“Right?” Alice swats my arm, and I almost spill my tea. “Sorry. Turns out he wasn’t all that shy, he was just a late bloomer for the transition, and he was self-conscious about it.” She twists her lips. “I didn’t care.”
“Late bloomer, how does that work?”
“The transition usually happens around twenty-five, but it can be sooner or later. There’s really no rhyme or reason, well, none that I know of anyway. Wes just turned twenty-nine, and I guess it messed with his head a little bit that he hadn’t become blooded yet. He’s definitely coming into his own though,” she adds.
“I can see that,” I concur.
“Plus, he’s an undercover freak, just like I knew he would be,” she purrs.
I chuckle. “I need to know what you consider a freak, ’cause that’s kind of a blanket statement.”
“He’s a dirty talker for one, that caught me off guard.” She grins. “Likes to tie me up and have his way with me. Nothing too crazy yet, but I’m hopeful.”
“I wouldn’t have guessed, he’s so sweet.”
“Not in the bedroom.” Alice touches her finger to her lip and looks up at the ceiling. “Or the hallway, or the laundry room.”
I snort. “Are you sure you even want to know about my sex life? It seems pretty tame compared to yours.”
“Hell yes, I do! Have you been with both of them together?” Her eyes are wide.
I nod eagerly. Who else could I talk about this too? Well, maybe a few of my old girlfriends, but I don’t really feel close to them anymore. “And separately too,” I confess. “Evan is impatient, he actually sliced my pants right off my body the first time.”
“No!” she cries, but starts laughing right away. “Give me something about Stone,” she urges happily.
I lick my lips. “He’s a talker too. Always in control.” I blush. “It’s only been a few times.”
“Lucky, lucky girl. If I didn’t like you so much, I might just hate you.” Her words are said in jest, but something in my stomach turns.
“Do you think that’s how others will feel?” All the levity is gone from my tone.
“What? No, Quinn. I’m just kidding.” Alice places her hand over mine. She looks right into my eyes and continues. “And even if they do, let them. It’s just jealousy, and they could never have what you do.”
“And what’s that? The fact that I’m their mate? It doesn’t seem fair that I get both of them, and it’s not like there’s anything special about me.” I speak the words I’ve felt for a while. Messing around with them in the beginning seemed fun, but I didn’t think it would ever last. I never believed I would mean anything to them other than a good time, and I thought I was okay with that. Thinking about it now turns my stomach, but so much has changed since then.
Alice shakes my hand. “Obviously there is something special about you, or you wouldn’t be fated to be theirs. We’re not talking just about you smelling good or tasting good to them for that matter. This is so much bigger than that, Quinn. You’re part of them, you hold a piece of their souls, and they have part of yours too,” she finishes softly.
I stare into her eyes for a moment, then twist my lips. “I’m being lame, sorry.”
Alice rolls her eyes and pats my hand. “You’re not lame. Now show me this broken mirror so I can come up with all kinds of scenarios of how it got broken.” She lets out a gasp. “Maybe Evan and Stone were going at it and broke it,” she whispers.
“Griffin said they don’t fight,” I tell her right away.
“Oh, they fight, I’ve seen it. Super spank bank material. Sorry, not sorry.” She winces. “Anyway, I’m not talking about fighting. I’m talking about them fucking.”
My shoulders fall a little. “I asked about that too, it’s a no go.”
Alice’s mouth drops open, and her eyes go even wider. “You’re kind of my hero,” she murmurs once the shock of my statement wears off.
Chapter 15
Evan
When Griff returns, it’s with a definite surge of self-assurance. “You don’t look like you want to kill anyone anymore.” His placid expression is replaced with his usual glare of apathy. “Did you kiss and make up?” We’re alone on the lower level, so I don’t mind teasing him.
“Close, but it’s not as if you’re unfamiliar with the position of seeking her favor,” he goads, making sure to remind me I was falling over my feet this morning to get to Quinn so I could beg her for forgiveness.
