When I got to the door, Graham was just behind me. I saw Jake Sullivan peering in the window.
“Wasn’t that guy at the auction? Are they with the council?” Graham asked, sounding tense himself. He obviously thought they might be trouble.
They were. Just not in the way he was thinking.
“No. They’re werewolves,” I said. “They’re definitely not with the council. Ethereal witches don’t think much of werewolves.”
“So you know them?”
“They’re contractors. They flip a lot of houses.” I opened the door. I couldn’t just leave them out there peering in at me. “Hey, guys.”
Jake and Jasper looked at Graham, both of them bristling in the same way the moment they noted the tall, muscular man who undoubtedly smelled of somewhat aroused demon standing just behind me. I’m sure they also noticed I had been feeling a little—ahem—frisky myself.
A lot of magical folk have a great sense of smell. It’s extremely annoying.
“Oh, I’m sorry, did we interrupt something?” Jake said.
“Excuse me?” Graham crossed his arms, meeting Jake’s heat with iciness. “What are you implying?”
“Didn’t I see you at the auction? You have the BMW?” Jake said. “You were the seller, right? Was this your house? Was this some kind of a fix, Hel? Were you just messing with us at the bowling alley?”
I gestured frantically. Did he have to mention the bowling alley?
“Is that the tone you take with a lady?” Now Graham was getting more heated himself.
It occurred to me that kissing an Irish werewolf from Boston and an Italian demon from Philadelphia was like, a triple-decker rivalry. Wars were probably launched on less.
“What went down at the bowling alley?” Graham asked me.
“Gah!” I unleashed a wail of frustration to the ceiling. “Don’t fight, don’t fight. It’s possible I’ve made some bad decisions lately. No one should ever fight based on me. I’m not even worth it.”
“Of course you are,” Graham said.
“I’m not here for you,” Jake said, backpedaling. He was clearly pissed that Graham was here.
Jasper, meanwhile, just had the tiniest look of hurt on his face like…you know how wolves are like dogs with more ferocious independence? But they still have these soulful eyes?
“Graham is here because his grandfather was a warlock, but he was raised as a human. But he sensed something was up. So I’m informing him about all the things he’s missed.”
“Helena,” Jasper said. “We just came to check on you because we had a strange encounter with a seer.” He glanced at Graham reluctantly. “Is he cool?” Like this was a drug deal. I didn’t like hearing about a seer. Just think about it, has a seer in a story ever been anything but trouble? Yeah, seers never just come to tell you your life is going to be awesome.
I nodded.
“There’s some object in this house—“
“Oh, yeah. I know.” I sighed. “Come in, I guess. We were just talking about it.” I told Graham, “They drove all the way from Boston.”
“No kidding,” Graham said dryly. I didn’t think their accents were that thick, at least, but—ohmigod, for a second I actually tuned out Jake’s baseball cap.
If I thought the tension was thick when Byron and Graham met, I hadn’t seen nothing yet. Jake and Jasper were assessing every inch of Graham as he walked into the house like he owned the place, his stride always self-assured. Graham tried to play it cool, but he glanced back at them a couple of times. I was caught in the crossfire between their eyes, but I tried to strut along like I didn’t care. Going on two dates wasn’t a crime.
“You didn’t open up the kitchen?” Jake said.
My head whipped toward him. He was still hung up on tearing down that wall? “I told you I wasn’t going to tear down the painted wallpaper!”
“You said you would see if it was in the budget.”
“It wasn’t.”
“You didn’t even try.”
“Nah. I didn’t. The wallpaper is too historic to get rid of just for the sake of some trend in kitchens. I’m going to sell this to traditionalists.”
Jake shook his head. “Well, it’s your house…”
“Yes. My house.” I spread my hands toward the dining room table. “Have a seat. Tell me what the seer said.”
Graham sat back down with his notes and picked up the pen. He still looked like he would rather battle the Sullivan brothers for the right to woo me than take more notes, but he was thorough in his job.
If Byron was at the table, I thought, it would be the perfect scene of wolves versus demons. The incubi were well-dressed and refined; the wolves were scruffy with faded work clothes. And they were all Sinistrals, and not the sort of guys I should be hanging around with, but clearly it was too late for that. What if I do end up choosing between them? What is my type, anyway?
Jasper looked at the papers full of scribblings. “What’s all that? You two working on something?”
“Yes…”
“Looks like an investigation. We should swap stories,” Jasper said. “The seer said you would know what this treasure was, but I’m guessing she was wrong on that one.”
I wondered if I could trust them. I wondered if it was already too late. If this seer told them there was a treasure here, and they drove all the way back down, it seemed unlikely I could shake them off.
Maybe I needed their help.
I’d been alone since the day I left home for good, but right now I was sitting at a table with three gorgeous men, and it felt like anything could happen. Fate seemed to be trying to tell me something.
I just hoped fate was kind.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Jasper
“I HARDLY KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN,” my brother said. “But I feel like you might be in deep. I don’t know what you’re in deep with, but…it’s something.”
After heading out early that morning, we reached Helena’s house around three. At this point, we had talked well past sunset. The candles Helena lit were already working their way down. The table
