Chapter 11 Soup of Champions
Zane
Exactly one hour after we left her room, we were circling her bedroom door with the intensity of vultures debating roadkill etiquette. Moonlight pooled on the hallway’s parquet floor like liquid mercury, but all any of us could focus on was her.
“We need to feed her,” Ko insisted, already reaching for the knob.
“She’s healing.” Cas blocked him with an arm. “Let her sleep.”
“Starving’s worse than bleeding out,” I countered, because somebody had to play devil’s avocado, and I was ripe for the job.
“All right, but you behave.” Casimir elbowed me. Hard. “Don’t overwhelm her first thing.”
“Well, just seeing me will do that,” I smirked.
Fluttering his eyelids, and not in a flirty way, he eased her door open. Ko and I had a brief battle to see who would get to go in next, and he won only because he fought dirty, the jerk.
Holding my aching balls, I hobbled inside to see Cas hovering like a panther ready to pounce and Koa crouched bedside, all heart eyes and softened edges.
She seemed so tiny, curled up with that wolf pup like they were two pieces of a puzzle. The pup’s fur was a mess, and he pawed at the air in his sleep like he was chasing something or someone.
I smirked. With a bit of training and a whole lot of kibble, he was going to make a fine nanny for our girl.
She was sleeping like the dead, her chest rising and falling in slow, steady breaths.
I could see the smudges of bruises under her eyes, and it made something in my chest twist. She’d been through a war, and now here she was, tucked into a nice, warm bed and secure in a room where we could keep her safe.
Even if she was asleep, I hoped she felt safe.
She deserved to feel safe.
The pup stirred before she did, his skinny self stretching out like a furry, four-legged starfish. I reached down to pet him, earning a soft, sleepy whine. My fingers brushed against her hand, and she jerked back, her eyelids flying open.
“Sleeping Beauty finally rises,” I drawled, but my teasing smile faded when I saw her lost expression and scared eyes. “You with us, sweetheart?”
“Tone it down, Z.” Casimir gave me a look, and I made an ugly face back.
She blinked at us like we’d materialized from a particularly bad dream. Cruor, she was breakable! Birdbone wrists, fractured glances skittering off our faces… Something sour climbed my throat.
“How are you feeling?” Ko murmured.
We all held our breath as she struggled to gather herself, her body nearly swallowed by the blankets.
It broke something in me to see her like this, as adrift as a kitten left out in the storm, and every instinct in me screamed to wrap her in armor, to keep the world from ever laying a hand on her again.
When she didn’t answer, Cas took charge as usual.
“Now that you’re a little more awake, we’ll introduce ourselves. My name’s Casimir, but you can call me Cas, if you’d like. That’s Zane, the obnoxious one.”
“I prefer ‘charming,’” I interjected. “Or ‘debonair rogue.’ Maybe ‘devilishly handsome scoundrel.’ Just throwing out options.”
“I prefer ‘quiet,’ ” Cas snarked back.
Ko took over, his intensity dialed way the hell back, replaced by a gentleness that didn’t seem to fit him.
Or maybe it fit him too well.
“And I’m Koa, or just Ko. You’re safe with us, beloved.”
She hesitated, her gaze darting between us like a trapped animal searching for an exit. For a moment, I thought she wouldn’t answer, that she’d retreat into herself and leave us standing there like fools.
Then, in a soft whisper, she said, “Serafina Bell.”
“Serafina.” My grin widened, the name rolling off my tongue like honey. “Pretty name for a pretty girl. Good choice.”
“Idiot.” Cas gave me a look, his expression as dry as the winter wind. “It wasn’t a choice.”
“Then she got lucky.” I smirked at him.
Her lips twitched, the smallest, most tentative smile I’d ever seen. Maybe half a millimeter before she caught herself, but victory hummed in my veins.
“Don’t lie,” I teased, leaning in just enough to draw her gaze without making her flinch. “You’re secretly thrilled to have such a badass name.”
For the first time, I saw something more than fear in her eyes. Maybe amusement, maybe curiosity. Whatever it was, it was enough to make me feel like I’d just won the damn lottery.
“You can call me Seri, if you want.” She relaxed, just a little, the tension in her shoulders easing.
“And this guy?” Koa gently picked up the wolf pup, who squirmed in his arms and licked his chin. “Who is he, sweet girl?”
“Brumous.” Her shoulders hiked to her ears as Ko flipped the pup belly-up, her gray eyes tracking every movement like a hypervigilant mom friend watching a frat boy hold her newborn.
“Wintry fog,” I muttered. “Perfect for a dire wolf whose brain’s about as clear—”
“Nothing’s wrong with him!” Frostbite sharpness was in that whisper, and her spine went ramrod straight. “If you hurt him—”
“Whoa! Easy, momzilla.” I held up my hands. “Just shitty jokes. My specialty. I love the fluff monster. Really.”
