by Kasi Blake
He watched his brother pace, and he wondered if Jack would hate him for it. Jack had a bit of warmth in his eyes when he spoke about Summer. To hear she was keeping in touch with Jack concerned him. That meant they were close. He cared about her.
Should he ask for permission to stake her if she hurt Matt?
Jack glanced at his watch. “Silver is waiting. I really should get home. I promised I would return right away, and I swore I wouldn’t get sucked into the fight with Oberon. If we weren’t having a baby…”
Trick waved off the explanation. “No worries. I get it. Silver was upset over the thought of you being involved in this. She told me the two of you have almost died like a dozen times. This is my battle. Not yours. I appreciate the rescue, but you don’t need to do anything else.”
Jack stopped at the door. “Let me know if you ever need anything. I’ll try to help if I can.”
“Keep in touch,” Trick said.
“Tell Cowboy and Summer I said hey.”
“I will… if they’re still around. They might have decided to hit the road without me.”
“No way. Cowboy has a lot of negative points, but he’d never leave a friend behind.” Jack pulled the door open. He hesitated on the threshold. “One more thing. Jersey told me you needed more blood from Silver, so I left a vial with him for you. Let me know if you run out. It’s the least we can do.”
Jack left, closing the door softly behind him, and Trick felt a heavy loss building in his gut. He missed the guy already. Weird. He usually didn’t get attached to people that fast, but Jack was his brother. He settled back against the headboard again, and Scarlet laid down next to him. She rested her arm on his stomach. He kissed the top of her head. They needed to talk. There were so many things he wanted to say, but he was suddenly tired.
More than anything he just wanted to sleep for a while with her next to him. Jack’s last words took another trip through his mind as he was falling asleep. Jersey had another vial of Silver’s blood. He’d used the first one to save Matt’s life. That made Trick trust him… just a little.
What would he do with the second vial? When he finally woke after what seemed like two days of uninterrupted slumber, Trick was relieved to see Scarlet hadn’t left. She was watching him from a chair across the room. Her eyes lit up with excitement. She hurried to the bed and sat next to him. He waited to speak until she was settled.
“How long have I been out?” he asked.
“You slept for about ten hours,” she said. “Are you okay? How do you feel?”
His mouth was bone dry. He sat up and grabbed a half empty water bottle on the table between the beds. It was probably hers. Knowing she wouldn’t mind because they shared almost everything, he finished it and immediately felt better.
She checked her watch. “It’s a little after noon.”
“Have you heard from anyone yet?” Trick leaped off the bed and began to pace. Anxiety rode him hard. What if something bad had already happened to someone he loved? Oberon might have already attacked. “Where’s my phone?”
Scarlet pointed to the other bed. It was next to the pillow where Jack had left it last night. The memory of his brother saving his life lightened his mood a bit. If it wasn’t for Jack, he’d be dead. Trick looked forward to getting to know the mysterious former vampire. He had a feeling they had a lot more in common than a father.
He checked his messages, both voice and text.
Matt shouted in his ear. “Where are you? Are you okay? Call me. Now!”
Trick winced.
The next message played automatically.
Cowboy spoke in a lazy drawl that reflected his Texas upbringing. “You dead? Let me know if you aren’t. We’ve got plans to make.”
The third message was from his mom.
Laura whispered as if Sean was nearby and she didn’t want him to hear. “I don’t know what to say. Honestly. This isn’t covered in any parenting book I’ve seen. I wanted to hear your voice and let you know I love you. Your father is having a hard time right now, but he still loves you too. No matter what, you will always be our son.”
Trick blinked his eyes rapidly to keep them from filling with tears. No way was he going to cry in front of Scarlet and tarnish his reputation as a tough guy. He forced his mind in a new direction. Business. Thinking about hunting helped him wrangle his emotions. “Oberon almost killed me,” Trick said.
“I know.” Scarlet winced. “I was there.”
“I can’t defeat him, not on my best day.”
“We can run,” she said. “Cowboy thinks we should leave town and keep moving. Usually I try not to agree with that jerk on principle alone, but he could be right. Maybe we should run.”
For how long? That didn’t seem like a great plan to Trick. He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life avoiding a fight. Although his goals had changed somewhat, the desire to be a great hunter still burned deep within him. It was in his blood.
The next message was from Bash/Oberon.
Reluctantly, Trick held the cell steady next to his ear. Bash sounded groggy as if he too had taken a long nap. He sounded… weird and not Oberon-like at all. Jersey’s attempt to curse him had obviously worked.
