“Hey, man…” Sam straightened up, his arm tightening around me. Cas ignored him and went to hit the wall again, but Amadi got to him first and caught his fist.
“Cas, calm down.” Cas wrenched his hand from Amadi’s and stamped out of the room without looking back. Amadi and Alex followed him, catching Sam’s eye as they left. He nodded at them. Clearly, he was my designated driver. I grabbed the whisky again, chugging a few gulps before Sam tipped it away from my mouth.
“Do you really need to?” He looked sad. I could see my fight with Cas had shaken him up. Well, maybe it was time he learned what his friend was really like.
I shook his hand off and took another drink. “Yeah, if I want any sleep.”
“I wish you guys would sort out wherever it is between you. I’ve not seen him that angry for a long time.”
I took another drink and stared at the bottle. “Nothing to sort out. He’s a dickhead, I’m not interested in being friends. He can just stay away from me.”
“Faith, don’t be like that.”
I glared up at him. “Like what?”
“So mad at him. He’s just angry you never told him. He could have helped.”
“Sam, Cas would never have helped me. And don’t buy into the caring bullshit. Not that it’s any of your damn business, but he’s a fucking bastard, and this whole protector thing he’s got going is just a pile of crap. He fucked me over once, and I am never, never going to let him do it again. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get some sleep before we carry on with this shitshow tomorrow.” He regarded me for a moment, then reached out and touched my face. I jerked away from him. Not in the mood, idiot.
He sighed. “Fine, I’ll leave you to it, and I’ll see you in the morning. I hope you get some proper sleep.”
I ignored him, taking another long drink of whisky before sticking the bottle back on my nightstand and curling up under the duvet. I squeezed my eyes shut. He didn’t say anything more, and I heard the door click behind him before the sound of his footsteps faded down the hall. Only then did I let the tears fall.
Chapter Fourteen
FAITH
I opened my eyes and glanced around the room. Empty. I considered getting up, but instead I lay there, staring at the ceiling and cringing as I thought about the night before. My stomach rumbled, since I could hear a frying pan sizzling and cutlery and crockery crashing together in the kitchen below me. Light filled the room, pouring over the tops of the curtains. They’d obviously let me sleep in. Dragging myself out of bed, I grabbed a towel and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower. I let the hot water stream over my face as I thought over what had transpired with Amadi and Alex. A part of me was horrified at my behaviour. I mean, I’d had one-night stands before, but two guys at the same time was new for me, and the fact that they were a couple was throwing me. I closed my eyes, hoping it wasn’t going to be awkward with all three of us in the house. They had both seemed up for it. Very up. I grinned as I rubbed the shampoo through my hair. To be honest, it was exactly what I’d needed to clear my head and at least let me fall asleep without worrying. It was just a shame the feeling hadn’t lasted. I sighed and leaned against the tiles. I really, really wished they hadn’t all overheard me screaming during my nightmares. The memory of them all standing around my bed and looking down at me made me cringe. I supposed it was best they knew how nuts I was before we all got friendly. Rinsing off my hair, I stepped out of the shower, grabbed my towel, and rubbed it gently over my hair. A familiar, painful, banging sensation was forming behind my eyes, and I briefly wondered exactly how much of the whisky I’d downed before passing out. A lot, it would seem.
Heading back to my room, I pulled out some clothes. Someone had been in and had hung all my clothing up in the wardrobe. I deliberated what to wear for a few moments. Nothing too fancy, just jeans and a T-shirt. I didn’t want to look like I was trying to attract anyone. Okay, okay, I might have been trying a little. I mean, come on. There were four hot guys downstairs. Five if you counted the arsehole I knew was in the house somewhere, even if I hadn’t seen him recently. I braided my hair in a long tail down my back to keep it out of my way, and pulled on fresh underwear and my favourite worn blue jeans. The rips in them showed a decent amount of leg, and they were so old and soft they felt like a comfort blanket.
