Page 40 of The Fanged One

Linnea brightened up a little. "Excellent choice. Bring on Alucard."

"Jump into my account instead on the streaming app," Ciara replied.

"Same difference. Where is the streaming app?"

Ciara pointed without looking up from her phone. "Second row. Third tile."

The opening notes of the first episode of Castlevania filled the screen, and Dracula was demanding to know where his wife was before the third sip of wine.

"Gods, I love a wife guy." Layla opened a large bag of salt-and-vinegar crisps. "Must have all the salt to deal with anyone hurting my Vlad."

Ciara stretched a hand out for the crisps, and Layla shoved the bag her way. Linnea pulled the throw blanket off the back of the couch and tossed it over them.

"Trevor is being a sassy bitch. Everyone drink," Ciara declared.

Linnea drank up. The wine was a nice red that must have been Ciara's good influence on her brother's pantry. Layla's shoulder pressed against hers, warm and solid, and Ciara had her bare feet propped on the coffee table and her wineglass balanced on her sternum.

Linnea relaxed a little further. For the first time since she had walked back out of Von's bathroom, she could breathe easily. Ciara passed Linnea the crisps. Layla refilled the wine.

Her wolf hadn't said anything since Von's kitchen. The space where it usually sat in her was hollow and quiet, and she was choosing, for now, to be grateful for the silence.

The episodes rolled on. They paused it twice in the first 30 minutes to refill glasses, and once so Layla could go to the bathroom. Ciara updated them on the latest photos of the baby and one of Maria asleep, still holding a flagon of the fae's home brew. Layla showed them the mock-up Quinn had emailed her of the Vote for Trevor campaign poster, which featured the name in the same font as a 1970s presidential campaign and an unflattering photograph of Kian holding the baby like he had been handed a small grenade.

"It's so perfect. I'm not going to recover from this," Linnea said, wiping her eyes.

"None of us will. It's why we love her."

They got through the first handful of episodes, and Linnea began to think she might survive the day after all.

It wasn't until Trevor rescued Sypha from being turned to stone, that Layla pressed pause.

"Right," Ciara said, turning to face Linnea properly. "What is going on with you?"

Linnea groaned, "Oh, come on. Alucard is just about to turn up!"

"Don't 'Oh, come on' me. Your scent has been doing the thing where it goes flat when you're upset all damn day, and I have been very patient. Now spill."

"Yes, spill," Layla agreed around a crisp.

Linnea took the longest possible sip of her wine to buy herself a moment, and the Ironwood's waited with the same stubborn expression.

"Nothing is going on," Linnea said and slumped back into the cushions.

"Try again."

"Layla."

"Linnea."

"It is fine," she said and made her voice steady. "Today at Von's I just got a useful reminder, that's all. I let myself get a bit carried away last night, and I needed to remember that there is more at stake here than a crush on a god."

"A crush," Layla hummed. "Right."

"Yeah, that's all it is."

Ciara took a long meditative sip. "Sis, that man looks at you like you hung the moon and then taught it to sing."

"He does not."