Ever so helpful, that one.
While he attempted not to listen to the one-sided conversation, Oliver focused on the various screens flipping across his monitor.
“She’s on her way down,” Reidar noted. “I’ll have her sit with you for a while. See what you can come up with.”
Great.
Probably too late to fake a migraine. Or an aneurysm.
Since he’d just eaten, couldn’t use that excuse, either.
While he waited for the inevitable, Oliver toggled over to the web browser and found the tab he’d opened to do a search on vampires. It wasn’t that he’d expected human lore to have what he was looking for, but he’d made the effort. And no, he hadn’t found a single thing to help him regarding whether or not a vampire could truly survive on the blood of a human. Nothing beyond the standard bullshit myths made up by humans.
Hitting the small x that would close the tab, he quickly flipped back to the cams he was monitoring and just in time, too.
“Hey. I’m here. What’s up?”
Oliver squeezed his eyes shut as her voice drifted through him. It was like a sucker punch every time he heard her speak. The sweet lilt of her voice was enough to have his heart rate elevating, his palms sweating. It was stupid, he knew. He’d managed to successfully alienate her for the past few weeks, and now it seemed they’d passed the point of no return. It wasn’t like he could approach her and apologize for what he’d done that night in the sauna. Hell, he couldn’t even think about that incident without his body hardening.
“You wanted some information on shadow beasts?”
Forcing his eyes open, Oliver turned his head but didn’t look up at her. He couldn’t. Seeing her was too painful.
With a few clicks, he had a screen opening to a blank Word document. He pushed back his chair and stood.
“If you could jot down any notable factors, that’d be great.”
“Oliver?”
Ignoring her, he raced out of the room, down the hall, and up the stairs. He had no idea where he was going, but he figured when there was enough distance between them, perhaps his legs would stop moving.
He had to wonder if New York would be far enough.
Chapter Eighteen
Keeping his physical form shielded, Michael madehis way through the mansion.
Initially, he’d dropped in to check on Ari’el, but after spending an hour with the child, he’d figured he would get a lay of the land. Now that he was waiting for decisions from both Obsidian and Kaj, it seemed the two males were avoiding him. Which meant he wasn’t being summoned and he’d run out of excuses to pop in. If he stayed too long, he knew he’d be ushered out, so he figured the best way to see what was going on was to go undetected.
Too bad he was bored out of his gourd.
Michael had already whispered through the war room, watching the males work. He didn’t know how the hell they didn’t lose their minds being cooped up like that all the time. Then he’d followed a couple of theheurosparound to check their work. Like always, those humans didn’t miss a beat. If they made the floor any shinier, he’d have to wonder if it was glass.
The vampires weren’t any better. Those males were laser focused on something, but he hadn’t stuck around long enough to figure out what their objective was. The healers were the same. Their schedules were alternating so that one of them was on at all times, the other snoozing. When he’d stopped by the infirmary, he’d found Amethyst working away on the computer. What she was doing, he didn’t know, didn’t really care. They were here because Obsidian had requested their presence, and truthfully, Michael was grateful to know they were taking such good care of Ari’el. Amethyst had taken quite the liking to the child, which put his mind at ease.
After that, he’d found himself drifting. All seemed hard at work and he had no one to eavesdrop on. No one worth paying attention to, anyway.
Which was how he’d ended up here in the third-floor living room with Zeus and Aphrodite. The canines were smarter than they looked. Both had detected his presence almost instantly, forcing him to shimmer into existence or risk them alerting the angels.
Now, as he fluffed their furry necks, he waited.
For what, he had no idea. Perhaps for Kaj to come in and tell him he was ready for the resurrection. Or for Obsidian to hit him up to drop all those future warriors in his lap. Maybe Penelope to ask him to babysit. That was his preference. Though he’d made sure to keep tabs on the baby, Michael hadn’t spent nearly enough time with her. Didn’t matter that he’d held Ari’el in his arms every single day since she arrived into this world. It would never be enough.
For some reason, that made him think about Acadia and Kaj. Those two had found their way back to one another, though they seemed to be taking their own sweet time making up for lost time. He thought for sure he had sealed their fate when he’d intervened while Kaj had been healing. Tossing in another bullet after Obsidian had effectively removed the others hadn’t been an easy feat. But it had worked, keeping Kaj with Acadia longer than he would’ve been otherwise. Not that he intended to let anyone know the part he’d played in that.
In the end, Kaj had healed and had left anyway. Honestly, he hadn’t expected the Alpha to stay gone for so long after that. Granted, he also hadn’t expected the devastation that had transpired when those damn devil dogs had eliminated Kardobahn. If he’d any idea it was going to happen, he would’ve gladly put a stop to it. But, no. Lucifer kept his intentions close to the vest, and Michael usually learned about his brother’s latest path of destruction as it was going down.
Of course, he had interfered a bit after that. In his defense, it had been necessary. Kaj had made numerous attempts to get in touch with Acadia after his departure, but Michael had intervened, ensuring those calls never went through. It had been imperative that the male learn of his daughter first, so Michael had delayed his attempt to reunite with the Fae. Again, he hadn’t expected it to take a year and a half to get him back here, but in the end, it had worked out. Acadia seemed to forgive Kaj, and thankfully, neither one of them had figured out he’d had a hand in holding them together or in keeping them apart.
