Page 39 of How to Flirt with a Hellhound
The last thing I wanted was Sexy Neighbor to get eaten by the local werewolf (unless hewasthe local werewolf, in which case—lucky me).
With that thought, and probably more calm than I should have felt considering something weird was outside, I headed up to bed. I had a feeling I’d have some pretty good dreams, and I looked forward to falling asleep imagining a sexy werewolf and an unassuming human finding a love match. You never knew when new book ideas would pop up.
As I drifted off to sleep, I thought about those eyes again. Something niggled at me, but I was too sleepy to get a grasp on it, and I drifted off with them glowing in my mind.
I woke to the sound of cawing.
Like,a lotof cawing. I hopped out of bed and ran to the window. The trees werefilledwith black birds. I was guessing crows, although some looked too large to be crows. Probably ravens—Sebbie liked feeding the birds and he had ravens that hung around by his property, so I knew they were way bigger.
I didn’t know what the hell they were cawing about, but I saw Corbin step off the front porch. A few flew down and one even landed on the guy’s shoulder.
Like that was perfectly normal and not weird as fuck.
Jude and Dex followed him outside, and at that point I made out the shape of a van coming up the long drive. I expected it to veer off toward Paricia’s property, although it didn’t quite looklike a moving van. Only it didn’t—it kept coming until it was in my driveway.
Shit. I hadn’t ordered something, had I? I didn’t think I had a delivery coming, but maybe I’d forgotten something? I figured no one would steal it with those three outside, so I went and hopped into the shower before I went down to see what I’d forgotten. No point heading out there all disheveled. After all, I had a boyfriend to impress now. I grinned to myself at the thought.
If luck was with me, maybe I’d find Sexy Neighbor and his sexy brothers lounging on their porch when I picked up my package.
A guy could always hope, and as unlucky as stalker dude had been, I felt like my luck was definitely changing with the new boyfriend development.
Chapter 16
Dexter
“Your human saw you,” Corbin said when he meandered downstairs in the morning.
I stared at the crow on his shoulder. “Tattletale,” I muttered.
It cawed and then flew out the open window. I really hoped it didn’t understand me, because I did not want to get shit on again. I sighed and started ruffling through my cabinets for an appropriate offering to the birds.
Jude bounded into the kitchen humming under his breath.
“He does not think I’m a walrus,” I complained.
Jude laughed. “What did he think, then? Did you tell him?”
“He thinks I’m a werewolf,” I chuckled. “Or that he was hallucinating.”
Corbin smirked, and Jude gave an indignant growl. “Werewolf. Hah. We aresomuch better than freaking werewolves.”
I was about to reply when Corbin’s birds started making a fuss outside. Corbin was up and out before Jude and I, but we followed closely behind.
“Van coming up the driveway,” Corbin muttered. “Delivery, looks like.”
Jude and I both spotted it in the distance then as well. A white delivery van. Not at all suspicious or anything. Sure.
We all stood outside waiting, and when it turned into Toby’s driveway, I was the first to start walking over there. I looked up at his house, but his bedroom curtain was drawn. I thought I heard footsteps, and then the sound of pipes groaning. Good—he was probably hopping in the shower or washing up. That would give us time to investigate before he came down.
You could never be too paranoid.
The delivery guy smelled fine—not a bit of rot on his soul—but he was only the messenger.
“Oh, hey!” the guy replied, getting out of the van. Really, he was more of a teenager. “I’ve got a delivery for this address,” he said, pausing as he hauled out a colorful bouquet of flowers from the van’s side door.
I growled a little as the flowers came out. Yes, they smelled like flowers, but underneath that was something… metallic? And rotten.
Jude grabbed the flowers and Corbin had the kid pressed against the side of the van before he could blink. I looked up at Toby’s house again, and his window curtain remained drawn. Good.
