“It’s not much, but it’s the security feed from when we found you at Diablo’s door and the time when we questioned you. If anything, I hope you see that we were truly looking out for your well-being.” He walks over to the door and stops once more to look back at Zeke in my lap.
“Just so you're aware, the boys won’t be in class tomorrow. We are taking them home in the morning for council business over the weekend. Enjoy your night with them,” he says politely and slips out the door.
I’m left reeling a little as I listen to him walk down the hall.Where the fuck did that come from?Talk about a 180 from the first time I met him. I pick up the USB drive and place it in my pocket so I don’t lose it in his blankets. I might take a look at it later tonight or tomorrow before school, but right now my focus is on Zeke.
A knock brings my attention back to the door where Levi stands with red-rimmed eyes, no tie or jacket, and his hair a complete mess. My heart leaps up into my throat as I take in his appearance.
“What’s wrong?” I would jump out of bed and run to his side, but Zeke’s head is keeping me in place. Patting the space beside me, Levi shuffles over and crawls into bed.
“How’s he doing?” he rasps, his voice hoarse as he looks at Zeke’s still form.
“Steinbeck says he just needs rest but he should be okay. Now tell me what’s wrong. You’re scaring me, Levi.”
Levi entwines our hands and gives the back of mine a kiss before speaking. “First of all, I’m sorry I wasn’t there when the attack happened. I—”
“It’s okay. You probably would have gotten hurt if you were,” I hurry to explain.
Levi sighs and squeezes my hand. “Rez. You’re going to make this harder on me if you interrupt while I try and get this out.”
“Oops. Sorry. Go ahead,” I apologize and motion for him to continue.
“Once the assembly finished, Emer approached and informed me a royal figure was awaiting my presence. What she didn’t mention was that person was her father.” Dread starts bubbling up as he mentions Emer. That fucking Harpy from Hell should die already and leave my man alone.
“Now what you might not know yet, since you’re new, and I had to verify with my father, is that King Elverson is not someone to be fucked with. Since I was unprepared for this meeting, which I assumed was the point, I had no leg to stand on. No recording device, no spells, nothing.”
Levi shifts uncomfortably and points to the glass of water on the nightstand. “May I?”
Giving him the glass, I do a double take and casually check him for wounds that I might have missed, but I can’t find any. He finishes the water in a couple of gulps before placing the glass on his side and continuing on but looking down at our hands where he’s intertwined them again.
Okay. He’s definitely nervous. Like I didn’t know that already.
“He started off by congratulating me on my engagement to Emer.”
I choke on nothing but air as I simultaneously see red. I cough so hard that my lungs start burning and Levi rubs my back.
“Rez! Breathe!”
Doesn’t he realize this is what got me into this problem?
“Excuse me, what?” I choke out as my face burns while I gaze into his hazel eyes.
“That was pretty much my reaction, but I stood up and was about to go off on the King when he then proceeded to tell me all the ways he could hurt me,” he admits and starts drawing objects on the back of my hand. “Rez, I don’t care if he hurts me physically, but he first threatened Knox. He knows that he goes out on his solo scouting missions.”
My mind shoots back to the attack in the woods the other week when he was hit and the only reason why he survived was Anwen and me calling for Dr. Steinbeck.
What would have happened if he was all alone?
This is a nightmare, right? It’s got to be. This is another dreamscape and I just have to wake up.
“Or Ryker when he goes to the clubs just to feed. He doesn’t even have to do anything but take a drink that’s laced with poison and that would be the last time we would see him.” His voice catches for a moment before thickly swallowing. “Or Zeke, when he’s out and about at the computer labs alone doing work.” He motions to Zeke’s computer in the corner. “I won’t even mention what he said about you, Moni, or JP. Let’s just say, you haven’t gone unnoticed.”
I hundred percent need to know what kind of threat was made on Moni, JP, and me, but Levi looks on the verge of puking just thinking about it, so I put his needs in front of mine for now.
“Nothing is to say something doesn’t go wrong and there is an accident. I have no evidence he even said any of this, Rez. It’s just his word against mine,” he spits through clenched teeth as he looks back down at the bed.
It’s the first time I’ve seen Levi lose his tight composure besides that one rare moment he talked about his broom handle, and I feel lost because of it. I don’t know how to handle a lost Levi.
“Is that what you needed to talk to your dad about?” I hedge. I’m so out of my element here. I want to yell, scream, cry, and run away at the same time, yet I know none of those will give me answers to the shit that’s in front of me.
