He made his way to the sliding glass door, where he carefully twitched aside the blinds. Outside, he could see that the fire condors had finished their meal and were now sunning themselves on the deck, their golden wings spread out to catch the rays of the sun. They looked deceptively harmless, even as the largest female slitted one eye open to give Teagan back look for look.
I see you,she seemed to say.Go on. Start something. I dare you.
Teagan let the blind drop back into place, considering.
“We can’t do anything right this minute,” he said. “They’ve just eaten, and trying to catch them now will not be a great idea.”
Ros gave him a quizzical look.
“Er, but doesn’t that mean that they’re going to be easier to catch?”
“Well, sort of. You can lay hands on them pretty easily. It’s just that with only the two of us, we can grab at most two at a time and the other four will be on us. They’re very clannish and protective of their family members. Plus. Well... they’ve just eaten.”
“I don’t think I'm going to like where this is going.”
Teagan sighed.
“A lot like turkey vultures, they vomit defensively, and it’s corrosive as hell.”
“Oh my God.”
“Yeah. Not pretty. So they’re going to be settled probably until tomorrow morning, given how big their last meal was. On top of that, unfortunately, I came prepared for one adult. I have enough traps to take care of two, maybe three. I definitely don’t have the supplies to nab all six.”
“Oh no.”
“I can get them, don’t worry. I’ll make a few calls, see who’s around who can help. But between the lack of traps and corrosive vomit, maybe we want to give them some space.”
All things considered, Ros looked relatively calm about the idea of being invaded by dangerous birds that could throw corrosive vomit at her. Teagan decided that if he was in for a lifetime, he might as well risk a dinner.
“So with that in mind, Dag told me about a pot roast place around here that’s pretty good. Can I take you out for dinner?”
Unexpectedly, this made Ros grin.
“Pot roast to say thank you for my alpha goose rescue?”
“Well, absolutely, thank you for the alpha goose rescue, but no.”
“No?”
Teagan couldn’t help smiling. She brought it out in him, made him want to smile almost as much as he wanted to kiss her, and he wanted to kiss her a lot.
“Because you’re gorgeous, and I would like very much to take you out.”
For a second, he thought about how it looked. He had known her for less than an hour, though it had been a pretty exciting hour, complete with laughter, tears and discussions about defensive projectile vomit. However, she didn’t know him from Adam, and she’d had a rough time. He started to take it back, but his mate surprised him.
“I like pot roast,” she said, and all right, yes, he would take that. “Give me a few to get ready.”
Chapter Five
∞∞∞
Teagan went to make some calls, and Ros went to grab her phone in the bedroom.
She hesitated over Tabbie’s number, but there was no way to tell Tabbie what was going on without mentioning the murderbirds on her deck, and her friend was working her very high-stress dream job. If Ros didn’t have to add to that, she didn’t want to.
However, that meant there was really only one person she could think to call, and hesitantly, she dialed. He picked up on the second ring.
“Yello. Dag Willet speaking.”