Page 11 of Postpartum Spells & Infant Hells

"Lilith doesn’t feel things, Stells. She processes them and then bills you for the inconvenience, which makes her the best CEO a businesswoman could ask for." I hooked the strap over my shoulder.

"She feels things about your babies, which is more than she does for the rest of us." Stella pulled her keys out of her purse. The chopstick in her hair tilted dangerously when she moved, and she tugged it out. In a graceful move, she twisted it back in, giving her hair that perfectly coiffed look again.

"Are you certain it’s safe to leave them?" Aidon prodded as he handed Nyssa to Selene.

"Mom and Nana have help from Clio and Selene. Nana has the shotgun. Murtagh, Tseki, and Layla aren’t leaving the property." I gestured to the shifters who had gathered on the back lawn. "If anything moves out there that shouldn’t, Tseki will eat it before the front door opens. You and I both know that."

"I still don’t like it." He crossed and pressed his palm flat to the small of my back. "I want to be in two places at once, and I can’t be. Going with you two is the smart move since you guys are trouble magnets."

"We all have our talents. Stella and I happen to excel at ours." I let myself lean into his hand for a second.

"When you’re in there with Lilith, show her the pictures and ask her about the marks and the wax,” Nana instructed. “I feel the need to repeat the plan because you have a habit of getting distracted by the dramatic thing in the room."

"I do not get distracted by the dramatic thing, Nana. I am the dramatic thing in the room ninety percent of the time." I chuckled as I checked to make sure there was enough breast milk in the fridge and freezer. "I had planned on leading with that. Anything else?"

Mom lifted her shoulders as she wiped her hands on a towel. "Ask her about the messages you’ve been receiving. With luck, she’ll recognize the number and know who sent them."

“I’d planned on that, too. Thanks.” I crossed to each of my babies and kissed their soft heads before embracing Nina.

"Move, Phoebe." Stella was already through the door. "I am not getting cursed by an archivist because you wanted one more goodbye."

"I’m coming. Stop tapping your foot." I crossed the kitchen, and Aidon fell in beside me, his hand finding the small of my back again.

"I wasn’t doing any such thing." Stella was practically stomping the wood floor.

The back door fell shut behind us. The mist hadn’t lifted, and the gravel was dark with two days of rain. I climbed in without looking back at the house when Aidon held the rear passenger door for me. If I looked back, I would see Mom in the kitchen window with one of my babies on her shoulder, and I wouldn’t be able to leave.

CHAPTER 5

"If you grip that wheel any tighter, Stells, it's going to find itself a kinder driver." I watched her thumbs go pale against the leather as she took the last curve before Lilith's drive.

"I will let up on the wheel when you stop checking your phone every minute, Phoebe." Stella didn't glance over. "And before you argue, I have been watching. It has been every minute."

"No. It’s been every ninety seconds. I want credit for the discipline that I have taken." I teased as she turned.

"The babies are safe. Selene would have called if there was anything at all wrong at the house. You know that, and you are still checking." Stella's eyes cut to me. "You're spiraling. Talk it out before we get out of this car, because Lilith does not need to absorb your panic the second you cross her threshold."

"I'm not panicking, Stells. I'm pacing the inside of my own head. That's different. I’d ask Aidon to back me up if he hadn't been brooding the entire drive." I twisted in my seat to look at my mate.

"I have been listening and brooding, Queenie. The two activities are not mutually exclusive," Aidon quipped. The tension bracketing his eyes hadn't fully receded since the kitchen. I could feel his anger sitting in the car like a fourth passenger. "Stella is right that you need to talk it out. Lilith reads body language the way most people read books. And put the phone away. You need to focus."

"You're ganging up on me before I've even gotten out of the car. I'd like to lodge a formal complaint with the management." I tucked the phone into my bag anyway, because they weren't wrong.

"They’re not taking complaints this morning. They're in a foul mood." Stella swung the car onto Lilith's gravel without lifting her foot off the gas. The crunch of it under the tires was the loudest sound for a full second.

"Stay behind me," Aidon directed as he climbed out of the passenger seat before the car had fully stopped. His shadows curled out from under the hem of his coat in a way I doubted Lilith would appreciate.

I wanted to argue with him that he didn’t have to go all macho and tell me what to do. We both knew I could protect myself. He was worried, so I didn't say anything about that. "Try not to growl at her when she doesn’t have all of the answers, please. Be civil. Lilith is the only person in three states who might have information."

Lilith was waiting outside the door as we approached. “Are the babies okay?” she called out.

The iron key on the chain around her neck caught the gray afternoon light. It was flat against the black silk of her blouse. Her hair was knotted into the kind of low twist that took ten seconds for her and forty minutes for any other woman.

“The babies are good. Clio said there is a mark on them that someone can follow. That’s one reason we’re here. We need as much information as possible to get rid of it and hunt this asshole down,” I replied.

"We've got our work cut out for us." Lilith stepped aside and narrowed her eyes at something behind us. "Come in before my neighbor starts taking down license plates. She has decided I'm running an unlicensed bed and breakfast, and I’m running out of ways to disabuse her."

"Tell her she’s right that you are running an unlicensed bed and breakfast. The truth is more boring than what she's invented." Stella approached her with a chuckle.