“The kind of gift that comes in the form of friendship.”
“Quentin.” Her name came out as a bite. “Did he proposition you?”
“No!” She whirled around to face me. “I worded that wrong. He brought a few minor Gods with him.”
My eyes widened. “Has everyone lost their minds?”
“Dionne, Marcel, Tobias. Andreas was the one who told me about the Gods disappearing.”
“Andreas? Do they know how much trouble you would have been in if they were caught here with you?” I grabbed my hair and Quen wrapped her hands around my forearms, tugging at them to bring them back down.
“They didn’t stay long. No one knows.”
“Archer knows, and he’s livid right now.”
“He won’t be able to tell Hunter about this without landing himself in it,” she replied, finally pulling my arms down to my side. “Let him waste his energy complaining about us. There are bigger issues. What did Hunter want?”
Ice-cold logic. Quentin was finding her stride again. Getting comfortable in her situation. Although she was under pressure, she was seeing threads she could use to her advantage and that offered me some calm.
“He wants you to fix the issue of the Gods.”
“I assumed as much, which is why I’m heading into the lab. Once Hunter explains the situation to Gareth—”
“No, Quentin. He expectsyouto fix it. For you to take the lead and explain to Gareth what’s happening.”
“Gareth’s going to wonder how I became the mouthpiece for the Gods. He was the chosen vessel.”
I stared at her and watched her face fall as the pieces fell into place.
“No.” She stepped around me and zipped up her bag. “I’m not telling him. I’m not telling any of them.”
“What do you plan to do, Quen? You can’t do this entire project on your own. Not in the timeframe he’s probably expecting you to.”
“Want to bet?”
“Where’s Scott?” I asked, walking into the lab.
James shrugged his lab coat off as he answered. “She’s in the patient room.”
“Thanks.”
It was close to midnight, and the lab was empty aside from the two of them. And it looked like James was poised to leave.
Quentin spent ungodly hours in this place. I understood her need for control and although she was part Goddess, I worried about her burning out. Her mind was constantly ticking, turning over everything that was happening, and there was little I could do to calm it. The lab had become her base and home was a distant memory.
Knocking on the patient room door, Quen’s voice carried through clearly. “Come in!”
I pushed it open and stared at the space before finding my obsession. She was standing on the worktop, reaching for a box on top of the cabinets.
“What are you doing?”
Quentin twisted her body to look down at me. “I need some pipette tips. Are you okay?”
She turned away again, getting up on her toes to reach for the box. Lazily, a tendril of my aura grabbed it from the cabinet and set it down on the floor. Quentin looked at me, biting her plump bottom lip. She either didn’t trust herself with that level of control or she had forgotten that her aura could be useful to her.
When I stepped in front of Quen, she placed her hands on my shoulders to steady herself as she came down from the counter. I didn’t let her feet hit the floor, keeping an arm wrapped around her thighs, just under her ass, and pulled her body flush against mine.
“Gray, I’m working,” she said, splaying her hands across my chest and trying to get some space.
