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I followed Rhys and Chike out to the vampire’s car. My lips twitched as I remembered all the times I’d thought Rhys’s sporty little car was way too expensive for an art teacher—even if he did work at a private school. Of course, now it all made more sense, since I knew he was a powerful supernatural creature who worked for the demon who owned the whole city. Geesh my life was weird these days.
The guys argued good-naturedly about who got to drive home. I wasn’t paying too much attention, since my mind was still trying to make sense of everything I’d been told in the last couple of hours. Did I dare believe the demons? All the sexual, incubus-induced attraction aside, I did genuinely like Orion. He had been a soft, silent presence in the background of my life for the last four years—or, you know, multiple centuries, if you wanted to believe all that “watching over you,” crap. And I couldn’t deny that I did feel drawn to him. I wanted to know more about him. I wanted to be there when he found himself again. But...it was pretty clear he wasn’t an objective observer when it came to his demonic employer. How much of what he’d told me could possibly be true?
Then again, one of my best friends trusted White with the lives of her entire family. And even Rhys had urged me to consider the fact that people could change—that one little murder committed hundreds or thousands of years ago didn’t mean a person was doomed to an eternity of evil deeds.
I made myself take a deep breath. Even if I did believe the hype about Derek White being a fucking saint, that didn’t mean I suddenly had to love him. So, once I knew the truth about my sister’s death...maybe, just maybe, I could give up on my desire for revenge. Already, that burning need to see him bleed was fading. I knew, somewhere deep inside me, that I’d loved my sister more than anyone in the world. But she’d been gone for so long. That was, literally, in another life. How long did a person grieve the loss of a loved one? My mortal parents had died in a car crash a little over four years ago. Though I still missed them, the urgency, the rawness of the missing, faded a little more every day. Now, I could go days or weeks without it rearing its head.
The loss of my sister all those years ago seemed new, but intellectually, I knew that was only because that part of me had just awakened. This too would fade.
I knew all this. But it didn’t make things any easier.
It didn’t magically help me know what to do.
The world around me was in chaos thanks to the revelation of the supes. And now I had demons proclaiming their undying love, gods appearing to try to trick me into going off with them to some other realm, and this strange, blossoming power that grew inside me with every breath I took.
It was all too much to process. I didn’t know which thing to think about, where to focus my attention.
“Earth to Troy,” Chike’s musical voice called, breaking me out of my spiraling thoughts.
I blinked and realized I was just standing there in front of the open car door. Chike had climbed in the back to ride in the cramped space between Rhys’s school supplies and his sword, leaving the door open for me to take the passenger seat. Rhys was standing on the other side of the car, poised to slide in, but hesitating. His eyes, so light green they were almost clear, studied my face as if he were looking for something. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head. “Sorry. Zoned out.” I slid into the car, pulling the door closed behind me as I settled into the low-slung seat and hooked my seatbelt. “So,” I said, with a glance at Chike in the rearview. “No driving for you, huh?”
He glared out the window. “No. Someone is a stodgy old man.”
Rhys chuckled as he started the car and pulled away from the curb. “My age has nothing to do with the fact that I don’t trust you with my sweet darling.”
I arched a brow at him. “Why are guys so weird about their cars?” I mused. “I mean...you share me. But not the car? That’s...pretty insulting.”
That got me a tolerant look from Rhys. “Not at all the same thing.”
Chike huffed. “Yeah, we both went into that relationship knowing we were going to have to share eventually.” He shrugged.
Rhys let out a wry laugh. “See. Chike understands.”
I rolled my eyes. “You guys are so weird.”
Chike arched one perfect lavender brow at me in the rearview mirror. “Though, it was kind of a surprise to have to share you with Orion. White was a given, but I somehow didn’t picture you banging the hired help.”
I turned in my seat so he could feel the full weight of my death glare. “What?”
Rhys reached over and ruffled my hair. “Shh...no blood-letting in my car.”
When I looked at him, he shrugged. “Except for me. I can feed without making a mess. You breaking his nose is likely to be a bit less...tidy.”
I shoved his hand away. “Stop trying to distract me from the fact that this little jackass implied everyone just assumes I’m going to fall all over the sleezy, murdering, crime lord demon.”
Rhys shrugged. “The man does always seem to get what he wants. He’s always a dozen steps ahead of everyone else, with his irritating ‘intuition.’”
