Page 74

It turned out, Dev knew how to waltz as well, and he danced her around the living room a few times before he sat with her on what she thought of as the throne chair, it was so big, but it fit Dev’s height and size. She’d sat in it once and felt like a child, so she’d curled up and read on the loveseat instead.

She was happy sitting in Dev’s lap, however.

“We’ll start with Elijah, which doesn’t mean he gets to open his gifts first,” Dev said. “It means he gets to hand his gifts out first. The dominant order here is Me, then Genie, then Ezra, and then Elijah.”

Genie thought for a moment that Ezra was going to argue, but he seemed to change his mind, and he told his brother, “I think that means you give Dev his gift first.”

“Exactly right,” Dev said.

Elijah walked to them with a large box, the kind where the lid has been wrapped, so you don’t have to unwrap the present to open the lid. Genie got out of Dev’s lap, and Elijah put the box on the larger man’s thighs.

Dev lifted the lid and grinned, there were a bunch of wrapped presents inside, all of which would need to be unwrapped. LittleFerocious had climbed up the chair and was perched on the arm, and he leaned forward to look into the box as well.

The first present was clove body oil in a pretty little bottle, and Dev opened it and smelled. Genie was close enough to pick up the scent — subtle and perfect. The label was a black painted square with white paint for the letters, so it looked like white chalk on a chalkboard, and it was a unique look. The next was patchouli soap, then a patchouli candle, a clove candle, and coconut oil with cardamom. All were attractively presented and labeled with the faux chalk look, and Genie could tell Elijah had put a lot of time and thought into his gift.

“Thank you, Elijah,” Dev told the other man. “I can’t wait to use all of them. Is there a story behind how you learned to do this?”

Elijah looked at Ezra a second and then back to Dev. “We were sent to be pleasure slaves for six weeks to this vampire who had this psychic schtick thing. People came to him for psychic readings, and since he could see into their heads, he could know stuff about them they’d never told anyone. He made a lot of money from that, but he also sold candles, soaps, and body oils, for which he charged a small fortune, but he’d tell people a certain herb or spice or scent would clear out their aura, and they’d buy his overpriced products. The vampire’s flock made the products, and Ezra and I had to help while we were there and weren’t otherwise being utilized.”

Dev pulled Elijah into a hug. “Thank you, again. I’m touched.”

Genie sat on the sofa and accepted a beautifully wrapped Christmas box from Elijah. Ferocious had been on the floor, playing with the discarded wrapping paper, and he climbed up on the sofa with her, curious about the box. She opened the top and pulled out an attractive square-shaped basket withindividual presents inside it. Whatever Elijah had gotten her, she’d be able to store and display it in the basket, probably.

The first thing she opened was a salt scrub with mint, in a base of coconut and olive oil, and it smelled heavenly. She gave the wrapping paper to Ferocious, who proceeded to bat it off the chair and then pounce on it and attempt to rip it into smaller pieces.

Next was a sugar scrub with vanilla, and a note with a promise to give her a full body scrub. She unwrapped a large, beautiful glass jar of body oil made up of coconut oil and vanilla. Also, a small little tin of lip balm with coconut oil, beeswax, aloe, and peppermint oil. There was a foot soak with Epsom salts and what looked like tiny pieces of dried mint, ready to go into hot water. And three large, matching jars of bath salts, all with a base of Epsom salts — one with mint, one with patchouli, and one with lavender. Later, she found out the mint and lavender came from the coterie’s gardens.

“Where did you find these beautiful jars?” she asked.

“The cook at the main coterie house saves unique bottles and jars — washes them and puts them away so he has them to bottle the things he makes. Things like vinegar made from various fruits, the house salad dressing he prefers, and lots of things I had no idea he made himself rather than buying from the store. Brooke worked it out so I could barter with him for what I needed. She also mediated my negotiation with the cook here, so I could use the kitchen with his supervision, and have access to the ingredients I needed out of the pantry.”

Dev pulled Elijah into another hug. “I know a few things about our cantankerous old cook. You truly went above and beyond.”

Genie started to ask, but Dev gave her a look that told her not to, and he telepathed,Not now. I’ll explain later.

Elijah handed Ezra a letter, and Ezra opened it, read it, put it back into the red and white envelope, and hugged his brother without saying anything.

Do you know what was in the letter?Genie asked Dev.

I think I’ll ask Brooke later, rather than intrude upon something that feels private.

* * * *

Ezra knew Dev and Genie would want to know what the letter said, but he didn’t want to share it. For the first time ever, his brother was acknowledging that the two of them were different, and he was promising to do his best not to mess up the chance they were being given. Personal freedom didn’t mean terribly much to Elijah, but Ezra desperately wanted the autonomy of freedom, and his brother was promising to do his best to see to it Ezra managed to win the right to self-govern himself, even if Elijah decided it wasn’t for him.

If Dev had asked what it said, he’d have handed him the letter to read, but he did not, so Ezra set it to the side, walked to the tree, and lifted the pretty Christmas bag he’d found in the craft area.

He’d also used knowledge he’d gained from living with the ‘psychic’ vampire, but he’d gone a completely different route, thankfully. He hadn’t packaged his products anywhere near as beautifully as his brother, though. His gifts were more uniform, all the same, with typed and printed labels glued on, and then painted with clear sealant so water wouldn’t wash the ink away.

Dev opened the bottles one at a time. Sriracha salt, which had been a pain in the ass to make, but would probably be Dev’s favorite. There was a Tuscan herb salt, with sea salt, rosemary, thyme, lemon zest, minced dried onion bits, and chili flakes. The recipe had called for garlic, but he’d skipped that because most of the vampires disliked garlic in their dinner. He’d also madecardamom salt, and cumin salt, and another that had been a pain in the ass to make — bacon bourbon salt. He’d soaked the salt in bourbon for a day and then put it into the oven to dry while he fried the bacon, minced it up into tiny salt-sized pieces, and then put it all together.

Dev looked happy while he opened them, and then he pulled Ezra into his lap and held him a few seconds before saying, “Thank you, Ezra. You and your brother have given me true gifts —carefully thought out, and I have no idea when either of you managed the time to do this without me knowing.”

“Mostly while you were at Genie’s apartment,” Elijah said from his spot on the floor, moving bits of wrapping paper around to give Ferocious more reasons to pounce and play. “The hardest part was keeping Ezra from knowing, because Brooke told us we couldn’t let each other know what we were getting the two of you, or each other.”

Ezra took another bag to Genie, and she opened hers with lots of little cheers and ah’s and oh’s. He’d given her flavored salts as well — lavender salt, rose salt, and lemon salt. Mostly though, he’d made sugars for her — a cinnamon mix, a mint one he’d had to work hard to find the right balance on, and then vanilla. She opened them all and tasted them, and said she couldn’t wait to use the lemon salt on a nice piece of sea bass. She also wanted some hot chocolate as soon as they were done, so she could put the mint sugar in it.

And then came the difficult gift, because he didn’t think it equaled the letter at all, but it was what he had, so he had to give it over.