Page 8 of Hello, Nurse! (Ghostlight Falls #10)

Chapter seven

Morning Malaise

Angelina

I t takes twenty-eight point four minutes for Blabbo’s knot to deflate, after which we get Rebecca cleaned up and asleep in our bed. Once that's done, it’s time for a family meeting.

“What the fuck happened back there?” I ask Blabbo. Everything had been going according to plan. Until it wasn’t.

“We can still do the ceremony with Rebecca. It didn’t have to be tonight.” He takes a seat on the couch.

I turn to Absurdo for some support. He’s staring at Blabbo, toying with his lip ring in concentration .

“You actually like her, don’t you?” he asks, no judgment in his voice, only quiet surprise. Blabbo refuses to look either of us in the eye, which is answer enough. “Well, I do too.”

“You horny bastards don’t even know her! I’m the one who has been tailing her for weeks.” Crossing my arms, I take a seat next to Blabbo.

“I’m not hearing you say you don’t,” Absurdo says.

“That doesn’t matter. You two are my family. We need to do the ceremony. I…” I blink away the tears forming in my eyes. Stupid feelings. “I don’t have time to look for a new family.”

“Angelina, we love you, too. You’ll always be our number one girl,” Blabbo says, pulling me onto his lap.

“I’m sorry. I got caught up in the moment.

We’ll do the ceremony tomorrow. After tonight, I am confident Rebecca will be agreeable.

We’ve been here for weeks now without any sign of the doctor.

The ceremony is just an extra layer of protection.

Probably unnecessary at this point. Just me being overcautious.

I’ve been known to do that from time to time.

” I lean my forehead against his shoulder, and he kisses the top of my head.

“Let’s all get some rest. We can discuss this more in the morning.

Right now, there’s a gorgeous woman all alone in our bed, and I need to fix that,” Absurdo says, standing and walking to the bedroom.

We follow him, all crawling into the big bed together.

They’re right. Things will probably be fine.

“Shit! I’m gonna be late!” Rebecca yells, waking us all up.

The power went out at some point in the night, and without any remaining phone charge, her alarm didn’t go off this morning.

We hardly have a chance for a hurried goodbye as she frantically throws on clothes and runs out the door, having to take the spiral stairs the whole way down with the elevator being nonfunctional.

Thankfully, we all cleaned up last night, so at least she’s not showing up to work late and smelling like day-old-sex.

“Weird that the power’s out,” Absurdo says, yawning, rolling to face us.

He’s not wrong. There wasn’t any storm, and Encephalon’s work on this place was flawless, no problems with the power before.

Looking out the window, it seems like the power is out in all of Ghostlight Falls.

Must be something big. Trying not to worry about it too much and with nothing else immediately pressing, we decide to sleep in.

Encephalon can take a look at the power some other time.

If the ceremony is tonight, we’ll need all the energy we can get.

I am jolted awake by a net pinning me to the bed, Rufus grinning like an idiot. Panicking, I reach out for Absurdo and Blabbo. I don’t know whether I’m happy they’re here with me or upset they’re also trapped. At least Rebecca is some place safe, away from here .

Doctor Sinister strolls into the room with that ugly, self-satisfied grin.

I growl, wanting to rip that look right off his face.

Absurdo pulls me in close to his chest. “Where’s Encephalon?

” Doctor Sinister asks. “I know he helped you escape. No one else could set up a security system like that. Ended up having to cut power to the whole town.” I frantically look around for my mouse friends, but they're nowhere in sight.

We asked them to come home late last night.

Maybe they wound up sleeping elsewhere? “No one wants to talk?” He looks at Blabbo.

“Typical. I want you to blab, and you say nothing. Tssssk Tssssk. How disappointing.” He picks a piece of invisible lint off his lab coat.

“Well, I guess we can note that all your training was effective, at least. Rufus, grab them and take them back to the lab. I hope you enjoyed your little vacation, but it is time to come home, children.” He walks out as Rufus closes in.