Page 109 of Peacock Me Like a Hurricane

Aloud slam at the door downstairs startles us, and we jump.

He groans, “Bloody hell. I forgot the lockdown.” With an eye roll, he opens the wards, unlocking the doors while leaving everything else closed to the outer world. Sitting up against the pillows, he takes a deep breath and squeezes my hand. I rub my tummy and clasp his as we wait.

Talia storms in, dressed in leather from head to toe, her knife blades flashing in several places on her body. Her expression is concerned rather than angry, though she’s glaring at us both. “Okay, does someone want to explain to me what thehellis going on? What do you mean, you drained each other completely? You’re both noticeably not dead,” she grits her teeth and growls, “though I can’t say how long that will last for one of you.”

I blink at her, feeling a wall of emotion slam into me. Taurus mentioned she was an empath; he did not mention that she was an extraordinarily strong empath who loses control of her shields when she gets upset. Sucking in a deep breath, I put a hand over my face. “Oh, fuck, dude.”

Talia doesn’t notice because she’s too caught up in her rant. “What was the enormous wall of woozy earlier? I was driving, and I almost wrecked my car. One minute I thought I was going to pass out; the next minute, everything was fine. I thought I had PMS.”

She stares at him, then me. Her eyes widening as she realizes that I’m swaying a bit. “What’s wrong? Is it the baby? Are you okay?” She turns to Taurus and hisses. “What did you do now, you nit?”

Reeling, I croak, “We’re not dead; that’s true.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and wave my hand at the fridge, opening the panel of the wall and floating a bottle of orange juice and a few homemade nausea tablets towards the bed. Her eyes follow them until they land in my palm and I sip and chew. Once I feel my amped-up metabolism breaking them down, I sigh in relief. “He didn’t do it. You’re emoting huge and it’s—‘whoa’ is the best word.”

Taurus roars at his primary. “Talia! Block your sodding emotions, damn it. You’rehurtingher!”

“You’re not hurting me. It’s okay. Everyone needs to chill out.” I wave my hand dismissively. It was making me a little woozy because of the size and the fact that my blood sugar hasn’t evened out yet.

She looks a bit gobsmacked because I feel it and closes her eyes for a minute, ostensibly blocking her emotions. “Better?”

I nod. “You didn’t have to do that. I just needed to rehydrate and replenish a little. Normally, it wouldn’t bother me, but I’m on the weak side.” I grin.

Talia shrugs. “No problem for me to do it, if it’s easier for you.”

Calming now that I’m okay, Taurus says, “Sit, love. I believe we’ve got company coming in the form of Deli’s family and I’ll explain what happened once or not at all.”

She gives him another look as if she’s going to kill him where he sits, but she nods. I apologize for worrying her because it feels like the polite thing to do, but it diverts my attention as I feel my mate lope into the room from the back stairs.

I look over and see him leaning against the doorjamb, eyebrow arched as he surveys the scene. “Anyone want to tell me what the bloody hell’s going on?” He pushes off the doorway, slinking in, his long tresses windblown from the convertible ride over. He drops into a chair, draping over it like he’s always been there. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my family knows how to enter.

I can’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that, though, so I wrinkle my nose and give him a look. “Nice pose. Too bad we’re not filming a sexy soft core.” Rolling my eyes, I mutter, “Drama queen.”

He snorts at me. “Don’t get me started on what this scene looks like. It feels like I stepped into a cross between Blade,” he looks at Talia, “and the Queen of the Damned. Not that any of it is unattractive, I’m a mite confused since it felt like you fuckingdied.”

Taurus whips his head around to glare at him. “We didn’t die, mate. We—hell, I’m really not clear on that point, but we’re obviously not sodding dead.

The leather-clad woman chuckles, used to clone drama tactics. Having given up on getting a rise from Taurus, she turns to my mate, saying, “You’re Rafe. I’ve heard interesting things about you. Jury’s still out on if this is better than the first time we met, so I’ll say that it’s good to officially meet you. Sorry about the hair.”

The long-haired clone turns his brilliant smile to Talia, ignoring Taurus’ snarl for the moment. He blows her a kiss as he rolls to his feet. “I am at that, pet. It’s nice to meet you when you’re not throwing weaponry at my head. It makes the view alot more pleasant.” His eyes twinkle as he turns back to Taurus. “Sure, not deadnow. Otherwise, this’d be a lot more disturbing. Good to meet you, as well.” Chuckling, he moves a chair to face the crowd before settling into it like the boneless git he is.

I roll my eyes again and mutter under my breath, “Bastard. You’re a complete, utter bastard.”

Talia eyes him, smiling at his grace before looking back at us. “What happened?”

“I wondered that myself. Does anyone in the brain trust know?” He considers for a moment, then looks back at her. “Have a seat, pet. Let’s take the tension in the room down a notch and we’ll all feel a lot better, I’d wager.”

I narrow my eyes at him, and then my gaze turns to my husband. “Do we know what happened? I mean, besides…” I flush a bit.

Taurus grins down at me, strumming a caress down my back with a thought, and then faces the others. Talia drops into a chair as she waits for his response, looking no less dangerous sitting than standing. “Not a clue. I mean, I heard stories, but it turns out they don’t tell the tale.” He shrugs. “The plan was to go past the line—a touch—nothing major. We wanted to push the envelope a bit. We’d been sharing a lot of fluids of late and spending a lot of blood. We wanted to take it to the last possible moment.”

Talia crosses her arms over her chest and glares. “Remind me to renew your membership with intelligence, as it looks like your last term has lapsed.”

I purr softly as he strokes me inside, soothing me, and I sip my OJ before joining in. “Yeah. We didn’t intend to keep going all the way. It kind of got out of hand.”

Rafe arches a brow and snorts sarcastically. “Are you trying to tell meyou, queen of self-control that you are, never had a clue that you might push too far?”

Talia nods and points at him. “What he said.”

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