Once again we teleported, this time back to our original location on the street.
The man let out a sinister laugh as soon as we reappeared. “No luck, eh, boys?”
“No,” I muttered, turning to fully face him, but he was gone. Vanished into thin air. “I fucking knew it.”
“Fuck,” Chaos snarled at the same time Sin asked, “Where’d he go?”
“To tattle on us, most likely.”
“Tattle to who?” Malice asked.
“That’s the question.”
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
BEN
“A-are you s-sure he’ll l-like this one, sugar? It’s about a p-priest,” I asked Rosie under my breath as I followed her across the room toward her quarry.
Gabriel was deep in conversation with Lilith, Crombie, Caleb, and Gavin. The five of them had their heads bowed close together and were chatting in hushed tones while looking over something Gavin had marked up for them. The fact that they were out here and not locked away in Lilith’s office meant it wasn’t necessarily a private conversation, though their body language indicated otherwise.
We’d adopted this space as a sort of living area, furniture arranged in conversational pods, all put together piecemeal using small bits of magic from those who had extra to spare. Alek’s mother, Lina, offered to weave a space—her power giving her the ability to permanently alter reality however she wanted—but after a pretty heated discussion, it was determined that no one should use excessive amounts of their power. Period. We didn’t know when we might be called on to fight, and the last thing we could afford was to have the most powerful among us at a disadvantage in any way.
“Remi said he’d love it. Apparently Gabriel has a touch of bad boy in him no one knew about.” Rosie squeezed my hand.
She knew I wasn’t just worried about her offending an angel. I didn’t trust anyone new to our group. It had grown larger than I could manage. Too many alpha personalities in one space. Add in an archangel with a bit of a God complex, and I worried we were asking for internal conflict. The last thing any of us needed was a ticking time bomb around our pregnant mates.
“Did I hear my name?” Remi asked, sauntering over to join us.
Rosie smirked at him. “You did.”
He leaned down to give her a quick kiss. “You were sharing good things, I hope, baby girl.”
“Mmm, doubtful,” she teased. “That would require you to behave.”
“Yeah, fair enough.”
We shared a laugh before Remi spotted the novel in Rosie’s hands. “You haven’t given it to him yet?”
“W-we’re going n-now,” I grumbled, gesturing at the group a little ways away.
Remi’s eyes widened as he looked at the paperback more closely. “Who took out my tabs? I marked all the best parts for him.”
The way Rosie’s cheeks turned pink gave her away. “I thought those were for me. Things you wanted to reenact.”
Remi winked at her, dropping his voice to a seductive croon. “I mean, yes. Absolutely. But they were also for leather feathers. How else is he going to know where the good bits are?”
“I-I’m s-sure he c-can figure it o-out.”
“Siiiigh. You two are no fun.” He yanked the book out of Rosie’s grip. “Now I have to mark it up all over again.”
Before he could turn to leave, the air shifted in the room, putting us all on edge at the exact same time. I saw it in thecollective tensing of everyone’s posture. They felt it too. The pressure change that made my ears pop, and the weight of power.
“Who the devil is that?” Rosie whispered, halting her steps before I had to stop her.
“I h-have no idea, sugar. Get behind me.” My voice went from human to wolf as I put myself in front of her.
