1. Addison

Chapter one

Addison

I n the aftermath of a traumatic event, there are several ways that people might cope. After what happened with Jake in the warehouse, we all agreed that one way for us to cope was to get a fresh start.

My lab was closed after the "break-in" and "vandalism", so I applied for stress leave, using the murder of my study subjects as the excuse. After everything that happened, I had no pushback from the dean. I spent my newfound free time searching for properties for sale near all the universities with acceptable biology departments who would allow my transfer. As it turned out, finding a building that could host our eclectic job requirements as well as house five people was harder than it sounded.

Shockingly, this left us with very few options. After close to a week with no success, I finally asked Piper if he could do… whatever it was he did to help find us a place. He'd done it before. At least that was what Cain said when I asked how he discovered this building. Piper was game, but he had no idea how he found this place either, so it was the blind leading the blind.

In the end, Wyatt suggested that we'd get drunk, give Piper a map, and see what happens. Not exactly the well thought out process I'd been hoping for, but I'd seen the man throw up a spider, so we were well past sanity at that point. We shared a bottle of whiskey and I sat in Piper's lap - he claimed that was to guide the intention but I thought it was just an excuse for him to be handsy - and we all stared at a map and watched Piper work.

Even though it was deliberate this time, it was still a little terrifying when Piper's eyes clouded over and he started mumbling under his breath. One of his arms was wrapped around me, his palm flattened against my stomach to prevent me from moving. We gave him a sharpie, which he clutched, almost forgotten, in his other hand, leaning over toward the map spread out over the coffee table. His breath tickled my ear as he mumbled, communicating with unseen forces, as the sharpie hovered over the map. Nobody moved for fear of breaking the spell, and I saw Cain scowl as a sudden chill dropped down over us. When I exhaled, my breath was visible and Austin shivered, shifting closer to Cain for warmth. I heard whispering, but when I glanced at Piper, his lips were no longer moving, instead he was listening intently to the words that were just out of reach for my normal ears.

We all flinched when Piper's hand jerked and slammed down on the table, hard enough to break the pen. Ink stained his hand, and he dropped the broken pieces on the floor, leaning forward and pressing one blackened finger onto the map, leaving a single fingerprint behind. The frost in the air abruptly dissipated, and I stroked Piper's cheek soothingly as the haze over his eyes began to clear, the blue of his irises visible once more. He clutched me tighter, exhaling a shaky breath and pressing his face into my neck. My skin felt damp, and when I turned to check on him, I noticed tears staining his face.

The next day, Piper had assured me it was nothing, just the stress of the prophecy mixed with too much whiskey.

I'd taken a look at the map, searching online for the area covered by Piper's black fingerprint. It was halfway across the country, and, unfortunately, the map we'd used wasn't overly precise, so his thumb print covered nearly half of the city it had landed on. It took me another day to search the entire area online, but I finally managed to find a building for sale that fit our needs… well, oddly perfectly. The main floor was designed for a business. It had an open-floor concept with plenty of space for both Wyatt and Austin to see clients simultaneously. There was no basement in this place, which was fine with me. I wasn't going to miss that alley stairwell one bit. The second floor had a kitchen, a living room space, and one smaller bedroom off to the side, and the floor above it had the master bedroom and two additional bedrooms. When I pointed out the math problem of five people and four bedrooms to Cain, he just shrugged and pointed out the ridiculously cheap asking price. I guess for that sort of steal, we could afford to just build another fucking room if we had to.

Cain had called the realtor that afternoon and signed the paperwork that very evening. The next week was a messy blur. Wyatt had to contact his existing clients and give them the news that he was moving and he shut down their website, opting to start from scratch with a whole new one. I applied for a transfer to the university two blocks away from the new place. When they asked why, I lied and told them I was moving to be closer to family, after all that had happened. I knew none of it was actually their fault, but the guilt-trip was enough to get them to push through the transfer so I'd be all set up there once my stress leave was up.

Packing up the current house was easy enough. Most of the furniture was fine to leave behind. A lot of it had been found or stolen over the years and held no sentimental value. Cain was able to find a buyer who agreed to take the place furnished, although I think he was mainly excited about the pool table, which was too heavy to take with us, anyway. We rented one of those moving vans, and I boxed up everyone's clothing while Cain and Wyatt loaded up the tattoo benches and all their equipment. Going through everyone's clothes was an eye-opening experience, and I made a mental note to go shopping and get everyone some new things.

