“Do you want to talk about it?” Bruiser asked.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, staring at the far corner of the room. I asked, “What did you see?”
“I was going to the kitchen and saw you playing with Brute and the grindy in the main room. Then you clawed him. He didn’t bite you, by the way, so you’re safe from were-taint.” There was no censure in his voice. He wasself-contained and composed, a rock I could lean on. Which was peculiar. To think of leaning on someone. To need someone.
And other people needed me. Like Molly. Like Eli and Alex. Like my godchildren. Like Brute and Bruiser...Dang.Bruiser needed me too.
“Yeah. I need to apologize.” How bizarre was my life now, that I had to apologize to a werewolf and thank him for not biting me? I focused away from the shadowy corner of the room to Bruiser’s face. Reached up and rubbed my knuckles over his scruff. “I really like the beard.”
He caught my hand and kissed my knuckles. “This is the definition of diversion.”
“More like prevarication.”
“Why did you—or Beast?—lose control?”
“Ummm. Waiting for Eli?”
“What do you—”
A knock came at the door. I nodded to Bruiser’s unspoken question and he called for Eli to come in. My partner stopped and eyeballed us, suspicious at whatever he saw on my face. “What?”
“You need to hear this too.” I patted the mattress on my other side.
“No way am I getting into bed with you and George. Too kinky for me.”
I raised my brows at him, thinking of all the things I could have teased him with. And didn’t.
“I’ll pull up a chair.” He gave Bruiser the tall mug of chocolate, lifted the tufted, fringed, upholstered barrel chair, and set it near me. Sat. Crossed one ankle over his knee. Rested his arms out to the sides across the curved back. The former ranger made even the delicate chair look manly. His natural machismo made his entire world look masculine.
As he got situated, I drank down a good portion of the supersweet treat. I needed the calories to replace what I always used when I shifted. “Okay,” I said when we were all ready. “I’ve always known that Beast keeps things from me, but this was a surprise because Beast didn’t know it either. My tie with Ed was ripped away when theSOD Two took him and bled him empty. But Beast’s connection is still active off and on. Or was reattached when I was in the witch circle. Or something. Maybe.”
“Interesting,” Bruiser said softly. He scratched his beard slowly, a new gesture since he’d stopped shaving, one that indicated deep thought. Or an itchy face. Or both.
“While Beast played with Brute, her mind was open and I—we—saw Ed. He was being tortured by the shadow I saw before, but I got a better look at the torturer. It was a creature with shark teeth and huge eyes.”
Eli said, “Drink your cocoa.”
I did as ordered and drained the last of the drink, the sugar hitting my system with an instant high. Eli exchanged the mug for the blue Anzu feather, and the pain that had become so much a part of me that I tended to overlook it vanished when I shoved the feather against my belly and took a deep breath. “Thanks.” I watched my business partner and best friend in the world, all relaxed and comfy in his pretty chair, and knew he was lying by body language to me. He was too slender, too hard, and too twitchy under the skin, evidenced by the tightness of the flesh around his eyes and the utter stillness with which he held himself. Eli needed to go do something with that energy. He needed a job, a battle to fight, a cause to fight for, and he needed itnow, right this second. It was too hard, sitting in a pretty chair, waiting for the vamp infestation to show up and give him the chance to do battle.
Eli needs to hunt,Beast thought.
Yeah. He does,I thought back.
He needed me too. How very weird. To be needed.
“There was a lot of confusing stuff in the vision/experience/memory/whatever it was,” I said.
The men said nothing.
“But it was definitely not human.”
They looked at each other. Something communicated between them, something I didn’t catch. Something important. “What?” I demanded.
“That is interesting,” Bruiser said.
“Right interesting.” Eli stood and walked away.
“You’re not telling me something,” I said, my tone accusing. Because: “I’m not stupid.”
