The Viper's Nest (Kit Davenport #4)(15)

“No regrets about what?” Wes asked, coming up to us holding two coffees, then frowning when he saw the one already in my hand. “Oh, I got you a coffee, but I guess Cal beat me to it.”

Caleb smirked, and Lucy held out her hand to take the extra one from Wes.

“Don’t you mean, ‘Hey Luce, I got you a coffee too’?” she prompted sarcastically, and Wesley snorted.

“Uh yep, exactly what I meant,” he nodded, then turned his light blue eyes back to me. “So what are we having no regrets about?”

“All the fucking you two did last night,” Lucy replied with all the tact of a freight train. “And the drinking.” She narrowed her eyes at me, but she was just salty because she was now the youngest.

“Um.” Wesley flicked an uncertain look to me and then back to Lucy. “But it was my birthday?”

His answer surprised me and made me snort coffee, but Lucy was less than impressed. I was pretty sure she was mostly sulking that we were leaving her behind here in Toronto with Elena. But leaving Elena alone wasn’t an option, and they couldn’t both come with us. Hiding out with just the seven of us was going to be hard enough, let alone trying to sneak nine people into a small town without being noticed.

As it was, River, Vali, and Austin had left in the early hours of the morning to go and sort out access keys and things for our new home, while the rest of us were just following now at about mid-morning. Our destination was a cottage somewhere in the Ontario wilderness that, according to Vali, he’d won in a poker game some years past.

Being a totally black market deal, there was no paper trail connecting him—and by association, us—to the cottage so—touch wood—we should be safe there for a while. At least until we could get a handle on our magic and the guardian bonds and work out what to do with everything we now knew.

Outside the glass doors of the lobby where we stood, a shiny red Nissan Armada pulled up, and Cole hopped out of the front.

“Cole’s here,” I told the boys, handing Caleb my bag to load into the car while I said goodbye to Lucy.

“Promise me you’ll keep safe, Luce?” I asked her seriously, and she rolled her eyes at me.

“Seriously, Kit?” she asked in a dry voice. “You’re telling me to keep safe? Never thought I’d see the day. Don’t worry, girl, we’ll be fine. Finn is going to come and stay with us too, if that makes you feel better?”

It seriously did not. “Oh good, wait until the second we’re leaving to spring it on me that you and Elena’s mentally unstable boyfriend of undisclosed supernatural origins is coming to stay.” I pursed my lips, knowing I had no leg to stand on, given the men I’d chosen for my own guardians. “Just...”

“I know, Kit. Be safe. The same goes for you, you know. Wes and I have made sure all your phones are totally secure now, so don’t go losing it or breaking it.” She tried to look tough, and I smiled, wrapping her in a one-armed hug without spilling either of our coffees.

“Love you, Lucifer,” I told her.

“Love you too, Christina,” she replied, and I joined my boys in the stupidly large SUV, leaving her in the lobby.

Why these cars needed to be so damn massive, I had never understood. But considering my new entourage of lovers, I was beginning to see the appeal. A quick glance in the back confirmed there was eight seats too.

“Vixen,” Cole murmured, pressing the little button to close the SUV’s back door and coming around to open the passenger door for me, “you’re up front with me today. Those two assholes have been stealing too much of your time lately.”

“Aw, I missed you too, Cutie,” I replied, leaning up on my tiptoes to kiss him before clambering up into the passenger side seat.

Cole rumbled something under his breath too low for me to hear, then closed my door and jogged back around to the driver’s side.

“You boys ready to roll?” he asked, glancing in the rearview mirror and then chuckling. Curious about what was so funny, I looked over into the back seat and found Caleb with a marker drawing a careful moustache on a deeply sleeping Wesley.

“What?” Caleb asked me with a shrug. “It’s been too damn long since we had some fun... and he deserves it for keeping you out all night.”

I snickered a laugh and sat back in my seat. “I sense the start of a war.” I glanced at Cole, and he snorted.

“Oh, Vix babe, you have no idea.” He shook his head, turning out onto the street and following the signs north. “The last time this started...” He clicked his tongue, and I heard a chuckle from the backseat.

“Something tells me I’m going to find out when Wes wakes up?” I asked, and this time I needed no reply. Living in the middle of nowhere with my guys was going to be fun; there was no question about that.



It was a decent drive from where we’d been staying in Toronto to our new home, and Wesley was predictably pissed when he discovered his inked on moustache. Even more pissed when he found it was permanent marker and that he’d been chatting with us for over an hour while we held back giggles. It hadn’t been until we stopped at a gas station for fuel and snacks that he’d caught sight of himself in the reflection of a fridge door.

Foolishly, Caleb then fell asleep against the door not long afterwards, so Wes went to town with the permanent marker, giving him a monobrow, a goatee, and a monocle.