Chapter Thirty
BLISS
It occurs to me as I’m leaving the room that it’s the same one I woke up in this morning. I head down the stairs, pondering whether or not Pisces and Wrath are sharing that room. And if so, where did Wrath sleep last night if I was taking his bed?
My feet hit the last step and I hear Taser’s voice coming from the living room. He comes into view as I round the corner. His arms are crossed and he’s glaring at the rest of the guys. “You should have waited for me,” he grits out, leveling a look at Evan.
“They weren’t going to let her fade off while they were waiting for me to track one of you down,” Benny replies, coming to stand next to Taser, placing a soothing hand on his shoulder. “Everyone here is looking out for her, okay?”
“We’re her friends too,” Simon says from his seat at the table.
I scan the room, seeing Shaun leaning against the wall and Niamh next to him. “Don’t worry, Taser. I’d never have let them try anything,” Niamh says.
“Try anything? He’s up there with her doing exactly that.”
“He healed me,” I say, coming up and touching Taser on the elbow. He lets out the breath he was holding and wraps me up in his arms.
“Thank the stars, Bliss. I was so fucking worried. Benny tracked me down and I tried to get here as fast as I could, but Wrath was already healing you. I’m so sorry I didn’t get here in time. Are you okay?”
I think back to Wrath’s tongue.
I’m more than okay. I pull on Taser’s arm. “I’m fine.”
A creak on the steps makes my head swivel in that direction as Wrath walks down the stairs, coming to a halt in front of Taser and me.
Taser levels him with the same glare he’s been giving everyone else. “You should have waited for me.”
Wrath’s lips pull in towards his teeth. It seems like he’s trying to keep himself from saying anything. His head is angled my way, but because of his mask I can’t tell where he’s looking.
“Why?” Evan asks, getting up from his seat and coming to stand next to Wrath. In his black platform boots he stands just an inch or so taller than Wrath. “Seems like he did a great job of healing Bliss.”
He nods my way, and I know I’m giving off a little bit of a glow from recently feeding. I turn scarlet at the attention and lower my gaze to the floor. When I look back up, Wrath’s white teeth are flashing against his skin in one of the sexiest smirks I’ve ever seen.
Fuck, that should not be a turn-on.
It should be making me mad.
My sexual encounters shouldn’t be the discussion topic right now.
But my stars, does my body want to take Wrath back upstairs.
I need to get out of here.
I tug on Taser’s arms. “We should go. I need to check on Amelia and Reese. They’ll be worried.”
“They’re already on their way over. I texted them when you were upstairs.”
That’s just going to make this whole situation even more embarrassing.
I look between Wrath and Simon, wishing I could talk to both of them more, but I need to intercept my friends before they get here.
“Well, we should um, go,” I say lamely. I wave at Simon and look at Wrath, my mouth opening and closing. “Bye,” I finally manage to say.
“Feel free to come back anytime. I think when you’ve woken up here twice in one day you can think of it as home,” Evan says with a wicked grin. Niamh slaps him on the back of the head and I shoot my own grin at her, ushering Taser out of the house.
Once we’re down the steps and headed to where we see Amelia and the others coming towards us, he puts out an arm and stops me. “Are you really okay?” he asks, looking me over as if he’s expecting to find scars.
But I feel great. Better even than the last time I fed off Taser fully, in the shower. I’m not sure how, but my power well feels completely recharged. “I’m great, don’t worry about me,” I tell him again. “I appreciate you always helping me out.”
His gaze jumps back and forth between my eyes then drops to the ground. “I was so fucking worried, Bliss. When Benny found me and told me what happened. I—”
I interlace his hands in mine. “I know. And I need you to know if our roles were reversed, I’d be doing the same for you.” I breath out a shaky exhale as he gathers me up in his arms. We stay like that until Amelia, Reese, Blake, and Tubbs reach us.
“Bliss! Are you okay?” Amelia asks, practically ripping me out of Taser’s arms. Giving him an apologetic look over my head, she wraps me up in a hug too. “Did you find Grim?”
Reese snuggles in from the other side and I squeeze both my sisters tightly. “It’s kind of a long story. But I’m okay. Promise.”
Blake and Tubbs take turns giving me hugs as well. As we make our way over to the main stage for the Phantoms’ show, I fill in the entire group on what just happened, all the while playing with the drawstrings of Wrath’s hoodie, wondering just who in the world I let go down on me.
“So what’s our plan to kill Jordan?” Tubbs asks the others. I roll my eyes and punch him softly in the shoulder.
