28. Seth
Chapter twenty-eight
Seth
Erin padded into the living room when the pizzas arrived half an hour later. I tipped the driver a couple twenties, impressed he got all five grease-covered pies out here in record time.
Lib sat on the floor, huddled next to Erin on a pile of pillows they’d dragged out from the guest room. Josh rolled up the sleeves of his button down and lifted the pizzas from my arms then placed them in the center of the coffee table. Derik was the first to dive in, tossing open the lid of the box on top, double fisting two slices spanning the length of his head. Libby and Josh followed suit, each grabbing two slices of pizza. Erin sat, leaning back on her hands, legs spread out in front of her, the corners of her mouth lifting as she watched Derik attack his pizza; sauce covered his chin, cheese oozed onto his shirt. She looked up, her grey-blue eyes meeting mine and the rigid pang of jealousy from earlier melted away as her lips spread, her tongue darted out, and she giggled. The sound wrapping itself around me.
Erin flicked her gaze to the diminishing pizzas. Grab some, and I’ll get a slice too she seemed to say, her eyes meeting mine once again.
I grabbed a piece of meat lovers and plopped down on the hardwood floor, flanking Erin’s side. She reached for a slice of cheese pizza, a long string roped between her and the almost empty box. She pulled it above her head, the string of melted heaven finally breaking. Erin opened her mouth, dropped the melted gooeyness onto her tongue, and slurped it down. Her cheeks were stuffed, resembling a squirrel harvesting nuts for the winter; eyes closed, hips wiggling as she did her little food dance. Libby and I chuckled. Josh smirked. Derik was too focused on polishing off the last of the food.
Erin’s eyes popped open. “Mwhat?” She muffled, cheeks still stuffed.
“You’re adorable.”
Pink rose to her cheeks as she gulped down the remainder of her slice. Libby took that as her opportunity to loop Josh into a conversation, her back to Erin and I.
Erin cleared her throat. “Yeah, well…You’re ridiculous.” She brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
I bit down on my pizza slice as I felt Erin scoot closer. I met her movement, resting my hip against hers so she was still on top of her pillow pile. She leaned into me. A sigh escaped her lips as she rested her head on my shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Seth,” she whispered. “For storming off.”
Ah. So, she’s guilting herself for earlier.
“No need to apologize, Rin. It’s frustrating, I get it.” I polished off my slice and pulled her in, hugging her tight. I buried my chin into the hair on top of her head, the scent of her peach shampoo intoxicating.
“Does any of this get any easier?” she asked meekly, my chest tightened.
“I wish it did, Rin. I really wish it did.”
The remainder of the night, we all sat around the coffee table. Erin had grabbed a box of cards from the hall closet and set about dealing them out, declaring a giant game of War. How in the hell that was going to work between five people, I had no idea. But dammit, she made it happen.
Erin and Libby took turns kicking everyone’s asses, Josh got close once. Derik and I, our asses were handed to us each round. I threw my cards on the table. “I give up. This is freaking rigged.”
The girls swapped looks as they giggled. Across the table Josh smirked. Derik gave up and took up polishing off the last bit of alcohol in the fridge. “Gotta learn when to quit, man.” He laughed.
“Poor Seth, getting beat by a couple of girls,” Erin teased. “This is payback for when you wiped the floor with me during training these last couple of weeks.” She high-fived Libby, triumphant.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. At least I don’t cheat.”
Erin scoffed, grinning ear to ear. “Oh, don’t be a sore loser. You lost. Fair and square. Not my fault you suck at cards.”
“I’m still saying it was rigged,” I grumbled.
Erin stuck her tongue out at me and swiped our cards, reforming them into a full deck and slipped them back into their case.
A bag of chips thumped in the middle of the table. “I don’t know about you guys, but my ass is starving.” Derik said as he flopped back onto the couch.
“Yeah, losing really works up an appetite, huh?” Erin quipped.
Derik shoved a handful of chips in his mouth. “Hell yeah it does. It took real effort letting you two win.”
“It truly does. You ladies put up quite the formidable front in the game of War,” Josh chimed in, winking at Erin.
“Wow. Did you actually just use sarcasm? Who knew Snooty-Booty had a sense of humor.” She deadpanned.
I choked. “What?” Libby was clutching her stomach laughing. Josh actually looked shocked.
Erin shrugged her shoulders as she reached for the bag of chips. “What? He’s snooty and kind of an ass about it. Fits him perfectly.”
“Snow’s got a point.” Derik nodded, hiding a grin as he sipped from his empty beer bottle.
Josh leaned into the couch; arm slung along the back. “I do take pride in my appearance and how I conduct myself and business,” the corner of his mouth twitched. “And I believe the portion about my rear, is more pertained to the way my pants fit in that area, wouldn’t you agree, Miss Snow?” He winked at her. Again.
Erin stuttered, her skin flushed pink. “I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Josh chuckled, a gruffness infiltrated his tone. “I’m sure, Miss Snow.”
Erin averted her eyes, looking anywhere but at Josh. Her flustered gaze landed on me. Guilt flashed across her face as jealousy gripped my throat.
Does she have a thing for Josh?
“I dunno, Josh. Your pants might be too tight, seems like you might be cutting off circulation to your brain if you think anyone’s looking,” I snipped.
