“Ah,” a voice spoke from the doorway. “You waited. I’m flattered.”
I spun around so fast that my hair whipped into my mouth. I quickly swiped it away, standing frozen as Silas stared at me from across the room. He leaned in the open doorway leading into the sitting room, his shoulder propped up against the frame, one booted foot crossed behind the other. His arms were also crossed, his fingers tapping unconsciously against his biceps as he watched me. His hair had grown so long now that he needed to pull it back into a knot. His beard was trimmed so that it was only slightly longer than stubble, enough to obscure whatever new scars he had gathered on the lower half of his face. I caught my breath, because I was seeing him in the light for the first time in months—conscious, at least. He was still as frighteningly beautiful as ever—just… maybe a little more frightening than beautiful now. I had always thought that the twins could have easily been models, though Silas would have eventually punched someone for telling him what to do and Quillan would simply have refused to take his shirt off for any photoshoots. I didn’t think that Silas would be able to pull off the model look anymore… but the roughness in his appearance was strangely compelling. The more he warned people away from him, the more I was drawn to him.
“You came.” I couldn’t help the smile that caught at the corners of my mouth.
He pushed off and closed the door, walking to me and catching my chin. He pulled my head up and little sparks of heat pricked over my face as he examined each of my features.
“You didn’t give me a choice,” he grumbled. “Who the hell took that picture?”
“Not telling.”
“Don’t play games with me, angel…” he leaned forward, his eyes searing right through me. “How long do I have before my idiot brothers bust in here for an intervention?”
I opened my mouth to answer him, but found that I couldn’t voice a response. A strangled sound escaped instead and he caught it on his lips as he quickly forced my mouth to his. He barely kissed me before pulling back, his grip on my chin tightening painfully. He sucked in a breath, releasing it on a groan.
“I should never have kissed you yesterday. That was stupid. I don’t know how I’ll stop now.”
He pulled away before I could form a response, and a moment later the door cracked open. Cabe caught sight of Silas and kicked the door open fully, marching inside.
“I should pay someone bigger than you to kick your ass,” Cabe announced flippantly. “You deserve it for disappearing on us after Seph gave up everything to get you back.”
Silas grinned, crooking a brow. Apparently that was all the explanation he was going to give.
Noah followed Cabe into the room, appearing exasperated at the evidence of Silas’s smile, and Quillan came in last, pulling his twin into a hug that somehow wasn’t awkward—though Silas didn’t exactly hug him back. One of these days, I would figure out how to make Silas show affection to his own family.
“You’re all emotionally retarded,” I declared, looking from one of them to the other.
“Were we supposed to cry?” Noah asked, now smiling along with the rest of them.
It was enough that they were smiling, I supposed. That was rare enough in itself.
“I guess this is the first family meeting,” I said, ignoring Noah’s joke. “Since I’m usually excluded from your meetings and you can’t call it a family meeting unless I’m there.”
Cabe chuckled, tossing an arm over my shoulder. “Don’t get too big for your boots now, pretty girl. Miro’s going to be holding up a finger if you try to take his position as Leader of the Free World.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I turned to Quillan, “did you want the opening speech for yourself?”
“As a matter of fact, I did,” he returned, sounding entirely serious—though I could discern the glimmer of humour in his dark eyes. “So first thing’s first… Silas, you asshole, you’re not a bounty hunter. The messenger isn’t a target on your hit-list. You can’t slink off into the night and take him down all on your own. You’ll get arrested by the human police or prosecuted by the Klovoda. We do this as a unit—without breaking any laws—or we don’t do this at all. Understood?”
Silas’s expression didn’t shift. “That was the first item? There are bigger things to discuss?”
“You know how this works. You agree first and then we move onto the second item.”
Silas scoffed quietly, moving to sit in the chair by the wardrobe. “Fine.” He waved a casual hand. “You didn’t even have anything to worry about. I haven’t figured out who he is, yet. Next?”
“No more biting.”
Silas flicked his eyes to me and then back to Quillan before he laughed. “That was more important than me getting arrested?”
Quillan folded his arms over his chest, the tension in his body building.