My back was itching, so I reached behind me, trying to scratch it, but it was right at that point where I couldn’t reach no matter what strange positions I got into. I decided to corner Sam when I got downstairs. He’d be happy to help. I smiled at the thought that Sam was always trying to touch me. Not in a sexual sense, necessarily, he just seemed to love physical contact, whether it be holding my hand, having his arm around me, or even just brushing his hand against my lower back as he walked past. I had thought it might get annoying, but so far, I loved it. It made me feel... cared for. I grabbed a T-shirt and pulled it over my head. Glancing in the mirror, I tucked the front into my jeans and slipped a black leather belt around my hips. I smiled at my reflection. The shirt was one of my favourites—nothing like Iron Maiden to get you in a good mood for the day.
Padding quietly downstairs on bare feet, I headed for the kitchen. I took a deep breath and walked in, expecting them all to stare at me. I’d had similar reactions in the past when people witnessed my night terrors, but I wanted these guys to understand and not think I was crazy. I paused in the doorway. Amadi was standing by the cooker, busying himself, and Alex leaned against the worktop next to him, his hands wrapped around a mug. Alex glanced up and smiled as I stood there, and Amadi turned to see me and did the same, holding up a dripping ladle. “Hey, Faith! American pancakes today. Do you want a couple?”
I smiled back, relieved they weren’t giving me the freak stare. “Well, it depends... Do you have any syrup? Please don’t tell me you’re those weirdos who only eat it with savoury stuff like bacon!” Amadi stood back to let me see the pan of bacon sizzling on the hob, and I groaned.
“What’s wrong with pancakes and bacon?” he asked, turning to flip the pancakes in the larger frying pan. “The Americans eat them that way all the time.”
“And they’re welcome to, but for me, pancakes should be sweet. I mean, really sweet, sweet like you get a rush from that amount of sugar.”
Amadi laughed and gestured for me to take a seat. “There’s syrup on the table, Faith. Knock yourself out, but I’ve got some extra crispy bacon just in case you want it.”
I grinned and took a seat at the table. Cas was already sitting there, scrolling through his phone. Part of me thought about sitting as far away as possible, but the other part still wanted to act as if nothing had happened, so I took the chair next to him. His eyes flicked up as I sat down.
“How did you sleep?” His voice was more gravelly than usual, and he had dark rings under his eyes. His normal get-up had been abandoned in favour of a white T-shirt and grey sweats. He looked exhausted. I felt a pang of guilt for keeping him awake so long. Actually, no, I didn’t. He’d been an arsehole last night, he deserved to be tired.
“Much better, thanks. The whisky really helped.” I winced. “Got a thumping headache this morning though. Lost my tolerance from relying on sleeping pills.” He smiled and raised his eyes to the door behind me. I turned to see Sam walking into the kitchen. Even with a hangover, I could still appreciate the sexiness of a man in ripped jeans and an open shirt, especially with that body underneath. He pulled out the chair next to Cas and threw something across the table at me, narrowly missing the jug of orange juice and the bottle of syrup. I put my hands up automatically, and by some amazing feat of reflex, I actually managed to catch it. Glancing down, I laughed. It was a box of paracetamol. I looked up and grinned at him.
“Thanks, Sam, you’re a star.” I poured myself a glass of orange juice and took a couple of the tablets. The juice was fresh and sweet and cut through the fluffiness of my mouth brought on by the hangover. I set the empty glass down on the table and looked up at his baby blue ey
es.
“Sam, would you be a sweetie and scratch my back for me? It’s really itchy again, and I just can’t reach it.” I smiled as his eyes lit up, and he put his own glass of juice down.
“Anything for you, baby girl.”
Standing, I tugged my shirt out of my jeans at the back. His warm hands slid up my spine, and I shivered slightly, loving the feel of his hands on me. “A bit farther up, just round my shoulder blades. Left a bit... Ohh...” I closed my eyes and groaned as he raked his nails gently over my skin, relief spreading through me. He scratched a bit more, then moved his hands up to rub my shoulders, and I leaned back against him, not wanting to miss a moment as his fingers dug into my muscles.
“Um... Faith?” Amadi’s voice cut through my bliss, and I opened my eyes to see him standing across from me holding a plate of pancakes, wearing a grin. His eyes were not on my face, however, and I dropped my gaze to see that Sam’s ministrations had managed to drag my T-shirt up. I was now giving the entire room a view of my breasts. I silently thanked providence that I was wearing one of my nice lace bras rather than a sports bra, but quickly dragged my top back down again.
Cas cleared his throat and passed me another glass of juice. “Here, we’ve got plenty, and it’ll bring your sugar levels back up. Make you feel less nauseous.”
