"He's not going to answer me, is he?" Dwayne whispered loudly.
"Nope," I told him. "He's not."
"Fine by me, it's a fabulously smooth ride. Are you all enjoying my Hummer?" he asked with an innocent grin.
"Oh my god." I laughed and then groaned. "You totally bought this car so you could legally say hummer all the time without getting in trouble."
"Guilty," he sang and then high-fived Granny.
"Dwayne," Hank said with a chuckle. "We need to talk."
"About Hummers?" he asked.
"Uhhh no, about Were Cows."
"Dear god, did Junior find out more?"
"Yes and no," Hank said as he turned off on an exit and parked the humongous vehicle at a deserted rest stop. "Your name was accidently tied in on an Internet search and the Cows are now possibly aware of you."
Dwayne's silence was scary, but his levitation that plastered him to the ceiling of the car was downright frightening.
"Um, Dwayne?" I whispered. "Can I do anything for you?"
"No, doll, I just need to work out my anger issues for a minute," he replied as if he weren't hanging like a human bat.
"Okay."
"Maybe they're not related to the Cows you married," Granny said as she reached up and patted his kneecap.
"Did we get a surname?" Dwayne inquired calmly as he dangled.
"Yep," Hank said hesitantly.
"Dung?" Dwayne asked even more calmly.
Crap, if the answer was yes, would Dwayne blow off the roof of the car?
"Yes, it's Dung," Hank answered and then held his breath.
"Well, that's suckerific," Dwayne screeched as he dropped from the ceiling to the floor with a thud. "I'm going have to go find them before they find me."
"Why would you do that?" I demanded. "They want you dead."
"True," he said. "But in order for me to have any kind of upper hand, I can't wait for them to ambush me. If anything happened to one of you guys I would have to decapitate myself and that is very difficult."
"Whoa, so you're just gonna go off on your own and kill a bunch of Dungs?" I snapped. "I forbid you to do this alone."
"Essie, you are not the boss of me," Dwayne said with a sad smile.
"I am the boss of everybody," I informed him loudly. "Just ask Hank."
Hank shrugged and grinned. Granny just patted Dwayne's head like he was a dog.
"She's correct," Granny told Dwayne.
"That she's the boss of everyone?" Dwayne asked, confused.
"Hell to the no! I'm the boss of everyone," Granny said. "Always have been, always will be. However, Essie is correct about you not going off half-cocked and getting into it with the Cow Dungs."
"The Dung Cows," Dwayne corrected her.
"What?"
Now Granny was confused.
"Bottom line," I ground out, not wanting to get into a semantics debate that could take hours. "We're a family. We work together. First the Dragons, then the Dungs, and then the Council. You understand me?"
"I'm farklempt," Dwayne blubbered as he fluttered his hand in front of his watery eyes. "Not really used to having backup."
"Well, now you have it, and if you go off by yourself I will decapitate you," I said as I bent over the passenger seat and gave him a hug.
"That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," he said as he sniffled.
"You're welcome." I laughed and rolled my eyes.
"Everyone out of the car," Hank directed. "Stretch your legs and prepared to get stabbed."
"Sweet hell, is this a Werewolf thing?" Dwayne asked as he got out.
"Nope," Hank said as he pulled a sharp pocketknife from the glove compartment. "It's a safety thing. We're all getting homing transmitters put in so Junior can track us if we get separated."
Hank quickly inserted the small knife into both Granny and Dwayne's hips and placed tiny metal chips inside them. They healed immediately. He then sliced his own hip and slid a transmitter under his skin.
"Why doesn't Essie have to get stabbed?" Dwayne complained as he stared at his healing hip.
"Because I already have one in my butt," I said as I narrowed my eyes at my mate.
Hank didn't give me a heads up when he stabbed me in the ass two weeks ago to plant a transmitter in me. We were going after the Dragons and time was of the essence…
"Would you have let me stab you in the butt if I told you I was going to?" he asked as he crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a lopsided grin.
"Yes," I said, not making eye contact. I could throw down with the best of them, but I really hated getting stabbed.
"Really?" he prodded.
"Yes, really," I snapped. "You might have had to chase me down for an hour."
"Or two," Granny chimed in.
"Fine. It was better to just blindly stab my ass. You happy?"
"Yep," he said as he grabbed me and swung me around.
"You're a dork."
"I'm your dork," he shot back and punctuated it with a kiss.
"Are we going to stand here and watch you two suck face or are we gonna go get some Dragons?" Granny asked with a grin.
"Actually, Dwayne made a fine point," Hank said as he gave me one last peck and then got all sexy serious.