“He’ll be at your center within a month. It may take a bit for him to travel to the country, but he’ll make the trip.”
Leonardo walked back away from Val and put his hand on my shoulder.
“I…” he started, as though having an emotional moment. “At ease, soldier,” he said, apparently trying to mask his worry under his commander’s voice.
I nodded and went over to Angela’s car. While the others would be loaded onto buses and most likely head to hotels, our group honestly liked the idea of heading to David’s house for some vacation time. It didn’t have a pool, but that was fine. It’d just be us relaxing together.
The fit was fairly tight. Gavin sat in front, Lorenz was in the trunk, David and Silvia were beside me. Genki was laid over all three of us.
“Are we forgetting someone?” I asked, lifting my head. “Oh god, where’s Amelia?”
“And Melisa?” David asked, with the return of his smug smile.
“Right, yeah,” I said as we shuffled out to go search for them.
“Amelia? Melisa? The fighting is over!” I said, once inside the building.
Amelia popped out. “Oh, thank god.” She was fully an adult, which struck me as odd. Then again, they went in and got everyone so maybe not.
“Were you hiding for two days?” I asked.
“Well, not exactly, the angry-looking lady came in and was like, ‘I can see you, don’t think your fake tricks will work on me’, and I’m like, ‘I’m not trying to trick you, I surrender. So they took me to the blue man group now with fifty percent more yellow and I became a kid.”
“Okay, how exactly are you an adult then?”
“Oh, well, the woman came back all cold and the guy was, like, does anyone know how to deal with such extreme cold? And I’m like, I’m a biologist, I at least understand the basics behind hypothermia and how to deal with it. The others were all mean and didn’t want to do anything.”
“That would be the woman that nearly killed me,” I said, folding my arms.
“Well, he did say that if he didn’t get an answer, he’d start to kill them so…”
“Fair, enough,” I said, returning my posture to neutral.
“I actually really wanted to see how elves worked and the dragons, and unfortunately I couldn’t really get my ultrasound stuff out so I did my best with poking and prodding them. The unfortunate part was you can’t really tell if that’s a lung or something else…”
“So for medical services he agreed not to kill anyone? And you got to biologist up?”
“Well, I did mention that the leading cause of death at old age isn’t actually the age and that with enough study I might be able to make his elves store more. His words, not really mine.”
I patted her side and walked out of the manor. “Miriam was in the room with Melisa. She must have been one of the first to be restored, right? Where is she?”
“R-right here,” Melisa said, suddenly behind me.
“Gah! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I turned to her.
She wore the weight of being a kid trapped in a house in shackles on her face pretty heavily. I put my arm around her to comfort her.
“You did good, I knew I was right to leave that gun with you!” I said.
“M-miriam–” she started.
“Just take the compliment, and let’s head to David’s house.”
“David lives around here?” Amelia asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“His house, not his home,” I corrected.
“I think Fumnaya could probably hold someone while hanging onto the car.”
“Uh, I could probably ride in the trunk. That is how I got here,” Amelia said, rubbing the back of her head.
“Lorenz has the trunk,” I said.
We all headed to the car. Gavin had moved so Silvia could sit in his lap, and as suggested, the person who’d spent a lot of time holding onto a werewolf’s tail and floating grabbed onto the mirror on the driver’s side and floated.
Angela, like me, was a fairly safe driver, and it was through midday suburban streets, so it wasn’t like there was much of a problem. We were illusioned up so as not to appear to be carrying along the floating mage.
“Another adventure,” David started to say before yawning.
“I’m not entirely sure it’s done,” I said, thinking back to my conversation with Anderson.
“W-why’s that?” Melisa said, grimacing.
“I called Anderson the first night we were at David’s and while giving me some solid advice, there’s still one thing I haven’t used.”
“What did he say? Did he know this asshole was here?” David said, looking back from the front of the car, and squinting.
“He said guitars out of the blue, and I still don’t know what it means…”
David’s eyes lit up. “Wolf print guitars, that’s genius!” he said as a real smile slowly spread across his face.
