Chapter 33
River
Arlon, as it turned out, was a pain in the ass. The main reason being that he clearly had a crush on Laurie and was doing very little in the way of hiding it.
We stood in Jordan’s office at Leyore headquarters—well, I stood, the other two sat opposite one another while Laurie tried to fill in the gaps in Arlon’s knowledge of the supernatural. I kept my arms tightly folded where I leaned in the doorway while Laurie ran her fingers through her hair.
She’d finally managed to climb out of bed that morning, but her breakfast had gone down slow and stilted.
I’d kept one eye on her from the moment she slithered out from under the covers until now, and she still didn’t fully look like herself.
Her eyes were heavy-lidded and her voice rang flat and monotone, but she’d been determined to speak with Arlon so I allowed her to tag along.
“All right, Arlon. From the top.” She leaned back in her seat, listing points of interest on one hand.
“The organization we’ve been hunting is led by vampires.
The guy you were tracking was also a vampire, and River over there—” she hiked a thumb over her shoulder at me and Arlon’s gaze slid my way.
I offered a wide grin full of fang in response to his bug-eyed stare. “She’s a vampire too.”
“Yeah, I got all that.” Arlon rubbed a hand over his face, wincing when he disturbed the layers of gauze wrapped around his forehead. The poor guy was rocking a pretty rough head injury, courtesy of the Doctor, but I still couldn’t dredge up a shred of sympathy for him.
Which was odd. I prided myself on having patience in abundance, and very rarely felt irritated with anyone—not even Maxine could grind my gears unless she was really committed to it.
But looking at Arlon… No, more specifically, looking at Arlon and analyzing the way he was looking at Laurie, had my hackles rising for reasons I could not fathom. He liked her, I got that. But why the hell was it pissing me off so much?
“What I don’t get,” Arlon continued, and he leveled his gaze at Laurie, “is why you never mentioned any of this before. If you knew the organization involved the—the supernatural,” his lips puckered around the word like it tasted bad in his mouth, “then why didn’t you say anything?”
Laurie hung her head low, knuckles tightening on the edge of her chair.
“I was trying to protect you—and myself, I guess. I thought you’d think I was losing it and refuse to help me.
But I was also worried you might take it seriously and put yourself in danger.
” She let out a bitter half-laugh and shook her head.
“The plan kinda backfired though, because you went ahead and got into trouble anyway.”
Arlon’s expression softened (and I ground my teeth at the look in his eyes). “You were protecting me.”
Laurie peeked up at him and offered a paper thin smile.
“Yeah, well, you’re my friend. I didn’t want to see you hurt.
” She gestured weakly at the gauze on his head, expression morphing into a grimace as she muttered, “I’m sorry it happened anyway.
It’s all technically my fault you ended up in some mad scientist’s basement in the first place. ”
My lips twitched into a small, smug, upward curve.
Friend. She made her feelings pretty clear with that word.
Arlon may have been into Laurie, but Laurie was…
not into Arlon. Good. Great. I tried not to feel too satisfied with that conclusion, and tried not to think too much about why it was satisfying in the first place.
Arlon was still watching Laurie with stars in his eyes, but his brow cinched ever so slightly at the title of ‘friend’.
He didn’t comment on it though, so at least he wasn’t the pushy kind of human dude.
That didn’t stop the flicker of irritation creeping under my skin, and I dug my nails into my forearms before I made some unwarranted, snippy remark.
“Don’t blame yourself for this.” Arlon flicked his eyes up to his head injury with a wry smile. “I was the one who went snooping without a warrant. And besides,” he shrugged, though his twitching fingers betrayed his nerves, “from what I’ve heard, you were the one who saved me.”
“Yeah, she saved all of us,” I cut in, probably a little too brightly. “Killed the Doctor all by herself. It was awesome.”
“All right, thank you, River.” Laurie shot me a muted glare over her shoulder. I shrugged off her silent chiding and inspected my nails.
“But you did.” Arlon leaned forward, awe in his every word. “You saved all of us from an insane vampire surgeon. Give yourself a little credit.”
I peeked up from my fake nail inspection. Arlon was still staring into her eyes—long enough for me to identify three separate stages of pining. I felt something unpleasantly territorial twist in my gut and cleared my throat, louder than was probably necessary, but it got the job done.
They both glanced my way and I scrambled for something to say now that I had their attention.
“Uh… yeah—so, under normal circumstances, we’d have to wipe your mind clean of all your memories of our kind.
” Arlon’s eyes went wide and Laurie opened her mouth to argue with me, but I hushed her with a hand raised in the air.
“But these aren’t normal circumstances, so, Arlon, you’re safe for now. ”
“But,” I continued, pausing for emphasis and offering Arlon an unnecessary sneer in the process, “that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook.
If you’re going to stay clued up on the supernatural, we’ll expect your assistance in taking down the organization.
You’re a cop, you have access to information we don’t—potential leads that can help us track these guys down. ”
The bitterness in my statement seemed to go right over Arlon’s head.
He laced his fingers together and nodded, grim determination etched into his features.
“Yeah, I thought as much. Your partner, Dylan, I think was her name? She filled me in on what you’ve found so far.
If I can put together what we have on the case and what your coven knows, we might get one step closer to catching these guys. ”
I bristled for no particular reason. He was so goddamn helpful, so ready to accept the supernatural world if it meant helping Laurie get her revenge on the people who hurt her. He was so infuriatingly nice, I couldn’t find anything about him to dislike—and that only irritated me further.
“Well… good.” I turned my nose up, folding my arms tighter across my chest and the bubbling anger building there. “Maybe you’ll prove useful after all.”
