This time Akiva caught me, which did not make me any happier, and smiled in the face of my frustration
“You can take it out on me,” he invited. “I might even like it.”
Before I could enact my concrete plans of strangling him on my already-bloodstained floor, Cian was there again.
“Whatever it is, we didn’t know,” he told me in a placating voice.
“I don’t believe that.” My harsh blue gaze turned on him. “It’s too much of a coincidence for you to show up here so soon. Plus, they came after me because of you.”
Now his half-smile fell and Cian looked away almost guiltily.
“We came to warn you.” Indra stood, walking confidently towards me like I wasn’t halfway to becoming a spitting, snapping ball of fur. “The vampires who wouldn’t submit to Cian think you’re with us…which you now seem to already know.” He reached out to hook his finger in the loose collar of my shirt. I didn’t stop him and he drew the collar down until he could see the edge of the bandage.
“Do you want to know what’s going on, or not? If you’d rather act like a pissed off Pomeranian, I’d be glad to watch you throw a fit. It’s rather amusing,” Akiva said slowly. “But if you would like to speak about this rationally, let us sit. Calm down and talk with us. All right?” Akiva’s grip around my unhurt shoulder was firm but gentle. His eyes held mine like magnets and I found myself leaning into him ever so slightly.
“Well you’re still late.” My irrational anger was gone at Akiva’s words and embarrassment burned the back of my throat like acid. My voice no longer held the same level of venom, and I figured they were no longer in danger of my fangs for the time being. “Why didn’t you warn me sooner?”
“Because of me,” Cian went to the couch and sat, inviting me over like it wasn’t my damn house. I ignored the invite. He leaned forward, hands clasped in front of him, and gazed at me steadily. “We got a call from another vampire that night at the club telling us that Lucia was making threats. We went to deal with it.”
“So? If you knew, then-“
“She surprised me,” Cian said starkly, interrupting my rapid-fire interrogation. “Would’ve been nice to know what her and her brother are capable of, but I didn’t even think to ask. Indra paid the price for my overconfidence, and we weren’t in a position to get word to you.”
Indra ran a hand through his close-cut hair with a sigh. “Sorry,” he intoned.
“I’m not upset at you.” How could I be? “But you didn’t get rid of them?” I looked to Akiva, eyes narrowing as I watched him sit down in our recliner.
“Lucia weaves very convincing illusions,” the lich informed me in his richly accented voice. “I could not find the real her before all of them eluded me.”
I set my teeth against the protests that fought to escape my lips, reminding myself that I hadn’t exactly been able to get rid of even one vampire and her crazy wendigo.
Akiva looked at me, as if he could read my mind, mouth quirked in an almost smile.
“Cian could heal this,” Indra spoke, drawing my attention and quite possibly my dampened frustration. “It has to hurt, right?”
Damn right it hurt.
“Aveline treated it,” I said, words deliberate. “I’ll be healed by the weekend.”
“That’s inconvenient,” Indra pressed.
“If he wanted to heal it, I’m sure Cian would’ve offered.” I hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, and I regretted my words immediately when his shoulders fell.
“Cian figured you’d bite his head off much the way you just did to Indra,” the vampire intoned, no sign of anything but infinite patience touched with amusement in his voice.
I wondered how many centuries it had taken to be able to keep that at-ease attitude going in times like this.
“But I could heal it.” He smiled, eyes on me to gauge my reaction.
Still shaking my head, I wrapped my fingers around the hem of my shirt, inadvertently drawing the material around my waist.
But I had no extra energy for modesty this morning.
“I’m fine,” I promised, though the bitch of an ache in my chest seemed to refute that statement. I’d heal, but it hurt all the same.
The hellhound in front of me visibly wilted, one ear twisted back towards the men behind him. He opened his mouth to speak but then thought better of it and went to sit on the floor against Cian’s legs.
I blinked at him, head tilted to the side. “You can sit on the sofa, you know,” I invited, bemused
“I figured.” Indra smiled in the face of my ongoing rudeness like I wasn’t being a bitch. But he didn’t move, and his arm wrapped loosely around Cian’s calf as he sat. Why did he always feel the need to be so close to the vampire?
Absently I ran my hands over my face, glasses knocked askew, and sighed. “Is that all you want?”
“The plan was to pay you a quick visit. Apologize for leaving the other night, tell you about the vampires, and leave,” Akiva answered. “But you changed our plans a bit.”
“By already knowing?”
“By already knowing and being here like that.” He flicked his hand at me dismissively.
I felt my lips pull into a sneer, wolfish temper bubbling under my skin once again. Akiva looked as if he couldn’t care less how his words affected me.
“Hurt and all over the place. I’ll hang out here for awhile, if you want to go back, Cian.” He had spoken before I could and sat back to lounge more comfortably in our recliner.
“Why? It’s daylight. Plus you’ve warned me, and we aren’t close like your rogue vampires think. Shouldn’t you go?” Puzzled, I stared at him.
Akiva looked back to me. “Do you want me to?”
“Well I didn’t say that but I’m not sure why you want to stay, is all.”
“So you
