“What’s on your mind?” I asked, noticing his change in demeanor. “Did you and Mr. Bane have a stimulating conversation tonight?”
He downed his entire glass and immediately refilled it. Shepherd was a big guy, just over six feet tall, and I was willing to bet I could bounce quarters off his biceps. He kept rubbing his hand across his short hair, his eyes squinty and not fixed on any one thing.
Shepherd gave me a refill and held up his glass. “To demons.”
Our glasses clinked together, and I took a small sip. “Is something bothering you?”
He lit up a cigarette and stared up at the wall behind me. “No matter what you do, the past always catches up with you. You wake up, brush your teeth, do heroic shit, make a sandwich, day after day after fucking day. Then all of a sudden, bam!” His fist slammed against the table and made me jump. “Resolve whatever shit you’ve got to resolve while you’re young.”
I set down my glass. “Easier said than done.”
He pointed at me, pupils dilated. “Truer words were never spoken.”
Shepherd’s speech was slurring more than usual. He liked drinking, but I’d never seen him this inebriated before. I wasn’t sure if something had triggered his drinking episode or if the alcohol had caused an old wound to reopen, but I knew that look. I’d been in that dark place where the only way to survive was to ignore or dull the pain.
Shepherd refilled his glass. “I used to be a nice guy. I could have been that guy.” He pointed at a table where a couple was sitting. “Guys like that don’t have a fucking clue what they have right in front of them. They just wake up and think their life is perfect.”
I remained quiet so he could have a moment to ramble. Even if his thoughts weren’t cohesive, he clearly needed to get something off his chest.
“Happiness is an optical illusion.”
“Maybe we should go home, where we can drink for free,” I suggested. “Give me your keys.”
He slowly shook his head. “Nobody drives my Jeep. I don’t need anyone stripping the gears. Paid good money.”
“Well, I could always call Viktor to come pick you up.”
A look of resignation crossed his face. Shepherd’s hands disappeared beneath the table as he leaned to the left, then to the right. He furrowed his brow. “I just had them on me.”
I searched around the table and on the floor. “Where did you go earlier?”
He pointed left, then right, then made a circle in the air.
While Shepherd filled up his glass and continued rambling about demons, I sent a message to Gem. She quickly replied and said Claude had to take another route because of an accident, so I decided not to trouble them. They were close to home and probably tired after a long night of questioning people in the bar. Christian was being antisocial, Niko was blind, and I wasn’t sure if Blue could drive. So I messaged Wyatt since he was Shepherd’s partner.
Wyatt gladly accepted, obviously eager to get out of the house. When I finished our conversation, I looked up, and Shepherd was gone.
Voices overlapped, and techno music thumped from the main room by the bar. I scanned the room. When I saw a neck tattoo, I stood up to go get him, but as I neared, I realized it wasn’t a lover’s knot like the one Shepherd had on the back of his neck. I turned in a circle, and my eyes widened when I spotted Shepherd sitting at a table, his arm around the man he’d pointed out just moments ago in his drunken stupor. Across from them was a very confused woman.
As I neared, their conversation became audible.
“You need to worship the ground she walks on,” Shepherd said, his anger barely quelled. “Men like you don’t deserve what you’ve got. Are you going to make her pay for her own drink? Are you one of those assholes?”
“I think you need to take a walk,” the man said. Thankfully he wasn’t a Vampire or Mage, but was insulted nonetheless.
I put my hands on Shepherd’s shoulders and gave them a light squeeze. “Let’s go. Wyatt’s coming to hang out with us. Maybe we should check out the gluttony room and order sandwiches. Or would you rather have turtle soup?”
Shepherd ignored my quips and tightened his arm around the man’s neck. “Infidelity isn’t your worst nightmare, brother.”
The young man wrenched away, and his chair legs scraped against the floor as he stood up. Fire burned in his eyes as he gave Shepherd a scathing glance. He was nowhere near the same size—just a young man with prescription glasses and a blue tie. Probably a Relic or Shifter if I had to guess, though glasses were less common among Shifters since most Breeds didn’t suffer the same degenerative afflictions as humans.
But Relics did, and that made me concerned. A guy like Shepherd could do a lot of damage to a Relic.
“Come on, Trudy. Let’s go somewhere private,” the man said.
Shepherd rose to his feet. “Aren’t you going to buy her dinner? Did you just want to get her liquored up so you could stick your plug in her socket?”
I grabbed the back of Shepherd’s shirt. “Let it go, Shepherd. You don’t even know these people. Where he sticks his plug is none of your business.”
