Chapter 18
“Dammit, Steve.” Kane reached down, pulling Steve up when he continued to sit there, looking at his leg. “What in the hell did you think you were doing?”
Steve stood, then started limping around, checking his leg. “Bringing your IDs, man,”
“You know him?” Monica had walked closer after seeming to get herself together.
Kane couldn’t even explain the emotions that ran through him, hearing her terrified scream. His body was still strung tight, wanting to lash out at anything that moved.
“Yeah, I know him,” Kane glanced at her, once again checking her out, then his gaze went to the fire. Fuck, if he hadn’t been there or reached her in time, he didn’t even want to think about how badly she would have been hurt. “He’s a Warrior,”
“A Warrior?” Monica frowned as her eyes narrowed. “Then why were you creeping around. Why not just go to the front door like a normal person?”
“Good question,” Kane said, looking back at Steve.
Steve’s head snapped up as he glared at Kane. “Is it?” Steve hissed, then took a couple of more steps before touching the side of his head.
“Is it what?” Kane finally started to calm down, but he was having a hard time comprehending what Steve was saying, which was dangerous because it was Steve. What if this were a different situation where Monica was in danger and he couldn’t remove his head from his ass?
“A good question?” Steve looked at him oddly, then frowned. “Is my fucking hair singed? What the hell did you hit me with?”
“Steve, focus,” Kane said, then realized what he said. He himself was having a hard time focusing.
“A stick we used to poke the fire.” Monica cringed as they all noticed Steve’s hair was definitely singed. “Sorry about that, but you scared the shit out of me. And how in the hell did you just...poof...magically appear? I may be sleep deprived, but I’m not crazy.”
Steve was pulling at his hair, but then looked at her.
“I’m the Invisible Warrior,” Steve said, looking a little disappointed that she didn’t know about him.
“And I was invisible because Sloan threatened my ass not to blow your cover. I didn’t know what I was walking into, and as everyone knows, Sloan scares the absolute shit out of me, and I want to live, so I came into the situation invisible. ”
“Come on,” Kane frowned, shaking his head as he looked around the yard. If they were being watched, he didn’t need them seeing him and Steve exchanging anything. “Let’s go inside.”
Knox stood and headed toward Steve. “Ah fuck no,” Steve jumped behind Kane, pushing him toward the dog. “Get that big ass beast away from me.”
“Dammit, Steve,” Kane cursed.
“He won’t hurt you,” Monica said with a half grin as she looked at Steve, staying behind Kane, looking over his shoulder at Knox. “I told him you’re a friend.”
Steve snorted. “Yeah, well, forgive me if I don’t believe that for a freaking second.”
Monica rolled her eyes, making Kane grin as she snapped her fingers at Knox, who immediately went to her side. “I didn’t think Warriors were afraid of anything.”
“It’s the sharp ass fangs I’m afraid of,” Steve grumbled as he followed them up the steps to the house.
“Um, don’t you have fangs?” Monica shot back, which shut Steve up for a second, which impressed Kane. Nothing shut Steve up, and they had all tried, but he knew it wouldn’t last long.
“Yeah, but I’m not gnawing my own leg off now, am I?” Steve said, proving Kane right, Steve’s silence definitely didn’t last long. “Seriously, how bad does my hair look?”
“It’s fine,” Both Kane and Monica said at the same time, sharing a glance and a grin. He couldn’t believe she hit an invisible Steve upside the head with a burning stick.
“You didn’t have to hit me, ya know.” Steve continued to grumble as they walked into the house.
“You kicked my dog,” Monica frowned, sounding angry. “You’re lucky that’s all I did.”
“You kicked Knox?” Kane stopped to glare at Steve with his singed hair and black streak of wood soot on the side of his face.
“Fangs, leg with gnawing going on.” Steve used both hands to point at his leg, his eyes wide.
They walked into the kitchen just as Doug came in, a towel wrapped around his neck, his hair wet. “Hey,” he said, then looked at Steve. “Who’s that? And what happened to your hair, and you got black stuff on your face?”
Steve’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Kane, then Monica. “Fine, huh?”
Again, Kane and Monica shared a look, both holding back grins.
“She...” Steve pointed at Monica. “hit me with a fire stick.”
“Because you kicked my dog,” Monica shot back.
“Because he was gnawing my leg off.” Steve countered once again, pointing to the leg that seemed to now be perfectly fine.
“Will you stop saying gnawing?” Kane hissed, shaking his head. “Jesus.”
