Chapter Ten
Neith
Doc’s eyebrows rise, “Well now I am really curious, maybe we should see if Sully will let us sit in.”
“I would be up for that,” Griff replies, the others all nodding as well as they turn to look at me questioningly.
“You can ask him, but I don’t know if he will let you in. The people that play like to keep their presence at the tavern unknown, and they like to keep SID agents at a distance,” I reply.
“You’re a SID agent,” Reed points out.
I nod and grin, “Yeah, but I wasn’t when they met me, and they know that they can trust me. In time, that should extend to you guys.”
I want to add if you stick around but I feel like that would be fishing at this point and I am not that person, so I keep that inside.
“We’ll come,” Evander says. “It’s not like we weren’t going to follow you anyway. If Sully says no, then we will just hang out and wait.”
I raise my eyebrow, “You were going to follow me anyway?”
“Of course we were,” River replies like it was obvious.
Reed clears his throat, gaining my attention, “You died. We watched it happen; you are going to have to cope with us being a bit overbearing for a while.”
A knot of emotion rises in my throat, and I have to swallow it down before saying, “Okay. I can handle that.”
“You say that,” Ransom starts, his voice serious although there is a smile playing on his lips, “but having seven possessive men following you around like lost puppies, is not for everyone.”
I chuckle, although my heart beats harder; I know that it’s because I nearly died, and they are worried about the aftereffects, but I still like it. I think I will find it far too easy to have them around me all the time, and I worry that when they decide that I am all good and they back off, that I’m going to miss it more than I should.
That’s enough of that.
“Anyway, what I was saying was that when I go to the poker game, I can ask Sully and see if he knows anything about it,” I say, changing the subject and yawning again.
“Good idea,” Evander says and then smiles softly, “go to bed before you fall asleep standing up again.”
“Again?” Raiden questions, already sounding amused even though he doesn’t know the story.
“That was one time!” I retort. “Before he starts telling it, I’m off to bed, night guys.”
A chorus of goodnights follows me out of the room, and my cheeks begin to hurt from smiling so widely.
Whispering to Betty, I say, “Makes a difference from just saying it to you, Betty. No offense, but you left much to be desired when it came to conversation.”
Of course, she doesn’t reply, but she never has, and actually, if she started to talk to me now, it would scare the shit out of me and make me question everything. I gingerly push through my bedroom door, trying really hard not to get anything that’s on me on the door because, gross. As I go to lay Betty and my sword, which I am going to have to name, on the bed, I notice with surprise that the sword is clean.
It shouldn’t be, it was very definitely covered in all sorts of disgusting stuff, and I didn’t see Reed clean it, he didn’t have the time to anyway. It is very definitely squeaky clean; I even lift it closer to my face to inspect it.
“Huh,” I mutter aloud, a self-cleaning sword. That’s pretty fucking neat. Since I am already talking to weapons like a crazy person, I continue speaking out loud and decide to introduce them, “Betty, this my new sword, I haven’t named her yet, but don’t worry I will. Sword, this is Betty. She has saved my life countless times. While I am showering and cleaning up, introduce yourselves.”
Although it is slightly insane to be talking to your weapons, the sword is an enchanted object which means that it kind of might understand me, I’m not really to sure, the lore on enchanted objects is a bit fuzzy, at least it is for humans so who the fuck knows. That is something that I can ask Raiden when we have our research date.
My stomach flutters with butterflies, and I shoot that shit down immediately, I am having to do that a lot at the moment, and I am already over it. Maybe exposure will dull my reaction to them? Like the longer that I spend with them, the less affected I will be by them.
I have a feeling that isn’t going to be the case, but whatever.
“It’s not a date,” I mutter out loud, speaking to the reflection of myself in the huge mirror above the bathroom sink.
Grimacing, I realize exactly how bad I look. I can’t believe that River held me for so long, not that I’m complaining, not even a little bit. There I go again, feeling things I shouldn’t.
Fuck it, I am a grown ass woman, kinda, I’m going to let myself feel what I’m feeling but I won’t act on it unless they do, I am too old to be fucking around with trying to suppress feelings and shit, what the fuck ever. If I am being completely honest with myself, then I have to admit that my attraction and interest in them probably won't last for very long anyway. I get bored very easily, it’s not a reflection on the person that I was interested in, it's me, I get distracted incredibly easily.
With these guys, that means that these feelings of wanting to fuck them until the sun comes up, all of them, individually or as a group, I’m not picky; those feelings will disappear and settle into what they should be, and that’s friendship and teammates.
