I feel completely stressed and overwhelmed. But this, this easy way that I fit with these guys, it soothes me in a way I desperately need right now. He pulls away, and I grab his face for one more slow kiss before letting him sit back.
“I’m sorry about last night," I address all of them. “Valen’s right, I don’t always have to deal with things alone. It’s been my default for my whole life, and I need to recognize that it’s not my only option now.”
“We get it, no worries," Ryker smiles at me. “The Readers told us to tell you goodbye and that they’ll be in touch. They left a folder of documents for you and a tablet.”
“Wait, what? They left?” I ask astounded.
“I thought they were here to help me with all of this?” I point to myself.
“Yeah that’s what we thought, too, but Reader Tearson insisted he had to do some research and Reader Conlin needed to document everything from the reading. They left almost right away.”
“Well, shit. I wanted to ask about my parents and about a thousand other things."
“They did leave a contact number, and I think the tablet they left behind has all the information they scanned for you from their archives. That might be a good place to start looking for answers," Sabin reassures me.
Valen pulls me from Bastien’s lap, and into his own and a surprised squeak sneaks from my lips. I swat him, and he just smiles at me.
“Your squeaks are adorable, Vinna," Knox teases me.
“I’m not adorable. I’m a terrifying Sentinel, haven’t you heard?”
Laughter wafts around the room, and I crawl out of Valen’s lap. As much as I like the manhandling, nosiness is building inside of me and the pictures scattered about the wall of built-ins are calling to me. I find an adorable picture of the twins when they were younger.
Their wavy curls were much shorter then. But their hazel eyes, cute, little, upturned noses and pouty lips are still prevalent, but on a smaller scale. I set the picture down and reach for an older looking picture of Silva with a beautiful curly haired woman.
“Is this your mom?” I ask the twins.
They both nod their heads in unison. I stare at the picture and marvel at how beautiful and happy she and Silva were when this moment was captured. I can see her in Bastien and Valen’s features. They have her nose and her lips, and definitely her beautiful dark curls.
I set the picture down gently, and fall back into the mystery I spent a lot of the night trying to unravel. My father, the twins’ parents, and their coven, all went missing together. Fifteen months later, give or take a month or two, I was born. My mother was a Sentinel; since that definitely didn’t come from my father--Vaughn’s side--but how the hell did they end up together?
“How did a whole coven disappear into thin air, while simultaneously discovering a Sentinel that supposedly didn’t exist? That Sentinel then gets knocked up, and none of them are ever heard from again. And somehow I end up with Beth?” I ask still staring at the picture and the happy faces it captures.
“I wish we knew," Valen answers, and I can hear the sadness that’s tucked deep in his voice.
I pinch the bridge of my nose, irritated, and no closer to solving this mystery than I was last night. I went over and over everything I could remember about Beth. I searched my memories for any clues that might help me figure out how I ended up with her. She had to know more about my father than she admitted, but how did she get involved in all of this?
Strong hands grip my hips, and I lean back into Knox’s chest and let out a frustrated sigh.
“Do you know anything about the nest of lamia they were supposed to be dealing with? They’re obviously the missing link in this story," I ask.
“We have names for some of the lamia, but that’s been a dead end. The paladin were called in to deal with them because they were abducting casters, but we haven’t found any information as to why," Bastien tells me.
“They sent paladin out to look for the missing coven, but the paladin and the lamia disappeared without a single trace," Valen confirms.
Knox pulls me back to the couch, and I plop down next to him. He hooks an arm around me and I relax into him lost in my rumination.
“You smell good," I absently tell him as I breathe him in deeply.
I can’t place what it is, but it’s deep and manly, and I really like it. Knox chuckles and nuzzles the side of my face. It has to be me. Somehow I’m the key to sorting all of this out if I can just figure out how it all fits together.
“Did the abductions stop when the lamia nest and the paladin disappeared?” I ask no one in particular.
“I think so," Bastien replies. “I remember reading that the elders at the time, associated that with the nest either being eradicated or damaged enough to keep them from continuing the way they had been."
“Or the nest accomplished whatever they were aiming for, and the abductions became unnecessary," I say offhandedly.
The room grows quiet as we all seem to fall into our own thoughts. I’m not sure how long we stay that way before Ryker breaks up the introspection.
