by Mary Martel
No such luck so far.
"We have the papers you ask about," Trenton assured me. "We have fake papers for everything. Our uncle knew someone who took care of all of those things for me."
My mouth flopped open. Well, that wasn't exactly what I meant at all.
"Can you drive?" I questioned curiously.
"Of course," Simon rushed to assure me. "It was part of our training. We both took defensive driving courses that our uncle had set up for us."
"Holy cow," I breathed, finally excited about something. "Do you think he'll let me take this course too? I wanna know defensive driving! I don't even know what it is, but I know I wanna learn."
Simon smiled at me indulgently while Quinton barked out a harassed but firm sounding no.
"I'm sure he'd teach you if he wasn't dead," Trenton said in a quiet voice.
I slumped in defeat. "Is everyone you know dead?" I asked, hoping he'd say no, but some form of sixth sense was screaming at me that it would be the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear.
"Yes," Trenton answered in a dead serious voice that made me flinch.
Rain came through the back door and stormed into the place, saving me from having to respond. Not that I would have known what to say to such a thing. Sorry didn't seem to cut it or be even close to sufficient when presented with such an amount of loss.
"Are you for real?" Simon breathed out in a shocked whisper.
"Rain?" Trenton murmured hoarsely. "What are you doing here?"
I jumped off the counter, stumbling a little when I landed on my feet.
"You know my dad?" I inquired in shock.
Both sets of silver eyes flashed to me. "Your dad?" Trenton whispered. "Rain Kimber is your father?" He turned on his brother. "Did you know?"
Simon shook his head as he walked straight toward my father. I moved to grab him, to stop him, and arms wrapped around me from behind. Quinton pulled me into his body, his heat immediately surrounding me pleasantly.
His mouth went to my ear and he murmured, "Leave them be. I don't think it's a bad thing that they know Rain."
Simon didn't stop in front of Rain like I thought he would, but instead he got right in his space. He wrapped Rain up in his arms and dragged my father into his body. He whispered words I couldn't hear as he held Rain tightly before letting him go and stepping back abruptly.
Trenton moved right in and, like his younger brother, didn't hesitate to wrap my father up in his arms and hug him firmly.
"Well," Julian muttered irately. "That settles that, I suppose. Looks like we're keeping them. Unfortunately."
I didn't think it was unfortunate at all and wished Julian would give them a chance before judging them so harshly. It was obvious they'd had hard, tragic lives and needed a break here.
I think we all stood there in shock as Rain embraced both brothers back and didn't immediately shake them off and strike them down.
His eyes burned with a horrible light and I swear I saw him blink back tears. One second they were there, then in the blink of an eye it was all wiped away and his cold, dead mask was firmly back in place.
"What happened to your handler that has you up in this place, so far from home?" Rain asked them.
"Dead," they said in unison.
"Killed by hunters," Trenton continued. "The Council had been called in because of the coven the hunters had attacked before attacking us. That's how we ended up with them. After they figured out who we were they decided it was important to take us from coven to coven in search of a female to potentially activate the magic that would let us know when we'd found her. We'd honestly never thought in a million years we'd find her. Even when our father had inked us we knew it was more than a long shot, but tradition is tradition and there was always a small slither of hope. Who knew we'd find her here and with you of all people."
Rain nodded as if this all made perfect sense to him. "My daughter," he said with pride. "The Brothers of the Maidens assigned to my daughter, and two of them at that. Quite the honor you two have bestowed upon my family."
I swallowed nervously as I gripped Quinton's arms. I looked back at him over my shoulder to see him smiling down at me reassuringly.
"He's right, you know?" he spoke quietly. "Now that I know what they are, it absolutely is an honor to have them with you. I, like most everyone, assumed there were no more of them. They're raised to be warriors from birth. It might just be a good thing to have them with you. I know I’ll feel a whole lot better about your safety from now on because the only thing they're supposed to focus on is you and your well-being."
I looked at him in horror. This wasn't good. If both Rain and Quinton were on board with this then it was as good as a done deal. I know I had agreed to have them with me, but I had stupidly assumed I could set them up with an apartment somewhere and let them live their lives as comfortably as I could afford to.
Even in my own head that sounded wrong, like they were my secret mistresses that I wanted to lavish money on but hide away from the rest of my life, keeping them separate.
"They can stay at my house," Quinton offered.
Well, at least that settled their living arrangements.
Grateful for his kindness, I leaned in and pressed my lips to his. He made a sound of surprise in his throat before he took advantage and his tongue brushed against my bottom lip.
I pulled away from him before he could get out of control and take things even further. I didn’t want to be standing in a magic shop making out with one of my boyfriends in front of my long-lost father.
As if reluctant, Quinton backed off. I turned back to face the rest of them and he buried his face in my hair along my neck.
Of course everyone was staring. I wasn't really big on PDA when we were around everyone. I didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable.
Nobody in here seemed uncomfortable in the slightest.
Rain looked pleased, even slightly amused. Which seemed odd since he was my father.
The brothers looked curious and nothing else.
Damien looked like he was ready for it to be his turn and Julian had a soft, happy smile on his face.
