“We would have been fine,” Rune said. “Lora, you are not to do that ever again.”
“Fuck off, Rune. I'll do as I like. Deal with it.”
Braxen chuckled.
“No, you won't!” Rune grabbed my wrist and yanked me away from Braxen. “Weare supposed to protectyou, not the other way around.”
“Rune, I'm trying real hard to remember that you've got adrenaline racing through your veins and all this is stemming from love,” I said. “But it's getting difficult because you're sliding into alpha asshole territory. Remember our talk? Merrick's not the problem anymore.”
Brax pressed his lips together to keep from laughing.
“I'm an alpha asshole because I want you safe?” Rune dropped my arm. “Really, Lora? Have you even ever held a gun before?”
“Yes. Her—” I caught myself before I said Hermes. “He taught me.”
Rune's face twitched. “And the RPG? He taught you how to use that too?”
“No. I googled it.”
Braxen's dam was burst. He bent over double with laughter, great guffaws coming from him. Even Merrick's lips shook. But not Rune. He threw his hands up as if he couldn't believe my stupidity.
“What, like it's hard?” I drawled. “I blew up a house, and I don't have a scratch on me.” I looked him over pointedly.
“They were expecting us,” Rune said. “I think they wanted to be caught on camera. It was a trap. We walked in, cleared the first floor, then went down to the basement.”
“Where they were waiting with automatic rifles,” Merrick said. “We didn't have a chance to defend ourselves. They just kept firing until we didn't get up.”
“Oh, Gods,” I whispered.
Even immortality has its limits. They would have needed time to heal.
“While we were healing, they bound us in chains and tried to question us. We stayed silent through their torture.”
“Torture?” I growled.
“It was nothing, sweetheart. We healed while they punched us. But then they realized we were recuperating too quickly. They knew we could go spectral, though they called it our demon forms. Since we weren't giving them anything, they decided to behead us before we could heal enough to shift,” Braxen said. “If you hadn't come when you did, we'd be dead.” He lifted his stare to Rune. “You know it, Rune.”
Rune's jaw clenched as he stormed past us.
“He just needs some time,” Merrick said. “It scared him—seeing you there. Like that.”
“Some men don't like being confronted with the fact that women can take care of themselves,” I muttered, disappointed in Rune.
“That's not it,” Merrick said. “Rune isn't threatened by you. He's scaredforyou. Knowing that you would run into danger for us makes him love you even more, and because he loves you so much, he's terrified by the thought of you getting hurt.”
“So much so that he'd rather die?” I crossed my arms.
“Yes,” Braxen and Merrick said together.
I dropped my arms. “Well, shit. That's sweet but also annoying. And stupid.”
“He'll come around,” Braxen said.
“As I said,” Merrick added. He paused, then said, “Thank you. It was reckless of you, and I'd rather you didn't risk yourself again. But thank you.”
“You're welcome.”
We left the kitchen and headed upstairs. It didn't need saying that we needed showers. Especially them, although I wanted to get the smell of smoke out of my hair. I didn't offer any first aid, nor was I worried about their wounds. The blood was already drying, nothing fresh flowing. Which meant they were healing. That both shocked and pleased me. They had been riddled with bullets, enough to drop them, but there they were, less than an hour later, walking around as if nothing had happened.
