Page 10 of Bombshell

Centaurs were prideful things—valuing courage and bravery above all else—so stroking Ferdinand’s ego was the best way to cheer the equine man up.

“Good, you know I thought about this tattoo for almost a century before finally coming to you…” Ferdinand launched into the same story he’d told during each and every one of our earlier sessions. I probably knew the damned thing by heart at this point and could make the appropriate noises or ask the appropriate questions at all the important points by now, which allowed me to think about nothing but the tattoo in front of me.

Well—not nothing—now I could hear the sound of Effie’s voice down the hallway as she talked with Daphne in the lobby.

Her laugh echoed down the hallway and I nearly jerked the needle up Ferdinand’s arm, almost dragging the line I was touching up through his bicep.

Focus, I told myself, blocking out the voice and zoning in on the tattoo in front of me as Ferdinand continued to drone on about how he had several tattoo artists draw up the sleeve, but I was the only one he’d allowed to actually do it.

I’d have been flattered if that hadn’t also come with six months of the centaur in my ear backseat tattooing despite never having held a tattoo gun in his very long life.

The girls up front quieted down as the sound of their footsteps going up the stairs to Effie’s apartment could be heard overhead.

It was like the universe was listening in to my thoughts today because I was grateful for the silence as I finally put the finishing touches on Ferdinand’s shoulder.

“You’re all done,” I said, rolling back on my stool and away from the centaur so he could get to his feet from where he’d reclined his huge equine body in the largest room we reserved for some of our bigger supes.

“Are you sure?” Ferdinand asked, lowering his torso so he could look in the mirror, examining the massive scene of a centaur war that I’d inked into his skin. “You’re sure you don’t need to darken any of these lines?”

As the centaur continued to fuss, a wave ofsomethingfilled the shop, making the picture frames on the walls rattle and even fall, the glass panels shattering as they hit the floor.

“What the fuck?” I heard Heath shout in the room next door where he and Fiero were working on a siren’s full back piece.

Ferdinand sidestepped some glass, frowning down at it as his qualms about his new tattoo were temporarily distracted by the sudden tremors. “I’d heard about California earthquakes, but I didn’t realize they’d feel like that.”

“That’s because it wasn’t an earthquake,” I bit off, my hearts in my throat because I knew exactly what it was.

“Effie!” Daphne’s shout was muffled by the distance between us, but that magical pulse couldn’t have come from anyone else.

It had been years since she’d had a fit like this, but my feet were already moving as I left Ferdinand behind and managed to slide into the hallway at the same time as Cash who was still wearing the magnifying glasses that he always used when he had to tattoo smaller creatures, making his silver eyes look bulbous as we looked at each other.

“Hey! You can’t stop right in the middle!” The stone pixie in his room called after him as he yanked them off of his head and tossed them over his shoulder before he followed me back into the lobby and up the stairs.

When I pulled the door to Effie’s apartment open my fears were confirmed. Her apartment looked as if a jungle had exploded within and vines and plants had taken over the space, crawling out of the pots that she kept everywhere.

In the center was a very panicked looking Effie, her green-freckled face as pale as bone as she sucked in ragged, panicked breaths.

“Daphne!” Cash roared, shoving past me and into the room.

“I’m here!” Daphne’s voice came from next to us where she’d pressed herself up against the wall next to the front door.

“What happened?” I asked, my voice harsher than I meant it to be.

Daphne flinched away from me, her hazel eyes wide as she gave her pink braid a nervous tug. Cash stepped in between us, his lips pulling down into a frown.

“Sorry,” I hurried to apologize as I started to wade through the vines to Effie, every instinct my slimy fish-brain possessedneeding me to get to her and make sure she was all right. “Why is she like this? She was fine this morning.”

“I don’t know. We came upstairs because I had some news to share but as soon as I said it this happened.”

I heard Cash sigh behind me. “I thought we agreed to wait, Dragonfly.”

“I’m sorry I just got so excited. I didn’t realize…”

“What news?” I asked, cutting her off and not looking back at them as I sidestepped a grasping vine that was trying to keep me from getting farther into the room.

Daphne was silent for a moment before answering me. “We’re going to have a baby.”

Ah. Now I understood the panic on Effie’s face as her wild green eyes looked anywhere but at us, like she wasn’t even here in the room with us at all.

---