Excerpt Blood Bonds

Today’s excerpt comes from Blood Bonds.

Buy links:

Delilah:

“I think we have an old one in the storage room. Remember? We borrowed one at first, before we bought one for her. Let me go check,” I said.

I hurried to the storage room and sure enough, there was the old high chair that we had forgotten to return to… I couldn’t even remember who we had borrowed it from now. I hauled it out and dusted it off, carrying it back into the kitchen where I set it up. Hannah hurried back to her room, bringing Maggie out and snuggling her into the high chair so she couldn’t get away. The baby gargoyle fit the high chair, and now she giggled, looking at the entire table and clapping.

“Maggie enjoys life out at the Barrow, but I think she misses this. We don’t quite have the same type of dinners there,” Camille said.

I nuzzled Maggie’s fur, wishing I could keep her but once I got pregnant, it would be problematic. Maggie wasn’t good with small animals or children, she was far too rough in her play, and could easily hurt another child or a cat or dog if she were left unattended with them. Keeping up with a baby gargoyle was hard enough, but adding children to the mix would make it even harder.

Maggie yanked at my hair, which had reached my shoulders again.

“Dee-ya-ya! De-ya ya!” She stretched out her arms, the calico fur blending into surprisingly beautiful patterns. She pursed her lips and I reached down and gave her a kiss, wondering how long it would be before she reached the point where she could talk in complete sentences. Gargoyles grew very, very slowly and while they were almost as long-lived as the Fae, their childhoods extended through several hundred years. It would be at least two hundred years before Maggie was running around like a teenager.

“I love you too, munchkin. And I miss you. I promise to come out and visit you more often, and maybe Camille can bring you here to play more often.” I gave Maggie another hug, then returned to my meal.