I cast my gaze away from him, seeing a familiar grief in his eyes I knew all too well, and went back to studying the pictures. There were photos of him that must have been taken during his travels. In most of them he looked drunk or stoned with other Vampires hanging on him in much the same state. My attention snagged on the framed photo at the end.
I picked it up slowly, and stared. It was of the four of us. Pearl, Jack, Ezra, and I at the New Year’s party we had attended. I remembered now that Ezra had found a disposable camera lying on the floor during one of our boogie sessions, and asked someone to take a picture with it for us. Pearl and I wore those stupid pointy hats, and when we had leaned in together, well, the picture captured Pearl and I with our cheeks smashed together with big, silly grins on our faces, Jack holding his eye after Pearl almost put it out with her hat, but he still had a huge grin on his face, and Ezra had his fangs out, standing behind me, dipped to my height, with his mouth spread wide against my throat — not actually biting, but still managing to smile, eyes up at the camera.
My voice was soft. “Can I get a copy of this?”
His eyes tracked over my face. “Sure. I’ll scan it and make a print for you.”
“Thanks.” I ran a finger over my captured smile, it caught forever in this picture. I had been really happy then. I was really happy now. Glancing at each of my friends, I was misty-eyed, and quickly sniffed any tears back, putting the picture down. Once upon a time, at the beginning of the year, I had lost my heart. With these completely different Mysticals, I had found it again in them.
“Come here,” Ezra said quietly, watching me.
I took one last glance at the photo, and made my way to him. He pulled me down onto his lap and I curled up there, watching Jack and Pearl go at it over music choice while Gideon and Nikki tried to referee. I asked loudly, “Where is everyone going after graduation?” This had been eating away at me for the past month. My friends leaving. Going home, or wherever they wanted to set up their home base. All of us had been avoiding this topic with one another. After seeing proof like that picture…well, I wanted to know where they would be.
Jack and Pearl shut up, turning their attention our way.
Ezra wove his arms around my hips, holding me.
I was trembling a little, and I knew my voice had shaken just the same.
Into the silence, Ezra kissed my forehead, resting his chin on top of my head. “I haven’t decided yet.” He paused. “Pearl? Jack?”
Jack cleared his throat. “Nikki, can you give us a minute?”
She nodded, and, as if by cue, Gideon kissed Pearl’s cheek, both mates leaving Ezra’s room and closing the door behind them. I could hear them walking down the hallway and back out the secret door to the “company”, formal living room.
Jack took a step forward. “I actually don’t know. King Fergus has been listing location after location trying to get me to decide, but I haven’t given him a solid answer.”
Pearl flopped on Ezra’s bed with a CD clutched in her hand, which she had grabbed behind Jack’s back while he had been talking. “I haven’t decided, either. Gideon’s been hounding me about it, but,” her eyes darted to all of us, “I can’t decide.” Those golden eyes landed on me. “What about you?”
“Assuming I can do an Awakening?” Her eyes rolled at my question, although, her forehead crinkled in worry as she nodded. Sighing heavily and pushing away any of those fears, I answered, “I haven’t picked a place.” I nuzzled my forehead deeper against the crook of Ezra’s warm neck, feeling his pulse beat against my forehead. “King Kincaid keeps going on about staying here in New York, but I haven’t told him yes or no.”
Biting my lips, I hesitated, and then blurted, “I just can’t imagine living away from you guys. Having all those simpering subjects surrounding me. They’re good people, but I can’t even have a simple conversation with them. They just agree with everything I say because of who I am.” I shook my head under Ezra’s chin. “That doesn’t sound at all pleasant. At least you and Jack have Gideon and Nikki. Ezra and I have no one. We’ll be stuck with a bunch of brown nosers.”
Unfortunately, it was a dangerous game to ask anything else from our subjects. We were the Law. So, brown nosers they had to be. Not my fault, nor theirs. It just was the way it was. The way it had to be.
Jack sat on the bed, his hand inching toward the CD in Pearl’s hand. “You’re forgetting that Nikki — after she graduates — and Gideon will be traveling quite a bit for a while, being our eyes and ears and making contacts we can’t.” Again, that came from us being who we were. Their mates had their roles, too. “We’ll be in the same situation as you two, in the beginning.” His fingers landed on the edge of the CD, Pearl not noticing.
We sat in silence, all of us detesting our fate. There was no stopping it. We were going to be ripped away from each other a few weeks after graduation when we had to choose.