Fang's expression was filled with doubt. "What if it gets spooked?"
"You would be screwed," Sam said in a dry tone. "Royally. Pray that doesn't happen."
Fang hissed at her before he pulled himself back up onto the back of the bird. Before he mounted, Scorpio used his whip to make a bridle. His bird fought it for several minutes, then settled down to take it.
He flashed a cocky fanged grin at her.
"Show-off," Ethon sneered.
Laughing, Sam headed south with the men following behind her. It didn't take too long to get to the border. There was a red haze around it that was so thin she could see the spot in New Orleans where they'd been.
Darker now on the human side of the veil, the haze made it look like infrared.
Sam urged her bird down so that she could dismount. The men quickly joined her as she fastened her grandmother's sword belt around her waist.
Ethon tapped his fingers impatiently against his thigh. "Why is it when you want the ground to swallow you whole, it decides to stop trying?"
Fang sighed. "Watched Pot Syndrome."
"Yeah."
Sam ignored them as she heard something odd in the background. The birds chittered and danced, then flew off abruptly.
Dev met her gaze. "That can't be a good sign."
No, it couldn't.
Sam glanced around as she tried to find the source of the sound...a sound that was steadily getting closer.
"Oh. My. God."
She looked over at Ethon who was staring up at the sky to his right. Following his gaze, she gasped.
"It's the attack of the flying monkeys."
Only these weren't the cute little bluish-gray monkeys from The Wizard of Oz that were dressed in adorable hats and jackets. These were huge with fangs that made hers look like plastic Halloween wear. With dark-gray leathery skin, their eyes were yellow and their tails were razor sharp.
They all drew weapons as the fire-breathing monkeys attacked.
Ethon dodged one that tried to blast him, then whirled and slashed at its wing. "You know, there are just some things you never expect to face even on this job. A flying primate that shoots fire out its nose is one of them."
Scorpio snorted. "Yes but are they cercopithecoid or platyrrhine primates?"
Ethon glared at him. "Get your head out of the Discovery Channel and on the attack."
"At least they're not farting flames that would stink in more ways than one." Fang ducked one monkey only to have another one attack him.
Sam threw her knife, catching the monkey between its shoulder blades before it could bite Fang. Shrieking, it fell to the ground.
That attack seemed to set off something fierce that called in more reinforcements.
Her stomach hit the ground. Yes, the men were fighting like demons and holding their own, but this was about to get ugly. The sky above them was darkened by the wave of incoming primates.
We're dead....
Just as that thought went through her mind, the ground below her shook. She started sliding.
"Think home!" Fang shouted to remind them.
Dev wrapped himself around her right as the ground below her opened and she plunged straight down. Sam held on to him with everything she had, grateful he was with her. She focused on his room in Sanctuary.
One minute they were plummeting and the next...
They were naked in Dev's bed.
A wicked grin teased her. "You thinking what I was thinking or were my thoughts just that intense?"
Heat exploded over her cheeks. Honestly, this was exactly what had been in her mind. Laughing, she went to kiss him only to have her body fade back into her ghost form.
Dev cursed in anger. "I'm going to kill Thorn."
"I would say it's okay, but right about now, I'm with you one hundred percent." She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling. "It's so unfair."
Dev ached to kiss her. But he had to get her back into corporeal form first. "Let me take the girdle to Fang and then to Thorn. I'll see you shortly." He ran his hungry gaze over her body. "And I want you just in this position ten minutes after we get back."
She laughed. "Yes, sir."
Dev got out of bed and dressed himself in his jeans and a shirt before he went to find Fang. He pulled his phone out and rang Ethon.
"You make it back?" Ethon asked him.
"Yeah. Where are you?"
"Don't ask. It's too embarrassing. I'm headed back to Sanctuary as soon as I get cleaned up."
Not that that brought up all kinds of images in Dev's mind. "Exactly where are you again?"
"I told you not to ask. Cause I'm not going to say. Asshole." Ethon hung up.
Dev called Scorpio.
"I'm in the bar. Where are you?"
Dev was impressed. "I'm at Peltier House. Is Fang with you?"
"No."
Fang stepped out of his bedroom and jerked his chin toward Dev's door. "Looks like you had the same thoughts I did."
God, he hoped not. The thought of Fang with his sister made him sick. Not that he was stupid enough to think they weren't having sex, he just couldn't mentally handle the concept of his baby sister with any man.
Get out of my head....