Chapter 14 #2
Rushing in there, I stopped short behind Sky.
Ego was half-curled under a blanket in his favorite spot, paler than I’d ever seen him and still as a statue.
It wasn’t the unnatural stillness that alarmed me, though.
It was the sheer panic frozen across his face, and the way he clutched at that damn amulet.
Pushing past Sky, I ran to the couch, settling half my butt cheek onto the cushion next to him and curling my hands around his cold ones. “Ego, what’s wrong?” I asked softly.
When he didn’t respond, not even a twitch of his eyes, I smoothed a hand through his hair. “Ego, are you okay?”
Under my touch, I began to feel a tremor wracking his body. Glancing over my shoulder at Lysandro for help, he stayed where he was and merely nodded toward me in a go-ahead gesture. Well, damn. Why wasn’t he helping?
Moving my gaze to Sky, I found him huddled into Kingston, looking distraught.
I cleared my throat and turned back to Ego.
“What do you need?” He exhaled softly, just enough for me to smell the coppery scent of Lysandro’s blood.
“That’s it, Ego. Come on. Tell me what I can do.
I can’t read your mind, so you have to give me a hint. ”
He turned the hand clutching the amulet over, so we were palm to palm, and he squeezed my hand. “Stay here, okay?” he whispered so quietly I had to bend over and put my ear near his mouth to hear him.
“Of course.” Not wanting to keep my back to the others—but also wanting to retain my hold on Ego—I crawled over him, twisting and sitting on the back of the couch. “Why don’t you guys sit in the wingbacks?” I said to King and Sky.
With King’s gaze fixed completely on Sky, and Sky’s attention raptly on Ego, they made their way to the one I usually sat in, King sitting first and pulling his much smaller boyfriend onto his lap. It took them a while to figure their shit out, but wow, they were adorable now.
Lysandro hummed to himself as he glided across the room, sitting in his normal seat.
“So Sky and King came alone this visit. We thought it might be nice for you and Sky to visit alone before the rest of them descended on you. Is that okay?”
Ego side-eyed me, then went back to staring at Sky.
“Do you, uh…” Sky trailed off and blew out a breath. “Wow.” He pushed a hand back through his hair, messing it up in a totally uncharacteristic Skylar Reign way. “This is weird, you know?”
“I’m sorry. I would’ve never chosen to be a vampire,” Ego said just barely loud enough to be heard. I squeezed his hand in support.
“Pfftt.” Sky waved a hand. “I don’t care about that. At least I’d heard of those before. This one”—he thumbed over his shoulder at King—“being a Dreamwalker took a minute to wrap my mind around. I mean, Dreamwalker? Who the hell ever heard of that?”
“Then what?” Ego asked, his voice growing a little more confident.
“There’s never been a day in our lives when I wasn’t sure how to speak to you.
We’ve shared everything, you know?” His voice grew thick, and he cleared it before continuing.
“I’m not mad at you or anything. I’m worried about you.
I’m not sure what to do for you. I admit I don’t understand why you did—”
I barked a harsh cough into my hand, drawing his attention and cutting him off. I’d explained all of Ego’s reasons to everyone. He needed support, not a spanking for being a dumbass. Though, would that pale ass turn red from a nice, quick smack on his ass? Hmm…my enquiring mind would love to know.
Ugh. I had to knock it off. I’d spent half the day pushing thoughts of his lithe body out of my mind. Last night was a one-off. Ego hadn’t been touched since the change, and it had been who-the-hell-knew-how-long since I’d gotten off with someone else besides my own hand.
But once he got over this hump, it would be Sky’s hand he was holding. It would be Sky he’d want coming over each night. We’d go back to being members of the same chosen family, and there wouldn’t be as much animosity as there once was, but he wouldn’t need me.
Once he was surrounded by unconditional love again, he’d probably remember how awful I used to be to him. Hopefully, he wouldn’t regret last night, but I’d never know if he did. I seriously doubted we’d be alone again to even discuss it.
“Scotty, is that okay with you?” Ego asked, turning his head in my direction, and pulling me out of my wandering mind.
“Um, sorry. Is what okay?”
“Sky and I are going to stay down here and talk, so King offered to give you and Lysandro a tour of the house. If you want it.”
I searched his green eyes, making sure that he was alright to be left alone with his cousin. He squeezed my hand, giving me a tiny little smile, as if he knew what I was looking for and wanted to reassure me. Confident that he was good with the plan, I nodded.
“Sounds good to me. He’s kept us trapped in the foyer and this room,” I said. No need to mention that I’d also been granted access to his bedroom since I really didn’t see more than his king-sized bed. I’d left in such a daze this morning that I hadn’t paid attention to my surroundings.
I fought the urge to bend down and kiss Ego’s temple for the second damn time today as I stood up.
Ego’s hand held on to mine for an extra second, which made me feel better, since I felt a little silly for not wanting to let his go at all.
“Just call if you need me…or Lysandro or whatever,” I said in a rush.
Ego cleared his throat—and we both smiled since he so didn’t need to do that—and nodded.
We were halfway down the hall that led to the back stairwell—the one that Ego had blurred us up last night, so I’d left down this morning—when Lysandro said, “Huh. I would’ve never guessed you hadn’t seen more of the house, Scotty.”
My head whipped toward him. “What?” I hissed, hoping King wasn’t paying attention.
Grinning, Lysandro tapped the side of his nose discreetly, then started talking to King.
What the…could he smell me? Their senses were so keen that it was possible.
If that was true, I wondered what else he could smell as we walked into Ego’s bedroom.
From his sideways glance, I could only imagine, and I wanted to sink into the floor and hide.