* * *
Knox hollers triumphantly when he finally wins the epic thumb-war we’ve been having for twenty minutes. He puffs up about it like he’s just done something amazing, but my hands are a fuck-ton smaller than his, so really, can he bethatproud of a win?
“Gentlemen, I’ve finally found something that Vinna Aylin isn’t good at,” he announces jovially.
Given the fact that I just fucked us all over by losing a battle with Mother Time, Knox’s innocent statement stings more than it probably should.
“Too soon, Knox,” I tell him shaking my head. “Way too fucking soon.”
“What? I thought ol’ blue eyes got you fixed up right as rain. You know, with his cock and his fangs?” he tells me, wagging his eyebrows at me. “Siah, we were counting on you, what happened?” Knox shouts, his booming voice filling the main room we’re sitting in.
Siah peeks his head out of our room. “What are you shouting about?”
I slap Knox in the chest. “Nothing,” I tell him and shoot a glare at Knox.
“Killer is still feeling all fucked up about the old lady. I thought you got that sorted,” Knox tells him, ignoring my irritated eye roll.
The front door opens, and in walks Enoch, Kallan, Nash, Becket, Sabin, and Torrez.
“Thank fuck,” I mumble under my breath, their presence saving me from having to talk about the source of my eternal shame.
“They’re back!” Knox calls out, and all the other guys join us in the main room.
Torrez heads right for the leftover platters of food that are on the back table and starts stacking his plate with meat.
“They not feed you?” Valen asks him, eyeing the mountain slowly forming on Torrez’s plate.
“No, they fed us,” Torrez replies, looking over at Valen like he doesn’t understand why he’s asking the question.
I laugh softly and watch as Kallan plops down on the couch to the left of the one I’m sitting on. He runs a tired hand over his face.
“Well, second impressions of our Sentinel, Suryn, are not really any more favorable than the first,” he announces.
Becket gives an agreeing grunt and drops down on the other end of the couch.
“I dunno, I kind of like it,” Nash argues, and he laughs when Kallan gives him a disgusted look.
“You always like the bitchy ones, so no surprise there. You’ll probably jerk off to the way she looks at us like we’re shit on her shoes,” Becket flings at Nash.
I choke on a cough when Nash just shrugs and admits, “Probably.” Enoch shakes his head and leans against the arm of the couch, a small smile playing at his lips. I try to decipher the look I see in his grey-blue gaze, but I can’t suss it out.
“So what happened?” Ryker asks as he comes out of Sorik and Vaughn’s room.
He walks over to where I’m sitting on the couch and wedges himself between Knox and me. I laugh, and Knox grumbles as Ryker makes himself at home and drapes an arm over the back of the couch behind me.
“That’s better,” he sighs and relaxes against me.
He starts playing with the ends of my hair and ignores Knox’scockblockaccusation.
“They took us to this room that had a big round table in it,” Sabin starts.
“It was very King Arthur Chic,” Torrez throws in before he begins to devour what I think is a pig’s leg.
“We all sat down, and then Sauriel started asking questions. We were allowed to interject any questions that we also had, so it was just a back and forth until everyone had all the answers they were looking for,” Sabin finishes.
“So what did they ask?” Valen queries.
“They asked Suryn if she was born here. What her role was. They asked if she had ever marked anyone else, how it happened,” Sabin pauses and tries to remember if there was anything else.
