The Enchanter's New Kids (The Ellwood Chronicles #5) - Michele Notaro Page 0,1

and get the baby’s poop out of my hair!

I blinked at that, then stared down at the baby squirming on the changing table. How did you get poop in your hair?

You don’t want to know.

I pulled the clothes off the baby, and the second I opened his diaper, something wet hit me in the face. It only took me a second to realize it was pee. Home for one minute and I was already covered in horrors.

With a sigh, I tried to block out all the screaming as I scrubbed the little guy clean. Sebastian? I thought to my viramore—my soulmate.

What?

I love you.

I love you, too.

You know you’re gorgeous, right? And amazing.

There was a pause before he said through our link, Being nice to me isn’t going to get me to come back down there any faster.

I snorted. Worth a try.

Don’t worry, only two hours until bedtime.

Holy fuck.

Tell me about it.

Chapter One

Sebastian

TWO MONTHS EARLIER

“We don’t have to go in,” my viramore—my soulmate—said as he reached for my hand and squeezed it before placing a kiss to my palm. “I can run the box up, and we can go right home.”

I glanced at him, my Ailin. He was in the driver’s seat, his bright green eyes full of concern, his long black hair braided back on one side while the rest hung loose around his shoulder. We’d been together for around six years now, and still I sometimes couldn’t believe my luck. He still dressed in all black, reminding me of the goth kid I thought he was the first time we’d met, only now I saw the softer sides of him, too. Outside of our home, he was tough, annoyed with just about everyone that dared to speak to him, and typically an overall asshole, but at home he was… well, still an asshole, but now I knew how much he cared about his family, about me, about everyone, really.

“I am not an asshole,” he muttered, overhearing my thoughts. Since he was my viramore, we could speak telepathically, and sometimes strong thoughts ended up seeping through our connection.

“Yes, you are,” I said and leaned over to kiss his shoulder. “But you’re my asshole.” As soon as those words were out of my mouth, my eyes widened, and Ailin laughed, so I put my hand over his mouth. “Don’t say it.”

“But I want to,” he mumbled around my hand, then swiped his tongue over my palm.

“Ew. Come on, you child.”

He kissed my palm. “I thought I was your asshole?” He grinned.

I pushed his shoulder, shaking my head. “What I meant was that you are a giant ass, but you have the biggest heart of anyone I know.”

“Don’t be sappy with me.”

“It’s the truth.”

“Trying to get into my pants, detective?”

“As if I have to try.”

Chuckling, he leaned across the console to kiss my neck over the top of my vitmea mark—a spell he’d cast to bind us together that left marks like tattoos on our necks—making me shiver. To pay him back, I lightly brushed my fingers over his vitmea mark. He smirked and ran his hand through my hair, muttering words in another language under his breath. I had no idea what the hell he was saying. It could’ve been poetry or he could’ve been cussing me out—I’d give it fifty-fifty odds, it seriously could go either way, and the bastard spoke a billion languages, so I could never keep up.

I cut him off. “Ailin?”

“Sebastian.”

I sighed and said, “No starting shit in the car. Look where we are.” I gestured to the huge, looming building in front of us.

He huffed and rolled his eyes, then kissed the back of my hand and held it tight in his. “What do you want to do, Seb?”

“You really want me to meet these girls?”

“Yes, baby.”

“Then we’ll go in.”

His green eyes flicked back and forth, taking me in and probably seeing more than I was comfortable with before he nodded and said, “We can sit in the car for a bit longer.”

“You’re being really understanding even though I know you’re dying to go inside.”

He shrugged.

“Thank you.”

“See, I’m not always an asshole.”

I grinned at that. “Just most of the time.”

“Well, people are usually idiots, so…”

I snorted and leaned back in my seat to stare at the stupid building again. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go and meet these girls Ailin had been talking about for the past two weeks, it was that I didn’t want to get hit with the memories that came with