Still of Night (Thorne Hill 4)

“Stupid creepy dream.”

“It’s better than taking to Lucifer in your dreams.”

“Hey, that hasn’t happened in a while.” Since Michael blessed me at the wedding two months ago, things have been blissfully calm and quiet with only one run in with lower-level demons at the vineyard.

“I’m gonna go back to sleep,” I tell Lucas. The sun will be up soon, and I need to go grocery shopping, stop in at Novel Grounds, and take Scarlet for a quick run before driving to Chicago to meet Abby at the Museum of Science and Industry this afternoon.

Lucas and I snuggle back up together, and under the heat of the electric blanket, I drift to sleep quickly, not waking until my alarm goes off in the morning.

Lucas is still fast asleep when I get up, laying perfectly still and not breathing. If he wasn’t so beautiful, he’d look legitimately dead. I pull the electric blanket up to his waist, making sure he’s warm, and then grab my clothes. All of my familiars and Scarlet are still asleep.

I dash into the bathroom to get dressed and put on just enough makeup to look put together. Then I head downstairs and make coffee and eat a Pop-Tart for breakfast. I cleared out the fridge before we left for our two-week stay in Napa, and even though I have stuff stuff in the pantry, there’s nothing appetizing.

Knowing Kristy is working this morning, I’ll pick up donuts on the way in. I go outside with my coffee, but have to head back in and get a blanket. It’s mid-September, and fall will be here before we know it. We’ll get a few random warm days in October, and even the first week or so of November can be nice.

Though it can also be sub-zero.

The Midwest is rather unpredictable like that, but having lived in the region my entire life, I’m used to it. I quickly finish my coffee, needing to get to the grocery store right as it opens at nine if I want to have time to do everything this morning.

The house is quiet, beside Scarlet, who’s chewing on a bully-stick on the couch. My familiars head out to hunt, and to avoid the annoyingly cute and attention-demanding hellhound in a puppy suit.

I tiptoe upstairs to say goodbye to Lucas. He’ll meet me in Chicago later, once it’s dark enough for him to travel.

“You still asleep?” I whisper, slipping back into the room. Though the windows are treated with magic, preventing the harmful rays of the sun from burning Lucas, he prefers to sleep in the dark, like he’s been used to for over a thousand years.

Lucas doesn’t answer, so assuming he’s asleep, I tiptoe in to give him a kiss. I rest my hand on Lucas’s chest. The blankets aren’t covering him here, yet this skin almost feels warm.

Weird.

It has to be from the heated blanket, right? I kiss him goodbye and then get in the Jeep, only to remember I forgot my reusable shopping bags and have to go back in to get them. I arrive at the grocery store five minutes before they open, and feel like a loser as I wait in the parking lot with a handful of old ladies who were probably up at dawn and here over half an hour ago.

But, getting here early helps me get in and out fast, and only half an hour late, I’m heading towards home again. The house is still quiet a I unload the groceries. Sleeping all day isn’t uncommon for vampires. Unless they stay inside and out of the light, there isn’t much they can do.

“Hey, Scarlet,” I call, patting my leg. She’s been “helping” me put stuff away by pulling anything she can from the shopping bags. “Want to go for a ride?”

She gets all excited and runs to the door, sitting patiently and waiting for her leash. As a hell hound, she has similar intelligence to my familiars. Similar. She’s not quiet on their level, and she can’t talk to me, yet she understands what I’m saying for the most part. Probably because I don’t speak to her in English.

But when she’s in her puppy-form, she takes on the mentality of one. When I astral project myself back to Hell in my dreams, I’ll ask Uncle Lucy if he can adjust the collar or something.

I put a towel over my leather seat and tie her leash around the headrest in the Jeep to keep her from jumping around while we drive to the bookstore. Kristy should have just arrived to open up for the day.

We’ve seen each other almost every day since we were ten. It’s weird to go two weeks without seeing her face, though it has to be even weirder for Eliza and Lucas.

