Page 94 of Saving the World and Other Bad Ideas (Grave Concerns 3)

“I deleted it,” Troy added.

“I promptly fed my phone and the message to a gorgon,” Grant said without a speck of regret.

I turned toward Hunter, waiting for his excuse.

He looked around, as if trying to figure out what everyone was talking about. “Wait, we have phones?”

I rubbed my fingers against my temples, reminded that it was far easier to deal with them individually. Together, their difficulty fed off each other and made it worse.

“She said we should take a break,” Grant said.

“Well, I’m glad I never saw it then,” Hunter answered. “I might have had my feelings hurt. If I had any, at least.”

I tucked my phone into my pocket again. “I’m right about this.” When no one answered, I pressed. “Everything was moving so fast. We were thrown into this all. None of youaskedfor this.”

Still nothing.No one spoke, as if I were some child talking gibberish and they were just humoring me.

I threw my arms out. “I’m giving you an out here!”

At that, Kase lifted his eyebrow. “I don’t think I hear anyone asking for an out.”

Finallyit felt like I had a target singled from the herd, so I focused in on Kase. “You hired me for a simple job, and I ended up getting you dragged to hell and back, but then also to purgatory. You really don’t think you want a minute or two to run a pros-and-cons list here?”

“I told you already, Ava, that I have been waiting for you. I waited for centuries on only Gran’s promise that it would be worth it. Do you really believe that after that, I would need even aminuteto decide something I have had decided for hundreds of years?”

It was hard to fight with that. I turned toward Troy, wanting him to at least see reason.

He didn’t even let me talk before he broke in. “You’re my mate.” He said it with a shrug, as if that answered everything.

To him, it did. I recalled the way he’d drawn me back from Lilith’s influence, though, and realized…maybe it answered it to me as well.

“But you hate vampires, and you never wanted to share a mate. You want a simple life, and I’m not simple.”

“I also wanted to be human for a long time after I was turned, and I wanted to shave my head for a while, and I thought socks with sandals were a good idea. People change, we grow, we realize what we thought we wanted wasn’t what we really needed. I need you.” He paused, glancing side to side as if he’d really rathernotsay the next part with an audience but needed to say it more than he needed secrecy. “And you were right—I needed a pack. Never figured it’d be one likethis, but I’m not sorry about it.”

I wanted so badly to argue with him, to explain how wrong he was, but the pack thing got me. For a man who needed that sense of belonging so much, him admitting he’d found it here of all places mattered.

So instead I tried to reason with Grant. “You have a pissed-off guild because of me.”

“To be fair, they’ve been pissed off since I offed the last council. Really, what we did was almost a slap-on-the-wrist offense in comparison. Besides, with you by my side, I have a feeling they’ll think twice about coming after me.”

“Just think about it,” I said.

That was when his smile slid away. “I have. I’ve spent a long time thinking there was something wrong with me, that I was broken in a way that could never be fixed. The thing is, I don’t feel broken, not here, not with you, not even with the boring twins over there.” He hiked a thumb at Troy and Kase. “For the first time, I can go to sleep somewhere and not worry I’m going to have my throat slit. I can fight andknownone of you will stab me in the back as soon as I turn away. I’ve never had that before, and I’ll be damned if I lose it, even for a minute.”

I dropped my head back as I sighed. As much as they were the words I desperately wanted to hear, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were rushing, that this was all a big mistake, and they’d realize it.

At least if they realized it now, it wouldn’t be as bad as if they did years from now, after I’d gotten so used to them that I couldn’t live without them.

Hunter set down his controller, the smirk he wore so often in place. “You know damn well I’m going nowhere, shadow-girl. I’ve been chasing you since I first caught a glimpse of you, and I plan to keep on doing that. So, you want to run? You want to act unsure? I’ve got no problem chasing you again. Besides, I rather like to play with my prey after I catch it.”

And boy, did his confidence just melt my resolve…

Then again, I’d given them the out because I’d wanted them to have a choice, to get the time to think about it, to figure out what they wanted.

And they were being pretty clear, weren’t they?

They wantedme.

---