Slowly easing him into my arms, attempting to not jostle him out of his dreams, I sat in the plush chair in the corner, leaning back as I brought him to my breast. Laughter filtered in from the living room before the front door groaned shut.
Atlas’s footsteps padded across the wooden floor, becoming louder until he appeared in the doorframe. He was in a pair of black flannel sleep pants and a matching T-shirt.
“So, he invited us to the moonluck?”
He walked over, kneeling down next to the chair and resting his elbows on its arm, looking up at me. “Yeah. Apparently, Aurora had meant to invite you when she saw you at your bootcamp class.”
“She saw me?”
If she did, she didn’t act like she noticed. Not that I minded. I wasn’t really trying to draw attention to myself during that workout anyway.
“Yep. I told him we’d let him know. It’s from five o’clock to moonrise.”
“Well, that sounds great!”
This would be perfect. At least at the Wellses we’d be surrounded by other witches and Atlas would be so distracted by the attention he’d get that it would buy us lots of crowded hours. It would also stop him from trying to go down memory lane or plan any moonlit picnics.
Desire snapped painfully under my skin like a rubber band, stinging at the thought. And while I missed how fucking good it felt to have my magic, the idea of replenishing it tonight with Atlas here…
It would just be so wrong.
“Do I need to make something for it?” I asked, realizing you usually bring a dish to share for these things.
“I’ve got it covered.” Atlas was already typing into his phone. “Getting groceries delivered within the next hour. I’ll make my famous rosemary potato salad. Aspen can help.”
My mouth watered at the thought. Atlas’s cooking was exceptional. I never minded being his taste tester, and so many times those evenings of watching him cook turned into something much hotter than any oven—
Nope, nope, nope.
“Sounds great.” My voice cracked through the lie I was telling myself: that I didn’t want him anymore. But whatever happened tonight, I needed to stay as far away from Atlas as possible.
“I’m looking forward to meeting the rest of your neighbors,” he said, heading out into the living room.
Another thought hit me, one that was even more terrifying… If every witch would be there tonight, that meant Lynx might be there too.
What if they met? How the heck was I going to handle them both?
I’d already explained I wasn’t with Atlas, so it wasn’t like I was hiding anything. And for all I knew, I could have been misreading things. But how would my ex take the idea of me with someone else?
I didn’t know.
And I wasn’t sure I was ready to find out.
* * *
Thirty minutes later,we arrived at the police station, and I followed Fitz inside, watching as he greeted every officer he ran into. He truly seemed to know everyone.
“I’ll meet you back here once I’m done,” Fitz said, giving me a pat on the shoulder.
“Sounds good.”
I headed toward the front desk, waiting for the officer, a tall woman with dark-brown skin and intricately braided hair that was tucked up into a bun, to look up at me. Her eyes remained on her computer, seemingly not seeing me standing right in front of her, chuckling to herself. Two long fangs glinted as she did.
Vampire.
My hackles were instantly raised. It was unusual to see vampires working in law enforcement, especially since most of their community was under the protection of the Vivaldi Syndicate, an underground criminal network that had dealings between the mortal and supernatural world. There weren’t many supernaturals who would willingly let a vampire feed from them, so their kind often operated between our two worlds, both as a business strategy and as a matter of survival.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a vamp. A few times when we lived at the capital, but it was rare. Any in politics were instantly a red flag for corruption, since it was rare to find a vampire not under Vivaldi’s protection.
