He shakes with silent laughter. “Like you weren’t, sneaking your clothes in with hers?
I shrug, unrepentant. “You blame me?”
He smirks, shutting his eyes. “Wish I’d thought of it sooner. It’s a good look on her.”
I snort. “She’d get lost in your shirt.”
He grins, eyes still closed. “You mean it might slip off her shoulders? Oh no, how tragic.”
Laughing quietly, I go to grab the keys to our car. “I’ll pick up Elias and hit the store.”
Soren gives me a thumbs up and I leave, knowing she’s in good hands.
I do a quick run through the store and pull up outside of the middle school, keeping an eye out for a shock of red hair. I see him before he catches sight of me and frown, leaning back against my car with crossed arms.
That asshole coach, Colton, is shouting at him as he walks out of the building. Elias keeps his eyes straight ahead, not giving him the reaction he no doubt wants. Colton puts a hand on Elias’ shoulder to pull him back, and even then, Eli’s face remains impassive. Words are exchanged, but nothing else as I flag him down.
He climbs into my car, slamming the door. “She get hurt or something?” he tosses out there, scoffing. “Or just doesn’t want to waste time picking me up anymore?”
I don’t turn on the engine, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, she got hurt, so no need to be a dick. That asshole been giving you a hard time since you quit the team?”
His eyes widen then, just thinking she was blowing him off and lashing out. I get it, we’ve been stealing a lot of her free time lately, but we’ve made an active effort to include him in it. We get her while he’s in school, but afterwards we typically hang out at their house so he isn’t alone.
“What happened? How bad? You just left her?” he demands in rapid succession, but I still don’t turn the car on.
“The damn Gauntlet happened and she lost a lot of blood, but she’ll be okay. She’s sleeping it off and Cai and Ren are watching over her. I thought I’d be nice and come get you so you weren’t stuck wondering where she was, but fuck me and my help, right?”
I raise an eyebrow at him, waiting for a response. I get it, he resents us for all that we represent and taking his sister away from him, but there needs to be some middle ground we can meet on here. He pauses, eyes simmering with anger. Elias is the most subdued of all the Veles, but the same fire flows through his blood as the rest of them; he’s just better at keeping it in check.
He grinds his teeth, letting me know I won the stare off. “Yeah, he’s been an asshole since then.”
I nod my head, figuring as much. “Ever consider homeschooling?”
He blinks, not expecting that. “I’m not going to let one prick chase me out of school.”
I finally fire up the engine, pulling out of the parking lot. “No, but you could graduate a hell of a lot faster and spend more time at home.” I watch him out of the corner of my eye. “Because I know you want to soak up as much time with your sister as you can before we have to leave.”
He’s silent for a while, lost in thought. “We already talked about it and are going to come with to make sure she makes it to the sanctuary in one piece,” he says softly, not looking at me.
I assumed that was their plan, and it makes sense. “Thanks.”
I’m never going to turn away help to keep her safe, not in this shit world. The drive is awkwardly quiet as I give him time to work things out. I don’t push, giving him time to work through things on his own without interfering. I’m not about to offer him some clichéd bullshit about her always finding time for him and won’t put him on the backburner; we both know how things will go.
I’ll marry her and keep her distracted by copious amounts of sex until she doesn’t even know what day it is. We’ll do weekly dinners so she can see her brothers, and everyone will adjust to a new normal. I’m a selfish bastard; my new normal is going to be fucking amazing, but his will probably suck. I at least owe him enough to not lie to his face and say nothing will change.
“Homeschooling might not be terrible,” he finally says, not looking at me. “It’s not like there’s more than three people in that entire place I’d miss.”
I bite my cheek, assuming as much. Elias has always been more withdrawn than the others, so I figured there must be some reason for it.
“I’ll start hinting at it to Ezra so when you bring it up it’ll go better.” He nods, still not looking at me. “Our house or yours?”
He strums his fingers on the dash. “Yours. Mine’s boring.”
And we leave it at that, heading back to my house without any more conversation. We get out of the car and I don’t have to ask, Elias is already grabbing bags to help unload. I stiffen, whipping my head towards the house. Elias doesn’t notice anything off, and I chalk that up to him being her brother.
“Eli, hold on, let’s-“ I try to stop him. I really do.
“MY EYES!” he shouts, dropping his bags at the front door.
