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"You okay?" I ask, looking at Kane who could quite literally bite through steel right now.
He clamps his hands together as he leans over, rocking back and forth as his anger tries to boil out of his every surface. When my hand grazes his leg, it's met by rigid tension and hostile breaths.
"Please calm down," I murmur when he doesn't answer my stupid question.
"Calm down?" he asks, looking at me with an incredulous gawk.
I lean over and press a soft kiss to his shoulder, and some of his tenseness breaks as he pulls me to him. When our lips touch, a loud, overly-exaggerated cough rings out as Drackus tries to warn my night stalker.
I smile against the chaste kiss, and Kane withdraws, finally seeming less pissed.
A hazy fog forms in the room, and Dray appears, dropping two bags in front of Kane.
"It's about bloody time you got back," Drackus sneers, his usually subtle British accent flaring up once again.
"Easy, Drackus. I had to be careful. Damn council watchmen are everywhere looking for us. I had to tap into some deep magic to get in, but blood supplies were necessary, and it's too risky to go asking for blood around here. The girls couldn't even shift."
"Where are they?" Deke asks, standing up.
"Here," Amy growls as she and Sierra walk in. She wisely avoids any and all eye contact with me. Since the big truth bomb was dropped about Kane being intended for me, she hasn't looked my way at all.
Am I little smug? No. I'm very smug.
Kane's not bonded to her; not like she thinks. She's only tied to his night stalker, which will die when he changes to be like me, severing his bond to her forever. He's mine. I dare her to challenge me on that.
"That should hold us over until we get this sorted out," Dray says, kicking a bag closer to Kane and knocking me out of my wicked reverie.
Then a familiar face strolls in, glaring at us all. "Well, well, fucking well," Dice hisses, making Dray choke on a chuckle. "I can't believe you left me behind, damn it."
He sulks as he crosses his arms over his chest, staring expectantly at me. Where's Chaz when you need him?
"Sorry. It was sort of—well, Gage... and then... we didn't know if—"
"Hmph!" Dice sulks, earning a chuckle from the majority of the room. I swear he's three seconds away from stomping his foot.
"Dice," Zee says, sounding patronizing, "did you feel abandoned?"
The incubus stares down the night stalker who is teasing him. I bite back a growing grin, and then discreetly cover it with my hand when it becomes too much.
Dice breaks away from the group to join Zee and Deke to catch up on all the latest, since I just ran through it all already.
Kane rifles through his bag, and he smiles into it before looking up at Dray. "Thanks."
Dray smiles and offers him a wink. Obviously I'm nosy, so I try to peer into the bag, but Kane snaps it shut in front of my eyes. When I pout, he simply laughs.
"Come on. Let's get some rest. Red Moon is out tomorrow night, so we'll be sleeping in a cage. Dray and the others are going to secure it for us."
"Never thought I'd hear conversations like this in my safe house," Shay says as she materializes in the room, startling me a bit.
"Neither did I," Chaz says, materializing beside her and offering me a teasing wink. "But then again, Alyssa was always a little wild."
Everyone chuckles, but I scoff inwardly at the pathetic joke. I was anything but wild. Sheltered, naive, possibly stupid—not wild, though.
Mom clears her throat as she swallows a knot—possibly a wad of pride. "Shay—thanks—for all of this."
Shay looks at me and smiles, and then she lowers the stretch of her grin before facing my mother. "I've loved that girl for too long to let our problems get in the way of her safety. I'm still—confused by some of the madness, but we'll face it together."
They share a silent moment, possibly exchanging a wordless truce. Chaz bores and plops down on the other side of me.
