Page 2 of Swamp Kings 2

He chuckled, raising his brows. “They’re kind of one and the same now, my Eveque.”

Bishop leaned his glare five inches closer toward him. “Push it and I’ll find a way to create a permanentlockdown on your bat wand.” He looked around at the hisses and chuckles then back at his grinningfuckingandfightingfreak.

“I’ll be good,” Nitro swore silkily.

“Straight up fucking lie,” Bishop said, getting his booming laugh.

“I will,” he vowed, both hands up. “Even if it kills me.”

“I’ll go dig his grave now,” Hurricane chuckled with the rest of them.

Bishop eyed a grinning Harlow at the head of the table, foot propped on the chair. “You can see to this upgrade for him?”

“Hell yeah,” he hurried, straightening.

Bishop nodded. “When?”

Harlow looked around then back at him with arms open. “We are the brothers of now or fucking never.” He tossed a hand toward him. “You call it.”

Bishop regarded Nitro who waited like an innocent schoolboy to learn his fate. “Your call, brother.”

“Now,” Nitro hurried, eyeing Harlow.

“Right fucking now?” the good doc double-checked.

“Hell yeah,” Nitro said, breathless with excitement, his gaze moving from Bishop to the doc. “Right fucking now, yesterday.”

“Well, look who’s awake,” Kult cooed to a quiet, wide-eyed T-Bagio. “You heard all that? Bat fang operations in the swamp at the witching hour?” he chuckled, glancing at Bishop. “He doesn’t wanna miss that kind of action.” He looked back at the baby. “Do you, Garbagio? You want some fangs? Some little bat wings? You’re gonna bust this world’s ass, hell yeah you will.” Kult giggled when the adorable face broke into a big fat yawn.

Pain came over and Bishop marveled at the instant break in his thundercloud expression the second hiseyes landed on that angel’s face.

Now, that was power.

“Can we talk?”

Bishop turned to find Seer behind him. “Sure,” he said, the look on his face filling him with instant dread. His spiritual compass had shifted from precarious peace, to shit storm dead ahead.

****

Bishop stepped carefully on the stairs leading to his bedroom then paused at the door, listening.Please,besleeping. He couldn’t hide what Seer’s talk had done to him and she’d surely see it. He needed time to think, figure out how to tell her. But then what would it change? Not a damn thing. They were taking that fucking trip either way and no amount of his fury would change that. To make everything worse, he craved hersomuchhis body hurt. He wastoohungry. Being this desperate when he touched her was asking for it. And if she saw this need, she would make it impossible not to feed it.

He eyed the bottom of the door. No light. He carefully opened it and peeked in.

A light clicked on, illuminating his wife’s smiling face on their bunk. “Surprise!” she whispered then aimed thelight at him. He blocked his face with a hand, not ready for a spotlight.

“What are you doing up this late, Ma Petite?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” she whispered, excited. “Plus, I have a lot of notes to go over for our class tomorrow night.”

Of course. Precious angel. He made his way to the small table near the door and clicked on the lamp. Hell and all its dirty hounds would fucking wait their turn. His wife was getting her first class before they left. And after that class, the plan was to take the bite at Nitro’s hunting shack and stay however long for observations. The only question weighing was whether he should tell Beth about the biteandhow to break it to her about this trip.

He made his way to the bed where she gathered all her papers. The closer he got, the hungrier he became. He took her stack of papers from her hands and set them down then pulled her nearest leg toward him. He grabbed hold of the other until she was right where he could lay his head in her lap. He wrapped his arms around her, moaning with the heaven of her fingers stroking in his hair, and the smell and warmth of his wife. Fuck, this was all he ever wanted and needed.

“Maggie called,” she whispered.

Everything froze for a split second before he remembered it was part of his planned discussion. But he really needed to wait for daylight hours to have that talk, when logic and clarity had a chance to reboot. “How is she?” he murmured, sliding his face along her silky legs while praying she read his mind.

“Well… she had some pretty big news.”

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