Amusement flashed in the furthest edge of his narrowed pupils. I forced a neutral expression.
Libby stopped laughing long enough to throw in an, “Oooh buurrnn.” Which provided a brief moment for Erin to recover.
She slapped her hands on her thighs and clicked her tongue. “Alrighty well, I’m going to hit the hay,” she turned to Libby. “You want to bunk in the guest room with me?”
“Yeah, we can let the stinky men have a little slumber party out here.” Libby giggled.
Derik let out a laugh. “Nah, I’m good. I’m not down for sharing a bed with dudes. Nothing wrong with it, but I don’t wanna wake up with hardware against my back.”
I scoffed. “Here I thought we were bros, man,” he threw a pillow at my head. Catching it, I blew Derik a kiss and flipped him off. “Josh, what about you? You’re more than welcome to crash here. There’s an inflatable mattress around here somewhere.”
Derik’s mouth hung open. “You have a freaking air mattress? Since when?”
“A while, actually. I just don’t remember where the hell I put it.”
“Well, that would’ve been useful to know, instead of you know, us sleeping on the couch and floor half the time.”
“Oh, whatever. You pass out on the floor half the time anyway, man.”
Derik threw his hand over his face in exasperation. “How could you? My own friend, forcing me to sleep on his couch. I shall become an old, aging man before my time from the nights I’ve suffered, scrunched up on these cushions.”
Erin rolled her eyes as her and Libby headed to the guest room. She yelled from the hall, “Coming from a guy who can’t sit up straight to save his life. And has decades, if not centuries, before he shows signs of aging,” she waved her fingers behind her before closing their door. “Have fun whining!”
“You heard her, Old Man,” I turned toward Josh. “So, what’re you thinking? Here or heading home?”
Josh thought it over and checked his watch. “I’ll remain here for the evening. Do you mind if I use your shower or borrow a change of clothes, Seth?”
“No problem, go for it. Clothes are in my room in the back and towels are in the hall closet.” I pointed my thumb over my shoulder. Josh nodded and padded down the hall towards my room then the bathroom a few minutes later.
“Looks like it’s just the two of us now,” Derik said, sprawled out on the couch, hand tucked behind his head.
“Yeap.” Silence drew between us. I laid back on the floor, using Erin’s pillow pile and folded my hands on my stomach as I crossed my ankles. My thoughts lingered to her. My eyes drifted shut as I imagined it was just the two of us, the others having gone to their own homes.
We laid on the floor, shoulders touching with her hair fanned out underneath us. Erin’s hands moved frantically through the air as she spoke about her day; the fantasy book she’d finished reading, the crazy incidents that only seemed to happen to her at work, such as embarrassing herself in front of a patron as she tripped over the foot of one of the book carts. Or when she’d gone on and let the type of fantasy novels she read slip and couldn’t look the person she was talking to in the eye afterwards.
The fear and worries of the disappearances, gone. The safety of so many, not on our shoulders. Just us. Her laughing. Me soaking in each word that floats in the air around us. Our own little bubble of happiness.
“What do you think?” Derik asked, tearing me from my daydream.
Damn it all to hell.
“About what?” My eyes slowly opened.
“Were you even listening?”
“Would you believe me if I said yes?”
He blew out a breath. “Nope. But as long as you weren’t off in some dreamland getting a hard on, I don’t give a damn.”
“You wish.”
“No, I really don’t,” the couch groaned as he flipped onto his side. “While you were fantasizing, I was talking about the humans we’ve been searching for and some potential leads. I might’ve found something, or somewhere we could search for some more answers on where they could be.”
“What’ve you got?”
“Everything seems to be pointing to the mountains. Well, at least the small bit of info I dug up today,” he stifled a yawn. “I went on patrol and ran into a couple of Demons. Finished them off but was able to get a bit out of them first.”
Huh.
“Is that where you went off too after Erin left?” I eyed Derik.
“Yeah. I initially left to keep tabs and follow her from a distance. Her fighting’s been getting stronger, but I figured why take the chance. A caught them trailing her about a block away from the campus library.” He bristled.
“They got that close? And you didn’t sense them?” My mind began whirling.
“They caught me off guard. I was pissed.”
My jaw tightened. “What did they say?”
“Beyond the usual, ‘We will destroy the Nephilim Scum’ spiel, I was able to beat the direction of where the humans might be out of the Demons.”
If they are in the mountains…where?
How do we keep missing them?
How are they sneaking down here without us sensing them?
“Anything else? Why were they following her?”
“Why do you think? The Demons think she’s this ‘Key’. They saw the opportunity and tried to take it. They were weaker ones, weirdly enough. They probably thought if they captured her, that piece of shit Erebus would grant them some sort of reprieve or praise or some shit.”
If they were weak, Erebus probably sent them after her as a warning.
“You’re probably right. But if that were the case, how did they get past you?” Something didn’t sit right, my stomach turned.
The weight of the world sat on both our shoulders. Air whooshed from Derik’s lungs. “I don’t know, Seth, but we need to figure that out asap. And in case Erin really is this ‘Key’ they’re looking for, we might want to up the ante on her training. Fighting and her powers.”
And keeping her as far away from Erebus’s grimy hands as possible.
Josh walked in at that moment, towel slung over his shoulders. “I can help with that.”
Of course.