Page 126 of Dark Souls

“A where-wolf, obviously!”

A giggle escaped as I shook my head at his awful humour; then I heard Leif in the background. “I am still wondering where the hell I got the funny gene from in this family because you just sucked the life out of me with that travesty.”

“Ha, that’s a good one!” Grandpapi laughed. “Because I’m a vampire. I sucked the life out of you!”

“Oh, Christ. You are both as bad as each other,” I added, feeling a little better now I heard first-hand evidence my brother was alive. “Oi, fuckface. Just planning on ignoring my calls all day?”

“When you call me before the ungodly hour of 9 AM on repeat, why yes, twatface, I will.”

“Have fun being babysat by Grandpapi and forced to teach snotty-nosed, mediocre witches how to make a candle flame flicker,” I teased, my smile beaming at how easy it was to fall into banter with him. He was going to be fine.

“Oh, it will be the highlight of my year. Have fun doing… wait, who is it again? GI Joe? Reggie?”

“What?” Grandpapi snapped, and I dropped my head in my hands.

“Nothing, Papi. Leif is just being Leif.”

“Roger? Rufus? No, wait, I’ve got it. It’s Randy.”

“Who?” Grandpapi hissed.

“Oh, come on, Papi! You’ve met Randy! Big skinhead agent who’s all heart eyes over your little princess.”

“Leif! Shut it!” I groaned as I heard him suppressing his laughter, knowing exactly how to wind both me and our grandpapi up. “He knows full well his name is Ronnie, and I am not doing anything with him. I have to go.”

“Sure, sure. Places to be. People to do…or you could tell us what you’re really up to, sis? I’d happily share the limelight with you.” Leif just had to add gasoline to the flame he’d lit.

“I’m going now. Bye.”

“Love ya! Send my kindest regards to Randy,” Leif shouted as my grandpapi exhaled loudly.

“Bye, Princess. Are you coming for dinner tomorrow night? I’d like to see you.”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll be there.”

I hung up the phone, leaned back in the solid oak desk chair and threw my head back to stare at the ceiling. Heaven forbid, I loved my family, but they were bloody exhausting.

“Everything alright?”

Luka was standing in the door frame, staring at me with an unreadable expression. However, it wasn’t his impassive mask that made me lose my train of thought but the mouth-watering sight of his naked, defined torso and that very, very deep V that was dipping into a pair of ripped jeans.

“Was that Arius? How did it go?” he asked, causing my eyes to slowly rake back up to his alluring face, which was just as hard to resist. He was so sinfully delicious. I was finding it hard to concentrate whenever he was around, which was why I had forbidden him from the library when I was trying to research as much as possible over the last two days.

“It was.” I swallowed the saliva that had formed in my mouth instead of drooling like a dog in heat. “Good. I think. He said he’d handle the families. He asked if the families could have the bodies back for closure, but I said you had already burned them. I hope you don’t mind me telling him that.”

“How do you know that they were burned?” He cocked his head to the side.

“Heathen. And the gigantic pile of bodies in the back garden. It wasn’t hard to work out,” I answered, and his jaw twitched before he nodded once, glancing away. He pushed his hands off the doorframe and walked into the library, flopping down onto the sofa in front of the unlit fireplace. “So, you won’t be meeting the family in a pair of magical handcuffs on trial after all.”

“Shame.” He smirked, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head, giving me another spectacular view of his body. I couldn’t help but feast on his rock-hard abs, broad chest and ink-covered biceps. Normally, I was a very focused person when I had a task to complete, but I’d clearly discovered my biggest distraction.

“We’re going to have to come up with some rules if you keep popping up looking like that when I am trying to research.”

“What kind of rules?” He arched his eyebrow, the silver bar through it catching the sunlight streaming through the window.

“The kind where you wear a shirt to start.”

He licked his lips seductively, staring at me from across the room, which only sent my body temperature sky-high as I groaned.