Nightwolf

“I wish I had seen it,” Solon muses, giving me a wry smirk before he has a sip of his wine. “It’s rare that our wolfhound gets worked up about anything.”

I glare at him. “Temporary lapse of judgment, that’s all. It happens to the best of us.” You should know that more than anyone, I think. Solon was always cool, calm and collected, but when he wasn’t, there were deadly consequences. When he had a lapse of judgment and lost his temper, his inner beast would come out and no, that wasn’t a metaphor. There was a legitimate monster inside Solon that he only recently tamed, and that monster would try to kill everything in its path.

“You’re right, I do know what that’s like,” he says with deliberation, and I loathe it when he picks up on my thoughts like that. “I also know that it made things a lot worse when I didn’t deal with my problems head on.”

I scoff and manage a shrug. These fucks are reaching tonight. “Who said I had problems? I didn’t.”

Ezra finishes his glass of wine and pounds it on the table, hard enough that it makes Solon wince. He’s very particular about his furniture. “If you don’t end up fucking her soon, it’s going to be a problem.”

“To be clear, we are talking about that cute blonde you were with last night, right?” I ask, brow raised.

“Oh, fuck you,” Ezra says, getting to his feet.

“Where are you going?” I ask. “I think it’s a great idea. She’d look much better on my dick than yours, don’t you think?”

“Wolf, go to hell,” Ezra says, glaring at me before he walks off down the length of the lounge, leaving out the back door.

“Jeez, he’s a moody bitch tonight,” I say, turning back in my chair to face Solon.

Solon laughs. “Turns out he has a date with the cute blonde.”

“Really? Another date with the Michelle Pfieffer to his Al Pacino? Guess he didn’t manage to piss her off last night. Oh well. He will.”

“And if he doesn’t, well…perhaps it’s what he needs right now. If you haven’t noticed, Ezra has been a moody bitch since 1986.”

I frown, trying to think back. “What happened in 1986 again?”

“The last time he was in love.”

“Oh yeah. I forgot that was a possibility for him.”

“Now, I know I’m stepping on your toes here, but it’s only fair since you did the same with me and Lenore,” he begins, and I don’t like where this is going. Solon can be secretive and minds his own business ninety-nine percent of the time but he also likes to give advice that turns into lectures. Blames it on himself being the oldest and the first-born vampire. Lenore calls it “vamp-splaining.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to give me a lecture about love, because I’d just rather get drunk in peace,” I tell him, taking a large burning gulp of scotch.

“No lecture,” Solon says. “But I am a little concerned about you.”

I throw my head back and let out a frustrated sigh. “Oh Jesus, Solon. I’m fine. So I got a little jealous last night. No harm, no foul.”

“Not yet, maybe. But over time? Wolf, you know your business is your business. But, as a friend, as well as the person in charge of this house, in charge of keeping the harmony and peace which I very much need, you need to figure out just what the hell you want with her. Because I’ve watched the two of you for a long time now, and it’s quite unbearable the way you both tiptoe around your actual feelings for each other. Now, whether you’re in love with Amethyst,” I open my mouth in protest but he raises his hand to shut me up, “or you just want to fuck her, as Ezra so eloquently says, you have to do something about it and make up your god damn mind. If you don’t make some sort of choice, I’m afraid you’re going to fuck things up royally and then I have to live in a house of angst and chaos, and frankly I had enough of that when I lived in that brothel in Bristol.”

“Solon, really—”

“I’m not finished,” he says firmly. “You need to figure out what you want with her and then act on it. The more you put it off, the worse it will get. Eventually she is going to have to move on from you, and then what?”

I frown, shaking my head slightly, a tightness in my chest. “What do you mean she has to move on? She’s not…”

He gives me a steady look. “I don’t profess to know how she feels about you, but obviously it’s something, and you know it too. She’s waiting for you, Wolf, whether she knows it or not. But she won’t wait for long. She doesn’t have long, not like we do.”