Maybe he’d been talking about his sister.
“Those are my guys,” she said, bringing me back to the moment. She nodded to the shifters that were now speaking with Ronan and Jael at the car. “Detectives Aiden Hobb and Russel Lansky.”
“They’re helping with the case,” Emilio said.
“Right now, they’re helping with your vampire,” Elena said. “But there’s plenty of room in the house for everyone, so no worries. Even the… the dogs.”
“They’re not dogs, Elena.” Emilio rolled his eyes playfully. “They’re—”
“Shh!” She put her hands over her ears. “I have to tell myself they’re dogs, or we’re going to have a serious problem.”
Emilio laughed. “Whatever you say.”
“Itiswhatever I say. It’s my house. Also, my jurisdiction.” She turned back to me with a real smile. “You can set up in the spare room on the right, straight back from the front. There’s a bathroom in there too if you want to shower. Once you’re all settled in, I’ll make us all a snack. Yes?”
“Thank you,” I said. “That sounds great. Especially the shower and snack.”
“Bysnack,” Emilio said, “she means a seven course meal, complete with appetizers and desert.”
I beamed. “Even better.”
Elena went to help the others get Darius situated. Emilio told me they’d set up a room in the basement for him, trying to make sure he’d be as comfortable as possible.
“No stone benches,” he promised me. “But we do need to keep him sedated and bound for now. Just until we can assess the situation and figure out how to best help him. Okay?”
“There has to be something else we can do,” I said, my stomach knotting up again just thinking about Darius being… handled. That was the word for it. They were handling him, shuffling him from the car to the house, down into the basement, talking about him as if he were a stranger. A prisoner. “Emilio, it’sDarius.”
“Oh,querida,” he said, his voice soft and reassuring. “This isn’t right. I know it isn’t. But it’s the best we can do right now.” He cupped my cheeks, his thumbs brushing away the last of my tears.
I wrapped my hands around his wrists and sighed, grateful for the contact. For a touch that didn’t turn into smoke. When I looked up and met his gaze, Emilio was openly staring at me, his soulful eyes searching my face.
“What is it?” I whispered, suddenly shy. I didn’t even want tothinkabout how horrible I looked right now, but Emilio seemed completely captivated. “You’re freaking me out,El Lobo.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just… it’s really good to see you,brujita bonita. When they told me what you’d done in that prison, what it meant…” He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. When he spoke again, his voice was ragged. “I thought I’d never hold you again. How did you even survive that place? And then you got stuck inhell?”
“That’s… a really long story.” I felt like I’d been saying that a lot lately, and I’m sure the other guys had their own tales to tell, too. We’d all been away from each other for so long, it seemed like it’d been years since we’d last shared a meal together, let alone talked. Really, really talked.
“I guess we have a lot to catch up on,” he said.
“We will,” I promised him. “After dinner, though. You got me all excited for Elena’s seven-course meal.”
Emilio nodded, lowering his hands from my face. I missed the contact immediately, but forgave him when he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small box, gift-wrapped in pale turquoise paper and tied with a red ribbon.
“Is that for me?” I asked.
Emilio smiled. “Just a little something I saw and thought you might like.”
A bubble of giddiness floated up inside, and I bounced on my toes, eagerly tearing open the paper. After so much darkness, so much insanity, it felt good to find the simple joy in something like a present.
The paper fell away, revealing a deck of Tarot cards.
And I gasped, tears blurring the colors and designs together.
I’d been mesmerized by this deck since I was a little girl.
“Are they… do you like them?” He asked. “I know you like to use Sophie’s cards for your readings, but everything was so chaotic when we left the safe house, I didn’t think to grab any of your things. When I saw this deck, I… I just got this image of you holding the cards.Thesecards. I felt like you belonged together. Does that sound nuts?”
“Emilio,” I finally breathed. “It’s not nuts. They’re perfect.”
