Page 245 of Dark Souls

“Surely, you can just click your fingers and put on some clothes, Leif?” Alina asked.

“Why would I? I think this is an improvement. It’s rather liberating actually,” Leif said before stuffing a vegetable in his mouth. “Might try a different colour every day of the week.”

“Oh goddess,” Raiden groaned. “You’ve just given him the perfect excuse to let his nudist nature out.”

“I have to ask,” Sienna waved her fork towards him. “Why blue?”

Leif shrugged. “It’s my favourite colour. And I’ve had blue fucking balls recently so seemed fitting.” He nudged Zoran, who glared at him, and Leif gave him an amused smirk. Apparently, their night out hadn’t been that successful on the ladies’ front, though neither of them would go into details.

When the meal was finished, Ezra stood up at the head of the table, clearly trying to avoid looking at Leif as he started his speech, “I just wanted to take a minute before the chaos of family night ensues and officially welcome Luka, Hana and Zoran to the family. Ronnie, you seemed to wangle your way in too. Well done.” We all laughed when Ronnie stood up and took a bow. “We also need to say good luck and farewell to my blue son, Leif, who is leaving us to head back to his planet tonight.” That earned another laugh as Leif shook his head with a smirk. “Hopefully he will shower beforehand but knowing him, this is the perfect way to make an entrance into his new coven. Blue or not, we are so proud of you and clearly it is not going to be the same around here without you. Not only will there be less laughter but we are going to miss you more than you know.”.

“Oh please, stop with the dramatics, Dad. You’ve literally forced me to sign a contract that states I will come to every Friday family night, which you do realise will mean I have to travel between realms every few days in Heroux.” Leif smirked, folding his arms across his chest. “You’ll see me more than you do now.”

“Shh, you are ruining my speech.” Ezra frowned, glaring at him. “To new adventures!” He raised his beer in the air and we all joined him in his toast.

My eyes met Zoran’s across the table and he reluctantly joined in late by lifting his beer an inch off the table under my warning glare. He was still struggling to adjust to being a part of this very loud and proud family and I couldn’t blame him. As lovely as they were, they were a lot. There were so many names, so many relatives and family friends that all seemed to want to know everything there was to know about us. Zoran and I were not the most social of creatures. Hana, on the other hand, was thriving.

As everyone stood up to leave the table, I stayed seated with Zoran, Leif and Lorcan as we finished our drinks. I watched Hana giggling with Ilaria and Sienna in the corner of the room as they showed her how to use her new phone. They were now snapping pictures of the three of them and my heart expanded at how happy she was.

“You should get a phone,” I said to Zoran. Of course, as predicted, his response was a grunt of disagreement. “Since you aren’t planning on sticking around and you refuse to let me come with you to hunt this witch, then at least learn how to make a phone call.”

“Yes, time to get your head in the future, Z-dog. If not for that reason then just so I can send you inappropriate memes,” Leif added with a smirk, lifting his beer to his blue lips.

Turning his head to scowl at Leif, who was sitting beside him, he growled, “Do you really expect me to take anything you say seriously looking like that? And what the fuck are memes? Actually, keep your memes. Sounds like something sexual.”

Leif scoffed and slammed his hand on Zoran’s shoulder, leaving a blue handprint that Zoran glared at. “Mate, I’ve just realised that you would’ve never experienced porn. Oh, this is going to be so much fun. Yes, that’s our next bro night planned.”

“Porn?” Zoran frowned. “And what does that entail? You’re not going to make me do those miniature drinks again?”

I chuckled behind my beer as Leif slammed his hands over his face and threw his head back in joyous disbelief. Whatever had happened between them on their night out had bonded them and Zoran seemed more comfortable around Leif than anyone else in the family. Leif really had broken down Zoran’s steel walls, and even though they refused to discuss the events of the night, I could tell Zoran had made his first friend for life. And they couldn’t have been more polar opposites if they tried. It was rather amusing.

“Imagine a brothel but you’re only there to watch. But instead of watching in person, you’re watching on a screen.” I explained in the only way I knew Zoran would remotely understand.

His eyes narrowed and that confused frown was back on his face in an instant. “That sounds unpleasant. What the fuck is fun about that?”

“It’s not but it has a purpose,” Lorcan added. “Though the real thing is much better.”

“Well, I’m only thinking of your own needs, especially after—” Zoran’s huge hand slammed over Leif’s mouth, knocking him backwards off his chair. Leif quickly stood up, laughing his fucking head off as I looked between the pair of them with suspicion.

“Especially after what?” I questioned and Zoran’s fierce gaze snapped to me before he lowered it to his beer bottle.

“Nothing.”

Leif sat back down and shook his head, refusing to say anything more about it as well. Weird. I let it go and leaned back in my chair. The tension in my shoulders was tight and I tried rolling my neck to release the ache of my muscles, but it didn’t help.

We’d spent the entire day searching for our father’s bones at Belladonna and Mitchell’s house, and even the surrounding woods of the Knowlton manor. Ilaria’s family had helped, some of them using magic to locate them, others using their wolf’s sensitivity to smell, but we’d still had no luck. Zoran had suggested that the three of us go back to Serbia tomorrow to look there. To the cottage or whatever was left of it. The idea was the best we had but it still caused a bubble of anxiety and dread to poison my veins. I hadn’t been back there since Mama made me go to search for his bones a few days after the attack. It had been hard enough then. The pain was still so raw, and I knew it was going to be a tough day.

As though he could read my body language because it matched his own, Zoran glanced up at me and said in his deep drawl, “We’ll fly in demon form tomorrow. Transport ourselves most of the way.”

I nodded in silence, taking another swig of my beer. Leif only added to the tension by reaching for a brown envelope that was sitting on top of his suitcase. He placed it on the table in front of Zoran. We all eyed it cautiously until Leif spoke again.

“A farewell present. It worked.” My eyes darted between my brother and Leif. Zoran’s head whipped around to stare at Leif with disbelief as the warlock gave him a cheeky smirk. “Go on. Tell me how much you love me.”

Zoran grabbed the envelope, his hands trembling slightly, but stopped himself at the last moment from ripping it open.

“You found the witch?” I asked, slamming my beer down on the table, which gained the attention of everyone in the room. They all huddled over in shock as Leif casually shrugged his shoulders.

“You doubted me? Of course I did. Well, I found her location. I was able to extract the essence of her magic from Zoran’s blood and, using a newly invented spell by yours truly, I could create a chasm of her energy in a crystal. The next time she used her magic, the crystal would vibrate and I would be able to smash the stone to pieces on a map and they would gravitate to the location of her magic. Neat, huh?”