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Trenton remained stoic and unmoving while I put my hand on his chest, stepped up on my tippy toes, and kissed his cheek. My mouth went to his ear and I spoke loud enough for his brother to hear what I had to say as well.
"You're my family too now, the both of you. And there isn't anything I wouldn't ever do to keep my family safe. No matter how many Adrian’s out there come at us, it'll never matter because I'll never let them touch us again. And if I can't figure out how to stop them, there's always Quinton and Julian, those two are capable of quite literally anything. Not to mention we always have Rain."
I stepped back, flat footed on the floor once again, and reached up, cupping his cheek in my hand. His silver eyes sparked with interest that had absolutely nothing to do with the heat I'd heard I gave off.
"Rain? He'd burn the entire world down to nothing but ash for me. Funny thing is, I thought I was the only one. Then you and your brother showed up in our shop, and I learned differently. You and your brother have more family than just me, and if you give it some time here, before you know it, you'll have even more. And every single one of them is just as loyal as Rain and myself."
Trenton's mouth tightened and he closed his eyes tightly. Behind me was nothing but silence, utter stillness. Simon had stopped moving for the door. The hallway grew thick with tension and I couldn't withstand it. I'd had enough for the day. Here I went again, running away from not only my problems but my emotions as well. I was damn good at it.
I walked away from both of them and made a beeline for the dining room where the only stairs to the apartment Dash and I shared in this house were located. At this point I didn't give a crap if they left Marcus standing outside all day with his finger pressed down on the doorbell. He lived next door, he could always just go home. That would actually work out just fine for me.
The dining room table was covered in piles of unopened mail, books, and what looked like a science experiment complete with beakers and glass containers filled with various colored liquid. The mail could have belonged to anyone who lived here, except for me. I never got any mail. I'd have to have a known address for anyone to send me anything, and all my bank shit went to Marcus's house. Mail I never bothered to pick up or open. The books on the table had to belong to Quinton. He was the one with the incredible amount of books around here. The experiment likely belonged to Julian and had something to do with the plants he grew downstairs in the basement.
Seeing these things all around was comforting to me. This was home to me now, and I finally felt like it.
The door to the pantry was open and I walked through. I pulled open the door on the opposite wall and headed up the stairs to Dash's and my apartment. The door at the top was closed like usual and I dug my keys out of my back pocket.
Dash insisted on us keeping the door locked, even though everyone in the houseandour entire coven probably had keys to our apartment. He had talked about getting different locks installed so that only he and I had the keys, but we had talked about it and he realized it was stupid when we lived in a house full of witches who could easily use their magic to bypass a locked door.
Still, after I found myself safely inside and on the other side of that door, I locked it behind me. I know that at least Marcus wouldn't break in and try to invade my privacy. He might have been the only one. Trenton and Simon would only do it if they thought I was in danger. That was enough of a security blanket for me to hide behind.
I had been brave when I needed to. Here, in my own space, I could finally be free to fall apart and show my true feelings. There was no one around to witness my breakdown. Just me.
But, oddly enough, it never came and I was grateful for it. I couldn't be falling apart all the time and crying whenever something scared me. I needed to be strong for my people, especially with this mess the Council seemed to want to drag me into.
The living room was dark, but a light had been left on in the kitchen, like always. Dash didn't give a crap about saving energy, he was all about the comfort and not stumbling into things in the dark. There were nightlights plugged into outlets by the floor all throughout the apartment. It's like he was obsessed with never truly being in the dark. I didn't mind because I wasn't entirely familiar with the space yet and didn’t enjoy navigating through dark spaces and stubbing my toes on shit.
I walked through the apartment and made my way to my bedroom. This room had been made my own. My tarot cards hung above my bed where they would always be. The Bad Religion poster from the cottage had made it to the wall in here and had been joined with two other framed posters. One of them GoT and the other was Tate from AHS. The guys didn't know it, but he was my secret TV boyfriend and I crushed hard on that man. He could bury my body close and love me forever any day of the week. Just so long as the guys never found out.
I kicked my boots off and placed them on the floor beside the door, side by side. I liked for my things to be neat and organized. Living with Dash had made me extra anal about picking up after myself. I didn't want to be the only slob around.
I knelt on the bright yellow rug on the floor beneath the obnoxiously large bed and peeked my head underneath. I grabbed the handle of the antique trunk under there and dragged it out. My hand hovered over the lock and I closed my eyes, concentrating. The lock popped and the top came open.
Inside held things I had been collecting for a week now, ever since I had come across the jars in one of Quinton's books he'd sweetly filled my bookshelves with. I had copied the page into a beautiful leather bound notebook I had found and bought online. I had also purchased several like it for the shop to sell there. Little wannabe witches ate it up.
I was using it for my book of spells and only I could open it, it was blood bound to me and I'd gone through a bit of pain to make it that way. My fingers were starting to look an awful lot like Quinton's. If we held hands, we'd be quite the matching couple.
I sat down cross-legged on the rug in front of the trunk and dug around inside. I pulled my book out and opened it up to the page I was looking for. It wasn't difficult to find, the thing was still mostly empty inside. I placed the open book in my lap and dug out the things I would need.
Four small, sealable jars I had picked up at a corner store one day on my way to work. Beside it, I sat down a box of nails and a package of razor blades I had bought from the same store.
Next came a canister of Morton's salt I swiped from the kitchen downstairs. There had been some complaints about it going missing, but no one had suspected me, so I kept my pretty mouth shut and had pointed the finger in the direction of the twins when they hadn't been looking. No one had batted an eye at that accusation.
The red ribbon I pulled out of the trunk next had actually been mine. I'd worn it in my hair several times, the color suited me well. Now, it would serve a different purpose for me.
A wooden cigar box came out next. I'd found the box at Rain's cabin and asked him if I could keep it. It seemed like a box to stick trinkets in and I liked the way it smelled. Weird, I know. It had been empty of cigars and he'd happily handed it over, pleased with himself because I had actually asked him for something. I lifted the lid and dug through the skinny candles inside, pulling out a couple of white ones.
Last, I pulled out a ziplock bag full of holly that I'd taken out of Julian's stash in the room in the basement with dirt floors. He had everything down there and I didn't consider it stealing from him because I knew other people went down there and took things all the time. Holly came in useful when you were looking for protection. And protection was something we couldn't get enough of right now, so I was taking advantage of it.
I popped the lids off the jars and filled them halfway with the nails and razor blades, splitting them up evenly amongst the jars. The sharp objects kept the bad, bad things away.
I sprinkled the salt into each jar, roughly a teaspoon each, but I didn't exactly measure it.
I added the holly next. Each jar got one waxy, green leaf to itself. There were a few leaves left in the bag and I would return them to the basement so I didn't feel bad about being wasteful.
Second to last was the ribbon. I dug a wicked-looking knife out of the trunk and hacked away, cutting the ribbon into four separate pieces. Into the jar they went.
Using the same knife, I made a thin cut on the inside of my pointer finger, over a preexisting, thin white line. I held my finger over each jar and squeezed until several drops of blood landed in each jar. Unceremoniously, I dropped the knife back into the trunk and stuck my finger into my mouth. Didn't want to risk getting blood on my shiny new rug. That shit stained and I wanted to keep my room pretty.
