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She clapped her hands, “Oh, yes! We’ll do it just after the Ferris Wheel, and then Remy can take me through the Haunted Fun House. I’m going to stop the ride long enough to feed from him inside the spinning tunnel.”

Dev couldn’t help but smile, hearing the excitement in Brooke’s voice. She truly loved this night, and her coterie did everything possible to make it the best night of the year for her. Christmas morning, which started around two in the morning and lasted until just before sunrise, was also over-the-top with gifts and vampire feedings, but he was certainthisnight was her favorite.

The carnival opened the Friday night after Thanksgiving and was a big moneymaker for the coterie, but it was closed to the public for one night, most often the Wednesday or Thursday before Christmas, so Brooke could throw a big Christmas party for all her friends and allies. He was happy it’d fallen on a Thursday this year, so Genie could come.

Like Brooke, Dev took great pleasure in watching the twins experience things for the first time. Funnel cake, cotton candy, kettle corn, caramel apples, fried pickles, corn dogs. And, because it was a Christmas carnival, there was also chocolate covered soft peppermint, hot chocolate with mint stirrers andtopped with lots of baby marshmallows, and spiced apple cider, which was one of the treats a human from the flock would drink on an empty stomach before Brooke drank from her.

Two hours in, and Dev sat with Brooke and Kendric, the Master of Florida, while Genie rode the Ferris wheel for the umpteenth time with both cats. “You can’t really tame a feral cat,” Kendric noted, and the lioness beside him muttered, “Damned straight you can’t.”

“It’s more about figuring out what makes them tick, and then providing it and withdrawing it to try to bring about the desired behavior. In my case, it meant giving my lioness people to torture, and very specific rules about how it could be done, and when. I feel certain that isn’t what your cats will most desire.”

“Thankfully, no. I’ve trained cats before, but I believe you’re right about theferalpart of it. Also, one is a little more wild than the other, which I hadn’t expected, though I suppose I should’ve.”

Julien stepped towards them and told Dev, “Miss Brooke arranged for a meeting with Genie and the Chattanooga bikers, and it’s scheduled to happen in another twenty minutes. They wanted time alone with her, and then they want to meet her three men.”

Dev had told Brooke about the bikers’ request, but he hadn’t heard anything about it since. He wanted to protest that she hadn’t kept him in the loop, but he wouldn’t burden Brooke with it on this night. She was having too much fun, sitting in Kendric’s lap, talking to the lioness and the vampire who used to be known as Caligula.

And Dev had first-hand knowledge that this particular lioness had been impossible to tame. Remy had managed to get her attention with a long-term punishment, but Dev had a feeling it’d only worked because of whatever had happened in Florida before she’d been sent to them.

She’d gained her freedom though, with a test from the Amakhosi that even the Concilio couldn’t argue with.

“Thanks, Julien. Please take me to them as soon as your instructions will allow.”

“Of course.” He turned to Brooke. “Miss Brooke, your apple cider treat is ready for you and Master Kendric to sup upon. You mustn’t enjoy her here, out in the open. She’s in the RV. Would you like to go to her there, or have her taken to one of the rides with an interior?”

“Oh, we’ll go to her. She’s human and she gets cold so easily.” She kissed Kendric’s cheek. “Come. They’ll have her under a heated blanket. She’s going to be sooo yummy.”

Kendric kissed his lioness’s cheek and let the diminutive vampire lead him away, and Dev told the lioness, “It’s good to see you happy, Becca.”

“It’s good to be happy, but I think I can say the same about you. You’ve fallen for your owl and the two cats?”

“We haven’t found our happily ever after just yet, but I think — Ihope— we’re well on the way.”

* * * *

Genie loved riding the Ferris wheel with the twins, and even after what had to be their twentieth time around, the newness hadn’t worn off. The cats kept spotting things in the distance, and watching the people below, and doing experiments that involved jumping up in their seats while it went up, and then while it went down.

Brooke had given the guy running it instructions that they could ride until they were finished, and not to order or even ask them to get off, so Genie was surprised when the chair stopped in the place for them to exit the ride.

“Genie, if you can come with me?” Remy said. “The cats can stay on, I just need you, please.”

“We’ll come with her,” Ezra said. “You look terribly serious.”

“You can’t come with her for this,” Remy told them. “I promise I will watch over her, though I do not believe she needs me to.”

Genie figured it probably had something to do with the bikers. She’d seen Duke and Gonzo’s wives and kids on the reindeer ride, and she’d seen Brain, Horse, and Razor with their respective spouses coming out of the mirror maze as the Ferris wheel was coming down about five minutes earlier.

She was taken to the ‘party’ building, where people could rent space to host corporate or family parties during the month of December. It had trees and garland and lights andscreamedcommercial Christmas, and yet, it didn’t feel as forced as such things usually do.

As she’d expected, Duke, Brain, Dawg, Bash, Gonzo, Horse, Razor, McGyver, and Bubbles were in the room — and none of their girlfriends or wives were there.

Dawg stepped forward and hugged her, and then turned towards the rest of them with his arm around her. She’d felt, just for a second, like it was her against the bikers, and she hadn’t liked the feeling.

“We’re all friends, our little magical Genie,” Dawg told her.

“Frost seems to think you’ve fallen for a snake and two cats,” Brain said. “We wanted to check up on you. Everything good?”

“It is. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but things have moved really fast.”