Chapter 2

2

We pulled up to the house, and the car's engine went quiet. I stretched my legs before stepping out, feeling every one of my forty-something years. The evening air was crisp, hinting at the night's antics we'd just survived.

"Home sweet chaos," I MUTTERED as Kendra marched across the street with the determined gait of a woman who'd had enough shenanigans for one day.

"Speak for yourself," Izora said as she cradled the tiny dog in her arms. "I'm off to Wade's, where peace reigns, or so I pretend." The house that Izora and Adalinda stayed in, along with Zara, belonged to Jax and me, but it would forever be called Wade's.

She strolled away with a grace that made me feel downright clunky in comparison.

With the twins gone, our neighborhood had played musical houses. The once simple block now resembled a vampire-witch-what-have-you commune.

"Night, ladies," Kendra said from her porch, her tone exhausted and held a hint of 'don't you dare drag me into anything else tonight.'

"Goodnight." I nudged the front door open, the hinges squeaking their own sort of welcome as I stepped into the living room. Luke was sprawled on the couch with a flourish only he could manage, animatedly gesturing as he recounted some tale.

"So there I was, minding my own business when in walks this so-called 'superstar' who thinks the sun shines out of his?—"

"Hey, watch it. You're not alone." I dropped my keys in the bowl by the door.

Luke barely glanced my way, too caught up in his own story. "Anyway, he demands a private viewing. And would you believe it? He sipped his champagne like it was battery acid and had the nerve to ask if we had anything more... 'avant-garde.'"

"Sounds dreadful." Janice sounded all dreamy and weird.

I paused mid-step, really noticing Janice for the first time. She was perched on the edge of the armchair, gazing at Luke as though he'd just painted the Sistine Chapel single-handedly. Her eyes were wide, fixed on him with an intensity that was downright comical, and completely unlike the hard-nosed hunter I'd come to know.

"Janice, you okay?" I asked, frowning. "You look like you've seen a unicorn."

"Luke is just fascinating ." She sighed without tearing her attention away from my brother.

Jax descended the stairs with Xander trailing behind him.

"Uh, we have a guest?" I asked with confusion. But before I could even unravel that mystery, I caught sight of Janice's lovesick puppy eyes still glued to Luke.

" Luke ," I said, a mix of annoyance and incredulity threading my tone. "You're charming her."

Jax didn't miss a beat. He strode over to Janice and placed his hands on her shoulders, guiding her back with a gentle yet firm touch. "Janice, you might want to take a breather," he said soothingly.

"Wha—? Oh..." Janice blinked rapidly, her adoring gaze finally breaking as she seemed to come back down to reality. She shook her head, looking as though she'd just woken up from a trance.

"Sorry about that," Luke said, now acutely aware of the enchanting effect he'd unintentionally cast. He ran a hand through his perfectly styled hair, an embarrassed flush creeping up his neck.

"Charming as ever, huh?" I quirked a brow at him, unable to resist the dig.

"Har har, hilarious." Luke couldn't hide a small, sheepish smile. "I need to get a handle on this."

Janice's face crumpled like a paper bag in the rain, her eyes narrowing to dangerous slits. "I can't believe I fell for that... your charm ," she spat out the word as if it were poison. "Me, a hunter! This is so not okay."

"Join the club," Luke groaned, pressing his fingertips to his temples. "Every word out of my mouth is like a hypnotist's suggestion. It's getting ridiculous."

"Ridiculous is an understatement." I tried to keep the mood light despite the tension crackling in the room. "All right, let's cool our jets before someone gets staked or charmed again." I clapped my hands together. "Xander, what brings you here?"

He shrugged and looked at Jax, who just smiled at me. "Later."

Message received. He wanted to talk when we were alone.

"How about we check in on the twins?" We weren't supposed to check on them at all, but Jax was the US vampire king. What good was that title if I didn't use it to our advantage once in a while?

"Good idea." Luke perked up instantly, almost bouncing on his toes with newfound enthusiasm.

We settled into the kitchen, and I dialed Allison's number, putting the phone on speaker and setting it on the table. Luke leaned in, his earlier frustration momentarily forgotten as he waited for one of our little sisters to pick up.

"Hello?" Allison's voice was nearly drowned out by an odd chorus of yips filling the background.