Well, that solved that problem.
We got into the house, watching the forest fire get contained by the firefighters from the cozy home.
“This was an exhausting vacation,” I said, as everyone else flooded out of the car. “I say we have a nice siesta before lunch, and we could really use some burgers and hotdogs and… I don’t know if I’m feeling French fries.”
“You guys went last time, I guess I’ll go with Lorenz to pick stuff up,” David offered.
“When are we going to do the, uh…?” Gavin started.
“We should wait, Lorenz is a wolf.”
“I seem to recall that no one waited for me to regain my human form last time,” David said, folding his arms.
“Tonight, around my cake!” Silvia suggested, bouncing a little in place.
“Cake?” Fumnaya asked, tilting her head.
“Oh right, your– Oh shit…” David said, looking around. “Darn it, I forgot to order that thing.” David ran his hand through his hair.
“It’s okay, David, just pick something up while you get the frozen stuff. Now let’s get inside like E-lis said and start to forget this horrible few days.”
She smiled at me, and we all headed inside. I kinda felt like heading to the shower. Despite the makeup compact apparently eliminating sweat from my being, I still felt pretty dirty.
The shower was absolutely the best call, and as the cool waters rushed down, I felt much better. Silvia walked up like she’d done last time.
This time, though, I didn’t have literal sand and dirt to wash away so I was out and wrapped up in towels before she could get comfy on the bed.
“That was fast,” she said.
“When it’s just a bit of shampooing I’m pretty quick, remember Leonardo did make me roll around in mud last time.”
“Yeah, remind me to deck him for that,” Silvia said.
I sat down on the bed and leaned back, holding up the towel on my chest, sighing. It was so nice to have something soft to lay down on.
“Mind if I take a shower?” Silvia asked.
“It ain’t my room, go ahead!” I said, waving an arm towards the bathroom. Silvia started the water, and soon there was some steam coming out.
“After all that you’re having a hot shower?” I said.
I wanted to get up, but my entire body was demanding that I lay down and think about what I did.
“Yeah, I dunno,” Silvia said.
I breathed in slowly, wondering if I should go bug Gavin about the gifts we’d gotten her, or if staying where I was, was best. While I didn’t want to move, I felt like I should at least get dressed so I didn’t have to hold the towel up.
I sat up and my entire body groaned. None of my books ever talked about having a body just complain that you were in constant fights, so why did mine do this?
I got dressed, and laid back on the bed, letting a long breath escape out of me like I was a deflating air mattress.
“Alright, we’ll be back in a bit!” David called out from beneath the stairs.
The only thing I was w
orried about right now, despite Valkyrie going above Leonardo’s head, despite the work the witches had to put in, despite everything, I was more worried about the fire threatening to make me move.
I chuckled a bit. And that’s when Silvia exited the shower. Unlike me, who’d allowed myself some time in the towel, she’d dried off pretty quickly, and got her clothes back on.
She transformed and curled around me on the bed, yawning and placing her head down. Despite all the pain and the general lack of will to move, I lifted a hand up to the crest of her head and gently pat it.
This lasted for about an hour, at which point the cooling moisture on me was getting uncomfortable, so I went and got changed.
Silvia was still sleeping. I struggled to get downstairs to get something to eat. Once again, we’d gone from breakfast to battle and back again. I almost wondered if we had some medical kibble I could snack on.
Angela was sitting by the kitchen table, buttering a baguette. I squinted my eyes, no way that was part of the stuff we got before.
David wandered in with some bags and placed them on the table. “I gave them a ride. If I’m going to be heading out to the vacation destination, might as well enjoy it with you. Besides, you clearly need a witch to help you get your favourite things,” Angela said, smiling smugly as she pulled out several bags of medical kibble.
“You are a godsend,” I said.
“It’s my job to be,” she said, smiling. I waddled towards the chair and sat down.
