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“Excellent point.” Aiden slowly looked at each of his sons. “Until this is over, no one within the clan travels alone.” He paused at Rafe. “Spread the word to Jullien, Gideon, Lola, and Ryder.”
“I will,” Rafe said. “I also have an interesting contact who is quite good at moving unseen among the vampires. I’ll see if he’s heard anything about Damon and his clan.”
Fox and Ethan returned to the living room, carrying plates of pizza, napkins, and glasses of water.
“The rest of it will be out in about twenty minutes, but I thought we could get started on this,” Ethan announced.
The wolves and Ethan fell on the food like they were starving while Fox grabbed just a slice to pick at. Winter struggled to sit beside him and not pull him close. The witch was a little more relaxed since disappearing into the kitchen with Ethan, but his mood was too somber. He didn’t want Fox melancholy or darkly pensive. It was better when he was laughing or teasing or even shouting at one of his brothers.
Well, that part was becoming one of his favorites.
But right now, he needed something to distract him or at least lighten his mood.
“How are the guitar lessons going, River?” Winter asked as the conversation fell into a lull while some of those gathered ate.
As Winter had hoped, River instantly lit up, the slice of pizza forgotten in his hand. “I’ve learned six new songs recently. I feel like I’m picking things up faster now. It’s all started to make sense.”
“I’ve also started teaching him the piano,” Marcus added.
Winter snorted. “Going to the dark side already. Just don’t let Rafe try to teach you the violin. He’s got zero patience.”
Rafe shrugged. “It’s true. I tried teaching the We—” For some strange reason Rafe stopped and stared at Winter for a second. His eyes darted over to Fox and then back to Winter. “I tried teaching Winter once when he couldn’t decide on an instrument, but it was an utter disaster.”
Winter stared at his brother, unable to guess at what he saw that convinced him to stop using the nickname. He smiled at Rafe and gave the barest of nods. In the end, the reason probably didn’t matter. He appreciated it all the same.
“Actually, we’re having one of the rooms in the house soundproofed, so I was thinking my next instrument would be a horn or something in percussion.” River paused and held up one finger. “That being said, I did see that insane wall of guitars over there. I think you need to play something for us.”
To his surprise, Fox’s hand landed on his arm and he turned to find his playful expression in place as he’d hoped. “You don’t just collect them? You play them too?” he teased.
“You haven’t played for him yet?” River gasped.
“We haven’t been back from Virginia that long. I thought we’d start out with things like sleep and food.”
“Music is food for the soul,” Bel murmured softly, and the Varik sons fell silent for a heartbeat. It was a phrase uttered by their mother their entire human lives, and Winter was positive they had all believed it.
Winter rose from the couch, walked over to the far wall decorated with guitars, and pulled down his favorite. It wasn’t his oldest, fanciest, or even rarest. It was a run-of-the-mill Fender, but he’d always like the way this one just lay in his hands, as if she wanted to be played by him and only him.
He returned to his spot on the couch and began playing. The songs just came off the tips of his fingers. Old ones he played for his mother and once complained of hearing them too often. Other songs he played only for himself when he needed to drown out the noise created by the ghosts floating through his house.
But the songs he played didn’t matter. He just wanted to play for Fox, hoping to erase the last of the worry from his eyes and the sad downturn from his lips.
He only stopped when the timer for the food went off and Ethan rushed to get it. He set the guitar safely aside and was stunned when Fox wrapped his arms around him as he started to turn back to his family.
“Thank you,” the witch whispered in his ear.
Winter closed his eyes, pressing his lips into the man’s slender shoulder, as he let his warmth wrap around him. For the first time in his life, Winter wasn’t thinking about his family, his duty, or even how he was going to hold his own sanity together. There was only Fox.
And he wanted the moment to never end.
Chapter 14
Fox dropped face first onto the sofa and groaned when Winter closed the door on the last of his relatives. At one time, he’d been crazy enough to be jealous of all the friends who had these big, noisy families.
