Grace shuffled off of the plane in Seattle with Heather and Brock. It was ten o'clock at night here. She was stiff from sitting for so long, and worried about Aiden.
"I need to stop by the restroom," she told her traveling companions.
"I'll come with you," Heather said. "Meet you back here," she told Brock with a smile.
His face lit up as he smiled back. "I'll be waiting."
Grace had tried, and finally given up, attempting to keep those two from getting too wrapped up in each other during the long flight. She should've insisted on sitting in the middle, but the plane was so crowded that she'd gone to the window seat and quickly sat down so everyone else could board. Heather sat next to her, leaving Brock the aisle seat so he could stretch his long legs.
She tried to keep Heather engaged in conversation, but no matter what she'd talked about, they'd kept turning back to each other, like moths to a flame. And just like the stupid moth, they were going to get burned, she just knew it.
It just made her even more determined to protect her friend.
Letting Heather go into the restroom first, she watched until she was locked in a stall, then bee lined it back out to the waiting werewolf. Sticking a finger in his surprised face, she told him, "You stay the hell away from my friend. She deserves better than something like you."
Recovering quickly, he narrowed his eyes at her. "You know nothing about me, Grace. Other than the fact that I just saved both your asses."
"I'm warning you for the last time," she ground out. "Leave her alone." Turning on her heel, she stormed back into the restroom and into a stall before Heather noticed she wasn't in there.
By the time they came back out, talking and laughing, Brock was leaning casually against the wall. Following Grace's lead, he greeted them both as if nothing at all had happened.
Heather linked her arm back through his, and leaned her head on his large bicep as they headed towards the baggage claim area.
Grace heaved a sigh. This was going to be much more difficult than she'd first thought.
However, she decided to leave it alone for now. They were all exhausted, and she needed to find a phone so she could call Aiden's friend.
Reaching into her pants pocket, she pulled out the piece of paper she'd stuck in there, glad she'd had the foresight to grab it out of her other pants before she'd thrown them down the trash chute. On it was Nikulas' number, Aiden's friend that he'd called when she'd first met him. She'd written it down before her cell had died at the shelter, just in case.
She was looking around for a phone while Brock and Heather cuddled in a corner when a lovely girl with bright strawberry-blond hair walked right up to her. She was wearing yoga pants and a short-sleeved shirt.
Grace noticed that she had scars on her arms, and a nasty looking one just under her collarbone.
By her side was a girl with similar features, though darker-haired and curvier. She had the same large hazel eyes as the first girl.
"Hi," the blond girl said. "Wow. You're even prettier in person!"
Grace was at a loss. "I'm sorry?"
"Oh! Sorry. Um, you don't know us, but we're friends of Aiden's."
She narrowed her eyes at the two gorgeous women. Friends of Aiden's, huh? Why the hell would "friends" of his be waiting for her at the airport? Jealousy burned instant and white hot inside of her, only to fade away as quickly as it had come about at the girl's next words.
"I'm Emma Moss. I belong to Nikulas. He's Aiden's best friend. And this is my sister, Keira. She's Luukas' mate. Luukas is Nik's brother."
"Ohhh," Grace recognized the names immediately. Had Aiden gotten away? Maybe called them and told them she was coming? But how would he know? "Okay. Yeah, I've heard about you two. How did you know I was here?" she asked.
Keira grabbed her hand and pulled her away from listening ears, Emma following right behind them. "We saw you in a vision," she told her quietly. "Emma and I, we're witches, and I believe you are too." She gave her an apologetic look. "Not sure if you were aware of that or not, but we don't have time to tiptoe around the subject."
Grace laughed a little and shook her head. "No, it's ok. I know what I am."
Keira gave her a dazzling smile. "Great! That saves us lots of trouble."
"So, yeah," Emma continued. "The first time we had one of those weird visions, we saw you and Aiden running towards a giant soccer ball, and we could tell you were in trouble. We sent some friends of ours to help you guys. Did they get there in time?"
"Uh...the wolves? Yeah, they did."
