Page 93 of Worse Fates

“I have to clean up and check in on Golden,” I repeat to Rurik.

“Do what you must,” he replies shortly. “I’ll deal with the bodies, then try to hunt down those assholes.”

“I’ll join you,” Summer replies cooly, her back ramrod straight.

“Fine,” Rurik grunts.

“Call me and wait no matter what you find, Rurik. Promise me.”

He glares into the distance. “I promise.”

My gaze sweeps over the dead. There may be two less fools in the world, but how many more fools did Emma and Jace create?

Chapter Thirty-Two - Golden

Both somehow too hot and too cold, I toss and turn in a bed far too big for one person.

The clock reads 2:03am, a whole one minute has gone by since I last checked. Huffing, I fling the cover off my body, kicking it down to only cover my feet. In my whole life I’ve probably shared a bed twice, so I’m used to sleeping alone, in fact I prefer it and can hog all the covers I want.

But in only four nights that’s changed. Lucero’s absence is like a missing tooth my tongue can’t help but probe, and while I lay here unable to sleep, my mind conjures up images of him cut open and Jace draining his blood.

But what if it’s like a horror movie? They’ve managed to save Apollo, but then my dumbass calls Lucero’s phone and they get caught.

I chew on my lip, hands clenching and unclenching in the sheets.

What if he’s tied up, a train barreling toward him? Then I call. Lucero stretches with all his might, just managing to tap ‘answer’ with the tip of his pinky finger—and I save him just in time?

My focus drops back to the clock, and I groan aloud.

Fucking hell, how is it only 2:04am?

“He should be here,” I complain to the ceiling. “With me.”

Then guilt digs a finger into my side to remind me Lucero is out there to find my friend and I shouldn’t only be thinking about myself. Apollo is a vampire in the hands of blood mages, he must be terrified. It’s crazy to think my boss was a vampire the whole time I knew him, but I’m starting to understand that I don’t really know much about the world as I first thought.

Click.

My heart stops, and I bolt upright, frozen, hopeful.

As the door opens, I’m kicking off the sheets and leaping out the bed and rushing forward before I’ve even processed who’s there, flinging my arms around broad shoulders.

Only when his comforting scent fills me does my heart restart.

“Lucero,” I breathe.

My vampire’s cold and wet, but as his strong embrace drags me closer, I can’t bring myself to care

“You should be asleep, beautiful.” His face presses into my curls, taking in deep, greedy lungfuls. His big hands clutch at me, like he’s testing that I’m really there.

Then, suddenly, I’m picked up and my legs wrap around him.

“I can’t sleep without you.”

The cold soaks through my clothes, however in his embrace I’m warmer than I’ve ever been. I card my fingers through his lush deep brown locks, silky and strong and all mine to touch.

I never want to let go.

Lucero carries me back to the bed, laying me down. “I want you rested and happy.” His eyes, deeper than the Atlantic, wash over me, and I hear the unsaid word.