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He grasped one of Icarus’s ass cheeks.
“Four.”
Clutched his shoulder.
“Three.”
Licked a stripe up his neck.
“Two.”
Found his lips again.
“One.”
Held Icarus close, thrust up inside all that tight, hot heat, and exploded.
TWENTY-TWO
Adam couldn’t say exactlyhow long he’d been dozing when the sun-warmed body nestled against his side tensed, Icarus instantly on alert. A second later, growling echoed from the direction of the tree line. The second after that, Icarus was crouched above him, claws digging into the ground on either side of his head, lips pulled back in a snarl around fully extended fangs.
The growls grew louder—and more familiar. Adam tilted back his head to see what Icarus had locked onto. A large honey-blond coyote prowled the edge of the field, hackles up, canines bared. No immediate danger, then, assuming two apex predators posturing didn’t kill them all.
Adam reached up and patted the side of Icarus’s face. “That’s my second, Jenn. You know her.”
The coyote snapped and gnashed its teeth. Icarus seethed through his.
“Jenn!” Adam shouted as he rolled onto his side under Icarus. “That’s enough.”
Abigail, in human form, strolled out from among the trees and ran her fingers through Jennifer’s scruff. “Back off, baby.” A little more coaxing—a scratch behind the ears, a hand flattened between her shoulder blades—and Jenn finally lowered her hackles. Abigail turned her brown eyes back to them. “You need to get to the mansion,” she said, expression grim and foreboding. Granted, Yerba Buena earlier had all gone to shit, but he’d figured Abigail being back with her lover would at least take the edge off, might blunt the reality of the trouble they were in. Apparently not.
He tapped at Icarus’s hip, and the vampire must have seen enough to believe the threat had passed. He moved from atop Adam, standing, then offering him a hand up. “What’s happened?” Adam asked Abigail as he and Icarus dressed, the latter commando in his jeans. Not thinking about that. Not if he wanted to get his own jeans zipped. Abigail approached, and the waft of smoke that tickled Adam’s nose pushed all other thoughts away. “Where’s the fire?”
“Your house.” Abigail reached into her back pocket, and by the size and shape of the item she withdrew, Adam knew what it was even before she unfolded the photo and held it out to him. “They torched the place. We were able to rescue some weapons from the armory, but upstairs... This was all that was left.”
Icarus approached behind him, his hand appearing in Adam’s periphery, an arm on its way to wrapping around Adam’s waist, but Adam put out his own, holding Icarus off. The man in the picture, smiling on his wedding day, his husband and wife kissing his cheeks, had no business in this world, no matter how close to resurfacing he’d been with Icarus.
That man was gone, Adam was here, and the Devil was so close to getting what he’d been after the past ten years. And once vengeance was had, that man in the photo could join his husband and wife like he should have done that day ten years ago. That was the future and fate that awaited him, no matter how much he enjoyed the present escape with Icarus. “Let’s get back to the house.”
As if sensing Adam’s mental shift, Icarus kept his physical distance the entire walk back, but he remained emotionally close, timing his steps to Adam’s heartbeats, making his claim clear to Abigail and Jenn. Adam didn’t tell him to do otherwise, didn’t want to cut that tether completely, and besides, he was certain Abigail and Jenn could smell the come on both of them.
So could the other coyote whose head whipped their direction the second Adam and Icarus stepped through the door. Even in human form, Robin’s growl shook the windows.
“Let it go,” Adam said as he dropped onto the couch across from him.
“Dog,” Icarus sniped from the armrest he claimed beside Adam.
“Bloodsucker,” Robin sniped right back.
Cormac, in the chair at the end of the couches, was his usual droll self. “Now that introductions are out of the way.”
Jenn reappeared from the bathroom in human form, dressed in jeans and a tee. “Why is he here?” She jutted her chin in Icarus’s direction as she sank into the couch next to her cousin. “If you haven’t noticed, shit goes sideways whenever he’s involved.”
“Shit is going sideways, with or without him,” Adam replied. “At least with him, I’m still alive. Without him, I’d be dead.”
“Vincent’s unhappy you’re not.” Robin—a slight drawl in his voice, lingering from whatever job he’d returned from—tossed his phone onto the table between them, screen open on an encrypted app. “Raised the bounty to ten million.”
“Fuck.” Icarus stretched an arm behind Adam across the top of the couch cushions. “This is more than a thorn in his side. Why does he want you dead?”
