“Give her to me,” Austin ordered his twin, placing his strong hands on my waist and lifting me from Caleb’s lap to stand in front of him. Once my feet were on the ground, he tilted my chin up so that he could peer into my eyes. Whatever he saw there made him grunt and tighten his lips.
“Come on,” Austin said to his brother. He then snapped his fingers to Tyson, who rubbed his big head against his hand affectionately. “Let’s get her back to the house and call the others.”
“No,” I said in a small voice, shaking my head. “I can’t just disappear on Jonathan.”
Austin’s jaw tightened and his nostrils flared with anger, so I knew I needed to explain quickly. “He didn’t set us up in LA. That was someone else. He really is trying to do the right thing; he’s just been going about it the wrong way.”
Caleb trailed a gentle hand down my hair, even as Austin narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously, but neither of them spoke to contradict me.
“Kitty Kat, you’re... acting a bit odd,” Caleb said after a tense silence. “I mean, given the circumstances...” He trailed off, and I turned to look at him closer. His eyes were bloodshot, and there were dark circles under them, same as Austin’s. Both of them were scruffy, like they hadn’t bothered to shave in a few days, and their clothes were rumpled.
“You know about—” I broke off as a lump blocked my throat, and I swallowed past it. Avoiding my emotions or not, I wasn’t ready to say Wesley’s name. “You know what happened, then,” I whispered, and he gave me a tiny nod.
“She’s compartmentalized,” Sam explained for me, slithering back into the room with a noticeable bulge in his... neck? Did snakes even have necks? “She’s shoved all those nasty feelings under the rug so she doesn’t have to feel them. Nifty trick, I reckon. Even if she is still a dipshit for taking this long to activate the tracker.”
I scowled at Sam. “You never told me about the tracker, you shithead, and what the fuck did you just eat? That is not a mouse.”
“Trash panda,” he replied with a happy tongue flicker. “Found him in the garbage cans, all juicy and fat. Delicious.” The way he stressed the s sound in “delicious” was equal parts revolting and amusing, so I just settled for bopping him lightly on the head.
“Raccoons are cute, Sam. Don’t eat any more of them.” I gave him a stern look to convey that I wasn’t teasing, and he flickered his tongue in that distinctive, middle-finger sort of way he had.
“Come on, we need to get back. Can we leave Jonathan a note?” Austin asked me as Caleb held out his arm for Sam to return into his familiar tattoo. How he fit back into the ink while still digesting a fucking racoon, I had no idea. Magic, I guess.
“I’ll call him,” I murmured, wandering back into the kitchen to grab the phone my adoptive father had left out for me. Propping my butt on a barstool, I pressed his contact and waited for him to pick up.
“Kiddo!” he answered on the third ring. “Are you okay?”
“Yup, all good. Just, the twins are here and want me to leave with them. I didn’t want to up and disappear on you.” I picked up a pen and idly started doodling on the back on an envelope. “You said you wanted to show me what you’ve been doing...”
“Hon,” Jonathan replied, and I could hear the warmth in his voice. “Go with the boys. You need to be with them right now. This can all wait a few days. Goddess knows it’s waited four centuries already, so yeah a few days won’t matter.”
It wasn’t the first time Jonathan had referred to the Goddess, but it was the first time it triggered a little curiosity in me. Was that a carry-over from whatever time he was born into? Or some other knowledge he had of this world that I wasn’t privy to?
“I don’t know,” I murmured, my voice uncertain and just... not me. “Maybe I should stay. You said there is a war coming, so surely I need to know everything you do.”
“Kit,” he sighed. “Avoiding your bonded guardians won’t make the pain go away. They’re the only ones who can help you through this tough time. Go with them; let them take care of you. The world won’t end tomorrow just because you took some time to grieve.”
I said nothing for a long time as everything I tried to say got stuck in my throat. Eventually I just landed on, “Okay.”
“Okay,” he repeated softly. “Take that phone with you so we can stay it touch, all right, kiddo? I’ve missed you.”
“All right,” I repeated, not really sure what else to say.
Voices sounded in the background, and Jonathan murmured something back to them. “Hey kiddo, I have to go. Take the phone, but go with the twins. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”
“Uh-huh,” I whispered, feeling a fat tear roll down my face, and quickly disconnected before he could say anything else. My little emotion compartment was weak at best and couldn’t have withstood much more.
I sat there for a moment longer, picking at the edges of the phone with my fingernail, before Austin cleared his throat and made me jump.
“Shit,” I breathed, feeling my heart gallop. “I didn’t notice you there.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Evidently not. Cal’s gone to grab your bag. Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, sliding off my stool and shoving the phone into my pocket. “Yeah, let’s go.”
As I moved to pass him in the doorway, he slipped a hand onto my lower back and left it there as we headed through the house to the backyard. Don’t ask me why we always went outside to portal. It wasn’t like we couldn’t do it inside. It just felt... rude, I guess.
Caleb was already waiting on the grass, holding my suitcase, but my step faltered as I tried to walk toward him. It was taking all the frayed self-control I possessed just to keep it together around the twins. What was it going to be like with Cole, Vali, and River as well?
“You got this, baby girl,” Austin murmured softly in my ear, his hand warm on my back. “One step at a time. I’m here to catch you.”
My teeth clenched my lower lip hard enough to draw blood, but I took that next step and the one after that, and soon I was touching distance from Caleb. He didn’t waste time asking stupid questions; instead he flicked out the droplet of blood that called up his rune circle.
Light flared, and when it faded, we were on the grass outside a beautiful, colonial-style, two-story house. It had ivy creeping up the walls and seemed to be completely surrounded by trees, at least as far as I could see.
“Where are we?” I asked the twins, and it was Caleb who answered as he led the way to the duck egg–blue front door.
“Home,” he said simply, turning to give me a sad smile and holding the door open. “Welcome home, Kitty Kat.”
Vaguely I remembered River mentioning to me that he’d bought us a house. Us. As in all of us. I couldn’t reply to Caleb, not without turning into a blubbering mess, so I just nodded and entered the house.
It was gorgeous, exactly what I would have dreamed of if I’d ever thought that far into my future. It made me realize how little I really did think about the future. Maybe because I’d spent so many years as a thief? I’d always just figured I’d die before ever getting things like a house... and pets—not that I ever imagined I would get a snake and a tiger before a puppy.
Now, though, I was staring down eternity. Without Wes.
In a room off the entry hall, I could hear men’s voices and assumed the other guys were home. I wasn’t ready to see them. Not yet. “I think I might take a shower,” I said quietly, glancing up the grand staircase. “Can you show me where to go?”