Page 120 of Tethered Souls

“Absolutely not,” Leno says as he and his dog enter. “I taste everything he eats.”

“That feels like a you problem. It was a dumb thing to add to your binding. Sharing seeing, touching, and taste?” Enoch shakes his head. “Fucking idiot. You could’ve been superhuman with having his hearing and smelling instead.”

Leno narrows his eyes. “I was young. And I wanted to know what dog food tasted like to him. If he got bored of eating it all the time.”

Maddox snickers.

“And you wanted to know what licking your own dick felt like,” Rudy signs before Maddox can.

Leno blushes this time, but he doesn’t deny it.

Enoch laughs. “So instead of having super powers, now you feed him steak.”

He nods in defeat. “Yep. Now I feed him steak.”

Krypto woofs as he wags his tail, clearly much happier with this arrangement, and my brothers all laugh.

Mother places another batch of healing potions down in front of us, and the new arrivals grab everything they need. “When you get out there, don’t pull any punches,” she says. “We can’t let the archangels get wind of this.”

We all nod as Khalid comes in. He offers me a sword in its sheath. “It negates all innate healing effects,” he says, which means it won’t matter if it cuts me. Then he offers me a gun in a holster. “You don’t have to shoot to kill. The bullet will dig its way into their heart. Takes up to three minutes if you shoot them in the foot. Don’t waste the bullets. They’re fucking expensive.”

I nod and strap the weapons to me. “Let’s go then,” I say.

We split into four different cars. Maddox and Khalid in one, their innate powers working well together. The twins get in another, their telekinesis amplified when they’re near each other. Talon and Rudy, then Leno and I in the last one as our pace is similar due to Krypto not being able to shift into a shadow either. Streaking out, we head towards the woods north of St. Augustine as the moon starts to climb. It is on the edge of Death Hunt territory and one of the places the WALL loves to hunt. If we’re lucky, they get wiped out today too, and their little task force dream is nipped in the ass.

“So Khalid’s girl,” Leno sings as I drive. “Know anything about her?”

“Nope. You?”

“Nope. But he bought a house three months ago. Nearly dropped a mil on it.”

“Near Aleric’s street?” It could be useful if he’s fucking a vampire too. It would make it easier for me to approach the idea of an alliance with them.

“Don’t know. Haven’t been able to figure that out yet. I have been checking into all the houses in town that sold around that time at that price, but…” He frowns. “I might need to widen my search as they’ve all been purchased by other people.”

I shake my head at the idea of Leno and Krypto knocking on doors of random houses to see if our brother answers.“If Khalid catches you snooping, you’re dead.”

He grins. “Yeah...but what’s life without a bit of danger?”

My thoughts turn to Micha, to the scene Rudy showed me where we’re chasing our little boy. He has her eyes, her smile.

A life without danger – it’s an impossibility for us, but it doesn’t look half bad…

“Check for neighbors who are into politics,” I say as I turn left onto N. Holmes Boulevard.

Krypto glances at me from the footwell of the passenger seat, nestled between Leno’s legs. My brother scratches him on the head. “Oh?”

“He mentioned having a new interest in it,” I say, though I feel a bit weird joining Leno in this. Teasing any of my brothers, let alone Khalid, hasn’t been something I’ve done since I was a kid. The responsibilities of Boss widened the distance between us.

“It isn’t weak to need others.”Rudy’s words come back to me. “It’s weak to be alone.”

Have I done it wrong all this time? Ruling from up high rather than down below?

“Thanks!” Leno says as he rubs his hands together. “Most politicians are male, so I can check all the women and work backwards. That can’t be hard. I can start with the mayor,” he jokes.

I shake my head. “I think you can rule her out.”

“I don’t know. She’s fucking hot. I’d risk it to bang that.”