Chapter Eight #2
They turned to me with sourpuss expressions, like I’d ruined a perfectly good morning fight.
“Why would you leave?” I asked.
Roux’s eyebrow shot up. “Not obvious?”
No, it wasn’t. I didn’t even know whether the notion made me alarmed or relieved.
“We messed up. We hurt you.”
“You hurt her,” Henrik corrected.
“You started it,” Bene pointed out.
I put my face in my hands. Letting them leave definitely had its pluses. But if they left now, I would lose a sizable chunk of income — income I’d been counting on to stay afloat.
Plus, part of me liked having them around for reasons I couldn’t quite explain.
I glanced at Henrik, then corrected myself. I didn’t mind having three of the four around.
“You can’t leave,” I said.
Bene looked up from his eggs. “You’re not going to turn this into a creepy Hotel California thing, are you?”
“Better not.” Henrik showed his fangs.
“For once in your life, be nice,” Roux snarled.
“Or is it, for once in your death?” Bene wondered aloud.
Henrik made a face and crossed his arms.
A pouting vampire. Now I’d seen it all.
“You can leave any time you want,” I assured them. “But do you have a better option?”
Roux looked at Bene. Bene looked at Henrik. Henrik looked at the floor.
So, ha. My gut had been right about that.
“This isn’t about us. It’s about you,” Bene said.
Henrik’s grouchy expression said, The hell it is, but we ignored him.
“You were hurt,” Bene continued. “What if it was worse? What if something else happens?”
Roux rubbed his face miserably, reliving that punch, no doubt.
“Are you saying something else will happen?” I asked, half alarmed, half in challenge.
Bene shook his head vehemently. “No. I mean, I hope not. But…”
His eyes slid to Henrik. Roux’s joined his, and I added my own glare.
Silence fell and stretched for several heart-thumping moments.
Finally, Henrik relented, grumbling, “Nothing will happen.” Then he motioned angrily. “Not as far as I’m concerned. But I’m speaking for myself, not for these cretins.”
“Cretins?” Roux bristled.
“You’re the one who punched her.”
I rolled my eyes — er, eye. Here we go again. I lowered my pounding head back to my hands.
“Cut it out, ladies,” Bene interrupted, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You’re not exactly making a convincing argument.”
Bene was close enough for me to whiff his scent, and it was nice and fresh, with a hint of lilac. I inhaled, trying to recall Mystery Man’s scent. Did it match Bene’s?
Steps sounded, and Marius stormed into the room. Even without looking, I knew it was him just by the sound and electrified sensation. He stopped abruptly, and I could feel his eyes burning into me. Then the steps resumed, moving in my direction.
“Jesus,” he muttered, squatting down before me.
I covered my eyes, but his hands took mine and moved them gently aside.
When I opened my eye, my heart nearly stopped. Those hands…the gentle touch…the earth after a summer rain shower scent…
Mystery Man was Marius?
I gulped, staring into his eyes.
A soft glow lit them from within, and his breath caught.
I barely moved — barely breathed — as it all came back to me. The careful movements, like I might break. The soft reassurances. The this is home feeling I’d had snuggled up against his chest.
My heart thumped so hard, I was sure everyone could hear it.
A moment later, he spun around and stormed toward Roux.
“Wait!” I cried, an instant too late.
His fist was already flying at Roux.
Crack! Roux’s head snapped back, and he staggered. Bene grabbed Marius, and Henrik, to my surprise, stood between the two combatants.
Roux straightened slowly, holding a hand over his right eye. Slowly, his fangs extended, and his eyes took on a scary yellow hue. Any second now, my dining room would be crowded by a tiger and a dragon.
“Don’t even think about it,” Bene warned them.
Marius rose to his full height, keeping his fists tightly balled.
Roux cursed, then sighed, and just like that, the tension broke.
“I deserved that,” he grumbled.
“Yes, you did.” Marius’s voice was a glacier grinding over boulders.
“True,” Bene agreed. “Are you even now?” He looked between them.
“We’re even,” Roux muttered, the model of fair play, at least in a world where fists solved problems.
But Marius wasn’t so forgiving.
“I don’t know. Are we?” He made a half turn, asking me while keeping his eyes pinned on Roux.
“Yes, but only if you agree to a new rule,” I said.
All four looked at me, waiting.
“No fighting.”
Henrik scowled. Marius looked like he’d been robbed of a prize possession, and even Roux looked skeptical.
“No fighting at all?” Bene scratched his chin dubiously.
“Is that so unreasonable?” I demanded.
“We have to fight occasionally,” Bene insisted. “Otherwise, we’d kill each other.”
The logic made zero sense to me.
“How about, no fighting indoors?” Roux suggested.
The other three nodded, suddenly united in a common cause. Men!
I relented, though a sinking feeling told me I would come to regret it.
“Fine. No fighting indoors — and nowhere near me.”
“Deal,” Bene announced, and they all shook on it in another Men are from Mars, women are from Venus moment.
I slumped back in the armchair, exhausted by it all. Exhausted and overwhelmed — especially when my weary eye met Marius’s.
They swirled at me, and time slowed. Then he grumbled something, ripped his gaze away, and stormed out of the room.
Like a dust cloud kicked up by a car, my mixed emotions tumbled after him.
Destiny, a deep voice murmured in my mind.
I pretended not to hear, because that just couldn’t be.
Of course, having a dragon protector could come in handy, especially with a vampire in the neighborhood. But a short-fused, intense dragon could also be a huge liability. And that didn’t even begin to capture the potential complications.
Complications I felt racing toward me like a meteor shower.
Bene dusted off his hands and cheerily readjusted his apron. “Now that that’s settled… Breakfast, anyone?”