“Of course, call your mate. I’ll order tea. We can talk about you taking up pottery again. I think, perhaps, that your Earth Talents would be best realized in the pursuit of art.” She nods toward his phone on the desk and opens the door to her office to let Leo in with a smile. “Leo, come in. Grayson is too distracted to do the easiest of tasks today. Please chastise him at length.”
Laughing, Leo nods, but raises his eyebrow at Grayson. When the Professor has left the room, he asks, “You can’t get it up today or what?”
“I think you know from recent experience that’s not true,” Grayson says before dialing his soulmate’s number. Nix’s phone rings three times without being answered. “I can’t feel Nix, and he’s not picking up. He said he would take his phone when he went out.” He pulls on The Plain harder than hewould normally, pushing the energy through their soul while he dials again.
This time, the call drops almost instantly. Shit.
“You try.”
Although why he’d answer Leo and not Grayson, he can’t imagine. He regrets not having the microchip app downloaded to his phone. There had been negotiations that only Finn would have it, even though everyone knows Gideon has access, too.
“You can’t feel him at all? That’s not good,” Leo says.
Grayson knows without Leo’s shake of his head that the call hasn’t connected, either.
“Does he have the bonds turned down? Why would he do that?”
While Leo is worried aboutwhyNix has shut down the flow of the bonds, Grayson only cares that he has. That they hadn’t noticed probably means he’d been doing it gradually all day. Their mates would only become more agitated, irritable, and anxious, but it would be more effective than an abrupt cessation if he hadn’t wanted to cause immediate alarm.
Like a headache that creeps up on you, until you suddenly realize you’re dehydrated, or the feeling of being hangry when your last meal was breakfast because you’d been too busy to stop for lunch.
“Dammit. How long has it been going on?”
“If you didn’t notice until now, it can’t be an emergency, right?” Leo asks.
He’s got his phone to his ear, and he can hear it go to Luca’s voicemail, too. With a shake of his head, he dials again. This time, Finn’s voicemail says he’s in the clinic and to leave a message with Dennie. “Surely if someone in the pack was hurt, Finn would be the first to know, yeah?”
A sudden burst of heat flares under Grayson’s belly button, sharp and searing, before vanishing just as quickly. “Ow, fuck.”
He’s had enough of not knowing, of not feeling fully Nix’s soul open freely to let their magic flow unimpeded. He sits on the corner of Professor Shaw’s couch and puts his shoes back on before calling for a car. He’ll have to get to the road before the driver can pick them up, given the Guild is hidden from non-magical eyes, but if they leave now, they can get there beforethe car does.
Leo must have decided to talk to Dennie, because when Grayson tunes back in, he hears the nurse say, “He peeled out of here like his ass was on fire about fifteen minutes ago while I was on the phone. Left two patients in the office, too. Is everything alright with Nix?”
Another sharp pain escapes Nix’s grip on their bond, and Grayson knows with 100% accuracy that Nix is most assuredly not okay. Without further thought or a word to Leo, Grayson pulls on The Plain and moves.
He’s on the lawn outside Professor Shaw’s hut and then again, past the gates. Now that he knows when he’s doing it, Grayson can get further when he teleports than he was able to in Florida.
He considers trying to get the twelve miles to the compound by teleportation instead of finding a free-range taxi, but the more populated areas will make landing more awkward. People frown upon suddenly-appearing men who then disappear just as abruptly, and Grayson does not want any more attention than he’s already been getting from GASP or the Were Alliance committees.
His phone rings when he lands behind a ramen place and heads down to the mouth of the alley toward the street. He connects the call, but doesn’t answer Leo when he sees Artem sitting in his small car. Their friend leans over to pop open the door for him.
“Artem? What are you doing here?”
Their friend shrugs, putting the car into drive and merging into the busy street’s traffic. “You know how this works, Grayson,” he says with a smile. “Now, seatbelt, please.”
“Yeah, but it works for Nix when he needs you. Not me.”
“And you getting home in time to see your daughters born is for Nix too, no?” the older man says, honking the horn to encourage the reversing truck to let them pass.
Grayson freezes.
He’s sure he looks just like Gideon when he’s processing, as he can feel himself blinking. But in Grayson’s typical fashion, he also adds his gaping mouth for added individuality.
“What! He’s in labor? Right now? How long? At the mall?”
“Slow down. He tried to hide it from me and Luca at first, because I think he’s scared.”
Grayson rubs his face with his palm. Thinking about Nix at the mall or home, scared and in pain, makes Grayson want to puke.
