Page 26 of Enticing Monsters

I bat my lashes at him. “Me? And what makes you think I had anything to do with adding glue to your body wash and shampoo and setting up a timer-based bomb in the shower fan to cover you in glitter?”

The tone I use is sweet enough that candy should be falling from my lips with every word.

“I have glitter fucking everywhere, Serafina! Ev-ery-where.” He enunciates each syllable clearly as he shifts from side to side, and it only takes a moment for Maddox to catch on.

My gruff brother nearly doubles over as he howls with laughter at Caleb’s plight of a glittery crack.

“Then I guess you’ll think twice before taking my knives again, won’t you?” I sniff and stick my nose in the air, continuing my nonchalant petting of an adoring Cleo.

“Dude…” Maddox drags the word out, shaking his head as he straightens, clutching at his stomach. “You touched her weapons?”

“Oh, not just touched,” I inform Madd, glaring at our oldest brother. “He took my flower knivesandmy two favorite Hello Kitty knives.”

Caleb reaches up a hand and scratches at his forehead, a tsunami of glitter rolling off of him and coating the floor.

“And what, pray tell, did he do with them?” My tone is soft and sweet, and Maddox winces, taking a step away from Cal as if he could be found guilty just by association. “Our dear older brother decided todonate themto the local charity shop and send me a picture of them with dollar price tags on them. And by the time I was able to get downtown, they’d beenpurchased.”

Maddox hisses between his teeth and takes another step back so I can barely see him behind the doorframe. “You’re lucky all she did was glitter bomb you. I’d have money on castration.”

“Who says I stopped at glitter?” My smile is as sharp as the edge of one of my knives, and Cal’s face goes slightly pale, a startling contrast to the sparkling, multi-colored glitter stuck to his skin in a kaleidoscopic, rainbow display.

“Caleb Apollo Jensen!” My mother’s voice cracks as loudly as one of her whips as she stomps into view, the pink and purple scarves she’s decked herself in today fluttering like wings around her in a dance similar to the glitter coating the air. “Have you lost your mind?! Do you know how hard it is to clean up glitter? And why are you in a towel?”

I can hear Madd’s footsteps on the stairs as he escapes our mother’s wrath, leaving Caleb and me behind without a second thought.

Smart man.

My mother glances between the two of us, clearly weighing if I were in on this, and I arch a brow at him when her back is turned.

“Um, I was trying out a potential Halloween costume, and it got out of hand. I’m sorry, Mom.” He tries a sweet and sheepish smile, but it’s ruined by another rain of glitter when he tilts his head.

She reaches up and grabs his ear, hauling him down to her level as she begins towing him away. “I’ll give youout of hand, young man. You’re going to be doing drills for a month. And scrubbing the floor on your hands and knees to clean up all of this glitter. What in the world could you have been going as?My Little Pony?”

Caleb shoots me a look as he’s led out the door, my mom’s ranting continuing with every step.

Payback is a bitch, and glitter just makes it sweeter.

“Wake up, jerk.”I shove at Caleb’s shoulder, his snoring loud enough I’m surprised the windows aren’t rattling.

It took him most of the night to clean the bathroom and hall to an acceptable level for my mother’s scrutiny.

Honestly, he’d probably still be on his knees with a toothbrush if she and my father hadn’t been called away for work. My dad had dubbed a still-shimmery Caleb to be too much of a distraction and had left him pouting here at home as they headed out. Caleb took the opportunity to collapse in bed for some much-needed sleep.

He snores away despite the shove, and I whip the blankets off of him, thankful he’s at least dressed, before grabbing one of his spare pillows and whacking him on the head.

“Hb-bbah,” he grunts out, and I snicker, the pure sibling urge to record his drooling nonsense for fodder later tugging at me.

If only I didn’t have an agenda that this dork is screwing with.

Fine. If he doesn’t want to wake up the nice way, then the Jenkins way it is. Not to mention Mom and Dad would both kick his ass if they knew he’d managed to sleep through someone not only in his room but screwing with him. Talk about running drills. They’d wake him up every night for a year if they knew.

I flip my wrist, letting the knife in my bangle drop into my palm, before lunging onto the bed, pulling him back by the hair, and putting the knife to his throat. Not hard enough to draw blood, mind you. I’m not a psycho. But I apply just enough pressure to create a pink line across his skin.

“The fuck, Sparkle?!” Caleb bursts out, bucking underneath me.

I roll, keeping my hand in his hair, forcing him to roll with me or lose a chunk of his locks to my fist. Only when he’s half off the bed and half sitting up do I release my hold and duck out of the way of his sluggishly thrown fist.

“You already covered me in glitter and exposed me to the wrath of Mom. Why are you still torturing me?”

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