“We cannot retaliate,” I tell him.
“Oh, I think we absolutely can and should,” Taser says with a growl.
I come to a halt on the sidewalk and all their eyes turn to me. “We can’t. He almost killed Simon. And then he attacked me. We need to lay low.”
“I think you’ve just stated exactly why we need to do something,” Blake responds, throwing an arm around Amelia. “Don’t worry, though. Taser, Tubbs, and I got this.”
Amelia and Reese exchange looks. “We already called the fae constabulary,” Reese says. “We need to let them take care of it.”
The guys mutter under their breath, but I don’t pay much attention to them. I’m still glowing with a really good buzz and I can’t stop thinking about Wrath’s tongue. My slutty fae mind is definitely in the gutter.
“Let’s change the subject, please,” I tell my friends. I don’t really want to think about the attack right now, especially when I’m feeling the best I have in a very long time.
I can feel Amelia staring at me, probably at the glow emanating from my skin. “This is actually amazing,” Amelia says, motioning to me and my glow. “Also, Wrath does look like he’d be really, really hot,” she muses.
Dericia murmurs her agreement, letting out a sigh. “They all look like they’re super hot under those masks.”
Jordan’s voice echoes in my mind. They’re probably all really fucking ugly. Why else hide? But I just know he’s wrong, or I guess I don’t care. I think if I saw Wrath without his mask, I’d find him beautiful.
“Haven’t you both seen them without masks? Years back when you opened for them?” I ask, suddenly wondering if I should have been asking my sister for help on getting closer to Wrath.
Amelia hums in thought as Dericia’s face scrunches in confusion.
“No. Not Wrath at least,” my sister says. She looks to Reese and Taser. “Remember, there was that whole thing after the show? Someone died outside the venue and there were cops everywhere.”
“Someone died?” I ask, stunned. “How am I just now hearing about this?”
“Well, you almost died that night too. I guess I never realized I hadn’t filled you in,” my sister continues. “But yeah, I think some of the Voracious Maw guys found a dead guy in the back alley of the venue and had to stay to talk to the human police. So they never came out afterwards.”
“So what happened?”
“An overdose, maybe?” Reese says, thinking back.
“I never got the details,” Taser says. “Their bassist and guitarist came out with us, but they didn’t know much about it.”
“That’s crazy,” I say.
“But Taser, you met Wrath before the show, right?” Amelia asks. The lack of a segue back to the original topic throws me for just a minute, but we’re all pretty used to how quickly my sister can switch gears and moods. “Is he hot?”
Taser runs a hand over his face. “I feel I shouldn’t answer this on principle.”
I laugh and link arms with him. “I don’t need to know what he looks like.”
Amelia looks at me as if I’m crazy, but I’m content in the knowledge that I’m not that shallow.
“Will you still hook up with Grim?” Dericia asks. I wish someone would change the subject to something far away from my sex life—and dead bodies. I could do without dead bodies for a while. The night of the garden threatens to flash through my mind, but I shut that down quickly.
As I try to get my thoughts in order, Amelia answers for me. “You really still should. He definitely is super hot. And if you’re into masks, well, he also has one, so really…” She trails off, her thoughts going so deep into the gutter I definitely do not want to follow.
We make our way back to the platform seating where we watched the Voracious Maw show earlier and sit down, chatting idly as more and more people fill in around us.
Simon, Shaun, Benny, and—unfortunately—Pisces, have taken seats behind us.
Simon waves at me and whisper yells a greeting to us just as the stage lights flare on and the crowd starts cheering.
I take one last look around me, noticing Wrath isn’t there.
At least not in his costume. The lights around the stands get darker and the stage gets brighter. I can’t make out the people sitting around us enough to determine whether one of them is the one who healed me.
As the Phantoms conclude their show with a huge finish, lights flashing on stage, and all the fans screaming for an encore, Amelia, Reese, and I stand up, starting to make our way off the platform.
If the Phantoms do another song, we’ll catch it from the backstage area, but I want to be ready to greet Grim when he comes off stage.
I’m not at all aware that Pisces and the other Voracious Maw crew members plus Evan have followed us, chatting with Taser, Tubbs, and Blake. I certainly don’t check over my shoulder multiple times to see Pisces lingering apart from the group, not really interacting much with anyone.
We all collectively listen in as the Phantoms play one last song to their adoring fans. I bounce back and forth on the balls of my feet, continuing to feel the urge to look around for Pisces.