I turned around to face front, crossing my arms with a huff and glaring out the window at the passing buildings as we made our way toward home. “I am not now, nor will I ever be interested in that disgusting, lying, snake.”
Rhys sighed. Chike muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “Yeah, right.” I didn’t speak to either of them until we got to the apartment.
I didn’t care what kind of heroic crap everyone else spouted about Derek Fucking White. I was not going to fall into his bed like another one of his precious possessions. Besides, it wasn’t even like he had made any sort of overtures toward me. I wasn’t some amazing goddess anymore. Besides, he knew I hated him. And, weirdly enough, he seemed to respect that. Good to know someone did.
The next morning, I woke slowly in a warm, perfect tangle of limbs. The mattress dipped as Rhys removed his arm from under my head, slowly drawing away and taking his delicious heat with him. When I learned vampires existed, I had expected them to be cold and dark. But not Rhys. My vampire had an aura like a rainbow—which he said had something to do with taking energy from countless auras of the people he fed from—and he radiated body heat like the best personal heater. His soft lips brushed my forehead. “You need to get up too, you know,” his deep voice purred in my ear. “Aren’t you working at the clinic today?”
I groaned and rolled away from Rhys, curling myself around Chike’s lithe body and burying my nose in his soft, sea-scented lilac hair. Chike just pulled the fluffy comforter over both our heads to block out the vampire’s nonsense, then immediately went back to sleep.
I was drowsing, nearly out again myself, when a sharp pinch to my generous butt had me yelping into Chike’s ear and squirming to get away.
“Godsdamn you both!” the siren snapped, slapping a hand over his assaulted ear. “Fuck off until a decent hour!”
Rhys sighed. Then the comforter was unceremoniously yanked off us. We both squirmed like dark-dwelling creatures suddenly exposed to light and air. “Odin’s balls, I hate you!” I said, stuffing my head under a pillow.
Chike levered himself up to retrieve the blanket, but I felt his motions still suddenly. I uncovered my head to find Rhys leaning over the siren, kissing him silent. And wow, was that a sight to wake up to. My boyfriends were hot. The sneaky vampire pulled back and shoved a cup of steaming coffee into our beautiful, grumpy merman’s hands. When Chike subsided with his coffee, looking more like he might actually get up, Rhys’s pale green eyes turned on me.
I wrinkled my nose at him, taking in his perfectly pressed slacks and cashmere sweater, and his slicked-back and artfully arranged blond waves. It was sickening that someone could look so put-together at this hour. “You’re evil incarnate.”
He turned and retrieved a plate from the nightstand. He held it off to one side, one blond brow arched at me expectantly. I huffed, but tilted my chin up to grudgingly accept his stupid good morning kiss. Vampires had heightened senses. I hoped the smell of my morning breath killed him.
He kissed the tip of my nose, then brushed his lips across mine before handing over the plate, which was piled high with waffles and bacon. He split a mock-stern look between me and Chike. “You have fifteen minutes to eat and get dressed, children. I have to leave for work, so I can’t stay and make sure you actually leave the house.”
Chike shifted the coffee mug to one hand and used the other to flip Rhys off.
The vampire just smiled indulgently and turned away, whistling like a damned morning person as he left for work. The jerk. I felt sorry for his poor students.
I took a bite of the amazing homemade waffles, and I had to concede this might be worth waking up for. Chike nudged me and I looked over at him. His soft lips pressed to mine, tasting of coffee and cream. When he pulled back, he handed me the coffee mug in exchange for my fork. We shared our breakfast in bed for a few more minutes before I finally sighed and slid out of our nest. “He’s right,” I said, stretching. “We’ve turned into spoiled children. But it’s all his fault. Who knew vampires were so sweet?”
Chike huffed, but he got up and started getting ready for work too. “Don’t let it fool you. Vamps are sneaky bastards. I bet you all the songs on a siren’s isle this bribe is going to come back to bite us in the ass.” He waggled his winged brows at me and gave me a leer. “Literally.”
I laughed, and somehow ended up back in bed, tangled in Chike’s slender, graceful limbs and long hair.
It was hard to say who won the competition for best boyfriend that morning—Rhys with his homemade breakfast in bed, or Chike making me the dessert. Gods. The world might be a mess, and nothing made sense. But this...these guys...they were the thing that made me glad to be right where I was, despite everything else.