She blinked, anger dissolving into shame. Embarrassment. Her fingers murdered the blanket.
“I’m sorry. That was— I shouldn’t have— It’s just, my stepmother tortured him. I can’t bear to see him hurt anymore.”
Thwack!
Cas’ palm connected with my skull hard enough to reboot my brain, but it did worse to Seri. She flinched so violently, the headboard smacked against the wall.
Cas, Ko and I exchanged that look. The one that meant someone’s days were numbered. Someone named Arabesque Harrow.
“Okay, full evil stepmother trope, huh? That’s horrifying.
I was hoping for more ‘wicked in a bad fashion sense’ and less ‘straight-up animal abuse.’ Poor pup.
Sorry, Seri,” I said, sincerity heavy in my voice.
It was the first time I meant it so deeply.
I gave her a real smile. “Brumous, though? That’s also a dramatic name. You two match.”
Ko set Brumous down gently beside his food bowl, where the pup attacked his chicken scraps with the focus of a SAS operative breaching a compound.
“Zane deserves far worse than harsh words, beloved,” Ko told her softly. “And there’s never a need to apologize for speaking honestly.”
“Here. Soup.” Cas shoved a steaming bowl into my hands, broth sloshing dangerously close to the rim. His glare said, Fix it or become wall decor.
I turned to Seri, a grin tugging at my lips.
“All right, darling. You’re eating this.”
She looked up, her eyes both wary and weary.
“Just a few bites, please,” Ko murmured. “You need it.”
“I can feed myself.” Her voice wavered like a bad radio signal.
“Yeah? I’d like to see you try without face-planting in the bowl.” I plopped down right next to her, ignoring Cas’ death glare when she skittered back a foot. “C’mon, sweetheart, it’s chicken noodle. Soup of champions. Ko made it just for you.”
She stared at the steam ribbons coiling upward. For a heartbeat, I thought she’d bolt. Then those slender fingers wrapped around the bowl, tentative as baby bunnies.
Ko mouthed, Be careful, over her head.
I shot him the bird.
As I held up a spoonful, she hesitated, then parted her cracked lips. The first swallow hit her throat wrong, and violent coughing sprayed broth across my chest.
“Epic fail,” I muttered, dabbing her chin with the hem of my t-shirt. “New rule, blossom. You chew liquids.”
Koa snorted. Casimir pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Sorry,” she rasped, face flaming.
“It’s all good, Rapunzel.”
The second spoonful went down smoother. By the fifth, her death grip on the bowl eased.
As she slurped the soup, I began to notice things.
Things I was sure Cas had already catalogued.
How she leaned away when one of us shifted.
How her gaze kept snagging on the door handle as if she were calculating sprint times.
How her shy eyes dropped every time they met mine or one of my brothers.
Classic prey animal tells. Except when she looked at Brumous.
Then her eyes went feral-level protective.
Yeah, meeting a trio of infamous dhampir monster hunters would make most people want to run screaming, but this was something else. She was a puzzle, this delicate, skittish creature, and I was damn determined to figure her out.
“You’re jumpy,” I observed, watching her carefully. Then, my voice took on a teasing lilt. “What, never been around men before, honey bunny? Or is it just me being devastatingly handsome?”
Her eyes flicked up, wide and cautious, before dropping again. She shrugged, her shoulders barely moving.
“I, um, I only had Papa. Well, there was Ralph, our neighbor, but I only saw him a couple of times a year.”
We traded another look over her head, and this one held a whole conversation that happened faster than words.
“What about school?” Ko asked after a moment.
“I didn’t go to a real school.” Her eyelids drooped, her voice dragging, and she pushed the soup bowl away. “After Mama died, Papa and I rarely left our little farm.”
Koa’s, “I’m sorry about your mama,” was soft, like he was uncovering a secret, and in a way he was. We were learning more about her, which we were all desperate to do. Cas frowned, his brow furrowing. I, on the other hand, couldn’t resist teasing her just a little.
“Our beloved is such a cute little farm girl.”
Her cheeks flamed red, and my chest did this weird little flip thing that it had never done before in my life.
Huh. Maybe I need an EKG.
“So, ah, who did this to you?” I asked after a beat. “Who hurt you, treasure?”
The air in the room shifted, like a storm rolling in. Casimir went still, his green eyes cutting sharp. Koa’s gaze softened and tightened at the same time. Seri’s body tensed, her breath catching.
“We need to know,” Ko told her quietly. “So we can better protect you.”
“Yeah, pixie. Just name the ones about to die.” Light as a feather, I touched the mark along her jaw. “Bonus points for location, and I’ll even use your preferred method of dismemberment.”