“No,” Julian said.
“You’re in this mess because of me; I can at least help you get rid of the evidence.”
“We’re in this mess because he attacked you.” Aida started to protest, but he held up a silencing hand. “I’m not changing my mind on this. You can argue, but you’re not coming with us, and fighting about it is only wasting what’s left of the night.”
Aida glanced at the sky and clamped her mouth shut. He was right; she couldn’t move as fast as a vampire, and she definitely wasn’t as stealthy as one. “You’ll be careful?”
“Always,” Julian said with a smile that didn’t completely reassure her.
“I’ll help you,” Cassidy offered.
“I’d prefer if you took Aida home,” Julian said. “Vampires can’t get into the apartment, but I’d prefer it if she wasn’t there alone.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Aida protested.
“It’s not a babysitter,” Julian said. “It’s company. Do you want to stay in the apartment alone right now?”
No, she didn’t, but they needed all the help they could get with this. “I’ll be fine,” she said with an airiness she didn’t feel.
“It will go faster if it’s just the two of us,” Kyle said.
Aida got the feeling he didn’t want his twin involved, and Cassidy must have thought the same thing as she scowled before telling him, “An extra set of eyes is always useful.”
“Fine.” Kyle threw his hands in the air. “We have to get this done now, or we’re going to end up in prison, and I am far too good looking for that.”
Despite being frozen and so tired she could cry, Aida chuckled.
“Cassidy,” Julian said as he glanced at Aida. “I think it would be better if you went home with Aida and stayed there.”
“I’ll be fine,” Aida assured her when Cassidy glanced questioningly at her.
Cassidy looked at her brothers, then at Aida, and back again as she was torn between leaving her friend and making sure her brothers were okay.
“We have to go,” Kyle said impatiently.
Cassidy’s shoulders slumped. “I’ll stay with Aida.”
“All of this to end up back where we started,” Kyle muttered as he paced a few feet away.
Julian ignored him as he focused on Aida and his sister. “I’ll walk you back.”
“We’ll be fine,” Cassidy said.
“I’m not taking any chances,” Julian told her. “Kyle, stay with the body. I’ll take them back and find a car.”
“Yes, sir,” Kyle said as he clicked his heels together and gave a mock salute.
Julian gave him the finger as he clasped Aida’s arm.
“We’ll be fine,” she said. “Just go get the car.”
“I’m going to make sure you make it back to the apartment,” he said through gritted teeth.
“I am here, you know,” Cassidy said.
“Please stop arguing with me,” Julian grumbled.
Cassidy stared at the two of them before closing her eyes. When she opened them again, the smile she gave him told him that he wasn’t fooling her; she knew the truth of what Aida was to him.
“I’ll be back in less than half an hour,” he said to Kyle.
“I’ll be here,” Kyle said as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
Aida kept her head bent against the biting wind as she walked beside Julian to the end of the alley. Cassidy led the way down the street and to their apartment building. Aida’s eyes still burned, but she wasn’t sure if it was from the lingering effects of the pepper spray or exhaustion. She wouldn’t be getting any sleep until Julian and Kyle were safely home.
Cassidy unlocked their door and entered the apartment, but Aida turned to face Julian. She opened her mouth to say a hundred different things but faced with his weary and tormented expression, her words clogged in her throat.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” he asked her.
She gave him a smile she didn’t feel. “We’ll be fine. Are you going to be okay?”
“As long as you’re safe, I’m good.”
Tears burned her eyes, and when he rested his palm against her cheek, she instinctively turned into his touch and kissed his palm. He wrapped his other hand around the back of her head and drew her close to kiss her forehead.
“Get inside,” he whispered as he kissed her cheek. “We’ll be back soon.”
Aida leaned closer to him as his warm breath and body melted the iciness inside her soul. “Be careful out there,” she said and turned her mouth toward his.
She couldn’t think as Julian’s lips found hers and the kiss deepened. She couldn’t breathe as the intensity of his touch robbed the air from her lungs, and she lost herself to him. When she opened her mouth, his tongue slid in to intertwine with hers; the heat spreading through her limbs caused her knees to wobble.
His hand settling on the small of her back kept her on her feet as he pulled her flush against him. The evidence of his growing erection pressing against her belly turned her insides to goo. Her fingers clenched around the thick muscles of his arms as she clung to him.
It would be so easy to get lost in her forever, but he couldn’t. Reluctantly, Julian broke the kiss and pulled away from her. She blinked up at him before smiling. Her swollen, bloodshot eyes were still the most beautiful he’d ever seen.
“I’ll be back soon,” he promised before releasing her and turning away.
Aida fisted her hands to keep from grabbing him back as he walked to the stairs. He stopped when he saw her still standing in the hall.
“Get inside, Aida.”
She hesitated before slipping inside and closing the door behind her. Leaning against the door, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she tried to get her warring emotions under control. She had to keep her heart protected from him, but she was scared it might be too late. It had been too late for that years ago.
Aida opened her eyes to find Cassidy staring at her from the kitchen. She held a bag of blood and a pair of scissors in her hands. “Are you okay?” Cassidy asked.
“Yes.”
“Did that bastard hurt you?”
Aida’s hands went to her sore throat. “It could have been a lot worse.”
Cassidy’s face darkened as she snipped the top of her bag. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
“There are many things in this world that shouldn’t happen.”
“Too true.”
“You didn’t have to stay with me,” Aida said.
“I didn’t want to go with them,” Cassidy replied. “I want to make sure they’re okay, but leaving my friend to haul around a dead body isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. I just hate when they get all manly man and think we can’t, or shouldn’t, do things.”
“It is assholey of them.”
Cassidy grinned before drinking some of her blood. Aida had lived around vampires long enough that seeing this didn’t faze her.
“So… what’s going on with you and my brother?” Cassidy asked when she finished her meal.
“I don’t know,” Aida admitted. “I’m sure it’s nothing, and he’ll be looking to move on again soon.”
She tried to sound as if this didn’t bother her at all, but she failed. The sympathy in Cassidy’s eyes set her teeth on edge. She turned her attention to the window across from her.
“I don’t think it’s nothing to him, and I don’t think he plans on going anywhere again,” Cassidy said.
“Did you think he planned on going anywhere before?”
Cassidy hesitated before saying, “No.”
“Neither did I,” Aida said.
“And you’re still mad at him for it,” Cassidy said.
Mad, sad, betrayed, lost, unsure, untrusting, and falling in love all over again. She could have run through a whole list of emotions and uncertainties about Julian, but in the end, she settled for the truth.
“I don’t know what I am anymore, what he is, or where we stand.”
“I get it,” Cassidy said, but Aida didn’t understand the troubled look in her eyes.
Aida ran a hand through her hair before sighing; she was glad someone got it, because she didn’t.
“I’m going to take a shower,” she muttered before pushing herself away from the door and walking down the hall.