Page 55 of Made

“You know as well as I that she’d object to being referred to as ‘poor Esme’.”

“Indeed. We’re all fond of her eccentricities.”

Kagan, who apparently could hear both sides of the conversation without benefit of amplification, stopped his pacing to say, “What eccentricities?”

No one bothered to answer. I’m sure our silent, but collective response was to think that love trulyisblind. At least that answered my question about Keir hearing both sides of a cell phone convo.

While I still had Lochlan on the phone, I said, “Just on the off chance that he’s available and wants to get in touch… I’m still at John David’s.”

“Well. Let’s manage expectations,” Lochlan cautioned.

“Yes. Right. Well. Before you go, any other suggestions? We’re brainstorming.”

We hadn’t really been brainstorming, but I’d been about to suggest it.

“If I think of something else…”

“Thanks, Lochlan.” I was about to end the call, but… “WAIT!”

“Yes?”

“The people who took her… I know I don’t have much in the way of description, but bald, saffron-wearing women is somewhat descriptive. Ring any bells?” He didn’t answer immediately. “Anything at all?”

“I may’ve encountered a tale or two about something similar, but I wouldn’t venture to speculate at the moment.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but my phone was snatched out of my hand. By Kagan.

“What do you know?” He demanded of Lochlan.

I watched as my phone was, in turn, snatched out of Kagan’s hand by Keir. “Sorry, old man. My brother is especially fond of Esmerelda and not himself.”

When Kagan attempted to reclaim my phone, the two sephalia quickly shed all semblance of civility. Within seconds, they’d taken to the ground and ended up wrestling on John David’s priceless Venetian carpet like kids. In the midst of that spectacle, Keir managed to toss the phone in my direction. Thankfully, the reflexes developed playing junior high softball kicked in, and I caught it.

“Lochlan?”

“Yes.”

“Let us know if you feel moved to speculate. Meanwhile, I’ll let you get on with running Max down.”

“You know you really shouldn’t refer to the Bureau’s lead counsel so casually. People might suspect bias.”

“You’re right. Not the best time for lectures though.”

“Right you are. Goodbye.”

“Bye.”

Even though I’d taken possession of my phone and had no intention of relinquishing it anytime soon, Keir and Kaganwere still wrestling on the floor. There’s no sugarcoating the fact that both of them had sacrificed all semblance of dignity. Still, I suspected that Keir was using the opportunity for Kagan to vent physically. Though it might not appear so at the moment, Keir is one smart sephalian.

Nodding his head toward the best two out of three falls taking place at our feet, Diarmuid said, “Do you want me to, em…?”

Glancing down at the pair of wrestlers, my eyes flew wide in horror when I happened to catch Kagan trying to take a bite out of Keir’s thigh. I bit my tongue, but wanted to say out loud what I was thinking which was,Stop that! I need that thigh in working condition!

Desperately hoping nobody saw that but me, I shook my head in reply to Diarmuid. I won the son-in-law lottery when I got Diarmuid. He really was a great guy who, thankfully, gotallhis genes from his father. Though he was the mighty king of Irish fae, he was no match for a sephalian. Much less two. His mother had designed them to be practically invincible.

“Thanks, Diarmuid. But no. Let’s give the children time to work off some excess energy.” I’d like to think that if Keir and Kagan could see themselves objectively they’d be mortified. But I feared not.

Diarmuid shrugged, then chugged his coffee heroically. To watch, no one would guess it was ninety percent sugar and ten percent java.