Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
TOM
Itake meticulous notes on my phone as Gabe and Connor lay out the guidelines for the boys. Nobody asked me to, but I figure it’s best to have something to refer to later on. Plus, typing it out gives my brain a way to process it.
The plan they’ve come up with so far is for Matt and Ian to tell their friend Dylan an abridged version of what’s been happening.
Apparently he’s already suspicious because they’re not at school and have been spending less time on the app lately.
Which led Gabe into a tangent lecture about how they should be paying attention in their classes, not chatting with their friends on their phones.
It was so parental and adorable that I wanted to take a picture of the way his brows drew together and his lips turned down in disappointment.
I didn’t, though; just filed it away in my memory and tried not to think about what a great dad he’ll be someday.
It’s been decided that for now, there will be no mention of Marc.
The boys are going to lean heavily on Skye’s ability as a conduit and the spirits that talked to him to explain where most of our information has come from.
This way, even if the network is compromised, our source in the otherworld won’t be.
It doesn’t stand up to too much scrutiny, but we’re hoping Dylan won’t spend a lot of time thinking about the finer details.
What Gabe and Connor want, initially, are numbers. They’ve drawn a firm line at the age of eighteen, and they want to know who over that age is already a hunter or gatekeeper, and what level of training the others have attained.
“…if Norval comes through and finds that document, and if sharing power is actually something we can do, we ask anyone who hasn’t finished training if they’re willing to do it,” Connor’s saying.
“Everyone who has finished, or who prefers not to share power, they get put on my team. We’ll set up a plan for dealing with the demons who make it to Earth before the barrier goes back up. ”
Alarm stirs in me. That’s a lot of pressure to put on some barely qualified kids.
I open my mouth to protest, but Con shakes his head at me.
“Relax, Tom. When the demons start appearing, every hunter who hasn’t betrayed us is going to join the fight.
We can’t forewarn them and give them a battle plan because we don’t know yet who we can trust. But if the young ones know exactly what’s happening and what to do, they can help the others cut down on the confusion time and get organized faster and more smoothly. The kids won’t be going it alone.”
I sigh in relief. “Sorry. Should have known you wouldn’t…” I trail off with a rueful shrug.
“I think that’s it for now,” Gabe says. “Oh—what do we tell the others?”
“Nothing,” the boys say in unison. “Kieran only. You swore,” Matt adds.
“We’ll keep that promise. But we need to have a story to explain why we’re less stressed.”
“Just act stressed,” Ian orders. “If Uncle brings back the document, you can all have a big debate about who you might be able to trust. They don’t need to know you probably have people lined up until the time comes.”
I try not to laugh. I don’t think any of us will have trouble acting stressed. “Uh… while I think of it, has anyone talked to Marc about whether he and his friends will help us fight the invading demons?”
There’s a stunned silence.
“I guess that’s a no.”
“I hadn’t thought of it,” Gabe admits. “But after what he said today, I wonder if that would make things worse in the long run? If we get the barrier back up and the traitors d-dealt with”—he falters slightly, and I remember again that the traitors are his parents—“someone is going to have to get rid of Cato in the otherworld and make sure this shit doesn’t happen again. ”
“You think it would be better if most demons don’t know he’s been working with us.” Connor bites his lip. “Yeah, that makes sense. Let’s keep the otherworld in the dark so he and his friends have more leverage after.”
“Speaking of people keeping people in the dark,” I begin, turning my darkest glare on Gabe. “Is there something you’d care to share with the group?”
He winces. “Not really? Does it matter now, anyway? With this new information, we’re almost positive it won’t happen.”
“‘It’ being your death,” Connor states flatly. “You didn’t think that was something we might have wanted to know about?”
Gabe sighs. “It wasn’t a secret,” he defends himself. “You should have worked it out already. Not you, Tom,” he says in an aside. “There was no way for you to know.”
“Not helping yourself here.” I fold my arms across my chest. I really want to wrap them around him, but him not telling me he was planning to sacrifice himself is a boundary I’m pretty firm on.
If this kind of thing happens to come up again (fuck, please don’t let that happen), I want him to be clear on the fact that he needs to tell me.
“Chill, dudes,” Ian declares. “Gabe knows he fucked up. He knows that failing to talk to his brothers and his boyfriend about the monumentally fucking stupid decision he made was a mistake. Right, Gabe?”
“Well—”
“He’ll never do anything like this again,” Matt adds. “And he’s grateful that he doesn’t have to go through with it after all.”
“Well,” Gabe tries again.
“Because as noble as it is that he’s willing to die to keep everyone else on Earth safe,” Ian continues, “and as much as we understand that it’s part of the commitment we all make being part of the Collective, not talking to his family about it is unforgivable.”
Gabe stays silent this time.
“Luckily,” Matt proclaims in a wrapping-up tone, “his family is awesome and has decided to forgive him anyway. This one time. Because it looks like he’s not definitely going to die.”
“This is epic,” Connor murmurs. “I wish I’d recorded it.”
“He is going to die eventually,” Ian says to Matt. “But we get what you mean.”
We wait a beat to see if they’re done, then Gabe says, “I appreciate your understanding.”
“Awesome.” Matt slaps his hands against his knees and stands. “I guess we’ll go call Dylan. And then I want to find my favorite brother and see if he knows anyone who can get me festival tickets for next spring.”
“Ooh, I didn’t think of that.” Ian scrambles to his feet as well.
“Your favorite brother?” Connor demands. “Seriously? I’m the one who brought him into the family.”
They look at him with identical “so?” expressions. He grumbles, but he’s grinning as he watches them leave. “I’m so glad they’re not as fucking stupid as I thought they were.”
That seems a bit harsh to me, but Gabe makes an agreeing noise. “For a while there, I was worried. But they’re all grown up now.”