"Great! So, we've been getting them sporadically ever since. The visions, that is." She indicated her sister and Grace with her hand. "We think maybe the three of us are connected somehow? The visions are always of you. Other people are only in them if they happen to be with you at the time. Like Aiden if he's with you, or whoever." She looked around. "But he's not with you now. Where is he?"
Grace looked down. How to tell them what she'd done? "Um, I don't know. We were...separated when we left the shelter."
Emma's face fell. "Dammit."
"Who are the others that are with you?" Keira asked.
Grace looked over to find Heather and Brock watching her with curiosity as she talked to the two girls. She waved them over.
"Emma, Keira, this is my best friend, Heather," she introduced the girls and they smiled hello to each other. "We met in school, and we work together," she told them, hoping the girls would get the hint that Heather was clueless about all of this this stuff. "She was sort of pulled into all of this without any say so. I went to her for help after Aiden and I got split up, and then Brock here showed up," she touched his arm as he nodded at the witches. "And thank the gods he did. He got us out of there in the nick of time, and onto a plane." She shrugged. "It's a long story."
Keira looked from Brock to Grace. "You do know he's a werewolf? Right?"
Maybe she should've made that hint a bit more obvious. Avoiding Heather's eyes, she mumbled, "Um, yeah. I knew that."
Heather laughed nervously. "You guys are messing with me, aren't you?" But as she looked from one straightforward expression to the other, her smile faded. She gazed up at Brock last, and he gave her a small apologetic smile and a little shrug, as if to say, "I would've told you, but it didn't really come up."
She backed away from him so fast she almost knocked Emma over.
Grace glanced back and forth between the two of them. Hmmm, this may work out the way she wanted after all. Heather wasn't very picky when it came to whom she dated, but it was looking like she drew the line at her potential lover being a supernatural creature, unlike herself.
Grace blushed as she remembered how Aiden's fangs had turned her on. She was always getting on Heather about her choice in men, but it appeared her friend actually had higher standards than she did.
"So, come on," Emma grabbed Heather's arm to steady her while Keira took Grace's. "The guys are waiting outside. I take it you don't have any luggage?" She laughed merrily at her own joke. Over her shoulder, she told Brock, "Don't worry. They know you're here, and what you are. You'll be safe with us."
"Thank you," he told her earnestly. "I appreciate that."
They walked out the automatic doors and up to a black as night SUV that was idling at the curb. A tall, lean, powerful-looking, gorgeous man with longish dirty-blonde hair was leaning against the side of it with his arms crossed over his muscular chest.
Grace looked around for camera crews. There was no way this guy hadn't just walked straight off of a Hollywood screen. Not with those movie-star good looks and the sizzling charisma she could feel from twenty feet away.
He pushed away from the car as they approached, his bright blue eyes going straight to Emma. They surveyed her from head to toe before his features relaxed and he turned to greet the rest of them with a roguish grin.
The driver's side door opened and another man got out. The complete opposite of his companion, this guy was all dark and brooding...and just as riveting to look at.
Keira let go of her arm and went to greet him. Obviously not caring who was watching, he wrapped her in his arms and kissed her reverently on the forehead, his eyes closing in relief as he breathed her in. When he looked up again, the stressful lines around his stormy grey eyes were gone.
Wow.
"Grace," Emma tapped her on the arm to get her attention. "This is Nikulas Kreek. Aiden is his best friend."
"Nice to meet you," Grace told him as she shook his hand. "I'm sorry to just show up like this, I didn't know where else to go."
"Don't worry about it." He grinned at her, all white teeth and sparkling blue eyes. "Any friend of Aiden's is a friend of mine. Besides," He ruffled the top of Emma's curls. "My Em here didn't really give me a choice."
Emma looked at Grace and said without shame, "It's true."
Remembering her friends, Grace introduced them. Heather still looked a bit shell-shocked, but otherwise seemed to be taking the revelation about Brock pretty well.
Keira walked over then with Luukas and they did the introductions all over again. Grace noticed that whereas Nikulas was quick to smile and easy to talk to, his brother only spoke when necessary and kept his emotions tightly reined in.
Unless he was interacting with Keira, then it was easy to see everything he felt for her in every touch or nuance of his voice. He came alive when he was with her.
