Chapter 20

Brooklyn

"You should"ve seen it, Brooklyn." Alice stood in the middle of the kitchen, waving her hands excitedly while the rest of us stood, watching her with smiles on our faces. Her happiness was contagious, and we could all use some of that right now.

"Like one second, I was so afraid I thought I was going to scratch myself out of my skin so I can get away." Sinking her fingers into the thick of the wolf who was sitting next to her patiently, she shook her head. "I think it was the fear that made that magic so powerful, you know. He was coming at me, and I was sure I was going to die, so I just slammed my hands into his chest. And boom! It flung him all the way to the house." Throwing her back, she laughed so hard tears were streaming down her face.

"Oh, we heard it." I told my friend." I am grateful that you are well and alive. I would give anything to have seen that."

"The human is all grown up." Dominic smirked, when Alice gaped at him, her jaw hitting her chest. "She doesn"t need our protection anymore."

"I would"ve happily let you deal with it, Dominic. Don"t be an ass." Rolling her eyes, Alice pulled the wolf with her so she could come join us at the table.

"The human has been prickly since yesterday. Maybe we should feed her. She might learn manners then." Samir's voice came out muffled since half of his body was inside the fridge where he was searching for ingredients for whatever he was cooking.

"I scratch and bite, as well." She told him and stuck her tongue out at his back.

Very slowly, Samir, straightened to his full height and turned to face Alice with a look I couldn"t decipher. "You"ll crawl and beg, too, Human." He promised.

I had a sinking feeling he had no intention of hurting my friend. Not in a way that she will not enjoy it anyway. Watching her face go red confirmed my suspicions that something was going on between them.

"The sexual tension in this house is thick enough to be cut with a knife." Echo leaned towards Chester and whispered conspiratorially. "And they think demons are sinful."

Everybody laughed at that, and the tension that was twisting the muscles between my shoulders eased a little. I felt calmer, but that could be because the mate bond was in place and filling Dominic as if he was a part of me made me content. Hopefully, it won"t interfere with my reflexes and I might survive the next encounter with the Syndicate or the Council.

Speaking of which.

"What"s the plan now?" I looked at everyone since we were all in the same bag according to the Council.

We disposed of most of the Guardians that attacked us the night before, but I was pretty sure that a couple of them got away. After all, the Council valued information more than anything these days. They couldn"t stay one step ahead if they didn"t know what was coming after them.

And I was there at the top of the list.

"Does this happen often?" Echo glanced from me to Dominic. "How often do they come and attack this place?"

"They have never attacked here." I told the demon. "We should"ve been more careful when I brought you here. I think we were followed."

"That would explain it." Samir never missed an opportunity to look down his nose at any of us. "You're growing complacent, Brooklyn. It can cost us all of our lives."

"Not all of it would be a loss then, would it?" Baring my teeth at him in a resemblance of a smile, I couldn"t stop the happiness I felt when he glowered. "Don"t worry, Samir will make sure to protect you. No big bad wolf will be coming for that grandma."

"I"m rubbing off on her." Alice leaned across the table to whisper to Echo. "She makes me so proud. You should"ve seen her before, she had a stick up her ass just like Samir. I think it's an Atua thing." Stretching as far as she could without laying out fully on the table, she lowered her voice even more." They're vampires. but you know, let them call themselves whatever they want." With an exaggerated wink, she slid back into her chair and lifted a finger to her lips.

"Anyway. Where was I?" Smacking Dominic's chest with the back of my hand to stop his chuckling, I stabbed Samir with a pointed look. "You know this is not going to stop. Now that they have attacked this house once, we will have defend it every night."

"The best way to win with the bully is to change the rules of the game." Rowen didn"t even turn from his task of stirring the sauce over the stove. "If we have learned anything so far, it is that the Council is not good at defense. They will stick to the attacks to keep us occupied so we don"t go knocking on their door." Finally, he glanced at me. "Let"s not be afraid to disappoint them."

"I was thinking the same." And I nearly laughed when the witch looked like he was about to faint from my admission. "I"m not that much of a horrible person, Rowen, am I? I can admit If I"m wrong, or if I agree with something you say."

"It"s the sex." Alice whisper-yelled, cupping her mouth as if that will prevent me from hearing it. "I"m pretty sure they had it last night."

When she saw my glare, she offered me a sweet, innocent smile. "I would agree you"re not a bad person at all. I mean you"re my bestie, so, hello."

From the corner of my eye, I could see that Dominic was biting his lips in a pathetic attempt, not to smile. Which obviously made me want to punch him even more. Chester was grinning from ear to ear while giving a thumbs up to my mate, and I was grateful when Echo elbowed him to stop the nonsense.

"What I never had a chance to explain was the reason why I brought Echo and Chester here." Leaning both elbows on the table, I took a deep breath and explained everything the demons told me after they brought me to their home.

A sea of emotions played across the faces of everyone present, including the few growls and whines coming from the wolf who was sprawled across Alice"s feet. Anger I could deal with, and I welcomed it whenever I saw it burning in my friends' eyes. It was the concern that worried me the most. Especially, when Samir tried to avoid my gaze.

