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I knew that was going to come back to bite me in the ass at some point.

I closed my eyes and sucked in a much needed deep breath in an attempt to calm myself down. Fighting with him wouldn't do me any good, and even though I often felt like I won when I did argue with him, I was smart enough to know I only felt that way because he wanted me to think I’d won.

He was right to be pissed. I hadn't called to let him know what had gone down and had relied on others to do it for me. Even when I damn well knew he needed to hear it from me, if only just to make sure I was okay by hearing the sound of my voice. It was unreasonable of me to not even pick up the phone and call him.

Look who was the A-hole now.

I looked him straight in those beautifully dark brown eyes of his and laid out the honesty I knew he wanted from me. "I’m sorry for not telling you myself about what transpired with Adrian. I should have and I'm apologizing for not doing so. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I want you to know that I knew either Trenton or Simon would let you know what was going on and I trust them. Just like you should trust them. I know you do with my safety, so why not with this? I needed some time to myself after what happened and I took it. So sue me. Now, I'm doing my bit to keep us safe while you figure out what to do about Adrian's crazy ass and the rest of the Council. If only you could find a way to do that without helping my father beat up anyone else that I care about, I would really appreciate it."

I walked away from him.

Surprisingly, he let me.

And I slid the sliding glass door shut in his face after I walked through it.

Not a single one of them followed me, not even my guardians. Finally, a smart move on their part. The twins and I were able to drive off so we could go bury the rest of my jars in peace. That didn't stop me from looking over my shoulder the entire time, expecting someone to pop up behind me and wrestle the jars out of my hands.

It never happened and I never relaxed. If the twins noticed, they paid it no mind. They also didn't banter with one another how they usually would have.

Both Julian and Damien were nowhere to be seen when we arrived at their tiny house. One of the twins produced a key to the house and we let ourselves inside and then into the fenced in backyard with ease. We buried the jar safely and without disturbing anything or anyone.

We were in and out in under ten minutes.

Rain's cabin was a little harder to swing so easily because Baxter and Isobel were tucked away safely inside.

Instead of trying to hide our arrival, I got out of the twins’ monster-like truck and walked right up to the front door. I didn't bother with knocking because my dad lived here and he'd told me on multiple occasions that I never needed to knock to enter his home because it would always be a home to me in his eyes as well.

I walked right in, and both Baxter and Isobel greeted me with smiles on their innocent faces. Smiles which they directed at the twins behind me because they found both of them far more lovely than they did me, because they were always quite the good time when they came around.

When I casually mentioned I was there to bury something in the backyard, Isobel flat out laughed at me right before she told me to go ahead and do whatever it was I needed to do.

Invade a girl's dreams once and she suddenly became your friend for life.

Good to know.

She tried to get us to hang around with her, but we got out of there before Rain showed up. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him anytime soon. What he and Quinton had done to Marcus had not been right.

The twins took me out to lunch where I watched them both eat but didn’t myself, because I’d long since lost my appetite. And then we went back home.

The railing out back had already been replaced and I couldn’t keep the scowl off my face at seeing it.

I needed a damn nap.

Chapter Five

Romero

I’m Coming For You

"You're dead."

That voice, one I'd never heard before. So soft. So sweet. So fucking feminine yet innocent. A voice that did not belong down here in my nightmares.

My eyes, for the first time in years, snapped open.

An angel stood before me. Her blonde hair practically floated around her slim body and her chest heaved as she shuddered out one deep breath after another.

"This can't be real," the angel choked out. "You look... just like him."