I have just got to feel what I need to feel and then wait it out.
Easy.
The voices stir, and I choose not to look too much into the reason why they have decided to change the pitch of their murmurings. I just want to get clean and sleep. I start tugging at my clothes and I do mean tugging, most of them are stuck to me in one place or another and I find myself really having to pull in order to get them to come off.
“Ow, shit,” I curse, as I pull off a part on my stomach that is particularly stuck and leave my skin red raw underneath.
Finally, I have managed to get it all off, and I add them to the pile in the corner of the bathroom that needs burning, none of that is salvageable, which means I have officially run out of outfits, and I am down to my last pair of underwear. The good news is that is tomorrow's problem because I have my sleep shirt that I have been using and leggings, not that I wear leggings in bed, but they are there for the morning.
I turn the shower up as hot as I can stand it, and then step under the spray, pulling a face as I watch all the brown stained water run off me. That really is gross, I thought I got most of the blood and dirt on my clothes but there was clearly quite a lot on my feet and in my hair.
Ew.
It takes four rounds of shampoo and soap for me to finally feel like I am clean, and I step out of the shower, drying myself as fast as possible and getting dressed. As I move into my room again, I stare longingly at the bed, as much as I want to go straight to sleep, I know that when I do sleep I’m going to be sleeping for a while so that I can recover from dying and every fucking other thing that has happened since that. With this in mind, I move over to the desk in here instead and rummage around, finding a pen and some paper, I get to work on my report.
I’m a page into my report when there is a soft knock at the door.
Pulling it open, I see a slightly nervous looking River, “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
I shake my head, “No, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, here,” he holds out what I can only assume is a shirt, and I take it with a slight frown on my face. He scrubs a hand over the back of his neck, “I thought you may need something to sleep in.” He smirks and adds, “I like you in my shirts.”
I smile and pull the shirt closer. It’s soft and black, and although I avoid looking like a complete weirdo and sniffing it, I do get a whiff of his scent on it, and I love it.
“Thanks, this one is getting a bit close to its last legs now,” I say, plucking at the hem of my shirt. His eyes track my movement, dipping lower to trace a slow path up my exposed legs, he gulps and glances away, but not before I have seen the searing heat in his eyes and quite frankly, I have never felt sexier.
He clears his throat, his voice coming out rougher as he says, “You’re welcome. Night.”
“Night,” I reply to his already retreating back.
Smiling, I shut my door and immediately take off my sleep shirt, pulling on River’s one instead, hooking it over my nose, and taking a deep breath, calm settling over my entire body. Wearing his shirt over my almost naked body is an entirely different feeling from pulling his shirt on over my ruined clothes. I can almost pretend that it’s River wrapped around me and to be honest I might do just that later, but first, I need to be a grown up and finish writing up the report.
River
S he must think I am a moron, to be honest I probably am. I would blame my kitsune for wanting to make sure that she wears my scent, but quite honestly, it’s not that at all, well it’s partly that. It’s me, I wasn’t lying, I really do love seeing her in my shirt.
I had to walk away from her when I did because I was moments away from throwing caution to the wind and taking her right there against the fucking door. She looked absolutely fucking delectable in that shirt, but I am starting to think that I would feel that way about her no matter what she was wearing. She was covered in blood, dirt, and fuck knows what else earlier, and I couldn’t give a shit. My kitsune started that and shocked the fuck out of me, I have never had that reaction to anyone. Even so, I managed to get that side of me reigned in reasonably quickly, and I didn’t want to let her go. She felt right in my arms, and I know that makes no sense, I have only known her properly for a few days and really how well can you get to know someone in a few days?
It is what it is though, and there is no doubt in my mind that I feel something for Neith. I would be tempted to say that it was something like a mate bond, but I don’t have one. Kitsune mate bonds are decided based on strength, and the strength of a kitsune's partner needs to be equal, or they risk hurting them with their magic, and they wouldn’t be compatible anyway. I have nine tails. I am the only kitsune alive with nine tails, and there aren’t any with more than six; I am too strong to have a mate. I made my peace with that a long time ago. It doesn’t mean that I have to be alone; I can have relationships and sex, but I won't ever be able to experience the magic of a true mate bond.
My strength has ostracized me in my pack, and I did so from a very young age. As soon as I was old enough to go to the academy it was a relief for everyone involved, I was out of their hair, and I very rarely go back now. I will never stop thanking the fates for putting me in the path of the guys. They have become my pack, and their strength easily matches up to mine and, in some cases, surpasses it. I am free to be wholly me, and that is something that I didn’t have until I met them at the academy.
