Page 53 of Fangs for the Memories (Budapest Bites #1)

L ucy’s living room seems considerably smaller with two black-clad werewolves in it. The pair sit on her couch drinking from bottles of beer and eating an XXL pizza…each.

I watch them from the doorway. Occasionally they exchange remarks in Hungarian which I half understand.

“How are David and Micheal?” Lucy asks as I return to the kitchen where she is typing furiously on her laptop.

“David and Micheal were vampires. The two large males in your lounge are werewolves.” I take a soda out of her fridge and perch on the second stool at her breakfast bar.

“Hairy and Hairier?” Lucy still doesn’t look up. “How are they doing?”

“Worried about their boss but insisting to each other they have to stay to protect me,” I say, my voice cracking on the last few words.

Lucy looks up, shuts her laptop with a snap, and flings an arm around me.

“Dominik is…irritating, but he has a plan, one which I can agree on,” she says begrudgingly, “because it makes legal sense.”

She hands me a crumpled tissue.

“You’re trusting the vampire?”

“No, never trust a vampire,” Lucy growls, but she brightens instantly. “But if what he says is true, if he really does have better connections than Mark, then I believe his plan could work.”

“There’s a plan?”

“There’s always a plan.” Lucy grins at me. “I’ve been filing all the paperwork to the courts. Hopefully we’ll get an emergency telephone hearing tonight. In the meantime, Dominik claims he can get a meeting with the Minister for Monsters and put Ferenc’s case before them.”

I can’t shake the block of ice in my chest where my heart should be.

“And if none of this works, what’s going to happen to Ferenc?”

Lucy squeezes my hand. “Don’t think like that.”

“It’s just…” I raise my eyes to the ceiling in an attempt to keep the tears from running down my face. “He saved me from Mark. He did what I could have never done. I owe him.”

“You don’t owe anything to anyone,” Lucy says fiercely. “Mark was an arsehole, and he got what was coming to him.”

“An arsehole who has the ability to decide what happens to Ferenc.”

Lucy gazes at me. “He might think that, but he’s wrong. You’ve no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this moment.” She turns back to her laptop.

“The moment where my werewolf mate and the father of my child is in prison because he nearly killed my former fiancé? You have a very active imagination, Lucy.” I sigh.

“I mean the chance to kick Mark right in the plums, physically and metaphorically,” she says with a wicked grin. “For what he’s done to my bestie.”

I am rather pleased Lucy is on my side, I can’t imagine coming up against her.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “If I wasn’t such a terrible judge of character, you’d never have been caught up in all of this.”

“This”—Lucy gestures to her computer—“is the sort of thing I live for. Especially as my firm only ever deals in stupid rich drunks who fall afoul of the law. This is much more fun.”

Her phone chimes and she picks it up.

“Group chat. I’ve told them we’re busy,” Lucy says. “But that you’re okay.”

“They’ll be beside themselves. I should text.” I dig in my pocket for my phone.

It’s not there.

Lucy gives me a wry smile and pulls something out. “Sorry, Grace.” She slides it over the counter. “I think it’s DOA.”

The screen is shattered and completely gone in one corner. I groan, dropping my head back.

“I’ve got an old one somewhere you can use,” Lucy says.

“What’s the point?” I slump next to her.

“You’d miss our witty repartee.” She smiles, covering my hand with hers. “We’re going to fix this, I promise. You deserve to be happy.”

“This is hardly happy.” I sniff.

“Have a little faith. I’ve known you long enough to know what makes you happy, and I can see it is Ferenc.”

“You can?”

“He sent you here when things were dangerous, and as much as you didn’t like it, as much as it hurt you, it was the right thing to do. He thought about you, and only you. If he can’t make you happy, no one can.”

I choke back a sob. “Why am I always crying around you lately?”

“It’s my sparkling personality and winning ways.” Lucy laughs. “Everyone says so.” She gently squeezes my hand. “You should get some rest, mama. You can have my bed.”

“And you’re sharing with the werewolves?” I laugh soggily. Lucy makes a face. “Joking.”

I squeeze her hand back. Lucy lives the closest to central London out of all of us. We often crash at her place and it’s full of extra mattresses.

“Speaking of werewolves, I’d better let them know they get the couch tonight and they can do with that information what they will,” Lucy says, standing up and stretching.

“I’ll do it.” I get to my feet wearily.

Somehow, I feel like I’m a little bit closer to Ferenc because they’re part of his pack. I walk down the passage to Lucy’s living room and stick my head in.

Both wolves are fast asleep, one laid over the top of the other.

“Pizza coma,” Lucy says quietly behind me. “Looks like it even affects werewolves. Should we wake them?”

“I think they’ve had almost as much excitement as I have today. Let them sleep.”

I take a blanket from the arm of a chair and gently drape it over the pair, who sleep on, apparently oblivious to their surroundings.

All I can think about is Ferenc, alone in a cell, unable to see the moon.

Lucy gives me a hug after I close the door.

“You’re going to be a great mother,” she says quietly.

“I’d very much like it if we could get the father out of prison first.”

“You got it, babe.” Lucy lets me go and extends her arms in front of her, fingers laced. “Just try to stop me.”