36. Callie

Iawoke in a cold sweat and pushed myself upright, frowning around at the dark room. It felt like hours had passed even though the dreams had only seemed to take minutes. I guessed I’d gotten some proper sleep between them too, my body making the decision to rest despite my own urge to get moving as quickly as possible.

“Julius?” I hissed as my heart pounded in excited relief. Magnar was alright. And we knew where Valentina was holding him and Erik.

“I don’t wanna eat the little slice, ‘snot fair,” Julius mumbled sleepily.

I wondered what his dreams would be like to visit and imagined they contained a hell of a lot of food.

Shoving the covers off of me, I ran across the room. I nudged him in the leg with my foot to wake him properly and I could make out his silhouetted form rising onto his elbows.

“Julius, I found Magnar,” I said loudly, offering him a hand.

“You did? Where is he?” He took my palm in his and I heaved him upright.

I swept my hand over the wall in search of the light switch but I couldn’t find it so I gave up again, cursing the strange room. If they didn’t waste so much space then things like that would have been a lot easier to find. My old room in the Realm had been so cramped that the idea of losing something in it was ludicrous.

“Valentina’s got them in some underground train station. I showed Clarice in her dream and she knows where it is. She’s calling the others and coming here in a minute.” I moved away from him in search of some clothes, squinting in the dim light as I navigated the unfamiliar room.

I made it to the heavy wardrobe just before the door to the room flew open and the lights flicked on.

“Oh!” Clarice gasped and I turned around to see what had surprised her. My mouth fell open as I spotted Julius standing in front of her butt-naked. Luckily his back was to me so I could only see his ass but Clarice was staring right at him front-on and she didn’t seem too upset about it either.

“Right, I forgot about that - I can’t sleep properly with clothes on,” Julius said dismissively. “But feel free to take a picture if you want it, whore, because you won’t be seeing it again any other way.”

He moved to retrieve his jeans from the floor and I looked away before I saw any more of him than I wanted to. I opened the wardrobe and sighed in frustration as I found it empty.

“I don’t want to see your cock again,” Clarice spat angrily. She was wearing a white nightdress that actually made my own outfit look modest but she didn’t seem the slightest bit ashamed about it. “And believe me it’s nothing special; I have had countless lovers over the last thousand years and there is nothing particularly impressive about any aspect of you.”

“Mmmhmm, maybe you could look me in the eye while saying that if you want me to believe it instead of eye fucking me with your tongue hanging out.”

“What the fuck is going on here?” Fabian growled as he elbowed his way into the room and Julius pulled his pants up.

“Oh great, Fabio is here for the cock-watch safari,” Julius announced.

“Apparently savages like to sleep naked like wild animals,” Clarice said to her brother in disdain.

“Oh yeah I’m a wild animal alright. But that’s what you were hoping for wasn’t it?” Julius taunted.

“You arrogant-”

“Can we focus on the reason you’re here?” I interrupted, not wanting to hear any more of their pointless back and forth. “We know where Magnar and Erik are. We need to make a plan and get moving. And I need clothes.”

Fabian crossed the room to stand beside me and I eyed him carefully, wondering if he’d gotten over his anger with me yet. I was using the ring to shield all of us now so he wasn’t staring at me like he loved me at least. Thankfully his rage didn’t appear to be present anymore either. Hopefully he could forget about it while we had more important things to deal with.

“You found Erik?” Montana asked excitedly as she tore into the room in a rush of motion. It was so strange to see her using her vampire abilities like that. She was somehow this entirely new thing as well as still being the same as always.

She was wearing pink pyjamas which were as revealing as mine but had found a black sweatshirt to help conserve her modesty a little. It didn’t look like she’d done much sleeping; her hair was still perfect and she seemed wide awake. Then again, maybe that was a vampire thing.

At least my headache was gone and my strength had been replenished. I was sure I could have rested for longer given the chance, but it would have to be enough.

“I found Magnar in his dreams,” I explained. “And he showed me where Valentina took them, then I showed Clarice so-”

“So now we can head there and kill that bitch,” Montana growled fiercely and I smiled at her in total agreement.

“We need to be smart about this,” Clarice said. “We don’t want them to realise we’re coming. If we-”

Miles and Warren shot into the room, a breeze rustling the edge of my shorts as they stopped beside me and I flinched away. They both wore sweatpants and t-shirts and their hair was dishevelled, making me think they’d dressed hastily before joining us.

“What have we missed?” Miles asked.

Clarice sighed loudly. “For the final time, I was just explaining that-”

The lights suddenly flickered and died overhead.

I stilled, looking around in confusion as we listened to the pressing silence. A cold hand found mine in the dark and I flinched as Fabian pulled me behind him.

“Stay close to me,” he breathed. “I fear that danger has come to our door once again.”