“Steve, the bathroom is down that hall on the right if you want to wash off your face and check your hair,” Monica said, feeling kind of sorry for the guy, though she didn’t know why, since he scared the holy shit out of her.
Steve nodded his thanks as he headed to where she directed. “Thanks,” he said, touching his hair with a frown. “Mira will kill me if I mess up my do.”
“His mate,” Kane replied to her unasked question when Monica gave him a questioning look.
“Oh,” Monica said with a chuckle, then looked at her brother. “Ah, thanks for coming to my rescue, bro. Did you not hear me screaming?”
“What? When?” Doug asked, looking totally confused as he looked from where Steve disappeared back to them. “Seriously, who is that guy?”
“Steve,” Both Kane and Monica answered at the same time, both of them glancing at each other, realizing that was the second time they had spoken in unison.
“He’s a Warrior,” Kane filled in, seeing that Doug was still staring at them, totally clueless and still confused. Steve had a way of doing that to people. Hell, he did it to Kane every time he talked to the fucker.
“And you hit him with a stick that was on fire?” Doug’s eyes widened as he stared at Monica. “Are you fucking crazy?”
“When a disembodied male voice pops out of nowhere, you kind of react!” Monica snapped. “And he kicked Knox.”
“I apologized for kicking your damn dog!” Steve yelled from the hall.
He came back a second later with a clean face, half his hair wet and plastered down, while the other half stuck out like burnt straw. He then turned to Doug. “I’m Steve. Nice to meet you.”
“Doug,” He shook Steve’s hand, but continued frowning. “How in the hell didn’t you see him if he was talking to you?”
“Hence the word disembodied, and he wasn’t exactly talking to me; he was shooing Knox away,” Monica said, as if that explained everything... it didn’t.
“Do you see him now, because if you don’t, we have a serious problem, sis,” Doug said, looking her over as if she had lost her mind, which made Kane chuckle.
Monica rolled her eyes. “He. Was. Invisible.” She raised a pointed eyebrow at him.
Doug opened his mouth, then shut it, repeated the same motions a couple of times like a fish out of water, then shook his head and walked further into the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” Monica frowned, watching her brother.
“To get a damn beer before I call the hospital psychiatric ward,” Doug gave her his classic brotherly side-eye as he passed, opening the fridge.
He grabbed four beers like he was prepping for battle.
Handing one to Steve and Kane, he held another out to Monica.
“One last hurrah before we ship you off in a...straightjacket.”
Monica took the beer and shot him a dirty look. “Believe me or not, he was invisible. And then poof… there he was, sitting on your grass, crying.”
Kane couldn’t stop the grin. Watching the two of them bicker was like stepping into a sitcom—one he didn’t mind sticking around for. Monica gave as good as she got, and he liked that a little too much.
“I was sitting on your grass, but the crying part—” Steve snorted, straightening like he had some pride left. “—isn’t exactly what happened.”
“Ehh, I’d say that’s exactly what happened.” Monica lifted her brow at him, the picture of innocent sass.
“Bullshit. You and your stories, Monica.” Doug rolled his eyes and took a long drink of his beer.
And then Steve vanished.
Doug froze, lowering his bottle slowly just in time to see Steve’s floating beer bottle. Doug’s own slipped from his fingers and hit the floor, shattering beer and glass everywhere. “What in the hell!”
“I’m known as the Invisible Warrior,” Steve announced, his voice drifting through the room like he’d been waiting all damn night to say it.
Monica laughed, and Kane found himself watching her instead of the chaos.
The way she handled the night, the fear, the shock, Steve’s chaos…
all without losing her edge. Most people folded when the world tilted sideways, but not her.
She snapped right back, mouth sharp, eyes steady, and meeting every bit of madness head-on.
He spent the rest of the night listening to Doug and Steve talking about everything from vampires to Bigfoot. He lost count of how many times Monica rolled her eyes. After seeing her yawn for the tenth time, he got his IDs from Steve and sent him on his way.
“You ready to go home?” Kane asked, then realized he really liked the sleepy look on her. It honestly made him want to crawl into bed and cuddle with her. Holy fuck, never in his life had he ever wanted to cuddle with anyone.
“I am,” she said, then hugged her brother as she grabbed her stuff and snapped for Knox to follow.
Kane walked out behind them and slowed, watching her and Knox walk side by side, and frowned, realizing Monica wasn’t just gorgeous.
She was grit wrapped in soft skin. Smart, quick with her wit, and brave as hell.
The more time he spent with her, the more he saw her different sides.
What surprised him was...there wasn’t a side of her that he didn’t like. Yeah, he was truly fucked.