Page 48 of The Human’s Heart

Only a minute later, he had glasses of water and a handful of snacks from our pantry in his arms. He put them on the coffee table, then gave us each a shoulder squeeze before rejoining Granddad in the kitchen.

“Do you need anything?” I whispered to my viramore.

He shook his head. “No… just… stay with me.”

“Always.”

It took another hour to find Kian. He’d been out on a mission with his BCA team, and even though my granddad called Key’s boss, they hadn’t wanted to pull him in the middle of some top secret… thing.

I had no idea what he was involved with, but it was pretty shitty that he hadn’t been pulled for a true emergency, and my grandparents were pissed. Both of them made a bunch of calls and yelled at a ton of people—even Grandpa yelled, which was weird and so rare to see—and I didn’t blame them. I was pissed too. It was bullshit.

He should’ve been pulled immediately, unless he was in the middle of a literal battle, which from the sounds of it, he hadn’t been. His girlfriend had been murdered, for fuck’s sake.

When Granddad finally got hold of Kian, he told him to come here as quickly as he could. He hadn’t wanted to tell him over the phone because Kian was alone. Well, he had his team there, but he didn’t know any of them well since he’d only just started working with them. Granddad and Grandpa knew Kian wouldn’t want to break down in front of those people, and they knew he’d need support.

So now we were waiting for my brother to come through my kitchen door. He had to drive back to coven land and walk through the portal, so we knew it was going to take at least twenty minutes, but those twenty minutes felt like a lifetime.

Luckily, my dads were with my brother, having met him at the office or something. So I was sure he was suspicious as hell, but I was glad they’d met up with him before coming here.

The second Kian came in, Hugo surprised me by jumping up and rushing over to him. He threw his arms around Kian’s waist—probably because Key was so much taller. To my brother’s credit, he looked surprised but didn’t hesitate to hug Hugo back.

Both my dads came to stand on either side of me with an arm around my back as we watched the two of them.

Hugo sobbed out, “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so, so, so sorry, Key. I couldn’t… there wasn’t anything… I’m so sorry.”

Now Kian looked worried. “What? What happened? Are you okay?”

“Phia… they… they shot her.”

Kian stiffened, and for a second, I was worried he was going to push Hugo away and shift or something, but all he did was whisper, “Is she… is she… okay?”

Granddad stepped forward and wrapped his arms around both Kian and Hugo as he said, “No, Key, she… she didn’t make it.”

Kian’s eyes watered. “Wh-what? What do you… no. She’s not… she can’t be…”

Hugo let out a loud sob, and something about it must’ve made Kian realize Phia was really gone because a loud whine came out of his throat, and he tucked his head down on top of Hugo’s as he began to sob. Granddad held them both, and even though he wasn’t sobbing the way my brother and viramore were, there were tears running down his cheeks.

Grandpa joined the hug clump, so I walked over and inserted myself in there too, making sure I had one hand on Hugo and one on Kian. Then my dads joined in on the hug pile, and Key cried even harder. Hearing him cry like that made my own eyes water fiercely. I hated hearing my baby brother in pain. Hated it so fucking much.

I had no idea how long we stayed there like that, crying and trying to comfort each other, but it was a while before we finally parted. As soon as we did, I couldn’t help but pull my baby brother back into a hug.

He clung to me so hard, and it broke my heart all over again.

I held him even tighter and rubbed his back and just… made sure he knew I was here for him. I didn’t know what else to do. There really was nothing else to do.

After a bit, we parted, and Kian looked around at us all, asking, “What happened?”

Hugo started to respond, but Grandpa draped an arm over his shoulders and told the story himself so Hugo wouldn’t have to. Since my viramore was safe and seemed content with Grandpa, I joined my dads and brother and concentrated on Kian and then held him tight after he’d heard the whole story and began crying again.

As soon as I released him, our dads held onto Kian for a long, long time, and I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do to help him, to make him feel better.

As soon as I had the thought, my pops reached over to grab me, pulled me into his side, and kissed my temple, whispering, “We’ve got you… all of you.”

I nodded against him and let him sweep me back into a group hug with Dad and Kian.

My little sister, Virion, showed up with a group of our cousins and a ton of food in hand. Virion took Kian from us, hugging him for a long time. So I let them have their moment, and after pressing a kiss to the top of each of their heads, I walked across the kitchen, leaned against the counter, and pulled Hugo in front of me. I pressed his back to my chest, wrapped my arms around his waist, and the two of us watched the chaos unfold as more and more of our family showed up.

Someone set up a bunch of chairs in the living and dining rooms, and more people put up a ton of tables and chairs in our backyard after Granddad and Grandpa did their wild magic stuff to make sure the weather wouldn’t mess anything up, blocking the rain that was sure to come in the morning… which was only a few hours away.