I doubted she knew which one it was.
“The Bills suck, I know. But they also have potential, and I like an underestimated underdog. They’ll come back, especially with Tyrod gone and their new QB being ripe as hell. Just give it a few years.” She grabbed a few more pieces of bacon in her fist and jumped down from the counter, picking up her coffee on the way. “Besides, my best friend, Brinley, used to have dreams that she had family in Buffalo, a brother. I knew it wasn’t true, but I couldn’t tell her that, so we watched the Bills play every Sunday or listened to the radio if we couldn’t see the game on the TV we had in the house. And if you know anything about football, you know that the Dolphins are one of our rival teams. So this household is officially becoming a Bills fanbase if I’m fucking ‘stuck’ here.”
She used air quotes around the word stuck, mocking laughter in her tone…she knew as well as we did that she could leave whenever she fucking wanted.
All four of us looked at each other, a mixture of emotions displayed on all of our faces. She didn’t seem to like the idea of being our prisoner, as she called it, but she just basically told us that she was staying, even still.
We stood motionless as she walked with purpose from the kitchen, entering the wide-open living space and then planting her ass on our black leather sofa like she owned it.
I was surprised by how casually she talked about Brinley when I knew the amount of pain she was in over her loss. She either didn’t want us to see her weakness or simply didn’t care. I was betting on the former.
“Do you guys have any blankets? If not, we’ll have to go and get some because I don’t fuck with air conditioning. It’s like Antarctica in here.”
I looked over at Lanier who was trying very hard not to laugh. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop my own chuckle from coming out. This girl was the fucking opposite of what we expected.
Quint ran down the hall into his bedroom and came back holding a black hoodie with white letters that read “GET FUCKED” on the front. He tossed the clothing at her, and it landed on her head, covering her face and forcing the sleeve to dip into her coffee. “There ya go, Minx. That’ll warm you right up.”
She didn’t answer, just pulled the hoodie off her head as she laughed and put it on. It dwarfed her small frame, but now she looked ridiculously comfy sitting on our leather couch like she belonged there. I walked around the island and moved to take a seat on the arm of the sofa. Lanier came forward and sat in the stark white loveseat to the right, and Quint sat down on the floor in front of where she was curled up in the middle of the couch. She patted his head twice. He grabbed her hand and bit down, causing her to yell out, “Ow, you bastard!”
He chuckled, not letting go of her hand.
“Alright, time for some answers, boys. Start from the beginning, prove you’re not totally insane.” She looked to me, then looked at Lanier. Quint just played with her fingers.
I cleared my throat and looked down at her. “You’re Nephilim. You’re half Angel and half Human.”
“Okay…” she drew out. “So do you know which parent was the holy one and which was the heathen?”
Lanier barked out a laugh. “Jesus, you’re something else.”
“I’m adapting to my surroundings, Stony. You’re pretending to not be affected by me, so I’m pretending I’m not affected by you. We’re all just here, in a penthouse, having coffee, and talking about supernatural creatures while we ignore the fact that for some reason, I want to strangle you every time you glower at me, but I would also cut out the eyes of anyone who looked at you the wrong way.” She gave Quint’s shoulder a squeeze. “Well, everyone is pretending except for this one, he seems to be following his instincts.”
I wanted to laugh it off, tell her she was being ridiculous, but she wasn’t. She said what all of us were too pussy to say. She fit into our world and she knew it, she just didn’t know the how or the why.
“It is an instinct,” Quint spoke up quietly, no laughter in his voice. He looked up at me and over at Lanier, his red eyes glowing brighter. “It’s like my brain is wired to be near her, plus my Bull wants to be close to her. So I’m doing it, I’m not making it weird, because it’s all just innocent fun, but I can’t pretend that I don’t want her around. You two might be able to deny it, but I don’t know how you’re actually fighting the urge.”
Annalise gave his hand a squeeze before letting go. “Alright, so we know this isn’t normal and not all of us are on board. That’s fine, I’m certainly not on board and won’t be until this gets explained to me. You corner me in an alley, one of you shows up at my house in the middle of the night…fucking invisible…to invite me to Hellhound, which turns out to be your fucking bar, and then the next thing I know, I’m being attacked in an alley by what I’m sure was a Demon. Now you’re telling me that the beast I’ve had inside my head for eleven years has turned me into an Angel. Why don’t you just tell me everything in one go, and then we’ll see how I feel after that.”
Her words were smooth and graceful, like a leader. Her voice wasn’t girly like some women—no, it was husky and sexy. She was beautiful even in yesterday’s makeup and her black hair a mess from sleeping off the Transition. I wanted to go to her, everything in my body wanting to be near her. Close enough to touch, close enough to get a hint of her scent, close enough to hold her to my chest. I wanted so badly to kick my brothers out, giving us the opportunity to talk about everything I saw—everything I knew about her.
She watched me closely for a few stolen moments. I locked my gaze with hers, looking into her eyes, letting her see everything I had in my soul. I wanted her to see all my light, all my dark, everything that haunted and chased me. Awake and asleep…it was her, everything in me was dipped and smothered in her very existence.
She must have found something in my eyes that made her smile, because she tilted her head and spoke softly, “I think I’m going to like you, Cabe.”
She was sincere, curious even. I gave her a grin. “I already like you, lilac girl.”
“Interesting,” she hummed, smiling into her coffee mug. She looked at me for just a second longer before her smile faded into something different, something more sinister, as she looked at Lanier. “What about you, Stony? You going to make this hard on everyone?”
The question was a challenge, a dare—she wanted his fight. He had a look of mischief in his eye, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think he was having a little fun. “I haven’t decided yet, Vix.”
“Fair enough,” she replied, stretching her legs out from underneath her and putting them on the floor. “Start talking, Lanier, we all know you’re the man of the house.”
That comment almost pissed me off until I remembered how true it was. Lanier was our leader, our glue. It didn’t take long for Annalise to realize it, apparently. Without Lanier, I wouldn’t have Quint, and without Quint, I wouldn’t have Lanier. The three of us couldn’t be more different, but he was still the center of our brotherhood.
Looking down at Annalise, I fought the urge to run my fingers through her silky hair. She was so close, and I honestly didn’t think she’d stop me if I did, but something held me back. Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t want my brothers to see my affection toward her, I wanted her to experience everything I had to give before I shared it with my brothers.