Not that it should be a priority over the investigation, but I wanted to go. More than I realised, because my whole body felt on edge at the prospect of missing out.
“We’ll be back,” Axel murmured, clearly forgetting who we had in the room with us.
Max chuckled. “Contrary to its name, Midnight is open till four am. Plenty of time for you to go and see Nick.”
I purposely didn’t look at him. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He laughed then, and I glanced up to see him tap his nose. “Never lies.”
Ignoring him, I stood. “I could do with another cup of that delicious coffee before we start working again. Where do I get it?”
Gabriel waved me back into my seat. “I’ll go get it. Snacks too,” he added before leaving the room. Axel went back to his phone while we waited, and Max announced he needed the toilet.
That left me with nothing to do but think.
Always a dangerous thing.
My mind drifted back to the mention of Rys’s dad. His and Lady Sarhin’s wasn’t the first fae/non-fae relationship by far, but like Gabriel’s parents, those pairings usually chose to live beyond the gateway. Chose or were strongly encouraged; I wasn’t entirely sure. But the fact was that those fae followed their partners and left their homes.
Knowing how doing that affected our magic, I wondered if there was an element of truth to what Gabriel had said.
Nathan Calder not only lived in the Fae Realm with a member of the high court, but he was also an accepted honorary member of it. I’d always assumed it was because of his wealth of knowledge of the paranormal community as a whole, and maybe it was, but that didn’t explain why they’d let him in when others hadn’t been allowed.
Unless his connection to Lady Sarhin was so great she’d have left her position in the high court to go live with him and his Dark Forest Pack? Not something the high court would’ve taken lightly.
And yet Nathan Calder had given up his pack for her.
I thought back to how I’d felt in Nick’s presence and shifted uncomfortably. Not liking where my train of thought wanted to lead me.
No.
Curious attraction or not, I needed to stay away from Nick Parker.
NICK
Since my rather rash announcement atthe police station, I had my work cut out organising everything to reopen Midnight on Saturday. Not for the first time since then, I stopped mid-freakout and wondered exactly what the fuck I’d been thinking.
My plan had been to allow myself at least a week or so to get used to the idea, to plan how I wanted to do things and ease myself into it.
But no.
Thanks to thinking with my dick—because that was the only thing that made any sense—I’d only had a couple ofdaysto sort everything out.
Dathal was hot, but then, so were all the fae I’d encountered. Axel and I had shared many a hot night between the sheets and elsewhere. But we hadn’t done it for a while, and I didn’t feel a burning urge to go there again. We were friends now, and I liked it that way.
But Dathal?
He got under my skin like no one else.
Two whole days had passed since I’d seen him and yet I couldn’t get him out of my head. It hadn’t even been an enjoyable experience the last time I’d been with him. Sitting in front of Zane, seeing him in cuffs with his magic locked down tight, had been beyond awful.
I knew he deserved to be punished for what he’d done, but that didn’t make it any easier to witness. But what I kept coming back to was the way I’d sensed Dathal. The way I’d felt the sudden shift in his emotions when he realised Zane had had a hand in Axel’s kidnapping. The only way I could describe it was as though the rage had rolled off him and into me.
Instinct had made me reach out. Don’t ask me how, but in that moment, I’d known Dathal was seconds away from lunging over that table and I didn’t like Zane’s chances if he got his hands on him.
The fact my touch had calmed him down surprised us both, I think.
“Nick?”
