Wait a minute … there was a dessert shop?
I pounced on the cake. The first bite crumbled in my mouth and I had to close my eyes. It was so good that it took every part of my control to not shove the entire thing in in one go. Rich creaminess danced across my tongue, the bitterness of dark chocolate tempered by the velvety ganache and caramel filling.
Holy shit.
My eyes flew open to find three males staring at me. Each expression was a little different, and I was reading a hell of a lot in those gazes.
“You will be showing me which shop this comes from,” I warned Louis. He had created a monster. I was hooked.
Jacob was the first to straighten. He looped an arm over my shoulder and pulled me into his side. “Come on, Jessa babe, it’s time for you to get some rest … and a shower wouldn’t go astray.”
I elbowed him, although he definitely had a point. I smelled like old ass that had been left to sit in the sun for a week. We made quick work of the distance to our room. I finished the cake and Louis kindly disappeared the plate for me. He grinned when I asked him he wanted a tip. If this sorcerer thing didn’t work out, he had a very successful career in hospitality waiting for him.
The ride up in the elevator was as horrible as always, but clenched hands were the only sign of my discomfort. I hoped anyway. I couldn’t wait to see the rest of my pack, and Mischa too. I’d actually missed my sister, she was working her way into my life.
Exactly how it should have been over the years.
Louis opened the door to our rooms. I didn’t bother to ask how he got himself onto the security. He was Louis, that was all I needed to know.
The main living area was empty, the floor soft on my poor abused feet. I turned to Jacob. “Where is everyone?”
“When Louis arrived, we were spending our time searching for you. He pretty quickly inferred that we were all dumbasses, and that you were most certainly in Faerie. I was the logical one to accompany him, since the land would recognize me as its own.”
“Inferred,” the sorcerer murmured. “I’ll have to work on making myself clearer.”
I ignored the idiocy in the room. “Are you telling me that the land could have started attacking us too?”
Jacob gave two hard nods. “Yes.”
Great! Sign me up for the all-inclusive week at Faerie land. Holiday from hell.
I moved across the room and opened the door to the bedroom I shared with Mischa. It was empty. I poked my head back around the corner. “Where’s Mischa?”
Jacob’s expression shuttered before recovering in almost the same moment. I narrowed my eyes on him. “Speak, Jake, or I’ll have Braxton beat it out of you.” I liked to fight my own battles, but with the Compasses, Braxton was the true threat.
The fey ran a hand through his white hair. “Something happened while you were gone. We all kind of lost our shit and … things went down between Mischa and Max.” His full lips thinned. “Tension has been pretty high, and, well, she hasn’t been around much.”
I couldn’t imagine my slightly timid sister wandering around this place on her own. What were they not telling me? I furrowed my brow and opened my mouth to blast the shit out of him, but Louis interrupted me before I could let loose.
“She’s fallen in with the twins.”
My heart stuttered in my chest. I almost wheezed as I tried to suck in my next breath.
“What?” I stepped back toward the males in the living room, blinking a few times in rapid succession, trying to clear my thoughts. “You mean the twins who were breaking all of those marked out of the prisons? The twins who are trying to bring about the rise of the dragon king? The ancient twins who are probably manipulating Mischa without her even realizing it?”
Holy fucking fuck. This was why I needed to stay here at all times, supes went stupid without me. I rubbed my temples, exhaustion pressing down on me. A weight only sleep could ease.
I sighed. “Right now I’m useless. I need some rest. But we have to deal with this Mischa thing, she’s not used to our ways. If the twins were looking for a way to infiltrate our pack, she’s the weak link.”
Braxton and I locked eyes, and I could read the same worry in his that I’m sure were reflected in mine.
I got a sudden whiff of my own disgustingness, the scent tingling my senses and not in a good way. Definitely time for a shower.
“I’m going to clean up,” I said, “and then before I hit the bed we need a game plan.”
I turned back to enter my room, but paused as I heard a noise. I’d thought everyone was out, but someone was moving in the room Braxton and Maximus shared. I caught a familiar vamp scent.
I dashed down the hall. I couldn’t wait to see my vampire. I’d missed him so much, and I knew he’d have been completely pissed and worried when both of us disappeared. It would be cruel to not let him know straight away that we were back.
“Jess!” I heard Jacob yell for me, but I was already at the door.
I flung it open and stepped into the dimly lit room. Only one bed was occupied, a sea of blankets piled up high. I had just a moment to wonder why the hell Maximus was in bed in the middle of the day before more scents hit me hard. I gasped as two heads popped up from the covers.
My eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, so I recognized the tousled dirty blond hair of my best friend, and the tiny beauty queen vampire who’d taken Maximus away right before I’d disappeared. Cardia. They were intertwined, lingering traces of sex in the air. Sex and blood.