Chapter 15
GRIFFIN
“One more bite,” Elaine said, holding the spoon up to Bradley’s lips.
He tried to squirm away, the bedsheets rustling underneath him. “I promise, Elaine, I’m absolutely fine.”
“So help me, I will stick this spoon in your ear if you don’t—there you go. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? You need to get your health up. Porridge, good.”
Bradley chuckled, then winced, pawing at the dressing on his torso. “At least it’s nothing like the gruel they serve at home. The kind they bring us when we’re sick. Just awful.”
Elaine nodded wisely. “I know one or two things about making palatable dishes too, you know. Can’t dabble in alchemy without learning a little about how to cook. Open wide.”
“You said that was the last mouthful!”
“I lied.”
My lips pressed in a tight line as I tried to suppress my own laughter.
This was nice, witnessing a rare moment of sweetness between the siblings.
I hovered by the doorframe, hair still damp from washing my face—from washing all the blood off.
Bradley’s blood. My hand curled into a fist. My brain couldn’t have one moment of peace without thoughts of breaking JA Williams’s face flooding right back.
“Get in there,” Julian mumbled, taking up way too much space in the doorway for my taste. “It should be you putting things in his mouth.”
“Will you shut the fuck up?” I hissed back. “Later. Maybe. We’re going to be here a while.”
The MEA safe house was surprisingly comfortable, not that I had anything to compare it to.
Maybe I had my expectations set too low.
Based on how she’d personally come to arrest us at Bradley’s apartment, I would have guessed that Nicoletta wasn’t in the mood for generosity.
She wouldn’t have thought twice about stuffing us in a plywood shack and calling it a day.
But this safe house was an actual house, not that we’d seen the outside of it, herded in through the front door under a cover of magical darkness. Still, we had access to running water, decently comfortable beds, a working kitchen. This was decidedly better than many of my merc jobs overseas.
We even had a guy to send out for errands—within reason, Nicoletta said. Ingredients for Elaine’s porridge had been reasonable enough, fortunately.
But who could we even trust anymore? Nicoletta was probably on a warpath back at HQ. How had JA Williams just swanned into the MEA offices like that? The bastard was rich and powerful enough to pull those strings, get someone on the inside to open the right doors.
Two agents dead and Bradley seriously injured.
If I hadn’t followed my instincts and wondered why someone was firing guns right in MEA HQ—if I hadn’t wrestled free of the agent holding me and run in to check on Bradley—I couldn’t stand the thought of it.
When I closed my eyes, all I could see was JA Williams sneering down at Bradley before he turned and fled.
All I could imagine doing was punching him until he stopped sneering.
“That’s enough,” Bradley blurted out. A call for his sister to stop feeding him, incidentally also a warning to wrench me out of my darkest thoughts. “I’m beyond full. For now. Thanks, Elaine.”
Brigette hovered awkwardly by the headboard, a bottle of water in hand and at the ready. “For what it’s worth, Brooks? I’m glad you’re alive. I know we’ve had our differences, but I never would have wished for you to get shot in the chest.”
Bradley clutched at his bandages and made a face. “That’s sweet of you, actually. Might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Don’t get too used to it,” she replied, cracking the water open and pressing it into his hands. “Once this is over, we go back to being academic rivals who despise each other. Possibly. I haven’t decided yet.”
Julian laughed, but the sound of it rang hollow, something I hadn’t heard before.
“What we need to actually focus on hating right now is the man who shot Bradley. Fucking billionaires. What does he even want?”
I noticed his fingers tracing the hilt of Corazon, his beloved sword.
Julian gave me a lot of shit, but we went way back.
Behind the sword and the swagger was a decent man, someone who stood on the side of right.
If I couldn’t finish the job, if—no, when we found JA Williams, at least I could count on Julian to give him what he deserved.
“Death,” Bradley said. “Destruction. The end of all things. We were right, Brigette. The fragments, the manuscript, all of it put together? He wants to summon this Hive Father we keep seeing in the text. He wants to end the world as we know it.”
“To what end?” Brigette demanded. “We’ll all be dead. This Hive of yours, you’ve said it yourself. They’re like locusts. They’ll devour everything. There’ll be nothing left.”
Elaine shook her head. “I imagine he wants to rule over the ashes. Men like Williams, it’s all about power. I’m sure he thinks he can control the Hive himself.”
“Except that’s not how it works,” Bradley said.
“He thinks that summoning the Hive Father is the same thing as taking command of it. My extensive studies have told me that these creatures likely subscribe to their own caste system—like bees, like wasps. In theory, they would take their lead from something above them in their hierarchy. But everything we’ve seen up to now tells us that the Hive are beyond control. ”
“That’s the problem,” Julian said. “They’re not just alien insects. They’re a force of nature. Annihilation in physical form. If Williams gets his way, it’s game over for humanity. For the world.”
I finally stepped away from the doorframe. “Then we’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t get his way. We can take the night to recuperate. I know Nicoletta put us in a safe house for a reason, but something tells me she’s not going to stop us from walking out that front door.”
“All of us,” Bradley said, grimacing even as he adjusted his position in the bed. “I’m coming, too.”
Elaine leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. “Get some sleep first, Bradley. You’ll need it. If you get killed again, Mother and Father will never let me hear the end of it.”
“Shielding spells,” Brigette muttered absently. “If we can swing it. But whatever happens next, we’d be fools to do it unprotected.”
