Addict (Hunter #2)(28)

Her mouth flattened. “They’re all there, Kels. It’s like a power player convention.”

Marcus didn’t look like he was moving any time soon. I threw my former BFF a pleading look. “You have to stall them.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?” Liv asked. “They’re vampires. I can’t whip out some pigs in a blanket and call it a party. Though it would work with the wolves. You don’t happen to have any of those mini sausages, do you?”

Marcus gave me one last squeeze and then released me suddenly. “I will handle the king, bella. You get dressed. You are feeling better?”

I studied that gorgeous face for a moment, my hands cupping his cheeks. I wanted to soothe him, but he seemed to be back to his calm self. If he’d done anything abnormal, he wasn’t embarrassed by it. “I’m peachy now, babe.”

“I’m feeling better myself.” He set me on my feet. “Don’t take too long. I have questions as well.”

He nodded politely to Liv, slipped on his jacket, and left the bathroom.

Liv and I stared at each other for one long moment before we both dissolved into giggles. She walked over and threw her arms around me. After a second of hesitation, I hugged her back. The truth was I didn’t have enough friends that I could give up on them so easily.

I had missed her.

“I love you, Kelsey,” Liv whispered. “I’m so sorry about what happened. If I could take it back I would. I just…I miss you.”

I nodded, surprised that I felt tears pricking the back of my eyes. I shrugged them off. “I missed you, too. I promise, I’ll figure out what’s going on with Scott.”

“I know you will. I trust you.”

I trust you—the three most burdensome words in the English language. They were certainly the three most likely to get me into trouble.





Chapter Six



“You know you could have avoided that scrape if I’d been where I should have been. I should have been sitting right beside you.” Trent finally got his say in two hours later. I’d felt his eyes on me from the moment I walked out of the bathroom and into interrogation hell. Trent wanted to yell at me then, but he’d had to wait in line.

“And what would you have done?”

“Gotten in between the two of you and taken that freaking claw for you. He almost took out your damn eye.” Trent’s jaw was a tight line, and he studied my face as though checking for damage. “I supposed you used vamp blood to fix it.”

“Well, I didn’t want to let it heal on its own.”

“If you’d let me take the attack, you wouldn’t have had anything to heal,” he insisted.

All of this served as a vicious reminder to never let my guard down. The last thing I needed was another lecture. The king was concerned I’d almost gotten my ass handed to me by a second-rate shifter who usually turned into a large Labrador retriever. It wasn’t pretty because when Alan was drunk and he shifted, well, he’s wasn’t exactly housebroken. But that was neither here nor there. He shouldn’t have been able to fight me at all. It should have been an easy one, two, and he’s out. I’d received lectures on the subject from Donovan and Marcus.

For the first time I could remember, they were working in complete harmony. It was f*cking up my life.

And every minute they lectured on, the clock ticked away. After a while, they settled into Marcus’s office with Quinn, Henri Jacobs, Alexander Sharp, and Hugo Wells to discuss revising my training schedule. It was great that I hadn’t even started but I’d managed to fail. Now I had exactly thirty minutes to get the hell out of here if I was going to make my meeting with the demon. I tried yawning.

“I’m not saying you’re not good. You got him talking. I was impressed with that, but I should have been there. If I’d been where I was supposed to be, I would have handled him for you, Owens,” Trent was saying.

My eyes narrowed. “Who the f*ck do you think you’re dealing with, Wilcox? Do you think you need to come in and save the little girl from the big bad shifter?”

“Obviously,” he shot back, leaning forward. He didn’t have issues with getting into my personal space. “I don’t buy that crap about you being a real Nex Apparatus. That’s all political. You shouldn’t be put in those situations. You could get hurt.”

“Welcome to the twenty-first century, meathead. I can take you down any time I want.” Trent was an alpha, but he didn’t want the responsibility of his own pack. I could still handle him. I had no doubt about that. I just didn’t have time to tonight.

He laughed at the thought. He sat back and crossed one leg over the other. “Keep believing that, sister. You couldn’t handle a weak-ass shifter tonight much less me. I suppose you could always call your boyfriend in. When you’re two thousand freaking years old, I guess you learn a few tricks.”

“Asshole,” I said, getting more pissed off than I probably should. He was irritating. “Do you think I didn’t see the way the king came to your aid? You didn’t even have the strength to hold the shifter’s hands still.”

Trent frowned, his face going stubborn. “That was Vorenus. He might be an academic, but he’s a badass when he wants to be.”

“I don’t think so. It wasn’t all Marcus. Alan was stronger than he should have been. He was on something and it was strong. Maybe it was like PCP for supes.”