I nodded and sat down, wondering exactly when the aliens were bringing the real Cas back. He was being disturbingly pleasant. As if he read my mind, he smiled and glanced back down at his phone. “Sam, are you okay to do patrols with Amadi again today? Hargreaves wants me in, probably to babysit the pigeon upstairs.”
Sam rolled his eyes. “You need to cool it with Euriel before you get us all into trouble with Upstairs, but yeah, that’s no problem. Are we checking out that club in the West End?”
Cas nodded, still staring at his phone.
“Not a problem for me,” Amadi added, placing a plate of fluffy American pancakes in front of me. “The only training sessions I had today were for Max and Iladiel, and they’ve sworn off due to injury. Bloody wolves.”
Sam glanced up. “Wolves?”
Amadi slid a plate to him. “Yeah, not your lot though. Just a few youths trying to throw their weight around.” His brown eyes flashed back to me and he grinned. “Big fuckers, them wolves, but rather cocky. Didn’t think they’d get their asses handed to them by a vampire and an angel.” He chuckled and turned to pour a new batch.
I stared at his back, then looked over to Sam who was tucking into his pancakes. The uncultured swine was having bacon and syrup. Weirdo. “Um... vampires? They’re real too?”
Alex, who was pulling out the chair next to me, paused. “They’re real.” He pushed the chair back in and headed towards the doorway.
“Is everything real? The whole garlic, crosses, and wooden stake thing?”
Sam looked up from his pancakes. “Nah, garlic won’t do squat. Crosses, well, it depends. Your average two bits of wood nailed together won’t do anything, but a cross used and blessed by a priest might prove uncomfortable, especially to younger vampires. Wooden stake... I guess most things would die if you shoved a piece of wood through their hearts.”
I nodded. “That’s... fair enough. And they don’t really…” I looked down at my pancakes.
“Don’t really what?” Cas asked, looking up from his phone.
“Um... it doesn’t matter.” I could feel myself reddening.
“No, what were you going to ask?” Sam pressed.
I looked up at him, and the grin on his face made me blush harder. Looking around, I could see all the guys staring at me—even Alex had stopped on his way out of the room and was watching me intently. “Fine. Umm, I was going to ask if... they... um... could go in sunlight and if they could... if they…” I paused.
“Go on,” Sam urged, his grin getting wider. I let out my breath.
“I was going to ask if they sparkled.” They’d strung it out long enough that I was expecting the explosion of laughter that filled the room. My face flamed, and I took a big bite of pancake drizzled in syrup, ignoring the surrounding noise. Cas leaned back in his chair, roaring with laughter, Amadi was chuckling away, and Sam was actually crying. Git. Wasn’t that funny. I glanced over at Alex. He wasn’t laughing, but if looks could kill, the other guys would have turned to ash on the spot. He grabbed the chair next to me and pulled it out, sliding into it gracefully.
“Pay up!” Sam croaked at the head of the table. To my horror, Cas and Amadi pulled their wallets out of their pockets and passed over twenties. Sam made a big show of checking for forgeries before folding them into his own wallet. I busied myself with my pancakes, ignoring Sam as he sent a gleeful look my way. Alex sighed, and the next thing I knew, Alex was passing across his own twenty.
I put my knife and fork down and glared at him. “You too?”
He shrugged. “Hey, I bet you wouldn’t be dumb enough to ask.”
I opened my mouth to retort but reconsidered. It had been a pretty dumb question.
He watched me take another bite before adding softly, “In answer to the first question—which wasn’t dumb at all—whether or not a vampire can go out into the sunlight depends on how old and strong they are. A newly made immortal won’t even be able to stand the slightest amount of daylight at first, whereas an immortal who is much older, say a few hundred years, can go out on an overcast day and be fine. I haven’t ever met an immortal who is comfortable in strong sunlight. I think they’d have to be ancient and extremely strong to bear that.”
“That makes sense. But it must be awful to never feel the sun.” I took another bite. “I mean, I do relate. My skin is so white it practically glows in the dark.” Alex’s gaze seemed to darken, and I felt his eyes drop, lingering over the pale skin of my throat and arms, and I shivered slightly, remembering those beautifully curved lips trailing up my thighs to —
“Faith, is that okay with you?” Cas’s voice interrupted my thoughts, and I turned to see him watching me.