One thing we had to problem-solve was Austin's… pets. Wyatt had mentioned that when I had been abducted, they'd gotten a rough estimate of just how many snakes were actually living in Austin's room. None of us were trained in animal transport, and I knew leaving them behind was absolutely not an option. In the end, I rounded up a bunch of boxes and stuffed the bottoms with Austin's clothes, and he coaxed them into their temporary transport homes. We loaded them up last, first thing in the morning while it was still dark and the street was relatively empty. It took all of us to pack the boxes into the van, and they took up more room than the rest of our stuff combined. Once the last of them were loaded up, Austin climbed inside and we locked the door. It wasn't the safest, but Austin figured they'd be calmer if he stayed with them. I thought that was a better option than having venomous snakes loose and angry in a moving vehicle.

We took one last look at the building that had housed them for so many years, and had welcomed me in so recently. My gut clenched when I saw the smiley-face painted on the side, fading now after a couple of rainy days. I didn't think anyone was particularly sad to leave, not after everything that had happened. A fresh start was exactly what we needed. I hopped in the van with Cain. Wyatt and Piper followed behind in Cain's car. We had GPS'd the route, and the drive was doable in one shot, as long as everyone was comfortable with an eighteen hour drive. With a van full of what I can only assume were very illegal snakes, we were all willing to risk a little bit of exhaustion to get this done as quickly as possible.

The ride was long, but blissfully uneventful. After the last month, we were all content with a little boredom. Cain was as taciturn as usual, and I kept an eye on him as he drove, making sure he didn't nod off or close his eyes for too long. I could've sworn he didn't sleep anymore, even though Jake was long gone. All I could do was hope that the new place would give him the sense of security we were all missing. We only stopped for caffeine and the occasional bathroom break. Cain refused to let anyone take over driving the van, so I didn't press the issue, sticking to giving him directions and checking on Wyatt and Piper in the mirror.

We arrived at our new place just after midnight. Cain fished the keys out of the lockbox, and we got the door open. He and Wyatt went in ahead of us and checked the place out, making sure no one had gotten inside and was waiting to surprise us. After everything, I was okay with them being overcautious, even if it meant sitting outside in the chilly van while nursing stiff legs from the long drive. As soon as we got the all-clear from them, I unlocked the van and woke Austin up. He was curled up with his boxes of snakes, tucked in a pile of blankets we'd left out for him to be comfortable. All I wanted to do was find a relatively clean space inside and fall asleep, but we didn't know the area well enough to leave all of our possessions in the van.

Starting with the boxes of snakes, we unloaded our things into the new space. We chose a room on the third floor for Austin and brought his snakes and his heaters directly up there. It was the smaller of the rooms, but it was directly over the kitchen and would stay the warmest, which was exactly what the cold-blooded reptiles needed.

I left Austin to sort out his friends and started bringing in the boxes of clothes and toiletries while Wyatt and Cain brought the tattoo benches inside. On my seventh trip up the stairs, I found Piper sitting alone on the kitchen floor, mumbling to himself with his eyes closed. I left him alone since he didn't seem to be in any immediate danger and continued dropping off boxes in everyone's rooms. Just like in the old place, Cain wanted the room off the kitchen/living area, preferring the privacy. I dropped off his boxes and brought Piper's upstairs, leaving his meager box of personal effects in the room next to Austin's.

Mine and Wyatt's boxes went into the master bedroom for now since we still hadn't quite figured out the bedroom arrangements. It would matter a little more when the furniture Cain ordered was delivered, but at least there was a walk-in closet in the room that would store our things while we sorted it out. It was after 3 a.m. by the time the van and the car were emptied out, which meant we'd been up nearly twenty-four hours straight. I could barely form a coherent sentence, and Piper seemed to have passed out on the kitchen floor after his… meditation?

Gathering up some blankets from one of the boxes, I draped one over him to keep him warm. I found Cain and Wyatt down in the shop area, sprawled out on the tattoo benches in the middle of the room. I checked to make sure the vehicles were locked up, and locked the front doors, making sure that the key was accounted for. Wyatt was passed out already, snoring softly as he lay on his stomach across the bench. I tossed a blanket over him and brought the last one over to Cain, who was laying down but still awake, watching me silently.

"How are you not asleep already?" I murmured, unfolding the blanket. I moved to throw it over him, but his hand shot out, catching my hip and pulling me on top of him. He must have been beyond exhausted, he wasn't normally a snuggly guy. I relaxed in his arms, stretching out my body half on top of him, half on the tattoo bench. It wasn't the most efficient bed, but at this point I was just happy it wasn't the floor. I closed my eyes and buried my face against his neck, already warming up as the heat oozed off his skin. Cain's hands idly trailed up my back as I dozed off in his arms, listening to Wyatt's soft breathing next to us.