“Gross.” Ian glanced down at what he was wearing. “Huh.” He pulled the blood-spattered T-shirt and frowned. “I should probably have a shower.” He glanced up and met Jesse’s gaze. “Can I borrow some more clean clothes?”
Jesse’s mind had frozen on the idea of Ian naked in his shower, and it took him a moment to parse the question. “Yeah, of course. I could probably do with a shower too.” He smirked at Ian’s raised eyebrow, the image in his head morphing to include both of them. Wet, naked, and—
“Wow, you too. At least wait until I’ve left the room.”
Jesse’s head snapped around to find Lys looking at him, eyebrows raised.
“You forgot I was here, didn’t you?” she asked, incredulous.
“No.” Jesse grinned.
“Liar.” She smiled, so he figured he was forgiven. She nodded at the blood he still held. “Any trouble getting that?”
Her question hit him like a bucket of cold water and the smile slipped off his face.
“I’m gonna take that as a yes.”
Passing a blood bag to Lys and then Ian, Jesse took one for himself and settled back against the headboard. “I ran into Peter.”
“Oh joy.” Lys pulled a face. “Where’s he been hiding himself. I felt for sure he’d be back here keeping tabs on us.”
“I suspect he’s been with Michael and Simon. Plotting.” That was Jesse’s best guess, anyway, after his epiphany in the kitchen.
“Plotting?” Ian and Lys said at the same time.
“Yeah. We met Raph in the kitchen.” Jesse proceeded to give them a rundown of what happened next and his thoughts on the whole thing, until their grim expressions matched his.
“There’s only one way out of this as far as Peter’s concerned.” He gave Ian a sad smile. “And that’s getting rid of the evidence.”
Lys groaned. “We should’ve gone to Raph at the very start, asked Liam to call him back to the coven.”
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” Jesse agreed. “But we can’t go back and fix it. We need a new plan going forward though, because the only thing standing between Peter and a clean getaway is Ian. And I don’t think he’s going to let it drag on.”
“Why didn’t he kill you when you first got to the house?” Lys asked. “You said you met him outside, right? Why not do it then?”
Jesse had forgotten about that, it seemed so long ago instead of merely hours. “I think maybe at the start, he hadn’t thought it through properly. I took him by surprise; he didn’t expect me to make Ian a vampire.” And he wasn’t on his own. “Now he’s had a chance to weigh all the options and realised he’s in the shit if Ian stays alive.”
Ian finished off his blood, licking the last traces off his lips, and Jesse’s attention caught on the sweep of his tongue. Their earlier conversation flooded back to him, and suddenly he wanted to forget all the shit going on around them and explore Ian the way he wanted to, the way he could now they were both vampires. “We need to tell Raph,” he murmured, still watching Ian’s mouth. “And soon.”
“Let’s go get him, then.” Lys was already on her feet. “Before you two tear each other’s clothes off. Jesus, boys, tone it down a bit.”
“Sorry.” Jesse smirked as he failed to inject any sincerity into his voice. “And I left him being steered to his office by Peter on the premise of discussing the pack meeting about our agreement with the VLCD. They could be in there hours.”
“Fuck.” Lys pulled out her phone.
“It’s not something you can tell him over the phone, for fuck’s sake.”
“I know that.” She glanced up at him, irritation flashing in her eyes. “I’m calling the hospital to see if I can swap my shift. We need to get this sorted tonight.”
A lengthy and irate phone call later, Lys had successfully swapped her next two nights at work with someone else. “Right. As I see it, we need somewhere safer than here to stash Ian. Because as much as I love and trust Raph, there’s no guarantee that he won’t take one look at this whole fucking mess and side with Peter. At this stage, getting rid of Ian and making it look like an accident is the simplest and cleanest solution.”
“Hey! I’m right here, you know.” Ian’s gaze darted between the two of them, and Jesse hated the fear he saw there.
“Sorry.” He reached for Ian’s hand, gutted when he flinched away. “Lys and I don’t think like that,” he tried to reassure him.
“Why not?” Ian spat, fangs sliding out as his fear turned into anger. “Like you said, it’ll solve everyone’s problems. With me out of the way, everyone’s in the clear.”
“Because it’s not right. Lys and I are in favour of the agreement, not only because it protects us from being hunted, but it means there’s no expectation for ustohunt.”