They were all insane.
I looked at my father and asked, "Did you catch all of that on the cameras?" Sometimes I knew he watched in the apartment upstairs but he wasn't up there all the time, which is why I had texted him just to be safe.
"Sure did. Who was that lovely little fat man?"
Quinton's body shook with silent laughter and Julian snorted loudly. Damien looked at his boots but I caught the smirk on his face.
"Adrian Almatiez," I told him. "He's an important member of the Council. When he's not being extremely creepy or an asshole, he's actually kind of nice."
Rain looked at me as if I'd lost my mind.
"That makes no damn sense," Julian commented helpfully.
I shrugged my shoulders. It had made sense to me.
"He gave me a bad vibe," Rain told me seriously. I didn't doubt that he did, Adrian would have probably given Helen Keller a bad vibe just by being in the same room as her.
Quinton gave me a squeeze before letting me go and moving around me. He took control of the situation and started bossing people around, which he was good at.
"Right." He clapped his hands together, getting everyone’s attention. "Trenton and Simon, you two are coming home with me. We'll get you moved in, unpacked, and you can meet the rest of the guys. Ariel, baby, go home. You have a training session with Rain in the morning and, honestly, I don't like Dash being home alone right now. Not with the Council showing up out of the blue like this. Damien and Julian can go with you and we’ll shut the shop down for the night. Rain, why don't you come back with me since these two already know you, it will smooth things over at my house and might make their moving in go a little bit easier for them."
Sounded like a good plan to me. I’d had enough of the shop and all of the unexpected visitors for awhile. And part of me was right there with Quinton in worrying ab
out Dash. In my mind, I saw him curled up and unresponsive in the middle of his bed and wanted to immediately rush home to check on him. He always went out of his way to take care of me and I wanted to be right there to do the same for him.
The brothers tried to protest this, seeing as they wanted to go with me and thought they should live with me as well. I'm not ashamed to admit that I left Rain and Quinton to deal with them and explain how things were going to go down.
I didn't even bother to lock the door behind me or say goodbye. I just ran.
Damien caught up with me at my Rover.
"Where's Julian?" I asked, as I used the key fob to unlock the locks.
He slid inside the passenger seat beside me and shut the door.
"He drove us here, and he’s going to take Quinton and Rain, along with your new bodyguards, back to Quinton's house."
I watched him out of the corner of my eye as I shoved the key in the ignition and turned, bringing my Rover to life.
I was expecting to see some sort of jealousy on his face or even anger. I was surprised to see acceptance and nothing more.
I waited for him to strap on his seatbelt before putting the Rover in drive and pulling away from the curb.
"This was not how I had expected my day to turn out," I grumbled. "A member of the Council walking through the shop door was the last thing I ever expected to happen while I was working. I never wanted to see those creeps again. And now he's talking about some dinner I'm supposed to have with them and Marcus. I don't want to have dinner with those creeps."
I realized I was rambling nervously, but couldn't seem to stop myself. I felt as if I stopped speaking he would bring up the brothers and tell me how messed up it was that I said they could stay with us. Those were decisions we should have made together as a group and I had just said yes on the fly.
"I mean, when I went to the motel with Tyson, I saw them all having sex with that horrible Annabell. Like, all of them at the same time. I've seen Adrian naked and he doesn't even know about it. Doesn't that seem like some sort of extreme violation on my part? I certainly don't want him to see me naked."
I shuddered at the thought of my body replacing Annabell's on that bed and almost threw up all over myself.
Damien's palm landed softly on my thigh and I jumped at the unexpected contact.
"Why are you all of a sudden acting like you're nervous with me?" he questioned in a strained voice.
Damn, they all knew me so well. I couldn't hide anything with them.
Time to put on my big girl panties and be honest with him, lying wasn't something I'd do.
"I didn't ask everybody before I said they could stay. What I did was—"
He squeezed my thigh. "Stop, just stop. Quinton would have told them they could stay had you not done it. He would never leave people like that with the Council and that would have been the case, even before you came along."
"What do you mean, people like that?" I asked curiously.
He sighed as he let go of my thigh and sat back in his seat. "Their tragedy is written all over them. Maybe you didn't notice it since yours is the exact same way and you don't see tragedy the same way the rest of us do because, to you, it just seems normal. Not everybody sees it that way though and those guys had it written all over them. The way they latched onto you like you were their last lifeline spoke volumes about how much they don't have in their lives. They got lucky with you, though, because there are a lot of people out there who would have taken one look at them and used their desperate vulnerability against them and taken advantage of them. You'd never do that. Honestly, them being in the Council's hands is also kind of terrifying. If what Rain says is true and all they've done their whole lives is train to be the ultimate warriors slash bodyguards, then that makes them a serious weapon the Council could have used to their benefit. That they actually brought them out and had them meeting females is a miracle all in itself. They probably thought there was no way they'd connect with someone the way they did with you, and then the Council would get to keep them under the guise of wanting to give them a safe home and a family."
