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“Thank you, Ted,” Jonas answered with a breath of relief. “And I’ve told you a thousand times—Just call me ‘Jonas.’”
“You bet, uh, Jonas. Talk soon,” Ruse said before hitting the red button on the phone’s beat-up screen.
The four of us looked at each other, stunned. The opportunity to tip over the first domino in our plan had presented itself to us before we could even brainstorm a way to make it happen without looking overly suspicious. As lucky as we were, it also meant we had committed to getting onto the roller coaster, strapping ourselves in, and readying for the ride ahead of us.
“How long should we wait before we call him back?” Thorn asked innocently from where he was nestled comfortably among the pelts.
“How long does it take to confirm someone’s dead when there’s as much blood downstairs as there is?” Nox asked sarcastically. “We can probably call back in just a minute or two. We have to imagine how long it might take for him to simply… walk inside, gasp in shock, and call back.”
I nodded and turned back to Ruse. Something in my expression must have given away how nervous I was, because he shifted back to his normal human face for a moment and offered me a tender smile.
“Well, alright then,” Ruse said as he took a few deep breaths. “You guys are damned lucky I’m such a good actor, or we’d all be up the creek in shit by now.”
“I believe the expression is ‘up shit’s creek without a paddle,’” I said softly, doing my best to break the tension in the air and within my body.
He arched a brow at me, then dialed the number and waited as it began to ring.
“So?” Jonas answered, getting right to the point.
“So, I’m afraid she’s um, met the creatures, looks like,” Ruse answered with a hint of sadness in his voice.
“Jesus, finally,” Jonas replied. “I thought they’d never take her. Can you believe she never once called to complain about the ‘creepy stuff’ in the house? She only brought up to me that I should be concerned about the mansion’s reputation, if you can believe it.” His laughter sat uncomfortably in the air as we all listened in to the man’s obvious joy that another girl had died in his house.
“She was quite the plucky one,” Ruse responded, ignoring Jonas’s dismissive behavior. “She definitely talked to me more often than any I can remember. It was nice she was so friendly.”
“Don’t go soft on me now, Ted,” Jonas snapped. “I pay youverywell for your services here, and a man who’s whining over these girls can’t perform those well. They’refood, Ted, unless you’d rather the creatures just eat you instead?”
“Not at all, sir, apologies.” Ruse sniffed.
Jonas ignored Ruse’s weak apology. “I’ll be there in the morning to check out the damage,” he said with a sigh, “but in the meantime, don’t touch anything.”
“Understood. I won’t touch a thing,” the shifter insisted in his pretend voice to his pretend employer.
“Great. See you in the morning,” Jonas snapped just before hanging up.
“I suppose we’ll see him in the morning,” I said, breaking our silent streak.
Everything had happened so fast I barely had a moment for everything to sink in. There was so much happening in my brain, I couldn’t even begin to sort through it. In less than twenty-four hours, I’ll have either killed a man, orbeenkilled by a man. There unfortunately wasn’t a third option. I knew I wasn’t even able to be honest with Blair or my dad about what I had committed myself to because they would show up here to stop me before I had a chance to try to make good on my promise.
A sharp inhale escaped me, and I realized then that all the nerves and worry were going to overflow if I wasn’t careful. Burning tears pricked the corners of my eyes, and I bit my cheek to keep from audibly crying out.
“Oh, no,” Nox muttered as he rushed to my side. “Please don’t cry.”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed gently before turning his head to me and planting kisses on my head and cheek.
“I have to admit something to you,” he whispered against my hair.
I turned to him with bloodshot eyes and sniffled. “Yeah?” I asked with a cracking voice.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “So, ever since you told the three of us that you would try to break our curse, there was always a part of me that didn’t believe you would. I figured through your own second guesses and doubts, you’d find a reason to not follow through with it. Even after I—afterwe—got to know you and spend more time with you, intimately and otherwise, I kept telling myself you were too good to be true.”
He paused for a moment like he needed to find the rest of the words within himself. “But now, I don’t think you are. I can feel your worry, and it’s not just for yourself. I can feel how you feel about us, and I can feel how the others feel about you.”
Ruse shifted into the fluffy black cat form of his that I enjoyed so much and crawled onto my lap, purring like a maniac while Thorn nuzzled me from behind like a horse might.
“I have no doubt within me any longer. I love you,” Nox said as his forehead rested against mine. “I love you like the stars love the night sky. I love you in a way that only occurs once in a dimensional lifetime. It is scary, and it is unnatural, but I don’t think my shadows can flicker without you.”
It was then that I allowed my tears to overflow down my cheeks. I leaned my body against his, finding the comfort of home in his arms.