David sat down with me as Angela set out a dog bowl for Lorenz.
“So, Angela, what kinda markets are good for a business?” David asked. “So, Fumnaya’s favourite, Lorenz, is out, who do you think she’s going to kiss?”
His sense of humour was there, but the energy with which he delivered his lines had evaporated. I put a handful of the medical kibble into my mouth and crushed it before turning towards him.
“Unlike Melisa, she’ll probably brave kissing the wolf…”
Gavin, bless his heart, was working on wrapping up the presents we’d gotten for Silvia, despite the fact that his arms were about to fall off. Even holding up the scissors caused him to spasm weakly.
“We also got the cake for tonight, and I’mma start cooking up the supper rush,” David said, putting the sheet cake down on the table.
It didn’t have any custom icing messages, but it was big and full of sugar that everyone was lacking.
“Alright, I think I’mma go lie back down and share some kibble with Silvia…”
“Sure you don’t wanna?” David pointed towards Angela.
“The future is not something I wanna think about right now. I said siesta and I meant it.”
It was a lazy few hours, but they felt so good after the worry and pain. What a vacation should have been. We were called down for food. There were steaks, sausages, some fresh Caesar salads, burgers, fries, medical kibble…
Everyone gathered around to eat together. The table didn’t quite have enough chairs, nor space, so David got some TV trays and set them up by the TV. He and Gavin even moved the table towards the area where the couch was set up so people could talk better.
“Alright, we’ll still be cooking some meat and veggies but right now it’s time for cake and the adventure ending kisses.”
Everyone turned to Angela, expecting her to be confused. “Oh, I know about them…” Her face formed a smug smile, which even she couldn’t seem to shake. “Go ahead.”
“Let’s start with blowing out the candles first,” I said, as I got out a store lighter and lit the eighteen candles.
“Alright then.” David was clearly getting antsy.
If we’d known he’d be this intense we might have waited for him to unwolf last time. I was pretty sure Lorenz was getting some action anyway, so I wasn’t about to change things up.
“Make sure to make a wish,” Gavin said, patting Silvia’s back.
She huffed and she puffed and she clearly used the lung capacity of her wolf side, because there’s no way anyone was getting all those candles in one go.
Everyone clapped, and David moved to the edge of the table.
“So, since last time you guys did the end of an adventure kissing without me, I think I deserve the first–”
David had been giving me the bedroom eyes, and fair enough, this was his house and he’d came in clutch for a few fights. I was willing to humour him on this one.
That was until Silvia’s body checked him out of the way.
Suddenly I found myself bent over backwards gazing up at the ceiling. Silvia moved her head forwards, closing her eyes and leaning into me with more force than I expected the small girl to be capable of.
She had dipped me down a bit too far, and the group, which had been expecting David to be the one to do something like this, stood looking shocked. Except for Angela, who was chuckling…
Gavin blinked in disbelief. David, for his part, didn’t seem disappointed that someone took his spot, nor his goal, but absolutely floored that this was happening.
Fumnaya’s mouth went limp, Melisa and Amelia started to smile and Genki backed away slowly.
“Sugoi!” Genki smiled.
And I… slowly accepted the kiss.
About the Author
Abigail smith is an avid fan of Urban fantasy, and the various ways it can be put into a story. This is the third installment of her flagship seris and she has indeed gone a bit silly with the topic.
If this is something you find freash or even just entertaining consider following the links below to get updated on the many other stories she plans to write in the comming years.
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Also by Abigail Smith
I’m branching out to have more stories in the urban fantasy genera! Check out this one coming soon at the time of publication! Expect at least one more series in this multiverse!
Ace Mystic
Another earth of the stray human’s world, Follow Ace as she has to find and stop a pair of other mystics from turning her city and country upside down in their quest for power.
Ace is a mystic and can find magical secrets and allies to summon by visiting other planes of existence using magical narcotics.
The Stray Dragon : (A collage age urban fantasy with werewolves werewolf community center book 3) Page 21
