Page 46 of Incipient

“Were you serious about what you said earlier?” he asked, his eyes pensive and curious. “About incapacitating him until you figure out what to do about him?”

“Why? Do you think it’s a bad idea?”

“Not at all.” His jaw muscle flexed as he studied me. “I think it’s probably the best way to keep you safe right now.”

I made a face letting him know I didn’t appreciate his choice of words.

“I know you don’t need protecting. That’s not what I meant,” he quickly explained. “But right now, Dominic is a liability for you and with everything going on, it’s the last thing you need.”

“True.” I could hardly focus on what was going down with the Horsemen and Nikki or keep an eye on Trace’s mental state while looking over my shoulder at every turn. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that putting Dominic downtemporarilywas the best thing for everyone involved, including himself.

He couldn’t be left to his own device—not in the state he was in, and I had too much going on to babysit him. As it stood, I already had no idea about the body count he and Priscilla were leaving in their wake. But I could imagine…

“It’s not going to be easy,” I said, mostly to myself though. “He’s got his Sire beside him and I’m pretty sure she’ll defend him just as quickly as he would her.” The burn in my chest moved from my heart to my stomach. I hated thinking of them together, which was why I avoided doing it as much as possible.

“So, we divide and conquer,” he answered plainly. “Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“We?” I looked over at him and shook my head. “I’m not involving you in this.”

Trace chuckled darkly. “Take a look around, Jemma. I’m already involved.”

“Okay, well, I’m not involving you anymorethan you already are,” I amended, catching his stare and holding it.

“Are we really going to do this again?” he asked, sounding bored. “You know that if things go south, you’re going to need a quick exit and who better than a Reaper? Come on, Jemma, give me some credit.”

Well, I couldn’t argue that point. But still, I needed to think long and hard about how I was going to go about this and who I was going to involve. The slightest misstep and Dominic would see me coming from a mile away and that was the last thing I needed. If he even suspected I was coming for him…I shivered just thinking about what he’d do to me and the pleasure he’d take from doing it.

The doorbell rang, interrupting our conversation and not a moment too soon. Trace stood up, grabbing his wallet off the table before shuffling out of the living room. I grabbed the remote control from the coffee table and flipped through the channels looking for something interesting to watch before settling on a horror movie. Seemed fitting with Halloween right around the corner and all.

“Nice,” said Trace when he walked back into the room with a large pizza box in hand. “Part two is my favorite.” He tossed the pizza box on the coffee table and then sat down.

“Smells like heaven,” I said as I watched him open the box and spin it toward me. I quickly grabbed a slice and curled back on the couch with it like a squirrel that just scored its winter meal.

Trace grabbed a slice and folded it in half before flopping back on the couch beside me—slightly closer this time. I tried not to pay attention to the fact that his forearm was touching my leg or how nice it felt to be close like this, just eating pizza and watching a scary movie like normal people do.

For the first time in areallylong time, I felt content. Possibly even…happy.

“You gotta watch this part,” he said, bouncing a quick glance at me. “It’s the best scene in the whole movie.”

I smiled as I tried to focus on the scene playing out before me. My attention, however, kept returning to Trace and the way his dimples deepened when he took a bite of his pizza. The way his ebony hair picked up the light from the screen, making it look almost blue-black. The way his arm rested comfortably against my leg as though we’d always been this close. As though there were no other way for the two of us to be.

Frankly, it was damn near impossible to pay attention to the movie.

The doorbell rang again, pulling me out of my stare-fest.

Trace looked over at me with his eyebrows pulled together. “Are you expecting someone?” he asked, his eyes on the hallway now as his jaw hardened into a line.

“Me? This isn’t even my house,” I reminded him stupidly because he obviously knew that.

“Wait here,” he said as he tossed his slice of pizza back into the box and stood up from the couch.

But I was already up and tugging at his arm before he could take a step in either direction. “I’m getting a really bad feeling about this,” I said as my stomach stirred with anxiety.

“Yeah? That makes two of us.” His eyes were trained on the dark hallway, as though he were expecting our unexpected visitor to make an appearance there.

The anxiety intensified, coiling out of my stomach and into the rest of my limbs. “Okay, so let’s just ignore it then,” I suggested, wishing we could just go back to our one normal evening of doing normal teenager stuff. “They’ll go away if we don’t answer.”

“What if it’s one of our friends?” he asked in a tone that told me he didn’t remotely think it was one of our friends.

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