I grunt in response. “Did you take them up to the room?” I sort through the phones, checking which ones still have enough battery left to be powered on.
“No, I left her with the female wolf.”
“Alice?”
“Yes.”
“You should call her by name, she’s Quinn’s friend,” I advise.
“Why?” Griff asks.
He can be so imperceptive sometimes. “Because you sound like an asshole.” He nods his head like he gets it. Doesn’t mean he’ll listen though.
“Have you gotten anything from the children?” He gets right down to business, proving he’s still eager to get back to Quinn, but then again, I am too.
“One of the girls unlocked her phone, but she’d never called the number. She’s a mooch.” I grab another cheap phone off the desk. Most of them are what people refer to as burners. These kids don’t have the money or family connections to have fancy shit. “This one is still on, let me see who it belongs to. Wes should be back anytime, I sent him to grab chargers for the dead ones.”
Griff looks through the small pile of remaining phones and starts hitting buttons to see if any of the others are powered on before sorting them accordingly. I grab the master key off the desk and head to the containment rooms, opening the first door. “This your phone?” My voice is purposely harsh.
“No, I think it’s Gavin’s,” a kid says.
“Which one is Gavin?”
“Um, he’s kind of tall and skinny, brown hair.”
I slam the door shut. He just described more than half of the boys we picked up. I move down the row. “This your phone?” I hit paydirt on the third try.
“Yeah, I think that’s mine,” the boy answers.
“Are you Gavin?” He nods in response. “I want the passcode for your phone.” I hold up the device.
Gavin licks his lips. “I bought it used, so I’m not sure what’s on there,” he hedges.
“I don’t care about your porn collection, kid, unless you got some illegal shit on here. You got illegal shit on here?”
“No!” he shouts.
“Then I just want your call log and text messages.”
Gavin looks at the ground for a moment as if he’s thinking about not giving me the number and how that would go for him. “Three-five-two-five-five-eight,” he mutters under his breath.
I slam the door and head back to the desk before I can forget the numbers and jot them down on a scrap of paper. “Hand me the next one, might as well get the ones we can. We can go through them at home later.” I motion for Griff to pass me the next phone.
The whole process takes about twenty minutes, and that includes getting the other phones turned on after Wes hunted down some chargers.
“Randi will be replacing you in about twenty minutes,” I inform Wes. “I have you guys rotating twelve hour shifts until I get this sorted. It won’t be long. She knows the deal though, no one speaks to the kids besides us.”
“That’s fine with me,” Wes replies quickly. There’s been a noticeable change in him since he’s been blooded, even more so now that he’s not just drinking the bagged stuff. Makes me wonder how Griff survived off of it for so long.
“I’ll stay until she gets their dinner delivery and make sure to keep an eye on things while she sorts them. Lunch was a bit of a cluster. I had the server hand out the meals earlier, so nothing was left unattended,” Wes adds.
“All right, starting tomorrow, I’ll make sure the servers know they need to handle it and the tray pick u
ps an hour later.”
“That works,” Wes agrees.
“If you need anything, call.” Griff helps me gather the phones, and we head back up to Quinn.
“Good thing he gets off soon, he can collect the wo—Alice.” Griff looks at me for approval.
I chuckle. “You’re going to have to get used to sharing her on occasion.”
“I already do with you,” he grumbles, but in a rare display of emotion while Quinn isn’t present, he grins a little, showing he’s not really upset about sharing with me.
“I think that’s the other way around, vampire.”
“We’ll have to agree to disagree, bear.”
Uncharacteristically, the door is unlocked when we reach Griff’s apartment. Quinn has been quite adamant that it needs to remain bolted—not that I blame her after her experience in her own room—so I’m fairly surprised. Griff’s brows dip when I look over at him as the knob turns freely in my hand.
I shove the door open, expecting the worst, but I find Quinn and Alice sitting next to each other on the couch. Both are staring at the door, so I don’t think our entrance was expected. Quinn’s face is flushed red as if she’s embarrassed about something or she got caught doing something she shouldn’t have been.
