29. Atmosphere
I was floating on a cloud.
Literally.
Ana had come to me this morning and said she'd dreamed it last night but had no idea how to make it happen. So, of course, I popped us out to a huge area of low-lying cloud cover in the highlands of Scotland. Clouds were a gas, obviously, so I had to use magic to actually float there. But it still counted, I thought.
It was a strange idea I guess, but I was so glad she'd had it. Never in my life had I felt as peaceful as in this moment, lying on air and holding the hand of my best friend. Never in my life... except during my death.
"I love you," she said.
"I love you, Ana Banana. I'm glad we did this."
"It's perfect, isn't it?" she sighed, content. "I wonder when I'll be able to do stuff like this on my own."
"I think you should go to Cecily and the rest of the coven. They'd be able to teach you this stuff. I would teach you myself if I had any idea what the hell I was doing."
She looked over, smiling at me lazily. "I'll go to them. Soon. But not today." She started to hum, and I swayed a little before recognizing the tune.
"People like you find it easy," I sang. "Naked to see, walking on air. Hunting by the rivers, through the streets. Every corner abandoned too soon... set down with due care. Don't walk away... in silence. Don't walk away."
My phone started ringing and Ana laughed. "That is some damn good reception," she commented.
"Hey baby," I spoke into the phone.
"You around, gorgeous?"
"Currently riding the atmosphere. Want me to bring you out here?"
He sighed. "I think I'll pass, but... are we still doing dinner tonight?"
My eyes shot open wide. "I'm so sorry, honey. I'll be home in a second, okay?"
He just chuckled at my forgetfulness. "I love you."
"And I love you." I hung up and took Ana's hand once more. "We gotta roll, babe."
I sent Ana back to her house first; more specifically, I popped her into her and Josh's bedroom closet to fuck with both of them. I had a little giggle about it before shifting myself back to my own home.
I could hear Seth in another room while I swapped my sliced leggings, t-shirt and hoodie for a slinky, backless black dress.
The door was pushed open and he was standing there smiling, dressed in some jeans and a button up. We appraised each other silently, both pleased with what we saw. He crossed the room and snatched me up into a hug, too tight at first and then much softer.
I sang the whole way to the restaurant, just belted everything out as horribly as I felt like. He was nice enough to only laugh at me occasionally without commenting or asking me to shut the fuck up.
We sat down at our small round table in C'est Si Bon, our faces bright in the candlelight. I could feel his eyes on me as I started looking through the menu.
"You know I don't speak French, right?"
"You didn't used to speak much Latin either, and look at you now."
I smirked at him. "Maybe I can enchant the menu," I suggested.
"Or we could just Google stuff," he countered.
I shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat, babe."
He was now looking over his own menu and translating things on his phone, but I kept catching his eyes on me.
"Why do you keep looking at me?" I asked nervously.
"I've missed you lately," he admitted. "I feel like I haven't spent any time with you in weeks. And of course, I'm looking at you because you're the most beautiful thing in the world, and you're sitting across from me." He closed his menu and set it to the side. "Just order two of whatever you want. I don't care about the food."
I could feel my eyes widening, a gasp of air sliding past my lips. I reached tentatively across the table and he grasped my hand... it wasn't enough contact, but it was all we could manage in a restaurant. I needed to be close to him.
The waiter came then to take our orders. "Supreme... De vol - "
"Supreme de volaille chardonay," he pronounced perfectly, covering my blunder with an easy smile. I guess my new linguistic skills didn't apply to French.
I held up two fingers. "Ummm... merci?"
"Oui. Merci m'dame."
"What did you get?" Seth asked once the waiter was gone.
"Some kind of chicken." I sipped at my water. "So, how was work?"
He snickered. "Is that where we're at now? Small talk about work?"
I smiled and took his other hand. "Well, you already know how I spent my day."
"Yours are always more interesting than mine."
"I'm an interesting gal," I winked.
His smile grew wider, his teeth brilliantly white against his deep skin. "That's the understatement of the century. I'm still as enamored by you now as I was the first time I saw you, sitting alone in the woods and playing a song."
"Enamored?" I smiled at the word choice.
"You know I love you... I love you more than anything. But it feels like more than that. You're just... you're perfect."
One would think that after all this time, I'd be more used to being spoken to like this... but one would be wrong. He was making me blush. "I'm glad you think so."
"Oh, I know so."
"You always talk about how great I am... but I don't think you realize how incredible you are. How lucky I am." I peeked up at him through my lashes. "You're just..." Everything. He was everything to me. I loved a lot of people, but Seth was such a part of me that there literally was no more me without him.
His phone started ringing, drawing my attention. He ignored it, choosing to stare at me instead. My phone started ringing a moment later, followed immediately by another call to his.
"It's Leah," I said as I checked the screen.
"And Sam," he said as he finally acknowledged his own.
I answered and could hear all kinds of commotion happening on the other end of the line. "Hello?"
"Liz!"
"Who is this?"
"It's Embry. Leah is about to have the baby!"
I literally leaped out of my chair, barely noticing that Seth was doing the exact same thing. "I'll be right there!" we said simultaneously.
Seth threw a hundred down on the table. "Emily is in labor."
My jaw dropped, and then I frowned. "Leah is in labor, too."
He stopped for a moment, looking conflicted.
"I can go to Emily and you can go to Leah," I said. He loved them both very much, but he couldn't be two places at once and Leah was his sister.
He nodded in agreement. "You take the car. I'll run."
He kissed me longer than he meant to, leaving me a squishy puddle of something in a fancy French restaurant.
I was rushing out when the waiter yelled after me. "M'dam!"
"Money's on the table!" I yelled back before bolting out the door.
I'd been sitting in Sam and Em's living room for about an hour with a crap load of giant Natives when Josh and Ana came in. I got up and scooped my arm through Ana's, steering her right back out the door.
"Let's take a walk," I told her. "That place has basically become a sauna."
She lit two cigarettes and stuck one awkwardly between my lips. "It's too much with big groups in small spaces, but I do love my overheated werewolf man," she smiled.
"Did he tell you Leah was having hers, too?"
"Yes! That's wild. Is that where Seth is?"
"Yeah. He's both excited and upset."
We heard a blood curdling scream come from the house.
I visibly cringed at that.
"Jesus Christ," Ana said. "See, this makes me never want to have kids."
I started to laugh. "I don't think the odds are in your favor with that one. Aren't super swimmers another wolf-guy thing?"
She shrugged. "I have an IUD. Hasn't been an issue so far."
I leaned in close and whispered quietly, hoping that everyone inside couldn't hear me talking about them. "I think they all have more drive to reproduce than other... not-wolf men." I raised my voice back to normal. "Also, them being so in tune with our responses makes for some fucking incredible sex." She was laughing when I whispered again, "But yeah, you're going to end up with some babies."
"Fine, Josh can birth them," she replied flippantly.
We soon heard another piercing scream, then another, then another... My suddenly terrified eyes met Ana's before I ran back into the house, barging past Dave and Brady.
"Whoa!" Josh yelled, steadying me after I collided with his brick wall of a chest.
I could feel the panic on my face. "Is she okay?"