Page 45 of Lyric & the Heartbeats

“Relax your face,” he murmured as he held a quietly whirring machine beside her head. “If you look at the computer screen, you can see everything I do.”

Lyric watched in awe as her ear shape appeared pixel by pixel on the screen.

“Isn’t it cool?” Doctor Tern asked with giddy excitement.

Anything that kept her from having foam shoved into her ear was cool, so she nodded.

It took about three minutes to scan each of them, and by the time each of them had been properly scanned, fitted, and had picked out the color of their monitors, Lyric was beating back yawn after yawn.

As they walked to the door, she tapped her tongue to the roof of her mouth to stifle another one. Instinctively, she reached for the push bar of the door, but almost fell flat on her face as Adra’s long arm reached in front of her to push it open before she could make contact.

“Oh, yeah,” she said with a smile. “I forgot that’s apparently your job now.”

“You’ll catch on eventually,” Adra teased as she walked into the night.

Emerson grumbled the entire drive to Lyric’s house. Odd was driving, and that was probably a good thing, because if Emerson had been behind the wheel, he would have turned them around at least three times.

“And… that was our last chance to make a U-turn,” he muttered.

“Oh, what for?” Odd finally snapped. “We’re going to be basically living with her for six weeks. We can have dinner at her place one time before we get on that bus.”

The farther they drove, the closer they drew to the upscale, ritzy area of the city. And before long, they were leaving the rich plazas and skyscrapers behind, and turned down a street that led into a residential area of town.

Emerson crossed his arms, glaring at the GPS. They weren’t anywhere near the goddamned omega center. Where the hell did Lyric live?

“Why are you going in here?” he barked as Odd pulled onto a short stretch of concrete. The car slowed to a stop before a gate and warm, summer air reached into the car with stifling fingers as he rolled down the window. Odd glanced at his phone before he punched a few numbers into the keypad, beeps drifting into the car.

Emerson ground his teeth when Odd didn’t answer.

Guess this was it.

He eyed the large gate and the security cameras with a glare. At least she lived in a gated community.

With too many fucking neighbors, he noticed as Odd drove them through the gate. The old car rocked violently as he bumped them off the concrete and onto asphalt. Trees and well-manicured islands of flowers and shrubs framed them on either side as they drove down the one-way drive, which eventually opened up into the housing area.

Brownstones stretched to the cloudy night sky filled each side of the road, with breaks between each unit that he realized were garages.

So, at least she doesn’t have to walk to her car. Fine.

And it doesn’t look like she shares a wall with anyone.

Odd drove for a few more minutes before they rolled to a stop in front of a brownstone that looked exactly like all the others. The only thing that differentiated it from the others was the strand of lights hanging in the window, highlighting the deep orange of the curtains.

“How’d you know the code?” Emerson asked.

“She texted it to me. I know what you’re thinking, but stop it,” Odd chided softly, the seatbelt clanking against the door as he unbuckled. “This place is as private as it gets. The code has a one-time use, and is automatically erased from the system five minutes after it’s typed in.” Odd put his hand on the door but stopped to turn to him. “Stop being so critical of her.”

Emerson lifted his hands in surrender. “I’m not. But she’s an omega. Who lives alone,” he pointed out.

“And we’re alphas who don’t have a pack. What about it?”

With a frown, Emerson shook his head, knowing he wasn’t going to get his point across. He threw open the car door and stepped out, staring up at the pristine building from the sidewalk. Attached to its front was a spotless set of stairs with a potted plant by the door.

Glancing up again, Emerson tried to tell if they even had the right door. Light shone around the edges of the windows and between the middle of the two panels, but he saw no sign of her.

Up until a loud beep of an alarm cut through the quiet night, and the door swung open to reveal Lyric, Emerson was certain they had the wrong place.

Omegas didn’t normally live by themselves.