They sigh in unison, and I bite back a smile. Then Connor gets up. “I’m going to go find Kieran before they do and make sure he tells them no for those tickets. Wanna go halves with me for Christmas if he can get them?”
“Sure.”
“How are you going to make sure the boys don’t find another way to get them?” I ask.
Connor snorts. “Believe me, that’s not an issue.” He doesn’t elaborate, just saunters out, and I don’t care enough to ask Gabe why.
“What are you in the mood for to eat?” Gabe asks, starting to stand, but I grab his arm and pull him back down.
“You thought you were going to die and didn’t think it was something I might like to know?
” His brothers might be ready to let it go, but I can’t.
I just can’t. Yes, we’re all at risk right now, but we all have hope that we might get through this.
That Gabe thought he didn’t… it sends a chill through me.
He sighs. “I wasn’t going to tell anyone.” The flat statement sits between us like a loaded weapon, and my chest gets tight.
“But you thought your brothers could figure it out.”
He nods and looks away.
“So it’s really just me you weren’t going to tell.” And the Mannix team, but I kind of thought he and I meant more to each other than just friends. Sure, things have moved fast and it’s not even been a week, but I’ve been thinking long-term. I thought we were on the same page. Was I fooling myself?
He swallows, regret and fear written all over his face. “Yes.”
It’s my turn to avoid his gaze and nod. I want to run away right now. Get up, walk out, and not come back here.
But I can’t. I made a promise to see this through. And even if Gabe and I aren’t exactly seeing our future the same way, I’m not prepared to walk out on him.
“Why?”
Surprise and then hope cross his expression. “At first, I wasn’t sure exactly where we stood. I didn’t want it to seem like one of those ‘tomorrow I may die’ lines.”
My huff of laughter is inadvertent, but it makes him smile.
“Then…” He rubs the back of his neck. “When I knew this—us—wasn’t… casual, I… We have so little time together, Tom. It’s been days, really, and we spend so much time apart. I just didn’t want to overshadow the moments we have with the knowledge that our time was limited.”
The tightness eases. I get it, what he’s saying. If he’d told me sooner, it would have been hanging between us every second—every precious second that should have been focused on each other.
“Okay.”
He perks up. “Okay?”
I shrug. “I’m not happy about it, but I understand. Maybe one day I’ll even admit you were right. It’s not as important now, since we’re pretty sure you won’t die.”
“Almost definitely,” he agrees fervently.
“If Marc’s theory about the etheric energy speeding up is right, I’ll really just need to get it started.
And if we can share power for that, it’ll barely take anything out of me at all.
” He grabs my hands. “No more big secrets. I promise. I-I don’t know what I can say to make you understand how much you mean to me.
This. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. ”
He doesn’t say the L word, but he doesn’t need to. It’s too soon, anyway. But I know what he means, and as I squeeze his hands and his beautiful smile breaks out, I know he understands that I feel the same.
“No more big secrets,” I echo. “We’ll get through this, then we’ll let Ian and Matt rebuild the world, and we’ll steal the key to Daniel’s greenhouse and hide out in there for a while.”
“With the vegetables and jasmine?”
“Just us, the vegetables, and the jasmine,” I promise. “And maybe Daniel, though I can probably get Skye to distract him.”
“Distract him, huh?” He gives me a sexy little smirk. “Like I plan to distract you now?”
My cock twitches. “Oh?” It’s not more than a croak.
His laugh makes me happy all the way to my core. “Yep.” He slides off the couch onto his knees, then puts his hands on my thighs and opens them. “Make room for me, baby.”
The endearment hangs in the air between us, and then I adjust so he can get in position.
His gaze meets mine and holds it while he opens my jeans and pulls me out of my underwear.
I’m already hard, just from the thought of Gabe.
I lift my hips slightly so he can get my clothes out of the way, but he doesn’t.
“I like you like this,” he muses. “At my mercy.”
I huff a laugh. “You know it’ll take me longer to come with my balls trapped like this,” I warn. He figured out really quick that the fastest way to make me blow is to play with my sac.
“I know.”
The words shiver through me, and then his mouth is closing over the head of my cock. His big hand wraps around the rest, and my head falls against the back of the couch as his tongue comes into play.
“Your mouth is so fucking amazing,” I groan, and he gives me a sharp little suck, then backs off. Cool air blows over the tip of my hot, wet dick even as his warm hand lightly squeezes the rest.
“I’m just getting started.”
He lets go of me and lowers his head again, this time taking me as deep as he can—which is pretty deep.
I hit the back of his throat and feel him swallow around me.
The sound that bursts from my throat isn’t one I recognize, but as he pulls back, I decide I’ll happily keep making it if he just does that again.
Luckily for me, he does.
And again.
And again.
Then he draws back and closes his hand around me again, pumping my cock in long, slow strokes as he pants and smiles up at me. His mouth is wet, tiny drops of moisture gathered at the corners of his eyes, and he’s so beautiful.
He’s mine.
My cock gets impossibly harder at the thought.
Gabe leans down and tongues my slit, and my hips jerk up.
“Uh-uh-uh,” he chides.
“C’mon, Gabe.” My voice is breathless. “Get me off, and I’ll do anything.”
He chuckles. “Oh, you definitely will. But fine.” He grins wickedly and holds up both hands. “But I’m gonna do it hands-free.”
Before I can even process that, he swoops down and licks the length of me like it’s an all-day sucker and he has an addiction to sugar.
Each hot stripe of his tongue is slow and meticulous, perfectly planned to drive me wild.
I never know where he’ll lick next, and the lack of any other stimulation is, if anything, more stimulating.
Only when I’m begging does he take me into his mouth again, and it only takes a few hard sucks for me to blow like a volcano.
I’d do anything for Gabe.