“They’re at the other end,” he told me, glancing down to where Broken Sue and Aurora sat.
Yes, they were, and they looked like two statues. They were probably heavily engrossed in conversation.
TWELVE
Aurora
“Normal people would crack under the pressure they’re under,” Aurora said as she watched Jessie walk away from Uncle Auzzie. Despite the relief they’d just sought, their shoulders were still tight and bearings tense, as though their territory were under attack.
“Two unders don’t make a right,” Sue said. He ticked his head forward.Agree.
It took her a moment to realize he was talking about using “under” twice in her comment—a “two wrongs don’t make a right” kind of thing.
She shook her head, threatening a smile. “That was reaching. Stick to the strong andsilenttype if those are the kinds of jokes you tell.”
He blew out through his nose, essentially huffing a laugh.
Jasper, Ulric, and Niamh sat to Aurora’s right. In their midst was a decently attractive woman with hair nearly as wild as Ulric’s, wearing strange clothing and no shirt. If it wasn’t for all the buckles on her boots and the sturdy belt, Aurora would haveassumed she was expecting to shift soon. As it was, the lady looked shell-shocked.
“I’m helping the alphas every way I can think of,” Sue said, following Aurora’s gaze. “That’s Niamh’s tech hire.”
Ah,Aurora said through her body.I know of her.
She’d been the computer thief Jessie wasn’t sure about. A Jane with a tame criminal record.
Seeing her in the flesh, Aurora was certain that lady couldn’t hurt a fly. She wasn’t subtle in her movements or expressions. If she went to grab something, she’d advertise what it was, where it was, and that she’d just done it. They wouldn’t have any trouble from her.
Sue ticked his head forward again.Agree.He could read Aurora a little too easily. Only her family was as good, and they’d known her all her life. It was…disconcerting. For her, anyway. Good for Uncle Auzzie and Jessie. No one would get anything past this alpha gorilla.
“Hey.” Jessie plopped down into the empty seat next to Sue. “Sorry, I got delayed for a moment.”
NOT A PROBLEM,Sue said by way of a pronounced shrug.
Jessie squinted at him, her gaze flowing over his muscular shoulders. Then his face. Then to Aurora.
“Yeah, I don’t know.” She lifted her hand for a drink. “Let’s get a sip of wine and try, try again. Honestly, you’d think this would be the easy part. Nope. What’s easy is learning spells that literally blow a head off. This is my life now,” she muttered.
“You need to add a thirdunderto your assessment,” Sue said to Aurora, and because it barely made sense, and because he was building off an already bad joke, Aurora let the humor bubble up. Her grin was minimal and purely for Jessie’s benefit.
Jessie missed it, the joke, and Sue’s calm patience as she waited for a drink.
“No, no!” The new person waved her hand in front of her face with her eyes squeezed tightly shut. “No! Not yet. I need at least one more whiskey, one more flashback of a huge monster turning into a dude my size”—she blindly pointed at Ulric—“andthenwe can talk about stalking your friends.”
“Stalkingis a harsh term,” Ulric told her.
Her eyes opened. “Fine. We can talk about finding your friends who don’t want to be found and watching them without their knowing. Honestly, Jessie, my thievery was a concern? This one”—she hooked a thumb Niamh’s way—“is waging war on your former housemates.I’mthe problem here?”
“Not at all,” Niamh said. “I’m helping them, like.”
The woman’s eyes were wide as she looked across everyone to Jessie, who’d just secured a bottle of wine. A new bartender, a male, was working, and apparently he was worried about pouring a drink for the alpha’s mate. Jessie didn’t seem to mind helping herself.
“She’s not waging war, she’s…” Jessie bowed in defeat. “None of this is sitting well with me, I’ll be honest. The mages overstepped on multiple occasions. They aren’t acting like themselves. And then Niamh and Tristan… Yeah.”
She shook her head and lifted the glass to her lips. The situation with the mages was bothering her greatly, adding stress to an already stressful existence. Jessie had a bad feeling in her gut, and Aurora was inclined to believe the female gargoyle knew her people were in danger.
“We aren’t going to watch them without their knowing,” Jessie continued. “We’re going to bring them home, for their own safety. We just…have to find them. And convince them.” She sagged in fatigue.
Sue’s shoulders tensed; he was damn near panicked and radiating helplessness. He couldn’t see a way to relieve Jessie’s burden. There was just too much to do and no time. Absolutelyzero time, especially with how the mages were carrying on, setting them up and dragging them further into trouble.
