"Taj," Arkan tried as the prince of Hell stormed out of the room.
"Save it," Taj snapped, his shoulders hunched.
I frowned, turning to watch them. The tension was new—so was snapping at each other. They'd been as thick as thieves when I last saw them.5
"What's going on with you lot?" I whispered to X as Arkan heaved a frustrated sigh and lifted his hand, as if to run it through his sleek white hair, before he caught the nervous gesture and dropped it.
X snorted, dragging his nose up the back of my neck and laying a kiss there. I locked my body, refusing to show him my reaction to the wave of lust that bled into me. But I knew my pupils must have dilated, and my breathing grew choppy and fast.
"We lost you, little morsel," he replied honestly. "It sent us a little crazy."
"A little?" Dev echoed dryly, apparently having the hearing of a damn elephant.6"X, you slaughtered your way through a whole town and flattened a good portion of its buildings. Between the four of you, I'm surprised there's anything left of England."
I drew back in surprise, giving X, Arkan, and Joseph a warning look.
"You better not have fucked with my cottage. If I lose the deposit because of you bastards … you don't want to find out what I'll do."
"I bet it'll be sexy," X said breathlessly against my neck. "There'll be blood and disembowelment and screams so loud they could be symphonies."
I couldn't hold back the body-wide shudder this time. Jesus, his murder-talk combined with a heavy dose of lust magic was my ultimate weakness.
So cover it up, I said, convincingly, "Well, cocksdotend to bleed a lot when you cut them off."
Joseph shifted uncomfortably, brushing the bulge in his jeans protectively. Even Arkan stiffened, his throat bobbing.Yeah, be afraid, fuckers.
X though, the absolute psycho, rolled his hips, pressing his erection against my ass, and breathed, "It would be an honour."
I laughed, turning to face him. "There's something very wrong with you, do you know?"
"Mm," he agreed, his grin wide. "But I'm so right for you."
And didn't I know it. I thought I'd never find anyone who'd match my crazy, but these guys fucking exceeded it.
"We didn't touch Orchid Vale," Arkan said before X could spout any more insanity. He held my gaze when I looked over at him, and I got the sense he was still watching to make sure I was alright. Which naturally made me itchy. "Your cottage is as you left it."
Joseph shook his head, looking pained for a second. Wait, why was he all the way over there? My cuddly reaper was usually plastered to my side. He had been only minutes ago, until I’d mentioned Orchid Vale. I frowned, not sure what was going on with all of them. It couldn't just be because I vanished, like X said.
"We put all your furniture back in its place and cleaned up the broken glass," he said, watching me with something like sadness and longing.
"We did?" X asked, frowning.
"I did," Joseph corrected. "I didn't want you to come home to a mess, my sweet."
"So what did you flatten?" I asked, looking between them.
Arkan's fingers twitched at his side, and I felt a teensy bit bad for snapping at him earlier. The man was clearly at peak stress levels, and he'd been nice and sweet andcaring. For a second, I wished I was a normal person with normal responses to affection.7
"It's not important," Arkan said finally.
"Just a small area of London," Joseph answered instead, a rueful expression on his brown face. "No one will miss it."
"You took out most of Westminster," Dev disagreed with a deep rumble of amusement. "Including the Palace of Westminster."
A laugh zipped up my throat and off my tongue. They demolishedthe houses of parliament?Oops.
"Well, it'll keep them busy for a while," I said with a shrug. "Stop them making any dumbass policies for a few months at least." I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Quick, someone kick out all the racists while everyone else isn't paying attention."
Dev snorted.
