Page 26 of Eat. Prey. Love. (Apex Academy Capers #5)

Since my twin got to sneak in time during her lunch on Tuesday, I cut loose as quickly as possible today so I can find her on library duty before anyone but the spicy salamander is home. Obviously, I can’t kick him out of his own library?—

Or can I? I am Fitz Khan, after all.

Grinning to myself as I imagine his rage when I tell him to scram, I almost skip to the Kavarit building we’re living in. Our reptilian friend is doing much better than he used to now that we all have our girl and he’s not hiding his skin slapping with the Frenchman. That doesn’t matter when it comes to his usual buttons, though, and winding him up is even more fun now that people try to calm him. In fact, it’s one of my favorite things that don’t involve death or my mates naked and wriggly.

“ Fitz Khan, this is your life ,” I boom to myself as I head for the back door of the huge building, chuckling at my own joke. “Man, that’s fucking classic. Too bad no one but me heard it. Wasteful.”

I hold my arm up to the sensor, hoping like hell the flaky gargoyle has finally got this shit on lockdown. Keeping tracking of the fucking card is going to make me insane if he doesn’t get it working— Oh. There it is. Hell yeah. I grab the handle and head inside, waiting until it closes completely before I stride toward the library.

Safety first, baby.

The suite is quiet, so I know no one but our girl and the winged weenie is home. Chessie will get home next, probably, and start a ridiculously tasty smelling dinner that everyone will inhale as if we haven’t eaten in a year. Between him and the Onyx Chef, we’re all going to have to join my big bro on that morning torture run eventually. I’ve avoided it so far because Felix deserves some alone time and he’s most satisfied when he’s in control—that means he has to run with a woody every day, which amuses the hell out me. Why interrupt that amazingly funny shit? I’m definitely going to get it on tape one day and that will let me watch my baby girl bounce all over the trail, too.

Win-win for Fitzy.

Yanking the door to the library open, I bounce in, looking around for the two of them eagerly. “It’ssssssss Fitzy!”

It takes a moment before the big ass dragon’s head pops up from behind a large shelf, his expression guilty as hell. Sniffing the air, I point a shaky finger at him as I accuse, “ Youuuuuuuu!”

The look on his face goes from guilty to sheepish and then to an unrepentant smirk when Baby Girl pops up next to him, her hair a tangled mess in back and skin flushed a pretty pink. “Fitzy, you’re early.”

Making an annoyed sound as I advance on the self-righteous dragon, I continue chastising him. “What happened to ‘no sex in my fucking library,’ you sanctimonious old prick? This is the second time I’ve caught you!”

He wipes his mouth on his sleeve, then picks up the glasses I missed on top of the shelf. The scent fills my nostrils and I glare at them both until he starts laughing. Baby Girl joins him, giggling as she moves around the corner in her uniform skirt that definitely has nothing but those sexy thigh-highs under it. “Aw, come on, Fitzy, baby. I had a hard day. Aubrey was… distracting me.”

“I’ll just bet he was,” I grumble, but it’s really for show. She snuggles up into my arms, and I press a kiss to her temple. “So who do I get to dismember with a spork? A spot of violence might calm my jealousy over Scaly Balls’ being such a hypocrite.”

“Hey!”

Ignoring his weak protest, Dolly looks up at me with a fond smile. “You can’t kill your cousin yet; we’ve discussed this. And I don’t think you can disappear anymore Council students without them flooding this place with more assholes to balance it out. I’ll have to handle this snooty feline and your dickhead relative on my own.”

My eyes flash amber with my tiger and I squeeze her closer. “I don’t have to kill anyone. I’ll just grab a little souvenir to remind them who they’re dealing with.”

“Fitzgerald, you can’t?—”

I arch a brow at the dragon, my expression amused. “Oh, Lord Draconis, you’ll find I definitely can and certainly will . Give it time. ”

Baby Girl sighs, pulling back as she sighs. “Do what you must, baby, but no killing yet . Got it?”

I can live with that; she just gets me.

“Cross my heart and hope my asshole Father dies,” I promise with a wink. “No killing until we’re all in agreement—-or perhaps, one of us loses it and then we have to deal with it on the fly.”

Aubrey snorts. “At least he’s honest, bite size.”

“Through and through,” I agree as I slap her pert ass and she squeals. “For better or for worse, I can’t be bothered to make shit up. It’s hard enough keeping track of real shit.”

That makes Dolly smile and my heart flutters as she grabs my hand. She tugs me toward the tables on the other side of where she and the dragon have left a delicious smelling spot behind the bookcase. When I growl at her playfully, she laughs, wagging a finger at me. “Nope, break time is over. Come help Aubrey and me with the work they’ve been doing on timelines. We’re almost through the twentieth century. Once we get everything highlighted, we are going to use one of the boards Chessie ordered to make comparison columns.”

A damn good idea—the egghead trio have their shit together.

“I’ll try, Baby Girl, but you know how hard it is for me to focus on shit like this,” I reply as she yanks a chair out. “Maybe you should sit on my lap?”

The dragon snorts as he joins us. “I highly doubt that will allow for concentration, Fitzgerald. Nice try, though.”