Nik clapped his hands together, "Cool. If we're done with the how-do-you-do's, let's get the hell out of here. We can talk more once we get home."
"Brock, I'd like you to come to our place when we get there," Luukas told him. It wasn't really a request. "I need to know more about you before I'm completely comfortable having you here with us."
"Join the club," Grace mumbled.
Heather smacked her on the arm and rolled her eyes.
Great. She was still defending him. Apparently, she wasn't weirded out as much as Grace had hoped.
But Brock just nodded once. "Of course."
"All right, let's go," Emma said.
The ride to their apartment building in Seattle was silent except for Nik and Emma, who pointed out landmarks and told them some of the history of the city.
"Have you ever been here?" Emma asked Grace and Heather.
"I'm from here originally," Grace told her. "But I was young when we left. I don't really remember it."
"And I'm from Pennsylvania originally," Heather said.
Keira turned around in the passenger's seat. "No way! That's where Emma and I grew up."
Heather smiled at her. "Small world. I knew I recognized those accents."
They arrived at the apartments, and Luukas pulled into the underground garage. The guys helped them all out of the car and then Nik led them to the elevator and up to the top floor.
As they followed Luukas and Keira into their apartment, Keira pointed out the restrooms and the kitchen. "Help yourselves to anything you'd like."
"I'll pull out some stuff for sandwiches," Emma said. "That ok?"
Brock told her, "That would be awesome. Thank you."
And then the three of them stood awkwardly in the middle of the large apartment while she got the food ready.
After they'd eaten and washed up a bit, Luukas called Brock into his office to talk while Grace and Heather sank down onto the couch across from Nik and Emma. Keira took the last chair.
"Is there anything else I can get for you guys?" she asked her guests.
They both shook their heads and thanked her.
Nik scooted forward to the edge of his seat and rested his elbows on his knees. "So Grace, why don't you fill us in on what's going on?"
"Don't you want to wait for Luukas?" she asked.
"Nah. I can tell him everything when he's done interrogating the wolf." He grinned widely as he said this. "I almost feel bad for the guy."
Heather raised her hand. "Yeah, can we get back to that part? About the guy I had every intention of putting out for being a werewolf? Seriously?"
Grace turned to her friend. "Do you want the quick version or the long one?"
"Quick is fine for now, since Nik is waiting for your story, and you can enlighten me more later."
"Okay." Grace took a deep breath. "So, I'm a witch, and so are Emma and Keira. Brock is a werewolf. Nikulas and Luukas are vampires, and so is Aiden. Aiden is also possessed by a demon."
"Wait, what?" Nikulas asked.
Emma gasped beside him, while Keira closed her eyes and dropped her head.
"Good God," Heather said. She sank back against her chair cushion, visibly deflated.
"Yeah," Grace responded, knowing exactly how she felt.
Nik stood up and flashed over to the window. When he came back, his voice was tightly controlled. "Aiden isn't Aiden anymore?"
"Oh, no, he is," Grace was quick to reassure him, patting Heather on the back. Her friend's eyes were about to pop out of her head at Nik's burst of speed. "But he's sharing his body with a demon named Waano. He doesn't come out very much though."
Nik sank back down onto the couch, and took Emma's hand.
Keira leaned forward. "You mean to tell me that Aiden survived one of Leeha's possessions, while still aware and fully functional in his body?"
Grace nodded, "Yes. It seems so."
"I think you'd better tell us the whole story," Nik suggested.
And so she did. She told them everything Aiden had told her, and everything that had happened since she'd met him.
When she was done, you could've heard a pin drop.
Finally, Nik raised his head. His eyes were glowing and his features were sharp. "You just left him over there?" he gritted out.
Grace's heart pounded in sudden fear. "I told you, I didn't mean to! I was trying to get us both out of there alive, but those things showed up..."
His lips pulled back, revealing his fangs, and Grace heard Heather's sharp intake of breath.
Emma laid a hand over his, and murmured something to him under her breath.
"She did the best she could," Keira told him. "Sometimes that's all you can do." Her eyes were sad and filled with compassion when she looked back at Grace. "So, we don't know where Aiden is now?"
