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Nick sat again, snuggling Lauren into his lap, and Lauren actually let him keep holding her.
My assumption was that Lauren was following her Shifu’s advice about looking weak when you are strong, but it was possible she was just exhausted.
After a few moments of silence, Lauren asked the slayer, “What do you see when you look at us?”
Well, so much for Lauren not doing anything to alert Ryan to her new status.
Ryan only smiled and asked, “What do you see when you look at me?”
She furrowed her brows. “It’s changed, since the first time I touched you in the basement of that cabin in the woods.”
“Ah, the safe house, yes. You told your mom I’m not a nice person.”
“I was a kid, and you came across as…” She rolled her eyes, and her scent told me she regretted bringing this up. “I saw death. Lots of death. I still see it, but it’s tempered. You aren’t as indiscriminate as you once were when you kill.”
“You’ve never hit me as completely human, and you come across as even less now than you did as a child.”
“Less now than when I came back from China, before I started college?”
“Yes. Absolutely. There are a few species that show up well after puberty, usually around twenty-five when the prefrontal cortex matures, and one in particular with Asian members.” His gaze went to her arm and focused on her bear tattoo. “Anything you want to share, Lauren?”
“Nope.”
He glanced at me and then met Lauren’s gaze. “I trust that your mom, Nathan, and Mordecai are making sure you’re safe around humans. You have to know I’ll jump into action if I find out that isn’t the case.”
He leaned against a wall, almost slouching against it, as if he didn’t want to be seen as a threat, but we all knew better.
Ryan looked from Lauren to me. “Today, I’m here to talk about how we make sure the supernaturals who gave the orders for humans to be skinned don’t have an opportunity to do so again.”
Mordecai stepped through the doorway, gave Ryan a brief glance, and looked to Gavin. “The warehouse housed all but six of the shapeshifters taken, and no one else. No guards, no bosses. My guess is that the demon Kirsten spoke with warned his associates before he told her where to find your people.”
Lauren couldn’t sit still any longer, so she stood. Mordecai sat in the chair beside Nick, and pulled Lauren so she stood in front of him and only had to look up a tiny bit to meet his gaze.
Mordecai cradled her cheek a few seconds and then put his hand on his thigh. “They kept six shapeshifters. Two civets, three horses, and a mongoose. I teleported the rest to just outside the Branson coterie’s gates — Ambrose and Ellania are making sure they are safe while they enter. I’d feel better if you stayed here a few days. Gavin is welcome as well, though I assume he’ll want to return. Nick is also welcome to stay at Homewood.”
“My agreement with my King is that I will stay out of his territory,” Nick said. “Also, my people will want to see me, so I should return to Branson.”
“I’m in contact with Queenie,” Gavin said. “She’s more than capable of overseeing reintegration. I can stay until morning. I’d prefer to go home before dawn, and not bed down here tomorrow.”
Nathan and Kirsten stepped into the room, and Nathan told Nick, “You’re welcome at Homewood as a guest of Lauren’s. It could complicate things for you to be seen around town, but you aren’t going to do anything to fuck with the hierarchy by staying here.”
Lauren took a step forward and hugged Mordecai, and the old god wrapped his arms around her. It was my belief, and Kirsten’s, that Mordecai viewed Lauren as one of his daughters — certainly more than a mere stepdaughter, and it showed in their embrace.
Lauren hugged the old god for several long moments and then walked to Nathan and hugged him as well. Finally, she stood on her own and told the two larger-than-life men, “Thank you both for welcoming Nick and Gavin, but my home is in Branson now, and I should return with them.” She looked at her mom. “I love you, mom. Xaephan was terrified when he saw me in that cage. I’m standing here unharmed because he was afraid of what you’d do to his son if anything happened to me.”
“I was in favor of cutting his son’s right arm off with a stainless-steel knife and sending it to his Lordship anyway, just on principle, but your mom was strongly against doing so.” Nathan shrugged. “It would’ve grown back. I wasn’t advocating the use of silver.”
“Lauren wasn’t injured,” Kirsten told Nathan. “If she had been, then whatever was done to her would’ve been done to Killian, and more, ten times over at a minimum, every day for twelve years.”
“And the subject in question has no doubts of what might happen to his son,” Mordecai told them, “which is indeed why our Lauren is with us and safe.” He pulled Lauren into another hug. “Ellania and Ambrose will remain available to you, but I beseech you to remain inside the coterie house until we find a resolution. The person who snatched you can do so again just as easily, and he’ll know not to tell the denizens of Hell he has you, if he manages to grab you again.”
“Or at least those obligated to tell X,” Nathan agreed, and he told Lauren, “Ambrose and Gavin both have homes even the old gods can’t just pop into unannounced. We’d all breathe easier if you were in one of those places or here.”
Kirsten crossed her arms, uncrossed them, put them on her hips, and crossed them over her chest again. “I couldn’t find you, Lauren. Even Mordecai couldn’t find you. I tried to flash to you and you weren’t there. Weren’t anywhere. Please don’t put yourself in a place so they can take you again.”
Lauren moved out of Mordecai’s arms and into her mom’s. “I’m sorry you were scared and worried. I wish I could promise to stay put, and I will for today and tomorrow unless something happens that makes me feel as if I can’t hide behind someone else’s walls, but…” she drew out of her mom’s arms and met her gaze. “You don’t hide behind walls and let other people fight your battles. I’m your daughter, mom. Do you really expect me to?”
Kirsten rolled her eyes and pulled her daughter into another hug. “Yes, I absolutely expect you to.”
