isn’t a lie. If you’re not downstairs in ten minutes, I’m coming back.”
My brother would. “I’ll be down,” I promised.
He left. Muttering curses, I made it to the dresser, found some clothes, and got dressed, dealing with my morning bathroom routine in record time before staggering downstairs.
The incubus had his shirt off and posed for the succubus, who had taken on a demonic look and wore barely enough to count as being clothed. I’d seen more robust bikinis, and it amazed me such thin straps could hold her substantial breasts in place and keep them perky.
“Are you using some form of magic on your chest?” As she’d opted to show off her assets, I decided to abandon my polite Canadian ways, pointing at her breasts. “There is no way those little scraps of fabric can hold those up. It’s against the laws of physics. Also, your poor back.”
Mina giggled. “One part magic, one part biology. Lucifer designed us to be appealing, and most human men enjoy perky breasts. We come bundled with enough perk to send most human women into true despair.”
No kidding. I stared down at my chest, which lacked Mina’s perk—and a bra. “I forgot something, damn it.”
“Your house, your rules—and today, your rules state you don’t need a bra, especially since all you’re doing today is relaxing and eating. Leonard is in a mood, so he is handling the cooking. Apparently, he has decided your brother has to learn how to be something other than useless in the kitchen, as he shames all men.”
I took over my preferred seat, discovering that someone had affixed the tarp to the top of my bay window, giving me an excellent view of Icy and her bale lair. “Oh. She’s right here.”
“The window made a good place to secure the tarp, and we were able to find a good stud to install hooks on the exterior, which means the snow won’t possibly damage your window,” Nancy announced, joining me and pointing up at the siding of my house. “In better news, the hooks will be suitable for Christmas lights, which we took the liberty of installing this morning. We got bored, so we raided the stores as soon as they opened. The entire house has the little hooks installed now, and we used some magic to disguise them so nobody will notice unless they’re installing Christmas lights or other decorations.”
Damn. I’d gotten someone handy to work on the house only to be leaving it within a few days? I checked the clock to discover I’d slept in until ten. “I see. You went out for ingredients and came back with Christmas lights?”
“We’re easily distracted,” Theresa announced, and she grinned at me. “And we needed to make Icy a habitat for during the blizzard, and the store also happened to sell hooks and Christmas lights. It was only natural for us to expand our efforts.”
“But who paid for it?” I blurted.
Everyone pointed in the direction of the kitchen, which gave me two viable options: Matthieu and Leonard.
“Matthieu,” I complained, abandoning my window seat to head into the kitchen. Before I could tear into my brother for funding a shopping spree, Leonard offered a mug of hot cocoa. When given the choice between scolding my brother or chocolate, the chocolate would always win. I glared at my wretch of a little brother and declared, “This chocolate just saved your life.”
“It wasn’t that expensive.”
“Christmas lights are always expensive, especially when we won’t be here to enjoy them.”
“While we won’t be here to enjoy them, the house will look nice, which will make our parents happy with us until we find our own apartments. Thanks to your skill with sports announcing, we definitely have enough money to get our own places. Sure, we won’t be buying a house, not at New York prices, but we’ll be able to pay the fees associated with moving, hauling our stuff to New York, and so on. It’s a good deal. And I talked to Mom after you crashed out, and she’s all right with renting this house out for a while. They’ll decide if they want to sell after. They want to make sure you won’t come running back to nowhere Canada after a few weeks in the city.” Matthieu engaged me in a stare down, which he won.
The hot cocoa would get cold if I attempted to glare my vampire of a brother into a submission.
Matthieu must have walked Leonard through the appropriate methods of hot chocolate creation. “It seems the wolf can make hot cocoa.”
“He knows his way around the kitchen. He got up and started cooking this morning. I’ve been instructed to keep you out of the kitchen until he is finished. He is onto you. You’re a helper. There will be no helping in the kitchen today, especially after he had time to go over your scanner results.”
“What? I’m still breathing, so what’s the problem?”
Somehow, I earned the ire of my brother and our house guests.
“Maybe you should answer that, Nancy,” Mina suggested. “You’re better at adjusting attitudes when there isn’t the removal of clothing involved.”
The vampire woman chuckled. “She doesn’t need her attitude adjusted. She did what she needed to do for her family. I’m not going to scold her for that. Nadine, you were paying some hefty prices for caring for Matthieu. Your blood tests are, frankly, a hot mess. Not unexpected, especially with early onset lycanthropy. Between the two, you need to eat a lot and rest. CDC in the kitchen is freaking out because he’s a wolf male, and that’s what wolf males do when there is a wolf female who isn’t in perfect health. Don’t worry about it. He’ll calm down after your blood tests look a little better, which should be by tomorrow morning if you sit in your window and spend all day keeping your moose company while reading books. You can expect constant deliveries of hot chocolate as well.”
“But I did all right taking care of Matthieu?”
“You did fine. He wasn’t very thirsty, his health is good, and outside of lacking knowledge about being a vampire, he’s adapting well. Right now, your health is of more concern. The crabby lycanthrope in the kitchen can’t handle the thought of you being in anything other than perfect health. That’s how he gets. Then he wonders why the ladies want to take him for a ride.”
I could understand that. “He cooks, he makes hot chocolate, and he seems nice enough. That’s the kind of man you take home to Momma.”