“What is up with you today?” Laurie twisted in her seat to glare at me again. “Why are you being such a dick?”
That stung more than the territory jitters and sudden heat seared my cheeks. My mouth fell open, but I had no words to defend myself with. She was right, I was being unreasonably hostile, and I still couldn’t understand why. Maybe it was the lack of sleep making me cranky?
Or maybe you’re jealous, some traitorous voice in my head whispered in response. The rational part of my brain kicked that theory to the curb. What could I possibly be jealous of?
I didn’t have a clue, but Laurie was still looking at me like she expected an answer, so I cleared my throat again and backed up through the doorway.
“I–uh, excuse me one second.” I stepped out before she could call me back and slammed the door shut, leaning my forehead against the wood grain while my head spun.
Breathing exercises did nothing. I spiraled through a mini meltdown right there in the hallway, vaguely aware of Laurie and Arlon still speaking softly behind the door.
I was jumpy, tingling all over, desperate to throw the door open again and tell Arlon to back the fuck off.
But why? He wasn’t even doing anything wrong.
Why then, was every instinctual bone in my body hellbent on putting myself between Laurie and Arlon and declaring, very loudly, that she was mine?
“Jesus Christ, pull it together,” I mumbled, pushing off the door and pacing circles in the cramped hallway instead. I ran my fingers through my hair, tugging loose curls down over my eyes.
Deep down, I wondered if something had changed after last night.
When I curled up beside her in bed and held her hand, cupped her face.
Something between us was certainly different.
Laurie was more comfortable around me, and she no longer flinched away from my touch.
But it was more than that. It went deeper.
Just how deep, I didn’t dare contemplate.
For the first time in my very long life, I was a little afraid to look within myself. I was afraid of the answers I’d find there.
Before I could fumble any further, another door creaked open down the hall and Dylan sauntered into view, wispy shadows swirling around her head. She clocked my frantic pacing immediately and arched one perfect brow as she approached. “River, why are you freaking—”
“I’m not freaking out!” I blurted, urgent voice rising an octave too high.
Dylan’s second brow joined the first, suspended up there at her hairline. Her gaze slid from my flushed face to the closed office door behind me and back again. Her narrowed eyes widened. “Oh… Oh my god.”
“Shut up!” I lurched toward her, ready to swat the burgeoning smile off her face, but Dylan sidestepped me, dancing out of reach.
She pointed at the door, pure unadulterated delight spreading across her features. “Oh my god! You—her—”
“Shhh!” I sliced a hand across my throat, willing her to keep her fucking voice down and hissed, “It’s not like that.”
But Dylan was cackling now, head ping ponging between me and the door and back again. “I can’t believe it.”
“Not a word of this to anyone,” I snapped, jabbing a finger at her chest. The threat would’ve landed better if my ears weren’t burning.
Dylan’s grin widened and her next words sent a fiery heat roaring up my neck. “Dude, you’re falling for the eyewitness!?”
I opened my mouth—shut it again. And I realized, all at once, that I couldn’t deny it. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her she was wrong. The realization crashed over my head like a bucket of cold water, clarity hitting bittersweet when I considered what this meant.
Falling for Laurie meant setting myself up for inevitable heartbreak.
Hell, I wasn’t even sure if she swung that way, and even if she did…
She had more than enough to deal with already.
This silly little crush of mine—and that’s all that it was: a crush—was not what she needed right now. Or maybe ever.
It would only complicate things between us.
It might even make her pull away. She was committed to walking the path she was on, all the way to the bitter, early end she had planned for herself.
If it occurred to her that sticking around any longer would hurt me, if she knew how I felt about her, and just how bad it would hit me when I lost her, she’d be gone from my life before I could blink.
So no, I could not bring myself to admit it aloud. I couldn’t speak those words into being.
Dylan was still smirking at me, though, so I clapped back with a question to highlight her own hypocrisy. “Refresh my memory, how did you and Amara get together?”
The answer was simple. Dylan fell for the human woman she was meant to be wringing information out of. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Dylan rolled her eyes, but the slight upturn of her mouth remained.
Before she could interrogate me further, the door behind me cracked open a sliver and Laurie poked her head out. “What are you two arguing about out here?”
Dylan’s smirk turned downright diabolical. I shot her a warning glare that promised eternal suffering if she uttered a single word. Thankfully, the preening vamp kept her lips zipped, but her coy smile had me flushing bright red.
“Uh, nothing.” I spun around to face Laurie, planting my hands on my hips and trying my darndest to keep the blushing to a minimum. “Nothing important.”
Laurie looked me up and down like she didn’t believe me at all, narrowing her eyes at the faux smile I held on my face with sheer force of will.
“Riiight.” She dragged the word out, flicking cautious eyes at Dylan before returning her gaze to me. “Well, do you wanna fill Arlon in on the details of the hybrid experiments? You’re a little more clued up on the facts than I am.”
“Yep! Sure, I can do that,” I chirped a little too cheerily, but my feet stayed firmly planted in place.
“Okay…” Laurie’s quizzical stare lingered on me for a beat longer before she angled her chin over her shoulder. “When you’re ready to play nice, we’ll be waiting in there.”
“Uh-huh, uh-huh. I’ll be right with you.” I nodded too many times while Laurie backed up into the office and returned to her seat in front of Arlon.
I sucked in a steadying breath and stepped up to follow her—and Dylan’s whispered teasing echoed in my ears. “How does that phrase go? ‘Denial is a River?’ Sounds fitting, don’t you agree?”