Patrick didn’t look away from the road. “But you weren’t.”
“I’mfine.”
“Start talking.”
“It can wait until you won’t run someone off the road.”
Patrick’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Fuck you. I have better control than that. I’d just leaveyouby the side of the road.”
“Not in this weather you wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
Jono scowled out the window at the snow that had started to fall sometime while they were in the bar. They’d arrived in rain and left in snow, and none of them had liked what that meant. If the reactionary storm was going to hit Chicago with a blizzard, there was very little time to get ready for it.
“Everything turned out fine,” Jono said. “I’ll tell you about what happened when we’re behind your wards.”
Patrick didn’t respond, but his icy silence filled the car for the entire drive back. The one time Jono turned on the radio, Patrick reached over and turned it off. When he settled his hand on Patrick’s thigh, it stayed there for two seconds before Patrick moved it to the gearshift. Then Patrick’s scent cut out completely as he locked down his shields as tight as they could get. Jono couldn’t read him at all, and he huffed out a frustrated breath.
“Ooh, you’re in trouble,” Wade said sotto voce from the back seat.
Jono resisted the urge to snap at him, knowing that yelling at Wade wasn’t the right way to vent his frustration. Explaining himself had to wait until they were at the hotel and behind a silence ward.
It took time to get there, simply because the unexpected snow was snarling traffic. Chicago was used to snow, but usually the city had more of a warning than an hour’s notice. If the reactionary storm was bringing a blizzard, no one was prepared for it.
When they finally made it back to the hotel, Patrick silently handed over the car keys to the valet. He wouldn’t look at Jono as he strode toward the entrance with Wade on his heels. Jono followed them inside, taking a quick breath to get a read on who might be waiting for them. He smelled werecreatures, but not as many as before. When they made it to the lobby, he didn’t see Monica, but the front desk clerk was there, wearing a dastaar.
It reminded him of the long meeting with Rajesh last night, and not in a good way. The master vampire had been reticent to acknowledge the borders Jono wanted to establish for the packs in Queens, but they had at least opened a dialogue. That was more than what Estelle and Youssef had with some of the vampires.
When they reached the lifts, Wade didn’t get in with them. “You know what? I’m going to go find something to eat.”
“It’s snowing and only going to get worse. Stay in the hotel,” Patrick told him.
“The hotel doesn’t have Target snacks.Targethas Target snacks.” Wade pointed finger guns at them and rocked back on his heels. “I’m gonna get some.”
The door slid shut on his smirking face.
“At least he won’t freeze,” Jono said.
Patrick didn’t respond, angrily stabbing the button for the twelfth floor. They rode up in silence, and Patrick exited first once the doors dinged open on their floor. Jono followed him to the hotel room, watching as he wrote a silence ward on the wall opposite the bathroom with angry motions once they were inside. Static bloomed outward through the wall, blocking out the distant sound of traffic below on the street.
“Start talking,” Patrick ordered as he yanked off his jacket and tossed it on the bed closest to the bathroom. “Maybe strip while you’re at it so I can see whatever wound you’re sporting that made Eir offer to heal you.”
“Victoria’s potions were enough to fix me,” Jono said.
Patrick glared at him. “What thefuckdid you need potions for?”
Jono crossed his arms over his chest. “Remember when I texted you I was going to Brooklyn earlier this week?”
“For pack border issues, yeah, I remember. Don’t tell me they were plants and betrayed you?”
“Austin? No, his pack is on our side. We found ourselves in a bit of a mess by the end of our territory marking.”
“Define abit of a mess.”
“Ran into some hunters. Krossed Knights, to be precise. We led the arseholes into vampire territory, but one nicked me with his silver knife laced with aconite.”
Patrick stared at him, quiet for all of two seconds before he lost his head.
