"Just picturing our men and their friends with tails, is all," Jo managed between laughs.
"Oh, my," the other woman, Lenore, if I recalled Drex's description correctly, said, letting out a small giggle. "That would be..."
"Hilarious," Jo supplied, recovering, then turning back to pouring cups of coffee. "I can't imagine watching Ace walk away with a little tail swishing around over his ass."
"In my defense, I imagined a long, you know, Satan-like tail," I said, giving her a smile as she handed me the coffee.
"That's even better," Jo declared, shaking her head.
"Lenore, this is Nova. Nova, Lenore."
"I've heard a lot about you," I told her, giving her a smile as she pushed off the hood of her cloak, revealing a gorgeous face and stunning, long, dark hair. Then there was her little crescent moon tattoo at the top of her forehead, the edges of it sticking into her hair. Drex had been short on physical descriptors of the women in his men's lives.
Jo is blonde, pretty.
Lenore is dark-haired, pretty, and a witch.
Men.
Always leaving out the most interesting parts.
"Oh, so you're the one making Ace miserable which is making Lycus miserable which is making me spend a lot of time outside... 'setting out moon water.'"
"I thought you were actually doing that," Jo said, "not just trying to get away. Otherwise, I would have joined you. The air has been tense around here lately."
"Oh, I was setting out the water. But I have like three year's worth of jars out all around the property by now," Lenore said, looking a little bashful.
"Listen, when you want to get away from the guys for a bit, you need to invite me too. We're so outnumbered here with Red being gone," Jo explained to me.
"But not for long. Now we have Nova," Lenore added.
"Oh, I, ah, I don't know about that. It's not... I don't know what it is," I admitted. "He helped me."
"Right," Jo agreed. "And I think we've established that helping isn't exactly in their nature. So when they do it, they have reasons that aren't selfless. I haven't seen you two together, but from the sounds of things, it is more than you think it is."
"And judging by that flush on your cheeks," Lenore said, giving me a kind smile, "I think you're pleased to hear that."
"It's just... it's been so fast," I told them.
"Well, with our history," Jo said, waving at herself and Lenore, "that seems to be how it is with them. Fast. So fast that you feel like you can't catch your breath. And that it makes no sense because we'd been raised to think love is something that grows, not that is sprung upon you. Life is funny that way, I guess," she added, looking wistfully off toward the front room, likely thinking about her situation with Ace.
One glance at Lenore let me know she was thinking the same about Lycus.
Which gave me a private moment to let myself think about Drex.
It wasn't love. Surely, it wasn't. Even if it wasn't too soon—which it was. But if I were being honest with myself, it was something. I didn't have words to explain it because, quite frankly, I didn't have the experience to draw from.
I went from high school crushes and dalliances with boys who probably forgot all about me in a matter of weeks to being enthralled by vampires who only cared for me because I provided something vital that they needed to survive.
I hadn't known what it was like to have something real with a man.
All I could say was that it was... something. It was something, and it felt significant. And not just because he saved me, not simply because he got me free.
There was something about Drex, something that made me want to be near him, that made me want to go back for him.
I didn't need to.
Any sane woman without feelings would have run from that mansion and never looked back. She would have started her new life and buried all the memories of the past. She would have left Drex in that basement because he'd told her to.
I didn't just want him free because it was the right thing, either.
I wanted him free because I wanted to feel his hands on me again, his lips, his tongue. I wanted to warm my cold feet on his legs. I wanted to have him at my side, demanding I take my iron pills. I wanted to ride on his bike with him. I wanted to explore the world with him.
I just... wanted him.
It was fast and unexpected and it was more overwhelming than it maybe should have been on a rational level. But it was there. And it might lead somewhere big, somewhere that looked a lot like love.
I just wanted a chance to see.
If these stupid freaking demons would get their heads out of their rear-ends and go help their friend, that is.
"Give them another hour of banging their chests," Arick said, putting a hand over mine. "Then they will."
"They will what?" I asked, confused.
"Get their heads out of their... rear-ends," he said, giving me a knowing smile.
"You can read minds?" I asked, horrified at the prospect. Had I thought anything truly humiliating since I'd met the man? Probably. Almost certainly.
"I can... eavesdrop on occasion when the mind is distracted and unaware. Until permission is revoked, of course," he added.
"It's revoked," I said. "No offense, but it's revoked," I told him.
"None taken. I wouldn't want anyone overhearing me wondering if I'd enjoy being spanked by a certain bearded, whiskey-drinking demon either."
"Oh, God," I whimpered, resting my face in my hands.
Had I actually thought that while around him? I guess I had if he overheard it. And, yeah, I'd thought about it. More than a few times.
But I would never get a chance to possibly explore that with him if his friends never, you know, saved him from the basement.
Voices raised and lowered from the front room for another hour or so before Ace emerged, followed by Aram who almost seemed like he was nudging him forward.
"Thanks for waiting, Nova," Aram said, giving me a tight, tired smile. Tired. Likely from battling it out with his unfeeling boss for over an hour. Over something that should have taken mere minutes. "We have come to an... amicable decision," he added, giving Ace's back a careful look as he made his way over toward Jo, stealing her coffee cup.
"Amicable," he scoffed under his breath.
"Acceptable, then," Aram amended. "We are going to request an audience with Renwick."
"What?" I hissed, rising out of my seat.
"Wait," Aram insisted in a strained voice, growing weary of being the calm, rational one, it seemed. "If we charge in and steal what Renwick believes to be a rightful prisoner—based on the story both you and Drex agreed to feed him—then there will be a war that rages for generations. And to be honest, Nova, we're not in the mood."
I guess I had to understand that.
"You think he will be okay with the truth, though?" I asked.
"Okay with might not be the right way of phrasing it, but understanding his previous limited information may make him more malleable to a solution that won't waste all our time and resources to deal with."
"But what if he doesn't agree?" I pressed.