Chapter 9 Reno
RENO
Tucker left to go home and get cleaned up. I promised I’d call him if we had any developments. Meg woke up a few minutes later, gasping and shrinking away from me and Jackson.
“Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe.”
She clapped a hand to her now-healed neck, pulling it away again to inspect it, probably for blood.
“You’re healed. You lost a lot of blood, though, so you’ll want to eat as much as you can and drink a lot of water.”
Jackson held out a bottle of water and a piece of cheese. She looked between us frantically. “Who are you?” She scooted around so she was sitting upright on the cushions.
I could’ve slapped myself. “Yeah, sorry. I’m Reno Torres.
I’m the acting District Monitor for South Texas.
” She relaxed slightly. “This is Jackson.” They held out the water and cheese again, and she hesitantly took both.
“Oh, and your roommate’s on her way over here.
I found her number in your phone.” I picked it up off the ottoman next to me and offered it to her.
Except she didn’t have any free hands, so I set it on the couch cushion by her hip.
I explained about the vampires as she ate the cheese and drank the water. “Stay around other people while you’re in town, and you’ll be fine.”
“Um, I think I’ll be going home tomorrow. Maybe tonight.” She touched her neck.
Jackson looked up, and we heard a car door slam outside. Thank fuck, the roommate was here.
Fortunately Jackson didn’t seem disturbed that the roommate was in her mid-twenties, instead of being a small child as I’d been heavily implying to them earlier.
In my defense, she did have a pretty high-pitched voice, and compared to me—hell, more compared to Jackson, Nicky, and Simon—she was a baby.
The two women were gone within five minutes, both of them making plans to leave town as soon as they could.
I went back into the living room to relax on the couch for a minute. I wanted to take a shower, but it seemed like too much effort right then. Jackson had moved to the corner of the sectional and was staring toward the back door.
I was debating whether pushing the button to activate the recliner and make the footrest pop up would be a bad idea or not when Greg came out of the guest bedroom.
“Hey, how’s Cal?”
“Better. He doesn’t have a concussion anymore.” He glanced around. “Is Meg gone?”
“Yeah. Her roommate picked her up. She’s pretty freaked out.”
“I bet.” He dropped down onto the ottoman where I’d been sitting earlier, then he gazed at me with a solemn expression. “I’m taking Cal home. He and I—we’re not fighters. I can’t risk him again.”
I sat up so I could reach out and grasp his shoulder. “I understand. I’m sure he feels the same way about you.”
I sat back and he rolled his eyes with a grin.
“There may have been some swearing.” He ran his hand through his hair.
“Cal said tomorrow after he’s rested up he’ll try to call a vision every couple of hours.
He thinks he’ll be able to reach this distance because he’s directly interacted with the vampires. ”
I raised my eyebrows. Cal’s bonding with Greg meant his Seer abilities were much stronger than mine, but he was talking about over two hundred miles. “Has he had a vision that far away before?”
Greg shook his head. “No, but Delphia and Edgar are out of the country, so he’s all we’ve got unless you have a spontaneous vision.”
“Out of the country?” Delphia was Greg’s mother, and Edgar was his great uncle. They were the only other Seers in Texas besides me and Cal, and both worked at TWIST, a Wonder rescue organization outside of San Antonio.
He nodded. “Now that they hired someone to manage TWIST, Mom’s doing all the fun stuff she missed out on all those years she was running the show. She booked a river cruise in Europe, and Uncle Edgar and Aunt Bettina decided to go with her.”
“Good for them.”
He leaned forward. “If it turns out Cal can’t call visions for you, we’ll find out how long it would take Mom and Edgar to come home.”
I made a face. “I hate to ask that of them. Let’s see what Cal can do when he feels up to it. We’ll talk more tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get a clue or something by then. Hell, I’m a fucking private investigator. You’d think I could find a couple of measly vampires.”
He snorted. “Find a couple of measly vampires who can turn into fog and fly away? I don’t think any detective is that good.”
I rubbed my face. “Either way, let’s talk tomorrow and see where things stand, okay?”
“Okay.” He stood up and turned to Jackson. “Do you and Nicky want to come to Bent Oak with me and Cal?”
They shook their head. “No. We are needed here.”
Shane came in from the backyard. “Hey, I talked to the Hunters.” He waved his phone in the air. “To no one’s surprise, when they finally showed up at the park, they didn’t find any evidence of where the vampires had gone.”
