Ailín broke the surface a few feet away in human form, his sealskin draped over his shoulders. “Don’t fall out of my boat! You don’t have a life jacket on.”
Wade scoffed at both of them, clearly not bothered by the risk of falling overboard, before extending one hand. “Come on, I’ll help you up.”
If Riordan didn’t know what Wade was, he’d laugh at the idea that Wade had the strength to haul him up. But he did just that, grasping Riordan by the wrist and lifting him onto the yacht with an ease that left Ailín gaping in the water behind them. Riordan kept his attention on Wade’s face, watching the way his dark eyes flicked down Riordan’s nearly naked body and back up again, face flushing a little. Riordan preened, ignoring the arched eyebrow Ailín sent his way after Wade hauled his clanmate onto the yacht.
“Clothes,” Wade said, tossing outfits at both of them. “Get dressed before someone other than me gets an eyeful.”
“Bit prudish coming from someone who is pack,” Ailín said teasingly.
“It’s more that I don’t have any legal clout up here in Boston to talk my way out of a ticket,” Wade retorted. Riordan laughed but got dressed quickly to put Wade at ease. His clothes stuck to his wet skin, but it didn’t bother him all that much. Ailín got dressed before he checked their positioning in the water. Wade hovered over Riordan, eyeing him critically. “You smell like magic. Was the whirlpool your doing or whatever tried to drown you?”
“Fuath were in the water, and they haven’t been for years. We cleared them out at the turn of the century. Ailín helped me tear those two apart with the whirlpool,” Riordan said.
“Do you think those things were what Lady Caith warned us about?”
Riordan shook his head. “I think there’s something else hiding in the water.”
The fuath didn’t sound or feel like the presence he’d felt the other day on his patrol. They hadn’t filled him with a kind of fear that could drive him to find safety on land. He leaned over to rub at his right ankle, still feeling a lingering ache from being grabbed and hauled about by the fuath. As he lifted his head, a shiny foil Pop-Tart packet was shoved into his face. “Eat this.”
Riordan stared past that at Wade. “I know for a fact Ailín doesn’t store food on the Neptune.”
Wade rolled his eyes and jiggled the packet again. “This is mine, and if you did magic, you need to eat so you don’t get hangry.”
“Oh.”
Considering Wade had seemed willing to bite off Riordan’s hand if he stole a cannoli the other day, being offered a treat from Wade’s portable snack haul wasn’t something he would ever say no to. Pop-Tarts weren’t his favorite thing to eat, but it tasted damn good coming from Wade.
Wade crossed his arms over his chest and watched him eat. “So what now?”
“I need to fix the warning sigils they damaged.”
Ailín popped his head out of the cockpit. “I can steer us east. Waterway is clear enough for now, but when you go under, I’m coming with you.”
“Wade needs—” Riordan protested.
“I know how to swim. Sitting on a boat in the bay while you two do whatever you need to isn’t a problem. I’ll be fine. I don’t know if you will be, and I can’t follow you into the water. I’m not built for it,” Wade interrupted.
Wade sounded frustrated, brows furrowed in concern. Riordan reached for his arm, pulling it free so he could hold Wade’s hand, giving his fingers a squeeze. “Selkies are, and we know how to survive in it.”
Wade leaned over to poke him in the chest. “You better, because while I can sit on a boat, I can’t steer it. One of you will have to take me back to shore for lunch and dinner because I’m not dealing with vampires tonight on an empty stomach.”
Riordan laughed, pulling Wade down to sit beside him on the bench. “I promise I’ll feed you.”
“Good,” Wade said, a smile on his lips that Riordan let himself kiss away.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Man,Patrick is going to kill me,” Wade groaned as he got out of the car. They’d ended up parking in the same public parking garage as the other day on the outskirts of Beacon Hill.
“Why?” Riordan said, getting out as well.
“Because he doesn’t like it when any of us deal with Lucien alone. I know I have a good reason, but he’s still going to be mad.”
He didn’t mention that Patrick had called him half a dozen times already that evening and Wade hadn’t answered any of them, only sending a text to let Patrick know he was fine. It had only caused Patrick to send a bunch of voice texts that outnumbered the voicemails. Wade hadn’t listened to any of them yet.
Riordan came around the car, looking far too handsome in his leather jacket. The suppleness of it made sense now that Wade knew it was secretly the other man’s sealskin. He itched to touch it but managed to keep his hands to himself.
Riordan wrapped his arm around Wade’s shoulders, drawing him close as they headed for the elevator. He wanted to burrow into the warmth but manfully refrained. “But you aren’t alone.”
