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“Better go eat before we see her. That way we don’t have to lie.” Storm and Bishop went in front of me but not before scanning the place one more time. Our mate wasn’t a shifter, but she was nonetheless a lie detector, at least, with us. Plus, lying was the absolute worst.
“Did we tell her where?” Bishop asked, getting in the driver’s side of the SUV.
“No. Can I say how much I hate this, and that I can’t wait until we give her this Christmas present already? I don’t like hiding things from our mate.”
Bishop grunted. “It’s awful. Can we not surprise her again? This is a pretty fucking big one, too.”
We ended up stopping at a new place that served Thai and got a bunch for takeout. We were an expensive bunch for eating out. Three shifter males ate enough for an army.
When we got home, V was already there with a ham sandwich in her hands. Of course, she dropped that like a dead fish once she saw the food we’d brought. But I knew that squint. Questions were about to flood us. “Where have you been?” she asked with her hip cocked and a smirk on those beautiful lips.
“Shopping for Christmas. What else.” Bishop busied himself taking out the cartons and putting them on the table. He turned away from her when he told the fib. He was right. This was awful.
“What? You can’t be serious. We said one present per person, per mate and friend.”
By friend, she meant us and Onyx and the rest. I was only allowed to give Valentina one present and Storm one present. And we got Onyx, Asher, and Raven a shared present.
“We can still shop and look around if we want to,” I replied.
“Okay. As long as you’re not spoiling me. I hate when you guys overdo it with presents. I’m already enough of a brat having three mates.”
Storm walked over and hugged her tight. “You are not a brat because Fate chose to bless you with more than one mate. You were too much of a handful for only one.”
“Storm!” She swatted him on the arm while the rest of us laughed.
Chapter Eighteen
Onyx
We arrived home as the sun was rising on the second shortest day of the year and went right to bed. Raven was in the middle, the position we always gave the person who needed the most support. She was thrown right back into the place she’d been in when her parents originally rejected her, and it was killing me. All this time she’d been getting past it, or I thought she had. But having your own mother throw cocktail sauce on you…that was rough.
I’d wanted to turn her into something. Toads were sounding good again. But we were so busy getting Raven out of there, I didn’t have time. They’d better never get near her again, or I might do worse than that. My ancestor had once turned an entire army into pigs and drowned them. At least, I thought that was her. My knowledge of mythology was sketchy at best and, since I was pretty sure the other gods and goddesses in the Greek pantheon were related to her, then that would make them distant relatives of mine as well. I should read more about her and them. She wasn’t the kind of great-grand you could just phone and ask for details like that. Circe was more an emergency call.
When we finally got up, the sun had set again, and Raven seemed a little better. At least she was willing to shower and eat a little soup.
“We need to go to the Midnight,” Asher said.
“We don’t work tonight,” Raven said. She’d been picking up some shifts lately as well, but both of us were off for at least the week.
“Not for that.” I picked up on Asher’s thread right away. “We have to help find out who killed Diana.”
“Oh.” Raven brightened further. “Of course we do. What are we waiting for?”
“For you to get dressed for one thing.” I fluffed her hair, and she slapped my hand away as always. “And us.”
We were in agreement on that, and since Raven had already showered, that left Asher and I do the same, then we all dressed in what we called clubwear casual. It basically meant jeans and some kind of glitzy top for Raven and me and jeans and a button-down for Asher. Comfortable, but we fit in.
It felt like the past couple of days were a dream, some parts good and some bad, but I was awfully glad to be home. The mansion was incredible, the game room amazing, and the food…if we went to visit often, I’d have to get new club jeans. But that was not where we belonged. Our place and the Midnight were home.
The line outside the club tonight stretched around the block, but we didn’t have to stand in it. Those who did grumbled at us, but I gave them a look. As the head bartender, I controlled their drinks, very specialized alcoholic beverages, some of which, if made incorrectly, could be toxic.Keep it up, people.
I added to Raven’s and my makeup, and the people in line recognized us and backed off. I hadn’t realized just how much the illusion changed me. Maybe I needed to lay off it some nights. Wasn’t it interesting how I could do the makeup and hair on myself but not transform me into animals? At least, I had been told I couldn’t and so I’d never tried. I needed to talk to Valentina about that.
But we had other priorities tonight, on the second night of Yule. Erik sat in a booth all by himself, turning a glass of his favorite blood drink between his hands and staring into space. He looked so sad, I wanted to cry with him.
Valentina was behind the bar, her mates seated on barstools, and although I wasn’t on shift, I ducked under the end piece and joined her there, pulling on an apron. My mates took the last two barstools, and we had most of our team here. “Jeremy still away?” I asked.
“Yep, at the in-laws. I hope it’s going well.”
