“If you can’t see the urgency here, your head is even farther up your arse than I thought.”
Emilio said something in Spanish—probably a string of curses.
What are they talking about?
“D?” I sat up too quickly. The floor rushed up to meet me.
“Easy, Gray.” Another voice enveloped me a second before his arms did.
Ronan.
Relieved by his presence, I leaned into his touch, letting him guide me into a sitting position. He knelt on the floor in front of me, hands on my thighs, and I kept my eyes open, determined to ride out the spins until I could figure out where we were.
My… living room? Okay, so I was at home. With Ronan, Darius, and Emilio. But how had we gotten here?
“You blacked out,” Ronan said softly, squeezing my legs. Concern laced his tone, and as his face came slowly into focus, I noticed tight lines around his mouth, hiding behind his thin beard. “Outside Luna’s.”
Luna’s. Right.Darius had taken me there for coffee. For normalcy.
“Where’s Darius?” My voice cracked, and I coughed, sand still coating my mouth.
“Kitchen,” Ronan said. “With—”
“Fuck your rules and procedures!” Darius shouted.
“Alvarez,” Ronan said, just as Darius stomped into view.
“El Lobo needs to learn a few lessons about communication,” Darius said. “He can’t just—Gray! You’re awake!”
Rushing to my side in an uncharacteristic display of relief, he dropped to his knees next to Ronan and pressed a cool hand to my forehead.
The fact that they were sitting shoulder to shoulder and neither was trying to kill the other should’ve been a clear sign that something was seriously jacked.
“What… what happened?” I searched their faces for a clue, but all I could find was worry.
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Darius said. “What do you remember?”
“We had coffee and I… I went to the bathroom, right?”
Darius nodded, brushing a lock of hair off my forehead. “Somehow you ended up on the beach. You attacked someone.”
“Physically and magically,” Ronan said.
“Attacked?” I looked down at my hands. Sure enough, they were swollen and red, with cracked, bloody knuckles that looked even worse than they had after our vamp fight.
Nothing hurt, though. Was I in shock?
“I think I… I just went outside for some air, and…”Oh, God. The man from the alley.
Memories slammed into me. The man pissing into the bay. Me, tackling him to the sand, pummeling his face with my fists.
The rage. The desperate darkness surging up inside me, consuming everything in its path.
The magic crackling across my skin.
The silver-blue mist of his soul…
My stomach lurched, and I clamped my mouth shut to keep my latte and cookie from bailing.