“You take this list of shifter events. Maybe something will spike in your memories? I’m taking the humans this time, and Aubrey has the Fae.”

“You switch off?” I ask as I scratch my chin. “That’s a pretty good plan. Seeing the same thing over and over makes your brain blur after a while. ”

“Indeed.” Dolly takes the chair next to me, straightening her papers before she hands me a marker. “Use this color so we know where you started.”

I blink, noting the bright orange highlighter. “You’re even color coding it? This definitely has Chessie written all over it. Our boy is fucking baller at this kind of project.”

“Chester has been invaluable in helping collate the research. He really should take some classes after we prevent this idiotic war; I think he’s perfect for a library associate position.”

“Noooo! Don’t get rid of Betsy,” Dolly says with a frown. “I like her. She’s a scaredy cat, but I don’t want any of the allies we’ve made to be sent elsewhere if we can avoid it.”

“Lunchable, I would never get rid of Betsy. However, depending on where we end up, perhaps he could get a better spot than being an assistant for a nasty vulture woman trying to steal our lives for her shitty pulp fiction?”

He has a point; Chessie is such a jack-of-all-trades that landing the art position at Apex despite lack of credentials was a boon.

“I think it’s a fabulous idea and I’ll back you one hundred percent if you tell him, Charcoal Breath.” I grin at him cheesily and he rolls his eyes, muttering what I assume is a ‘thanks’ under his breath.

All for one and one for all and shit.

“Fitz? What the hell are you doing down here?”

I look up, rubbing tired eyes as my twin walks in with Chessie and Moulin Huge in tow. “I’m hurt, bro. I’ll have you know that I’m doing a fucking brilliant job at this nerdy shit. Ask our girl or Fire Pants. ”

They all look at the dragon inquisitively and I chuckle. Of course they won’t trust our bunny not to sugarcoat things when it comes to me. I’m obviously her favorite, no matter what anyone else says. Aubrey sighs heavily, wincing like it’s painful to admit. “He’s actually been doing a good job and not distracting us too much.”

Take that, butt munches.

“Really?” Felix gives both of my co-workers a suspicious look and Dolly narrows her eyes.

“Aubrey would never cover up for him, my grumpy King. Now come over here and kiss me, before I get mad about you picking on Fitzy.”

My brows bob as my cheetah follows my twin, detouring to give me a rewarding smooch. “Thank you, baby. And thank you for defending me, Baby Girl. Hashtag blessed, that’s me.”

Renard rolls his eyes as he heads for the chair next to his mate. His eyes scan over the work we’ve done, and he whistles. “ Je serai damné. ? 1 You have been working hard, mes amis .”

“We have and we’re so fucking close to being current. Maybe after we get food, Chester can take earlier pages of one for his board and the twins can do the same? If we get the boards started, this will come together much faster.”

Dolly groans and shakes her head. “You guys can, but I have to work on this fucking paper your asshat cousin gave me. I have a partner and she’s a nasty witch—I don’t trust her as far as I could throw her in the ring before I shift. I may have to do the entire thing and hold back the part she’s responsible for until I see if she’s actually going to do her part.”

Felix’s head whips around with a snarl. “ What? ”

Holding my hand up, I look at the other possessive alphas in the room. “Everyone calm down. Our Queen has asked that we let her handle this on her own. No killing, but I get to hunt her down for my trophy case once they hand it in. ”

“I never assign group projects,” the gargoyle says as he flicks through the pages the dragon worked on in the Fae pile. “They never encourage cooperation and it’s always a battle when grading because one person often pulls more weight than everyone else combined.”

“ Exactly! ” Dolly says in exasperation. “And I’ve never met this chick before—just like the one in the Pred Games arena. But the two Heathers who haven’t been volunteered as tributes yet seemed pretty smug about Asani’s choice, so they may have had a hand in it. I’ve been pretending I was paranoid because that means I really need to be careful with this assignment. They always have plots going.”

“I still think we could kill the two of them and blame the rebels,” I mutter. “Not the new chicks, but the damn bitches who follow us like obsessed fans trying to fuck up your life because they have none of their own.”

Baby Girl laughs, grabbing my hand and lacing our fingers together before she kisses them. “Never stop making me feel better with threats of violence against my cartoonish nemeses, Fitzy.”

“Perish the thought,” Ren says with a smirk. “How would we survive without Fitz’ psycho tendencies?”

“You wouldn’t.”

Chess claps his hands, then flushes red as we all look at him. “Okay. If Angel has homework, we need to get food and drinks, then come down here to get our timeline finished while she works in the nook over there.” He pauses sniffing for a moment, then gives Aubrey a wry look. “And possibly grab some air freshener since obviously people were taking a break earlier.”

The big guy shrugs, and our girl laughs. Standing up, she lets go of me and goes to my mate. “I’m corrupting him very slowly. Sorry, not sorry. ”

Felix shakes his head, sighing as if we’re the most trying thing in the universe. “Food. Air freshener. Homework. Research. We have our orders, you malcontents. Let’s get moving or none of us will get ‘ breaks ’ tonight.”

Good one, big bro. Very nice.