Chapter 25
Blade was heading out as Mace was coming in. They met on the back porch, and Mace looked like he’d had a rough night. Blade felt that. He’d been juicing up with sexual suppressants since his time with Scotty, and his body felt like it was starting to fall apart.
It was falling apart. That was the danger of the injections. The effectiveness wore off sooner with each one. Eventually, they wouldn’t work at all. By then, a Sem could be half-dead. Or all dead.
Stryke knew all about that.
“Hey.” Mace raked his fingers through his hair, but it didn’t help.
“Hey.”
“Where’re you off to?”
Blade hefted his catch bag, which he used to haul his tools for making or disarming physical and magical traps. “I have a class today.”
“Ah, yeah. DART’s new recruits. Good luck.”
“Thanks.” He eyed Mace, taking in his rumpled and spent appearance. “Where have you been?”
“Um…” Mace reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, his gaze getting all squirrely. “Ah…Scotty and I…you know. It’s done.”
Pow. Right in the fucking heart. Blade had dreaded hearing those words. But following the blunt force trauma of Mace’s admission came a sense of relief. The lancing of a wound. It was over. They were all cool now.
He swallowed, and when he spoke, his voice was raw with emotion he couldn’t contain. “Okay. Thanks for telling me.”
Mace met his gaze. “Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Okay.”
No. “Yes.”
“You’re lying,” Mace said quietly, and Blade didn’t deny it. “You love her, don’t you?”
Blade drew in a shuddering breath. “Yeah.”
Mace’s shoulders sagged. “Me, too.”
Figured. And Blade couldn’t blame him. She was extraordinary. She was so much a part of their team and their lives that she might as well be an appendage.
Same with Mace. He was just as important to Blade as Scotty.
“What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to get past this,” Mace insisted. “And we’re going to get back to normal.”
As much as Blade wanted things to go back to the way they’d been, the reality was more complicated than that. “What are we going to do when Scotty gets a boyfriend? I don’t know if I can watch that.”
“Dude, that’s easy.” Mace flashed fangs and a sinister smile. “We kill him.”
And that fast, all residual tension between them fled. Blade laughed, freed from the burden of jealousy and greed. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Cool.” Mace grinned and held out his fist. “Team up.”
“Team up, man. Team up.”