Alice doesn’t give anything away with her demeanor. Supernaturals are much better at deception, not that I think that’s what’s happening here. I bet Alice was grilling Quinn for all the dirty details just like she promised at dinner the other night.
Griff’s shoulder bumps me as he makes his way through the door. He doesn’t bother removing his shoes, he just makes his way right over to Quinn and nabs the empty seat on her other side. When he looks at me his face says you snooze, you lose.
Quinn leans into his side without any prompting, and that has the smug bastard grinning from ear to ear. It’s a bit alarming to see him smile. He looks like a shark about to rip something apart.
I take my shoes off and pull the phones from my pockets and put them on the table. I note the two nearly empty mugs. “Wow, Evan, I knew you were dedicated to the job, but do you really need—” Alice’s eyes linger on the phones as she counts. “Four phones?”
“They aren’t mine.” I search her face. “How much has Wes told you about what’s been going on?”
Alice’s features pinch. “Nothing. He’s had to cover a few extra shifts, but those kids caused some havoc this morning so… Is something going on?” She sits forward as if she’s about ready to bolt at any moment depending on what I say.
“We have a bigger issue than the kids sneaking out.” I hold my hand out to Griff, asking for the phones he carried so I can find the ones that need to be plugged back in.
“What do you mean?” Alice looks between me and Griff, and her expression has turned unusually serious.
“Someone’s been lifting blood from the bank and giving it to unblooded vamps,” I divulge while making my way toward the kitchen to plug some of the phones in.
“No,” Alice gasps.
“You ever heard of something called Wet?”
“Wet? I don’t think so, other than the obvious, but I’m thinking that’s not what you’re talking about.” Alice resettles herself on the couch while I take the chair across from Quinn. Her eyes are on me, even though she’s tucked into Griff’s side.
“Apparently, they’re soaking weed in blood and smoking it to get high. Someone here is supplying it.” Even though I trust Alice, I watch her reaction to the news.
“Holy shit, really? And that works?”
“So they say,” Griff mutters while rubbing the ends of Quinn’s hair between his fingers.
“How long has this been going on? How did you find out?” Alice questions rapidly.
“We don’t know. Griff suspected there might be some sippin’ going on, and we put it together from there. The kids we rounded up this morning confessed about Wet.” I grab one of the phones. “We’re trying to figure out who’s involved and who the dealers might be.”
“Holy shit,” Alice whispers again. “It would have to be a blooded vamp, or someone who has access to the bank.”
I huff. “Shit doesn’t seem to be on the up and up there.” I decide to include her in my misgivings about the place. Things weren’t right there this morning.
“At the blood bank? Have you talked to Wes? He was there every day picking up his bags until recently.”
“He didn’t get deliveries?” Griff asks.
“No, he would just go there twice a day.” Alice shrugs.
“His shift should be over soon. Think you could talk him into coming up here for a few before he crashes for the day?” Alice just smiles at my challenge, then grabs her phone. Her thumbs fly over the screen as she fires off a text.
Her phone vibrates just seconds later, and she turns it around so I can see the screen. “He’ll be up as soon as he’s done.”
Quinn
Griffin wraps his arm over my shoulders and tugs me a little closer right before there’s a knock on the door. Evan is already up and moving to answer it, and I’m pretty sure we all know who it is.
“Thanks for coming,” Evan says, allowing a hesitant-looking Wes to walk slowly past him.
“Of course, what do you need from me?”
“Have a seat.” Griffin’s voice is stiff, and Wes visibly swallows at his command.
Alice pats the cushion next to her and offers him a smile of reassurance. I scoot a little closer to Griffin to give them more room on the sofa.
“You might have information that would be helpful to us,” Evan starts. “We’ve filled Alice in on a little bit of what’s been going on. She brought it to our attention that you’ve been visiting the blood bank daily until recently, correct?”