"Hey, it's us," I said into the phone, eyeing Luke as he tilted his head, trying to discern the racket on the other end. "What's with the noise?"

"Sorry, guys, hold on a sec." Allison was muffled now, and the yipping grew louder, more insistent. "It's okay, baby, it's okay," she cooed, her voice taking on that high-pitched tone people use with infants or particularly cute animals. Actually, she sounded remarkably like Izora had just a few minutes before.

"Since when does Allison do baby talk?" I said to Luke, who just shrugged, equally baffled.

"Okay, sorry about that," Allison returned, sounding a bit breathless. "We've had a bit of a situation here. I sort of... adopted a baby nathua."

"Adopted a what now?" Luke blinked at the phone. He looked like he was trying to decide whether to be horrified or amused.

"Long story," Allison said. "Turns out someone's been nabbing fae creatures, presumably for some black-market deal. Avery and I are on the case. Isn't that right, Ave?"

"Yes!" Avery said. "And trust me, this little guy needed us. We couldn't just leave him orphaned."

"Orphaned magical creatures? That's new… Not." I leaned back against the counter and exchanged another look with Luke. Our lives had become a regular paranormal nursery between Goldie and Flint, and now whatever animal they were talking about.

"Wait, back up." Luke's expression shifted from bemused to incredulous. "There are fae animals? Since when? And since when do you care about anything that isn't bedazzled or can sing show tunes?"

Allison's laugh crackled through the speaker, warm and genuine. "Oh, Luke, it's hard not to care when you see the cutest little baby nathua. He has these big eyes that just look right into your soul. You'd fall in love instantly."

"What the hell is a nathua?" Luke asked.

"Imagine," Allison's voice crackled with mischief and affection, "a cross between a snake and a fox. Super intelligent, too, probably smarter than some people we know."

Luke grimaced as if the mere thought left a sour taste in his mouth. "Well, that sounds horrible."

"Hey." I smirked at him. "Don't knock it 'til you've seen it. Maybe they're cute in an... exotic way?"

"Exotic?" The word dripped with dubiousness. "A snake-fox hybrid roams around being 'exotic,' and I'm supposed to find that endearing? Hailey, darling, my idea of 'exotic' rarely includes something that can shed its skin or has a penchant for henhouses."

Through the speaker, Allison's voice took a sickeningly sweet turn, dripping with honey in a way I'd never heard from her before. "It's okay, baby. He wasn't talking about you. You're the cutest thing that has ever lived on this whole wide earth. And one day we'll take you to meet your Unkey Lukey."

Unkey Lukey looked like he was about to hurley worley.

"Seriously?" I tried to picture Allison, Broadway diva, and vampire extraordinaire, getting all mushy over a creature that was half fox, half snake.

Avery chimed in next, her tone just as sugary, "Yes, who's the most adorable little terror? You are!"

"Okay, I'm officially weirded out." I exchanged another look with Luke, who seemed equally disturbed by our sisters' sudden descent into baby-talk madness.

"Excuse me, but we called to check on you two," Luke was clearly trying to steer the conversation back to saner waters. "Not how random I-still-don't-believe-they're-real, magical creatures are doing."

"Oh, we're fine." Allison was unfazed. "This place isn't nearly as bad as we expected. Oh, hey listen, do you have any source for bumblecat pollen?"

I blinked, racking my brain. Bumblecat? That sounded like something out of a kid's cartoon, not our already bizarre life. Luke opened his mouth, probably to ask what in the supernatural world bumblecat pollen was, but I shot him a quick glance, silently telling him to let it go. For now.

"Um, no?" I squinted at the phone as if it could somehow make this conversation less bizarre. "What the effing eff is a bumblecat?"

Luke had that pinched look on his face, the one he gets when he's two seconds away from freaking out. "Are you sure you're safe? Should we come to get you? What is going on?"

"No, it's okay," Allison said with her usual dramatic flair. "Blanche is really sweet."

" Who is Blanche?" Luke practically screeched, ready to take off at vampire speed to rescue our younger sisters, council's orders be damned.

"She's the warden, remember? You knew that," I reminded him.

"Right..." Luke trailed off, fanning himself theatrically with his hand, because even in a crisis, Luke wouldn't be caught dead without a bit of dramatics. "Okay, okay. But are you two safe ?"

