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We have no idea what he’s doing with any of it, where he’s keeping it, or who the fuck is waiting at the other end when Malgrave delivers.
That’s the part eating at me. Because whatever Malgrave is building toward, he’s had centuries to work on it, and we still don’t know what the fuck we’re looking at.
“You planning on hitting it sometime today?” Wreck calls from the sofa.
Ruckus has been lining up the same fucking pool shot for long enough that I’m starting to wonder if he plans on dying there. Ruckus stays bent over the table, cue poised, one eye narrowed along the shaft. “Waiting.”
“For what?”
“My luck to kick in.”
Wreck stares at him. “You’re a fucking leprechaun.”
“Exactly.”
“Isn’t it always kicked in?”
Ruckus finally looks up, deeply offended. “That’s not how luck works.”
“Pretty sure that’s exactly how luck works.”
Ruckus mutters something about ignorant-fucking-wendigos and goes back to staring down the shot.
Around us, everyone is talking shit, drinking, arguing, and generally being the pain in my ass I’ve come to expect, and for a while it’s almost enough to make me forget the shit hanging over us. Raze has claimed one end of the bar with a beer in front of him, talking to Roxy whenever she looks up from the ledger she’s working through at the table nearby. Maul and Thorn are arguing over something near the kitchen, while Sentinel is stretched across an armchair like Heaven personally sent him down to avoid doing anything useful.
Scar and Cali have taken over the open space near the far wall. They’ve been sparring for the last fifteen minutes, and I’m starting to think Scar might regret suggesting it. Cali ducks beneath his arm when he comes for her, pivots behind him, and drives her shoulder into his back hard enough to send the five-hundred-year-old vampire stumbling two steps forward.
A couple of brothers immediately start laughing.
Scar turns slowly, and Cali grins at him. “Problem?”
Scar’s eyes narrow. “Enjoying yourself?”
“Immensely.” She comes at him again before he can answer.
Echo sits beside me on the sofa, close enough that her thigh has been resting against mine for the last twenty minutes. Her beer hangs forgotten between her fingers because she’s been watching Cali dismantle Scar with increasing fascination.
Cali shifts left, giving Scar just enough to make him follow before she changes direction and drops low, hooking her leg behind his and ripping his footing out from under him. Scar twists as he goes, one hand slamming against the floor hard enough to stop himself from landing flat on his ass, but it’s fucking close.
Echo makes a quiet sound beside me, so I glance at her, and she’s grinning.
Yeah. Apparently watching a dhampir nearly put a five-hundred-year-old vampire on his ass is her idea of entertainment.
Echo lets out a low whistle. “Okay, she’s a fucking badass.”
I look at her, and she points her beer toward Cali. “Seriously. She just nearly put a vampire on his ass.”
Scar’s head turns. “I can hear you!”
Echo doesn’t miss a beat. “Good. Then you know I’m rooting for her.”
Cali laughs, while Scar looks personally betrayed.
I grin and lift my beer toward Echo, and she taps hers against it. “Women have to stick together.”
Across the room, Scar catches Cali around the waist when she comes at him again, but she twists out before he can lock her down and drives an elbow toward his ribs. He blocks it at the last second, catches her wrist, and pulls her into him.
“Got you.”
