Chapter 13
“Oh my God.”
My head dropped against the cushion. James sat back on his heels, licking his lips. I didn’t get any further than blinking before he’d shoved me down to the couch in his office. From there, he had me shooting down his throat in record-breaking time.
As I did my jeans back up, I rolled my eyes at the smug look on his face—but I had to admit that I felt significantly less stressed.
“That’s what I thought,” James said. “Still want that drink?”
Hell yeah, I did. I opened my mouth to respond, but a knock at the door interrupted me. Smirking, James called, “Come in.”
The door cracked open, and Shiloh stepped inside, red-faced and taking in the scene in front of them: Me, sexed up and gasping for breath, hand frozen where it had been doing up my belt.
James still knelt, eye-level to my crotch, almost teasing Shi with the way he rested his cheek against my knee to peer up at them.
I waited, certain they would apologize and run like they usually did…
But they only smirked. “Do I get to know what just happened here?”
“Of course you do,” I teased back. “If you tell us how long you’ve been standing there.”
They flushed even redder. “There’s someone here to see you two.” With one more smile between us, Shi drew their bottom lip between their teeth and left, shutting the door behind them.
“Is it Gabriel?” I asked, knowing James would warn me if I needed to be more put together than what a quick wash in the bathroom would accomplish.
“And his sister. Not Abigail; she’s with Dani. It’s Rebecca.”
Ah, the third and final Smith sibling. Gabriel had mentioned that he was a triplet, but I’d only ever met Abigail. Well, that wasn’t technically true: I’d seen Rebecca once before, over a year ago, when Liz’s burned down and all three of them had shown up to collect Dani.
I shuddered at the memory. For months, I thought they’d killed her.
Steeling myself, I stood from the couch and followed James down the hallway.
Shiloh’s laughter drifted toward us, the other voice a bit too…
shrill for my comfort. As we emerged into the front of house, three sets of eyes turned my way.
Under those gazes, I sought out the brown pair beside me instead, the ones I’d fallen in love with.
Eyes that could calm my tumultuous emotions better than anything else.
Good thing, because this time it wasn’t Gabriel who sent a chill down my spine: It was the smaller yet somehow still twice as intimidating woman standing beside him.
She’d styled her hair shorter than the last time I’d seen her, into a bob that seemed sharp enough to cut.
If I’d thought Gabriel was scary at first sight, he had nothing on either of his sisters.
Being around vampires had taught me the value of observing my surroundings, and something was off.
“Where’s Kian?” I finally asked Shiloh. “Has he gone home already?”
As if I’d summoned him, Kian skirted past me, taking a swig from a water bottle, a second unopened one in his other hand.
He handed it to Shi and offered our guests a polite smile, but he choked on the water he’d been drinking.
He coughed and spluttered as James led the other vampires to the office, and I lingered behind with Shi to make sure Kian was okay.
“Are you all right?” I asked him.
He was still recovering, red in the face, his attention following the vampires down the hallway.
Shi darted to the back for a clean towel while I stayed with Kian, patting him on the back.
I grew a little worried when I saw him clutching his stomach.
It’d only been a couple of months since Dani had impaled him clean through it.
James and Gabriel weren’t able to speed up his recovery since vampires couldn’t heal injuries inflicted with wooden stakes.
Shi passed a clean bar towel over Kian’s shoulder, then bustled off to lock the front doors and begin cleaning.
“Are you okay?” I asked again.
“Yeah,” Kian finally managed. “I just, um… I…”
He stammered and stuttered, cutting his eyes to where Shi stretched their arm up to turn off the neon signs in the windows. Finally, he dropped his voice to a whisper, but it was so low that I only caught one word. It was enough. “… vampire…”
Ah. I couldn’t fault him for his reaction, though I was surprised at how pale and frightened he looked: Gabriel had helped him the night Dani gave him that injury, and for one reason or another she wasn’t with them.
“It’s okay,” I assured him, “I know who they are.” He stared at me, almost incredulously, so I cut him off.
“We’ll talk later, okay?” I didn’t want to miss anything happening in James’s office.
Seeing that Kian was all right, I started moving for the hallway.
“Shi, are you good to clean up alone while I handle this? I’m going to send Kian home. ” The poor kid looked terrified.
“Of course,” they called, putting their headphones in.
