Page 18 of Act of Brotherhood
Nothing.
Strange.
She could have sworn she heard someone walking upstairs.
Clara rubbed the bridge of her nose. “We’re checking your room now, aren’t we? We’re not calling the police, are we? We’re going to be very stupid again, aren’t we?”
Nicolette went to her bedroom door and opened it.
She was instantly hit with an unfamiliar scent. It smelled like cloves, cinnamon, and vanilla. Had someone been baking in her bedroom?
Weird.
“Nicolette?” asked Clara, her voice shaking. “What is it? Are you having a bad vibe? Tell me now so I know to get something to defend us with. Your bad vibes are never wrong.”
Nicolette stepped farther into her room. Her gaze was drawn to the window near her bed. It was wide open. Wind blew in, lifting the curtain and making a framed picture of Nicolette and Clara rattle on the dresser.
She went quickly to the window and looked down at the back courtyard. It was well lit, since she’d only just replaced the bulbs in all the lights the night before. She had to do that a lot. More than she thought was normal. It was easy to see no one was back there.
She turned to face Clara. “I swear I need to get more sleep. I don’t remember opening my window, let aloneleavingit open.”
Clara touched her chest and exhaled loudly. “Nicolette, I love you, but you have got to remember stuff like this. Last week it was the back door. I came home from work and it was standing wide open. I swear this kind of stuff happens monthly anymore.”
She was right. It did.
“Sorry. I got home, showered, and then I came downstairs. I really donotremember opening the window at all.” She looked out it once more, noting just how high off the ground the window was. There was no way anyone climbed in from outside. Unless the person could leap extraordinarily high, no one had gained entrance that way. She laughed softly. “We got spooked over the wind. Hey, maybe a vampire floated up and through the window. You might get your wish for a hottie vamp after all.”
Clara’s eyes widened, and she hurried to the window, pushing Nicolette out of the way and inspecting it herself.
“Relax there, Van Helsing. I think we’re safe from bloodsucking intruders,” said Nicolette as she touched Clara’s arm.
Clara glanced at her. “You’d think. I’m not sure I should go away for work now. I’m supposed to be gone a week. That is a week of you here alone. Who knows what you’ll do by yourself.”
Nicolette laughed. “Because I’m absentminded when it comes to opening and closing things? Not a good enough excuse.”
The doorbell rang.
Nicolette stepped back from the window and headed towards the bedroom door. “Pizza is here.”
“That, or you’re about to answer the door for Jack the Ripper. Girl, you need to learn to have an ounce of self-preservation.”
Nicolette rolled her eyes. “Yes, because I was in so much danger of catching a cold from the window being open. Thanks for the warning. And I’m pretty sure Jack wouldn’t bother to ring the bell.”
Chapter Four
PSI (Paranormal Securityand Intelligence) Division B Headquarters. Location classified.
Garth sat near the bedside of his best friend and former second-in-command and stared at the machines monitoring the man’s condition. The steady, rhythmic beeping had become a comfort of sorts. It meant his friend was alive. And so long as the beeping didn’t change, there was a chance for Gram. The thinnest sliver of hope remained that the alpha male would heal from the incredible amount of damage he’d sustained in a blast that should have killed him just over a week ago.
But with each passing moment, Garth’s hope died a little inside.
Already in the past two days, alarms had gone off more than once, bringing with them various doctors and nurses in the state-of-the-art PSI medical facility. Everyone on staff was top-notch (if you didn’t count the fact Auberi was a doctor there as well), and they worked tirelessly attempting to fix the very broken man before Garth.
Most divisions in the organization had taken to expanding in order to include some level of medical treatment. Though not all divisions had the space to do so, Division B did, so the medical facility was housed within the building.
Division B was newer on the grand scale of things. It had been built with large alpha males in mind. Where some headquarters had tight halls, small rooms, and no elevators, this one was spacious. There was still plenty of room to expand should the need arise. And the elevator held more than one supernatural male. The entranceways had enough clearance that even Garth managed to walk through them without having to duck.
Had he been given a choice, he’d have stopped growing sooner than he had.