He told me it was the longest they’ve been apart since he made her over three hundred years ago. Two weeks is nothing in “vampire time” but when you’re used to seeing someone that much…they have to miss each other.

I get coffee from Curlew’s, and bring Scarlet in with me. Everyone gushes all over her, and I can’t help but laugh. If only they knew the truth…

Kristy is click on the open sign when I cross the street. She sees me, calls to someone over her shoulder, and comes running out. She hugs me so tight I almost drop the coffee.

“Callie!”

“I missed you too,” I laugh as Scarlet jumps up like crazy.

“She hasn’t gotten any bigger, not that I expected her to, but in two weeks, puppies grow. Do you think she’ll always be a puppy?”

“I think so. The collar is a glamour. I have no idea how old she actually is, but since Lucifer told me she was one of his favorite hounds, I’m guessing she’s at least a century.”

“Shit, this is so weird.” Kristy takes both coffees and goes back into the store. Betty is in there, and beams when she sees me. The last time I had a chance to talk to her, besides briefly at my reception, I told her Kristy and I were witches, and because of that, I was able to scry for Danielle.

“Hey, Callie! How as your honeymoon?”

“Wonderful,” I say with a smile. “It was so nice to get away, drink wine all day, and have no responsibilities.”

“That sounds so nice!” Her eyes go to Scarlet. “And you got a puppy? She’s so cute!”

“Thanks. This is Scarlet. Lucas surprised me with her.” The lie rolls off my tongue way too easily, though what the hell else am I supposed to say? I drop the leash and my killer, murderous hell hound hops over to Betty, rolling over for a belly rub.

Kristy was right: this is so fucking weird.

“So, everything was fine?” Kristy asks, and I know it’s a loaded question.

“Yes,” I press. “The vineyard had a slight infestation issues, but between Scarlet, my cats, and I, we handled those vermin just fine.” I let out a sigh. “But now I’m back to reality and back to figuring out my other rodent issues…” You know, the one where someone has put a hit out on my head and the fact that the Grand Coven now knows I’ve petitioned to leave the coven.

“Well, you know I’m here to help you. We all are.”

“Thank you.”

I spent about twenty minutes at the store, catching up and sharing vacation photos. Then I take Scarlet an hurry home. Lucas is just getting up when I get back, and tries to get me up into bed with him.

As if we didn’t have enough sex on our honeymoon. I’m officially running late, so we settle for a quickie on the living room floor.

Then I speed the whole way to Chicago, well, until I get stuck in traffic. But I make it there only twenty minutes after I’d hoped.

Abby hugs me as soon as she sees me. “You’re so tan!”

“I spent a lot of my days laying out drinking.” I put my hand on my side. “I think my poor liver is still tired.”

Abby laughs. “I’d lay out and drink all day at my vineyard too.”

“It’s beautiful there. I think later this winter, when we’re all sick of the cold here, we should take a girls’ trip for a weekend.”

“Ohhh, I’d love that.”

“Then let’s do it.”

“Deal.”

I take Penny from her arms, hugging the cutest little flower girl in the world.

“Want to see the dollhouse first?” I ask.

“That was always my favorite thing when I was a kid,” Abby says as we make a beeline for it. “I still want a giant dollhouse like this.”

I laugh. “If you had a doll house like this, I’d come over and play.”

“That give me ideas,” Abby says and looks at Penny. “We just have to get her to be really into dolls.”

We shuffle along the display, pointing out which room would be ours if it were real. Penny starts to get a little bored, so we move onto the kiddie section.

“What are you guys doing tonight?” Abby asks as we watch Penny run around. “Lucas is meeting you here later, right?”

“Yeah. We don’t really have plans. Just hang out with Eliza for a while and then they are going to do something together. I’ll go back to the house on North Orchard, which Eliza has taken over now. I just started a new romance series and I’m excited to keep reading. So that’s my wild night.”