“Does he have to?” he mutters to himself. “Why don’t we see this through, you know, while we are already here and everything.”
I smile and glance at Cole, who looks excited to be going on a secret mission. “Sure. Why not.”
“After you, then,” he says. I descend the steps to the tunnel below. I flick the switch and low-level lighting comes on intermittently down the dark tunnel. “Oh, bummer. I thought we would have fire torches and booby traps like in the old days,” Devon complains as we move forward.
CK snickers. “That would be more fun,” he says, getting properly involved with our little adventure.
Boys, honestly! I knew they would love this idea but seriously no matter how old they are, they just all still want to be Indiana Jones.
“How about a dodgy rope bridge hanging perilously over a roaring river?” I say, the sarcasm evident.
“Ooo, could you do that?” Cole asks. “I bet you could if you tried.”
“Yeah, yeah, and an Amazonian tribe shooting poisonous darts at us as we try to cross,” Devon adds.
I laugh at them and their enthusiasm. “Well, thanks for the vote of confidence that I can create such an elaborate scene just so you all can fill out some weird-arse adventure fantasy, but I really don’t think it is appropriate. I can, however, comply with your first request.” I click my fingers and, in my hand,, I hold a fire torch and pass it to Devon. I turn off the electric lighting and hand another torch to Cole, one to CK, and one to Lincoln, leaving out Cade as he needs both of his hands free to deal with Jess. “Happy?”
“Very!” comes the unanimous reply.
“Now this feels more like it,” Devon says. “Reminds me of Bavaria when we went to get that Fabergé egg back.”
“Oh, gods! Yes. What a fucking trip that was.”
“Ah, yes. During the war. I do believe Katherine and Devon, spies extraordinaire, were something else,” CK says dryly.
“We sure were,” Devon says fondly. “And even I have to say, Katherine was a knock-out.”
I turn to him. “Oh, really?”
“Who is Katherine?” Lincoln and Cade ask.
“Me.”
“Ah, another of your Shifts, I presume then,” Lincoln says, knowing that Devon has never had anything overly complimentary to say about my natural form.
“Indeed.”
“What did you look like?” Cole asks, still not that comfortable with me and my various Shifts.
“Hot,” CK and Devon say in unison.
I stop walking and turn around to face them. “Excuse me?” I say, somewhat affronted that CK has turned on my natural form now as well.
“I have eyes. How did Sebastian put it the other day? Oh, yes, I would have to be ‘blind and a eunuch not to stare’.”
Yes, I remember his declaration after I changed into Xerxei. I frown slightly. There is something that is niggling me about that. I shake it off and deal with the conversation at hand.
“I didn’t know you had a thing for tall, hazel-eyed, strawberry blondes,” I remark smartly.
“I don’t really. I just have a thing for you,” he says a small smile tugging at his mouth.
I give him a beam. “Moving on,” I say quickly.
“Wait,” Lincoln says. “I want to hear the story of the Fabergé egg.”
“It’s a good st
ory,” Devon says. “Tell them, Lizzie.”