Page 44 of Magic Claimed

He frowned thoughtfully. “Only the ground floor, the offices, and the apartments on this floor. I think the rest are still untouched.”

Apartments.

I’d seen four other doors besides Callum’s. One led to the roof, but the other three…

“Do you know what Callum had planned for the other apartments?”

Ryker’s eyes lit up. “Eventually he planned to rent them out, but he wasn’t in a hurry. Two of them are two-bedroom units, and the other is a studio. Ready to go.”

“I’m going to do something presumptuous,” I warned him. “So tell me now if you’re against it.”

“You’re his mate,” Ryker said easily. “Whatever you need, he would tell you to take it.”

“Then I’m going to move my family in here while our place is renovated.”

He agreed without hesitation. “It’s perfect. We can addsecurity, and the kids can have the run of the building to keep them busy. Anj and I can help watch out for them.”

The gryphon sent him a scathing look. “Speak for yourself, dragon. I’m going to have my hands full keeping the court off our backs and out of our business.”

“The kids will be fine,” I assured them. “And they’ll have a… I guess a bodyguard of sorts already.”

Ryker’s eyebrow twitched. “Anyone I know?”

“Shane Isaacson.”

Both eyebrows shot up at that. “I wouldn’t have thought he’s the type. Did you hire him?”

“No.” I shrugged. “He volunteered. Won’t take no for an answer.”

“And you trust him?”

I did. He was broken and scarred like me, and had some major blind spots, but he would never let anything happen to Kes or the kids.

“He’s smart and difficult to kill, and he knows about the danger Blake poses.”

And I was pretty sure his attachment to Kes was more than memories or obligation.

“Then what are we waiting for?” That was Ryker for you. Why think twice when you could just act and deal with the consequences along the way?

“Timing and a plan,” I admitted. “I’d like to keep our new location as secret as possible for as long as possible.”

At this point, every Idrian bounty hunter on Earth seemed to know where we lived. If I could shake them off fora few weeks, or even a few days? It would give us some breathing room to deal with this new crisis.

I knew who I needed to call next, I just didn’t really want to. Didn’t want to ask for yet another favor, but in the end…

I dialed the number.

“You’re awake.” Faris sounded awfully awake himself for only about eight in the morning.

“I am. But Faris…”

“I’ll be there in two minutes.”

And then he hung up on me.

I sat there, phone still at my ear, mouth hanging open. Iknewthe man was a landslide in human form, but somehow he kept managing to catch me off guard.

Sure enough,not much more than two minutes later, someone pounded on the door hard enough to shake the entire building. In those two minutes, I’d managed to drink a glass of water, wash my face, and pull my hair into a neat-ish ponytail, so I could face my boss feeling slightly less than humiliatingly disheveled.