“Kian, why don’t you go home and get some rest?”
He looked like he might protest, but after a moment, he relented. “Be safe.”
I was oddly touched by his concern, but he needn’t have worried.
Despite my reluctance to be in an enclosed space with two thirds of the Smith vampires, I knew they might be able to help us.
They were intimidating, but they’d never been anything but helpful.
Bracing myself, I went into the office. James sat at the desk, Gabriel on the loveseat, and Rebecca paced between the two of them.
Unsure where to stand, I hovered by the door.
Gabriel held the silver necklace in his hand—his gloved hand.
“Where’s Dani?” I asked. “I thought she’d be coming with you.”
“She’s not feeling well,” Gabriel responded. “We left her with Abigail.”
Rebecca’s blood red eyes drew a path of goosebumps over my body as they raked over me. I resisted the urge to squirm under her attention—barely.
“Ryder,” she chirped, a little too happily. She stepped forward, hand outstretched. “It’s wonderful to officially meet you.”
“Likewise.” Hesitantly, I slipped my hand into hers—and sucked in a breath. She was fucking freezing.
“Becky,” Gabriel warned. “Human.”
“How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that anymore?” she snapped. With a sigh, she said, “I forgot how fragile these creatures are.” Instead of warming her skin like her brother had when he touched my neck, she snatched her hand away, leaving mine to thaw on its own.
“You’ll have to excuse Rebecca. It seems my sister woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”
I massaged my hand, crossing the room to lean on the edge of the desk next to where James sat.
I wondered if there’d ever be a time when those siblings didn’t make me nervous.
I didn’t like being nervous. Not one bit.
Although I had to admit, James’s hand on my back made things better. I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding, then regarded the two people in front of us.
“Where did you find it?” Gabriel finally asked. Rebecca was eerily silent. What was it about her that made me so uneasy?
The silent way their eyes all fell on me pulled me back to the matter at hand. Right… I had more to worry about than creepy vampires—like the people hunting them.
“I went on a coffee run yesterday,” I said.
“Sort of out of the way, but there’s a bakery across town that Shiloh likes so I went there.
When I got back to the car, I found that necklace by the front tire.
I assumed the worst, considering the last time I saw one of those I was immediately drugged afterward.
So I went to Luke, and he confirmed that it belongs to a hunter.
I’d have never known to look for that inscription.
” At the mention of his mate’s name, Gabriel perked up.
Covering up my nerves with humor, I put on my best grin.
“He sends his love, by the way, and his apologies for not being more conversational. Apparently, he’s a bit skittish. ”
Again, I’d never seen a vampire blush, but the look on Gabriel’s face came close enough. He swallowed hard, avoiding his sister’s gaze.
Rebecca zeroed in on her brother anyway. “Who’s Luke?”
“He’s none of your business,” Gabriel snapped. Composing himself, he said, “Can we get back to why we’re here?”
His sister wasn’t rebuffed. “Apparently he has something to do with why we’re here, so spit it out. Who is this skittish person, and how is he connected to the hunters?”
“I’ll handle him, and mind your business.
” Gabriel shook his head and took a deep, centering breath.
Knowing that James only did so when he was nervous, I knew that anything involving Luke would get under Gabriel’s skin.
When his eyes reopened, they focused on James.
“Has anything else out of the ordinary happened?”
“Outside of my former employee turning up as a vampire?” James asked dryly. “Not that I’ve noticed.”
I also shook my head, but then…
James picked up on my hesitation. “What is it, love?”
I still hadn’t told him about the book I found in my parents’ attic. I didn’t know why, but it felt like it had fallen at my feet for a reason.
Feeling like an idiot, I mentioned it anyway.
What if it was like the cursed Koh-i-Noor diamonds from last year?
“I found a strange book while we were looking for my dad’s cufflinks.
” Even as I spoke about it, my heart sped up.
“I thought it was just a photo album, but it didn’t fit with the others. ”
“How so?” Gabriel asked.
“It was old.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Way old, almost like it would fall apart in my hands. The leather was cracked and it had an inscription on the front that I couldn’t quite make out. At the time I didn’t think much of it, but it was almost like the book wouldn’t let me open it.”
James was already standing from the chair. “Where is it?”
I explained where I’d left the box, and he vanished.