Page 127 of How to Entice a Fiend

I clamp a hand over his mouth. “Thank you! IguessI will suffer through Ender watching me. How torturous. I actually don’t know if there’s anyone else strong enough to do so. He’ll definitely keep me from doing nefarious things and keep anyone nefarious from doing things to me. I also know that he would beabsolutely thrilled to help you with anything you need help with. I don’t know if you know this, but he is a significantly better fighter than I am.”

Ender slowly looks over at me as I remove the hand from his mouth. “I… uh… would… be indebted to all of you if you allowed me to do just that. And I’m indebted to you, Mads… because I’m not sure I’d have won that fight.”

“It felt a bit dicey there a time or two,” Marcus admits.

“How dicey?” Finn asks, looking anxious.

“Just… not at all, really. We were just playing a sick and bloody game of Twister in there,” Marcus says, looking a bit worried. He never looked worried any other time, but now that he’s facing Finn, this man is concerned. “I love you.”

Finn’s eyes narrow even more.

“I told you we should have just tossed the human at Abel,” Ender says. “Look at the way he’s just destroyed Marcus’s spirit.”

“My spirit isn’t destroyed,” Marcus growls.

Finn is not pleased. “Howdicey?”

“Slightly dicey but we’re fine.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“Look at us—we are all alive. Do some of us have less blood than we had going in? Sure! But we’ll just have a sip or a gallon or two and be fine! The bad guy is dead. And maybe we can get back to being actual detectives. That could be fun.”

Alexei grumbles something as he joins us.

“What happened?” Finn asks, and Marcus seems thrilled Finn’s attention is off him and on to a new subject.

“One of the vampires cut a chunk of hair off Claude’s head when he was trying to chop his head off. Claude acts like having his head cut open would have been preferable.”

“Because I would have healed! My hair can’t heal, love!” Claude cries as he comes up wearing someone’s hat.

“Where’d you get the hat?” Finn asks.

Claude refuses to meet his eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Did someone die in that hat?” Marcus asks.

Claude is looking everywhere but at us. “Brother of mine, I don’t wish to talk about it.”

Marcus grabs Claude’s hat off his head and we all stare at the man who is missing a pretty decent chunk of hair. It’s so short that the hair in that area is sticking straight up and making Claude’s head look kind of lopsided.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Finn says, doing his utmost to just play it off. “It’ll grow back in like a week… or six months.”

Marcus, of all people, just starts laughing. Maybe he’s delirious. I think he came so close to death that he’s found a whole new meaning in life. “Your…hair. My god, it looks like someone took a fucking hedge trimmer to your head. Claude, you always know how to make me laugh.”

“Thanks,” Claude says with ample sarcasm. “Alexei, my love, I need a wig.”

Alexei sighs as he glowers at Marcus. “You don’t need a wig.”

“I look hideous.”

“You do not. You are still very handsome.”

“Can you even love me like this?”

“I would love you even if you were bald,” Alexei says.

“Don’t give me nightmares.”

---