“We’re not back home. There we’re the golden child. They all want our help. London is a whole other beast,”my wolf chimed into my thoughts from inside his inner sanctum.
“Fine,” Crilus spat out the word as if he was being forced into the back of a white van instead of invited to have safe haven at a beautiful cabin. “But if one thing is missing, there’ll be crows to pay.”
“Hell to pay,” Morvan corrected.
“I said what I meant,” Crilus said and leaped up to grab onto the awning above the Raven’s Perch’s door and scrambling through a broken window into his apartment.
“You’d think we attacked him,” Clarence said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“He’ll be like that until we figure out what happened.”
“Then he’s not going to like that I’m going to have a guard drive you three out there, is he?” Clarence asked.
“Nope but he’ll deal. I’ll take the ride because I hate driving and I don’t want to spend the rest of the night figuring everything out,” I frowned. “I need to call Ni and tell him not to bring my goddaughter out here.”
“They’re going to show up eventually,” Morvan said.
“I know. They’re suppose to be a part of this but that’s when it was healing people and not so many guns and explosions. The last time I helped someone, you got held at gun point and this time I was doing my brows and the building tried to blow up. This isn’t the place for a baby.”
“You don’t see Cutter here, do you? Look, I’m not arguing with you. I’m just saying, they’re your friends and you’re only going to be able to put them off for so long.”
“So, Teal’s coming?” I asked.
“Yeah. He texted me while I was sweeping. I couldn’t lie to him,” Morvan shrugged.
“How’s his mate feel about that?” I asked.
“Ciro isn’t jealous. If Teal wanted to be Crilus’s chosen mate, he had his chance. He could’ve had him wrapped around his talons but that’s not what Teal wanted. Ciro is a guard too or at least he was. I don’t know anymore but I don’t think Teal running to help people is really high on the list of red flags for Ciro.”
“A headache’s a comin’,”Dern’s voice played through my head, and I bit my lip.
With Dern, I never knew if he meant someone was going to meet their true-mate or if something bad was going to happen. I was pretty sure the dead wolf considered them to be the same thing.
Chapter Three
Pierce
The Raven’s Perch is known for two things: A grey magic user running an under the table business and the time its owner went down on a dragon in front of an audience to prove that he could. Neither of which were my business. Unless the low-impulse control elf suddenly decided to become a threat to flight security he could give every cheater within a thousand miles mange for all I cared. As a vampire who grew up with two omega parents, I knew what they faced in the everyday world. Crilus Finnegan-Meadow wasn’t a threat to Moonscale Security. He walked a grey line that may have led to him being magically attacked. The attacker was in fact a threat to security no matter their motive. Dolling out punishments wasn’t in my job description. I’d leave that to people who thought the nature of sentient humanoids could be managed by writing made up rules on pieces of paper and calling them laws.
I pulled up in front of the Raven’s Perch to find the three omegas I expected waiting with various states of patience. Mori was the most recognizable one as I’d recently received an email advertisement that he was opening up a paranormal investigation firm called Mori’s Momentos. Why he wanted to remind all his clients that they would some day die was beyond me. He waited patiently. His brother, Preston, was a bit taller than him and snacked from a bag of what seemed to be jerky that he kept pulling out from under his baggy shirt. Bear shifters were always snacking. I made a mental note to have the car detailed tomorrow morning to find all the inevitable crumbs from someone snacking. The one I knew was Crilus from various reports concerning the triplets had his back toward the street,frowning at the guards who boarded up the broken windows of the Raven’s Perch. Fortunately, I’d never been asked to trail the triplets. From all accounts, they refused to acknowledge guards and worked hard to give them the slip until their grandparents gave up on sending guards altogether until their first great grandchild was born.
“Finally,” Preston said, shoving a whole piece of jerky into his mouth and opening the back door. “Cri? Is it okay if I sit in the back with Mori? You don’t mind gunshoting it, do you?”
“Riding shotgun?” Crilus asked, not bothering to look back at his cousins, the car, or me.
“He’ll be a minute. He’s had a rough night,” Preston said, sliding into the back seat.
“Not a problem. I work until sunrise either way,” I nodded, meeting his honey-eyed gaze in the back window.
Preston smelled like a bear. Some combo of fur, the woods, grass, and food. Always food. If a diabetic ever had a low, the wisest move was to ask the nearest bear shifter for a snack.
Mori climbed in next and whispered to Preston about not making a mess in the car since Clarence had been nice enough to send a guard and a car.
“I’m not making a mess,” Preston said, stuffing another piece of jerky into his mouth.
“Clarence pays for the detailing. He knew the risks,” I said, trying to put them at ease. “Eat up, if you’re hungry.”
“See this guy gets it,” Preston pointed in my direction with a piece of jerky. “Stress makes me eat. Thinking you got blown up is stressful.”
