“I need to talk to everyone,” Holly told him.
“You’ll get the chance. I just want to get you into some warm clothes first.”
Loch set Holly onto her bed and went to her closet. He returned with a pair of fleece-lined leggings and a lacy red thong.
“Loch!” Holly groaned.
“What? I like knowing what you’re wearing under your clothes.” He winked.
Despite her discomfort, Holly smiled. She wiggled into the thong and her leggings before standing up.
“Do you need help getting back downstairs?”
“I might. My legs feel like they’re made of stone.”
“That’s what happens when you sleep outside curled up in a ball. Your muscles are probably traumatized.”
Loch helped Holly down the stairs and settled her into the wooden chair. She heard a commotion in the kitchen. Garret must’ve started on breakfast. Holly’s stomach rolled with both nausea and hunger. She wondered which one would win out in the end.
Johnny came up from the basement, looking drawn and a little haggard.
“What happened to you?” Holly asked.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I slept on the deck.”
Johnny’s eyes went wide. “Okay, you win. Sleeping on the deck beats bunking with a vampire.”
“Lucien stayed with you?”
“No windows in the basement. No early morning sun to burn him to a crisp.”
“Makes sense.” Holly nodded.
“Why did you sleep on the deck?”
“She and Keller had a moonlight tryst, and he left her out there.”
Anger flashed in Johnny’s gray-green eyes. “He what? Where is he? He knows humans can’t handle the cold as well as we can.”
“Maybe he forgot?” Holly offered. “He was all over the place last night.”
Loch and Johnny exchanged a look.
“What?” Holly demanded.
“Nothing.”
“Want some breakfast?”
“You two exchanged a look. What does it mean?” she asked.
“Keller hasn’t been himself lately. That’s all.”
“I want to know specifics,” Holly said.
Johnny looked at Loch. “Let’s just tell her. Keeping the truth from her never works out.”
“She already has so much to deal with right now.”
“She’s right here and already very cranky,” Holly snapped.
Garret appeared with a huge plate of food. “I have just the remedy for that.” With one hand, he balanced the plate. With the other, he dragged the coffee table closer to Holly. He placed the plate, teaming with crispy, greasy hash browns and a burger overflowing with bacon and runny egg yolk.
“Thank you, Garret.” Holly smiled. “It looks amazing.”
“Are you about to puke?”
“Probably.”
“Eat the bread first to soak up all the nastiness in your stomach, then start on the hash browns,” he suggested.
Holly grabbed the yolky burger bun and took a bite.
“We were about to tell her about Keller,” Loch said.
Garret’s smile faded. “Might as well.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“We don’t know,” Garret said. “But he’s been disappearing a lot. When he shows up, he doesn’t seem to know where he’s been. He’s taking an unsettling liking to raw fish.”
“Like sushi?” Holly asked.
“More like a slab of raw salmon warmed on a skillet,” Johnny said.
“It’s worrisome,” Loch added.
“He seemed fine to me last night,” Holly said. “In fact, he kept talking about how much he’s been learning and how excited he is to share what he’s learned with me.”
“Learned? He hasn’t mentioned anything like that to us.”
“He couldn’t stop going on about it,” Holly said, hazarding another bite of her burger bun.
“As invested as I am in whatever the fuck’s going on with Keller, will you please talk to me about my brother?” Elise pleased.
Holly bristled as Trevor’s face filled her mind. “He’s fine,” she said.
“I’m going to need more than that.”
“It’s a long story, and I’m hungover. Have pity on me.”
“Let me think. No. Tell me what you know.”
“Want me to tell her?” Johnny asked.
“Please. I’ll correct you if you get anything wrong.”
“Trevor’s been working as a double agent in an attempt to figure out what’s driving the dark shifters and what sent your father into the depths of madness.” Johnny turned to Holly. “How’d I do?”
“Not bad.” Holly nodded.
“Wait, Trevor isn’t really trying to go dark?”
“No,” Holly said. “He’s just playing a role for information. That’s why he’s still in Golden Oak. We need him to keep playing that role.”
“I thought he was turning into Dad.” Elise’s voice got so quiet that Holly strained to hear her. “Why wouldn’t he tell me? Why would he let me drive myself half crazy? I thought I betrayed him.”
“He did it to protect you,” Holly said. “He thought if you didn’t know anything, no one could torture it out of you.”
“Idiot!” Elise groaned. “I’m going to bash his teeth in when I see him.”
Johnny raised his brows. “Or, you cannot do that.”
“Mind your business,” Elise snapped. “This is a family matter.”
“Not anymore,” Holly said. “According to him, a good deal of shifters at the silver mine battle weren’t his followers. He believes they take orders from someone else. Our theory is that someone put a spell on us and had something to do with Lucien’s wife vanishing. She’s an incredibly powerful vampire.”
“Who cares?” Elise replied. “We need to get Trevor out of there before someone figures out what he’s doing.”
“No,” Holly said firmly. “If you care about him, you’ll stay out of his way and let him get this done. We will go get him as soon as it’s safe.”
“It’ll never be safe!” Elise slammed her fist down on the coffee table. The egg yolk on Holly’s burger trembled.
“This is the only thing close to resembling a lead that we’ve seen in weeks. If you ruin this, we might never get another chance to bring down the real threat. If you cross me on this, there will be consequences.”
“You can’t do anything to me,”
