Page 28 of Flock Around and Find Out

“Does that mean you see what we have as romance?” He cocked a dark eyebrow, the expression taunting and far too sexy.

I released a sound of pure aggravation and considered punching him. It wouldn’t hurt him, of course. He wouldn’t give a damn about it, in fact. It might make me feel better, though.

“I wouldn’t,” he said as he leaned in, whispering the words to me. “If you hit me here, your mother would think awfully poorly of the behavior.”

Which he was completely right about. “If I get kicked out of the party for it, it feels like a win-win for me,” I answered, keeping my voice equally low.

“Grey.” The unhappy response came from my brother, forcing me to step back and turn to face him. And, yep, there was that glare. He was not thrilled with this turn of events. “Could you excuse us?” he asked Kelvin.

“Certainly.” Kelvin nodded, the action unbearably polite, before heading off to speak to my sister.

“What the hell?” my brother asked in an exasperated tone. “Last time you show up with a mind and nowthis?”

“To be entirely fair, I didn’t do this. Mom did this. Go yell at her.”

“Why would I do that? She has no idea who she invited over! You do, though. She might have invited them, butyou’rethe one in contact with them all. You brought that vampire here to start with, and don’t think I don’t recognize a few of the others, either. You knew these Spirits well enough that they decided to attend after getting a call from yourmother.That is very much a you problem.”

Everything he said was true, though it didn’t feel all that fair. It wasn’t like I’d done anything specifically.

“In case you’ve forgotten—I’m a Spirit,” I pointed out, hating that I had to say it.

“Technically.”

“No, not technically. I turn into a crow. Trust me, I’m one. I might not be one of the kinds you’re used to, but that doesn’t mean I’m not one.”

He sighed, his gaze darting away like he wanted to come up with a proper argument. No doubt his issue was that he didn’t want to insult me while he really wanted to insult what I was.

Instead of forcing him to go through those acrobatics, I tried to let him off the hook. “I get it, okay? I didn’t want them here, either. There’s a reason I’ve never invited them over. There’s a reason I’ve never brought them to a get-together. I’ve tried very hard to keep my life separate. I can’t help it that Mom did this, though. You know that you all are important to me—that’s why I’ve tried to keep you away from the Spirit world, why I talked Mom into moving here, to somewhere safer, why I never tried to let anyone find out about you all. I guess I didn’t do a great job. All I can say for sure is that I will keep doing everything I can to keep everyone safe.” I paused, then added on something I doubted he’d believe—I wasn’t sure I did—but something that felt necessary. “And I know you might not trust the people here, but I can say that each of them has helped me, has saved me before. If I really thought you all were in danger from them, I wouldn’t just let this happen, not even now.”

My brother turned his gaze from me to the guests, roaming over each of the people I spoke about. I could almost see the disbelief in his eyes, the way he doubted anything I said about them.

He didn’t know them, though. They were annoying and frustrating and no doubt dangerous, but they weren’t evil. They weren’t heartless. They’d proven again and again that at the end of the day, they had reasons for the things they did.

And I truly didn’t think they’d use my family against me, that they’d do any harm to them.

I wasn’t sure why I thought that, couldn’t defend it with evidence, but it still felt true.

“I guess we’ll see,” he said, then sighed and walked away.

And fuck did that hurt. It felt like failing again, like not living up to what they thought I should do, what they hoped from me. It wasn’t a new feeling, but I wasn’t sure my brother had ever so openly displayed it.

“Are you all right?” Porter’s voice from behind me forced me to suck it up, to not let the hurt show.

Was I all right? No, probably not, but was I ever?

Also no.

“Yeah.” I turned to find Porter still holding Molly, my mom’s cat. The cat hated me—cats usually did—but it seemed to adore Porter. Guess that was the benefit of being a Nature and all. “I’m surprised you came.”

“The call surprised me.”

“And you didn’t let me know when I just saw you.”

“Well, your mother said it was a surprise. I assumed that meant I wasn’t supposed to say anything about it.”

“Traitors everywhere, I swear. Why’d you come?”

He paused, his fingers rubbing Molly behind her ears. “I was curious.”

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