Up the stairs again. I thought about shouting a last warning to her, but I wanted to see if she would notice the thing that had initially tipped me off.
But no, when she ran back down, panting slightly, her feet were still in the fuzzy slippers from earlier and no socks.
“What?” she asked, giving me that same quizzical look. I just pointed down, and her gaze finally went to her own feet.
“Are you kidding me?”
Up the stairs again. Maybe some would consider the entire process annoying or juvenile, but it just made me laugh. She was just soCherryin a way that delighted me.
Besides, I was sure I was an acquired taste to many as well.
It doesn’t matter if we’re both an acquired taste becauseneitherof us will be tasting the other!
A true statement, but perhaps not the best one to make because I alreadyhadtasted Cherry, and I would be lying if I said I hadn’t thoroughly enjoyed it.
I tucked that thought away before she returned with socks and a pair of sensible hiking shoes in hand. Much different from her spy-esque outfit from the night before. Although I wouldn’t be entirely opposed to seeing her in those boots again.
Professional, Paul! Professional.
Easier said than done.
“Let’s go,” I said, trying to play it cool.
Because really, cool was just about the last thing I felt.
“So anyway, like I was saying, this study found out that fungi are basically closer to animals than they are plants, and then there’s this other group that believes since mushrooms are electron-dense and can survive the vacuum of space, they were brought here by an errant comet or random space dust. So that’s why we really should eat more of them! Who doesn’t wanna munch on an ali?—”
While I didn’t mind Cherry’s ten-minute monologue, something caught at my senses, and I held up a finger. To her credit, she instantly cut herself off and looked at me with wide eyes.
“What’s up?”
I didn’t answer her. My wolf senses finally identified the scent, and I rushed forward at full speed.
Blood.
Not just any blood, but my brother’s.
Chris’sblood.
No. No, no, no, nononono!
I’d allowed myself to get distracted. To get caught up in Cherry and all her charisma and the soft press of her body. I’d?—
“About time you got here,” Chris muttered as I burst through the front doors and raced into the main sitting area. Not the most cozy or private place, but I knew he’d liked reading there as a teen so he could watch the comings and goings of the estate.
“Chris!” I blurted as he calmly wiped blood from underneath his nose with a silk handkerchief. Relief and joy flooded through me, and somewhere in the back of my mind, a small voice wondered what that would look like to Cherry. “What happened? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, but I’ll need to send this suit to a tailor and replace one of my cufflinks. These idiots really are taking a toll on my patience. And I had to cancel an entire order of macarons Alexandria was going to make. The McElroys have been hogging her for about a dozen or so birthdays in a row, so who knows when she’ll have the time again.”
Before I could ask him which idiots he meant, he jerked his thumb behind him. I moved around the couch and the ornate cabinet behind it. Two piles of dust lay on the floor, a stake discarded between them.
Had… had my big brother just taken out twovampires?While I didn’t have a close personal relationship with the creatures of the night, I still knew that they were pretty on par with us. Enough so that two on one would be a very difficult battle to come out on top of.
“Assassins?” I asked. I already knew the answer. It wasn’t like there was any other reason why there would be two of them in our house in the middle of the day.
Wait, the sun is up. That means they infiltrated this place overnight and were waiting for one of us to arrive!That revelation felt so incredibly invasive. After our father and eldest brother had been murdered in our own home, I knew it wasn’t a safe place, but this added violation really drove the point home. I’d always been described as relatively smart, but I certainly felt dumb now.
“Who else could it be? It seems that, with us hiding our dearest little brother, they decided to move on to their next target.” Chris started folding his handkerchief, then glanced at the bright blood spatter. He clicked his tongue. “Uncouth. It’s just so uncouth.”