I refrained from sighing, but Greg was right. Finding the vampires was almost impossible right now.
“Dominic did say they’re assigning some Hunters here to stay outside the house around the clock.”
I ran my hands over my face but nodded. It made sense. We hadn’t even looked to see if we’d been followed by suspicious clouds of fog when we’d left the park, and it was well within the distance Simon had told us the vampires could travel in their mist form.
“Good. I feel better about us abandoning you.” Greg crossed his arms over his chest.
I kicked him in the shin. “Don’t be a dumbass. You need to get Cal and yourself out of harm’s way.” I pointed at Shane. “Same goes for you. Don’t feel guilty about leaving. Pia is your priority.”
He sighed. “Yeah, that’s easy to say, but....” He shrugged. “I still feel guilty. I asked Nicky if he wanted to come to Houston with me, and he said no.”
“He must stay here.” Jackson picked up the last cracker off the tray Simon had made and put it in their mouth.
The back door opened, and Simon carried Nicky inside right as Cal came out of the guest room. We all said our goodbyes, and then it was only me, Simon, Jackson, and Nicky.
“Okay, I have to go take a shower. Anyone need anything right now?” They all shook their heads, so I retreated to my room for some desperately needed alone time.
Fuck, today had been a lot. Simon wanting me to be his mate, Nicky, the fight, Cal getting injured, Meg almost being killed. And now our best hope of finding the vampires was Cal calling a vision from beyond any Seer’s range.
Unless by some miracle I had a vision in my sleep. I’d never had one manifest while I was awake.
I let the hot water beat down on my neck and back, loosening the tight muscles.
My brain helpfully supplied an image of Simon standing behind me, also naked and rubbing my back.
I fought down an erection, because I wasn’t sure my attempts at blocking our connection were working.
I didn’t want him to find out I was attracted to him and then get his hopes up that I might give him a chance.
I wished there was a way for Simon and me to have sex without any strings, because I’d been having a long dry spell.
Between the Wonders demanding my attention at all hours and my PI jobs, I didn’t have a lot of free time to find a hookup.
And when I did make an effort to look on an app, the whole process seemed too time-consuming, and I ended up just jerking off.
But Simon wanted a mate. Hell, if he wasn’t already connected to me, he wouldn’t have any trouble finding someone else. Someone who wanted to settle down and had time to devote to a partner.
A partner. Wouldn’t that be nice? Too bad what I needed a partner for wasn’t even close to what Simon had to be picturing.
I needed what amounted to a business partner.
Someone to share the load of the District Monitor duties.
Someone to help me attract clients for my PI business and split the late hours.
It was a pipe dream. The best I could hope for would be that one day a new DM would show up and resonate with this District. Then I’d only have the one job, and at least my late-night stakeouts wouldn’t be constantly interrupted with texts and Discord messages.
I continued my pity party of one as I dried off and got dressed, but I put on a pleasant smile when I returned to the living room.
Nicky and Jackson were watching an episode of Doctor Who, and Simon was coming through the front door carrying a plastic tub and a duffel bag.
“Hey, do you need help?”
“No, thanks.” He nudged the door closed with his hip. He’d changed clothes, and his hair was up in a bun. It was unfairly attractive. “But, FYI, there are two Hunters outside. They’re going to be here in shifts in case the luchd-òl fola find us.”
“Yeah, Greg warned me.” I briefly considered following Dominic’s request for us to relocate to a hotel, but the thought of those vampires in a building full of NPCs was horrifying.
I got Nicky and Jackson more snacks—caramel popcorn, pretzels, and chips this time.
Both of them could use the empty calories.
Nicky was acting more than a little withdrawn, but he did nibble on the food when I handed it to him.
In addition to being tired, he was probably worried about the escaped vampires.
All of us were, but it was a lot more personal and triggering for him.
I needed to write up a report to my client, but doing it in my study seemed antisocial, so I set up my laptop on the kitchen table and began to make notes and go through all the photos I’d taken the night before last. My phone buzzed occasionally, but I ignored it.
They all knew to call if it was an emergency.
“May I sit here?” Simon stood at the other end of the table holding the plastic tub he’d brought in from his minivan.
“Sure, of course.” Though, to Simon, I could understand why he wouldn’t believe there was any of course about sitting near me. Shit, I needed to make an effort to be friendlier to him.