Admitting that last one filled me with a nervous energy that had my fingers tapping the steering wheel. What would I say to Chris when I saw him? What would he say to me? Was he angry at me for not hearing him out that night and then leaving without a word? I wouldn’t blame him if he was.
Sara laughed and reached over to lay a hand over one of mine on the wheel.
“You look like you just drank a gallon of espresso.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. You seem to be happier than when we left the house this morning.”
I smiled at her. “I am. Thanks for coming with me today and for the things you said up there. It helped a lot.”
Her stomach growled loudly in response, and the two of us laughed.
“Late lunch?” she asked, already looking around to see what was available.
“God, yes. I ate breakfast at 4:00 a.m., and my stomach is about to eat itself.”
We found a little Mexican place where we shocked the waitress by demolishing four baskets of tortilla chips and salsa before our meal came. I was sure I caught her peeking at us once to see if we were dumping chips in our bags. When we ordered the fried ice cream for dessert, she just shook her head and smiled.
It was a late afternoon by the time we got back to the house, and I was full of nervous anticipation over seeing Chris. As soon as I pulled up to the garage, I knew he wasn’t there, and I swallowed my disappointment as I got out of the SUV. I’d made him wait four days, so it was only fair that I be the one to wait for him now.
“Lass,” boomed a loud voice when we walked through the garage door into the kitchen. I watched as Sara was lifted off the floor by a big red-haired warrior I didn’t know.
Sara let out a strangled laugh. “You’re crushing me, you big oaf.”
“My turn, bro,” said a second male with the same Irish brogue.
I thought I was seeing double as Sara was passed off to another warrior, identical to the first one. Twins?
“Don’t make me zap you again,” Sara threatened in a muffled voice.
Laughing, the warrior set her on her feet. “We missed you, lass.”
“Right.” She scoffed, but her smile said she was happy to see them. She turned to me.
“Beth, this is Seamus and Niall.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said as the one named Seamus took my hand in a firm grip.
He grinned boyishly. “Pleasure’s all mine.”
Niall shoved his brother aside to claim my hand. “If I’d known the lasses were this pretty here, I would have come a lot sooner.”
Sara scoffed and gave him a friendly shove. “What does bring you guys to California?”
“Tristan thought with all the people we have in LA, you could use a healer,” Niall said. “We volunteered to escort Margot and to see if you could use a few more pairs of hands. It’s too quiet at home these days with all the extra security Dax has on the stronghold.”
Seamus nodded. “And with Sara’s two beasties running loose about the place, no one would be daft enough to attack.”
Sara’s beasties were two hellhounds she’d adopted and named Hugo and Woolf. I’d heard all about them from Sara and Jordan. Sara missed them terribly, but she couldn’t travel with a pair of hellhounds. She said they were happy at Westhorne, and she went home between jobs to see them.
“Will you be staying here at the command center?” I asked, noticing the two large duffle bags on the living room floor.
While I was gone, Geoffrey and his team had moved into the new safe house we’d set up in the city. This place seemed almost empty without all the extra bodies.
“For now,” Niall said. “We’re about to head out to meet up with Nikolas and Chris for a pint.”
“We won’t keep you then,” Sara told them. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to catch up.”
Seamus smiled. “That we will.”
The brothers left, and Sara and I went to clean up from our hike in the mountains. Nikolas called Sara around 6:00 to let her know he wouldn’t be home for dinner, so the two of us ordered Chinese and hung out with Will and Raoul in the control room. It was a quiet night, and the only call that came in was from one of the teams reporting they’d killed two vampires outside a bowling alley.
At 11:00, I decided to call it a night. Mason was out on patrol with Brock, so the guesthouse was quiet as I undressed. Lying in bed, I found it impossible to settle down. Every night that I’d slept in this bed since Chris and I had bonded, I could feel him nearby, even when I hadn’t wanted him there. My Mori was agitated now, not being able to sense him, and I had a feeling it was going to be a long night.
I was finally dozing off when a commotion outside woke me. I heard shouting, which was cut off abruptly by a loud splash. That was followed by male laughter and more shouts.
Lifting my head, I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. 2:00 a.m. What the hell was going on out there at this hour?
I got up to see what was happening, and I was halfway across my room when I realized I could feel Chris’s presence. Before I could think about that, a knock came on the front door.
I hurried to answer the door and found Nikolas on the doorstep wearing an apologetic smile.
“I’m sorry to wake you, but we have a small situation.”
“Dove,” called a drunken male voice I’d know anywhere. “I need to see Dove.”
I leaned to one side to peer around Nikolas, and my mouth fell open at the sight behind him. Chris stood supported between Seamus and Niall, and he looked wasted. He was also drenched from head to toe.
“What happened to him?” I asked Nikolas.
“He fell in the pool, and we had to fish him out.”
“I can see that, but he’s drunk. How much alcohol did he have tonight?”
We had a high tolerance for human alcohol, and a warrior would have to consume a vast amount to get this intoxicated.
Nikolas shook his head. “It wasn’t normal alcohol. He drank murren.”
“What’s that?”
“Demon liquor.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Where the heck did he get demon liquor?”
“Demon bar,” called either Seamus or Niall. How could anyone tell them apart?
“Don’t yell at her,” Chris growled.
Someone let out a loud “oomph.” Nikolas and I looked behind him to see one of the twins rubbing his side.
Chris spotted me and stared as if he wasn’t sure I was real. “You came back,” he said in a hushed voice.
“Yes.”
He gave me the saddest smile I’d ever seen. “I’m sorry, Dove.”
Nikolas turned to me again. “I’d leave him to sleep it off in the grass, but he’d wake up the whole neighborhood. He insisted on coming over here.”
I sighed heavily. “Bring him in.”
“Where do you want him?” one of the twins asked after they’d helped Chris into the house. “Bedroom?”
I huffed. “Absolutely not. Let me get some towels, and you can put him on the couch.”
I grabbed a stack of large towels from the linen closet and spread them over the cushions. Seamus and Niall sat Chris on the couch where he immediately toppled over onto his side.
“I think he’s finally passed out,” Nikolas said.
“Will he be okay?” I asked no one in particular. I had no idea what the effects of demon liquor were.
“He’ll have a bad hangover. That’s it.”
“I’m not going to ask why you all were at a demon bar,” I said crossly. “But if he pukes in here, you three are cleaning it up.”
“Yes, ma’am,” one of the twins said, and they all chuckled.
They left, and for the first time in four days, I was alone with Chris. He was asleep, but his presence filled the room, surrounding me and soothing my Mori. I hadn’t known just how much I’d missed him until that moment.
I walked over and stood behind the couch, looking down at him. How was it possible for someone to be passed out drunk and still look this handsome?
He’ll probably look good tomorrow, even with a hangover.
I turned off the lights and went back to bed. Barely five minutes passed before I heard thumps and swearing coming from the living room.