Huh. I really hadn't thought to look at it like that. I was only worried about how much of a burden they were going to be for me if they stayed, not what could have happened to them if they'd had to remain with the Council.
"Quinton has never been like you and worn his tragedy draped all around him like a cloak," he said quietly, hesitantly. It was almost as if he were afraid someone would overhear him and he'd get in trouble for sharing secrets.
"Quinton is a lot stronger than I am," I admitted what I believed as gospel. They all were. Damien too.
"I don't think he'd agree with you on that one. He's just a lot better at hiding it than you are. But, it's still there with him, the pain of his past, and he will carry it everywhere with him until the day he dies. I know he can seem gruff and like an asshole at times, but he's the best of us and has a heart made of pure gold. He's just better at hiding it."
Funny, I was thinking something along those lines about Quinton myself earlier. I was glad to hear I wasn't alone in feeling that way.
"My point is," he continued softly, "they were more than likely coming home with us anyway. Don't worry too much about what the others will think. It's all going to work out just how it should."
As I turned onto the long dirt road that ended in front of Dash's cottage, I hoped like hell he knew what he was talking about.
As it turned out, we had bigger things to worry about than whether or not the guys were upset by our latest additions.
Like, the cottage being on fire.
Chapter Twelve
"What the..."
I slowed down as I leaned toward the windshield, as if that would help me make sense of what I was actually seeing.
"Is that... smoke?"
"Drop me off here and head to Quinton's, Ariel. Now," Damien ordered.
My heart sunk at his words. It really was smoke billowing up above the trees. If Damien thought everything was fine, he wouldn't have told me to turn around and leave him here.
I pressed my foot down on the gas and sped up.
We drove over a dirt mound that was black and ran all the way across the road and into the trees. It looked charred, burnt, and I assumed went all the way around the house in a large circle. The magical barrier that had been put up around the house for protection hadn't just been broken, but completely shattered.
This was bad, so very bad, and Dash was home all by himself.
"What could break that kind of a magical ward?" I asked in a shaky voice. "We all worked on that thing, even Rain. It should be able to stand against anything. They told me it was safe here."
Damien cursed under his breath, likely calling me a number of bad names for not following his orders, as he pulled his phone out and started tapping away on it.
We skidded around the last bend and I slammed on the brakes, coming to a screeching halt behind Dash's black Camaro.
"Shit," Damien swore. "Get to Dash's now. The cottage is on fire and the barrier is down."
He said something else but I couldn't hear him because I had my seatbelt off in a flash and my door open.
"Fuck," I heard him snarl as I raced toward the cottage. "Ariel, get your ass back here."
"Dash," I screamed as I ran around the Camaro and straight toward the front door.
Smoke was coming from the back of the house in large, black clouds. My guess was that the fire was in the kitchen. Even if it had been in the front of the house, I still would have run in there looking for Dash and Binx.
I ripped open the front door and raced into the mudroom. I tripped over a pair of Dash's boots and went down hard on my knees, my palms slapping against the floor. Pain shot up my arms from where my stinging hands were pressed into the hardwood. Ignoring it, I climbed to my feet.
I opened my mouth to scream for Dash again, but got nothing out because a hand came out of nowhere and wrapped around my mouth. I didn't fight bec
ause Damien's heat and scent hit me at the same time, I'd never fight him off.
His mouth came to my ear. "Dash didn't take that barrier down himself, we need to be careful here."
I looked around wild-eyed, expecting someone to pop out and pounce on us at any second. Still, fuck careful, Dash was somewhere in here and we needed to get him out.
Damien slipped something into my palm before removing his hand from my mouth. I looked down at what appeared to be a shiny, silver dagger. What the hell did he expect me to do with this?
He stepped around me, grabbed my hand, and crept toward the living room.
I wanted to scream at him to run, to hurry as fast as he could so we could find Dash sooner, but his warning about someone else possibly being in here stuck with me, and if I wasn't careful I'd be flashing back to a time when Chuck, just call me Chucky, had shown up on our doorstep. That had ended up in heartache and bloodshed. I hoped this time would be different.
The living room looked empty but, scarily enough, the couch was turned over onto its side, as if there had been some type of tussle in here. The shelves, with all of Dash's books and movies, had been tipped over onto its side also, the contents strewn all across the floor.
Stupidly, in order to avoid what was really going on before me, I thought about how much Dash would hate to see his things treated in such a way.
Damien tugged on my hand and dragged me forward.
The smoke hit me and I tried to cover my mouth and nose with my free hand. And almost sliced my face open with the dagger I'd forgotten Damien had given me.
I jerked my hand out of his and put my mouth and nose in the crook of my arm. My eyes watered painfully.
The dining room was empty. Nothing out of place in here.
Damien turned on me, put his hand on my chest, and pushed me back up against the nearest wall. Tears trailed out of his eyes, letting me know the smoke was getting to him too.
"I’m going to check in the kitchen," he said in low, gravelly voice. "I want you to stay right here. Do not move away from this spot. I don't want you in the kitchen with me because I don't want you that close to the fire. But I don't want you that far away from me either or off on your own. We stick together and that's all there is to it. So, you stay put."