I could picture my sister Ezra in her big boss chair in her fancy office in Vegas, glaring at the space in front of her like I was there and she could intimidate me with her presence and expectation. I could almost feel it over the phone, and it almost made me laugh.
I exhaled hard through my nose.
“Alright. Alright,” I said, shoving the notebook closed before I could look at it again. The pen rolled across the table and hit the edge with a soft clatter. “I’ll be on in less than a minute.”
“You better be,” she growled before the line went dead.
I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it for a second before chucking it in the opposite direction of where Rack was sitting, giving him a wide, toothy smile.
Rack didn’t move. Didn't even take his eyes off me.
His hand flicked toward him. The phone arced away from the wall it was just about to crash into, and within a few seconds, it drifted neatly into his hand.
Without comment, he put the phone in his pocket and the first-aid kit away. Smart man.
“You two win,” I muttered, dragging a hand through my hair, fingers catching slightly before I yanked them free. “You always fucking do.”
He didn't respond to that either, just closed the drawer and looked at his watch. Reminding me of my promise to my sister.
I glanced at the blade, sitting there quietly. The silence in the air called at me to stay, to figure out this puzzle, so I did the only thing I could do.
I ran.
Using my vampire speed, I blurred past Rack, zipping through the door, boots hitting the ground in rapid succession. Lights streaked past overhead as I took the stairs two at a time, the lab’s hum fading behind me.
By the time I reached my office, the world had shifted from cold steel and the stench of blood to rich mahogany wood and clean, polished notes.
My gaze swept over the mahogany bookshelves, the credenza, and the desk centered in the room. Everything was pristine, tucked neatly into place. The only thing left out was the encrypted halo graphic simulator sitting on my desk, the one E and I thought about making when we decided to live in different states.
I was starting to regret that decision.
If we’d stuck to simple video calls, no one would’ve seen the organized chaos that was my real office, tucked beside my lab. Ever since that last meeting, where I fumbled around trying to find results with my family on the line, I’d been getting texts with my family joking about my “hurricane” of a workspace.Normally, I wouldn’t have cared, but my father’s recent one-word replies carried a weight I couldn’t ignore.
Falcon hated mess. He’d always been on my ass about it.
His voice echoed in my head, dragging me back to when I was thirteen, apprenticing under him. He and I were standing in front of his office, and the first thing he told me was “A messy office is an indicator of a messy mind… and a boss should always be on point.”
In a lot of ways, we were the same. Our minds clicked with gears and magic alike. We could tear apart data and rebuild it into the fastest solution. Our hands were always itching to invent, to improve, to refine… constantly chasing ways to make things better.
But that was where the similarities ended.
I had my mom’s chaos running through my veins, and it drove his meticulous ass insane. You’d think between her and especially Lex, who had zero respect for privacy or personal boundaries unless it came to Mom, he would’ve loosened up by now. Then again, even he didn’t push Falcon too far.
The last time I asked why, Lex muttered something about not wanting to wake “a control-obsessed psycho lion with a hornet’s nest.”
A smile tugged at my lips as I thought about my parents. For a split-second, I let myself miss them. As deadly and intense as they were, they always made us laugh… even if it usually ended with someone bleeding.
Dropping into my high-backed chair, I hit connect. Miniature versions of Ezra and Riot flickered into view in front of me.Ezra’s lips twitched, and I glanced at the clock and tilted my head with a smirk.
Right on time.
“Hey, E,” I drawled, stretching the sarcasm thin. “Loooong time, no talk.”
She ignored me completely, nodding absently as her phone buzzed. She snatched it up and started typing, each finger punching the screen.
“Ri,” I sighed, rolling my eyes at Ezra’s blatant dismissal even though she was the one who’d dragged me here. “I’ll bet you ten grand she’s texting Niyah and Nova threats right now.”
My younger sister sat stiff as a statue, eyes fixed somewhere behind me, not so much as blinking. She was messing with me, right?
