Page 105 of Total Eclipse of the Moon
"Aren’t all sentient beings susceptible to threats, bribes and greed?"
The cat blinked. It stared at her.
"I’m going to take that as a yes," she said. "Did the great and wise Baku get caught up in his own philosophical conceit?"
As the brothers and Thomas entered, the cat squirmed out of her arms and marched toward the human. He sat inches from him, blocking his entry and swiveled his head back to Madeline. In English, Baku announced, "I can eat him if you like."
"Did that cat speak?" Thomas asked.
"Don’t eat him unless Shane says you should," Madeline called out.
Thomas jumped away from Baku. "What the hell is that thing?"
Shane chuckled and leaned down to stroke Baku’s head. "Leave him be for now, kitty kitty."
Baku hissed and tail flicked. "Fuck off."
"Language, demon. There are ladies present." Shane burst out laughing when Baku lifted his tail, gave it an agitated swish before stalking away with a distinct hip swagger.
Thomas pressed his back against the wall and whispered, "It spoke? It’s a bloody speaking cat."
Madeline lifted an eyebrow at Shane. "You brought back a human? Perhaps a snack for the vampire?"
"There are vampires here too?" Thomas ghosted white.
Roman cuffed Thomas on the arm. "I won’t let the vampire bite you unless you get out of line."
"We need a person to be the head of our base of operations. To find the nonhuman problems around the world. He’s learning. Besides, he knows there’s enough magic and nonhumans in this place that if he steps out of line he’s toast." Shane grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into him. Against her mouth he murmured, "I missed you."
"Me too." She wound her fingers around his neck to play with his hair.
"I made sure MI6 closed its department committed to finding and eliminating you."
"How?"
"Turns out when I no longer work for the king, all humans under his orders are susceptible to voice persuasion. And there might’ve been an explosion in the building on the floor that had all their information on you. I also might’ve unleashed a virus into their computer system with Thomas’s help."
"You’re such a demon."
He grinned. "Be bad with me, Maddy."
She grinned, but the sounds of a cat growling had her rolling her eyes. "I better go get the cat before he takes out his wounded ego on the wrong something. He’s a high maintenance little shit sometimes, but I love him." She stalked after Baku.
* * *
As he stoodthere watching his brothers disappear with Thomas into the kitchen to organize dinner, Shane was out of his mind with happiness. To have his whole family here. Safe. Together. It was everything.
They weren’t without problems. Flynn seemed to be fraying at the edges as the odd man out without a mate. Ky still suffered PTSD from his time incarcerated and tortured, as witnessed by a moment during their travel to London when he fell apart in his inability to tell reality from hallucinogenic drug-induced dreams. Usually, Vivi kept him grounded, but without her he almost lost it. Getting her on the phone helped Ky. And Roman remained weighed down by the responsibility of keeping everyone together and making sure they had a plan for everything. Sure, Roman was less grumpy but no less intense.
Then there was the fact evil never slept. There was always some paranormal going crazy somewhere in the world as well as the hovering issue of finding all the brainwashed lycans that had been sold. They prioritized that and had a lead on one of them.
"I saw this happening. A vision, you know."
"Jaysus," He grabbed the angel pendant around his neck and wheeled around to stare at Cora who stood next to him. "Do you always sneak up on people like that?"
Cora didn’t answer as her gaze remained locked on Madeline chasing the cat around furniture. Cora seemed as moved by the sight of her pursuing the wily beast as he was.
She said, "I saw this as a vision earlier this week."