“Um... sorry... you lost me.” I took a last mouthful of delicious sweetness.
“He asked if you were okay with me taking you into Concordia today to meet with Deliah, since everyone else is busy,” Alex interjected smoothly.
I looked over at Cas and swallowed my pancake. “Who’s Deliah again?”
“She’s Hargreaves’ second-in-command. Another witch. Very powerful. Some say she’s more powerful than Hargreaves himself,” Amadi said, sitting down with his own pancakes. No bacon. Not too weird then, horns and glowing blue tattoos aside.
“Yeah, she’s a serious player. Mind what you say to her. You don’t want to piss her off.” Sam stood and started loading the dishwasher.
Cas snorted. “She’s a real sweetheart, don’t listen to them.”
Sam turned and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, she is when you’re her favourite. The rest of us cower in fear.”
Cas grinned and shrugged. “What can I say? She loves me.”
I glanced down at my empty plate, chasing a smear of syrup with my finger, trying to ignore the slight twinge of something that definitely wasn’t jealousy. “So why do I need to meet her if I already met Hargreaves?”
“It was my idea.” Alex slid the plate out from under me and passed it to Alex. “I thought she might be able to find out something about your dreams. Deliah’s pretty good at reading people and tapping into the subconscious. If they’ve been bothering you this long, and if it’s taking heavy sleeping pills and a lot of alcohol to knock you out enough to sleep through the night, there’s definitely something not quite right there. From what we now know about you, it might be a side effect of the spell that was on you for so long, and she might know how we can stop the nightmares from happening again. That’s what Cas meant last night when he said he could have helped you.”
“Oh, I see.” I didn’t dare look at Cas. The idea of never having the nightmares again had me excited, but I was somewhat concerned at the idea of some woman poking around in my head. Especial
ly a woman that seemed to like Cas immensely. Not that I was bothered about that.
Alex put his hand on my leg in a comforting gesture. “Don’t worry, Deliah is powerful and slightly intimidating, I’ll admit, but Cass is right—she is a sweetheart, and I’m sure she’ll want to help.”
I smiled at him. “It’s fine, bring it on. Anything to get rid of these damn nightmares. Besides, she might even be able to show me how to use some of these powers I apparently have.”
All four guys looked at me as I said that, and I laughed at the identical expressions of panic on their faces. Alex stood up again. With a smile and a wave at the others, I followed him outside. A large gravel driveway led up to the house. Cas’s bike stood to one side, and Sam’s VW camper on the other. Alex led me around the camper, and I whistled quietly.
“Nice,” I murmured, fully approving of the sleek black Jaguar E-type. He smiled, clearly happy with my appreciation.
I grinned at him. “You should smile more.”
He opened the door for me, gesturing for me to get in. “Should I?”
I slid onto the cream leather seat. “Yes. You’re pretty damn cute when you smile.”
Alex stared at me. “Cute?”
I laughed. He closed the door, walked around to the driver’s side to climb in beside me, and started the engine, which came to life with a gorgeous rumble.
He shook his head again as he pulled away from the house. “I can’t believe you called me cute.”
I sat quietly for a bit, slightly unsure how to act around him. I mean, we shared a pretty intimate experience together, but then his... boyfriend? Partner? Had been there too, so where did that leave us?
I must have been quiet for some time, because Alex glanced over at me. “You okay?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m fine.”
He smiled, though he kept his eyes on the road. I noticed he was much more of a careful driver than Cas. My gaze drifted down his navy shirt to where his hands rested on the steering wheel. His fingers were long and graceful, his nails well-manicured. He seemed very different to Cas and Sam and even Amadi, who were all very physical. Cas and Amadi had the bodies of men who loved being in the gym lifting weights. Sam was more slender, and I knew his six pack and beautifully sculpted arms came from practically living in the sea with his surfboard. Though maybe the wolf thing had something to do with his physique—wolves were usually very lean. Alex, on the other hand, was slim, though just as toned as the others. I guessed he wasn’t as physically active as the rest of them. His hands were more used to computers than weights, though they were definitely skilled. I shivered, remembering the feel of them dancing over my clit...
Nephilim the Awakening (Wrath of the Fallen Book 1) Page 13
