Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Lorne took a breath. “Okay, then Xan and I need to talk to Father Dennis, and you need to take your kids home.”
“What? No. I’ll call Eddie and tell him I have to come home and then—”
“Stop,” I said softly. “You know you can’t come with us. You must take care of your people first, before anything else.”
She looked so sad. “I don’t want to lose either of you.”
“No one’s losing anybody. We’re gonna figure this out,” I promised her.
“You better.”
We had to pack up the muffins for JJ and the biscuits for Toby, and I put them on one of my grandmother’s platters and covered it with a cloth napkin. After they both hugged Argos, Lorne and I walked the three of them to Amanda’s car.
“I bet real demon hunters don’t pause for muffins,” Amanda pointed out, speaking to me under her breath.
“I just wanna stay home tomorrow, watch TV, and smell bread baking all day,” Lorne announced grouchily as he hugged the kids.
“Maybe make Uncle Lorne some sourdough,” JJ told me. “That’s his favorite.”
JJ knew that because they noticed everything.
I leaned into the car, kissed Amanda’s forehead, and she put her hand on my cheek. “You’ll call me after you speak to Father Dennis.”
“I will.”
“Let Uncle Xan go, Mom,” Toby said, laughing. “You’ll see him tomorrow.”
I really hoped she would.
TEN
Once we went back inside, Lorne called Father Dennis while I took a seat on the couch next to Argos.
“You didn’t get hurt last night, did you?” I asked him.
Argos lifted his head, regarded me, narrowed his eyes, and then finally gave me a short chirp before curling up into a ball and going to sleep.
Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Lorne was having one of the muffins Amanda left.
“You should put butter on that.”
He grunted.
“What did Father Dennis say?”
“That we could join him at the Osprey Cemetery tonight at nine. He’s meeting with some paranormal investigators who said they had detected a presence there last night.”
I stared at him.
He stared back.
It took me longer than it should have, but really, having paranormal investigators in town when all this is happening… “Are you kidding?”
“Why on earth would I kid about something like that,” he deadpanned.
I smiled.
“Stop.”
“Oh, come on,” I said, chuckling. “That’s hysterical.”
“You have a sick sense of humor.”
“Which is lucky because I think you and my sick sense of humor are what’s gonna get me through this.”
He groaned loudly.
“Paranormal investigators,” I emphasized. “Seriously, what are the chances?”
“More importantly, why would Father Dennis think we’d want to do that?”
“I assume because he needs us. Didn’t he tell you?”
“Yeah. The rabbi and the abbot are both engaged elsewhere, and as he needs backup, he felt that because you believe in the unseen world—”
“Unseen world?”
“I’m just repeating what he said.”
“It sounds so romantic,” I gushed.
“Well, because you believe, and as I apparently have a cool head on my shoulders, he feels that together, we could offer invaluable assistance.”
“It’s interesting, don’t you think?” I asked him, smiling. “A Catholic priest wants a gay couple along on an outing to a supposedly haunted cemetery. That’s really something.”
“It’s something all right.”
“Well, JJ had a sleepover last night, and they could see the graveyard from where they were, and they said they saw lots of lights out there. I bet those belonged to the paranormal investigators.”
“So they were in the graveyard fucking around. That’s fantastic.”
“Don’t be so grouchy.”
He scoffed.
“So we’re going to a cemetery tonight.”
“I am. I can talk to Father Dennis and help do whatever, but I think you should—”
“No.”
“Xander,” he warned me, his voice dropping low.
“As if I would let you go alone.”
“And of course it has to be done when it’s dark because no one can ever check out anything creepy during the day,” he said, changing the subject.
I grinned at him.
“What?” he said, around a mouthful of muffin.
“You sound very cranky there, Chief MacBain.”
“It’s Saturday evening. I should be getting ready to barbecue.”
I sighed as he got up and walked over, taking a seat beside me. We sat there, quietly, shoulder to shoulder, neither of us saying a word.
“Short of tying you up, I don’t suppose you’d stay home.”
“You suppose right,” I confirmed, smiling at him. “And you tying me up would excite me so—then you’d have to stay too.”
“It would ease my mind to know you’re safe here.”
“Well, then call Father Dennis and let him know we will not be his backup tonight, and that we really hope he doesn’t meet up with anything scary this evening.”
His exhale was long. We both knew we’d never do that to our favorite priest.
Each in our thoughts, time crawled by.
“I need you to be careful,” he finally said, putting his arm around me, pulling me close.
“Same goes for you.”
“Kathy’s family had her body picked up by the funeral parlor this afternoon. The service is going to be next week.”