Luca sighed. ‘Maybe I should cancel my trip.’ He’s supposed to be heading to Vegas tomorrow for an expo and will be gone for a week.
‘I can handle this.’ I squeeze his shoulder. ‘He’s not a danger or anything.’
Luca nods, but I can tell he’s wary. He’s my little brother, but he’s always been overly protective, which probably comes from the fact that he outgrew me at thirteen and has a good thirty pounds of muscle on me.
Not that I mind. I’ve always preferred being soft. I was mocked relentlessly in high school for wearing makeup and being a little too femme for the small-town jocks—though half of me still believes they were angry because they were attracted to me and didn’t know how to process it.
But I do appreciate having Luca, who has never hesitated to throw hands when I needed him to.
‘Gia and Amara are here, too,’ I remind him, pointing to the wall behind me. Our cousin and her wife rent the third apartment in the triplex, and it has come in handy more than once.
Luca nods, his shoulders relaxing, then he stiffens and points. Cielo’s starting to move, and a second later, I hear one of his trilling hums. It’s hoarse and ragged, telling me he’s in pain.
I push past Luca, hurrying over, and drop to my knees beside him. He blinks, his rainbow eyes a little hazy as he turns his head to me.
“Hi,” I tell him.
Beside me, Luca makes a noise and waves his hand at Cielo to get his attention. Cielo blinks at him owlishly, looking between Luca and me, then makes another noise of pain.
“Hey,” I say, and sign for Luca’s benefit. “You’re awake.”
Cielo hums softly and attempts to sit up, but I quickly press a hand to the part of his chest that isn’t covered in wounds. I’ve dressed them and whatever the herbs are that he’s taken—plus the cum—seems to be helping him heal.
But it’s still not enough.
“Hold on. You still need more of your medicine.”
He eases back down to the couch, and his long tongue flicks over his lips, wincing when it touches a split along the bottom right corner.
I feel a pulse of rage coursing through me at whoever did this to him. I don’t know how or why he was put through this. Everest gave me a vague run-down of what happened, but it was clear he wasn’t allowed to divulge much.
All I know is that Rathyn got in trouble, Cielo was caught up in it, and now he is banished from Erethar and forced to live here among humans.
I have no idea if that’s the worst kind of torture for Cielo or not, but he’s probably missing his family. The only comfort I have for him is knowing that Vyastil can survive perfectly well here on Earth.
Cielo looks at Luca again and makes a questioning noise, and I realize my brother wasn’t here when I first brought Cielo home.
“My brother,” I explain. “He lives next door, so you’re probably going to see a lot of him.”
Luca leans over my shoulder a little further and fingerspells, ‘Hi.’
Cielo blinks at him, then points to his face. It takes me a second, then I realize he’s pointing out Luca’s freckles. He has a ton of them. So many that it became his sign name when he was a kid.
“Oh yeah,” I say with a small grin. “You guys don’t have those, do you?” I reach up and poke Luca on the apple of his cheek, then sign and say, “Freckles.”
“Frehhhhkllll,” Cielo tries. He struggles with the word, but mimics the sign without error.
Cielo starts to shift again, but lets out a high-pitched noise of pain, and I quickly stand, my knees popping as I go. “Don’t move. I’m going to get the rest of your poultice, okay? Rathyn told me it’ll help.”
Cielo jolts at the sound of the other monster’s name, but after a second, he nods and settles.
Turning, I hurry into the kitchen with Luca at my heels, and he makes an impatient noise, grabbing my arm to get my attention.
‘I didn’t realize how bad it all was. Who did that to him?’
I let out a heavy sigh. ‘I don’t know. He was sent to prison in Erethar,’ I use the sign name Luca gave to the monster’s world—an E tapped on the forehead. ‘Everest couldn’t tell me much.’
Luca scowls. ‘Fucked up.’ He vocalizes that in his anger, and I don’t blame him. Luca has always been a caregiver. He’s always hated seeing anyone in pain.
