Page 11 of O Holy Spite

“I could heat it up if the kitties are freezing their wittle pawsies off,” Aubrey says mildly as he traipses alongside us with much less winter gear on.

Damn dragons and their internal fires.

“No, that won’t be necessary on a two minute walk.”

“Bullshit! I want to see the Savory Skink light it up. He never lets us hunt with them. His fire is better since he got laid. I feel cheated.”

“Fitz, Aubrey is not going to set shit on fire just because it amuses you. He’s not a toy.”

My brother pouts at his lover and I chuckle as Chess snuggles under his arm. “We coddle you too much.”

“Agreed,” the dragon grunts as he opens up the door to the Shird. “Though I’ll be happy to provide a demonstration if I can set his ass on fire.”

“Fitz, no…” Chess clucks his tongue before my twin can even answer. “Our angel will murder you if you get hurt just to play around.”

“Yeah, but her punishment is so worth it. Plus, I get to see grumpy gila monster blow flames. Seems like a win-win to me.”

Rubbing my temples, I sigh as we walk in.

No wonder these two went AWOL by themselves.

“What are they doing over here, anyway?” Fitz asks as he catches up to me. “Is she singing? I was gonna go looking for a new trophy from that snooty Drama teacher, but Dolly said no. She didn’t care if the witch cast those plastic girls because she had so much on her plate. But I wanted to see her dance.”

“I’m sure there’s music. You can hear it a little through the soundproofing of the hall,” Chess replies as he scans his arm to open the theater. “Can’t you?”

We all pause, listening at the doorway as a jaunty tune echoes through the room. I frown, trying to place it, then smile when I realize it’s one from the cartoon about the Ice Queen and her sister. Surprisingly, the typically quiet gargoyle is singing the guy’s part and our girl is giggling in between lines. Stepping inside the auditorium, I spot them at the piano together, both playing as they go back and forth.

I’ll be damned.

“Finally. I wondered when he was going to give this one up,” Aubrey mutters as he listens. “He’s been sitting on it for over a year.”

I arch a brow. “Ren was waiting to tell her he could play? Why?”

“Because he wanted a moment to share something special with her,” Chess answers with a knowing expression. “I get it.”

The dragon huffs and rolls his eyes. “His damn romantic notions…I’ve been listening to him hem and haw since he saw her at the talent show. Thank fuck it’s out in the open.”

Fitz claps him on the shoulder, winking as he walks by. “Don’t be a hater because you don’t have a special thing yet, big guy. You’ll figure it out. It can’t be music or body parts, though. Those are taken.”

My jaw drops as he skips up the stage, joining them despite the fact that he can’t carry a tune in a fucking basket. His bad rendition makes Dolly laugh even harder and the gargoyle glare, but he doesn’t stop. Chess shrugs, taking off to meet them without another word.

Looking at the dragon, I mumble, “A special thing? What the fuck are we going to do about that?”

He snorts a smoke ring and strokes his jaw. “Fuck if I know. I’ve been trying to decide since Rennie said this was his. I’m still not sure.”

Great. If the know-it-all lizard is stumped, what hope do I have?

Cuddle Up

Delores

We stayed a little longer, playing for the others while Fitz clowned around on top of the piano and belted out bad harmonies. His memory of lyrics isn’t great, but he replaces what he forgets with even better shit. I laughed so hard tears ran down my face at his rendition of a few songs. Felix and Aubrey teased him, but as usual, my self-confident tiger didn’t give a rat’s ass if he wasn’t getting the words right. As long as it was fun, he was as happy as a clam.

Now we’re heading back to our home at the library because Aubrey’s phone beeped with a weather alert. Apparently, the snow is getting harder and supposed to mix with ice by the time it gets dark, so inviting Rufus and Cori over for dinner is a no-go. Felix has been worried they’ll get caught sneaking in and out of the secret entrance from their townhouse, but he was even less enthusiastic when he saw the predictions. I wouldn’t mind if they got stuck with us, but the guys are adamant about spending ‘family time’ with me until school starts.

I can’t argue with that because it definitely means sexy time.

“What are we doing tonight?” I ask as we head inside. “You nixed Cori and Rufus coming over, so my plans to pig out and do makeovers have gone kaput.”

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