Page 29

This is exactly what I needed. Operation ‘Cheer Up Kenna’ is in full swing. Not only with Holly, but with all my roommates, too.

My friends. Some drinks. A bit of trouble in the air.

I used to live for nights like this, and even though I can be new-Kenna all I want when it comes to work and getting my shit together, there will always be a little of that party girl left in me.

“Where to next?” Fran calls over her shoulder.

She’s got her arm looped through Bruno’s, with our other roommates Lexa and Wes strolling ahead. Holly and I trail behind on our way from the first bar to wherever the night’s going to take us.

“You pick,” I tell her. “I’m good with wherever.”

I’ve already got a slight buzz going from the fizzy, champagne-based cocktail I started the night with. Not drunk, but just sparkly enough to feel the promise of the evening.

“You might live to regret those words,” Fran says with a laugh.

Wes and Lexa chime in with their own suggestions, and the conversation devolves into good natured jabs at everyone’s favorite watering holes.

They’re a ragtag bunch, and I love them to death.

I met Fran and Bruno during my first attempt at college, and had no idea they were both paranormal. Fran’s a nymph with a rich umber complexion and silvery hair I always assumed was dyed before she confided in me it’s a striking feature all the females in her family line possess. Bruno’s a big, burly bear shifter with a massive beard and an even more massive soft spot for Fran.

Fran was an art major like me, and also my suite-mate freshman year. We stayed close even when I dropped out, and when Fran inherited the Victorian from her late aunt, she immediately extended the offer to move into one of the spare bedrooms.

Holly was the long-suffering computer science major who had the misfortune to be suite-mates with a couple of rowdy art students, but she came around eventually. She went right from college to a job in big tech and a fancy apartment with her ex, Cody, so she never moved into the Victorian with us.

Wes, a vampire, and Lexa, a human, came on as roommates later. All of them became the support system I so badly needed back in the ‘fuck around’ portion of my early twenties, right before ‘find out’ showed up to slap me in the face.

And even now, when I’m finally navigating my way into responsible adulthood, I wouldn’t trade their friendship for the world.

Tonight’s got all the makings of a hell of a good time. Everyone’s in a great mood, and it’s blessedly not raining on us.

Well, tonighthadat the makings of a hell of a good time, because we’re just about to head down another block to a little hole-in-the-wall bar when something makes me stop turn and to the other side of the street.

There, at the entrance to some swanky hotel, a tall, broad figure steps outside, holding the door open.

It’s Blair.

He’s not alone, either, as he walks out under the hotel’s canopied entrance with a tall, slim blond by his side.

They’re too far away to make out their conversation, but when she leans in to say something conspiratorially close to his ear and Blair tosses his head back laughing, I freeze in the middle of the sidewalk. And when he places his hand in the center of her back before opening the door to the town car that’s just pulled up, a wave of gut-twisting envy makes me feel nauseous.

“Kenna?” Fran calls over her shoulder. “You coming?”

From across the street, Blair closes the town car’s door as the woman disappears inside. Like he could hear Fran from where he’s standing, his head snaps up and his eyes meet mine.

If I was frozen before, I’m made of stone now.

“Kenna?” It’s Holly this time, and when she follows my gaze to where Blair’s now heading across the street, I hear her suck in a breath. “Is that…”

“The one and only.”

“Oh, shit.”

Oh shit, indeed.

“Do you want to go?” Holly asks, quiet enough so only I can hear. “I can tell him to get lost if you don’t want to deal with him.”

Silently, I shake my head and watch Blair approach in long, confident strides. Even in his human form, he moves with a power and authority that radiates from him without him having to say a word, with enough magnetism that the rest of my friends stop where they’d been walking a few yards ahead and turn to watch the scene play out.