Page 291

ANGELTHENE, STATE OF WITHEREDGE

While everyone wasbeyond happy to have Roman and the others sharing their home here at Heaven’s Gate, there was one member of their group who was not thrilled, and that was Bandit.

The dog stood in front of the fridge, glaring up at the female Hob, who’d scampered up to hide behind the cereal boxes the minute Roman had carried Paxton’s backpack into the house and unzipped it. Unleashing the noisy, pink-eyed terror upon Heaven’s Gate and everyone living peacefully within its walls.

‘This is unacceptable!’Bandit was saying.‘Outrageous, is what it is! All this darn monkey is going to do is steal Cluckles again! I will NOT stand for it!’ BARK. BARK.

Loren tried not to laugh, but she had to admit it was hard. Especially when she made eye contact with Ivy first, followed by Lace, both women having equally as hard a time as Loren with containing their laughter.

Where she stood beside the kitchen counter, Loren took the dropper out of Darien’s tonic and dripped twenty drops into a mug. She was mixing it into tea this time, so it would taste a little better. The herbs were earthy and bitter, and she’d noticed him fighting not to gag and grimace when he’d taken his first doseearlier that afternoon. He’d made no complaints, and had tossed it back in one swallow like a champ, but if she could make it taste even alittlebit better for him by adding it to tea and sweetening it with honey, she would gladly take the time to do it.

Everyone else—the Devils, Arthur, Kylar, Dean—was scattered throughout the kitchen and living room, still in the process of filling each other in on everything that had happened while they were apart. No detail, no matter how small, was left out.

Where he sat at the kitchen table, Darien opened a bag of Stygian salts and shook his head in annoyance as Bandit continued to kick up a noisy fuss about Itzel. Bandit’s barking pierced the air, interrupting multiple conversations and causing people to talk louder than they should have to.

“Bandit,” Darien warned, cutting off the dog that was standing on his hind legs, his front paws scrabbling against the fridge door. “Enough already.”

Bandit placed all four feet on the floor and let out a low growl.

“I saidenough,”Darien repeated as he zipped the plastic bag shut.

Bandit relented with a brazen snort and went to the sofa. He plopped himself down beside Arthur and shut his eyes, pretending to sleep. After only a moment, he opened one eye andkeptit open—fixed on Itzel.

“Morty isnotgoing to be happy when he gets home,” Jack said with a chuckle. He was curled up on the couch with his wife, the two sharing a blanket and watching a comedy movie with the volume on low. Lace and Arthur were in there, too, the latter looking like he could doze off at any minute. “It’ll be a battle of the Hobs.”

“We’ll buy a second fridge if we have to,” Darien said.

Loren carried the mug of steaming tea across the kitchen and carefully set it down in front of Darien. “Here you go,” she said. “I mixed it into some tea and added honey. It should taste a bit better now.”

He gave her a soft smile. “Thank you, baby. You spoil me.”

“You’re welcome.”

She went back to the counter to grab her own cup of tea—chamomile—and sat down beside him as he used the edge of a credit card to drag some Stygian salts into a line.

“Who are you tracking?” Roman asked. He stood behind Shay’s chair as she devoured a slice of leftover pizza. Pax and Eugene were currently in the basement—in a room with reclining seats and a television so big, it could pass for a movie theater. There was even a popcorn machine and a candy stand Kylar had stocked with chocolate bars and sour candies.

Darien said, “Travis and Max.”

“You can locate targets from this far away?” Roman asked his cousin. “If they’re in Ker, I mean?” He did a good job of hiding how worried he was about Travis, but Loren could see it in his eyes.

Darien said, “It’s difficult, but yeah, I can.”

“Impressive,” Shay said. She licked tomato sauce off her thumb. “Did anyone teach you how to do that, or did you learn it yourself?”

“Myself.” Darien shut one nostril with a finger and inhaled the line of black salts through a cut plastic straw.

“Canyoudo that?” Roman’s question was for Dean, who had his feet kicked up on the coffee table in the living room.

“Not a whole state over,” Dean said around a yawn, his eyes watering with fatigue. “But I’ve found a few targets in cities that are about…I don’t know…five, six hours away from where I was at the time.”

Roman’s brows went up.

Dean added, “That was in my younger days, though. Your old uncle’s getting tired.” As if to prove a point, he shut his eyes and laced his fingers across his chest. Loren thought it was funny how he referred to himself as old when he had to be in his late thirties.

“We had to have an intervention this morning,” Tanner said as he rapidly clicked his mouse. “He was giving himself nosebleeds.”

Shay huffed a laugh. “I bet your girlfriend loves that.”