"Perfectly fine," Allison said, airy and light, as if this was all another day and not a complete deviation from everything they'd ever known.

"Okay, seriously, spill it. You're not holed up there playing house with a petting zoo, are you?" I prodded, tapping my foot impatiently on the kitchen tiles.

"Actually," Avery said with an edge of excitement, "we like it here more than we thought we would."

"Except for the time Blanche almost killed us because she got so mad the nathua's parents were killed," Allison added nonchalantly, as if it were no biggie. "But don't worry, we used our vampire speed and ran away in plenty of time."

" What ?" Luke's shriek cut through the air like a banshee at a ghost party. "Don't make me come down there and kick her ass. I'll?—"

"Luke." I shot him a glare, which he completely ignored.

"Charm her pants off," he said, his voice still a high-pitched squeal, before he took a deep breath to regain some semblance of composure. "Not literally her pants. Oh, you know what I mean." He waved his hand dismissively.

"Right." I bit my lip, trying hard not to laugh at his dramatics. Luke could be all poise and snobbishness but throw him into family drama, and he turned into a soap opera star.

"Chill, you two," Allison said nonchalantly. "Blanche and Arric are too busy trying to out-shout each other to even glance our way."

"Seriously." Her giggle was infectious, even through the tinny phone connection. "If this was a play script, I'd slot them into an enemies-to-lovers subplot right around the middle of act two."

"Are you two for real? This isn't Hollywood." Luke's face scrunched up like he just bit into a lemon.

"Listen, we gotta bounce," Allison said suddenly. "We've got some glamorous duty of mucking out a stall. Duty calls,"

"Toodles." Avery's cheery farewell followed, and then the line went dead.

Luke and I were left staring at the now-silent phone, our expressions mirrors of bewilderment. My lips moved soundlessly, mouthing the words that had us both stumped. Muck out a stall?

"Since when do divas do barn chores?" I turned to Luke. "I swear, if they come back knowing how to milk a cow, I'm signing them up for the next country fair."

"Are you sure we shouldn't be going up there?" Luke's fingers drummed an anxious staccato on the kitchen counter.

"I think they're fine." I tried to inject a dose of confidence into my voice. "The council isn't daft enough to send them somewhere super dangerous. And hey, maybe it's high time those two did something other than terrorize us with their twin telepathy pranks."

"Taking care of a magical critter and dodging near-death experiences by angry wardens is good for them?" Luke quirked an eyebrow, his skepticism practically its own entity in the room.

"It's character building," I said with a flourish of my hand. "They need some grit in their manicures." I smiled at the thought of Avery and Allison getting down and dirty in the countryside; it was like imagining two unicorns plowing a field.

A snort from the doorway had me spinning around. Jax stood there, flanked by Janice and Xander. Their faces were painted with amusement, clearly having caught the tail end of our conversation.

"Did I just overhear something about mucking out stalls?" Jax tried to sound stern, but the laugh that followed ruined it.

Janice crossed her arms, the ghost of a grin playing on her lips. "I gotta say, I'm a little disappointed. No grand rescue mission tonight?" She shook her head and then looked at Xander. "Come on, I'll show you where you can crash." Janice gestured toward the hallway that led to the basement. If the situation were any less bizarre, I might have found the image of a hunter offering hospitality to a vampire downright heartwarming.

They disappeared down the stairs before I turned to Jax with a lifted brow. "Okay, spill. What's up with Xander slumming it in our basement?"

"Xander is done. He's been quietly training his second for months now. Everything is set for a smooth transition. He's just... tired of leading."

"He's retiring?" My mind conjured up images of Xander trading New York's skyscrapers for our... well, more modest accommodations. "So he's swapping the Big Apple for Philly cheesesteaks indefinitely?"

"Only for a little while, to decompress." Jax shrugged, but his eyes held a warmth that spoke volumes about his understanding of the burden of leadership. "He's had enough of the politics, the power plays. He hated being in charge."

"Ah." I let out a chuckle, imagining Mr. New York Vampire trading in his nights of glamorous bloodsucking for lazy evenings with Netflix and popcorn. "The more the merrier, I guess. Our home is becoming the choice destination for the supernatural."

"Looks like it." Jax grinned, leaning in to plant a kiss on my forehead. "You okay with this?"

"Absolutely." I waved away any concern. The more the merrier.