Page 113 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“I’m afraid not,” Logan said with a heartfelt sigh as though the admission somehow pained him while his fingers gently caressed her skin through her shirt.

“Teddy bears?” Caleb asked, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth.

“No teddy bears, min swete sunu,” Logan murmured as he turned his head so that he could kiss the side of her neck.

“But I like teddy bears, Daddy,” Caleb mumbled sadly as he leaned his head against Logan’s arm.

“What about magical forests?” Logan asked as he laced their fingers together.

“I like magical forests,” Caleb said in an awed whisper while Emma nodded in agreement.

“What if I told you there were magical bears in that forest?” Logan asked, resting his chin on top of Jill’s head as he gently caressed the back of her hands with his thumbs.

“I love magical bears,” Caleb said in a reverent whisper, making her lips twitch.

“I thought you might,” Logan murmured, kissing the top of her head before he started. “Once upon a time, there was a magical forest…”

She watched Shane settle outside the door as the soft timbre of Logan’s voice filled the closet. Shane reminded her so much of herself at that age. She used to be so damn angry all the time, pretending that everything was fine when all she wanted to do was scream, but that had never been an option for her, not when she needed to keep Joshua safe.

It broke her heart knowing that he was struggling. She just…

She had to figure out a way to make him realize just how much they loved him, Jill thought as she felt herself relax and lost herself in Logan’s story. Her eyes began to close as Logan recounted tales of wild bears and little boys that slayed dragons with nothing more than a stick. In what felt like minutes later, Jill opened her eyes to find the twins gone. Wondering if they went back to their room, she moved to get up so that she could go check on them only to go still when she spotted Shane standing in front of the closet, holding Caleb and Emma’s hands as the twins cried.

She opened her mouth to ask what was wrong when she saw her black backpack slung over Shane’s shoulder and-

“Shit!” she heard Logan snap as the black shutters covering the windows began to rise. Within seconds, he was rolling her over onto the mattress and covering her body with his just as bright sunlight suddenly filled the closet. Searing pain tore through her arms and legs where the sun touched her skin, forcing her to bite back a scream of agony as it felt like she was being burned alive.

“I told you that we didn’t belong here,” Shane said seconds before she heard the metal shutter above the door begin to close.

“Shane!” Logan yelled, reaching over and grabbed the comforter to pull it over her.

“Don’t look for us,” Shane said as the metal shutters slid shut, trapping them inside and-

Oh, God…

Layman House

Pennsylvania

“It’s not that bad,”Kale said, not quite able to meet the teenage boy’s furious gaze as he struggled not to wince in sympathy as he took in the red, green, black, and blue finger paint covering him from head-to-toe and-

“Pretty!”

-was forced to turn his head to hide a smile when Jessica added another handful of green paint to the assortment of paint covering Marc’s stomach.

“When I reach my immortality, I’m going to make you pay for this,” Marc said as his eyes narrowed dangerously on him.

Nodding, Kale murmured, “Understandable,” even as he reached for his phone to capture this moment only to realize thathe’d left his phone in his room. Not that he’d had a choice, not when Marc woke him up by screaming about a demon attacking him. It had taken some time, but he’d eventually managed to pull Jessica off him, but not before she’d managed to smear another handful of green paint in his hair.

God, she was a feisty little thing.

“I want a lock on my door,” Marc bit out as he reached up and angrily swiped the paint dripping down his face off.

“Also understandable,” Kale murmured as he discreetly reached down and swiped the jar of glitter out of Jessica’s hand before she could make Marc “prettier.”

“Baby girl,” Chris said with a heavy sigh from the doorway, making Jessica wince as she moved to hide behind Marc only to rethink that move and quickly hid behind him instead. “We talked about this.”

“But I made him pretty, Daddy,” Jessica mumbled as Kale forced himself not to look down at the adorable little girl, knowing that he would do something stupid like smile and further piss Marc off.

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