Wes’ brows furrow. “Yeah, my transition wasn’t very long ago. I was—”
Griff cuts him off. “Did you witness anything unusual?” I jab my elbow into his side, and he looks down at me.
“Rude,” I mouth.
“No. I mean, I don’t think so. What kind of unusual?” Wes doesn’t seem affronted.
“You know about what happened in Quinn’s room, the blood?” Evan prompts.
“What…what blood?” Alice turns to look between Evan and me.
“You didn’t even tell her? You’re like a little vault.” Evan smiles softly at me.
“You better start talking now, chickee,” Alice demands.
“Remember the night we went to pick up Jacob? Well, when I got back to my room, someone had poured blood all over the entryway. I didn’t bother with the light, it’s not like I was expecting something like that. I ended up slipping in it, which left me butt deep in blood. Not my finest moment.”
“You didn’t smell it?” Alice wrinkles her nose.
“Unfortunately no. Human.” I point to my face. Plus, I was dog-tired after the day I had, but I don’t mention that part.
“That’s fucked up. Why would someone do that?”
“We thought it was to scare her, to show Quinn the darker aspects of being around supernaturals, like the first prank. But now I’m not so convinced.” Evan taps his fingers on the arm of the chair he’s sitting in.
“First prank?” Alice eyes me again.
“Dead pig. It was left in my room the first night when I got back from dinner with you guys.” I twist my lips after retelling the story, no need to try to hide it now.
“You didn’t tell me any of this.” Alice swats my arm. It stings a little, even though I know she wasn’t trying to hurt me.
Griffin makes a growling sound behind me. Alice’s eyes jump up to his, wide and a little fearful. I run my hand down Griffin’s thigh reassuringly and ignore it.
“It wasn’t a big deal. The pig I mean, but the blood…” I sneer, leaving the rest unsaid. “I would find little things out of place in my office too. I thought it was just to make me uncomfortable, trying to get me to leave, but I wasn’t about to let anyone scare me away.”
“You never told me tha
t!” Evan sounds accusatory.
“Or me.” Griffin doesn’t sound any happier. “Someone was in your office too?”
“Like I said, I knew what they were doing. I never expected it to escalate to anything else.” I feel slightly defensive. It’s not like I’m going to tattle every time someone looks at me crossly.
“You should have told me.” Evan gives me a warning glower. “Not many people go up to the third floor. There are only a few offices up there besides yours and his.” He points his finger at Griffin.
“I assumed from the beginning it was a kid just because the stuff was sort of harmless, in a weird kind of way.”
“We did too,” Evan concurs, “and Michelle seemed to be the perfect suspect, considering she’d already tried to sneak into the staff wing more than once.” Wes nods, agreeing with Evan’s announcement. “Then there was the attack on Quinn that Michelle reluctantly admitted to. We knew she wasn’t working alone though, since someone had to let her out of the containment room. So that leaves an unknown threat at the school.”
“Which is why they insist on having me followed,” I add.
Evan continues as if I didn’t just interrupt him. “We only recently suspected the sippin’, and that’s when shit started to take on a new light. What if the blood in Quinn’s room was just an easy explanation for what happened to the missing blood from the bank?”
“I wish I had some information to give you, but it all seemed fine when I went in. I signed in, filled out my preferred type, and when it was ready, they would tell me what room was available and that was that,” Wes states simply.
“Why didn’t you just get it delivered?” Evan inquires.
Wes’ eyes dart to Alice, then me. He licks his bottom lip quickly. “I had to monitor my intake in the beginning. My transition, when it finally hit, was hard and fast. It seemed safer to have to go get it than having access all the time,” he admits.
Questions filter through my mind, but I know now’s not the right time. Honestly, there probably never will be, it seems deeply personal. Alice lays her hand on Wes’ thigh and gives him a little squeeze.
Havenfall Harbor Book Two: Paranormal Ménage Romance MFM Page 17