Page 94 of The Succubi's Choice

“Sorry,” she says, shivering from the cold a bit. He releases her, and she grabs the fluffy blanket from the couch. “It wasn’t planned?”

Jacqueline’s just standing behind them, giving them a wide-eyed look, changed into her normal clothing. If Miri hadn’t seen her with her own eyes, she would have never known she spent the night.

Gabriel’s face twists, like he’s about to cry for a brief second but doesn’t, before it smooths out. “Still. Something. A text, a note, something.”

She nods, and he lets her shoulders go, before returning to the kitchen and grabbing his coffee.

“It sounded like you were arguing,” he says, and there’s even more stress in his voice than she feels the surprise warrants. “And then you were gone.”

“He was freaking out again,” Jacqueline says, her voice in much more control than Gabriel’s. “Be really glad he didn’t call Lundy or anything.”

“Thanks for that, we were just discussing runes.” She points to the door jamb, not quite willing to divulge the computer system and the surprise she got. “Guess what, we have a bit of extra protection now.”

That gets Jacqueline’s attention like she knew it would, and Jacqueline all but cranes her neck to look up at the post-it notes. “Those do something?” She breathes, pretty ecstatic.

“Yeah, it’s like magical math.” She smirks at Gabriel, who narrows his eyes at her, seeing exactly what she’s doing. “Different symbols do different things, mean different warnings, apparently one will text Gabe if I get in trouble, so that’s nifty.”

Jacqueline glances at her, back at the door, then back at her. “Is there a book...”

“I can borrow one from work,” she says.

Her work, where she now knows how to get rid of her record. Her record and anyone else’s.

Still, Gabriel rolls his eyes at her, then lowers his voice, letting Jacqueline examine the post-it notes in peace. “Please don’t disappear again,” he says, low. “Not with everything that’s happened.”

There’s a lot of friendship and years of understanding packed into that little plea, and she nods. “I’ll try my best.” She pokes him in the shoulder, and he narrows his eyes at her playfulness, probably a bit more pissed off than she’s giving him credit for. “So you guys are sleeping together?”

“I’m not talking about that.” They both watch as Jacqueline grabs a chair and drags it over to stand on underneath the door. “But yeah.”

She does a fake punch to his shoulder, and he scowls at her.

“Why did he take you away?” Because of course he would pick up on that detail. “If he was just showing you runes...”

“it’s complicated, but we did ‘make out’,” she says, and he doesn’t take the bait. “I’m safe, I swear.” Though she does have to text Katya, and the idea of doing so sits poorly with her stomach, makes her twist with something resembling guilt.

He said he wouldn’t hurt her.

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