King Cave by Scarlett Dawn.
Copyright 2013
Here's a long snippet for y'all. Enjoy...
A clapping sounded loudly, and I heard King Venclaire say, “Wake up, prodigies.”
I growled, my wolf sounding, snuggling further into the warmth.
“Fuck off.” Ezra voice vibrated against my ear, his arms tightening around me, his cheek rubbing against the top of my head.
“Five more minutes,” Pearl slurred.
“Hell…chickens,” Jack groused.
It was the snickering that really woke me.
And the sound of…Elder Jacobs...muttering, “Chickens?”
“Kill ‘em…bastards,” Jack snorted.
Jack mumbling unintelligibly in his sleep was nothing new, but Elder Jacobs, and who had it been earlier...King Venclaire? Well, that wasn’t normal. Nor were the many chuckles sounding.
My head, and Ezra’s, popped up at the same time, and I blinked blurrily. “Huh?” I pulled my hand out from under the blanket, rubbing my eyes to see better in the bright light. “Who’s there?”
Ezra’s predator growled loud in my ear, sounding ferocious, when he apparently had the same problem as me with his sight, taking a hand off my hip to rub his eyes. “Answer her!”
Someone whistled long and high, followed by, “Someone’s testy when they wake up.” That would be King Nelson’s voice off to my right.
“You have no idea,” Cahal’s voice muttered, sounding exasperated, directly in front of me. “I don’t know how many bedroom doors, alarms clocks, and light switches we went through during his teenage years.”
I shook my head, still hearing Jack and Pearl snoring, and squinted through the light. I went completely still. I had no clue how Ezra and I ended up on the ground, but there it was. We were lying in front of the couch, half concealed by the blanket, which was wrapped under us, protecting us from the hard, cold floor. And all the Kings and Antonio’s posse were standing in front of our couch, spread out like a bad fucking dream. “Nightmare. It’s got to be.”
“Jack had it right the first time,” Ezra grumbled, practically lying on top of me. “It’s Hell.”
“With brooms,” I muttered, brushing hair out of my face, staring at what King Kincaid held, firmly ignoring some of the looks we were receiving waking like this.
“And dustpans,” he mumbled, eyes on what Elder Jacobs held, even as I felt him carefully removing his other hand from under my shirt, where he had been gripping my breast. Not exactly appropriate for our current audience. Again, thankfully, the blanket partially covered us.
I nodded toward King Fergus hand. Stalling. Giving Ezra just a bit more time. “Pearl can Windex.”
“Revenge?”
“I stank of it for weeks afterward. It was like it soaked into my pores.”
“Are you two done yet?” King Nelson griped.
Ezra actually chuckled, his hand slowly creeping down my stomach. “Just about.”
I snorted hard, my voice choked as I glanced at Cahal’s hand. “Jack gets the dirt devil.”
King Venclaire appeared pretty damn amused. “For the Hell reference?”
“Exactly,” Ezra murmured, fingers gently pulling my shirt down. “Well, that about does it.”
My head lolled back against Ezra’s chest, beginning to laugh my ass off.
“Ignore her.” Ezra patted the back of my head. “I think she smoked something herbal.”
King Venclaire snorted, but coughed over it, then took the broom King Kincaid held next to him. I blinked as he whacked Jack and Pearl, whose snores turned to shouts up on top of the couch. The broom was suddenly back in King Kincaid’s hand, and King Venclaire pointed at him, saying, “I believe he did it.”
“What?” Jack muttered loudly. A pause. “Hey! Where the hell are Ezra and Lily?”
“Down here!” I called, my chin quivering as I waggled my fingers. “Somehow.”
“That happened during the…” Elder Merrick paused, looking at King Kincaid. “What? During the second movie?”
King Kincaid’s head tilted. “Well, it all started during the first when Pearl fell asleep.”
King Venclaire nodded. “Ezra and Lily were already out, and then Pearl fell asleep.”
“What did I do?” Pearl asked slowly.
King Venclaire blinked. “You fell over on them.”
Cahal pointed the dirt devil at me. “Ms. Ruckler started growling in her sleep, muttering something every once in a while about ‘too hot’.”
Elder Jacobs nodded. “Then Jack fell asleep.” He made a down motion. “And he fell over, too.”
King Nelson pulled at his ear. “Then Lily really started hollering.”
King Fergus shook his head, an absolute look of disbelief on his face. “How you three slept through her racket is seriously a miracle.”
“Ezra started growling the louder she got,” King Venclaire chuckled. “We didn’t see anything, but suddenly, we heard a thump.”
Elder Merrick’s eyebrows rose at the Kings and Elders, prompting, “During the middle of the second movie.”
They all nodded.
“I jumped up to check on you guys,” Antonio stated. “And apparently, Ezra had used his Vampire speed, knocking Lily to the floor, leaving Jack and Pearl to have the couch to themselves.”
King Nelson sighed. “And it was blissfully silent after that.”
They stared, eyes darting back and forth between all of us.
Jack muttered, “They’re putting us on.”
“Maybe drugged us, too,” Pearl griped.
“Lily?” Ezra asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
I chuckled, extremely embarrassed. “Truth. All of it.”
No comments:
Post a Comment