Bloodline

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

I woke up to the door creaking open that morning.

I shot upright in bed fast, grabbing the nearest thing to me, which happened to be an alarm clock, which I yanked right out of the wall. I held it up, ready to fire it at whoever entered the room, only to relax when I saw Akin standing there, looking... not at all surprised.

"Morning," Akin greeted me warmly as I lowered the alarm clock back down on the nightstand, "Sorry to spook you. Just wanted to see if you were awake. We're about to have breakfast. Would you like to join us?" I stared at him for a full minute, blinking a few times as I struggled to keep up with what was happening before I just nodded dumbly in response. Akin somehow smiled even more, then stepped out to give me some space.

I looked around the room, absorbing the fact that it was my room. Or at least, temporarily. Plus, it looked like Akin had dropped off some clothes for me at the end of the bed.

I slid out of bed and took the clothes into the bathroom. I hopped in the shower, though the jacuzzi tub was really fucking tempting. I figured I'd use it later. I stepped out of the shower and threw on the clothes Akin gave me, which weren't entirely my style. A loose flowy silver tank top that kind of sparkled a little and a pair of straight blue jeans.

I left the bedroom and made my way down the hallway back toward the kitchen in time to hear Thirteen's voice.

"And then there were dragons and ogres and trolls and I fought them all off with Lexi's help!" I raised an eyebrow as I came into the kitchen to see Thirteen bouncing up and down in his seat at the dining table with Akin settling plates on the table, a big grin on his face at Thirteen's story telling. I glanced over at the stove, and sure enough, Hannibal was standing at the stove. Sans the apron for some reason. He was decked out in tight black leather pants and a matching sleeveless turtleneck. He glanced at me just for a second and went back to... flipping pancakes?

It was so weird seeing someone massive and deadly flipping pancakes like it was no big deal.

I glanced at Thirteen to see if he thought it was weird, but he seemed completely chill with the concept. He was too busy telling Akin about what sounded like a dream where he was a superhero. I shook my head at that and walked over to take a seat by Thirteen, who stopped talking mid-sentence to beam at me.

"Good morning! Did you hear me telling Akin about my dream? I had a dream I was a superhero and I got to fight dragons and trolls and ogres and saved a prince!"

"A prince? Not a princess?"

"Princess didn't need saving. She was fighting with me. We saved the prince! Together! And then we went to this far off land that was all ocean, just like Atlantis! And there were merpeople! I wanna meet merpeople too!" He exclaimed ecstatically. I stared at him, amazed at how fast he was talking and how excited he was over just a dream.

I looked at Akin to see if he was annoyed with Thirteen's jabbering, but if anything, he seemed to enjoy it as he sat down and put his head in his hands to watch Thirteen with fascination. I took another look at Hannibal, and he didn't seem at all interested in anything anyone had to say as he made a pile of pancakes on a massive plate shaped like a cat with a bow.

Unexpected.

But okay.

I'll take buff men putting fluffy pancakes on a kitty plate.

What next?

I couldn't even think of something more absurd.

"I'll grab those, sweetie," Akin said, rising to his feet. I glanced up, watching Akin make his way over to the King, leaning in to kiss him on the shoulder. The King paused at that, cocked his head like he was listening to some kind of inner voice, then seemed to almost purr as Akin kissed his shoulder again and murmured under his breath, probably hoping we didn't hear.