I folded my arms, squinting at the far wall. “Maybe I can get Nicoletta to chip in, too. This is personal now. Someone spilled blood in her house. She’ll want heads to roll, but JA’s most of all.”
“Of course,” Elaine said. “Freely up for discussion, but tomorrow. We should leave Bradley to rest. Brigette, care to split a room with me? The one with two beds.”
“Yes,” Brigette said, a huge exhalation of breath in one word. “I’m exhausted.”
“And I’ll take the couch,” Julian said, grinning as they passed. “Really, I don’t mind, not that anyone’s asking. Oh, but Griffin! Where does that leave you? I guess you’ll just have to share with—”
“Good night, Julian,” I grunted, shoving him out of the doorway. He went quietly, to his credit, but he did smirk in my face the entire way. I shut the door, then took a deep, bracing breath.
“Staying in case you need help,” I told Bradley, feeling some foolish need to explain myself.
“I don’t mind,” he answered in a breathless rush.
We stared at each other for a little too long. I broke away from his gaze first. My skin was on fire.
“This feels like a lot,” he said, mercifully filling the silence. He gestured at his torso, bare apart from the bandages. “I have the weirdest sense that I’m not as injured as I should be.”
“Believe it or not, they fixed you up nice and tight. No surgeon could have done this. Inside and out, Bradley. The dressing is there just in case. One of the healers said you might not even scar.”
Even with my eyes open, I couldn’t dismiss the image of JA Williams sneering. I longed to press my brass knuckles lovingly against the boniest parts of his face.
“That’s remarkable,” he breathed. “I mean, it still hurts, but I don’t quite feel like I’m dying anymore.”
Just hearing those words from his lips was nearly enough to send me into a spiral all over again.
“You don’t look it either,” I said, shrugging. “Looks like MEA has an unbelievable healthcare package, and you just benefited from it. I’ve never seen a more efficient squad of healers in my life. Did you—do you want to change into something else? Are you comfortable?”
He shook his head. “Too tired. I just want to stay here. Rest.”
I nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed, butt barely hanging on like I was just waiting to be dismissed. But something about Bradley’s gaze told me that he wanted me to stay.
“Sit with me,” he said, patting the space beside him. His chest flushed red. I knew it wasn’t because of the injury. “I just—I don’t know. Would you just hold me, Griff? Is that weird?”
Oh.
“Not at all,” I said, the inside of my head ringing with alarm bells as I scooted over, so awfully conscious of all his bare skin. So much bare skin, and why all the lean muscle when he only spent his time around books?
Get a grip, I told myself, dredging up the part of me that still remembered how to behave like a professional. This was what the client wanted. Sure. Skin-on-skin contact. A bit of light cuddling. Just your average, everyday merc stuff.
I cradled him in both arms, longing to hold him close and tight but too afraid I’d hurt him.
What I wanted more than anything was to put my hands over his chest, to reassure him by touch if not by words that I would be there to protect him from harm, that I would never fumble so badly at bodyguarding again.
This close, it didn’t matter. I could still feel the thump of his pulse, nearly hear the rhythm of his heart.
“You know,” I said into his hair, “in my line of work, they tell you that you need a strong stomach. And it’s not just your ordinary mercenary business, either. There’s vampires and werewolves, and now there’s the Hive, too.”
Bradley chuckled, but his stomach clenched against his laughter. I winced, knowing he was wincing, too, knowing he was still in pain.
“I get it, Griffin. You’re a big, strong man, and you’re not afraid of anything.”
Burrowing closer, I nuzzled against his neck. So near to him I could smell the lingering scent of his shampoo, a trace of sweat, and the subtlest tang of blood.
“That’s not the point I was trying to make,” I said, my lips almost ghosting the words against his skin. “The kind of jobs I take? They scratch that daredevil itch inside me. My work is a rollercoaster ride. I’m sure Julian would tell you the same. It’s all about the rush.”
I squeezed my hands to avoid clutching him closer, gritting my teeth and clenching against my nerves to get the words out.
“Before today—before what happened to you—I don’t think I’ve ever been afraid. Truly and deeply afraid.”
Bradley’s legs slid against the sheets, his hands gently removing mine from around his waist. He grimaced as he pushed himself up on the bed, turning slowly to face me.
He wouldn’t look directly at me. With his cheeks flushed, lashes lowered, his eyes focused on the sliver of nothing between us, he’d never looked any lovelier.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” Bradley mumbled. “I think.”
I shook my head, surprised, frowning. “Don’t apologize. I should have been there to protect you. It’s my responsibility to you as my client to—”
“Shut up,” Bradley breathed, leaning in so close, so quickly that there was no room to escape.
He kissed me, gentle and slow, his arm resting along my shoulder, hand clasping the back of my neck.
I puddled into him, against him, dribbled like warm honey between his fingers, big, strong man that I was.
This wasn’t how I’d imagined it—a shared bed in an MEA safe house—and yet it was still everything I’d hoped for.
My hands hovered above him, around him, fluttering uselessly, still so afraid to touch. Without opening his eyes, Bradley reached for my wrists, guiding my shaking hands to his cheeks, to his shoulders, inviting me to discover the rest of his body.
And then I wasn’t afraid. I leaned into him, against him, trusting that this was what Bradley wanted. His fingers tangled in my hair, his lips pressing hungrily against mine, I retreated to a private, tiny world, where things like gunshots and manuscripts and the Hive didn’t matter, didn’t exist.
But before I left, a single thought crystallized in my skull, a hasty note, a promise for later.
JA Williams was a dead man.