Page 30 of Flock Around and Find Out

“Perhaps I’m simply not so shameless in my affections,” Ruben said, his voice low but steady. “You show little loyalty, moving from person to person depending on what mood you find yourself in. That isn’t the way I like to behave. Perhaps you would do well to learn a bit more restraint and it would serve you better.”

Kelvin stared back, his expression the same placid one, though I knew him well enough to read the anger beneath.

He liked to make it seem as though nothing bothered him, enjoyed the anonymity and freedom it afforded him, like the way others couldn’t predict what he felt if he never showed it.

However, I’d gotten to know him better, had this bond with him, and it all allowed me to read him more deeply than others could. He was still, no matter how much he tried to hide it, the sort of man who didn’t like being challenged.

And while he treated Ruben as though he were the help, like he could dismiss him anytime he wished, he clearly didn’t care for the way Ruben challenged him now.

Perhaps he reacted worse because it was a challenge he hadn’t expected.

“I suppose I was just taken off guard, given how Justices have no feelings. I would have assumed that included romance or affections. Grey is a poor judge of character, of course, but I never figured her to be into someone without any sort of emotion.”

Ruben didn’t respond. Not a tic of his cheek, not a shift of his hand, nothing. Instead, he turned his gaze to me. “Your family is surprisingly friendly.”

The dismissal of Kelvin broke some of the tension there, especially when the vampire only laughed in reaction.

“Yeah, well, don’t get comfortable. This isn’t some flop house for you all to show up at whenever you want.” I made sure to glare at Kelvin a bit more than others, since he’d already been doing that.

“Not my fault your mom invites me over,” Kelvin muttered without shame.

“She asked me to help her with her computer,” Galen admitted.

“She needs me to trim Molly’s nails,” Porter said.

I groaned, looking toward Ruben for help, grateful thatsomeonehadn’t gotten drawn into this nonsense.

Except one look at him said he had.

“Out with it,” I demanded.

“She needed someone to pick up a treadmill next week, and it seems she knows no one with a truck.”

“You’re a Justice,” I reminded him as though he’d forgotten that important fact. “What the fuck are you doing running errands for some random woman?”

“Well, at first I said I was busy, but after a few minutes, she wore down all my reasons and it seemed to make perfect sense to help her.”

I groaned—loudly—and took another big drink of the hard lemonade. It had to be my third of the night. Not enough to get me drunk but enough to get me comfortably buzzed. It made the conversation easier. “Yep, that’s how she gets you. I wanted a Komodo dragon when I was a kid. I was completely determined to have one. I had my presentation all ready, I knew why I wanted one, where to get one, and how to keep it. I’d priced out everything, had it all planned. Well, two days later I stared down at the bearded dragon lizard I’d gotten instead and wondered just how the fuck she’d talked me into this? She’s good at getting her way.”

I peered out at the group and, before I could stop myself, started to laugh. Here they were, some of the most powerful Spirits in the world, the ones who led all others, the ones in charge of…everything. They were feared through our world, able to send others running with just a lifted eyebrow, but my five and a half foot, sixty-five-year-old mother had them running her errands like they were bellhops at a fancy hotel.

I ran a finger under my eyes, removing the tears that accumulated from the laughter.

We were always chasing after peace, always trying to save ourselves and our way of life, fighting against another enemy, another problem, when the answer was in front of us all along.

If my mother ran the spirit world, I was pretty sure it would all go just fine.

And lord fucking help us all if she did.

* * * *

By the time everyone left, I was ready for some calm and silence. Sure, we’d packed a lot of people into this house, but I wasn’t sure if that really accounted for the amount of noise present. Not just any noise, either, but tense noise.

It felt like someone always had something to say, some snide little comment that could get taken one of six different ways—all of them bad—and it was my job to keep everyone calm and, preferably, alive.

And despite that, the night had ended pretty fucking well. No blood, no fistfights, no one discovering that all those people coming from me were definitely not human.

All in all, I really couldn’t fault anyone for how it went. My brother and sister had gone home already, and my dad had jumped into the shower before bed, leaving just my mom and me still there on the back porch.

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