“Hey. Were we supposed to hunt today? Can’t remember. Was I in a fight? Feels like it. I ache all over. Were you there? Call me when you get this.”
Bash seemed to be having trouble stringing a coherent sentence together. He didn’t know he was the faerie king. Trick’s heart skipped a beat, and he felt like dancing around the motel room. His friends and family were in the clear… unless Oberon got his memory back. He made a mental note to question Jersey later about the spell he’d used to rob the faerie king of his identity. They needed to figure out what the cure was and make sure Oberon never found it.
The final message was from Jersey. “I look forward to hearing your apology and gratitude for saving your life tonight. In case you missed it, I am responsible for you still being alive.”
“Let’s get back to the mansion,” Trick said. “We all need to have a nice, long conversation.”
Alarmed, Scarlet asked, “Won’t Oberon look there first?”
He smiled at her, feeling at ease for the first time in weeks. “Jersey erased Oberon’s memories. I need to get home fast so I can tell the others. We may be okay now.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I remember seeing Jersey holding a strange gold object in his hands and Oberon falling to his knees. Is that when it happened”
Trick nodded and grinned. “We’re safe… at least for a while.”
They started for the door together. Trick remembered seeing her open it last night and the feelings that had rushed forward to fill his heart. He took her arm, stopping her in mid-step. If he didn’t say what was on his mind now, he might never do it. “Wait a second. There’s something I have to tell you. I was going to let you know last night, but Jack was here.”
She searched his eyes. “Should I be nervous?”
He grasped her upper arms to keep her from looking away. “Know what I realized last night?”
“That you aren’t invincible?” she said with a tinge of sarcasm.
“No.”
The words rested on his tongue, three simple words. I love you. How hard was that? All he had to do was put them out there. Then he and Scarlet could get on with it. They could become an official couple. She deserved to hear the words, but they stayed in his mouth. He’d never said them to a girl before. In fact, he hadn’t really said them to anyone in his life.
He wanted to tell her he loved her, but he couldn’t. Having the feelings let alone expressing them were alien to him. Besides, he could change his mind tomorrow. Would that be fair to her? Keeping his mouth shut was kinder, he assured himself. If he was still in love with her next week, they’d talk about it then.
There was also his condition to consider. Scarlet had emphatically stated she would turn vampire in a heartbeat for him, but should she? Was that fair to her?
; She was staring at him with those beautiful blue eyes, waiting for him to speak. So he went with the first thing that popped into his head. “Our date,” he said. “We talked about going on a date after the Oberon thing was over. Well, I think the time is now. Want to just do it and get it over with?”
That had sounded way better in his head.
She grimaced. “How romantic. What every girl wants to hear. Let’s get it over with.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“If you hadn’t almost died last night, I’d stake you.” Hands on hips, she said, “Okay. This is how it’s going to be. You take a shower and put on some decent clothes. Nothing fancy. Just wear stuff that’s not ripped or bloody. Bring me flowers.”
He gaped at her. “You told me flowers are a stupid waste of money when you can get them from somebody’s garden for free.”
Heavy sigh. She stared at him as if he were hopeless. Then she went on with her list. “Bring me flowers. No roses. You just want to show that you put some effort into this and that you care. We can teleport somewhere out of town so no one will try to kill us. I’d like dinner first. Nothing fancy. A good burger will do. After that I want to go back to that night club you took me to when you were dating the ballerina. Any questions?”
The girl was an enigma wrapped in a mystery with a conundrum at the center. Good thing he was probably going to live for over a thousand years. It would take him at least that long to understand her. She thought flowers were lame, but she wanted him to buy some. Her clothes weren’t any better than his, so he didn’t get the dig about that. Plus, she brought up Dani when that should be the last thing she wants him to be thinking about.
She kissed him quick on the mouth. Her hand reached for his, and she entwined their fingers. Pulling him through the doorway, she hummed a happy tune. She explained that her father had needed his car for work, so she had rented one. That gave him an idea. For her last birthday he had given her a key to the mansion. Next time he would surprise her with a car of her own. As soon as he turned eighteen Cowboy was putting his inheritance in his name.
And what good was money if you couldn’t spend it on the people you loved?
His thoughts returned to Oberon, the man wearing the body of his father’s former friend. Oberon believed he was Bash. Now what? How long would the spell work? What if Oberon suddenly remembered and chose to kill them all?
Nothing had changed as far as Trick was concerned. They had to find a way to kill the faerie king before he killed them.
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