Page 39 of Black Curtain

I am not.

You are, though.

Not even slightly. Not even a little.He sank his teeth lightly into my neck, and heat rippled through him, making my breath catch.Go up and deal with your lunatic vampire friend, doc. Or I’m going to go up there, and that will get weird fast. Sex-deprived, half-bonded seers don’t mix well with seer wedding cake and stupid human-vampire feuds––

I burst out in another laugh.

Black went on in that same, deep, lulling tone, even in his mind.

I’m ready to knock Nick and Dex’s heads together as it is. It doesn’t help that you and Jem are such flirty McFlirtysons with one another and have been since you met. I’m fucking horny as hell. I’m pissed off that one of my best friends is locked up in a suite for acting like a homicidal lunatic. I want my goddamned wedding cake. And did I mention I’m deeply deprived?

Flirty McFlirtysons?

Yes. I’m ready to knock Jem’s head against something too.

I smiled, knowing he was kidding that time.

At the same time, I knew there were significantly more real things he’d left off that list of things bothering him. I could feel the emotions behind some of those. Intensely. Like the fact that this friend Cal had died on our trip to California.

“Do we need to go up there?” Black muttered.

I could feel him rethinking the idea of me going up there alone.

He didn’t like the idea of me going alone.

I looked up at him, frowning.

I didn’t really want to go up there without him, either.

I also didn’t want it to be only us.

Jem,I sent impulsively.Change of plans. You and Kiko come up to the suite. Bring Jax with you too. Just so he doesn’t freak out, if nothing else. We’re ALL going.

Jem quirked an eyebrow in the darkness behind my eyes.

All, Miriam?

Yes. Black and me, too.

Clicking out, I looked up at Black.

He was already scowling at me for talking to Jem, folding his arms.

“Okay,” I said, decisive. “We’re going. All of us. Both of us. Right now.”

7

THE LAST CAKE

We brought our cake with us.

Black and I wheeled the whole damned cart across the pool deck, into the resort lobby, and into the service elevator.

We took all of it and ourselves up to the third floor of the resort.

Jem, Jax, and Kiko still managed to beat us there.

They waited for us outside the hotel room door.

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