Dimitri sighs and grabs one of his blades, absently wiping the blood off using one of the kitchen towels. “Did you know that your...Roger...” His lips curl in heady disdain. “Do you know that Roger has been seeing another girl on the side?”
Lyric freezes, the anger seeming to sizzle out of her as the fire disappears from her hands and her hair falls limp around her shoulders once more. “What?” she asks weakly.
“That bastard was cheating on my baby treasure?!” Hux barks, his hands curling into fists. Vengeance paints every line of his handsome face.
“I vote we kill him,” Vin adds seriously.
“You can’t kill him,” I point out. Though, I admit, I’m extremely tempted to, as well. “He’s the son of the freaking Skeleton Man. That would cause a world war.”
“What’s one more?” Mason replies, throwing me a wink.
Lyric stares at Dimitri for a long moment before she says, “Let me see him.” Abruptly, she grabs the knife out of Dimitri’s hands and expertly twirls it around. “I’m going to stab that motherfucker.”
The anger from before makes a reappearance like dark, pregnant storm clouds moving across the sky. The light in her eyes brightens the woodsy brown to a honey color.
“Don’t kill him,” I remind her as I shift the now waking baby in my arms. “Remember the rules. We only kill—”
“—monsters who don’t have any family to remember them.” Lyric waves away my words with a dismissive hand. “Yeah, yeah, I know.” She turns toward Dimitri with fire in her eyes. “Can we go now, Dad? Please?”
Dimitri’s lips quirk into a cold, insidious smile that sends heat skittering up my spine. “That’s my girl.”
“I’ll come too!” Callum marches forward with steadfast determination, his tiny hands grasping at the toy sword Vin bought him for his fifth birthday. He always keeps that fucker tied around his waist.
Still snuggled in Alex’s arms, Angel giggles as she stares after her brother.
I lean back into Barret’s embrace, a smile stretching up my own lips.
Mason and Vin are currently arguing over the best ways to hide a body. Dimitri’s attempting to create a portal while Lyric watches on impatiently, her eyes glimmering with unfettered rage. Frankie’s trying to convince everyone that the best way to murder Roger is to make it look like an accident—though Lyric insists that accidents aren’t nearly as painful as cold-blooded murder. Alex is tickling Angel’s stomach as she giggles, and Hux is attempting to teach Callum how to properly hold his sword. Cal is leaning against the wall, watching everything with amusement, his eyes continually dipping to my swollen belly. Biscuit, our pet monster, chews on one of the severed limbs Dimitri provided him with earlier this week.
“What are you thinking about, Cheese Curd?” Barret rasps in my ear, giving the skin behind it a light kiss.
“How happy I am,” I reply in a whisper, though I know everyone hears me.
This is the life I always wanted but never dreamed I would have. I fought for this—bled for this—and somehow, my deepest fantasy became reality.
I may be a monster, but maybe, just maybe, monsters can have happy endings too.
And I damn well found mine.
