“A one-trick pony witch.” Gray scoffs.
“Fuck off!” Jill snaps back.
I push away from Gray and stand between the three of them. Though Dax doesn’t immediately speak up, I know he has plenty to say on the matter. If this goes on, he’ll step in to back Jill up, and I just can’t handle both of them without knowing what’s going on. Between my memory loss and them talking in circles around me, I just need a scrap of cooperation that doesn’t include arguing.
“For fuck’s sake, stop. Both of you.” I look at Jill, hoping she’ll just hear me out. “Can we all just talk?”
Jill presses her lips into a tight line and nods. She’ll cooperate.
“And you.” I turn to Gray. His brows pull together in question. “Can we not antagonize her? She almost killed you once already. Let’s not go for round two.”
That earns me a small smile, and he holds his hands up in defeat. “Fair enough.”
“Great!” Clapping my hands together in front of my chest, I then point to Dax. “Now that we’re all on the same side, can we get an entire pot of coffee going? Something tells me I’m going to need more than one cup of caffeine.”
I’m on my fifth cup of coffee, all black, no sugar, and I’m shaking.
“So, I was… dead?” I ask.
“Don’t exaggerate,” Jill says, sinking into Dax’s couch. She looks so tired from where I’m sitting, and immediately, the guilt sets in. They’ve been looking after me this whole time, running on little to no sleep.
Worry will do that to you.
“Okay, soalmostdead. And the guy that came after me?” I look at Gray, who is a safe distance between me and the armchair I’m sitting in. He’s opted to lean against the wall, opposite of where Dax is sitting at his bar. We’re all scattered in odd places—close, but not cozy.
“We think it was our mutual friend from Halloween.” Gray pushes away from the wall. Slowly, he kneels in front of me and takes my hand. “Does any of this provide clarity? Have you remembered anything at all?”
With a slight shake of my head, I say ‘no.’
“Don’t strain yourself,” Gray says, patting my hand. He stands and lets it fall back into my lap. I feel like he’s trying to putsome distance between us, and while the moment isn’t exactly romantic, it would be nice to know he still cares. Even just a little.
Jill’s phone goes off, and she sits forward to take it out of her pocket. “My ride's here.”
“Wait!” I shout. “Are we just… we’re just gonna leave it at that? I don’t get to hear about your witchy stuff?”
Jill snorts and shakes her head. “You almost died, Millie, and you want to waste time listening to me talk about magic?”
“Yes? I mean, my two best friends are witches. Why wouldn’t I want that?”
“Sorry, Millie. Next time, okay?” Jill stands, and I follow. “Right now, I need to get some sleep.”
When she holds out her arms for me, I go in for a hug. The last few days haven’t been awesome for me, but I know they’ve been much worse for her.
“I’ll text you when I’ve had at least twelve solid hours of sleep, okay?” she promises, pulling back.
“Okay.”
“I’ll walk you down,” Dax says coolly. I get the feeling that things between them are pretty good. He hasn’t taken his eyes off of her once since we started talking. I hope that means they made up, even if the circumstances were kind of shit.
When they leave, I shift my focus back to Gray. The air feels stiff and awkward while neither of us speaks.
“So, did you swoop in and heal me again?” I ask, though I don’t remember any of the side effects that usually follow. Maybe I was so out cold that the horny frenzy didn’t get me this time.
“No.” Gray frowns. “I didn’t give you my blood.”
My eyes widen. “Then who did?”
“It was Tannis. They came with me.” He drops his head, eyes focused on the ground at his feet. “I wanted to do it, but I knew that if I did, you would be worse off. There was a chance Tannis’sblood might have had the same effect, but I couldn’t bring myself to put you in a harder position.”
