My One and Only (Bewitched and Bewildered #10)(62)

Finally, Meryn spoke, breaking the silence. "It explains the sophistication of this entire plan. The execution of it had military precision, not like the raging idiots we faced in Lycaonia."

Micah sat up and looked around at his fellow unit brothers. None of them wanted to contemplate taking down a single feral warrior much less two. From what Pip said the enemy seemed to have their own feral version of units.

Aiden had one hand over his eyes. "I need to call my father and tell him about the feral warriors. He will have to activate the Old Guard to help us deal with this." His hand dropped. "We will issue an edict making it mandatory for every unit warrior ever trained to check in and register for the app. It's the only way we can get a scope of how bad this really is."

"Why is this happening?" Ellie whispered, sounding completely hopeless. Grant scooted back and lifted her easily into his lap. She buried her face in his neck.

"The guy, who I think is a demon by the way, said that he was trying to get out of some kind of box," Meryn answered.

Ryuu looked down at her sourly. "You almost die and that is what you come back with?"

She glared at her squire. "This guy answered questions with questions, okay. I'm lucky I got that much out of him."

Gavriel looked to her. "Did he say anything else?"

Meryn looked up, recounting her experience. "I asked him if he was a demon and he said, 'The Dark Prince will be able to tell you more'. He said that the necklaces were a means to an end to get our world... Oh and witches warned him about me." She smiled. "Then he said he didn't think he was going to kill me because I was amusing, and we could have fun together." She frowned. "I think he likes me."

Hal appeared at Aiden's side and poured him a full goblet of amber liquid. With a shaking hand Aiden downed the whole thing and coughed once. He looked up at Hal. "Thank you."

Hal looked as spooked as the rest of them. "If anyone deserves a stiff drink it's you."

Kendrick held up a hand. "He mentioned witches as in plural?"

Meryn nodded. "He said he wasn't able to find me because I was hidden or something."

Kendrick looked over to Gavriel. "By Fate?"

Gavriel shook his head. "At this point I feel like I do not know anything."

Kendrick turned back to Meryn. "How did you know to put a demon in a salt circle?"

Meryn brightened. "Netflix."

Kendrick's mouth dropped, and he turned to Anne. "Magic in your role-playing games, alchemy in anime and now demon hunting on Netflix? Why didn't I know about any of this?"

Anne's mouth twitched. "We can Netflix and chill later love." Meryn giggled, and Anne winked at her.

"How can you laugh?" Vivi asked. "How do we face tomorrow?"

Meryn tilted her head. "We face tomorrow because the alternative is to not face it, which means dying, and I for one, am not done doing all the things I want to do. Like, watching the newest season of Doctor Who or trying the new chipotle flavored Cheetos. I face tomorrow laughing, because if I let them steal my happiness, then they've already won, and fuck that, because I'm going to win."

Aiden sighed. "You could have said watch centuries worth of sunsets with my mate or tour the Amazon, but you went with Cheetos and Netflix?"

"Fuck the Amazon! Do you know how many bugs are in the Amazon? Like they don't even have an accurate count of the number of species there are, much less how many individual bugs. Did you know that one statistic says that in the Amazon, bugs outweigh all vertebrates four to one? Like imagine how many tiny bugs it would take to make up four of your huge ass. No way! Fuck that."

Aiden pouted. "I'm not that big Meryn and I don't have a huge ass."

Etain leaned in toward his mate and pointed across the table at the Unit Commander and his tiny mate. "That is how we face tomorrow. That is how we laugh. By finding joy in the moment." Etain's mouth twitched at Aiden's expression.

Serenity rested her head on Micah's shoulder. "We have thousands of moments to look forward to. We can't turn our back on all of them because we're scared of a few."

He turned to her and whispered. "I am especially interested in more naked Twister moments."

She blushed and kissed his temple. "You're on," she replied.

Kari sighed and picked up her iPad. "So, we have a possible virus creating demon leading an army of feral unit warriors, in addition to invisible reapers and mindless garden variety ferals?" She tapped a few times then looked up. Everyone was staring. "What? We might as well be organized about this."

Magnus was the first one to lose his composure. But his belly laughing seemed to trigger then entire room. They were facing impossible odds, but somehow being with family made it seem like everything would be okay.

Ellie sniffed. "What do we do now?"

Micah leaned forward to answer her. "Celebrate." He looked around the table and back to his mate. "Celebrate every moment."

Micah could see the unconditional love she had for him in her eyes. "Because tomorrow isn't promised," she said smiling.

He raised her hand and kissed it. "But anything can happen, our future holds infinite possibilities and I intend to enjoy each one."