Page 29 of A Vampire in a Pear Tree
“Fine, but I’m not leaving Jim in the Akasha when it hasn’t done anything wrong,” Aisling said, pulling out her phone.“I’m going to see if Amelie will take it for the day.”
I was about to enter the barn when a voice suddenly assaulted my ears.
“—and left me to travel the whole of the effing Beyond to find him, which is beyond infuriating.Owain!Where are you hiding, you gormless bastard!Oh, great, the knocker is still here.You, Bartleby—”
“It’s Berengaria, but my friends call me Berry.You, however, can use Berengaria,” I told the raven Orla when she flapped wildly over the house, making a (crooked due to her wonky wing) beeline to me.To my horror, she landed on my head, the nails of her claws digging through my knit hat and scratching my scalp.I threw my arms up in an attempt to dislodge her.“Ack!Get off me!”
“I mean ...we had no intention of offending you, and I’m sorry that you feel we aren’t friends—” Aisling started to say, her eyes on Orla.
“No, no, that wasn’t intended for you.Dammit, Orla, get off my head!Owain is inside the barn.Go sit on him, instead.”
“I will, but only because you have appalling taste in hats,” she responded, and, flapping her wings in a manner that made sure they whapped me in the eyes a couple of times, took flight and headed into the building.
“What on earth?”Ysolde asked as she and Aisling looked after Orla.
“She’s tied to Owain,” I explained.“She tried to kill him several times because he wouldn’t sleep with her, which resulted in having to curse her to get her to stop.Somehow, she ended up bound to him, and blights his existence, or at least so he said yesterday.”
“Were you talking to her?”Aisling asked, glancing at her phone when it burbled at her.
“I’m a knocker,” I reminded her.“We can talk to birds.”
“I never knew I wanted to be able to do that, but now I kind of do,” Allie said as she and Ysolde entered the barn.
“Same,” Ysolde said.“I’ve always wondered what birds say to each other.”
“Mostly, they brag a lot,” I told them, then asked Aisling, “I assume your demon is all right?”
“Yes,” she said abruptly, her eyes tinged with ire.“No thanks to your boyfriend.Luckily, I have a friend who I’ve given power over Jim, and she summoned it to her house to spend the night, but I’d really appreciate it if Owain didn’t mess with Jim again.”
“Maybe you should rethink how superior you guys are over Owain,” I told her, my own temper frayed.I took two steps, then stopped, sighed to myself, and turned back to face her.“I’m sorry, that came out a lot ruder than I intended.But you dragons are wrong for insisting Owain has no valid reason for wanting the blood moon in his hands.”
Aisling opened her mouth to argue, then took me by surprise by bursting into laughter and taking my arm as she steered me toward the barn door.“You’re right, but not for the reason you think.Wyverns can be the stubbornest beings alive, but luckily, they’re here with us, the mates, and we bring common sense to all situations.Why don’t we set aside discussions about Desi and his relic for a bit.I promise no one will seriously hurt Owain during the beatdown, and he’ll most likely enjoy himself.The vamps do.”
The barn had been decorated with a bunch of Christmas lights, as well as large foam and inflatable Santas, elves, candy canes, and reindeer.A couple of sturdy center wooden columns held up a loft area, now wrapped in red-and-white-striped padding, topped with a spiral of lights.In the main part of the barn, a maze of what appeared to be cubicle walls was set up, also decorated.
Owain put Orla on top of a stack of crates, arguing with her that she needed to stay out of his way.
“We are now six,” Yrian said, frowning at the cubicle maze.“Should we clear the floor and have normal sporting, or do you wish for the lights to be turned out so that we can use the maze?”
“Fine, but don’t come crawling to me asking for help when you’re on your knees in supplication.”Orla came as close to snarling as a raven could when Owain moved away.
He gave a brief martyred eye roll and told her, “Have you ever seen me on my knees in supplication?"
The men all stared at him.
“There’s always a first time,” Orla said with an offended sniff, and proceeded to pace back and forth across the crates, muttering rude things under her breath.
“Owain can talk to birds, too?”Aisling asked me.
“It’s a family thing,” I answered while the men held a brief discussion, deciding quickly that they didn’t need the maze.It was dismantled and stacked in a corner; then the men returned, only to begin disrobing, each man handing his mate valuables like phones and rings, while they also shucked their winter coats and, to my surprise, their suit coats, shirts, sweaters, or any other garment worn on their upper half.
Owain hesitated for a moment, but I held out a hand.He had laid his long wool duster over a chair, but gave me a little nod as he handed me his phone and a signet ring he wore on his pinkie, and, after a moment’s thought, pulled from around his neck a small round metal disk about the size of a fifty-cent piece threaded with a leather thong.
“My talisman!”Orla croaked, bobbing up and down a couple of times.“Give that to me!”
“Under no circumstances are you to do so,” Owain warned me, bending a stern look on Orla, who continued to swear softly to herself.
I tucked it into my pocket, my gaze locked on him when he pulled off his shirt.The memory of his naked body remained high on my list of favorite things to recall, but an abstracted side of my mind wondered if I hadn’t allowed my lust to overenhance how physically impressive he was, and how much I wanted to explore that magnificent body.
