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“I wanna kiss you, but I don’t want to hurt you.”
I wiggled my fingers free of the blanket and brushed them over his lips. “I can take it.”
A guttural growl rumbled in his chest, and he pressed me back into the wall. He nipped at my lower lip and a chill raced down my spine.
“Are you sure?” he whispered.
Instead of answering, I tugged at the pockets of his pajama pants. He stepped closer, and I melted against his chest, careful to avoid his skin. His nose dipped, and he pressed his lips against mine. It was a kiss of fire. Warmth flooded through my body and my hands shook as they slid up his chest. Jackson looped his hand around my knee, hooking my leg around his hip, and—
“Woah!” Shado yelped, appearing in the doorway. “Visitors are entering the room. Please return all arms, legs, and clothing back to their designated areas!”
I dropped my forehead onto Jackson’s shoulder and groaned. “Go away.”
“Hey! We’ve got news from Isaac,” she snipped.
Jackson dropped another kiss on my forehead and let me go, staggering back to the bed. “You can only come in if it’s good news.”
Shado looked behind her at Tate and then took a giant step into the room. Both were red from trying not to laugh, but Tate looked about as tired as I felt.
Shado giggled. “Nice to see you two getting along for once.”
“Shush, you,” I said, dropping back into my seat beside the bed. “What’s the news from Isaac? I thought you two were in the lunchroom.”
“We were for a while, but we ran into Isaac on our way back up here. He said he was planning to stop by after his rounds. He wants to talk to you about the uh…promise you made,” Tate explained. “He’s getting ready to send Jackie-boy home.”
A weight sank in my stomach. “We’re not going home.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jackson asked. “What promise?”
“It’s not safe back at my house, or at your apartment. In fact, Shado, I don’t think you should go home anymore either. Not until we catch this shifter.”
“Then where are we going?” She pouted, leaning into Tate’s side. He draped his arm around her shoulders and smiled. They looked so happy together, I made a mental note to get Shado to make a move one day. They’d danced around each other for years. It was enough.
At least one person in our family deserved to be happy, and I hated that, for the moment, I had to ruin it. Inhaling sharply, I spat out the words before I could reconsider. “The estate.”
“The what?” Tate frowned.
“The Dev—”
Shado did a double take. “I’m sorry, what? You want to go back to that hellhole?”
Tate looked dumbfounded. “I’m missing something, aren’t I?”
“She’s talking about the Devereaux estate. The house she grew up in,” Jackson explained. His eyes scanned my face, desperate to understand. “Why would we go there? You swore you’d never go back. You hate it there.”
“It’s the safest place in Louisiana. Viktor may be dead, but the wards were set into the foundations. There are protection spells carved into every doorway. Not to mention the stacks of research and books that I left there when I moved my annex over to the Quarter. There might be something in those pages that could help us,” I said, trading Jackson’s blanket for the sweatshirt he’d left lying on the back of my chair. His abrupt absence had left my skin chilled, and our conversation was only making it worse. “Besides, the estate is the only house big enough to fit the four of us, and whoever else Isaac sends along.”
“But, Bex—I know what you went through in that place. There’s gotta be someplace less…nightmare inducing.”
I shook my head. “Believe me, I’ve thought about it. While you were sleeping, I ran through all of our options, hoping for a different idea, but the estate is our only choice.”
“So, it’s decided then?” Isaac asked, making me jump. I hadn’t noticed his arrival. “You’re going to the old Devereaux house?”
“Yes,” I said.
“No,” Jackson countered. “We can’t.”
Isaac arched an eyebrow. “Why not?”