Grace shook her head. "No. But Brock said that 'friends' of his had shown up to help him after I left. I assumed he meant other werewolves?"
"That would be the guys Nik sent to find Aiden," Emma said. "The ones I asked you about earlier."
"But where are they now?" Nik asked the room in general. "I haven't heard anything since they arrived in China."
"I wish I knew," Grace told him.
Luukas and Brock came out of the office. "When the others get back, we won't be able to interfere, but I'll put in a good word for you."
"Thanks," Brock told him. "I appreciate that."
Luukas gave him a nod.
Nik and Emma exchanged a glance, and then Emma said, "It's nearly 2am. Why don't the three of you come down to our place with us. We have plenty of room. You can get cleaned up and get some rest." She looked over the girls. "Between me and my sister, we can find some clean clothes for you guys."
"Thanks." Grace and Heather said in unison.
Nik stood up and looked at his brother. Luukas nodded once, and Nik did the same.
He eyed Brock's six foot seven inch frame. "I may have something large enough for you left at my place from Cedric. Emma can get it for you."
"That would be great," Brock told him.
Leaving Nikulas to fill Luukas in on what Grace had told them, Emma took the three of them down to their place.
"You guys can stay in Aiden's room," Emma told Grace and Heather as they entered the apartment. "Brock, we have a pullout in the office you can crash on."
"Sounds perfect," he told her. "Thank you."
"Help yourselves to anything you want. There are clean towels in the closet there if you'd like to shower, and lots of food in the fridge. I'm going to go back upstairs. Keira's been helping me with my magic."
"Your magic?" Heather asked.
"Yup," she answered. "I had no idea I had any 'witchy powers' until just recently. But I'm learning. Oh, and Grace..."
Grace turned from the window to face her.
"If you're not too tired, maybe you can come up in a little while and we can compare tricks?"
"Sure," Grace grimaced. "But I'm warning you now, I don't have very many. My 'witchy powers' are pretty useless, honestly."
But Emma just smiled. "Well, we'll just have to see about that." With a wave, she left them to their own devices.
"I got first dibs on that shower, and I'm going to need every drop of the hot water," Heather announced, then headed to the bedroom she and Grace were staying in, her arms full of the clothes Keira had shoved at her as they were leaving her place.
The bedroom door slammed shut, leaving Grace and Brock alone.
He cleared his throat. "I'm just gonna go into the office and crash. I'll shower later, when the water has had time to heat up again."
"Brock, wait." Grace grabbed his arm as he walked by. "I know I already thanked you for getting us out of there, but I want you to know that I truly mean it. Everything else aside, I really do appreciate what you did." Feeling rather like an ungrateful child for how she'd been behaving towards him, she glanced up at him a bit sheepishly. "I still don't know what it was exactly that made you follow me, but I'm very glad you did." She shrugged one shoulder. "I owe you one."
Brock was silent as he looked down at the floor, but only for a moment. "You can always repay me by letting me kiss your friend," he teased.
Grace barked out a laugh. "Good try."
He suddenly got serious. "I would never hurt her, Grace."
The smile dropped from her face, and she narrowed her eyes.
He sighed heavily. "I know you don't know me. You don't know where I came from or what kind of male I am, but please believe me when I say that I am not a guy who would do anything to hurt a sweet girl like Heather. Not on purpose." That sexy grin of his came back full force. "And believe it or not, I'm glad that she has a friend like you. A friend that cares about her so much that she would threaten a werewolf if he so much as looked at her the wrong away."
Grace scowled up at him. She didn't want to like this guy, she really didn't. But he was making it kinda hard not to.
"Flattery will get you nowhere with me."
"I know. I respect that about you."
They were quiet a moment, and then he said, "So, what do you say? Just one little kiss. It doesn't even have to involve tongue..."
"Eww. No. Forget it."
He gave up all pretense of kidding around. "You know, I don't really need your permission. Heather is a grown woman, and I know you're her friend and you're just trying to watch out for her, and I respect that. But come on, Grace. You're being a bit hypocritical here, don't you think?"
