I took a deep breath and tried to figure out that strange, foreign feeling settling over me.
Peace.
Despite the beating we’d taken on arrival, something about Midnight had called to my soul in a way not even Blackmoon Bay ever had. Now, in these quiet moments, I could almost hear my soul whispering right back.
This is where I’m supposed to be…
But that was impossible. Crazy. Midnight was the worst place that’d ever existed.
Wasn’t it?
“Good news and bad news,” a smooth voice said from behind, and I turned to see Jax approaching, a mug of something hot in his outstretched hands. “Good news, we got the fire going, and I thought maybe you could use a—”
“Yes.” I didn’t even care what it was—I was so happy for a mug of hot liquid, it could’ve been straight out of Elian’s blood bags and I would’ve dogged it. I took a sip, pleased to learn it was actually mint tea. “Tea is excellent news. So what’s the bad?”
He crouched down beside me and frowned. “We lost two of the tents in the chaos, so there’s only one left.”
I laughed. “Bad news for you guys. That tent’sallmine.”
“But—”
“Hey, you’re the one who was all, ‘trust me—we know how to survive Midnight.’ Since you’re so intimately familiar with the place, you should have no problem sleeping out in the elements.”
“You’re not willing to share? Not even with one of us?”
“Yes. Hudson.”
Jax laughed. “He doesn’t sleep. He’ll be keeping watch.”
“Then he’ll be watching me sleep in the luxury of my own private tent.” I beamed at him and took another sip of tea. “This brew is excellent, by the way. Did you make it yourself?”
Jax shook his head, but there was no malice in his eye. “I thought it might help you sleep. In your own private tent. While the rest of us freeze our assess off outside. Why the fuck did I ever agree to help Saint with this shit?”
“Aww, you’d better stop saying such sweet things, sinner. Otherwise, I’ll start getting the wrong idea.”
“And what idea mightthatbe?” he grumbled.
“That youlikeme.”
He held my gaze for a beat. Two.
“Finish your tea,” he said with a smirk, “and get your ass in that tent before Elian beats you to it and I have to stake his ass for being rude.”
“Yes, sir.” I took another sip, then turned to him and said, “Thanks, Jax.”
He let out a huff. “For being so damn sweet?”
“Among other things.”
And I meant it, too.
Especially an hour later, when I was safely tucked inside my tent and zipped up in my sleeping bag, far from prying eyes and superior vampire senses.
Because for the first time in five years, when I quietly slid my fingers between my thighs, the name I whispered into the darkness wasn’t the name of the accursed silver-eyed fae, but a grumpy, blue-eyed demon whose smoldering gaze made me feel like I had a delicious new secret, all for me.
18
ELIAN
