“Yes,” he says, not taking his eyes off the yard. “You should get inside, Ace.”
The porch lights illuminate the tattoos of his wings on his back. “No way. I’m not going to leave you out here alone. What if whoever was here is still out there.”
He turns his head slightly and I see his eyes glimmer. “I hope they are. Get inside. We think they were looking for you.”
“Fine, but only to get my gun.” I step forward and put my hand on his shoulder, feeling my heart lurch. “Be careful.”
He reaches up, putting his hand over mine. “I will.”
I go inside, finding the others in the living room. They appear more relaxed, and the TV is turned on but muted to give the illusion someone is home.
“Hey,” Jacques says as soon as he sees me. The gauze is off his chest, and there’s only a small scar where the wound was. My heart does a weird skip-a-beat thing when our eyes meet. “How was the movie?”
“It was good. You all are okay? Did anyone see you?”
“Breathe, Ace,” Thomas says, moving away from the window. He puts his hands on my shoulders and leads me to the couch. “You did a good job covering the windows in the library, so I don’t think so.”
“So what happened?”
“We heard someone at the door as soon as we woke up,” Thomas starts. “At first we thought it was someone trying to break in, but then they started walking around the house, looking in the windows. We could see them, but they couldn’t see us in the dark.”
“Right. You guys have night vision. So they just looked around?”
“One looked in the house and the other went to the pile of ashes in the front yard.”
“The ghoul ashes.”
Thomas nods and flicks his eyes to Gilbert. “Hasan was about ready to rip their heads off, but we recognized them as human.”
“Specifically, as a human we saw last night,” Gilbert finishes.
“Last night?”
“We saw your friend—the one you went to the movie with today—at the park last night,” Thomas goes on.
“Yeah, but she was with me.”
Gil shakes his head. “We didn’t see her. It was the older woman who was with her last night.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.” Gil sits next to me. “And last night, you said you thought she looked at us and knew we weren’t human.”
“Right. And she did.” Anxiety builds in my chest and I look up at Jacques, needing him to say something wise and comforting right about now. “Which seems even more likely now since she fucking showed up at my house.”
“Which is another reason we stayed out of sight. If she was looking for something paranormal, she didn’t find it.”
“How did you get her to leave?”
“We turned on a light,” Thomas says with a smirk. “Easy but effective.”
I run my hands through my hair, mind racing. “So she comes here, not thinking anyone was home,” I think out loud. “She has to be looking for you guys, trying to figure out what you are.”
“Whatever she was doing, she didn’t want to get caught.” Gil puts his hands on my shoulders, massaging my muscles. “She drove away fast once the lights turned on.”
“I should look around the house. If she left in a hurry, she might have left something behind.”
“I’ll go with you,” Jacques offers. “In case something is out there.”
