Alex pushed past the doctor and nurses and wheeled in a cart overflowing with crocks of gumbo, bowl of steaming crawfish, freshly baked bread, laden with martini glasses of different colors.
Dr. Czacinski and one of the nurses grumbled about the alcohol, but Dr. Hermann just slunk into the room, took readings, and slunk out, avoiding Rile's glare and Alex's scrutiny.
Grange breezed into the room and took a slice of bread.
"Martini?" Alex teased and held out a crystal-studded martini glass full of bright green liquid.
"Naughty Guardian," he said with equanimity. "I'm on duty. And I'm here to give you an assignment."
Alex sipped the green apple martini. "I can work and drink at the same time. What is it?"
He shrugged. "Tax evasion."
Rolling her eyes, Alex took a larger sip. "Really? Sounds like a waste of my unique talents."
"Ah, but he owes 54 million dollars and made it to a ship leaving the port of New Orleans as we speak."
Alex smiled a feral smile.
The next evening when Alex returned, she admitted to unnecessarily dunking him in the muddy Mississippi River several times, and she smiled the whole time.
"I'm worried about Meribah," Lok said as he clicked through the TV channels. He had been fascinated by Ru Paul's Drag Race, which made perfect sense since he was a chameleon.
"Me too," Alex said.
"She has her father Gabe," Rile said. At Alex's dubious look, he added, "And Cale."
"Neither of them has any power on our home world," Razz said with a disdainful sniff.
Alex nudged him. "Time for bed if Razz is snarky."
Lok obediently turned off the TV and placed the remote on the table next to the bed. Alex snuggled next to Lok and Razz was quick to press against Alex. Rile sighed.
Alex pointed a finger at him. "Please don't pout. Once we leave here, I'll be right next to you every night."
Rile leaned back in the recliner and closed his eyes.
Nurse Anne was making her rounds at midnight when the Portal Guardian manifested and every alarm wailed and blinked red light. Rile was on his feet, sword at the ready, while Razz was sitting up, his dagger also on point. Lok searched for his lost dagger by instinct. Anne ran to the nurse's desk and spoke rapidly into the intercom there.
"Seriously?" Alex almost shouted at the Portal Guardian. Her eyes and hair were wild with the rude awakening. "Maybe you would be stronger if you took a full night's sleep."
"Remind me to recruit Guardians who don't whine about sleep," the Portal Guardian retorted, her wings of blue light waving irritably and her form shifting rapidly between human, Agama, Anolis, and Chameleon.
Alex laughed and said, "I am a devoted follower of the goddess of sleep. Are all my counterparts as bad?"
Rile, Razz, and Lok all relaxed as the Portal Guardian's wings stopped waving and the crystalline tinkling of her laughter rolled through the room. Her form shifted to winged human and stayed.
"Yes, so it is entirely my fault that I recruited as many as I could," the PG replied.
Two guards ran down the hall, but both lowered their weapons and waited outside the ICU room when they saw the Portal Guardian.
"Grange will be pissed he missed the Portal Guardian again," one guard whispered to another, who nodded sympathetically.
"Well, get up," the Portal Guardian said. "Time to rejoin Meribah and my Guardians with her. They need help."
YOU ARE READING
Dangerous Prodigals and Adopted Children : Book 6 of the Guardians Saga
Fantasy#3 dragon romance, #2 girl hero, highest rankings. Gabe's dangerous daughter returns home. But will she follow in her father's footsteps or continue In her murderous mother's ways? An unlikely father figure steps up to adopt Gaala and Hexei. Will t...