Grace looked away. He was right. Who was she to tell her friend she couldn't hook up with a manly werewolf when she'd been getting all hot and heavy with a vampire that practically made her orgasm just by looking at him?
She studied him, trying to get past...whatever it was that was making her so against him being with her friend. But she couldn't. There was just something about him...something that made her wary. And it wasn't just that he was a werewolf. If that were the case, she'd have run far, far away from Aiden the moment she'd figured out that he was no longer completely human.
"No. I'm not being hypocritical. I'm not acting this way because of what you are. I'm acting this way because I don't trust you. I couldn't even tell you why. I just don't."
"Grace..."
"Stay away from my friend," she told him emphatically.
They were standing less than a foot apart, eyes locked in a silent battle of wills, when suddenly Brock disappeared.
One minute he was there, large and brawny in front of her, and the next he was just...gone.
Stunned, Grace blinked and looked around. Then a small noise to her left caught her attention. She turned to find Brock on the floor. An infuriated Aiden was straddling him, and he had his hands around his throat. One look told her he was in full "kill-the-wolf" mode.
"Aiden! Stop! Dude, what are you doing?"
His response to her question was to tighten his grip around Brock's throat. A spine tingling hiss followed. It made her hair stand up on end, and she wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.
Brock's face was bright red as he struggled to breathe, and his large hands were around Aiden's wrists, but he wasn't fighting back. Why wasn't he fighting back?
"Aiden!" Grace knelt on the floor directly in front of him, sending up a silent prayer to the gods that she'd get through to him without having all of that anger turned on her.
"Aiden," she said more calmly. "Please, let him go. He hasn't done anything wrong." When he didn't respond, she reached out and touched his face with tentative fingertips.
Without releasing his grip on the wolf's throat, he closed his eyes and turned his face into her palm. A few seconds later, she heard Brock wheeze in a breath as Aiden's grip loosened just enough for him to get some air.
"Aiden..."
Bright grey eyes, glowing with need and anger, flashed up to hers.
"You are MINE," he growled.
Grace dropped her hand from his face, taken aback.
"Um..." She wasn't quite sure how to respond to that declaration.
Leaning down until his face was barely an inch from Brock's, he pulled his lips back and bared his fangs. Another eerie hiss filled the room.
"She is MINE," he growled at the other male.
Brock's mouth moved as he tried to speak. After a few tries, he finally managed to rasp out, "Understood."
Grace looked from Aiden to Brock and back again. Finally, she reached out and tugged at Aiden's arm. "Aiden, please. He saved me. He saved me and you're hurting him."
Grey eyes locked onto hers and he cocked his head to the side.
"Yes, he saved me." She answered his unspoken question. "I probably wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for him. He even got me safely to Seattle. Let him go."
She breathed a sigh of relief as his features lost some of their feral sharpness and his glowing eyes dimmed a bit. He was listening. Thank the gods.
Grace watched anxiously as he released his grip from Brock's throat and stood up. She bent down over the werewolf, "Are you okay?"
Keeping a wary eye on Aiden, he nodded.
She helped Brock to his feet, or at least she tried to. He was a big guy, and she wasn't sure how much help she actually was. His neck was already bruising from the death grip Aiden had on him.
Brock immediately pulled away from her when Aiden flashed his fangs at him and took a seat at the kitchen counter.
She spun around to Aiden. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
He scowled down at her. "What's wrong with me? There was a bloody werewolf threatening you!"
"He wasn't threatening me! Well, he kind of was, but not the way you think."
Aiden suddenly stilled. Leaning closer, he took a deep breath, and his lip turned up in a snarl. "I can smell him all over you."
"What?"
"Hey, man," Brock started, putting his palms out in a gesture of peace. "Nothing is going on here, I swear."
Aiden's stare nailed him to the chair. "Sod off, dog," he gritted out.
Brock lowered his hands slowly to his lap.
"You know, love," Aiden told Grace. "If you'd wanted me to clear off, you could've just said so."
"Aiden, I didn't..."
But she never got the chance to finish her sentence. He was gone just as suddenly as he'd shown up.