"Go to sleep, flirt."
"Okay. Good night, Buns of Steel."
It's hard not to laugh when my shifter hearing picks up on him swearing about my teasing all the way down the hallway until I can't hear him anymore. For a moment, I'm alone as I shower and get ready to sleep, realizing how dead-tired and sore I really am.
Slipping into bed with a contented sigh at the feel of the silky sheets on freshly-shaved legs, I stare at my ceiling. My eyelids feel like anvils, but there's a restlessness inside me. Partly becausehello, there are four gorgeous men under my roof. But also because my doe is so uncharacteristically hyper and happy.
Safe,she tells me.All safe.
Jessica is still in the other room spying on my unexpected guests, which is no surprise. She's been stuck here for eight months, hanging out around just me. And entertaining as I am, I'm not a famous mercenary who looks like he bench presses cars in his spare time, or a drop-dead-gorgeous half-demon with a mischievous smile, or a dizzyingly gorgeous vampire with a voice like honey, or a mysterious ancient shifter who looks like he was carved by angels in Paradise.
Gods, they're all so painfully attractive. Guys like that don't just show up on your doorstep, yet here they all are.
But now that I'm really alone for the first time today…
My attention drifts to my phone sitting on my nightstand, quiet anxiety bubbling beneath my skin. I want to know if Everett has sent me any more updates—but there's also this evil, self-loathing little goblin shacked up somewhere inside my head who wants to get a glimpse of the train wreck I know I'll see if I open any news app or social media.
How bad could it really be?
Knowing it'll be a mistake, I finally grab my cracked phone off its charger, take a deep breath, make sure it's silenced, and turn off the "Do Not Disturb" mode.
Dozens of notifications start lighting up my screen, scrolling on and on. Some of them are expected, like texts from Stephanie freaking out about the footage of me getting hit by a bus and demanding that I call her to let her know I'm okay. Dr. Sergeeva has also left some voicemails, panicked about how I'm doing. Several friends I've had since high school and a couple of oldcoworkers have also reached out, asking whether what they're seeing online is true, whether I'm okay, and how they could not know I'm a legacy.
Others are decidedly less friendly.
It's like anyone who has my number andisn'ta friend I talk to regularly has decided to bombard me with political rants, tag me in memes calling me Skidmark, and send articles speculating about my own life. The worst of those, by far, are a few articles with titles that make it clear many people are comparing my appearance to that of my former supermodel brother.
Social media notifications are exploding to the point that I finally open one of the apps, deciding I should just delete my accounts everywhere and accept that my quiet, human-esque life won't be bouncing back from this.
But the first message to pop up inside this app is from an unknown account. I quickly realize it must be a new account Ryan has made to message me.
I guess you must've blocked me everywhere else, so here it is. I came here to tell you that I turned down an exclusive interview with a huge magazine. They wanted a big scoop, everything I could dish out on you. You know I could tell them all kinds of things. But I turned it down because I still want us to fix this. You're important to me, and I miss what we had before you pushed me away.
I'm trying to do the right thing here, but if you keep ignoring me and treating me like shit even though I still want you despite everything I know about you now, who knows? Maybe I'll be so hurt I'll just have to talk to them to get over what we used to have.
Ew. He’s so melodramatic. Why on earth did I ever date this weirdo?
I'm not surprised that there's not even one ounce of apology in there for breaking my window. Maybe he just got blackout drunk and forgot about that whole thing.
I start to close out of the app, grossed out by all of this, when a text from Everett finally pops up on my screen in between all the other notifications. I open it quickly.
Big Kahuna: Heads up, Noah let me know that the fae excavation team ignored the warning and opened the female sleeper in their facility. She is considered extremely lethal. The black dragon shifter escaped as well, though he was described as "gentle."
Big Kahuna: Meanwhile, a tiny town in West Virginia was found asleep a few hours ago. The entire damn town, knocked out by the incubus we’re about to start hunting. They've found several dead bodies among the sleeping so far and some other disturbing things he did to the sleeping townspeople, but the incubus is nowhere to be found. Gods know where it will go next. Just stay home and stay safe, please. And don't read anything online.
Too late.
Also, I kind of figured the sleepers were awakened when Kaenon showed up on my front porch.
But knowing that Veld put an entire town to sleep and that he’s at large, free to wreak havoc and possibly torment his fated one even more with his sick ways…gods, I hope they find him and lock him up soon.
Just as I set my phone back on the nightstand, determined to sleep so I can face all of this chaos tomorrow, Jessica pops her head in through my bedroom wall, her eyes wide.
"Never let them in your kitchen again, El. They're a disgrace to food. Your half-demon tried to make sandwiches for everyone, and I've never seen anything more disgusting. Also, why didn't you tell me Athanis is so fuckinghot?"
"I said he was fairly good-looking."
"Fairly?Clearly, you don't have a thing for spicy fantasy books where all the guys have majestic flowing hair and pointed ears and use words likethereforeandalas, but I fucking do, bitch." She drifts until she lies on the bed next to me before resting her chin on her hand and staring me down. "So?"
