Page 60 of Wanted: Rogues and Bards

“Did you die?”

“Yes, along with several others. Except Hapi, thankfully, who can raise people.” Fenric’s eyes cut to his. “Hope you’re good with necromancers.”

Lirion snorted. “I, of all people, know better than to judge others by stereotypes.”

“I like your attitude. Hapi gets a lot of flak just for existing, so we’re pretty protective of him. Be nice to him and it’ll go a long way in the group. Anyway, be careful of food around Maxie. He’s not trying to poison anyone on purpose, but him simply making tea is an adventure, let’s put it that way.”

“I understand and will take precautions. Um, what about the rest of your party?”

“Well, I’ll explain as I introduce you. Just take ’em in stride. They’re…a unique bunch.”

Should Lirion be worried?

Nix that. He was definitely going to worry.

Apirate. A rogue. A necromancer. And…a poisoner?

It sounded like Lirion had hired a group of villains to save his sister. Not what he’d expected when he first thought of finding help.

Of course, after his dealings with Gale Reeve and his band of heroic assholes, the idea of requesting the assistance of heroes to rescue his sister had also been thrown out the window. But villains? Nope, never crossed his mind. They were supposed to be worse, right?

Except when Fenric talked about his friends, it became clear this wasn’t going to be the most evil group of people Lirion had encountered. And he’d known some real dickbags in his time.

No, naughty seemed to be a better description for them.

As they reached the tall, narrow house on a crowded block, Fenric suddenly stopped and dragged in a deep, fortifying breath, his hand scrubbing through his windblown hair. “So…these guys…they’re not all bad. I mean, we are villains, but we have our hard limits. It’s not like we’re going to rescue your sister and then sell you both to a new ring of sex slavers. There’s not enough profit in it. Not split five ways.” He paused and furrowed his brow. “Shit. Six now.” He looked over at Lirion and winked. “That was a joke. We don’t sell people under any circumstances.”

Lirion’s heart squeezed at Fenric’s unexpected attempts to lighten some of the tension. “It’s okay. I’m not too bad at protecting myself. You wouldn’t want to end up like dear old Gale.”

Fenric shuddered. “No. Definitely not. I just want you aware that we can use some very unorthodox and illegal means to accomplish our goals.”

“Again, I remind you of Gale Reeve.” Lirion might have smirked when Fen grew a touch paler. Not that he wanted the sexy man afraid of him, but he needed Fen to understand he wasn’t helpless, either.

“True. True.”

Fenric seemed to hesitate a moment longer before finally shrugging and leading the way up the narrow path to the front door.

The very moment his hand touched the doorknob, there was a loud explosion within the house, followed by a bellowing roar similar to a war cry.

“My books!”

The rogue next to him groaned but didn’t seem surprised in the least. “Yeah. This is why I can’t leave them alone.”

Before Lirion could ask any follow-up questions, Fen shoved open the door, which led directly into a parlor and total chaos. A huge blond barbarian type wrapped in brown and green leather stood in the middle of blackened, smoldering ruins, holding a pale red-haired man in long flame-orange robes covered in burnished gold starbursts over his head as he thrust him up into the ceiling. Plaster and dust rained down on the other occupants of the room, who didn’t seem to be in any hurry to stop this destruction. A man with pointed ears peeking through elegant long blond hair stood in the background looking bored, while an older, heavily scarred but still sexy dark-haired and bearded man cheered the barbarian on, thrusting a bottle of rum into the air. The only one who looked even remotely anxious was the young man with curly golden-brown hair and ridiculously large eyes in his slender face.

“What the hell?!” Fenric shouted above the chaos.

In an instant, everyone froze, their wide eyes snapping to Fenric as he stood over the threshold with his hands on his hips.

“We’ve had this lease for barely more than a week, and you’re already losing our deposit!”

“He destroyed my books!” the barbarian cried out, hammering the other man into the ceiling again.

“I…was trying…to shrink them…for easy…transport,” the other man attempted to explain between thumps into the ceiling.

Fen groaned. “Bel, if you kill him, he can’t do the mending spell to fix your books.”

The one called Bel glared at Fen as he thrust the other man into the ceiling one last time, though with a touch less force, before placing him safely on the floor.