Maybe when you pinned Reece down on your truck’s back seat and made him come with his own gloves, said a little voice in his head.
Grayson twitched. He carefully ignored any rising memories as he sent a text back. Because hewouldtake that invitation and come and get Reece.
In a completely platonic, law-and-order sense of the phrase.
Grayson:Pretty cocky coming from an empath who’s gonna wind up back in my handcuffs.
As he tucked his phone away, his sensitive ears caught a familiar distant chime, the same message alert he’d once used on the phone Reece had stolen.
Grayson looked up automatically, glancing up and down the street. Pedestrians were flowing both ways, huddled into their coats. There was a small bottleneck blocking the sliding doors of the AMI store, where a couple had apparently decided to make out right in the doorway. Other than the couple, though, almost everyone he could see had their eyes on their own phone; could’ve been any of them using his old model.
As he turned toward the building, a flash of movement in the sky caught his eye. He looked up to see a bird high overhead, strikingly jet-black against the gray clouds. Countless crows called Seattle home, but this bird was bigger, with a wedge-shaped tail; a rare and remarkable sight in the city.
Grayson’s gaze tracked the raven as it glided through the air, then flapped its wings and disappeared past a cluster of evergreens toward the water. The trees’ many shades of green were vivid and bright with life against the silvery day and the mirrored gray of the sky and sound. Above his head, the lightestof rains had started up again, nothing like a Texas downpour, but a soft mist that he could barely hear against the awning.
Grayson was very still for a moment.
Once upon a time, he’d loved the Texas Hill Country: the rolling and wooded green hills that went on for endless miles, the hidden lakes and rivers that stretched out blue as the sky above. Where a hundred-degree day might be followed by a sunset you couldn’t take your eyes from and then a warm night bursting with countless stars overhead.
Awe, Alex had explained back when they were sixteen and thirteen, and Grayson had just gotten his license and seized any excuse to take their dad’s truck for a drive through the hills or to stargaze from the bed.That feeling that steals your words, that’s bigger than you, like your heart and breath don’t fit in your body anymore. It’s awe.
But that, of course, had been the Before Days. Now there wasn’t a single sentiment in Grayson able to experience awe or appreciate the beauty of nature anymore, whether it was a hawk in the blue skies over green hills in Texas or black ravens against shimmering mist and mountains in the Pacific Northwest. He was letting old habits distract him again, and now more than ever, he couldn’t afford to let memories dictate any of his actions.
He drained the coffee cup and tossed it in the recycling, then went into the building to find the elevators and the board of directors meeting.
“Where’s Alex?” Eton asked for the third time.
Reece took a breath through his nose. They’d been staking out the AMI store for about twenty minutes. It was not going great. “Alex wants you to be here,” he said, also for the third time. “Remember?”
Eton’s expression turned dreamy. “Okay. Whatever Alex wants.”
Reece took another breath. Alex had been right; the thralls did not do well away from him, and Reece was in an AMI store where the slogans were painfully terrible and his temper was strained as hell. It wasn’t a great combination.
Across the street, a Prius had pulled up at a stretch of yellow curb, illegally parking in front of the neighboring coffeehouse. Reece quickly turned away, before a flare of anger could escape and influence any hapless shopper caught in his orbit. Jesus, people were irritating. Could he thrall the city into following the goddamn traffic laws?
“The man,” said Pelham as Reece flipped through AMI-branded flannels with more force than necessary.
“What man?” Reece said with an edge.
“Theman,” Eton said insistently.
Reece glanced out onto the sidewalk. A stream of pedestrians was passing by like a ceaseless river. “Who?”
Pelham shoved Eton out of the way.“Coffee.”
Eton bared his teeth in response.
Alex hadn’t been kidding; both thralls were far more agitated and less communicative with Reece alone, away from the empath they were devoted to. Reece needed thralls who were actually helpful.
His gaze went to the nearest shopper, a woman in her late thirties who was stiffly browsing the clearance rack with a pinched, resentful face. He could thrall her and give her an outlet for that bitterness.
Or maybe she’s unhappy because it’s difficult to get by in an expensive city, said that little part of him that just would not shut the fuck up.She’s looking at smaller sizes than she would wear herself; maybe she’s trying to find something she can afford fora kid. Even if she does hate empaths, are you really going to thrall someone’s mom?
Reece clenched his jaw.
“The man,” Eton said, and shoved Pelham.
Not again. “Would you stop?” Reece snapped.
