I wasn’t hungry, but I knew I should eat. I nodded and watched as he cooked. Ilsa was up half an hour later, and I listened as she told us about her day at daycare. She spent most of her time once more coloring and painting. Ilsa was certainly a little artist. We had her artwork all over the house.
“What’s your plan today?” Brandon asked, his eyes flicking between Ilsa and me. I had no work today and wasn’t planning on taking Ilsa to daycare. I had thought of spending some time with Nora today to see how she was doing since yesterday.
I had given her a quick call to see if she was okay when I got home with Ilsa, but we both said little. I could tell she was shaken up, though.
“I was thinking of going to Nora’s, but I don’t think Ilsa would have a good time. Nora normally has a pool, but she recently took it down.”
“I could always take her.”
My eyebrows went up. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but he hadn’t really spent a lot of time one-on-one with Ilsa yet.
“Doing what exactly?”
“I can take her to my parents or with me while I run some errands. That is, if you’re okay with it.”
I nodded. I would never refuse him from having time with Ilsa. We glanced at her. She was staring at the TV in the livingroom, her eyes glued to the cartoon. She had an empty cereal bowl in her hands.
“Are you sure? I can always bring her with me.”
Brandon shook his head. “I would love to take her. We can bond.”
I got dressed and left the house half an hour later. I headed straight over to Nora’s house. I knocked on the door, and she came answering, looking as exhausted as I felt.
“You look like shit,” she said, pulling her door open. I stepped inside and rolled my eyes. “You should look in a mirror.”
I slipped my shoes off, and we walked into her living room. Nora had a very exotic taste. Her room was filled with bright purples, pinks, and blues. She had suncatchers in her windows, dripping the rooms in different shades of light.
I could smell sage as I walked in, spotting she had been in the middle of drying lavender and mint. She had incense lit in the corner as she curled up onto the couch. I knew she had tea in her mug rather than coffee.
“How are you doing?” I asked, sliding into her leather chair in the corner closest to her window.
She shook her head. “Hard to believe, but can’t deny what Brandon said, considering we saw that…thing.”
She took a sip of her tea. “How are you doing? What happened after?”
When the man shifted, and we fumbled out of the bench, Nora and I took off for it back to the training ground. But I had stopped, suddenly realizing I couldn’t just leave Brandon to fend for himself.
“Jade! What are you doing?”
“I have to go back.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you crazy! No! You can’t!”
“I can’t just leave him out there by himself.”
“Jade, you can’t shift! You have no magic. You can’t help him.”
“I have to try!”
I shook the thought off and rubbed my fingers together. “We ended up in a bunker for a while before we finally made it back to the training ground.”
She raised a single eyebrow at me. “A bunker? Where the hell did you find a bunker?”
I nodded. “I guess they made it to monitor outside the town.”
Nora looked a little surprised. She pulled her legs closer, readjusting herself on the couch. “I feel there is something you’re not sharing.”
I thought about what happened in the bunker and how his lips felt against me. I felt a rush of heat roll over me, my face growing hot as I remembered how hard I came when he was in me. I remembered how he stared at me, his eyes looking at me while I lay bare. I hadn’t been embarrassed like I thought I would. If anything, I wanted him to see me.