"Now would be the time to share whatever it is that you know, Samir." Keeping eye contact, I allowed him a little bit of time to collect his thoughts. The battle was evident in his irises, but we did not have the luxury to play a guessing game. He was right in what he said.

The Council was never going to stop coming after us.

"The cages and the creatures were Frederick"s pet project." With a sigh, Samir dragged himself to the closest chair and plopped in it unceremoniously. Very uncharacteristic of him. "If Isiah and I asked too many questions, his psychotic tendencies would come out to play. So, we let him be. I needed to keep my head down and not bring too much attention to myself and what I was doing. Isiah had his own reasons for not asking questions, I"m sure of it."

"If you say that you had no idea what was going on under your roof, I will tell you you"re a liar." Echo leaned forward trying to get in his face. anger twisted her features, turning her attractive face into something out of a nightmare. The demon in her was coming out in full force. "You don"t get to live as long as you have if you"re not smart, so stop playing dumb."

"I never said I didn"t know what he was doing. I heard the whispers, I had my spies." Rubbing his face, Samir looked every bit of the ancient Atua that he was for the first time. "I just had to pick my battle. Was it more important to argue with him and get nowhere, or keep my mouth shut and make sure Brooklyn keeps breathing?"

Clenching his jaw, he squared his shoulders and looked Echo dead in the eye. "If you want me to apologize, I will not. I do not regret keeping my word. I will never regret keeping her alive."

"He"s telling the truth" Rowen turned the oven off and pushed the small pot aside. Snatching a towel, he wiped his hands as he shuffled closer to where all of us were clustered at the table. "Samir may have not noticed me, but I watched him. I have seen many times how he brings attention to himself to keep it away from Brooklyn. More often than not provoking Frederick's ire."

"I didn"t know." Metal band was squeezing my chest, preventing me from breathing." If I knew…"

"I didn"t do anything for your gratitude, Child." His pride returned, and he sat straighter in his chair. "A man is nothing without his word, and my word is my bond."

I could"ve kept going, poking and prodding to find out more details about the reason he gave his word to either one of my parents, but I chose not to. Our pasts haunt us without poking at them. Nothing comes out of it, so I dropped it.

Here and now was what mattered.

"I don"t think we should waste time." Dominic suggested and took a hold of my chair so he could pull me closer towards him. "They will expect us to need a day or two to regroup and come up with a plan. I think we should attack tonight."

"Attack what?" Rowen finished wiping his hands and lobbed the paper towel in the sink. "Their stronghold?"

"No," the more I thought about it the more I agreed with my mate. "We should hit at the cages. I doubt that they had enough time to fix all the damage we did when you got me out. I kept them busy enough with my bloodlust to make sure that they don"t have the time to rebuild it. That's where we should hit. That's their weak spot."

"I agree with you." Samir stood up and leaned on the table to bring himself closer to my face and look me in the eyes. "I don"t know what we are going to find there, Brooklyn. And I shall hope you will not hold it against me whatever it is. I made a promise that you would live. I never made a promise to be a good and kind male. To keep our word, one must do atrocious things sometimes. I am not proud of it. Any of it. I do not regret it, however. And let us not forget. I am an Atua. I do what my nature demands."

"Yeah, okay, we get it. You"re an asshole. We knew this so there's no need for additional demonstrations." Alice grabbed his shoulder and shoved him away from me with surprising ease. "Can you get out of her face now? Dear God, are you all this theatrical, all the time? Everything must have drama and suspense with you guys. We all agree we need to attack tonight. Let"s get dressed, and let"s go. We can discuss Samir's shortcomings when we come back and there is a cheesecake."

"I really like the human." Chester leaned to whisper in Echoe's ear.

"Thank you." Alice made a funny face. "I think?"

"Absolutely fascinating." Echo agreed with a nod. "I think I want to get myself one too."

"Me and Brooklyn are friends. I"m not her pet." Shoving her chair back with the back of her legs. Alice jumped up. "And just because I"m trying to talk nice to you, it doesn"t mean I trust you. I still pray to God that He will shove you back to hell."

"You do?" Genuinely curious, I cooked an eyebrow at Alice.

"Well, not exactly right now." Shuffling her feet awkwardly, she crunched her nose and pushed her glasses up. "I kinda need them around for the magic, you know. It was fun."

"So, what you"re saying is you want to use them and then kick them back to hell?" Dominic started laughing. "Would you look at that, the human has changed. What happened to the nice and kind Alice?"

"We are at war here, Dominic." Frowning at my mate, she slapped both hands on her hips. "What happened to that kind and nice Alice." She mocked him. "She took a vacation, how about that? And while we are at it, are we ready?"

"Ready for what?" But I was already pushing off the table and standing standing up.

"To kick some ass, what do you mean what?" Alice rubbed her hands excitedly with an evil smile to make the demons step away from her.

I truly believed at that point that we created a monster.

She fit right in.