My kitsune and I are one and the same, we aren’t separate entities sharing the same body, but my kitsune side does have different reactions to different situations than I do. Usually, I am the only one aware but when the reaction is strong enough, like Neith bleeding and no one taking care of her, then it can trigger that side of me to come out more in my human form.
It hasn’t happened since I was a teenager, and my emotions were running high anyway.
It’s curious.
“Was she awake?” Doc asks, a smirk on his face and a twinkle in his eyes as I walk back into the front room and take a seat on the couch.
“How did you know . . .” I trail off.
“Dude, you went all alpha on us, there was no point in us even betting on whether you were going to give her one of your shirts to sleep in, it was inevitable,” Evander smirks.
I shrug and flip the room off as a whole because they are all grinning at me, “Fuck you all. It’s not like any of you are unaffected,” I point out and look at Doc, “you’ve joined our team, which we have been asking you to do for years, and you’ve moved into the house after saying that you preferred your own space but spending most of your time here anyway.”
Doc grins, sipping a beer, and says, “I guess I just needed a little push.”
“She’s come into our lives in a fucking whirlwind, and I feel like shits only just getting started,” Raiden says.
“You summed Neith up perfectly,” Van agrees, “a whirlwind. You will never be the same after you have met Neith.”
The room falls silent for a moment, and I can bet that all of our thoughts are on the beautiful, silver haired woman who has no brain to mouth filter whatsoever.
I love it. It certainly keeps things interesting.
“She has an enchanted sword,” Reed mutters incredulously as if it is only just sinking in.
“She also seems to think that she is a weak supernatural,” Doc mutters.
I frown, “I don’t think that she has actually fully come to terms with the fact that she is one, so much has happened that she has had barely any down time.”
“I don’t know, Neith is pretty good at figuring shit out for herself, she might have had enough time when she went on that walk,” Evander replies, he knows her better than we all do, and I hope that he is right.
“Speaking off, you let her walk alone?” Reed demands.
“Dude, we can’t let her do anything, we don’t own her,” Griff starts raising his eyebrow and Reed immediately deflates.
He scrubs a hand over his face, “I know that. She just brings out all of my fucking protective instincts.”
“I think it’s safe to say she does that for all of us,” I point out.
Van chuckles, “Don’t let her hear you say, ‘let her’. She will tear you a new one.”
Reed smirks, crossing his arms over his chest as his power ripples ever so slightly, not enough to cause us any discomfort though, “In that case, I might do just that.”
I snort, the fucker likes that Neith can go toe to toe with him and isn’t scared of him.
“You would,” Doc grins.
“Has she got a glamour on her?” Griff asks suddenly, “Is that why her supe side is only coming out now?”
Ransom shakes his head, “I can’t feel one, and even a really strong one that had a concealment in I would have been able to pick up on.”
“So, it really is only just starting to make itself known,” Griff mumbles.
“It would seem that way,” Doc replies.
“Does anyone have any idea what kind of supe she could be?” I ask, “She doesn’t smell like a shifter, and I haven’t ever heard of one shifting this late in life. Although, she still smells human, most of the time.”
“Most of the time?” Van asks curiously.
I nod, “Yeah, it’s like when we first met her in Bobby’s, and I got caught smelling her. She smells human pretty much all of the time, and then I get a whiff of something other, something more, but I have never smelt anything like it before, so I can’t place it.”
The room is silent as they all contemplate what I have said. I don’t know what it could mean, all I can guess is that it is her supe side, and honestly if that is how she is going to smell when her supernatural nature is fully revealed then I am fucked, I have no idea how I will fucking concentrate. She smells like fucking home and everything that encompasses.
The guys can tease me all they want about wanting her to wear my scent, but they are just as tied up in knots over Neith as I am.
“I guess, we are just going to have to wait and see, I imagine that her magic is going to let itself known bit by bit,” Doc replies, still frowning.
“I have no idea what kind of supernatural she is,” Evander says. “It worries me that everyone has been sworn to secrecy when it comes to Neith.”
“More than just sworn to secrecy, everyone has been spelled into secrecy,” Ransom replies. “Sully is not a weak supernatural, he is strong as fuck, and he wanted to tell Neith, that was easy to deduce, but he couldn’t. That is some pretty potent fucking magic.”