I stand there for a minute, wondering if I’m welcome, and if I still will be once she wakes up. The thought that she may never trust me again spurs me into action. I can take Griff’s disdain if it means I get to be close to her, even if it’s just for a little while.
Without jostling the bed, I climb in and lie flat on my back. Within seconds, I’m reaching my hand over to touch her, to feel her skin. Jesus, I’m like a fucking junkie, but I can’t say I really care, because once my fingertips touch her leg, I settle—not half of me, but everything inside of me settles.
Quinn
I’m slow to wake, but the persistent urge to get up and pee won’t allow me to stay all warm and cozy in bed. When the sheet brushes against my skin, I realize I’m still naked. A grin lifts my lips. I should feel bad that I passed out on Griffin, but there’s always next time.
The room is pitch black, as usual, but I’ve become familiar with the space and furniture, so I can get out of bed and find the bathroom without the lights. Both men sleep hard, therefore getting up without disturbing them isn’t an issue either. After the whole bonked on the head incident, Griffin made me promise to wake them when I get up, but I’m just planning on using the bathroom and climbing back in bed, so there’s no need.
I close the door and hit the bottom switch. It turns on a dim light that I would consider a nightlight for most, but I still need to shield my eyes. After doing my business, I move over to the sink. My eyes are heavy, but I glance at my reflection out of habit.
It takes me a minute to realize what I’m seeing. The mirror is completely shattered. There’s an indent in the center and a small amount of red which I’m going to assume is blood. When I look down at the counter, my suspicions are confirmed by the much heavier droplets of red and the slivers of glass everywhere. On instinct, I move back and look down at the floor. It seems shard free, but I still end up tiptoeing out of the room.
Still naked, I make my way into the kitchen, wash my hands, and rinse my mouth out with some cold water. I’m not about to wake up a couple supernaturals with morning breath and unwashed hands to find out what the heck happened.
Before I make it back to the bedroom, someone knocks on the door. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mumble and inch closer. There’s no peephole, so I settle on asking, “Who is it?” My voice sounds strange, even to my own ears.
The reply doesn’t come quickly. “I’m looking for Mr. Winters, it’s urgent.” The person sounds reluctant to speak to me.
“Just a moment please.” I’m tempted to make sure the door is locked, but then if I jiggle the handle and it’s not, whoever is on the other side may take it as an invitation to come in.
I flip the hall light on so I can see into the bedroom, then snag the first piece of clothing I find, wrapping it around my shoulders. Without needing to bring it to my nose, I know it’s one of Griffin’s work shirts. My fingers are already trying to work the buttons in the holes when I half whisper, half shout, “Evan!”
He sits straight up as if I just hit him with a cattle prod. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he says quickly. His soft brown eyes are wide as if he’s alert, but he must be out of it. At least he didn’t come up swinging.
“You’re dreaming.” I give up on buttoning the shirt and just wrap it around me. “Get up.”
He damn near hops out of bed. Griffin lifts his head from his pillow. His eyes are sleepy, but he’s much too watchful.
“There’s someone asking for you.” I point to the living room.
“What?” His shoulders lower a bit, so he doesn’t look quite so defensive.
“At the door, someone is knocking and asking for you. They said it was urgent. I didn’t open it.”
Griffin lifts his entire torso off the bed, and my eyes are drawn to all his yummy, tan skin. “Someone is at the door?” Evan questions, pulling my attention back to him and looking wholly confused.
I flap my hands to shoo him, and Griffin’s long sleeves cover my fingers. “Come on, it must be important.” I damn near push him out of the bedroom and into the living room. He keeps looking over his shoulder to watch me the whole time, but he’s not resisting.
Once we reach the main door, I wave at it, motioning for him to say or do something. “Are you still half asleep? Ask who it is,” I whisper vehemently.
Instead of asking, he flips the lock and tugs the door open in one quick move. I’m left scrambling to get the shirt closed over my chest and trying to duck away from view of the door.
Griffin slides smoothly in front of me, his fingers deftly working the buttons closed much quicker than I could have on my own.
“What?” Evan barks. Maybe he’s not half asleep after all.
“We tried calling. It went straight to voicemail,” the man explains. When I look over, Evan is standing in the doorway so the person on the other side isn’t visible. “There’s an issue. Seven kids are missing, all vampires.”
“What time is it?” Evan asks, still sounding quite surly.
“A little after six AM.”
“Did you run patrols?”
“Yeah, we’ve been at it for about an hour. A sister of one of the kids who’s missing reported that her brother wasn’t in the room. We did a head count, and seven are gone,” the man reports quickly.
“Have all the floor leaders wake up the kids. See if they know anything about where the others could be. Everyone stays on shift. No classes, no cafeteria, no leaving their levels. Everyone is on lockdown,” Evan orders. “Put together six teams of four to run the property. I want reports every twenty minutes until they’re found. Tell all the security heads to meet me in the briefing room in ten minutes.” He slams the door shut without another word and spins to face me.
