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Now I smile as I look at the asshole sitting across from me, stealing food off my plate and laughing like we’re still the brothers we were before that Halloween night.
“Yeah,” I grunt. “Missed you too.”
Nora’s hand finds mine beneath the table, and the bond responds immediately. Not the overwhelming rush it was at first. That settled after the first week. Most of the time, it’s feelings or impressions. A word now and then when one of us is thinking it hard enough. But it’s always there, a quiet current beneath everything else. Warmth. Amusement. Love.
And Nora, still completely, stubbornly human. I know because I spent the first seventy-two hours after I bit her waiting for something to happen.
Every time she got warm, I checked for a fever. Every time she complained about an ache, I wondered if it was the beginning of something. Every time she made a strange noise in her sleep, I woke her up.
By the third day, Nora informed me that if I asked whether she felt any different one more time, I was sleeping in my own cottage.
Karloff examined her twice. Nothing. No dormant magic. No transformation or unexplained physiological changes. Just the bond. And the mark.
My eyes drop to it now, mostly hidden beneath the collar of her shirt. The bite has healed into a pale crescent where her neck meets her shoulder.
Mine.
Nora squeezes my hand. Possessive.
I look at her as the word arrives in my head, carrying her amusement. She smiles innocently and takes a sip of coffee.
Across from us, Alice is trying to detach one of Gordy’s snakes from Lyra’s fist. “You have to let go, sweetheart.”
Lyra disagrees loudly.
Gordy reaches over. “She likes Sheila.”
“She likes all of them,” Alice says. “Although I’m pretty sure she thinks Sheila, Shelly, and Steve are the same snake.”
Gordy frowns. “They don’t look alike.”
“They’re snakes, darling.”
Gordy looks offended.
Alice winces. “Sorry. Obviously, they’re all completely distinguishable individuals with rich inner lives.” She pats his arm. “There’s Sheila, Shelly, Steve, Susan, Sebastian, Samantha—”
“Which one is Samantha?” Nora asks.
“Left side. Near his ear.”
One of Gordy’s snakes lifts its head.
Alice points. “No, not you, Simon.” The snake beside it hisses. “That’s Samantha.”
I stare at her. “How many have you named?”
“All of them.”
Reid leans forward. “All of them start with S?”
Alice looks genuinely confused by the question. “Snake starts with S.”
For several seconds, nobody says anything.
Gordy takes a slow drink of his coffee before lowering his cup. “I married her voluntarily.”
Alice beams at him. “And you’re still my favorite G.”
